Recognizing the critical environmental and economic challenge of climate change that is facing the global community, the purpose of this Act is to create a regulatory scheme, a) to reduce greenhouse gas in order to respond to climate change, to protect the environment and to assist Ontarians to transition to a low-carbon economy; and b) to enable Ontario to collaborate and coordinate its actions with similar actions in other jurisdictions in order to ensure the efficacy of its regulatory scheme in the context of a broader international effort to respond to climate change. Section 3 specifies that for greater certainty, nothing in this Act shall be construed so as to abrogate or derogate from the protection provided for the existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada as recognized and affirmed in section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982. The text consisting of 79 sections deals with the following issues: Interpretation, greenhouse gas, the Cap and Trade Programme, Cap and trade accounts and transactions, Emission allowances and credits, verification, inspection and investigation, enforcement, administration, general.
Climate Change Mitigation and Low-Carbon Economy Act, 2016 (S.O. 2016, c. 7).