Well, you did your hair this morning.

Speaker, as someone who’s had a pound or two of chicken wings over the years, I’d like to welcome Prince Edward county chicken farmer Jeremy Prinzen—all the way from the county this morning—to Queen’s Park.

Once again, the member opposite is correct. The Bank of Canada has confirmed that Canadians are paying more for carbon tax and they’re worse off because of the carbon tax than they were prior to its arrival here in Canada and in Ontario. The federal government has admitted so because of what the member opposite mentioned: They’ve realized that it’s costing Atlantic Canadians more, so they’ve carved out home heating fuel in Atlantic Canada, but they’ve left those who heat here in Ontario and the rest of Canada holding the bag with higher costs of living, Mr. Speaker.

The Liberals are fully aware that the carbon tax is costing Canadians more, so why won’t they do the right thing, Mr. Speaker? Why won’t they do what the member opposite is suggesting, make it cheaper for everybody across Canada to heat their homes this winter?

I wonder: This party is down to a handful of members; when are they finally going to come to the realization that it’s their job to stand up for Ontario families like this party is doing—

Interjections.

Speaker, this seems like something that everyone in this House should be able to agree on. Especially with winter on our doorstep, everybody should be able to agree that the carbon tax needs to take a pause for a while. But if they can’t agree on that, I think everybody here should be able to agree that affordability is an issue right now, and it’s not because of anything that this government has done.

We brought forward so many different levers to make life more affordable for the people of Ontario, including removing the HST off of home heating bills. That was a motion that was brought forward last week, and I was really happy that our government House leader brought forward that motion to ask that the harmonized sales tax be removed from home heating for all Ontarians. It’s something that everybody should be able to get by—especially at this time of year.

I commend our government for standing up for the people of Ontario. Why won’t the opposition Liberals do the same?

These Liberals are all about playing politics while our government is doing everything that we can to make sure that life is more affordable for the people of Ontario. That includes the government House leader’s motion to remove the harmonized sales tax from home heating fuel for all Ontarians.

Thanks to the member for Peterborough–Kawartha for the question this morning. It’s an important one, and he’s right: This is what people are talking about on the streets in our communities with the affordability crisis that is going on right now, where people are having to choose between heating and eating in some cases.

While we have put lots of different affordability measures in the window, it’s unfortunate that the opposition Liberals here in Ontario continue to support their federal cousins in imposing a carbon tax, which, according to the Bank of Canada and according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, is driving up the cost of everything.

I’m not going to say exactly which member it was earlier who, when I was answering a question about the carbon tax, indicated that we care more about bicycles in Ontario and riding bicycles than we do about driving. There are a lot of people outside of this city who drive vehicles and it is costing them more and more to drive vehicles. If this Ontario Liberal Party isn’t careful, they’re not going to be the minibus party or the minivan party; they’re going to be the bicycle built for two.

We are putting all of these measures on the table, Mr. Speaker.

The NDP’s plan to give heat pumps to everybody is uncosted; they said it would cost less than $1 billion. It’s that kind of half-baked policy that is going to result in massive, massive over-expenditures. If we were to give everybody who’s on natural gas or home heating or propane in the province a free heat pump, our back-of-the-napkin math would be somewhere in the neighbourhood of $16 billion.

You can’t afford the NDP. And the Liberals won’t stand up for the people of Ontario.