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The Ford government saw the cap-and-trade program for the disaster it was

If there were any slow learners or laggards in Ontario, the government ensured its cap-and-trade scheme provided funding for lobbying and advocacy organizations to enable them to reach all corners of Ontario industry as well as the general public. Through programs such as the Electric and Hydrogen Vehicle Advancement Program, the Electric Vehicle Education and Awareness Program and the Electric Vehicle Discovery Centre, a showroom and facility providing test drives of any of the nine electric vehicles on the market, the government was going to help us all understand why we needed to switch to electric vehicles to save the world from climate change.

All told, the FAO listed 57 programs that were beneficiaries of cap-and-trade revenues, half of which directly or indirectly were designed to promote electric vehicles and discourage the internal combustion engine. The other half sprinkled funds for “green investments” to government dependents, among them Indigenous groups, public service unions, schools, hospitals, public transit, agricultural lobbies, cycling advocates and social housing. Much of the $2 billion raised annually would have been wasted and worse, because after the electric vehicle industry collapses — as it must once the subsidies run out — society will be left with rusting charging stations and other infrastructure that it will then need to rehabilitate.

The Ford government saw the cap-and-trade program for the disaster it was. To pay for the 57 varieties of waste, cap and trade was taking $2 billion a year out of the productive economy, in the process hobbling Ontario businesses through high energy costs that prevented them from competing effectively and punishing individual Ontarians by raising their heating and transportation costs. By the FAO’s reckoning, the kicker of the past government’s climate change obsession is $3 billion in legacy costs.

Paying those legacy costs and ending the cap-and-trade program will end the bleeding. The Ford government estimates that Ontario taxpayers will be saving as much as $1 billion over four years just by scrapping the electric vehicle rebates. By scrapping most of the other 56 boondoggles, taxpayers will be saving billions more. Meanwhile, the government treasury will be collecting billions in more sustainable taxes, generated by an economy that produces rather than destroys wealth.

Lawrence Solomon is executive director of Toronto-based Energy Probe.LawrenceSolomon@nextcity.com