On May 27, 2009, the Government of Ontario introduced
legislation to enable the creation of a "cap-and-trade"
system in the province. If passed, Bill 185 - the full name of
which is the Environmental Protection Amendment Act (Greenhouse
Gas Emissions Trading), 2009 - would amend existing
legislation to establish a system with hard caps on the absolute
level of permitted emissions. This is expected to help the province
meet its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 6%
below 1990 levels by 2015 and 15% by 2020.
In developing Bill 185, the Government has consulted with
environmental groups, as well as with nine industrial sectors
expected to be involved in cap-and-trade that collectively
represent approximately 40% of Ontario's total 2007
emissions1. While the Bill sketches the broad outlines
of the province's commitment to cap-and-trade as a strategy in
the fight against climate change, much of the detail of the
province's plan is still to be worked
