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The Doug Ford government’s bottom line will take a $3 billion hit over four years due to the cancellation of the cap-and-trade program, a new report from Ontario Financial Accountability Officer Peter Weltman projects.

Axing the program – a key election commitment for the Premier – will reduce government revenues by $841 million this year, $615 million in 2019-20, $771 million in 2020-21 and $787 million in 2021-22.

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“The deficit number becomes bigger,” Weltman said Tuesday.

Environment Minister Rod Phillips didn’t dispute the FAO’s $3 billion figure, but said that money went into the pockets of Ontarians who are no longer paying extra for gasoline, natural gas and diesel.

“It was a $3 billion cut of a regressive tax that was targeting low and middle-income people,” Phillips said, describing cap and trade as a regressive carbon tax that didn’t achieve climate change goals.

The FAO waved another red flag for the Ford government.

The Justin Trudeau government has told all provinces that unless they have some form of carbon pricing in place – like cap and trade – then it will impose its own program, a federal backstop.

If the Ford crew and other provincial governments challenging the federal carbon pricing plan in court are not successful, residents of Ontario face stiff new costs.

Weltman’s office estimates that the federal proposal, compared to the cancelled cap-and-trade program, would cost Ontario households $258 more in 2019 increasing to $648 more in 2022.