I want to thank the member for Brantford–Brant for the question.

Yes, we can. We have a plan called Powering Ontario’s Growth, and it does not include a carbon tax. In fact, we are vehemently against the carbon tax, especially the one that went up 23% on April 1, supported by Justin Trudeau, Jagmeet Singh and, of course, the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, who leads the Liberal Party here.

We are bringing in clean, reliable, affordable energy by refurbishing our nuclear fleet. All the major component replacements are on time or ahead of time and on budget.

We know what Ontario needs to build the jobs and the future of the economy. Why do you think we’re getting $43 billion investment in our automotive sector? Because those people know we have a nuclear advantage and it will power Ontario for generations to come.

As I said, our government’s Powering Ontario’s Growth plan—Powering Ontario’s Growth. Everything in Ontario’s future hinges on its ability to grow, to provide the jobs and the future for the next generations. How do you do that? You’ve got to make sure you have the policies in place.

We have the policies in place that are going to help us build 1.5 million homes. You’re going to need energy for those homes. You’re going to need energy for the people who are going to live in those homes and energy for the people who build those homes.

Our nuclear advantage, our clean energy advantage in Ontario is attracting attention all around the world. We are bringing back 700,000 jobs that the Liberals lost 300,000 of when they were in power, largely because of their failed energy policy.

Our energy policy will power Ontario today and power it into the future, and Ontarians will be better off as a result of that. And we won’t have a carbon tax.

And I don’t just mean in the debate chamber here, but I mean sitting in a social setting, in the caucus lounge or whatever. You’ve heard me talk about those many, many times, because I have many experiences to talk about when you come from a family like mine with 14 children. We have four children and 12 grandchildren; those are not my childhood experiences, but I can talk about anything I choose to.

Well, in the case of someone who is under care, they can’t talk about them. But, should this bill pass, Speaker, they will be free to talk about those and speak about those experiences to anyone they choose. That is like having a yoke and a cone of silence all at one time lifted off your shoulders, so that you are now free to speak about your childhood experiences.

Speaker, I know I only have a little bit of time. I thank you for this time and appreciate the minister bringing this bill forward.

I get the rhetoric from the other side. This is the way they work. It doesn’t matter how much we invest in children; according to them, it will never be enough. But the next question in question period will be: “Why do you have a deficit of $9.8 billion? You’re spending too much money.”

Speaker, children are our priority and will always be. Thanks for the question.

Isn’t the ability to speak freely really what democracy is all about? Isn’t the freedom to speak freely what our founding fathers and people like my father went to war to defend?

I say to the member, in our house, the kitchen table really was the place of all conversation. You could have a conversation just about anywhere in the house, but the kitchen table was where people really spoke freely and where all the best decisions were made. I grew up in a home where I had the ability to speak. And our children have always been able to speak about their experiences and their concerns.

Being able to speak freely—that’s something we are giving to children who grew up in care. This bill gives them that freedom.

She’s right: 44% is an unacceptable number. That’s why we’ve got $3.8 billion in the Roadmap to Wellness and other monies—

My question is for the Associate Minister of Transportation.

The carbon tax is punishing the hard-working people of Ontario. Residents in my riding of Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke tell me every day that this regressive tax is adding further strain to their household budgets. It’s raising the price of everything, from groceries and services to the cost of fuel. And with next week’s 23% hike, drivers across the province will be paying even more at the pumps.

The dire effects of the carbon tax are felt by our trucking industry, which serves a critical role in transporting the goods that we need in our daily lives.

Can the minister explain the impact of the federal carbon tax on Ontario’s trucking industry?

It is clear that the federal carbon tax is affecting the everyday lives of truckers across Ontario.

Up until this point, the federal government has increased the carbon tax on fuel not once, not twice, but five times. To make matters even worse, they plan on increasing it another seven times by 2030.

The opposition NDP and independent Liberals continue to ignore the harmful effects the carbon tax is having on our industries. Rather than standing up for their constituents, they’re choosing to support the federal government’s unjust tax. Our government will continue to advocate for Ontarians and call for the elimination of this tax once and for all.

Can the minister please further explain the lasting impact that this punitive tax will have on Ontario’s truckers?

Well, I have to be straight with you. I’m not familiar with the application, and I don’t think I’m the person that has the authority to answer the question either. But anybody who’s bringing forth ideas to our government—we are here; we are always open to good ideas. If someone brings forth a suggestion that can help the people of Ontario, I can tell you that Premier Ford and this PC government are going to be right there, front and centre. We believe every single day—we’re here for one reason: To make sure that we leave this province in better shape than when we got it, and that’s an absolute guarantee. Sir, you can take that one to the bank.

I mean, $50,000 is not chump change. Anybody who’s getting into a new career, when they’re starting out, one of the things that everyone faces is, how am I going to pay the bills that I’ve accumulated just getting to where I am today? So if you have a government that is willing to say, “Look, we need you, we need your skills, and we’re going to help you practise in a rural or remote area. How are we going to do that? Over five years, we’re prepared to pony up $50,000 to make this transition for you less challenging”—and you know that people that are going to rural and remote areas, the cost of living isn’t the same as here. You’re not going to pay $4 million for a garage. There, it’s going to be very, very helpful for them to get started out in that rural area, and I look forward to seeing more people come to our areas—

And this may be the debate, I say, to the member for—York Centre, is it?

So we may not agree on everything, but I’ll tell you, good things grow in Ontario. That’s for sure.

But I will say this: The vet technicians at those meetings that my colleague the member for Elgin–Middlesex–London—he said these vet technicians were over the moon that they are now seeing themselves so much more vital in the field of veterinary medicine. They are being recognized and they are being rewarded for the work that they’ve done and the training that they’ve had. They now see themselves as so much more an integral part, and a top-level part, because they’re going to perform so many of the things that had to be done by vets before, and some of them are things that, quite frankly, the veterinary technicians are mega-more-than-capable to do them than they’ve been recognized for.

So these are huge investments, huge advancements, that are going to mean more safety, more protection for our farm animals.

Confident? Absolutely. We’ve taken the steps to make sure that we lay the groundwork to make that possible, because we’re making the changes—I offer no guarantee, because I don’t make promises I can’t keep. But I will say this: The steps that we have taken build a foundation for making those things more possible tomorrow than they were yesterday, and that’s exactly what we’re talking—progress. We may not solve the problem tomorrow—it may take some time—but our commitment is ironclad to make sure we do the things that will make sure that the veterinarians who are needed in northern and remote communities are there.

I have to compliment the member from Timiskaming–Cochrane because, in reality, it’s a lot easier to speak for an hour on a bill that you oppose than it is to speak on one that you actually support, because there’s a whole lot more on a bill that you are opposing. And we are grateful that you are supporting this bill because we know it’s a good piece of legislation. No piece of legislation is necessarily perfect, but this one does hit a lot of the right marks.

You talked a little about—well, no, you talked a lot about it; I’m only going to talk about it for a few seconds—the extension and the expansion of the powers and the authority of a veterinary technician. You’re a rural member and you talked about the vastness of rural and northern Ontario. That change, what kind of real, positive impacts is that going to have for people who are in the practice of agriculture in your neck of the woods, in their ability to get veterinary help when it’s needed?

I want to thank the member for Whitby for bringing this forward to us to debate today, and it’s been to committee and such. This is a great opportunity to do something that is absolutely right for our veterans and those who serve.

I must say to my friend from Guelph, he’s not making my job any easier with his personal reflections because if I go that way, I’m going to have a little challenge myself. But I do want to say that Canadians and our record of standing for freedom and democracy and human rights and all of those things that we take for granted today, as the member from Guelph said—the freedom to differ in this chamber, the freedom to debate, the freedom to disagree, but also to be together on those issues where there is no disagreement.

I say, from Amiens to Afghanistan, from Passchendaele to peacekeeping, we have so much to be proud of for the men and women who have served in our armed forces. Particularly, we need to honour those who paid the ultimate price, made the ultimate sacrifice.

Quite frankly, Speaker, there is absolutely nothing we can do to repay them for what they have done, but this is an important and a significant gesture, to take a special time on the last sessional day before we recess for Remembrance Day to pay that tribute, to have that two minutes of silence and to then have representatives from each political party speak on behalf of their members to honour our veterans.

Of course, when I was a young boy, we were right on the main street of Barry’s Bay. The parades on Remembrance Day were something very special. We weren’t, at that time, dependent on current-serving members of the armed forces to come and populate the parade; we had enough veterans right at home. In fact, I remember that we actually had—I’ve been around long enough—veterans of the First World War marching in those parades. Of course, my father, who was a World War II veteran, was marching in those parades as well. He was, relatively speaking, a young man at that time.

So I’d see those parades, and then we’d have the wreath-laying ceremonies after that. After my dad passed away, I kind of lost maybe a little bit of a connection with that. He never, ever talked, as you said about your grandfather. But you did have that opportunity to sit down at some point. Maybe if my dad had lived longer, he may have softened to the point that he would have talked about it. But he didn’t, and I kind of lost maybe a little bit of a connection.

So how blessed am I to have been in a position where I could run for this office, run to be an MPP? Because during my first campaign and in the subsequent years since—I’m here 20 years now—I learned more about my father’s service in the Second World War certainly than I ever did from him, because I was graced with the opportunity to meet men who actually served with him overseas. Those were special moments, to sit down and talk to those other soldiers who served, particularly in the Glens, the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders, of which my dad was a solider.

But of course, when I’m speaking to those veterans, they’re already in their eighties at that point. Most of them are gone now. But it gives you an insight maybe as to why your own father didn’t want to talk about it. As you said, maybe they just wanted to spare us from some of the most difficult parts. I know he did tell us one time that his best friend was killed next to him. That’s about all I ever got.

In those 20 years now, I’ve had that opportunity to rub shoulders, as my dad used to say, and interact with so many veterans. As the member for Kanata–Carleton said, there are fewer than 20,000 left—and, by the way, Roly Armitage, he’s a legend, not just for his military service, in other ways, as well. I was there, at the ceremony, when he was bestowed the Order of Ontario, so give him my best when you see him next. We’re all very proud of Roly Armitage.

But the other Roly Armitages of the world, those that I got to know in Renfrew county, and the veterans that didn’t serve with my dad, but, as you got to know and see and feel them, you understood how challenging and difficult it was—the life that they accepted, the life that they volunteered for.

If you look at the numbers, in the First World War, we sent almost 700,000—at that time, men—overseas. Our population was less than eight million. If you were of a certain age, on the high side, you weren’t going; if you were not above a certain age, on the low side, you weren’t going, and if you were required for essential industries—the country still had to run. So think of the sacrifice and the commitment of Canada at that time, out of that population, that almost 700,000 people volunteered to go for service.

So then you ask yourself, “What can we do to make it special?” Well, something that is happening today is what my friend from Whitby is doing. When I look at my Legions today—there’s eight of them in my riding and I’ve been at every single one of them for more than one remembrance service, because I’ve been around for a while—and you have that moment and those ceremonies, when you do reflect on the approximately—there’s no exact numbers—but the 65,000 that were killed in World War I and about 45,000 that were killed in World War II, and what that sacrifice has meant for us—not just the freedom to debate in this chamber, but the privilege of living in what is, I think in the minds of all of us, truly the greatest country in the world and the best country in the world to live in, and we owe so much of that to those people who came before us.

In the last couple of years, or few years—in some areas, maybe sooner—and post-pandemic, our Legions have had some struggles. They were really, really, really hurting through the pandemic. And, post-pandemic, it’s been harder to regenerate that atmosphere, and to bring back the people to the Legion.

So I certainly want to encourage everyone to get out there and support their Legions. They’re such a vital part—and they are, specifically, that group whose main focus is our veterans and their families, yet they are so involved in other things in our communities, as well.

But a few years ago, in Barry’s Bay, where I come from, they started the banner program. It had been in other communities prior to that, but over the last few years, it has just grown and grown and grown. And I think what it shows is that there’s a resurgence of what people are—so when we had our tours in Afghanistan, it was hard not to focus on our military, hard not to focus on what our military was doing and how we could help them and support them. But, with the end of our tours in Afghanistan, it gets off the front burner as well.

I think what’s happening in our Legions now is a resurgence of that kind of feeling that is so important for us, as individuals, to take that opportunity to thank those who are left and those who are the new veterans of today. Remember that it is not just the veterans that have served years ago, it is also the veterans that are serving today, and we have to be grateful for the fact that they are standing up and ready, if called upon.

This banner program that just continues to expand—this year, it also was adopted by the Legion in Eganville. And I brought a picture of the member for Niagara Centre’s grandfather, who actually is on the banners in Eganville, because on his mother’s side—I don’t know all the connections; I haven’t had a chance to have a deep discussion, but Mr. Burch and his family have roots in the Eganville area. I guess what I’m saying about that, Speaker, is that—and I read the transcripts from the committee, and I saw the impact that it has had on the member for St. Catharines and the member for Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas. We hear about your commitment, member for Kanata–Carleton—who has served in a dignified way herself in the armed forces. I don’t think there’s anybody in this chamber, or a lot of us, that don’t have some kind of connection with somebody who has served. That’s why I think it means so much, and we are so fortunate to be able to stand here and talk about this today.

So I’m looking forward to Thursday, whatever date that is, before we leave, the 2nd of November—it just clicked. On the 2nd of November, we will hopefully have royal assent, this bill will be through, we will be able to see it through to fruition on November 2 and bring that honour to the veterans that they so rightly deserve. It is the least we can do. Lest we forget.

It is a pleasure for me to stand and speak on behalf of Bill 93, in support of Bill 93. I want to thank the member from Carleton for bringing this forward. I know she’s done this not only because she believes in it passionately herself, but she also believes in our old friend Norm Miller, who is here in the gallery today.

I had the pleasure of being in this House when then-MPP Miller brought this bill forward, and it’s a bill we can all easily stand behind because it is such absolutely—you don’t have to think about it. Why would we not want to do everything we can to protect our children or grandchildren or any young person when they’re in a watercraft?

It was the kind of bill that you would expect Norm to bring forward originally, because that’s the kind of person he is. In his over 20 years in this House, he was always looking, “How can I use my voice as an MPP to do better things and do positive things for people in the general population?” He saw an opportunity and he saw something where it was lacking, and that was, why are we not actually doing something to ensure that our children are actually wearing that personal flotation device when they’re in a boat?

So I want to thank, again, my colleague from Carleton and welcome my friend Norm Miller here once again, and thank him for his original idea of bringing this forward so we can make Ontario not only the best place to live, work and raise a family, but the safest place for our children.

Today I want to wish our grandson Leopold Gianni Michele Colucci, who lives in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, a happy eighth birthday. And tomorrow our son Zachary will be 44. Happy birthday.

Because we have some time, an introduction of sorts—he’s not actually here today, but as you know, I have a large family, and tomorrow, my brother Frank, who lives in MPP Byers’s riding, will be celebrating his 70th birthday. I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned Frank in this place; I should have sooner.

Happy birthday, brother.

It’s not exactly an introduction, but I want to wish our granddaughter Adelaide Helena Colucci a happy ninth birthday today, and our granddaughter May Mundt a happy 15th birthday on Friday.

Not exactly an introduction, but I want to wish our grandson—Julius Birch Colucci was two years old on September 4. Happy birthday, Julius.

We ran on the budget.

Thank you very much, Speaker. First, I want to congratulate the new member from Newmarket–Aurora. Not only was the member from Barrie–Springwater–Oro-Medonte born there, but on July 1 of last year, our youngest granddaughter was born at Southlake. Ruby Alice Yakabuski was born there, as our son and his fiancée live in Newmarket as well.

You and I really hadn’t met at all until you became a candidate. I remember asking the former MPP and our deputy leader and health minister, Christine Elliott, “Are you happy with the candidate?” A big smile came across her face. And now, when you talk about the long-term relationship and the friendship that you’ve had, I understand it perfectly. I’m just glad to have you here, and if you would like to expand a little bit more on your relationship with Christine Elliott, I’d love to hear that as well.