Thanks to the great member from Niagara for the question this morning on the federal carbon tax, supported by Ontario’s Liberal leader, the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, which is driving up the price of everything.

We know very well, because we’ve been talking about it for months, Mr. Speaker—and we have a plan here in Ontario. Just last week, as part of our Powering Ontario’s Growth plan, I was down in Niagara Falls, the member’s own riding, at the Sir Adam Beck facility, where we announced the refurbishment of 1.7 gigawatts of hydroelectric power at the Niagara facilities. Just this morning, I was at a great conference down at the Sheraton, where they are having the First Nations Major Projects conference. It was a huge conference where First Nations from right across the province are powering Ontario’s growth by partnering with us on our power projects like battery storage projects and other non-emitting generators.

Mr. Speaker, we’re proving that you don’t need a punitive carbon tax. It’s time to scrap that tax.

Now we have the Powering Ontario’s Growth plan, which we released last summer, and the proof is in the pudding. Last week, I was at a great announcement in Cambridge at BWXT—I know Premier Ford was there, as well, later in the day—an $80-million expansion at the BWXT plant, creating over 200 jobs.

It’s all part of our clean, non-emitting nuclear investments that we’re making in the small modular reactors at Darlington and the refurbishment of the large reactors at Bruce and at Pickering and at Darlington, and don’t forget about the new 4.8 gigawatts that we’re investing in large nuclear at Bruce. That’s a huge announcement that is going to ensure we have clean, non-emitting, reliable and affordable energy for decades to come.

We don’t need this punitive carbon tax in Ontario—

Thanks to the member for Thornhill. We’re doing everything we can to make life more affordable for the people of Ontario here under the leadership of Premier Ford, while Prime Minister Trudeau and the federal Liberals seem content to make life more expensive for the people of Ontario and the people of Canada. That goes for the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, as well, who seems happy to have the federal carbon tax in place so that she doesn’t have to take a position on it.

We have taken a position on it. We’re making life more affordable. That’s why we’re seeing new investments in our province, particularly in the EV and EV auto space, where companies are flocking back to Ontario and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in our province, where, again, under the leadership of the previous Liberal government for 15 years, we saw 300,000 jobs leaving for other jurisdictions. Over 700,000 jobs are coming back. That’s all because of our sound energy policy that ensures we’re competitive with other—

The NDP: While some of them have supported us in the House, Jagmeet on the weekend was trying to walk back his demands to have a carbon tax or not. He is supportive of the carbon tax again, but that’s typical of NDP policy. They don’t know which way to go.

We’re with the people of Ontario. The opposition parties are against them, particularly on energy costs.

We were having a very interesting discussion. I’m still baffled at the member for Ottawa South’s support for the federal carbon tax. Of course, the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, his leader, supports that carbon tax, as well, which is driving up the cost of everything in our province.

We hear from fruit and vegetable growers and grain farmers; we hear from construction workers who are making their way from the suburbs into downtown Toronto, where we’re building brand new subway lines like the Ontario Line, building new roads and highways; and those parents who are taking their kids to school and driving them to their hockey playoff games and off to baseball and soccer, which are starting this year—it’s making the cost of living more expensive for all of those people.

This morning, I was at a really great press conference with the mayor of Toronto, Olivia Chow—it was a great clean energy announcement down at the Portlands Energy Centre. She was asked, “Why is Toronto one of the most expensive cities in North America?” And part of the answer was the carbon tax, which is driving up the cost of everything, not just for the people of Toronto, not just for the people of Ontario, but the people right across—

Interjections.

The queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, is clearly supportive of making life more expensive. As a matter of fact, her first edict upon becoming the leader of the Liberal Party was to have her party raise a million dollars to help pay her salary.

We don’t need the queen of the carbon tax running our province. It would be just too expensive for the people of Ontario.

Mr. Speaker, it’s clear we would scrap the carbon tax, and we fought it all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada. What we’re really unclear on is where the queen of the carbon tax, the Ontario Liberal leader, Bonnie Crombie, stands. But it’s pretty clear when you look at the people she has appointed to her advisory panel on climate change.

We talked about the member from the Beaches; how about Kathleen Wynne’s failed environment minister Chris Ballard? He helped design the Liberals’ multi-billion-dollar cap-and-trade program that drove up the cost of groceries and drove up the cost of gasoline.

Cherise Burda: She was excited to be one of the first supporters of the Liberals’ disastrous cap-and-trade program before being voted out by rural voters.

Former McGuinty agriculture minister Carol Mitchell wanted to impose a carbon tax on farmers, and she was the agriculture minister.

Vince Gasparro not only backed the Liberals’ cap-and-trade carbon tax; he pushed to expand it to every province in Canada.

And Kathryn Bakos is on the record saying she believes that you have to tax people as part of a climate change plan. Doug Ford and the PC government do not believe that.