The Government of Ontario’s Capital Markets Modernization Taskforce (the Taskforce), launched in February 2020, today released its list of 74 recommendations to modernize Ontario’s capital markets regulation. The Taskforce recommends expanding the mandate of the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) to include fostering capital formation and competition in the markets and changing the name of the OSC to the Ontario Capital Markets Authority.
On November 12, 2020, Justice Carole Brown of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice dismissed a motion by the Attorney General of Ontario to strike out the Notice of Application in Mathur et. al. v. Her Majesty in Right of Ontario (the Application). The applicants, seven Ontario youths (the Applicants), are seeking to hold the Government of Ontario accountable for the Cap and Trade Cancellation Act, 2018 on the primary basis that it violates sections 7 and 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (the Charter). Ontario brought a motion to strike out the case arguing that (i) the Application is not justiciable; (ii) the Application is based on unprovable speculations about the future climate consequences of the 2030 target; (iii) there is no positive constitutional obligation on Ontario to prevent harms associated with climate change; and (iv) the Applicants have no standing to seek remedies for “future generations”. Justice Brown rejected all arguments made by Ontario, finding that the 2030 target and related plan are reviewable by the courts for purposes of a Charter analysis. Justice Brown further determined that many of the claims made by the Applicants, with respect to climate change, are capable of proof and that the Applicants should be provided the opportunity to adduce evidence to demonstrate the validity of their claims. A brief overview of Justice Brown’s main findings follows: On the question of justiciability, Justice Brown differentiated this case from the recent Federal Court of Canada decision in La Rose v. Canada, which found that another youth-led challenge to federal inaction on climate change was not justiciable. In differentiating the two claims, Justice Brown noted that the Application challenged specific government action and legislation unlike the claim in La Rose v. Canada. Moreover, Justice Brown determined that the…
The Government of Ontario has released O. Reg. 241/19 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Performance Standards (the Regulation), which came into effect on July 4, 2019 following an unexpected process surrounding the release of the Regulation. The Province published a regulatory proposal for industrial emission performance standards (EPS) in February 2019. Compliance. The first compliance period under the Regulation would begin on January 1 in the year in which Ontario is removed from the list of provinces to which the federal Output-Based Pricing System applies. The Regulation provides that: Compliance instruments include excess emissions units (EEUs) and emissions performance units (EPUs), each of which are subject to eligibility requirements if they are used to satisfy a facility’s compliance obligation. EEUs must be distributed to facilities beginning in the first year after the first compliance period. The cost of each EEU is set at $20 in 2020, $30 in 2021, $40 in 2022, and $50 in 2023. EPUs must be distributed in the year after a compliance period to facilities for which the verified total annual emissions limit for the compliance period is more than the verified verification amount for the compliance period (unless the Historical Facility Emissions Limit Standard is used). EPUs expire after five years. Eligible compliance instruments must generally be removed from a facility’s account at the end of a compliance period, with EEUs to be removed before any EPUs are removed. EPUs may be transferred between facilities’ accounts by agreement if notice is provided. Registration. The Regulation further provides for mandatory registration of facilities that report or have reported emissions of at least 50,000 tonnes of CO2e per year under current or prior regulations. Voluntary registration may be available for facilities that report or have reported emissions of at least 10,000 and less than 50,000 tonnes of CO2e per…
