ONTARIO DESERVES A REAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHAMPION

Last fall, a report by Ontario's auditor general showed the province is nowhere near on track to meeting its climate targets, and the provincial government is expected to achieve only 20 per cent of promised CO2 reductions by 2030.

Since Doug Ford took office, his government has dragged Ontario backwards on its climate and environmental policies.

Ford fought hard against the federal government's carbon price, despite the fact that Nobel Prize-winning economists have endorsed a price on carbon as a cheap and effective way to reduce emissions.

Ford spent millions on anti-carbon tax stickers at gas pumps across the province and took the government all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada to repeal it — and lost.

Ford also scrapped the rebate for electric vehicles, making it harder and less affordable for people to buy them. He's also planning on spending billions on two major highways, Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass, which would both

pave over ecologically sensitive wetlands and parts of the Greenbelt including prime farmland in Ontario.

That money would be better spent on public transit instead.

Last month, the Halton Catholic School Board declared a climate emergency. Young people deserve to grow up in a world that is as clean, safe and beautiful as it was when their parents grew up. They deserve so much better than Doug Ford.

CALVIN BEAUCHESNE