https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/07/09/news/exclusive-doug-ford-didnt-tell-you-ontario-cancelled-227-clean-energy-projects
[links in online article]
EXCLUSIVE: Doug Ford didn’t tell you Ontario cancelled 227 clean energy
projects
By Fatima Syed in News, Politics | July 9th 2019
On the day Premier Doug Ford pulled Ontario out of an international
clean energy trading market, it spelled the end for 227
emissions-reducing projects across the province, reveals a leaked document.
A full list of the cancelled projects assembled by a government source —
based on information obtained through their role and through multiple
information requests — was shared exclusively with National Observer
detailing a breakdown, by municipality, of the $2.9-billion fund the
province had collected through the cap and trade agreement, revealing
that those most affected by the cancellation were students, low-income
Ontarians, municipalities and commuters.
Until now, details of what kind of projects that money was allocated for
were scant, but the leaked list reveals a wide range of initiatives set
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that lost their funding, including
schools, hospitals, small businesses and several social housing providers.
According to the leaked document, in Ontario, the money was set to fund
120 commuter cycling programs (each worth $25,000) in 120 jurisdictions
across the province. It was set to help develop 41 green social housing
programs, and 20 improvement or retrofit projects for social housing
apartments. It was also going to go toward 11 electric vehicle charging
stations and one electric-bus pilot in the city of Brampton (Canada's
ninth largest city).
Some of these projects had already taken off and allocated funding over
four years — all of which has now been revoked, on top of 758 renewable
energy contracts and other cuts for climate action funds for the 50
Million Tree Program, electric and hydrogen vehicle incentive programs
and flood management by conservation authorities.
Standing on the steps of Queen's Park on June 29, 2018, the day he was
sworn in as premier, Ford affirmed his government's first policy change
would be Ontario’s withdrawal from the cap-and-trade carbon market with
Quebec and California. The pledge was greeted with huge applause and
cheers. The bill that made the withdrawal official passed in November of
that year.
Later, Ontario's fiscal watchdog would find the cancellation of cap and
trade will cost $3 billion in lost revenue over the next four fiscal years.
The biggest portion of cap and trade money went to the city of Toronto
The cap and trade agreement was set up by the former Liberal government
and served as a multi-national pollution pricing system between Ontario,
Quebec and California, who collectively agree to tailored limits — or
caps — on the greenhouse gas emissions that large industrial polluters
in each jurisdiction can emit every year.
Under this system, companies are able to purchase allowances to offset
the pollution they expect to emit over a given period. All the revenues
generated through the sale of these allowances go directly into
government coffers and are then dedicated to green energy projects. And
if a company emits less than the expected amount, they can sell their
allowances to other companies that emitted more.
According to the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (ECO), whose
office the Ford government shuttered earlier this year, cap and trade
raised almost $2.9 billion in government revenues from six auctions
since January 2017 — $2.4 billion up to March 31, 2018, and $472 million
in the final May 2018 joint auction with California and Quebec. The
money was tracked in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Account (GGRA) and
used to “fund, directly or indirectly, costs relating to initiatives …
that are reasonably likely to reduce, or support the reduction of
greenhouse gas.”
As of March 31, 2018, the government had authorized $2.3 billion in
spending commitments for GGRA initiatives. Of this amount, almost $1.9
billion was released to cover GGRA-related costs incurred by individual
ministries, although actual spending was slightly lower, at $1.85
billion, likely due to delays in project implementation, the ECO found.
According to the list obtained by National Observer, the 227 cancelled
projects amounted to about $1.88 billion allocated to projects in
municipalities.
A second source familiar with the file said the sum didn’t account for
more than $240 million allocated outside the 227 projects for
industries, small and medium businesses and Ontario’s food and beverage
program. This money was allocated through the Green Ontario fund
(financed through cap and trade money), which provided grants to
incentivize industries to reduce carbon pollution.
Of the $1.88 billion shown in the leaked document, $1.39 billion (74 per
cent) went to the public sector, over $226 million (12 per cent) went to
the private sector, more than $20 million (1 per cent) went to
non-profits, and $245 million (13 per cent) went to individuals.
Most of this money was distributed to jurisdictions in the Greater
Toronto Area and central Ontario. According to the ECO, these two
regions account for 70 per cent of Ontario’s population (per 2017
numbers) and are experiencing rapid population growth.
The biggest portion of money went to the city of Toronto, which received
$500 million for programs such as:
A green fleet acceleration project to help convert almost 10,000
on-road and off-road emergency vehicles (including paramedics, fire and
police) to low-carbon vehicles
A renewable thermal energy system at the Etobicoke Civic Centre (in
Doug Ford's riding) to make it Toronto’s first net-zero community
The city’s first net-zero facility — an early learning and
childcare centre — in the Mount Dennis neighbourhood
A building-wide energy retrofit of Toronto Paramedic Services
headquarters to create energy savings
The Toronto Transit Commission's replacement of 30 clean diesel
buses with 30 battery-powered electric buses
A geothermal system for St. Lawrence market — a major public food
market building in downtown Toronto
Several Ontario jurisdictions received between $20 million and $40
million from the fund, including Hastings, Niagara, Durham, Waterloo,
Wellington, York, Peterborough, Thunder Bay and Halton.
Over 17 per cent (over $323 million) of the cap and trade fund went to
transit providers to facilitate a shift toward clean energy vehicles,
according to the list. Some 15 per cent ($282 million) went to social
housing providers, and 13 per cent ($245 million) was given to private
clean energy enterprises.
Approximately 10 per cent was given school boards for various retrofit
programs and green initiatives.
Some of these initiatives were more innovative than others, such as the
Haliburton Village Community Bioheat System — the county's first
wood-fuelled district heat system for its downtown area. The systems
involve a central energy centre, where wood chips would be burned in
specialized equipment, heating water in a boiler, that is then
distributed throughout a series of underground pipes, providing heat and
water heating to buildings. While the technology is only emerging in
Canada, it is widespread in Europe, particularly in the Scandinavian
countries.
In total, 54 Ontario jurisdictions received funding for 61 social
housing provisions, specifically, until 2022. (41 of these social
housing projects were funded through GreenON.)
Once again, the city of Toronto lost the most money in this regard,
seeing $180 million pulled for the next three years out of its green
social housing improvement program. The city of York (just north of
Toronto) lost $13.3 million for social housing and the city of London
lost more than $8 million over the next three years.
Only Brampton and three central Ontario cities lost their 2018-19
funding when cap and trade was cancelled in November 2018. By the time
it was axed, Brampton had received more than $14.9 million, while the
cities of Peterborough and Stratford had received more than $736,000
each, and the county of Brant had been given $825,000.
'Cap and trade' mentioned four times in Ford's first budget
In California, cap and trade funds have been collected from polluters
and spent to slash greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, the state spent
US$1.4 billion on such efforts, investing in everything from electric
cars, solar panels and clean energy transit lines. These programs have
helped clean the air of pollution that makes people sick — reducing
particulate emissions by 474 tons in 2018. The fund is also being used
to reduce the amount of water that Californians use and to plant
millions of trees.
Quebec also elected a right-leaning government in 2018, but it chose to
continue the province’s participation in cap and trade, committing to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In Ontario, the cancellation of cap and trade is shown as lost revenue
in the Ford government's first budget. It is mentioned only four times
in the 382-page financial document, with few details about where the cap
and trade funds the government had in its coffers had been spent. (In
previous interviews, Ministry of Environment spokespeople have said the
remaining money in the cap and trade coffer will allocated for
"wind-down costs.")
The bill to cancel cap and trade was introduced by then-environment
minister Rod Phillips in July 2018 but the final vote was delayed when
Greenpeace launched legal action against the government, alleging the
province failed in its duty to hold public consultations on the issue,
as demanded by the Ontario’s Environmental Bill of Rights.
"It was a great day for Ontarians," Phillips said as he celebrated the
passage of his first bill as cabinet minister in November 2018. He said
the move would save each Ontarian $264 a year, money they would have had
to pay under the former cap and trade system. Ontario’s fiscal watchdog,
however, recently said the cancellation of cap and trade will worsen the
province's deficit by $3 billion.
“It was costly, it was ineffective, it was killing jobs," Phillips, the
now finance minister said of the program at the time. "It’s gone, today.”
But his comments were inaccurate. Ontario's environmental commissioner —
along with a Nobel prize-winning economist and much scientific research
— touts the cap and trade program as the most cost-effective and
efficient way to reduce the heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions that
contribute to climate change. British Columbia, California and several
European nations who have carbon pricing programs have reduced their
emissions while maintaining strong economies.
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