Troy Shantz The Chamber of Commerce is urging Premier Kathleen Wynne to use the provincial budget to ease the impact of cap and trade on local business.
Troy Shantz
The Chamber of Commerce is urging Premier Kathleen Wynne to use the provincial budget to ease the impact of cap and trade on local business.
“Although businesses generally agree that reducing harmful emissions is the right thing to do, now is not the best time to start a cap-and-trade program because of other increasing costs and uncertainty about the direction the U.S. is taking,” said Shirley de Silva, president Sarnia Lambton Chamber of Commerce.
The voice of local business and the Ontario Chamber have sent a letter to Wynne warning that Ontario is risking the loss of investment and jobs.
If there’s a community that understands the potential impact of the province’s greenhouse gas reduction scheme it’s Sarnia-Lambton.
Some 24% of Ontario’s industrial greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are generated locally, led by some of the largest employers in Sarnia including Imperial Oil, Nova Chemicals and TransAlta.
Large industrial facilities, which are still the engine driving the local economy, are required to buy offsetting carbon credits.
Some are receiving allowances for free until 2020, a move meant to prevent them from moving to U.S. states or elsewhere that don’t have carbon pricing, the government has said.
The first quarterly cap-and-trade auction was held March 22 and raised $472 million for the government. Among the bidders were Imperial Oil, Shell and Suncor.
But the number of allowances allocated each year will decrease, requiring companies to buy additional credits in the future.
The Chamber is warning that the increased cost of doing business in Ontario may cause economic and environmental damage by forcing companies to shift production south of the border.
One of the things it’s asking for is a region-by-region analysis to ensure cap-and-trade revenues are allocated fairly.
“Along with the OCC, we are calling on the premier to take action and support our businesses and local economy,” de Silva said.
