Poll suggests Ontarians not warming to carbon-pricing scheme

A new poll suggests the government’s carbon-pricing scheme to fight climate change has offset the positive impact‎ of giving free college and university tuition to low-income students.

Thestar.com
March 2, 2016
By Robert Benzie

This probably wasn’t the carbon offset Premier Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals had in mind when they crafted the provincial budget.

A new poll suggests the government’s carbon-pricing scheme to fight climate change has offset the positive impact of giving free college and university tuition to low-income students.

The Forum Research survey found 58 per cent of respondents said Finance Minister Charles Sousa’s spending plan Thursday was “not a good budget for Ontario” while 19 per cent felt it was and 23 per cent weren’t sure.

“Cap and trade is just seen as a gas tax,” Forum president Lorne Bozinoff said Tuesday, referring to the new system designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

In the budget, the government announced gasoline will jump by 4.3 cents a litre next year and natural gas prices will rise by about $5 a month for the average homeowner.

That’s part of a cap-and-trade regime - being done in conjunction with Quebec and California - that forces businesses and consumers to cut carbon emissions by increasing fossil fuel costs.

But 68 per cent of people disapprove of the higher prices while 22 per cent approved and 10 per cent weren’t sure.

Asked specifically about the cap-and-trade system, 59 per cent disapproved with 27 per cent approving and 14 per cent not having an opinion.

However, when informed that about $2 billion in proceeds from the carbon-pricing plan would support greenhouse gas reduction, 46 per cent approved of the idea while 42 per cent disapproved and 12 per cent didn’t know.

Using interactive voice-response phone calls, Forum surveyed 1,148 people across Ontario from Friday through Monday. The results are considered accurate to within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Forum houses its poll results at the data library of the University of Toronto’s department of political science.

Still, Bozinoff said Ontarians are so cool to the measure designed to curb global warming that it appears to have undermined the good news in the budget.

He noted that overall impressions of the budget are negative even though 57 per cent of people like the idea of free university and college for students from families with a household income of $50,000 or less.

About one-third - 36 per cent - disapproved while 7 per cent had no opinion.

Bozinoff said respondents were accepting of the budget’s increases on tobacco and alcohol - $3 per carton of 200 cigarettes and 10 cents a bottle of wine.

Almost two-thirds - 64 per cent - approved of the hikes while 30 per cent disapproved and 6 per cent didn’t know.

“Attitudes are changing. Tobacco is just plain bad,” he said, adding the Ontario government’s liberalization of beer and wine sales in supermarkets likely mitigated any fallout from booze tax changes.

With an election more than two years away, the governing Liberals have 27 per cent support - well behind the Progressive Conservatives at 44 per cent. The New Democrats are at 22 per cent and the Greens at 6 per cent.

In terms of personal approval rating, Wynne was at 20 per cent, Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown was at 30 per cent, and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath was at 38 per cent.