My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. This Monday is April Fool’s Day. Lots of jokes are going to be told, but none from the federal Liberals. They’re not joking about their 23% increase to the carbon tax on April 1. In fact, they’re very serious. It’s a cruel joke to Canadians.

In fact, they’re going to continue to hike the carbon tax each and every year, despite businesses and individuals calling on them to scrap it. It’s yet another Liberal tax grab, and our government continues to stand up against it. Instead of doing the same, Bonnie Crombie, the queen of the carbon tax and the provincial Liberals, haven’t said one single word to their federal colleagues.

We’re going to continue to stand up against this tax. I have a private member’s motion later today asking us to spike the hike. Minister, can you tell us how scrapping the carbon tax will affect the people that are powering our economy?

No.

Back to the minister: Bonnie Crombie has now flip-flopped and said that if she was Premier, she wouldn’t introduce a carbon tax. But she won’t even stand up and say one word to her federal colleagues in advance of their cruel joke they’re playing on Canadians on April 1.

The people of Ontario aren’t as gullible as she thinks. They also remember her close friends, her campaign team—what the Trudeau Liberals said in the 2019 election: that they had no intention of raising the carbon tax. I think we all know how that played out for Canadians.

The hard-working Ontarians, the hard-working businesses that are powering our economy have had enough of Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax. They want the tax scrapped.

Minister, can you explain how what we’re doing in Ontario by lowering costs and how that plays out for our economy?

I’ll remind the members to make their comments through the Chair.

To reply, the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.

The Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.

The Minister of Energy.

The next question.

The member for Ottawa South is speaking audibly, but I can’t hear him for some reason, and it could have something to do with the fact that the House is rather noisy at the moment. I would ask the House to come to order so that I can hear the member for Ottawa South.

Start the clock. Member for Ottawa South.

No carbon tax equals more money in the pockets of the people who have earned it, and that includes the more than 120,000 auto workers who have solidified our position as a global leader and a manufacturing powerhouse. It includes the 70,000 life science workers who are driving unprecedented medical innovations. It includes the 420,000 tech workers, a 100,000 more last year alone—or since we took office; 25,000 firms—they put Ontario’s tech sector on the map. The 85,000 AI workers, 20,000 last year alone—they’re all saying the same thing: Enough with the high taxes. Scrap the carbon tax.

Last year, 180,000 new jobs were created. We attracted $11 billion in new investments by keeping taxes low. From 2018 to 2023, Ontario created more jobs from foreign direct investment than any province in Canada and any US state. That’s because we keep taxes low.

I say to Bonnie Crombie, the queen of the carbon tax: Call your federal counterparts. Scrap the tax.

Speaker, to the Premier: This week, the Toronto Star reported that thousands of Ontarians are going to be out of pocket for energy conservation renovations because Enbridge will not honour its commitments. Without notice, applications worth many thousands of dollars were thrown away. Will you stand up and tell Enbridge they can’t mistreat Ontarians this way?

Will the government tell Enbridge that they have to correct this abuse of everyday people right now?

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker, let’s be clear: The member opposite would tomorrow eliminate natural gas from our province. Natural gas is currently providing home heating for over 70% of the homes in Ontario. And not only that, but natural gas is the insurance policy that we have to keep the lights on in the province of Ontario.

Now, we have many conservation programs that are available to the people of Ontario that are offered through different providers, like local distribution companies and, in particular, the Independent Electricity System Operator. We’ve put $1 billion into that CDM program, that energy-efficiency program, one that’s making life more affordable.

Let’s be clear: That member in particular supports a carbon tax, and not just a small carbon tax; he wants a carbon tax that’s even bigger than the one that Justin Trudeau is imposing on the people of Ontario next Monday. When it comes to affordability, it’s just not believable from the NDP.

As a matter of fact, the energy critic for the NDP was participating in a town hall saying that nuclear is dangerous to the health of people when it’s actually the reason that we’re off coal in Ontario, and they are a major producer of not just Canada’s but the world’s nuclear medicine through nuclear isotopes.

Anything the NDP says about energy is baloney.

My question is for the Premier. Never has an Ontario government spent so much, borrowed so much, incurred so much debt to accomplish so little.

Yesterday’s budget did nothing to address affordability for Ontario families. No relief for renters crushed by massive increases, and the Premier’s NIMBY—

Interjections.

This Premier’s NIMBY—I’ll take care of my friends first—approach is not making affordable housing a reality for any Ontario families, and, thanks to this Premier, every day, more and more Ontarians are having to pull out their credit card instead of their OHIP card to access basic primary care services.

My question is to the Premier: Why did he do nothing to address affordability in this budget for Ontario families?

Thank you for that question. When that member opposite and his party were in power for 15 years, deficit after deficit after deficit after—can I go on? Do we have time for 15 years of deficits?

What did we get? What did they build? Did they build hospitals?

They spent money, deficit after deficit, ramped up the debt, and we got squadoosh for that.

It’s this government that has a vision, under this Premier, to build Ontario. Those deficits will pass. We have a path to balance. But do you know what will be left? The legacy of building the infrastructure and the economy.

Yesterday’s budget’s meagre increase to health care in this province amounts to a cut. That has left the two million Ontarians without a family doctor without hope. They need access to primary care. Under this Premier, too many families are now having to face using their credit card instead of their OHIP card to access basic primary care services.

The Premier knows this is happening, and he’s just watching. By all accounts, that’s just fine with him. This Premier is really ready to point a finger but never able to lift one.

I’ll ask the Premier again: The Premier had an opportunity to actually take some measures to address the affordability crisis, so why didn’t he?

Interjections.

The supplementary question?

Interjections.

The Minister of Finance.

To reply, the Minister of Education.

Mr. Speaker, the Premier and I and our colleagues, the other day, stood forward in front of the people of Ontario. You know what we did? We continued the cut in the gas tax, providing benefits for drivers right across this province. Yet their party, supported by their leader, want to have the carbon tax in Ottawa increase next week by 23%.

Mr. Speaker, do you want to stand with us, cutting taxes and cutting fees, or do you want to stand with them, increasing taxes and increasing fees?

Let’s look at Ottawa. We’re investing. Which party is getting the Ottawa Civic Hospital built? Which party is building more schools in Ottawa? Which party is building more for the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario? Which party is building more highways in Ottawa? It’s this party. They didn’t get it done. We’re getting it done.

My question is for the Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Minister of Northern Development. The carbon tax is making everything more expensive for all Ontarians, but the people of northern Ontario are even more affected by the high cost of goods and travel because of this regressive tax.

Clearly, the federal Liberals do not care about the consequences the carbon tax has on northern communities as they plan to go ahead with their April 1 tax hike. The independent Liberals and their leader, the carbon tax queen, Bonnie Crombie, want to continue to burden the honest and hard-working people in our province with this disastrous tax. Unlike the opposition, our government is working for the people of Ontario.

Speaker, can the minister please tell the House how the carbon tax is hurting northern Ontario?

To make matters worse, the NDP and Liberal members in this House continue to support carbon tax hikes. They actually agree with the federal Liberals’ plan to increase the carbon tax on gasoline six more times by 2030. That is disgraceful.

The opposition may be fine with ignoring the impact that the carbon tax has on northern Ontario, but our government knows that it will only continue making life more difficult for residents. Enough is enough. It is time to scrap this tax.

Speaker, can the minister elaborate on the detrimental effects that the carbon tax is having on northern communities and businesses?

Je remercie le député de Brantford–Brant pour cette question opportune. C’est clair que Justin Trudeau et Bonnie Crombie rendent la vie trop chère, et c’est un cas d’urgence. La taxe carbone va augmenter de 23 % le 1^er avril.

La taxe carbone n’est pas un plan environnemental. Par contre, c’est une taxe qui augmente le coût de tout pour les familles et les entreprises. En contraste frappant, sous la direction du premier ministre Ford, notre gouvernement réduit les taxes et garde l’argent dans les poches des familles et des entreprises.

Nous essayons d’avancer l’une des plus importantes politiques écologiques, la stratégie pour les minéraux critiques, et de créer une chaîne d’approvisionnement entièrement intégrée aux batteries—that’s tough. De plus, nous faisons des investissements verts dans des projets comme le four à arc électrique, et à chaque étape de ce processus, il y a une taxe carbone au-dessus. Ça ne fait aucun sens, monsieur le Président. Il est temps de supprimer la taxe carbone.

Le Canada se classe maintenant 62^e sur 67 pays, en baisse de quatre places par rapport à l’année précédente selon l’indice de performance du changement climatique. C’est parce que la taxe carbone n’est pas un plan environnemental; c’est un plan fiscal.

Le premier ministre Ford fait partie des sept premiers ministres provinciaux qui dénoncent la hausse de la taxe carbone. Les premiers ministres ne sont pas les seuls à s’opposer à cette taxe carbone : un récent sondage Léger commandé par la Fédération canadienne des contribuables a révélé que sept Canadiens sur 10 sont maintenant contre la taxe carbone. Alors, il est clair, monsieur le Président, que Justin Trudeau et Bonnie Crombie sont déconnectés de la réalité.

La population de l’Ontario a parlé. Il est temps de supprimer la taxe carbone.

If you’re a parent looking for affordable child care in Ontario, yesterday’s budget from this Conservative government isn’t for you. At a time when child care operators are warning of closure, workers are leaving the sector in droves and parents are seeing hundreds of dollars more in the cost of their child care because operators had to withdraw from the program, this government didn’t even mention the words “child care,” beyond a footnote.

My question to the Premier: Parents are waiting for affordable child care. Why did your budget ignore them?

Why is this Conservative government failing our students and schools?

What’s also not in the budget is the carbon tax, which is something we are standing up against every single day because members opposite seem to trivialize affordability for working parents of this province. We will not increase the costs of groceries, of baby goods, of fuel, and punish people who go to work or drop off their kids at the local school or child care centre.

But talking about child care, it was a Progressive Conservative government, not ironically, that actually slashed child care fees by 50%, saving an average family in this province $6,000 to $10,000 a year. That is meaningful when it comes to delivering affordability for working people. We’re building 19,000 spaces in Toronto, 86,000 across this province.

We know there’s more work to do. We’re working with an imperfect system from the federal government, but we stood up to this Liberal Prime Minister for a better deal for the people we represent. Join us. Fight for more affordable child care for Ontario families.

We’re hiring 3,000 more teachers, 7,500 more education workers. Part of this budget is an increase in funding to combat issues of insecurity in our schools, an additional investment to improve math, the hiring of 800 specialized literacy educators to boost the fundamental skills that we know matter to the course and success of a child.

Speaker, this budget invests in our kids. It invests in better futures. It invests in better jobs and bigger paycheques. We’ll always ensure our children have a better education that leads them to better jobs in this province.

Thanks to the great member for the question. I’d love to tell the House how we’re keeping costs down for Ontarians, and our finance minister has done a great job of doing that today as well.

But we know that the carbon tax is everywhere. It’s everywhere. It’s in the bush. When people want to go hunting and they want to get on their ATV, they’ve had to pay carbon tax on the fuel for that ATV. They’ve had to pay carbon tax in the truck to get out and enjoy the great outdoors, carbon tax in the generator for the camp. Mr. Speaker, it is never-ending. It’s impacting our traditional ways of life, just trying to go and enjoy hunting, enjoy fishing.

Well, there’s someone being hunted, all right. It’s the wallets of every Ontarian, by the Liberals and the NDP, by the carbon tax. And I’ll tell you what, it’s in the sights, and on April 1, the kill shot is going to happen and it’s going to take all the money in all the wallets, because they won’t rest. They won’t rest. They want to take all that money for carbon tax and take away our traditions, our ways of life in the north that we respect. This government—

There aren’t other options for people in the north. They need their vehicles to take people to school every day. They need their vehicles to get to the grocery store. They need their vehicles to get to work. It’s their only option. It’s why our government cut the gas tax and has extended that cut. It’s because we respect Ontarians. Our government is fighting back against the failed Liberal plan to make life unaffordable in northern Ontario. We need to scrap that tax. April 1 is almost here—

We’re supporting our forest firefighters and forest rangers by making sure that we are recruiting enough, having more crews, making sure that more people want to come into this profession. We’ve got great, skilled, knowledgeable people that are there today and more people on the way, again, all in an effort to keep communities safe in Ontario.

Mr. Speaker, we are remorseless in our efforts to make sure that Ontarians remain safe. Whether it’s in the north, in the east, in the south, we’ll make sure that our forest rangers and everyone through AFFES has the equipment and opportunities they need to make sure we get the job done.

It is an opportunity for more people to become forest fire rangers in Ontario. It is an opportunity to show those who are in the system that we respect the fact that they have knowledge that they want to share with others. It is an opportunity to make sure that everybody throughout AFFES is receiving compensation this year that recognizes the efforts that they go through all the time.

Mr. Speaker, the door is always open to speak with our great forest fire rangers, and we do that, and we listen. The opposition knows that. We will continue to do what is right for Ontarians, what is right for forest fire rangers in this province, which is to listen to them, work with them and make sure that Ontarians remain safe every single day.

My question is for the Associate Minister of Small Business. The federal government’s punitive carbon tax is making it harder for Ontario’s small businesses to survive and thrive. The job-killing tax increases the cost on everything from heating to electricity to transportation and raw materials.

Speaker, small businesses in our province are already struggling with high inflation, supply chain issues and labour shortages. The last thing we need right now is more financial burden from the federal Liberals. Our government stands squarely behind Ontario’s hard-working small business owners. We will continue to be the voice for their interest and call for an end to this carbon tax.

Speaker, can the associate minister please tell the House how this harmful tax adversely impacts small businesses in our province?

Thank you to the member from Newmarket–Aurora for raising such a critically important issue facing small businesses across our province. I have been hearing directly from entrepreneurs and job creators about the severe negative impacts the federal government’s punitive carbon tax is having on their operations and their bottom line.

The message is loud and clear: The carbon tax is an unbearable cost that is crippling small businesses and making it harder for them to survive. Many small businesses are already stressed by high inflation and supply chain disruptions.

And let’s not forget, Speaker, that Ontario’s small businesses employ well over two million people, so when they suffer, it’s the hard-working people of Ontario who pay the price through job losses and fewer local services.

Speaker, will the opposition Liberals and NDP join us in calling on Ottawa to scrap the tax, or will they continue to ignore the small businesses in their ridings and across our province?

To the Premier: Dans le budget que votre gouvernement a déposé hier, on remarque qu’alors que le budget pour lutter contre les feux de forêt était de 216 millions de dollars cette année, il va baisser à 135 millions de dollars en 2024-2025. C’est une diminution de 81 millions de dollars.

Monsieur le Premier Ministre, alors que nous faisons face à une crise de dotation de pompiers forestiers, comment justifiez-vous cette baisse de 37,5 % du budget pour combattre les feux de forêt?