• Leaked documents reveal Wynne plans to spend over $7 billion over four years

• Changes include phasing out all natural gas home heating, more electric vehicle incentives, and a slew of grants and subsidies

TORONTO, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is slamming the Wynne government’s plan for $7 billion in spending and a slew new regulations related to home heating and fuel transportation, among other things.

Leaked Cabinet documents reveal $3.8 billion earmarked to retrofit buildings currently using natural gas for heating to electric or geothermal. Proposed new building codes would ban all natural gas heating in homes and small buildings by 2030. Natural gas currently provides 76 per cent of heating in the province.

The documents also reveal a further $285 million in incentives for electric vehicles. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation had previously revealed that the electric vehicle incentive program saw subsidies going to luxury cars.

“Most Ontarians aren’t millionaires. They work hard to put food on their tables, put gas in their cars, and heat their homes. The last thing Ontario taxpayers need is to use Wynne’s badly managed and expensive electricity system for home heating,” said CTF Ontario Director, Christine Van Geyn.

The leaked documents also reveal that the money for Wynne’s scheme will come from her carbon tax, which is expected to be approved by the legislature this week. The carbon tax would set limits on emissions and force businesses to buy credits in order to continue production. Similar schemes in other countries have forced up the prices of all manufactured goods and fuels, and the 2016 Ontario budget slated gasoline prices to rise $4.3 cents a litre under the plan.

“Premier Wynne and her Cabinet aren’t fooling anyone with this carbon tax and spend scheme,” continued Van Geyn.  “This $7 billion won’t grow on trees. It’s going to be squeezed out of every Ontario family who fuels up their car, who can’t afford a luxury Tesla, or who buys manufactured goods. The great irony is that once she’s wrung this money out of us through her carbon tax, Wynne is going to spend it on a scheme that makes other parts of our lives more expensive, like mandating we buy expensive electric heat. This madness needs to stop.”