User:TheDoDahMan/draft2

Controversy during Doug Ford leadership
On 7 June 2018, Progressive Conservative Doug Ford was elected premier by a large margin, ending the Liberal run from 2003 - 2018. Since then there has been a great deal of controversy regarding the environmental policies of his government. Ford's most controversial moves have been scrapping the Cap and Trade carbon tax system which was orchestrated by the previous Liberal government and eliminating the office of the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario (Diane Saxe). The Ford government released a report indicating that the duties of the Environmental Commissioner will be taken over by the Auditor General of Ontario. This led to a great deal of alarm because it was widely believed that the Environmental Bill of Rights might be abandoned, but in the same report the Ford government indicated that this was not true. Other criticisms levelled by Mike Schreiner of the Green Party of Ontario include cuts to the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks as well as making unspecified changes to the Endangered Species Act. Of all of Ford's policies, the abandoning of the Cap and Trade system and mounting a legal challenge to the federal government's carbon tax (which was imposed to replace Cap and Trade) have been the most controversial. Ford is spending $30M to fight the constitutionality of the federally imposed carbon tax, along with the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. All three provinces involved have Progressive Conservative governments, the traditional nemesis of the Liberals. Ford has been criticised for not putting the money to better use and causing an unnecessary burden on taxpayers. The court ruled in favour of the federal government but the provinces are appealing the decision. Ford has been very vocal about this and maintains that the carbon tax will cause a recession. Economists have studied the issue and do not agree, citing the example of British Columbia, which has had a carbon tax since 2008 causing no economic downturn for the province. A December 2018 Ipsos-Reid poll was conducted to gauge the public's opinion of Ford's environmental policies. The poll results were as follows : The federal minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, Catherine McKenna states that the carbon tax has been shown to be the most economical way of reducing emissions.
 * Negative - 45%
 * Positive - 27%
 * Neutral - 28%