Ontario’s first Green Party MPP is calling on incoming premier Doug Ford to detail a plan to fight climate change “before killing what’s in place.”

Mike Schreiner, elected as the member for Guelph in the June 7 vote that vaulted the Progressive Conservatives to power, said Ford’s plan to axe the cap-and-trade system is “reckless” and the cancellation of the GreenON fund to help homeowners with energy-saving retrofits is short-sighted.

“We need actions, not words,” Schreiner told a news conference Thursday. He noted Ford acknowledged during the recent campaign that climate change is caused by humans. “Words are meaningless without action.”

With the first PC government in 15 years set to be sworn in Friday, the Green leader challenged Ford’s repeated assertions that putting a price on carbon emissions is a “job killer.”

“In Ontario’s first year of cap-and-trade, unemployment shrunk from 6.4 to 5.5 per cent,” Schreiner wrote in an open letter to Ford. “In fact, the four provinces that led the country in growth in 2017 were the ones with a price on carbon: Ontario, Quebec, B.C. and Alberta.”

A PC spokesman said exiting cap-and-trade was a key campaign promise that will save the average Ontarian $285 a year.

“Doug Ford and the Ontario PCs received a clear mandate from the people to scrap the cap-and-trade carbon tax and put more money in people’s pockets,” Simon Jeffries said in a statement, noting the end of a related 4.3 cent per litre tax on gasoline is coming as the first step in a 10-cent cut.

“The NDP, Liberals and the Green party want to make gas and energy prices more expensive by increasing the cap-and-trade carbon tax and making life harder for families and job-creators.”

Critics have warned Ford’s plan to extricate Ontario from a system of greenhouse gas emissions caps with Quebec and California will cost at least $2.8 billion to repay the cost of pollution permits purchased by Ontario industries, and likely more in lawsuits from the two other jurisdictions.

The cap-and-trade exit could turn into the Ford government’s “gas plant scandal,” warned Schreiner, who was referring to the McGuinty government’s controversial $1.1-billion cancellations of two power plants before the 2011 election.

The new PC government “will provide clear guidelines for winding down the cap-and-trade scheme in a responsible manner” after Friday’s swearing in, Jefferies said.

Ford announced his intent to withdraw from cap-and-trade on June 15, saying “the cap-and-trade carbon tax does nothing for the environment. All it does is hurt small businesses and hurt families.”

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Under the system put in place by the departing Liberal government, caps are set on the emissions of greenhouse gases for certain industries and companies wishing to exceed them can buy permits from firms whose levels fall below the cap, which is being decreased annually.

The GreenON fund was cancelled by the incoming Ford administration on June 15. It used proceeds from cap-and-trade auctions to subsidize homeowners, renters and businesses needing smart thermostats, energy-efficient windows and other retrofits to reduce their electricity bills and fight climate change.

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