Toronto / Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat, December 2, 2025: Today a coalition including groups representing youth, seniors and doctors gather at Queen’s Park to present Premier Doug Ford with an Award for Climate Betrayal. The move comes days after the Ontario government cancelled its climate accountability plans and targets.

Members of the Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign including Seniors for Climate Action Now!, CAPE-Ontario, Grandmothers Act to Save the Planet, along with Chloe Tse from the youth initiative Change Course, gather for the press conference and symbolic awards ceremony. The Ford government eliminated its requirements to set climate plans and targets via amendments to the 2018 Cap and Trade Act in Schedule 1 of Bill 68, which passed last week. The groups say this action endangers the health of Ontarians and the lives and livelihoods of future generations and cannot go unremarked.

“Premier Ford has broken another promise. Instead of protecting us from the high costs and risks of severe weather he hit the ‘delete’ key and cancelled Ontario’s climate plan,” said David Robertson, Chair of the Ontario Project for Seniors for Climate Action Now!

“The Ontario government is choosing a future where extreme heat turns apartments into deadly saunas, where wildfire smoke chokes our children, and where flooding destroys our homes. To avoid that future, we need clear and ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gases. Our province’s now-abandoned climate plan not only protected our environment, it protected communities and families. It protected the patients I see every day,” said Dr. Sehjal Bhargava, President-Elect of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) and Co-Chair of CAPE Ontario.

“The Ontario government’s response to the climate crisis under Bill 68 will negatively affect the quality of life for all grandchildren. It abdicates its responsibilities to our young and betrays their right to a livable future,” said Victoria Creese, GASP (Grandmothers Act to Save the Planet).

“The Ford government is continuing down a disastrous path of locking us into fossil fuel use and things feel less secure than ever, especially for young people in this province. Youth in Ontario deserve better than the climate chaos that Ford signed us up for,” said Chloe Tse, Decent Work Organizer, Change Course.

“We are calling for the introduction of a forward-looking climate plan with ambitious targets to protect Ontarians today and for generations to come,” said Lyn Adamson, Co-Chair, Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign (OCEC), while unveiling the award certificate.

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Contact:

Lyn Adamson, 416-731-6605, ocec.chair@gmail.com

David Robertson, 416-219-5257, dwsr@rogers.com

Dr. Sehjal Bhagava / CAPE media contact,  647-762-9168, media@cape.ca

Français: Rita Bijons, 416-766-6331 (leave a message – or meet at press conference)