A new billboard campaign calling on the province to repeal its controversial carbon tax has arrived in London.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) launched the "Stop High Energy Bills" billboard Monday at a bus stop one street over from Deputy Premier and London MPP Deb Matthews' office on Piccadilly St.
"What we are asking for is a repeal of the newly implemented carbon tax which is going to add dramatically to the cost of electricity over the coming years, electricity that is already unaffordable for a lot of families and institutions in Ontario and particularly in the London region," said CTF Ontario Director Christine Van Geyn. "We want to get people involved, get them to pay attention, and get them to let their politicians know that our electricity bills are out of control in this province."
The billboard addressed to Matthews reads, "cap and trade will bring Ontario higher electricity prices. We and our children can't afford higher bills. Repeal the tax."
Ontario implemented a cap and trade system on January 1 which added 4.3 cents per litre to the price of gasoline and roughly $80 a year to natural gas home heating costs. Companies that pollute at least 25,000 tonnes per year have to have a number of allowances equal to their emissions. The allowances can be bought at quarterly auctions or companies can sell them amongst themselves on a secondary market. The goal is to lower greenhouse gas emissions across the province.
However, the federation maintains the province is going about it the wrong way by implementing a program that will only lead to further hydro cost increases.
"What we want to see is responsible changes to bring electricity prices under control in the long term, not new plans like cap and trade that are going to make things even worse," said Van Geyn.
In a statement issued by Matthews late Monday afternoon, she said the billboard is completely misleading.
“Household electricity rates will not increase as a result of Ontario's cap and trade program, since the electricity we consume every day is already largely carbon-free thanks in part to early action to close coal-fired power generation plants," she said. In fact, Ontario’s Fair Hydro Plan has expanded savings programs for industrial consumers, and reduced all residential household electricity bills by an average of 25% – half a million small businesses and farms are also benefiting. Those Ontarians living in the most rural and Northern communities are seeing even bigger rate reductions – upwards of 40 to 50 per cent. Our plan also holds any rate increases to the rate of inflation for four years."
Last Thursday, Matthews reaffirmed the roughly $1-billion that's expected to come from the cap and trade program will be reinvested in the province to fight climate change. She made those remarks after announcing $24-million in cap and trade money would go to train apprentices and tradespeople in low carbon, green construction practices.
