ONTARIO – With one of the boldest climate plans the New Democratic Party offers, Horwath’s Climate. Jobs. Justice. A Green New Democratic Deal promises to reach net-zero by 2050.
“The fires, floodwaters and intense storms are already here, and they’re getting worse. No one is more affected by the climate crisis than young people. They didn’t contribute to climate change — but they’re going to suffer the harshest consequences of this catastrophe,” said Horwath. “It’s easy to be cynical about where we are and our progress in fighting the climate crisis. But it absolutely doesn’t have to be this way.”
The Youth Climate Corps program promises to give young Ontarians the opportunity for hands-on work experience and training through a paid program that will count towards post-secondary credit.
Participants will work on climate projects to restore and enhance Ontario’s natural landscape, including contributing to the NDP’s commitment to plant one billion trees by 2030 to reduce Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions through natural carbon sequestration.
One of the ways the Youth Climate Corp program will perform the task of cleansing greenhouse gas emissions is through The NDP’s Green New Democratic Deal. The green deal, built with inputs and ideas from industry, labour, climate scientists, First Nations, educators and the general public, highlights a mandate for all newly built public, residential and commercial buildings to be net-zero emissions by 2030 alongside a world-leading building retrofit program.
The deal also highlights:
- Ontario’s first zero-emissions vehicle strategy, ramping up electric vehicle sales to hit a 100 per cent target by 2035
- A new, equitable, cap-and-trade system to replace the federal carbon backstop
- Electrifying all municipal transit by 2040
- Giving $600 to households to install electric vehicle charging stations at home and requiring new homes to have vehicle charging capacity
- Restoring the powers of the Environment Commissioner
Horwath also said this plan is in complete contrast to Doug Ford and the Conservative’s anti-environment crusade over the past four years.
“Doug Ford’s been keeping up an assault on the environment so that his buddies can benefit. He cancelled a program to plant 50 million trees in the province. He ripped electric vehicle charging stations right out of the ground, and he’s spending hundreds of millions of dollars to bulldoze wind farms,” said Horwath. “This election is one of the most important in a generation because it’s the choice is between the NDP’s climate plan and Doug Ford’s war on the environment. I know we can come together and finally have a government that starts to fix what’s broken.”
However, it will take new investments of $40 billion to fund initiatives, including improved transit, investments in retrofits and infrastructure, job training and placement and support for communities adversely affected by climate change. This is in addition to the existing $31 billion budget.
Horwath advises that paying for these new investments will primarily come from carbon pricing and green bonds.
The federal government’s carbon pricing backstop requires that provinces with their pricing programs generate emission reductions equivalent to or more significant than what the federal program would generate in that province. The NDP’s carbon pricing plan will exceed federal emissions' reduction targets and generate revenue approximately equivalent to what the federal program would generate in Ontario – an estimated $30 billion between 2022 and 2026.
In addition to the 30 billion dollars generated by the new cap and trade program, an NDP government will need to raise another $10 billion in the existing green bonds program between 2022 and 2026. This is slightly more than the $2 billion a year the current government raises through this program.
With the increase in spending to bring Ontario to net-zero emissions, the NDP New Democratic Green Deal will reduce Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. These targets are consistent with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the most ambitious aspects of the Paris Agreement.
The NDP plans to enshrine our greenhouse gas reduction targets and interim targets into law, using a carbon budgeting process to ensure that 2030 and 2050 targets are met.
The NDP can fund municipal transit systems to 50 per cent of their net operating costs and enable immediate service improvements, more transit routes, and increased ridership with more affordable fares. Plus, implement Ontario’s first comprehensive zero-emissions vehicle strategy, which includes a province-wide electric vehicle sales target of 15 per cent by 2025, 45 per cent by 2030, and 100 per cent by 2035.
