Ontario is stuck with ‘a terrible tax,’ Ford says

Premier won’t fight court decision regarding federal carbon pricing

Federal carbon pricing is “a terrible tax,” but Premier Doug Ford says Ontarians will likely have to live with it.

In his first public comments after Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan lost their Supreme Court challenge against Ottawa’s climate-change levy, Ford accepted defeat. “It’s a terrible tax but, in saying that, I respect the courts,” the premier told reporters Monday against the backdrop of Niagara Falls.

“We’re going to have conversations with the federal government to sit down and collaborate with them. We’ll work it out,” said Ford. “This is one of the few things that we’re going to disagree on but, in saying that, we’re going work collaboratively with the federal government and do what’s right for the taxpayers of this province.”

In a landmark ruling Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled Ottawa has the authority to impose a carbon price across the country as a “matter of national concern.”

The current $30-per-tonne carbon levy is to rise to $170 per tonne in 2030, with hopes it will encourage Canadians to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

Ford’s Progressive Conservatives budgeted $30 million on a taxpayer-funded fight against carbon pricing, which included TV commercials, the legal challenge and mandatory gaspump stickers.

After a successful challenge by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, an Ontario Superior Court judge ruled the decals were an unconstitutional violation of private businesses’ freedom of expression.

The Tories claim $7 million of the $30 million ended up being spent on the “carbon tax” campaign but, regardless of the tab, the premier insisted it was worth it. “I never have regrets fighting for the taxpayers of Ontario, keeping prices low. They think $30 million is tough, wait until the gasoline prices get jacked up over and over again. Everything that you buy is going to go up,” he predicted.

NDP MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto Danforth) blasted the Tories for squandering public money.

“This government wasted $30 million going to court that should have been spent on building a real plan to fight the climate crisis,” said Tabuns.

“We’ve learned they also hired a climate-change denier to provide ‘expert testimony’ and defend the premier’s gas pump stickers that ... didn’t even stick.”

That was a reference to the fact Ford’s legal team paid Benjamin Zycher, an American climate-change skeptic, $111,717 to be an expert witness.

In the legislature, Tabuns chided Environment Minister Jeff Yurek for putting taxpayers’ money “into the pocket of this climate-denying Trump supporter.”

Yurek countered that Zycher “is probably going to come out against our government, as well.”

“We know climate change is real and we know it’s a threat to the people of this province and the country,” the minister said.