Ontario Votes 2025: Climate
Making sure that the legacy we leave those who follow us includes a healthy and safe environment isn’t front and centre in the Ontario election. The largest debt ever to be passed from one generation to the next has received, at best, scant attention.
We all want our kids and grandkids to enjoy the things many of us could take for granted, like summers without smoke, or cold enough winters for skiing and skating. So it’s alarming that young Canadians report feeling betrayed by the slow pace of our response to the climate risks and costs they stand to inherit. That’s not a proud legacy to leave for those who follow us.
On this page:
- Quick takes for the voting booth
- The starting line: Ontario's recent climate track record
- What are parties proposing to clean up our pollution messes?
Quick takes for the voting booth
The February 17 leader’s debate saw each candidate spend just 30 seconds discussing the growing risks and costs of our changing climate. Recently released platforms for the Ontario Liberals and NDP include few climate-related commitments. While the PC's haven't released a platform yet, Doug Ford's record as Premier doesn't give much reason to expect strong climate action.
The Ontario Green platform stands out for having a range of climate actions - many of which align with elements of Gen Squeeze's climate solutions framework, like eliminating fossil fuel subsidies, expanding clean energy, and supporting nature-based solutions. However, even the Greens don't go far enough on a key plank in any adequate climate response: paying for our pollution, past and present.
If you make a mess, clean it up. That’s a responsibility our parents teach us. Politicians betray this family value when they propose to stop paying for pollution, because it forces our kids to pay even more dearly for the messes we leave them.
No party in Ontario is adequately standing up for this principle. The next federal election likely will see the demise of the federal carbon tax – and along with it, the backstop applied to jurisdictions like Ontario. Yet the prospective leaders of Canada’s most populous province clearly don’t feel the need to even mention what equally robust climate policy tools will replace it.
Eliminating the carbon price will not magically make pollution go away. Ontarians will still pay the price for the detrimental effects carbon pollution has on their health, their communities and Ontario’s economy. This is especially true for younger residents.
The bottom line: All parties are sidestepping the elephant in the room when it comes to what’s really at stake – the wellbeing of the young people we love. This election, Ontarians should ask for more from those vying to lead their province. Recent poll results show that Ontarians know that our kids, grandkids and future generations are counting on us to leave them a healthy environment. That means urgently reducing our smog and trash, and paying for our pollution.
The starting line: Ontario's recent climate track record
Ontario’s environmental track record under Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives has been controversial. Most well-known is likely the decision to permit development in Ontario’s greenbelt that got widespread public, media – and eventually legal – attention. In fact, this was just one of a host of decisions that put the environmental benefits delivered by natural spaces at risk.
Another critical move was the eliminate Ontario’s cap-and-trade system. The repeal of this legislation triggered the application of the federal carbon price backstop in Ontario – and the flow of rebates to Ontario residents.
Recently the Ford government may be taking the first steps away from its love affair with fossil gas development – a commitment that has actually increased emissions from Ontario’s energy grid. There appears to be some new openness to renewable energy development. The verdict it still out on how meaningful this shift will be.
What are parties proposing to clean up our pollution messes?
This analysis is current as of February 21. We will update as we get closer to the election date, and welcome parties being in touch with us to draw our attention to policy announcements.
With few meaningful climate commitments from any party other than the Ontario Greens so far this campaign, it seems that leaders are content to sidestep this issue. However, recent polling shows that they’re out of step with Ontarians on this.
Ford’s Progressive Conservatives will continue supporting electric vehicle manufacturing, in part as a response to US tariffs. The PC’s continue to oppose carbon pricing, arguing that the policy has “killed more jobs than anything” (time index 1:21:29). Conveniently, both the PC's and Liberals ignore the ample evidence that the pollution price isn’t driving inflation in basic living costs.
Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie claims carbon pricing is “too expensive” (time index 1:22:24), and vows in her party's platform to "Axe Doug Ford’s carbon tax and develop a Made in Ontario environmental action plan." Conveniently, both the PC's and Liberals ignore the ample evidence that the pollution price isn’t driving inflation in basic living costs.
The issue of paying for our pollution is conspicuously absent from Ontario NDP commitments. The party proposes to establish "Ontario’s first Youth Climate Corps, giving opportunities to young Ontarians to learn skills and earn a fair wage while helping Ontario communities" (p. 18). That's a fine enough idea, but young Ontarians shouldn't have to stand on their own in addressing a climate crisis their elders have largely created. The NDP also want to support lower-income households to access things like energy retrofits, EVs and heat pumps, and the platform includes vague reference to making "evidence-based and cost-effective investments in clean energy and efficiency from a mix of non-emitting sources, storage and conservation" (p. 6). In the absence of specifics, it's difficult to quantify how meaningful such actions might prove to be.
The Ontario Green’s suggest that affordability is a central consideration in climate action. The party’s platform calls out the need to “create a more affordable Ontario where we’re ready to handle the worsening impacts of climate change” (p. 24). The Greens don’t explicitly suggest carbon pricing is driving household costs, as do the Liberals. Yet the platform is silent on the question of asking Ontarians to take responsibility for cleaning up pollution messes. Happily, the Greens do affirm the importance of making “big industrial polluters pay their fair share with a rising price on large industrial emissions” (p. 25). All parties should be clear about where they stand on this policy, since it does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to emissions reductions.
The bottom line: All parties are sidestepping the elephant in the room when it comes to what’s really at stake – the wellbeing of our kids and grandkids, nieces and nephews, cousins and neighbours. Young Canadians are telling us how urgent it is to act: 78% say climate change affects their mental health, and almost half believe governments are betraying them and future generations (globally the number is even higher).
Families work hard in so many ways to protect the next generation. We should expect our political leaders to do the same.
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