affordable green choices

8/6/2019 Affordable Green Choices

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Affordable Green Choices ONTARIO


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ONTARIO NDP | 1

People who want to make smart environmental choices should be encouraged to do so. Ontarios biggestpolluters should share the burden o cleaning our environment. Tese are simple ideas but they are nothappening in Ontario today.

People hoping to do the right thing or the planet cant get a break, but some o the biggest polluters in

the province get no-strings-attached tax giveaways. Companies that produce toxic material should beresponsible or the cost o cleaning it up. Instead, theyre given the right to slap consumers with a new eco-ee. Te Harmonized Sales ax gave some o Ontarios biggest polluters a tax cut while increasing the priceo energy ecient appliances.

It doesnt have to be this way.

We can conront our environmental challenges and make lie more aordable.

Read this, pass it on, and talk about it with your riends.Its our plan or aordable environmentalism.

-Andrea HorwathLeader o the Ontario New Democrats


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Greg Benn


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ONTARIO NDP PLATFORM | 4

Clean, Renewable,

Affordable ElectricityHelping you retrot and conserveA commitment to clean and renewable energy


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Te most aordable way to handle our electricity needs isnt to produce more. Its to use less. We can succeed in tacklingour energy challenges while making lie more aordable but we have to be smarter. Only 1 in 25 homes has beenretroftted to ensure proper energy savings. Ontario is likely to miss its 2010 energy eciency targets and in a ew yearsOntario will start scaling back energy conservation programs not because weve done all we can do but because newnuclear plants will be coming online and there may not be a market or that electricity i we conserve too much. Tis

doesnt make sense. Its time to do something dierent.

We will take money being spent on nuclear mega-schemes and invest it in comprehensive energyeciency programs that put money into household budgets. Nuclear power is a vital part o Ontarioselectricity supply and thats not going to change quickly or easily. However, Ontario is already struggling to deal with thenuclear waste we already have waste that will be incredibly dangerous or thousands o years. I thats not concerningenough the costs o nuclear power should be. Ontario has never completed a nuclear plant on time or on budget. Reactorscurrently being worked on rom France to New Brunswick are literally billions o dollars more expensive than planned and

years behind schedule. Te cost estimate or building new reactors in Ontario has more than tripled rom $7 billion to $26billion. Tats nearly $2,000 rom every person in the province. And that is even beore the tragic disaster in Fukushimaraised new saety concerns that are expected to push costs even higher.

In our Plan or Aordable Change, we will not be proceeding with plans to build new nuclear plants. We will besubjecting uture decisions about nuclear power to an environmental assessment that will look at the real costs andenvironmental impact o nuclear energy when compared with alternatives. While that study is being conductedwe will take money dedicated to nuclear projects and make it available to families that want toretrot their homes.

We will help people who want to make their homes more energy ecient. We will oer rebates ofup to $5,000 for people who want to retrot their homes. When combined with available ederal programsthis will add up to $10,000 in savings. In addition, lower-income homeowners and tenants can qualiy or grants o up to


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ONTARIO NDP | 5

$5,000. We will also oer up to $10,000 in low-interest loans that canbe paid back on your hydro bill. Households that invest in retrofts canreduce a yearly $2,000 heating bill by $700. Te investment pays oritsel both or homeowners and our electricity system.

Provinces like Manitoba have made programs like this work. Tats no

surprise. When we make it easier to make environmentally smart choicespeople will make them. We will direct the Ontario Power Authorityto achieve all possible conservation beore contracting or new supply.We will work with other jurisdictions to ensure that energy eciencystandards or appliances, products and buildings are continuouslystrengthened and expanded to address new issues (e.g. the growingproblem o phantom power in new electronic appliances) to ensure thatconsumers are protected rom unreliable and energy inecient products.

A long-term commitment to Clean and Afordable Energy

Ontario consumes over 150 terawatt hours o electricity every year. Wehave a responsibility to ensure that when we generate it we do it in a waythats as clean, renewable and sae as possible. We will phase outcoal-red electricity by 2014 and will place coal plants onemergency stand-by only, unl they are phased out. Wewill assess alternative ways o powering the plants using biomass and willinvest in a just transition plan or the skilled workers, managers, andengineers working at Ontario Power Generation coal plants.


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Andrew Lo


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Andrew Lo


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ONTARIO NDP | 9

Cleaner, Affordable

Ways to Get AroundInvesng in public transitMaking cycling safer and easier


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For people who want to get out o their cars and avoid the pain at thegas pump, the alternatives arent always pretty. Public transit shouldbe reliable and aordable. oo oten people are paying more to waitlonger. Cycling can be even tougher.

We will make transit more aordable by freezingfares. We will achieve this by having the province take on halfof the cost of operang municipal transit systems. Byoering to split costs we ree up unds to keep ares low but also givemunicipalities unds to improve service and make capital investments.We will also move orward with plans to expand our transit systemand well be making more announcements as the campaign progresses.

We will make it easier and saer or people to ride bikes. We willmake it the law that drivers have to stay at least 1

metre away from cyclist on the move. We will promoteplanning or complete streets on municipal and provincialroadways, ensuring the saety o all users when roads are developedor redeveloped. We will create a province-wide cyclinginfrastructure fund for investments in bike lanes, bikestorage and bicycle tourism.

We will make sure that major new developments are accessible by

transit and other active modes o transportation, and provide acilitiesor cyclists.

Andrew Lo


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Tackling the Biggest

Polluters & Sprawl


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Te Ontario government has ailed to stand up to polluters.It ailed to make companies pay the ull cost o recyclingand saely disposing their toxic and overpackaged products,instead allowing them to charge eco-ees to consumers ordump costs onto cash-strapped municipalities. Te Open oBusiness Act removed the basic requirement or public noti

and public input on many industrial activities that pollute thenvironment, an approach used in exas (the most pollutingjurisdiction in North America).

While tax schemes like the HS have made energy moreexpensive or consumers, theyve also oered dramaticno-strings-attached tax cuts to some o Ontarios biggestpolluters. Ontario is not on track to meet our greenhousegas targets or 2014 or 2020. Tose who pollute must take

responsibility or their emissions. Working in conjunctionwith other jurisdictions, we will join the WesternClimate Iniave so Ontario rms can tradeinto a connental cap and trade plan. Revenuesgenerated by cap and trade will be re-invested in reducingcarbon emissions. We will work with other jurisdictions on acoordinated climate change strategy, continuing to push theederal government to move orward with a national plan.Within our frst year in government we will develop a plan oOntario to meet climate targets o 20% below 1990 levels by2020.

Andrew Louis


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AndrewAndrew Lo


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Citizens should have ull inormation and a air say about planned industrial activities in their communities. We willreverse the exempons granted by the previous government, and ensure that all industrial acviesand emissions are posted on the Environmental Registry for public comment.

Last years eco-ee fasco highlighted the importance o getting waste reduction right. We will complete the long-stalled review of the Waste Reducon Act, making sure that the cost of recycling and safely disposingmaterials is the responsibility of the companies that produce the products so they dont show up on yourproperty tax bill or as a surprising eco-ee on your receipt. We will reocus attention on reducing waste in the frst place, andways to promote reuse o products both o which are more cost-eective and environmentally benign than recycling.We will strengthen regulaons to reduce overpackaging in cooperaon with other jurisdicons.

Despite plans to prevent sprawl and plan development, it keeps happening. We will put an end to governmentbackroom deals to exempt developers from growth limits, such as those set out in the Greenbelt Act, and wewill balance the playing eld when it comes to new development, by pung an end to developerSLAPP lawsuits used to silence local opposion to mega-projects.

We believe it is possible to balance economic and environmental goals in the North. However, the current government haspushed through legislation without support o First Nations communities who have been stewards o the land or generations.ogether we must ensure a sustainable uture or the North with a planning process that includes open consultation and ullland-use planning. We will support sustainable orest management practices in ways that protect jobs and the environment bymaking sure all parties workers, First Nations, and municipalities are at the table.

Ontarians live next to and depend on the health o the Great Lakes or drinking water, recreation, tourism, jobs and industry.

Tere is real concern today about threats to the health o the Great Lakes: over 100,000 have people signed a petition against arisky Government-supported plan to ship radioactive nuclear waste across the Lakes. We will designate a Minister responsibleor the protection o the Great Lakes and establish clear objectives and legislation to ensure that decisions by all Ministriesprotect the quantity and quality o the Lakes. We will not proceed with any approvals or the transport o radioactive steamgenerators on Ontarios roads and waterways until a ull provincial environmental assessment has been conducted.


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ONTARIO

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