Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown is making some promises he may have to keep if he wins next year’s Ontario election.
On Tuesday, Brown vowed to withdraw the province from the Western Climate Initiative, which it joined in 2010 in partnership with Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba, California, and six other American states.
The Conservative chief, who leads Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne in public opinion polls, has been deliberately coy about his plans for governing after the June 7, 2018 vote.
With a policy conference set for November in Toronto, the Tories want to make as few commitments as possible in order to appease grassroots members and avoid the missteps that have kept them in opposition since 2003.
But as Ontario’s first carbon-price auction kicks off Wednesday, Brown said he would yank the province from the Western Climate Initiative bloc that works on joint strategies to reduce greenhouse gases.
“We would want to exit from this framework as quickly as possible,” he told reporters. He said the party’s policy advisory committee is examining the legal implications.
The comments from Brown, who has, instead, promised a carbon tax the Liberal government says would be more expensive than its cap-and-trade program, could have an impact as companies decide how much to bid on carbon credits in the auction, which takes place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Fuming about a new radio advertising blitz by the provincial government promoting the cut in hydro rates of 25 per cent, Brown vowed to restore the auditor general’s power to veto government advertising.
While former Liberal premier Dalton McGuinty gave the auditor supreme oversight of such ads in 2004 to eliminate partisan messaging at taxpayer expense, his successor Kathleen Wynne watered down those regulations in 2015.
“I absolutely feel it should be strengthened again,” said Brown, who has complained the hydro ads are in contempt of the legislature because MPPs have not yet voted on legislation to implement Liberal’s plan to cut rates.
“There’s a reason they stripped the auditor general of the powers to review (government advertising). This is an abuse of taxpayer dollars. These are partisan ads.”
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said her party would “absolutely” restore the auditor general’s powers over advertising.
“There’s a practically invisible line between the Liberals’ partisan activities and their governing.”
Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault has defended the ads, saying it’s legitimate to let citizens know their hydro bills will be going down this summer.
With files from Kristin Rushowy
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