Ontario will unveil its climate-change fighting plan next month, and Premier Doug Ford says his government will “be all over” polluters who break the rules.

“When we went out to the public and talked to so many people, and done studies, it’s very simple,” Ford told reporters after meeting with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe at Queen’s Park where the duo reiterated their opposition to the federal government’s carbon tax.

“People want clean air, they want clean lakes, they want clean rivers, they want clean parks and any emitters out there … we’re going to come down on those emitters like they’ve never seen before.”

If they are “breaking the rules, they are breaking the laws, we are going to be all over them.”

At an Empire Club luncheon, Environment Minister Rod Phillips said the government’s climate plan would be released November and that “affordability” will be a key theme.

Opposition leaders have criticized both Ford and Moe for their stance against Ottawa’s plan that forced provinces to have an approved plan to fight greenhouse-gas emissions — or have the federal government impose one, as they plan to do in Ontario, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Manitoba.

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“Nobel prize-winning economists have said having a price on pollution is the most cost-effective, the lowest-cost solution and the best solution to driving down emissions and tackling climate change,” said Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner, who called their battle a political one with the federal Liberals.

He said Ford’s repeated line about such a tax hurting the economy is “B.S. ... the five best-performing provinces in Canada have a price on pollution” as do economically strong U.S. states and European jurisdictions.

“It’s B.S. that it’s a job-killing plan. It’s just not,” he said, accusing Ford of putting ideology before evidence.

“It’s pretty clear, as we go along, that this is a government that is not really interested in this issue,” said NDP Climate Change Critic Peter Tabuns.

Ford will meet with federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer Tuesday at Queen’s Park to discuss carbon pricing.

Meanwhile, Ford and Moe also announced they’d signed a memorandum of understanding to start talks to break down inter-provincial trade barriers.

“For all the talk about free trade with the U.S., there’s not enough action on free trade with Canada,” Ford said. “... We have to start knocking down the regulations and barriers between the provinces.”

Businesses and leaders have told him “that this is one of the primary obstacles in attracting new investment and jobs to our country.”

“What we need in Canada is a comprehensive approach, not a patchwork of little one-off agreements,” said the NDP’s Tabuns.

“This is much more about a media opportunity, a photo opportunity, than it is about anything serious to do with trade in Canada.”

Schreiner said the memo was good news — but long overdue.

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In Ottawa, federal Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc chided the two premiers.

“It’s extremely disappointing to see Ontario and Saskatchewan play political games with such an important economic file after being the only provinces absent from the table at last week’s meeting in Vancouver on internal trade and the USMCA,” said LeBlanc, referring to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

“The premiers need to stop putting their partisan interests ahead of the growth of the economy and the well-being of Canadians,” he said.

Robert Benzie is the Star's Queen's Park bureau chief and a reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie

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