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Decentralized Democracy

Hon. Todd Smith

  • MPP
  • Member of Provincial Parliament
  • Bay of Quinte
  • Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
  • Ontario
  • Unit 8 5503 Hwy. 62 S Belleville, ON K8N 0L5 Todd.Smithco@pc.ola.org
  • tel: 613-962-1144
  • fax: 613-969-6381
  • Todd.Smithco@pc.ola.org

  • Government Page
  • Jun/3/24 11:20:00 a.m.

Thanks to the member from Markham–Unionville for the question this morning.

There’s no question about it; the carbon tax is impacting the cost of anything that gets delivered. Anything that comes from our farmers is going up in price. Groceries; household goods; the price at the pumps, obviously; home heating—it’s all going up. It’s all making life more expensive. So it’s unreal to hear this phony outrage that comes from the opposition parties, or phony concern, when it comes to the cost-of-living crisis, when they support this punitive carbon tax that’s coming from Justin Trudeau and the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie.

Madam Speaker, we have a plan called Powering Ontario’s Growth. It’s a plan that’s ensuring we continue to grow the economy, like the Premier was just talking about. Multi-billion-dollar investments from Windsor all the way to Ottawa and north into Sault Ste. Marie and far beyond, as we develop the Ring of Fire—there’s so much happening in Ontario.

We don’t need this punitive carbon tax.

That’s why we’ve taken a different route, bringing in One Fare so transit riders can save up to $1,600 a year, cutting the price at the pumps by 10.7 cents a litre on the Ontario gas tax, making sure we’re eliminating the licence plate sticker fees, and so much more.

We also have this plan called Powering Ontario’s Growth, which is ensuring that we’re getting competitive investment in new generation in our province, unlike what the Liberals did previously with the very costly, punitive Green Energy Act. It drove up the price of energy in our province, making 300,000 manufacturing jobs leave for other jurisdictions. We’re not doing that. We’re lowering taxes. As a result, we’ve seen jobs roar back into Ontario—700,000 new jobs.

Let’s scrap this tax today.

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  • Jun/3/24 11:00:00 a.m.

We are keeping cost down in spite of the costly federal carbon tax supported by the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie—the price of gasoline, the price of groceries, the price of home heating all going up thanks to Justin Trudeau and Bonnie Crombie’s tax supported by the NDP as well.

Now, we’ve taken a different pathway here in Ontario. We’ve reduced costs, like the 10.7 cents a litre at the pumps; One Fare for transit riders in Ontario, saving them $1,600 a year; making sure we’ve eliminated the licence plate sticker fees and other taxes and fees to drive down the cost of living and ensure that we’re seeing the type of growth that we’re seeing in Ontario, at the same time ensuring that we have the power that we need, with a plan called Powering Ontario’s Growth to ensure that we continue to see the multi-billion-dollar investments that we have been seeing right across our province.

You can do this, and it doesn’t require a punitive carbon tax.

Our economy is humming in Ontario. As the late Bob Cole would say, “Oh, baby.” We are seeing investments right across Ontario. In the electric vehicle and the EV battery sector, we’re looking like Connor McDavid, busting down the wing and breaking toward the goal, moving the Edmonton Oilers on to the Stanley Cup final for the first time in many, many years.

Let’s all get together, let’s support a Canadian team in the Stanley Cup finals and let’s support getting rid of this carbon tax in Ottawa.

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  • May/30/24 10:50:00 a.m.

Thanks to the member from Etobicoke–Lakeshore for the question this morning.

This is the number one issue that we’re hearing about across the province—the increased cost of living in our province, but also across our country, and the impact that the federal carbon tax, supported by the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, is having on their household bills. Gas bills for their vehicles, home heating, grocery bills—they’re all going up, and they’re all a result of the increasing federal carbon tax year after year.

We’ve taken a different approach in Ontario. We’re lowering the cost of living, the price of gas, taxes, fees. We have reduced taxes across the province. And our plan is working.

As a matter of fact, this morning, the Premier and the health minister and the Minister of Economic Development announced another major investment in health sciences, at Sanofi in north Toronto.

We’ve done as much as we can to lower the cost for those folks in the GTHA to get around with One Fare that the Associate Minister of Transportation has introduced, saving those who take transit up to $1,600 a year.

We’ve cut the gas tax by 10.7 cents a litre here in Ontario, but at the same time, the federal carbon tax continues to drive up the price at the pumps, which makes it really difficult for people to get out and visit beautiful parts of our province like Prince Edward county and Kingston and Essex and Windsor counties and, in northern Ontario, beautiful places like Kakabeka Falls that are wonderful this time of year.

It’s the federal carbon tax that’s making it more difficult for those people.

We should all, in this Legislature, be supportive of Premier Ford’s motion to scrap that tax in Ottawa.

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  • May/29/24 11:00:00 a.m.

Thanks to the member opposite for the question, the first good question today in question period. Because you know what? It’s impacting the people of Ontario’s daily lives. The number one issue that our friends from Milton and Lambton–Kent–Middlesex heard at the doors in their by-election over the last month and a half or so was the high cost of living in Ontario and in Canada because of the federal carbon tax—as the member rightly points out, a carbon tax that isn’t done yet. It’s going to continue to go up and up every April 1, making life more unaffordable for the people.

We’ve taken a different approach here in Ontario, under the leadership of Premier Ford. We’ve been cutting taxes—the gas tax, 10.7 cents a litre off every fill-up. How do you like that? No more tolls on the 412 and the 418. How do you like that? If you’re a transit rider in Ontario, the minister of One Fare, Minister Thanigasalam—One Fare for transit riders, saving them $1,600 a year. Cutting fees like licence plate sticker fees—I have so many other things I can say that we’re doing to make life more affordable, but that federal carbon tax continues to go up and put people—

The carbon tax is driving up the cost of everything from gasoline to groceries to home heating. The member for Brant who just asked the question, he’s a volunteer firefighter as well in Brantford. We’re surrounded by fire chiefs from across the province here today, and we know the impact that the carbon tax is having on our municipal fire departments. The Solicitor General, right next to me, has answered questions on this in the past. It’s $15,000 more annually per fire truck that the carbon tax is costing our municipalities and our local fire departments. It’s making life unaffordable.

The federal government and the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, and the NDPs and Mr. Green all have to get together. Join us, let’s end this carbon tax once and for all.

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  • May/28/24 11:10:00 a.m.

A day of firsts here—congratulations to the member from Milton on his first question in question period.

Again, I want to congratulate my good friend from Kiiwetinoong, as well, for his words this morning in Oji-Cree. To me, he’s known as “kitchi-animohsh”—if the interpreter is still there. That means “the big dog.” We love the member from Kiiwetinoong.

Speaker, we can do this. We can have the energy that we need in our province for our growing economy without having this punitive tax that the member for Milton is talking about. And we’re actually doing it.

There are a lot of firsts in this province. We’re building the first new nuclear small modular reactor at Darlington right now. We’re building the first large nuclear in the province in over 30 years. That’s going to be happening out at Bruce. We’re building a beautiful transmission line. Wataynikaneyap Power is here. We see the wonderful people—Margaret is here from Watay Power, and I’m going to talk a little bit more about some of the things we’re doing in northern Ontario in my—

One of my favourite events since becoming the Minister of Energy was with the member from Kiiwetinoong and the folks from Wataynikaneyap Power in northwestern Ontario and Kezia, actually, in her home community of Kingfisher Lake First Nation, when I was there with the member and we linked that community to our green, emissions-free electricity grid that we have in Ontario so they can prosper in places like Kingfisher Lake, North Caribou Lake First Nation, Wunnumin First Nation. I actually look forward to joining the folks from Watay next month when we celebrate the completion of that product, linking 16 First Nations communities to our clean provincial grid.

Those are just a couple of examples of how we can do this without—

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  • May/27/24 11:30:00 a.m.

Well, not to put words in the mouth of the Premier, but the Premier would say, “No tax. For you, we are not going to be increasing taxes, and that includes a carbon tax.”

Our plan does not include a carbon tax. Our plan is called Powering Ontario’s Growth, and it builds on the strengths of our province’s energy sector. That includes refurbishing the clean, reliable, affordable power that comes from our nuclear plants at places like Bruce and at Darlington and at Pickering; building new nuclear technology, world-leading small modular reactors that are under way now at Darlington; as well, ensuring that we have clean hydroelectric power that’s affordable for the people by refurbishing the big dams and the small dams that we have across our province in places like Niagara Falls, in places like Cornwall, in places like northern Ontario, all across our province; and ensuring that we have just finished the biggest procurement of battery storage in Canada’s history.

Our grain farmers are here. They’ve talked about the impact that it’s having on grains that they produce for our baked goods and our spirits and all kinds of great stuff in our province, and it’s having an impact at the grocery stores.

But the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, and her Liberal caucus and the NDP and the Green Party as well, they’re all in support of an ever-increasing carbon tax every April 1. We’re not. We’re saying no to the carbon tax, first of all because it’s not working, and second of all because it’s driving up costs and making life more unaffordable for the people of Ontario.

We have a plan. It’s working. It’s called Powering Ontario’s Growth, bringing record multi-billion-dollar investment—

The member opposite from the Green Party wants to put wind turbines and solar panels all over the place. Let’s just look outside today. It’s raining cats and dogs out there, Mr. Speaker. We are getting 100 megawatts of solar today, and we’re getting about 1,300 megawatts of wind, of 5,000 megawatts of installed capacity. Can you imagine, under their plan, how many wind turbines and solar panels they would need that still wouldn’t be working today?

That’s why we’re investing in our nuclear power plants, emissions-free. We are getting almost 60% of our electricity from there today, and our hydroelectric facilities—

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  • May/27/24 11:10:00 a.m.

Thanks to the great member from Perth–Wellington—who celebrated a birthday last week, as well, I should say.

Mr. Speaker, I think all of us in this House should know by now the damage that the carbon tax is doing, and I know the Premier probably would have loved to answer this question because he’s been telling us since 2018 that we would be in the place we are now because of the carbon tax and it increasing every year on April 1. We’ve gotten to the point now where people are cancelling their summer holidays because they can’t afford to fill up their tank and go visit great locations across our province.

The carbon tax is driving up the price of everything. The grain farmers will tell you that too—

We talk to people across Ontario all the time, and they say the biggest issue that they’re facing is affordability. Now, it’s because of the things that we’re doing here at the province, because we’re doing as much as we can to make life more affordable by reducing the gas tax; by bringing in One Fare for transit users, saving them $1,600 a year; cutting tolls; cutting licence plate fees; cutting all of those different fees that are driving up the cost. But it’s this carbon tax that’s driving up the price of everything.

And the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, and the Liberals and the NDP and Mr. Green here are all in support of a bigger carbon tax, Mr. Speaker. We’re not. We have a different plan—

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  • May/16/24 11:20:00 a.m.

That was a bit of a news flash. I hadn’t heard that.

The queen of the carbon tax isn’t fooling anybody. Her majesty is in full support of the federal Liberal government’s federal carbon tax—one that went up 23% on April 1, and one that’s going to go up again next year. It’s driving up the cost of everything in our province.

We know that when the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, comes in, she is going to continue to make life more expensive.

They’re trying to rebrand over there. They’re trying to talk about some tax credits, but it’s just not believable because we know the track record of Liberals at every level.

The funny thing is, when it comes to the carbon tax, across the country, Liberal Premiers, NDP Premiers—they’re all with Premier Ford on this.

We need to scrap this punitive carbon tax now because it’s driving up the price of everything. It’s driving people to food banks. It’s driving people into energy poverty. We don’t need it. It’s time to scrap the tax.

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  • May/16/24 11:10:00 a.m.

Mr. Speaker, when the Liberals were in power here in Ontario for 15 years, they tripled our electricity rates. They drove jobs out of our province to other jurisdictions. The Minister of Finance just referenced the tail lights that were heading out of the province as manufacturers picked up and left.

Well, those same Liberals, when they were annihilated here in Ontario, where did they go? They’re all now working for Justin Trudeau up on Parliament Hill. And what has happened? We have this torturous carbon tax that’s driving up the price of everything in our province.

Again, since we’ve come in, we’ve provided stability for electricity customers, and we’re seeing the fruits of our labour: multi-billion dollar investments in our province. Those headlights are coming back to Ontario again and reinvesting here, while the voters in Ontario continue to put the vehicle in reverse and back over the Liberals because they are torturing businesses and residents, constituents, across our country.

We are cutting taxes. We’re lowering electricity rates. We’re giving people a break in Ontario. Liberals—

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  • May/16/24 11:00:00 a.m.

Thanks for the supplementary.

I would advise the opposition members to talk to the not-for-profits, to talk to the food banks in their region, like I do.

I talk to the Gleaners Food Bank, I talk to the Trenton Care and Share Food Bank in my riding, and they are definitely hearing from their clients that the carbon tax is having an impact on their day-to-day life.

That’s why we’ve taken a different approach here in Ontario than Justin Trudeau and the federal government. We’re lowering taxes. We’ve cut the gas tax by 10.7 cents a litre. We’ve implemented the LIFT credit; it eliminates the provincial income tax for many low-income workers, and it’s making a difference for them. We’ve eliminated fees. We’ve eliminated the licence plate sticker fees. We brought in One Fare for those who ride transit, saving them up to $1,600 a year. That’s real, tangible savings for the people of Ontario.

Here in Ontario, with our plan, which doesn’t include a carbon tax, we are seeing growth in our economy, more good-paying jobs being created, like the ones that will soon be created at Honda, Volkswagen, Stellantis and those—

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  • May/16/24 10:50:00 a.m.

I want to thank the member from Perth–Wellington for a very important question.

I can’t believe the response from the opposition parties in the Legislature today when everybody in our province and across the country knows that the carbon tax is driving up the cost of living. It has been confirmed by the Bank of Canada, C.D. Howe and so many different institutes, and it is having an effect on people’s ability to afford groceries, gas and home heating.

This federal carbon tax, supported by the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, is going to—well, it’s the impact today. It’s going to be the legacy of the federal government, and ultimately it’s going to be the downfall of the federal government, because not only is it causing a crisis now in communities across our province and our country; it’s going to create an even further impact next year on April 1, when the carbon tax goes up again.

We have a plan here in Ontario. It’s working, and it doesn’t include a carbon tax.

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  • May/15/24 11:10:00 a.m.

Thanks to the member from Brampton. It’s great to get a question that is tough but fair from him this morning.

Unlike the NDP and the Liberal caucus and the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, we’re against a carbon tax in Ontario. The greens, the reds, the oranges—they’re in favour of a carbon tax.

As families are getting out on the road this summer, maybe the Liberals will be getting into their minivan and travel to southwestern Ontario to visit their members—oh, hold on, they don’t have any members in southwestern Ontario, so they won’t be going to visit their members. But it’s going to cost them a lot more to fuel up that minivan.

Families are fuelling up their minivans; it’s going to cost them more. Energy costs, gasoline costs, groceries—it’s all going up.

The Premier Ford team here in Ontario is making life more affordable for the people of Ontario—cutting taxes, cutting fees, cutting tolls, cutting the carbon tax.

We do have a plan, Powering Ontario’s Growth, and seeing the types of investment that the Minister of Economic Development and the Premier were at yesterday in the Niagara region—multi-billion dollar investments are coming back. It’s because we’re cutting the costs of doing business and making life more affordable for the people of Ontario.

While the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, is in full support of the federal carbon tax, we are not.

I know we’ve got some good folks here from rural Ontario who are going to the pumps every day. We’ve got some beef farmers here from Grey county as well, and the cost of them doing business is going up billions of dollars over time because of the increased carbon tax. It’s only going to continue to keep going up and up and up.

We’re making life more affordable. I know the member from Brampton really loves the One Fare program that’s been brought in for transit riders. It’s going to cut the cost by $1,600 a year. We’ve cut the gas tax, 10.7 cents a litre, making life more affordable. Cutting licence plate sticker fees, cutting taxes—

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  • May/15/24 10:50:00 a.m.

Thank you to the member opposite for the question this morning.

The federal government has imposed this torturous federal carbon tax on the people of Ontario and the people across Canada, and we know that the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, is happy to have this carbon tax in place. Her counterpart federally, Minister Guilbeault, her buddy on Parliament Hill, has said that the queen of the carbon tax is happy to have that federal carbon tax in place. We know that the caucus here supports that increased tax and what it’s doing to drive up the cost of everything. The NDP supports that tax, and the Green Party leadership here supports that, as well.

I want them to hear this: Last night, I was speaking at the net-zero forum put on by the Transition Accelerator. They applaud our plan, which is reducing emissions and growing our province’s economy.

We are doing a lot. She referenced the massive energy procurement last week for storage. The largest storage facility is actually going to be in the riding of our good member from the riding that’s way too long to mention—the Brockville region. That’s going to ensure that there is secure, reliable electricity in eastern Ontario for future growth, the kind of growth that we saw yesterday, with Asahi Kasei—I said that wrong, but the Minister of Economic Development is going to support me on this. It was an almost $2-billion announcement down in the Niagara region yesterday, building on the $43 billion of new investment that we’ve seen across the province.

Our Powering Ontario’s Growth plan is working. Even the environmental organizations that I met with last night at the Transition Accelerator are endorsing the Powering Ontario’s Growth plan because we’re reducing emissions, providing reliable clean power for our province and watching our economy grow at the same time.

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  • May/13/24 11:20:00 a.m.

Thanks very much to the great member from Mississauga Centre for the question today. She’s absolutely right; the federal carbon tax is driving up the price of everything in our province, and the Bank of Canada has confirmed it’s even having an impact on inflation in our province.

The queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, the former mayor of Mississauga, supports the federal carbon tax, the NDP want to have the largest carbon tax in the land and the Greens are in full support of a carbon tax as well. We’re not. Premier Ford and our team are making life less expensive by cutting gas taxes, bringing in One Fare for our transit riders in Mississauga and other communities across the GTHA, cutting tolls and cutting taxes. We’re about making life more affordable and making this a friendly business environment.

The carbon tax: The member talked about the impact that it’s having on businesses. There is $1.3 billion owed to small businesses as a result of the carbon tax in our province. That money has yet to flow to them.

We already have one of the cleanest grids in the entire world, but we can continue to clean that grid, grow that grid, so we can grow businesses in our province by investing in nuclear, which we’re doing at Bruce and at Darlington and at Pickering, but also refurbishing our hydroelectric fleets that we have across the province, energy-efficiency programs—a billion dollars in that program—procuring new energy storage. The largest procurement of energy storage happened here in Ontario last week—another 1,800 megawatts there.

We can get the power that we need, and we don’t need a costly carbon—

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  • May/13/24 11:00:00 a.m.

Speaker, it’s no surprise to anyone, especially the member from Oakville, that the federal Liberal government’s carbon tax is making life more expensive for the people of Ontario and the people of Canada. That’s why we’re taking a different route. We’re procuring clean energy.

Just last week, I was down at the Power of Water Canada conference in Niagara, announcing a new small hydro program, a new northern hydro program, for 10-megawatt facilities and larger. It’s why I was in Cornwall with the great member from Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry on Friday, announcing that we were refurbishing the Saunders dam, a huge facility connecting Lake Ontario and the Great Lakes system to the Atlantic Ocean and providing clean electricity for over a million homes in our province. That work has started to refurbish that facility. Last week was a busy week when it comes to procuring clean energy for our province.

The one thing that our Powering Ontario’s Growth plan doesn’t include is a carbon tax because we don’t need it. All it does is punish the people of Ontario.

There’s only one party in this Legislature that’s opposed to a carbon tax, and that’s Premier Ford and our team. Instead, we’re doing the kinds of things that I talked about earlier: procuring new clean, non-emitting generation. That includes refurbishing our nuclear facilities that we have across the province, including at Pickering and at Darlington and at Bruce, and building small modular reactors at Darlington.

Last week, we had the largest procurement in Canada’s history for clean energy storage. Another 1,800 megawatts are being added right across our province to ensure that our system remains clean and reliable. Our plan, Powering Ontario’s Growth, which is working—

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  • May/8/24 11:20:00 a.m.

Speaker, I want to thank the great member from Markham for that question. It made a lot of sense.

And the previous question that we heard, from the Liberal member from Scarborough–Guildwood, was actually a very fair question as well. She was talking about the fact that it’s difficult for people right now to afford paying their heating, paying for the price at the pumps. Their groceries are going up in price. I can almost sense a little bit of a chasm forming in the teeny, tiny Liberal caucus led by the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, because the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, is in full support of the federal carbon tax, which is driving up the price of gasoline and home heating and groceries. Maybe this member is going to stand up to Bonnie Crombie and Justin Trudeau and talk about the issues that are facing Scarborough, because I’ll tell you right now, her leader isn’t doing that, Mr. Speaker, and her leader just got wiped out in Milton and just got wiped out in Lambton–Kent–Middlesex.

What does that plan not include? A carbon tax, which is driving up the price of everything in our province.

And it’s these Liberal quixotic points of view—unrealistic, unpragmatic views—that have cost our province in the past and are continuing to cost our province now. It’s just a different group. It used to be Kathleen Wynne, and it used to be Dalton McGuinty bringing in the Green Energy Act, now it’s Justin Trudeau, supported by the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, who’s driving up the price of everything.

In spite of that, our plan is working. Again, it’s called Powering Ontario’s Growth, and we’re seeing multi-billion dollar investments in our—

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  • May/8/24 11:00:00 a.m.

Speaker, the member opposite knows exactly what we’re doing because he’s a huge champion of the investments that we’re making in our nuclear sector, coming from the Durham region, Canada’s clean energy capital—the refurbishments that are going on at places like Darlington and soon will be going on at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station; also the new development of small modular reactors.

Mr. Speaker, we know we don’t need a punitive carbon tax in Canada or in Ontario. It’s simply not working. But the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, and the king of the carbon tax, Justin Trudeau, are continuing to make people pay more. They’re making them pay more on their home heating bills. They’re making them pay more on their gasoline fuel-ups. They’re making them pay more on their groceries.

My parliamentary assistant and I were even saying this morning that the Queen’s Park media gallery spring fling next week has even doubled in price, up to $80 next week, Mr. Speaker. Now, I don’t know if we can blame Bonnie Crombie and Justin Trudeau for that, but it’s 80 bucks this year.

So we can do this without increasing the carbon tax—

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There’s no bones about it. It’s costing everybody more to live in our province and the carbon tax is driving that, not just in Ontario but right across the country.

But our plan is working here in Ontario. Our energy plan is called Powering Ontario’s Growth, investing in new and refurbishing our nuclear reactors, investing in multi-billion dollar refurbishments of our hydroelectric facilities, building the country’s largest energy storage in a competitive process and other non-emitting renewables that are coming onto the grid in the future that are going to continue to ensure that we are the economic powerhouse in North America.

We’re landing deals like $15-billion Honda deal—

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  • May/7/24 11:20:00 a.m.

Thanks to the member from the Cornwall region for his question this morning.

We’re doing a lot here in Ontario to ensure that we’re combatting the punishing impact of the carbon tax on the people of Ontario, and that includes the gas tax break, eliminating tolls in eastern Ontario, ending the licence plate sticker fees, ending that very costly and wasteful Drive Clean program which was just another scam, and ensuring we’re bringing in One Fare.

We’re also investing in clean infrastructure for the future that’s going to ensure we have the energy we need that’s affordable, reliable and clean.

I’ve mentioned a few times in the House that a couple of weeks ago I was down at Sir Adam Beck talking about our billion-dollar investments in refurbishing our hydroelectric facilities in Niagara.

I’m really looking forward to joining the member from Cornwall a little bit later on this week, when we’re going to be making a similar announcement in his riding, ensuring we’ve got clean energy for the future.

We’re also refurbishing our nuclear facilities, and this is a tremendous story. The world really is watching what’s happening here in Ontario—not just in the evolution of our EV sector and EV battery sector, but in our nuclear sector. We’re building the first small modular reactor in the Western world at Darlington. We’re refurbishing the Candu reactors that we have—multi-billion dollar investments that aren’t just coming in on time and on budget; they’re coming in ahead of time.

We are building battery storage facilities and other non-emitting resources to make sure that our system is operating as efficiently as possible, investing in energy efficiency programs like the Peak Perks program and the ultra-low overnight rate for charging the EVs and cars of the future.

We have a plan, and it’s—

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  • May/7/24 11:00:00 a.m.

Thanks to the member from Kitchener–Conestoga for his question this morning.

The carbon tax, obviously, is impacting the price of gasoline, but it’s also impacting the price of everything.

I couldn’t help but picture the Harris family of seven as they load into their minivan and maybe head for a holiday this summer—the price that they’re going to be paying at the pumps to fill that van, at $1.65 a litre or whatever it is today. That family of seven—incidentally, when I think about it, if the Harris family was a caucus, they’d be almost the same size as the Liberal caucus here in the Legislature—can rest assured that they’re getting a 10.7-cents-a-litre break from Premier Ford and our government here in Ontario. They’re also not going to have to pay the tolls if they come visit me in eastern Ontario. The tolls are gone in eastern Ontario. Licence plate sticker fees are gone.

This is the contrast between our government and the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, and the federal Liberals. We’re looking to save people money. They’re making life more expensive. It’s time for them to scrap that tax.

As the NDP and the Liberals always look to increase taxes or make life more expensive for the people of Ontario, we’re trying to drive costs down through things like I mentioned earlier: the gas tax break; eliminating the licence plate sticker fees; income tax breaks; ending the tolls; making One Fare for our transit operators a possibility, saving people up to $1,600 a year. These are real, tangible impacts on families like the Harris family of seven and other families right across Ontario. We’re going to be there to help those families while Bonnie Crombie, the queen of the carbon tax, and Justin Trudeau continue to make life more expensive for them.

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  • May/6/24 11:20:00 a.m.

I can do that. Through Powering Ontario’s Growth, we’re going to ensure that we have the clean, non-emitting, reliable, affordable electricity that we’re seeing right now. But into the future, this type of affordable, reliable non-emitting energy is what has actually allowed us to land the historic multi-billion-dollar Honda deal, which Minister Fedeli was just talking about last week: a $15-billion investment at four different plants across the province.

Through Powering Ontario’s Growth, we’re ensuring that we have a small modular reactor not just being talked about but under construction at Darlington right now. Three more SMRs are going to be going in at that site. Mr. Speaker, we have the first large-scale build that’s about to get under way at what’s already the world’s largest nuclear facility at Bruce Power. We have a non-emitting procurement that’s under way with the IESO. We have the largest battery storage procurement under way—

But in spite of that, we’re continuing to move forward with non-emitting resources like our nuclear facilities, hydroelectric facilities, battery storage facilities and renewables that will work better because we have the storage that we need in the province. As a matter of fact, according to the 2024 greenhouse gas registry—

Interjections.

The people in Milton, the people in LKM disagreed with their proposals last week: They got 6.76% in the by-election. We’ve got two new Tory members because people are opposed to the federal carbon tax and they’re opposed to Bonnie Crombie, the queen of the carbon tax.

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