So Doug Ford has wasted no time delivering on some of his campaign promises — and so much more — since he became Ontario’s premier just over a week ago.

That’s a good thing right? Wrong.

It is bad enough that Ford made off-the-cuff promises without a thought-through platform during the election campaign. But now he’s demonstrating that he plans to implement those misguided decisions at break-neck speed without the benefit of study or consultation.

His first act in government, for example, was to deep-six the province’s cap-and-trade system with Quebec and California. That not only leaves businesses that invested in the program grappling with uncertainty, it will cost taxpayers big time.

First, it appears the government will have to pay back the almost $3 billion that businesses invested in the environmental program. And on Wednesday the federal government announced that Ontario may now not be eligible for the $420 million designated for the province under the Low Carbon Economy Leadership Fund.

Then, of course, there’s the niggling fact that the Trudeau government has said any province that doesn’t have its own carbon-pricing scheme in place by 2019 will inherit the federal carbon tax. Ford has set aside another $30 million of taxpayer dollars to fight that edict in court.

Killing the program also effectively costs consumers and businesses $1.9 billion in annual “green” programs paid for by cap-and-trade revenues. Among them, were subsidies for retrofitting windows and energy-efficient insulation to help consumers reduce hydro and natural gas bills.

At least his position on cap-and-trade was advertised in advance. Other decisions made over a scant few days seem more sinister and smack of the same tactics he deployed before becoming premier, when he made a secret promise to developers to open up the Green Belt for development.

He quickly flip-flopped on that pledge after it became public. It appears, though, that he hasn’t abandoned old habits.

Indeed, in the words of NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, Ford seems to be making “backroom deals” with lobbyists “while shutting out everyday people affected by the laws.”

Consider Ford’s senseless and potentially dangerous move to postpone the implementation of the Ontario Special Investigations Unit Act one day before the law strengthening police oversight was to come into effect. That apparent pandering to police officers thrilled the Ontario Police Association, which then bragged about how it had successfully lobbied him.

If the delay becomes permanent, it will be at the cost of sensible recommendations from a sweeping police oversight review by Ontario Court of Appeal Justice Michael Tulloch, which involved extensive, province-wide consultations.

Ford also suspended a key provision in a popular consumer protection law that was supposed to clamp down on skyrocketing ticket scalper prices by capping the resale price of tickets at 50 per cent above face value.

With the price cap on hold, ticket prices continue to soar. In one case, for example, a $325 ticket for Taylor Swift was being offered for $66,000 on StubHub — a more than 20,000 per cent mark up.

The winners here aren’t the “hardworking people” Ford claims to represent, but big-business ticket scalpers.

Finally, to the joy of the Canadian vaping industry, his government paused changes to the Smoke Free Ontario Act that were to have come into effect on July 1. The new legislation would have sensibly banned vaping everywhere smoking is disallowed, and expanded the prohibition zone to outdoor restaurants, bar patios, and around schools or children and youth recreational facilities.

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None of these fast and furious first steps seems be acts of a “Government for the People,” as his embarrassingly laudatory press release proclaimed when he was sworn in.

The newly minted premier needs to stop and think before he acts. His decisions now have momentous implications for all Ontarians — not just the ones who appear to have his ear.

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