Mike Schreiner

The two-part federal payment is part of a $2-billion plan announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday. Trudeau dodged questions about whether his government believes provincial plans are adequate.

Natural gas is a relatively small part of Ontario’s energy mix. But in the coming years, the Ford government plans to ramp up its use of gas plants.

The president of the company, Sun-Brite Foods, and his wife are also PC Party donors. The premier has faced criticism in the past for promoting businesses owned by supporters.

Environmental advocates say the move is a further weakening of a law protecting species at risk, which could harm threatened woodland caribou. The forestry industry, which has pushed for a permanent exemption, says logging operations already must meet rigorous sustainability standards.

"I’m concerned that the government could be using the COVID crisis to undermine environmental protections," Ontario Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner said in question period Wednesday. In response, Environment Minister Jeff Yurek accused Schreiner of "playing politics" and not supporting businesses.

The Green Party of Ontario's leader and only MPP is a bit like a feisty boxer punching above his weight. He gets jabs in while Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservative government lands punches left and right. Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party of Ontario, talks with National Observer at his Queen's Park office.

A Ministry of Environment spokesperson said cap and trade was "a poorly designed, hastily implemented and poorly executed" system.

On Thursday, the leader of the Ontario Greens is giving gas stations an alternative sticker that is free and reveals the costs of climate change to counter Ford's "tax-payer funded partisan stickers." Mike Schreiner's stickers display the fact that climate costs in Canada could reach as high as $91 billion per year by 2050.

Buried in Ontario's budget bill are fines of up to $10,000 per day for gas station operators who don't display government-mandated stickers about the price of the carbon tax.

From Kenora to Oxford to Ottawa and Toronto, members of the Progressive Conservative provincial government of Doug Ford posted photographs of themselves at gas stations warning drivers to fill up their tanks before a carbon tax kicks in. They failed to recognize federal rebates to taxpayers.

Mike Schreiner is making history Wednesday by introducing the Green Party of Ontario's first bill at Queen's Park — one that seeks to protect the Paris Galt Moraine that supplies drinking water to about 130,000 people in Guelph, and more than 200,000 in the region

Public outrage over Doug Ford's claim his Ontario government cut funding to student unions to fix "Marxist nonsense" is growing, with politicians and education unions decrying an expected hit to a broad range of services.

Premier Doug Ford ratcheted up his rhetoric on Ottawa's climate change plan on Monday, January 21, 2019, warning that the carbon tax will plunge the country into recession — a claim disputed by experts and the federal government.

Opposition politicians pounced on a call from Ontario’s interim top cop for an independent investigation into the executive hiring process at the force on Wednesday, as Premier Doug Ford ducked questions over his role in the appointment of a family friend as new commissioner.

Toronto reporter Fatima Syed explores what is changing in Ontario politics and shares five things you may not know about Ontario's first-ever Green MPP.