Thank you to the member from Newmarket–Aurora for the question. She’s a great, great member.

We know that this carbon tax is about to go up a staggering 23% on April 1. That’s just next week, just a few days away. We know the provincial Liberals support this hike.

The Ontario Liberals, ruled by the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, refuse to call on the federal Liberals to get rid of the punitive carbon tax. In fact, if Bonnie Crombie is the queen, that makes the independent Liberals the princes and the princesses of the carbon tax. We’ve got carbon tax nobility in our midst.

To the great communities in rural Ontario: Don’t worry. Our government is saying yes to rural Ontario, keeping energy costs down. We’re cutting the gas tax, investing in northern Ontario through our biomass program—$60 million going to strengthen the forestry sector and create jobs in the north. Our government will continue to build and support rural communities across Ontario.

It’s clear from the carbon tax that the Liberals across the way just don’t want anything to be built in Ontario. It just shocks me how completely out of touch the members opposite are to think that a 23% increase in the carbon tax is acceptable and a way to build Ontario.

But it’s no surprise that the Liberals and the NDP aren’t listening to the people. Why expect them to start now? The people have been talking about the carbon tax for years, and the members opposite have done absolutely nothing about it.

But we’re doing something about it. We’re extending the removal of the gas tax—14 cents on every litre, ensuring that resources can move across Ontario to get houses, roads, transit lines built for Ontarians.

We’re building the province at a rate the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, and her Liberals could never imagine. We’ll continue to do that and continue to support Ontarians and the building of this great province every step of the way, despite the carbon tax.

What astounds me is, we’re talking about the budget in this House, and the member opposite can’t even accurately read the budget—can’t tell the difference between budgeted amounts and actuals.

Here’s the story: In 2018, the budget was $69.8 million; in 2024, it’s $135 million. And that’s just to start.

We bring more resources to bear than any government in the history of this province to fight forest fires, continually making investments to improve the situation in this province for communities, for infrastructure, for individuals. And we will continue to do that.

I’ll take absolutely no lessons from the member opposite on how to either (a) read a budget or (b) fight forest fires in Ontario.

We’ve also made other investments—$20.5 million—to improve how we fight wildland forest fires, investing in new aerial fire suppression technologies; investing in science and risk assessment, including into collaborative research with universities; building capacity to support Indigenous wildland fire management.

Mr. Speaker, the Liberals can ignore what we’ve done all they want, but I’ll tell you, we are right up on top of it for the people of Ontario, and that’s what counts.

I’d like to ask the minister: We had 15 years of a previous government that ignored northern Ontario; referred to it as a “no man’s land”; did not respect, I think, the opportunities that were available to all Ontarians by working with northern Ontario to really develop opportunities and grow our economy.

You’ve talked a lot about the mining sector today and how we can do that. I’d like you to elaborate on that: on how the investments of this government and what this government is doing in the budget are really going to assist northern Ontario and drive mining forward, and how they’re going to help integrate the northern economy into success for all Ontarians.