Ontario to scrap legal requirement to set and update climate target

TORONTO — The Ontario government says it wants to scrap parts of a law requiring it to set and update its emission reductions targets, wiping out legislation that’s been key to a youth-led constitutional challenge of its climate plan.

The government’s plan to repeal parts of the 2018 Cap and Trade Cancellation Act is buried in today’s fall economic statement.

The government says it will repeal the sections requiring the province to establish emissions reductions targets, prepare a climate plan and issue progress reports.

The law has been critical in a youth-led court challenge arguing the government’s plan is so insufficient that it endangers the lives of Ontario’s young people.

Ontario’s highest court found the law imposed a responsibility on the province to fight climate change, so it must do so in a way that complies with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

A written response from a spokesperson for the environment minister did not directly address questions about why the government was making the change, and instead cited the province’s recent investments in transit expansion, energy efficiency and nuclear power.

“We will continue to make these critical investments that will help grow our economy and protect the environment,” said Alexandru Cioban, press secretary for Minister Todd McCarthy.

The youth-led climate case is set to go back before a judge next month.

An auditor general’s report earlier this month found Premier Doug Ford’s government was missing its emissions targets by an even wider margin than it had earlier admitted.

It also found the government was failing to meet basic requirements to prepare a plan and publicly report on its progress.

The environment minister had not released a new report since 2021, and a 2022 update posted on the government website just repeated the previous year’s information, the auditor found.

In the aftermath of the auditor general’s report, Environment Minister Todd McCarthy said targets were not as important as results. The province, he said, was “continuing to meet our commitment to least try to meet our commitment for the 2030 target.”

Under then-newly elected Premier Ford, Ontario enacted the 2018 law scrapping the cap-and-trade system and revised down its emissions targets.

A group of young people brought a constitutional challenge of Ontario’s plan along with evidence suggesting the revised target could allow for 30 additional megatonnes of CO2 emissions, or the equivalent of about seven million more gas-powered cars on the road, every year from 2018 to 2030.

The Ontario Superior Court agreed that the gap between how much emissions needed to be cut globally and what the provincial plan called for was “large, unexplained and without an apparent scientific basis.”

But the justice ultimately ruled the young people were trying to impose a “free-standing” obligation on the government to fight climate change.

Then, last year, the Court of Appeal for Ontario revived the case in a major victory for the young people.

The court found Ontario had, in the 2018 law, imposed upon itself an obligation to fight climate change and a judge must therefore decide whether its emissions target complies with the Charter.

The case was sent back to a lower court judge. Fresh hearings are scheduled to take place in early December.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2025.

Jordan Omstead, The Canadian Press