Tijana Martin/Canadian Press Ontario Environment Minister Rod Phillips listens to a question during a press conference on the government's climate plan at the Cold Creek Conservation Area in Nobleton, Ont. on Nov. 29, 2018.

TORONTO—Ontario's Progressive Conservatives will make some companies pay if they emit too many greenhouse gases, but the government won't call it a tax. The government's new climate strategy, which was announced Thursday and replaces the previous Liberal government's cap-and-trade program, includes "emission performance standards" for large carbon emitters that will see companies charged if they exceed emissions levels set by the government. "They're adopting the federal carbon tax for industries," Ontario's environmental commissioner Dianne Saxe told HuffPost Canada. "This is the right thing to do. The only thing that's wrong is pretending that it's not what it is." Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to impose his government's carbon tax on any province that does not have a price of its own on Jan. 1, 2019. Watch the prime minister announce details of federal carbon price:

Frank Gunn/Canadian Press Dianne Saxe, Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, releases her annual environmental protection report at a news conference at the Ontario legislature in Toronto on Nov. 13, 2018.