Boy, that was a long way to get there. Thank you to the member from Algoma–Manitoulin. First of all, let me address the first part. If we don’t take these actions, trying to have motions that encourage the federal government to move on things, we wouldn’t have the HST off home builds, for instance. We wouldn’t have the child care program that we have now in the province of Ontario. By encouraging as a united force here in the Ontario Legislature, we may just get the break that Ontarians are looking for, and that’s the carbon tax off their home heating fuels.

I love this member, but when he was a long-time member of the New Democratic Party, they voted in favour of the carbon taxes that are driving up the price of fuel in his home communities. I’ve met a lot of those people in Algoma–Manitoulin. They drive big trucks. That’s what they drive there, and they are getting killed at the pumps—not because of our party; we’re reducing the price of gasoline. The federal party, the NDP and the Liberals are driving up the cost—

Interjections.

When we became the government of Ontario, we brought forward the comprehensive electricity plan, which reduced the cost of electricity by 15% to 17% every year. It has brought stability to our province. It has brought multi-billion dollar investments to our province.

I was the Minister of Economic Development prior to our Minister of Economic Development doing such a great job in that role, and the biggest thing we were hearing was, “You have to fix the Liberal hydro mess.” And we have done that. As a result, we’re seeing those multi-billion dollar investments in Windsor, in Loyalist township, in St. Thomas, in Algoma—the steelmaking facility is moving to an electric arc furnace because of the stability that we brought to the energy sector.

It’s time for that member to get on board. Join us. We’re getting—

Interjections.

Thanks very much to the member opposite from Brampton for the great question this morning.

Our government knows that a reliable and affordable electricity grid isn’t just good for the economy; it’s also great for the environment.

We’ve stabilized electricity prices since the harmful days of the previous Liberal government, through programs like the comprehensive electricity plan, which has stabilized rates. It has allowed manufacturing jobs and new investment to come back to our province, like the $3.6-billion investment at Stellantis in the member opposite’s riding and down in the Windsor region as well—but it’s more than just that. Stabilizing our electricity rates also means that companies can now invest in electrifying their industrial businesses, like we’re seeing with the green steelmaking processes coming soon to Hamilton and Sault Ste. Marie.

It’s because of a stable, reliable, affordable electricity grid that we will see reduced emissions in other parts of our economy, while at the same time watching our economy in this province grow.

The comprehensive electricity plan is reducing electricity costs for more than 50,000 industrial and commercial customers by 15% to 17%. To the member’s question: Why is that program necessary? Well, I can tell you, it’s necessary because of a decade of Liberals mucking up the energy policy in our province. They signed contracts under the Green Energy Act, locked in for 20 years, many at 80 cents a kilowatt hour, when our clean, reliable, affordable nuclear power was available for eight cents a kilowatt hour and our hydroelectric was available for four cents a kilowatt hour. The Liberals kept signing these contracts that were driving up the price of electricity and were going to continue to drive up the price of electricity by 6%, 7%, 8% year over year, through the end of the decade. The comprehensive energy plan is meant to fix the problems that were created by the Liberal government.

We are bringing back a stable electricity system to our province so that our economy can thrive.