Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne (centre left) and federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna speak to homeowners in Toronto on Wednesday, April 4, 2018. IPOLITICS/Marieke Walsh

Whether Ontario elects a Progressive Conservative government in June won’t change the province putting a price on carbon, according to Catherine McKenna.

Canada’s environment minister told reporters in Toronto on Wednesday that if Ontario cancelled its cap-and-trade program, the federal government would impose a price on carbon.

If elected to government, PC Leader Doug Ford has repeatedly promised to pull Ontario out of its cap-and-trade market with Quebec and California.

McKenna dropped in on Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne who is in the midst of an undeclared election campaign. She said Ottawa would return revenues from a federally imposed price on carbon but said it’s possible that the money would go directly to residents and businesses, instead of provincial coffers.

“We will determine how [the funds] go back,” she said.

The threat is similar to how the federal government has handled Saskatchewan’s refusal to impose a price on carbon.

READ MORE: Saskatchewan premier surprised by bill including carbon tax

Under former leader Patrick Brown, the Progressive Conservatives planned to switch Ontario’s cap-and-trade program for a carbon tax. During the recent leadership race to replace Brown, Ford promised to do away with both and join Saskatchewan in a fight against any price on carbon that Ottawa tries to impose.

Ford has not explained how he would end the current cap-and-trade program. Instead his comments have only hinted at what he might or could do if he’s elected premier.

“My new plan for cap and trade: we’re going to put a cap on taxes and trade Kathleen Wynne,” Ford tweeted in February.

READ MORE: Doug Ford’s stripped down policy plans

Ford wasn’t available for an interview on Wednesday but his office released a statement from him confirming his intent to end any price on carbon in Ontario.

“The Ontario PCs will scrap Kathleen Wynne’s expensive cap-and-trade carbon tax scheme. We will also take the Federal Government all the way to the Supreme Court if we have to, if it means stopping this tax from being rammed down our province’s throats,” he said.

Asked how Ontario would get out of the cap-and-trade market, Ontario Environment Minister Chris Ballard told reporters he wouldn’t give “advice” to Ford.

“I would say it would be very difficult, but that’s a hypothetical question. It’s not going to happen,” Ballard said.

McKenna said the talk of scrapping Ontario’s carbon price makes work more difficult for businesses.

“The last thing you want to do is create uncertainty by saying we’re going to throw, you know, things out the window.”

The NDP have said they would keep Ontario’s cap-and-trade system if they win the spring election.

Feds commit $100 million for home retrofits

McKenna joined Ballard and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne at a Toronto home to announced another $100 million for the province’s GreenON Rebates program.

The money will go to energy efficient retrofits to people’s homes and businesses.

According to the government’s press release, property owners are eligible for government cash up to $7,200 for new insulation; $5,000 to replace windows; $5,800 for some air source heat pumps; and $20,000 to install some types of ground source heat pumps.

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