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Ontario urgently needs a climate plan that puts renewable power, green building jobs, and the health of its residents front and centre, speakers told an Earth Day press conference at Queen’s Park.

The Ontario chapter of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment, the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, and the Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign seized the moment to present Member of Provincial Parliament Peter Tabuns (NDP-Toronto Danforth) with an Earth Day petition calling for reinstatement of a climate plan for Ontario. The first 500 signatures are being tabled in the legislature five months after the province passed an omnibus Bill 68 that stripped protection from parts of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park and scrapped longstanding legal requirements to prepare and regularly update a climate plan. Critics allege the move was designed to dodge a court challenge over the province’s weak climate record [pdf].

The coalition aims to continue collecting and delivering signatures until the Doug Ford government delivers an evidence-based climate plan.

Citing Ontario’s increasing gas-fired electricity generation, which “quintupled since 2017,” York University environmental studies professor Mark Winfield warned: “The implication of this trend is that rather than decarbonizing, Ontario’s electricity grid is actually re-carbonizing intensively.”

Equally troubling, added Winfield, are Ontario’s plans for an electricity system that is “75% nuclear by mid-century,” putting the costs of all refurbishments and new builds “in the range of $400 billion over the next 20 years.”

Affirming his strong support for a climate plan—“when it comes to business and working with government, what gets measured, gets done”—Matt Jamieson, CEO of the Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corporation, urged the province to accelerate the buildout of large-scale renewables.

Land use restrictions and “municipalities who declare themselves unwilling hosts” are two roadblocks the province must tackle, said the CEO of the largest Indigenous investor in renewable energy assets in Ontario, and the largest Indigenous investor in energy storage projects in the country.

A youth unemployment rate of 17% is another urgent reason for the Ford government to craft a climate plan, said Bushra Asghar, executive director of  Organizing for a Youth Climate Corps.

“Across the province, young people are struggling to find meaningful and stable work,” Asghar said. “Entry-level jobs are disappearing, while the cost of groceries has gone up by 30% since 2020, and our wages have not kept up.” An Ontario Youth Climate Corps, formally supported by a serious climate plan, could provide meaningful, stable work for under-35s, she added.

Job creation was also top of mind for former Ontario environment minister Chris Ballard, whose past provincial cabinet posts also included housing and poverty reduction. He said the Ford government must craft a visionary climate plan that includes a green building strategy, adding that energy retrofits could generate hundreds of thousands of job years in Ontario. BuildForce Canada found 57,000 new workers are needed in Canada just to take care of residential fuel switching and energy efficiency retrofits.

“It’s not enough just to build or retrofit buildings,” Ballard added. Ontario should also go all in on high-performance building component manufacturing. “High performance windows, insulation tapes, wall assemblies, HVAC equipment monitoring systems, could be built right here in Ontario.”

Testifying to the myriad public health harms arising from the climate emergency—from anxiety and heat stress, to lung cancer and Lyme disease—Dr. Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario, urged the province to remember that “climate policy is, at its core, health policy.”

“The bottom line is this,” she declared: “When we delay climate action, people get sick. When we act, we prevent harm.”

in Canada, Climate Action, Energy Politics, Health & Safety, Heat & Power, Indigenous Rights & Reconciliation, Legal & Regulatory, Nuclear, Ontario, Power Grids, Society & Culture

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