For many years the Ontario government has been among the environmental leaders in Canada.  With a provincial election coming in October Gallon Letter will be monitoring the election promises of all four main parties (OK – we recognize that the Green Party may not be a ‘main’ party in Ontario but we will be interested in their platform as well). First out of the gate was the Progressive Conservative Party, currently the official opposition, which released its election platform yesterday. The platform contains little detail on how a PC government would fulfill its environmental commitments.

The PC platform for the environment opens with some generalities, including a commitment to make enhancing and protecting the environment one of the top four priorities, but barely moves to any specifics:

– closure of coal fired power plants by 2014 and use of the sites for biomass and natural gas power generation.

– protect all programs that protect water quality.

– improve provincial parks with a new investment of $10 million.

– offer fair and reasonable incentives to encourage protection of environmentally sensitive land.

– take steps to make government buildings more energy efficient.

– work with others to ensure Ontario is doing its part to combat climate change.

– eliminate eco taxes on everyday items like lightbulbs and batteries, ipods and laptops.

The PC platform is available at http://www.ontariopc.com/news-releases/changebook/