Schreiner Calls for Green Tax Cut to Create Jobs and Fight Climate Change

NEWS
Green Party of Ontario (GPO) Leader Mike Schreiner criticized the Liberal government for its lack of a clear plan for meeting the province’s greenhouse gas reduction targets following the release of the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario’s Annual Greenhouse Gas Progress Report 2010: Broadening Ontario’s Climate Change Policy Agenda.

Schreiner called for a comprehensive tax reform package that begins with a Green Tax Cut to provide an incentive for businesses and individuals to go green and actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The GPO’s Green Tax Cut plan would reduce income and business taxes to encourage job creation by making people less expensive to hire. Government revenue would be maintained through levies on waste, pollution and unsustainable resource use.

Using the tax system to price carbon would create strong incentives for individuals and businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while stimulating job creation and investment in green technology. Tax reform, combined with an aggressive energy efficiency and conservation plan targeting the transportation and building sectors, is the most cost effective and financially responsible approach to achieving greenhouse gas reductions.

QUOTES
“The Green Party supports a Green Tax Cut to encourage what we want–sustainable job creation–and discourage what we don’t want–waste, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.”
– Mike Schreiner, Leader, GPO

“The Liberal government’s lack of a plan on greenhouse gas reductions leaves a dangerous legacy for our children. Only the Green Party, through its Green Tax Cut plan, is proposing a sensible solution to actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions while spurring a whole new wave of green job creation in Ontario.”
– Mike Schreiner, Leader, GPO

QUICK FACTS
• According to a recent survey commissioned by Ernst & Young, 82 per cent of Canadian executives say responding to climate change is “imperative,” and plan to increase spending on climate change initiatives.
• The Environment Commissioner of Ontario demonstrated in his last report that the Liberal government will not meet its 2014 or 2020 greenhouse gas reduction targets and that GHG emissions will rise between 2014 and 2020.

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CONTACT:
Jaymini Bhikha
(416) 275-8573