Wente's article is not all wrong.  A key difference between a carbon tax and cap and trade is that the latter provides certainty about how much emissions will be reduced.  (If you don't think they need to be reduced that won't matter to you.)  
There is no reason that cap and trade revenues could not be offset by tax cuts elsewhere.  The fact that they aren't in Ontario's case is -if you feel the money is ill-used- a fair target for criticism. 
 If Ontario can buy a ton of GHG emission reduction at a lower cost by buying the reduction in Quebec or California than by cutting emissions at home, then we are better off sending the money out of the province -again won't matter to you if you think GHG cut is not needed.