SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
March 6, 2024 09:00AM
  • Mar/6/24 11:10:00 a.m.

Mr. Speaker, once again, we know what this is all about: It’s about their campaign to stop Highway 413, and we will not listen to them. The people of this province elected us to build Highway 413. In fact, they lost three members for being on the wrong side of that.

Everything that this government has done under the leadership of Premier Ford has put more money back into hard-working families of this province, whether it’s 10 cents a litre on the gas tax; whether it’s removing tolls on the 412 or 418, which that member voted against when this Premier put that forward; or whether it’s removing $125 val-tag fees from each car or truck that an individual owns in this province.

And on top of that, we are fighting against the 23% increase of the carbon tax that’s coming on April 1. I hope that member also raises her voice to the federal members that she knows and her counterparts to make sure that we keep more money in the pockets of hard-working families in Ontario.

My message to both the Liberals and the NDP is: Get out of the bubble. Come to cities like Brampton. Come to cities like Mississauga. Travel the streets and roads all across this province, whether they’re in northern Ontario, southern Ontario, and listen to the drivers. We need to build more infrastructure. We need to build the Bradford Bypass. We need to build Highway 413, and as we do that, we’re going to continue to fight against punishing policies like the carbon tax, which is about to go up by 23% on April 1.

We will continue to fight for hard-working families in this province and put more money back into their pockets.

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  • Mar/6/24 11:40:00 a.m.

Thank you to the member for Ajax for that question. We know that the federal environment minister is completely out of touch with the realities of Canadians and especially Ontarians. We have called on him—I have personally called on him—to come drive on the 427, the 401, the 410 to see for himself the challenges our truckers and drivers are having across this province. But Minister Guilbeault spends more time flying around the world in airplanes, trying to meet with elites across the world, rather than meeting with truckers that are driving every single day on our roads across this province to put food on the shelves, to put groceries on shelves across this province.

They shouldn’t have to worry about the rise in the cost of gas as they do their job. I’ve stated in the House before that $15,000 to $20,000 are the current costs on a long-haul trucker in this province with the current carbon tax today. That’s about to go up by 23% on April 1, and I hope the members opposite join us in calling on the federal government to stop the carbon tax.

As this government has committed to putting more money back into the pockets of families across this province, the federal carbon tax will increase by 23%. That is unacceptable. We’re always looking at ways to make sure we put more money back in your pockets, whether it’s by reducing the gas tax by 10 cents, whether it’s making sure we eliminate the val tag, a $120 savings for a car or truck for families across this province.

We’re going to continue to urge both the Liberals and NDP to call on their federal counterparts and stop the carbon tax on April 1.

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