Economy
Doug Ford – the Net Zero Premier

By Dan McTeague
Doug Ford came into power promising a change from the Kathleen Wynne Green Energy Act fiasco – the one which saddled Ontario taxpayers with costly green energy contracts, driving up the price of power. Ford promised to scrap those wasteful contracts, lower hydro rates, and restore affordability to Ontario. But as we take stock of his energy policies today, it seems Ford is steering Ontario down a path that feels a bit too familiar.
For all his talk about energy affordability, Ford continues to pander to the environmentalist “Net Zero” ideology that got Ontario into this mess in the first place. The idea is that somehow Canada will be a net zero emitter of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. We have seen this play out at the Federal level, with the Trudeau Liberals implementing a host of reckless and punitive policies in the vain hopes of achieving this preposterous goal. You can thank Net Zero for Carbon Taxes, Emissions Caps, the Clean Fuel Standard, Electric Vehicle Mandates and on and on.
Instead of backing away and distancing himself from this scam, Doug Ford has embraced and doubled down on it. Recall that during a provincial leaders debate in June 2022, Ford stated that he will not be happy until Ontario achieves a 100% zero-carbon electricity grid, buying into the Net Zero electrification nonsense that the Trudeau government is pushing. This would mean moving away from fossil fuels like affordable and reliable natural gas as energy sources in Ontario.
Stephen Lecce, Ford’s minister of the recently renamed Ministry of Energy and Electrification, is full steam ahead on this project. And the ministry’s new name is significant, pointing towards an “energy transition” for Ontario, such that eventually everything – cars, home heating, etc. – will be run on electricity rather than traditional fuels.
Currently, about 20 per cent of Ontario’s energy needs are met by electricity, so where will this electricity come from, without fossil fuels? At a recent Empire Club event, Ford gave a fireside chat where he discussed Ontario’s electricity plan (you can hear the interview here). He spoke about the energy sector and his commitment to all low carbon options for Ontario’s electricity grid, including wind and solar. This marks a reversal of his earlier skepticism about these technologies. The irony is that Ontario taxpayers are still paying for the expensive legacy of earlier wind and solar government spending. Wasting more taxpayer dollars will mean more of the following: higher energy costs, decreased grid reliability, and growing public debt.
As energy expert Parker Gallant has pointed out, the costs of wind power alone have been staggering, with taxpayers footing the bill for inefficient projects that deliver intermittent power. Doubling down on these same strategies, even under a different name, does little to address affordability or reliability.
Ford has hitched his horse fully to the Net Zero wagon. According to his government’s policy document Planning for electrification and the energy transition: “Much of the world – including many of Ontario’s major trading partners – have committed to achieving economy-wide carbon neutrality by 2050.” Consequently, it recommends that Ontario adopt similar Net Zero strategies, as doing so allegedly contributes “to the global climate solution and thereby sets the province up to succeed and prosper in the emerging global clean energy economy.”
These claims didn’t make sense when they were made five years ago and they make even less sense today. Afterall, Ontario’s largest trading partner to the South has just elected Donald Trump whose policy approach to energy can be summarized by the phrase, “Drill Baby Drill.” We can expect that one of Trump’s first acts as president will be to (once again) exit the Paris Agreement. Trump has no intention of drinking the Net Zero KoolAid, though he will no doubt be happy to have America’s competitors like Canada burden themselves with unnecessary environmental commitments and regulations, which will drive up the cost of doing business and make “made in America” a much more attractive brand. Competitiveness and affordability in Canada can go out the window as manufacturers and businesses will start looking South as the more attractive business environment.
While Trump seeks to unleash the United States’ energy potential, Ford will only stifle Ontario’s. Which is to say, Ford is setting Ontario up for failure. Now that is a real net zero.
Dan McTeague is President of Canadians for Affordable Energy.
Bjorn Lomborg
Net zero’s cost-benefit ratio is crazy high

From the Fraser Institute
The best academic estimates show that over the century, policies to achieve net zero would cost every person on Earth the equivalent of more than CAD $4,000 every year. Of course, most people in poor countries cannot afford anywhere near this. If the cost falls solely on the rich world, the price-tag adds up to almost $30,000 (CAD) per person, per year, over the century.
Canada has made a legal commitment to achieve “net zero” carbon emissions by 2050. Back in 2015, then-Prime Minister Trudeau promised that climate action will “create jobs and economic growth” and the federal government insists it will create a “strong economy.” The truth is that the net zero policy generates vast costs and very little benefit—and Canada would be better off changing direction.
Achieving net zero carbon emissions is far more daunting than politicians have ever admitted. Canada is nowhere near on track. Annual Canadian CO₂ emissions have increased 20 per cent since 1990. In the time that Trudeau was prime minister, fossil fuel energy supply actually increased over 11 per cent. Similarly, the share of fossil fuels in Canada’s total energy supply (not just electricity) increased from 75 per cent in 2015 to 77 per cent in 2023.
Over the same period, the switch from coal to gas, and a tiny 0.4 percentage point increase in the energy from solar and wind, has reduced annual CO₂ emissions by less than three per cent. On that trend, getting to zero won’t take 25 years as the Liberal government promised, but more than 160 years. One study shows that the government’s current plan which won’t even reach net-zero will cost Canada a quarter of a million jobs, seven per cent lower GDP and wages on average $8,000 lower.
Globally, achieving net-zero will be even harder. Remember, Canada makes up about 1.5 per cent of global CO₂ emissions, and while Canada is already rich with plenty of energy, the world’s poor want much more energy.
In order to achieve global net-zero by 2050, by 2030 we would already need to achieve the equivalent of removing the combined emissions of China and the United States — every year. This is in the realm of science fiction.
The painful Covid lockdowns of 2020 only reduced global emissions by about six per cent. To achieve net zero, the UN points out that we would need to have doubled those reductions in 2021, tripled them in 2022, quadrupled them in 2023, and so on. This year they would need to be sextupled, and by 2030 increased 11-fold. So far, the world hasn’t even managed to start reducing global carbon emissions, which last year hit a new record.
Data from both the International Energy Agency and the US Energy Information Administration give added cause for skepticism. Both organizations foresee the world getting more energy from renewables: an increase from today’s 16 per cent to between one-quarter to one-third of all primary energy by 2050. But that is far from a transition. On an optimistically linear trend, this means we’re a century or two away from achieving 100 percent renewables.
Politicians like to blithely suggest the shift away from fossil fuels isn’t unprecedented, because in the past we transitioned from wood to coal, from coal to oil, and from oil to gas. The truth is, humanity hasn’t made a real energy transition even once. Coal didn’t replace wood but mostly added to global energy, just like oil and gas have added further additional energy. As in the past, solar and wind are now mostly adding to our global energy output, rather than replacing fossil fuels.
Indeed, it’s worth remembering that even after two centuries, humanity’s transition away from wood is not over. More than two billion mostly poor people still depend on wood for cooking and heating, and it still provides about 5 per cent of global energy.
Like Canada, the world remains fossil fuel-based, as it delivers more than four-fifths of energy. Over the last half century, our dependence has declined only slightly from 87 per cent to 82 per cent, but in absolute terms we have increased our fossil fuel use by more than 150 per cent. On the trajectory since 1971, we will reach zero fossil fuel use some nine centuries from now, and even the fastest period of recent decline from 2014 would see us taking over three centuries.
Global warming will create more problems than benefits, so achieving net-zero would see real benefits. Over the century, the average person would experience benefits worth $700 (CAD) each year.
But net zero policies will be much more expensive. The best academic estimates show that over the century, policies to achieve net zero would cost every person on Earth the equivalent of more than CAD $4,000 every year. Of course, most people in poor countries cannot afford anywhere near this. If the cost falls solely on the rich world, the price-tag adds up to almost $30,000 (CAD) per person, per year, over the century.
Every year over the 21st century, costs would vastly outweigh benefits, and global costs would exceed benefits by over CAD 32 trillion each year.
We would see much higher transport costs, higher electricity costs, higher heating and cooling costs and — as businesses would also have to pay for all this — drastic increases in the price of food and all other necessities. Just one example: net-zero targets would likely increase gas costs some two-to-four times even by 2030, costing consumers up to $US52.6 trillion. All that makes it a policy that just doesn’t make sense—for Canada and for the world.
2025 Federal Election
POLL: Canadians want spending cuts

By Gage Haubrich
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation released Leger polling showing Canadians want the federal government to cut spending and shrink the size and cost of the bureaucracy.
“The poll shows most Canadians want the federal government to cut spending,” said Gage Haubrich, CTF Prairie Director. “Canadians know they pay too much tax because the government wastes too much money.”
Between 2019 and 2024, federal government spending increased 26 per cent even after accounting for inflation. Leger asked Canadians what they think should happen to federal government spending in the next five years. Results of the poll show:
- 43 per cent say reduce spending
- 20 per cent say increase spending
- 16 per cent say maintain spending
- 20 per cent don’t know
The federal government added 108,000 bureaucrats and increased the cost of the bureaucracy 73 per cent since 2016. Leger asked Canadians what they think should happen to the size and cost of the federal bureaucracy. Results of the poll show:
- 53 per cent say reduce
- 24 per cent say maintain
- 4 per cent say increase
- 19 per cent don’t know
Liberal Leader Mark Carney promised to “balance the operating budget in three years.” Leger asked Canadians if they believed Carney’s promise to balance the budget. Results of the poll show:
- 58 per cent are skeptical
- 32 per cent are confident
- 10 per cent don’t know
“Any politician that wants to fix the budget and cut taxes will need to shrink the size and cost of Ottawa’s bloated bureaucracy,” Haubrich said. “The polls show Canadians want to put the federal government on a diet and they won’t trust promises about balancing the budget unless politicians present credible plans.”
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