Twenty chambers of commerce from communities across Ontario are calling for the provincial government to defer its cap and trade program.

Cap-and-trade systems impose a strict cap on the level of carbon pollution that can be generated with specific permits to issued companies specifying how much carbon they can burn.

Ontario’s cap and trade program is scheduled to begin January 1, 2017.

The 20 chambers across Ontario want to see the program reevaluated citing high costs of the program coupled with high hydro rates, and a potential change in policy direction in the United States.

“Businesses are already struggling under the weight of ever increasing costs and we are extremely concerned about the impacts of these additional charges on jobs and the economy,” says Matt Marchand, President & CEO of the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce in a release.

The chambers are requesting that the Government of Ontario delay the program at least a year.

Here is a list of chambers asking for the delay:

  • Ajax Pickering Chamber of Commerce
  • Burlington Chamber of Commerce
  • Chatham-Kent Chamber of Commerce
  • Greater Kitchener Waterloo
  • Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce
  • Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce
  • Hamilton Chamber of Commerce
  • Ingersoll Chamber of Commerce
  • Kingston Chamber of Commerce
  • London Chamber of Commerce
  • North Bay Chamber of Commerce
  • Northwestern Ontario Associated Chambers of Commerce
  • Newmarket Chamber of Commerce
  • Sault Ste Marie Chamber of Commerce
  • Sarnia Lambton Chamber of Commerce
  • St Thomas & District Chamber of Commerce
  • Thunder Bay Chamber of Commerce
  • Tillsonburg District Chamber of Commerce
  • Timmins Chamber of Commerce
  • Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce