Ontario’s carbon pricing future uncertain between cap and trade and carbon tax
TORONTO — Ontario’s first year of carbon pricing brought in nearly $2 billion, but uncertainty looms over the program’s future as the province faces an election in 2018 that could see its cap-and-trade system replaced with a carbon tax.
The system, launched in 2017, is aimed at lowering greenhouse gas emissions by putting caps on the amount of pollution companies in certain industries can emit. If they exceed those limits they must buy allowances at quarterly auctions or from other companies that come in under their limits.
The cap declines about four per cent each year to 2020, and as it decreases, the government hopes companies have more incentive to cut their emissions.
Ontario made $1.9 billion this year in four cap-and-trade auctions, three of which were sellouts.