I want to thank the member for Chatham-Kent–Leamington for his speech. I know his community is home to—it was formerly Union Gas, then Enbridge. So, back 10 years ago, plus or minus, under the Green Energy Act, we saw these proposals to be rid of natural gas in the province of Ontario, which would have had a devastating impact on Chatham-Kent.

What I’m hearing today from some of the arguments is that the opposition seems to be saying they want to force Ontarians to move away from natural gas entirely. Can the member speak to whether that’s a smart approach for his community and across Ontario for Ontario’s energy system, and the impacts that this sort of ideological approach might have on your community?

Well, there’s gas that could be trapped in this House, I would say. Some carbon capture could happen here in this House.

I’ve already shared that we need to decarbonize, and absolutely, we need to have a stable energy system. It’s not easy. People rely on it in their homes, and industrial users rely on it.

This bill sets us back on our ability to decarbonize, because Bill 165 gives an incentive for developers to install new gas connections. Why? Because it requires no cost on their part.

So let’s be clear: Bill 165 prevents a levelling of the playing field on upfront connections between gas and electricity consumers. Let’s also be clear that the OEB said, “We don’t think it’s fair for consumers to pay.” Enbridge said, “Well, I don’t want to pay.” And the developers said, “I don’t want to pay”—

Thank you to the member from Carleton for her presentation. I know you mentioned the importance for rural areas—of getting gas infrastructure there and getting the supply to those communities so that they can have natural gas. I know how important natural gas is as an energy source in rural communities as well. I just wonder if you could tell us, for your riding, is this an important addition to make sure we have the natural gas infrastructure to build new homes?

Such a pleasure to listen to a member of the NDP who actually understands that there is a need for natural gas, because not everyone over there—and I didn’t hear all your remarks; I apologize. But I did hear some of them. Sometimes I wonder how this member continues to exist in the NDP caucus, because he thinks a lot like us at times.

But seriously, we are going back and putting a natural gas policy statement in the window for the Ontario Energy Board, which should clearly understand our mandate, and that is to continue the type of growth and prosperity that our province is seeing. I think this member actually does understand that in order for us to continue to see the massive investments in our province, we have to have a reliable, stable, affordable grid, and that includes natural gas and nuclear. But I’ll let him expand on that, if he would.

I want to thank the member opposite for his question. I’ve got the OEB’s report on the natural gas expansion program here on my computer, and it shows that Charlton and Dack, Harley, Latchford and Timiskaming, Kincardine, Larder Lake, Virginiatown and Kerns have all asked for natural gas expansion in their communities. So I guess I’d like to ask you if—you’re certainly saying it today—you wish to stop your constituents from heating their homes with natural gas even though they are asking for it.

Now, fast-forward to today, when a headline in the Windsor Star from—this is going back a bit, to March 25, 2014: “900 Riverside Families Jolted by Huge Electric Bills.” They were reporting costs of over a thousand dollars a month because of electric heating. The decision to not put natural gas connections into that neighbourhood was fatal for the affordability of this neighbourhood, even though the express intent was to have an affordable community.

I could talk about this situation for, really, the remainder of the time, but honestly, I think we’ve had enough debate. So, Speaker, I move that the question now be put.