Ontario Stands up for Families and Businesses by Opposing Job-Killing Federal Carbon Tax on Colleges and Universities

Ontario's government is working for the people by fighting increased costs to public institutions caused by the imposition of a job-killing federal carbon tax. The financial burden to universities and colleges risks impacting the services that the people of Ontario have come to rely upon.

 

The federal government's carbon tax will impact Ontario's colleges and universities by increasing their upfront annual heating costs by approximately $9.8 million in 2019, soaring to $24.7 million in 2022.

 

"We know that the federal carbon tax will increase the cost to heat your home, fuel your car and feed your family," said Minister Phillips. "What we don't know is the cost that the carbon tax will have on the institutions that provide essential services to the people of Ontario including hospitals, seniors' centres and colleges."

 

Merrilee Fullerton, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, and Rod Phillips, Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, were at Algonquin College in Ottawa today to talk about how the federal government's carbon tax will impact local colleges and universities by increasing heating costs.

 

Upfront costs for Algonquin College are expected to increase by approximately $151,000 in 2019-20, rising to over $380,000 in 2022-23, based on 2016 fuel consumption levels. This amount of money could be better used to train the next generation of students in 3D video game animation techniques, support nursing students to gain classroom laboratory and clinical learning experience or prepare students for employment in the skilled trades.

 

"Ontario's postsecondary institutions will face increased costs resulting from the federal carbon fuel tax," said Minister Fullerton. "This tax could result in our institutions redirecting public funding and tuition money towards a federal tax rather than where it is intended to go - on learning and student-focused initiatives."

 

The Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan considers our province's specific priorities, challenges and opportunities, and commits to reducing our emissions to 30 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030, a target that aligns with the Federal Government's Paris commitments, without imposing a carbon tax on students, patients, families and seniors. Through the efforts of individuals and industry, Ontario is already most of the way to this target, with the province's emissions down 22 per cent since 2005.

 

Ontario's emission performance standards proposal would allow colleges and universities to opt-in, saving them from the costs of the federal carbon tax program.

 

"Our plan serves as proof that you can both oppose a carbon tax and continue to do more to fight climate change, you don't have to choose," concluded Minister Phillips. "Ontario deserves a healthy environment and a healthy economy."

 

The government remains committed to fighting the federal government's plan to impose a carbon tax on the people of Ontario.