Ontario MPPs vote to “transition to a low-carbon economy” amid concerns about extreme weather

Climate change is going to have “quite an impact” on insurance companies, one Ontario politician said Thursday as MPPs from all three parties voted in favour of a motion affirming that climate change is caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

“Global warming is causing extreme weather events,” Liberal MPP Grant Crack (pictured) told his colleagues in the legislature Thursday at Queen’s Park in Toronto. “The costs to the province of Ontario and insurance companies – that’s going to be quite an impact.”

Crack tabled a private members motion – which no one MPP against – moving that the legislature “recognizes that scientists agree that climate change is caused by man-made greenhouse gas emissions and poses a serious threat to Ontario’s environment, businesses, communities and economy.”

With the passage of the motion, Ontario MPPs said they “must take necessary action to reduce emissions, transition to a low-carbon economy and combat the effects of climate change.”

Crack recounted a July 2012 hailstorm in Alexandria – east of Ottawa in his riding of Glengarry-Prescott-Russell – that damaged both of his vehicles “extensively.”

Rising temperatures in the arctic are “shrinking the ocean’s ice cover,” said Lisa Thompson, MPP for Huron-Bruce and the Progressive Conservative party’s critic for environment and climate change.

“In Canada, we are already seeing changes in temperatures, shifting rainfall patterns and increases in certain types of hazardous weather, such as heat waves,” Thompson said in the legislature. “Internationally, the scientific community has accepted that many of these aspects that contribute to climate change have been caused by the buildup of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. We must acknowledge that human activities are the source of these greenhouse gases, be it through the burning of fossil fuels or the conversion of land once used for forestry and agriculture.”

Agriculture is already being affected, Crack suggested.

“We’re going to have longer growing seasons,” he said. “We’re going to experience earlier planting. We’re going to experience what the Minister of Environment and Climate Change spoke about earlier in the House, how the apple industry was devastated two years ago in 2012: an early thaw, the trees budded, another frost. The impact that that had on the supply of apples and the actual costs in our local grocery stores was quite substantial.”

But Thompson suggested Ontario should not introduce a carbon tax.

“Canada boasts one of the cleanest electricity systems in the G7 and in the world with 79% of our electricity supply emitting no GHGs,” she added.

The Ontario government needs to work with other jurisdictions, suggested Gila Martow, PC MPP for Thornhill.

“Just like the weather can’t be done just in Ontario, climate change can’t be addressed just in Ontario,” she said. “What I would put to this government is, what are we doing to work with the stakeholders in every other country? It’s not enough to close coal plants here if 100 are opened up in China for every one we close here.”

New Democratic Party members described the motion as partisan but still supported it.

“This is a motion that doesn’t do a lot,” said Gilles Bisson, NDP MPP for Timmins-James Bay and the party’s critic for natural resources and forestry.

“Effectively, the member is asking us to vote on whether or not we believe the earth is round, and I think there’s a general consensus,” said NDP energy critic Peter Tabuns, who represents Toronto-Danforth at Queen’s Park.