Carbon pricing on the campaign trail'We're having a debate on whether we should do anything at all'

LockerbyTaxi in Sudbury bought into cap and trade in a big way.

Co-owner KenFlinnsaysthe plan was to convert taxis to run on compressed natural gas, which would cut down on the company'sgasoline bill and maybe give it some carbon credits to sell down the road.

"That was the light at the end of the tunnel," says Flinn.

But the plan has changed.

Flinnsays it's hard to find mid and full-sized sedans that could fit a natural gas tank, so insteadhe might convert some of his buses, but now doesn't care about cap and trade one way or the other.

"No, I have no problems if the PCs were in and scrapped it," Flinn says.

The provincial election became a referendum on carbon pricing when the Progressive Conservatives traded leaders.

Patrick Brown was promising to bring in a carbon tax, which directly adds to the cost of products that pollute, to replace the Liberal cap and trade system.

New PC leader Doug Ford also wants to get rid of cap and trade, where companies that go over a set cap on carbon emissions have to buy or trade credits.

He's pledging to fight climate change in other ways, but the party hasn't provided many specifics on how it would do that.

"We're not really having a debate on what the right carbon price is, we're having a debate on whether we should do anything at all," says economist Brady Yauch, the executive director of the Consumer Policy Institute.

Yauchsays some will argue that Ontario has already done a lot to reduce emissions and should let the rest of the world "catch up" instead of increasing the cost of gasoline and home heating through cap and trade.

"But has it been significant enough to significantly alter people's behaviour?I don't think we've reached that point yet," he says.

Cathy Orlando, the Sudbury-based international outreach manager for the Citizens Climate Lobby, says she was looking forward to "an adult" discussion during the election about how best to price carbon, but instead has spent the campaign trying to inform voters about what the parties are promising when it comes to climate change.

"It's OK to argue about how to do it better, but it's not OK to say no and not offer an alternative. That is so 19th century," she says.

David Pearson, who teaches in the school of the environment at Laurentian University, has been disappointed to hear the debate during the election campaign focus only on economics and the impact to consumers.

"I think making it an issue of the price of gasoline at the pumps and therefore how much money you have in your pocket when you drive away from a gas stationis disrespecting the public," he says.

"I think it trivializes the issue. It makes it into an emotional issue which doesn't relate to the real, long-term consequences."