—carried by the homebuyer.

So now you are saying it’s passed on to the homebuyer, okay. Because previously, you weren’t saying that. But then again, we just had the critic responsible for energy in question period actually concerned about the cost of natural gas for people in Ontario and the critic for labour from northern Ontario just saying that everybody should basically rip out their natural gas and go with an electric heat pump. So they’ve been spinning over there, and they don’t know exactly what their position is.

Speaker, I think it’s important that we take a moment before we get into the broader debate to be clear about how ridiculous the argument is that the home builder or the developer is going to carry the upfront cost of this and it’s not going to be passed on to the consumer. Let me give you just a few real-world examples of much it could cost to connect a new home, business or development to the natural gas system if you had to pay up front.

In the GTA, connecting a new recreation and wellness centre could see an upfront connection charge of about $128,000. On a new 39-home subdivision—actually in your riding, the Minister of Labour’s riding, in Campbellford—it would cost about $357,000 up front. That’s more than $9,000 a home. A recent restaurant project in southwestern Ontario would see an upfront charge of about $18,000. There’s even one other example here that I’ve got: A recent three-building condominium here in the GTA would see an upfront connection charge of approximately $1,065,000.

This bill, Bill 165, would keep costs down by allowing those costs to be paid off over 40 years, amortized over 40 years, instead of all up front. That’s a big win for the taxpayer. It’s a big win for the business owner. And, more importantly, it’s a real win for the homebuyer—that new homebuyer that’s trying to enter the market.

There’s only one party in the Legislature that actually cares about keeping the cost of new homes down and that’s the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. Because at a time when Ontario, like the rest of Canada, is already grappling with high interest rates and inflationary pressures along with the impact of terrible federal policies like the carbon tax, we can’t in good conscience take any action that would raise prices on the backs of those first-time homebuyers and moms and dads, like me, who want to get their kids out of the house and into their own home and start building their own equity, or those younger moms and dads, unlike me, who are looking for more space for their growing families. Speaker, we definitely can’t let it stand in the way when we had well over 200 requests from Ontario municipalities to expand access to natural gas in their communities.

Now, I go to the ROMA, the Rural Ontario Municipal Association, conference every year, and AMO, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, every year. And my very, very capable parliamentary assistant here, Mr. Sarrazin, from eastern Ontario, sits and listens to municipal delegations where they’re begging us for natural gas expansion projects in their communities because they want to have this low-cost, reliable, affordable energy in their communities for their constituents and for new homeowners. As a government elected with a mandate to rebuild Ontario’s economy and keep costs down for people and businesses and build the homes our growing province needs, we simply can’t stand for that cost being borne by those new homeowners. That’s why Bill 165 will allow us to reverse the specific part of the OEB decision, protect future homebuyers and keep shovels in the ground at a time where we’ve got a goal to build 1.5 million homes by 2031.

Speaker, reversing the decision alone isn’t enough if we don’t address the issues that got us to this place. While the Ontario Energy Board makes hundreds of decisions every year—the OEB is making all kinds of decisions on rate applications every day and, to their credit, almost all of them have been without issue. This one particular issue, though, did raise some concerns about public engagement in the decision-making process. In fact, in the decision itself, one of the commissioners—the dissenting commissioner—noted that the decision on natural gas connection costs was reached without input from key stakeholders, like the people that build homes, like construction companies, like the contractors, like the farmers that were going to be able to access natural gas in their communities, the people and the businesses who actually build the homes, the farmers in this province.

The same commissioner—Commissioner Duff is her name—also noted that this decision, which could have significant impacts on electricity demand, was reached without any input at all from the Independent Electricity System Operator, the IESO. To quote from that dissenting commissioner, “Is the scenario of no-new-gas-connections, replaced by construction of all-electric developments, feasible? For example, would electricity generators, transmitters, distributors and the IESO be able to meet Ontario’s energy demands in 2025?” She answers her own question. “I don’t know,” she says. The commissioner said, “I don’t know,” Madam Speaker.

Let me tell you, as Ontario’s Minister of Energy, that was quite a concerning quote to read in the dissenting opinion, especially when our government is focused on a pragmatic approach to supporting the electrification of home heating and transportation and manufacturing, with a focus on keeping energy costs down and energy reliable. The other three parties in the Legislature don’t care about keeping the costs of energy down. They’re very ideological in their approach to the energy sector and electricity. We’re not. We’re relying on organizations like the Independent Electricity System Operator to give us the pragmatic advice that comes from operating the electricity system in Ontario. Every decision that we’ve made has been a very pragmatic decision. The Clean Home—

Interjection.

That makes a lot of sense, Madam Speaker, this Clean Home Heating Initiative using hybrid heat pumps for customers that are natural gas customers. Because what it’s going to do is have that hybrid heat pump that is operating on electricity most of the time, but when the temperature does hit minus 15 or minus 18, or minus 20 sometimes overnight—or even colder up in Kiiwetinoong; it gets very cold up there in northwestern Ontario—then your backup will kick in. In this case, the natural gas furnace will kick in.

This is a very, very pragmatic approach, and the CHHI, our Clean Home Heating Initiative, is operating in a number of municipalities across the province: in Durham, in Barrie, in St. Catharines, in Sault Ste. Marie. It’s a program that we’ve been expanding, and taking a very pragmatic approach. Maintaining access to natural gas also ensures reliable access to heat, as I mentioned, on those coldest days of the year.

Another part of that pragmatic approach was the establishment of the Electrification and Energy Transition Panel. This panel is advising me. It’s advising our government on the highest-value short-, medium- and long-term opportunities for the energy sector to help Ontario’s economy prepare for electrification and the energy transition. While the OEB was aware that the Electrification and Energy Transition Panel’s report was to be released around the time of their decision, the OEB decided to go beyond their role as an energy regulator and make major energy policy decisions without waiting for the government’s response stemming from the panel’s final report. That’s unfortunate, because the panel’s recommendations and our government’s response will have a significant impact on the sector and Ontario’s planning decisions.

We brought in experts for a reason. The panel was chaired by David Collie, the past president and CEO of the Electrical Safety Authority of Ontario. Other panel members were Chief Emerita Emily Whetung of Curve Lake First Nation and Professor Monica Gattinger, director of the Institute for Science, Society and Policy, a full professor at the school of political studies and founding chair of Positive Energy at the University of Ottawa. David, Monica and Emily conducted extensive engagements with key energy stakeholders and Indigenous partners across four streams from March to July 2023. In the end, more than 200 stakeholders, Indigenous partners and communities, government departments and agencies, and members of the public provided input to that panel.

In the end, all that work resulted in serious and well-thought-out recommendations. For example, a key recommendation of the electricity panel—Ontario’s Clean Energy Opportunity is the name of that report—was for the government to issue a natural gas policy statement providing clear direction for the long-term role of natural gas in Ontario, something that we intend to do, because, as laid out in their report, natural gas will continue to play a critical role as a source of energy in the province for at least the short and medium term. That recognizes the fact that any major shift away from this fuel source—which supports more than 70%, as I mentioned, of our home heating needs—would require a significant buildout of our grid that couldn’t be accomplished quickly.

Just take Quebec: Quebec uses mostly electric heating. Over the past few years, Ontario has had to step in to supply electricity from our natural gas generating stations on the coldest days of the year to keep the heat on at homes in Quebec and businesses in Quebec. We don’t want us to be in the same position, where families have to worry about if the heat will turn on or not. Under our government, we won’t be.

Given these important observations, there’s no doubt that the OEB decision is out of touch. No one could think that going from a 40-year period to zero years and adding thousands of dollars to the price of a home during a housing crisis is a pragmatic or responsible approach. As a matter of fact, it’s a completely irrational approach to go from 40 years to zero. Even one of the OEB commissioners in the decision, in a rare dissenting opinion, recommended only reducing the horizon to 20 years.

Given these concerns, our government saw an opportunity to continue our work, originally started back in our first mandate, to modernize the Ontario Energy Board. In 2019, my predecessor, the member for Kenora–Rainy River, Minister Rickford, took steps to enhance trust and transparency in Ontario’s energy sector by restructuring the OEB’s governance and operational framework. That was part of the work under the Fixing the Hydro Mess Act.

Today, we’re continuing that work and responding to the concerns raised in the December 2023 decision by proposing legislative changes that would ensure major OEB decisions with far-reaching implications on our constituents—like on natural gas connection costs—don’t happen again without adequate stakeholder consultation and without all the facts about government policy priorities.

Specifically, the Keeping Energy Costs Down Act requires the Ontario Energy Board to conduct broader engagement when conducting both natural gas and electricity hearings. If passed, it also gives the government the authority to reintroduce regulations to require the OEB to notify and invite participation or testimony from specific stakeholders or economic sectors. For example, if we know a decision is going to have a major impact on a particular sector—like transit operators, low-income service providers, the construction industry or a particular government agency like the IESO, the Independent Electricity System Operator—we could require the OEB to notify them and invite their participation.

These changes would also provide the government, through the Minister of Energy, with the authority to require a separate hearing, more formally known as a generic hearing, on any matter of public interest that could arise during an OEB proceeding. This would further ensure that Ontarians’ voices are heard on matters that will affect their families, businesses and communities.

To further protect customers, we’re also proposing to make regulatory changes that would prohibit customers from being required to financially contribute to the construction of certain gas transmission projects. These proposed changes would preserve the historical treatment of natural gas transmission projects under OEB jurisdiction when those projects are specified by government direction. Access to reliable and affordable energy has been critical to landing historic international investments over the past six years, and maintaining the current approach where customers are not required to make upfront payments will ensure Ontario continues to attract critical investments in sectors like the greenhouse sector and the automotive industries in southwestern Ontario.

It wasn’t that long ago when I was the energy critic, Madam Speaker—from 2015 to 2018—and I would talk to the folks from the auto sector all the time. As a matter of fact, Sergio Marchionne, who used to be the CEO of Chrysler, said famously that, under Premier Wynne and the previous Liberal government, Ontario was the least competitive jurisdiction, not in Canada—the least competitive jurisdiction in North America and the world to build cars.

I was the Minister of Economic Development in 2018-19 when we were setting about making sure that Ontario was a competitive place and open for business again when I took the call, in the first four months in that role in government, from the CEO of General Motors Global telling us—the Premier was on the call with me—that after 100 years of building cars and trucks in Oshawa, they were going to be shuttering that plant. I remember specifically the words from the CEO at GM. He said, “This is nothing that your government has done. You’ve inherited an absolute mess. We have full confidence that you’re going to fix the situation, make Ontario a competitive place to do business again, and we’ll be back.” I’m happy to say that we’ve done exactly that and the trucks are rolling off the line in Oshawa, Ontario, again at that General Motors plant.

All of the amendments that we brought forward would enshrine the good principles that have guided sound decision-making for these last number of years and protect against uncertainty. They’re also going to provide reassurance to communities and to businesses that they can rely on the energy system in Ontario, something they previously couldn’t do. Access to reliable, affordable energy is critical to our province’s growth, and these changes are going to help ensure that Ontario remains that attractive place for businesses to invest and families to call home.

Bill 165, the Keeping Energy Costs Down Act, doesn’t stop there. We also proposed to streamline the leave-to-construct process for small energy projects, making reliable and affordable energy options available to communities, homes and businesses in a more cost-effective and timely manner.

Today, anyone looking to connect a new home to Ontario’s natural gas system with a pipeline must obtain a leave-to-construct approval from the OEB if the expected cost of the project will be $2 million or greater. The OEB reviews the application and grants leave to carry out the project if it’s deemed to be in the public interest to do so.

Over the past couple of years, we’ve heard concerns from mayors, councils and agricultural organizations across the province on this issue. I know my colleague the parliamentary assistant has heard these as well at places like ROMA and AMO. They’re concerned that even the smallest projects to connect something like a new home no longer receive the exemption as originally intended.

The changes we’re proposing would allow the government to prescribe conditions in regulation to exempt small projects from leave-to-construct while maintaining the crown’s obligation related to rights-based consultation with Indigenous communities, ensuring that opportunities remain for their input into proposed new projects.

Specifically, if the bill is passed, the government intends to introduce regulations to streamline the leave-to-construct process by exempting small pipeline projects that cost between $2 million and $10 million, provided the crown’s duty-to-consult obligations with Indigenous communities, as I mentioned, have been met. These changes would improve the timelines for pipeline construction and expansion by cutting red tape and expediting the installation of natural gas to rural, remote and underserved communities, helping to support a reliable and cost-effective provincial energy supply.

Speaker, I want to stress that both the government of Ontario and the OEB are committed to ensuring that Indigenous communities have a continued opportunity to bring their views forward and inform any decision that may impact their rights or interests. But these are small projects, for the most part. It’s like relocating gas lines to support transit projects, or connecting a single home or small business or a new condo building, moving a gas line for municipal waterworks and those types of projects.

Project applicants would continue to contact the Ministry of Energy early in the planning process and provide the ministry with a description of the proposed project, including the need for the project, its terminal points, characteristics such as the length and diameter of the pipeline and the proposed route. Along with any additional information requested, the Ministry of Energy will assess whether the proposed project triggers the duty to consult. Where it is triggered, the OEB would then determine whether the crown has adequately discharged its duty to consult prior to granting such applications.

I also want to be clear that for all projects, whether there’s a leave-to-construct proceeding or not, proponents will continue to require authorizations from Ontario ministries and municipalities, including permits and other approvals relating to technical, safety and environmental requirements needed to support the construction of the pipeline.

To ensure the board meaningfully implements the changes outlined in the legislation, I intend to appoint a new chair for the Ontario Energy Board later this winter or early this spring. They will fill the role formerly held by Mr. Richard Dicerni, who passed away last year, just a few weeks after he stepped down from the position of chair.

Before I continue, I just want to take a moment to recognize the late Mr. Dicerni. Richard was a very, very distinguished public servant, who had served provincially and federally under all political stripes—including here in Ontario as Deputy Minister of Energy—before becoming president of Ontario Power Generation back in 1993. Richard had served Ontario and Canada very well during his 25-year career in public service and most recently as chair of the Ontario Energy Board, supporting them in their transition to the new governance structure, focusing on recruitment and organizational governance. He sadly passed away last summer, August 11, 2023.

On behalf of all of us, I want to express our deepest condolences to his wife, Carole Swan, and his family, including his son Patrick, who continues in his father’s footsteps. Patrick serves as an assistant deputy minister and executive officer at Ontario’s Ministry of Health.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank our acting chair, Glenn O’Farrell, who stepped up to fulfill this role on an interim basis following the sudden passing of his colleague. Glenn’s leadership has been appreciated as well, especially as he continues this work until a new permanent chair is appointed.

When the new chair is appointed, I will expect them to continue the hard work of their predecessors and ensure that the board conducts appropriate consultation in line with the proposed legislative requirements before reaching decisions, and to reinforce the government’s priority of supporting affordable, reliable and clean energy for all Ontarians.

Should this legislation be passed, and our new board chair is appointed, the government intends to introduce a natural gas policy statement, as I mentioned earlier, a recommendation of the Electrification and Energy Transition Panel to provide further direction to the Ontario Energy Board. At that point, we would return the issue of natural gas connection costs to the energy board for a new hearing.

I’m pleased to share that our approach has already resulted in early support from across the province. Catherine Swift, president of the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers and Businesses of Canada, said, “This decision would have the effect of discouraging badly needed new home construction, especially regarding affordable housing. The decision would also discourage developers from using natural gas, one of the most efficient and cost-effective energy sources, in new housing developments.” The government’s approach “demonstrates a practicality that is sorely needed in many of our energy policy discussions today.”

The Ontario Greenhouse Alliance, which represents Canada Flowers and Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, said, “This legislation will ensure that Ontario’s energy transition is practical and inclusive of a broader range of economic and social impact considerations....

“In the legislation is equally important direction to ensure that future Ontario Energy Board decisions provide opportunity for a broader range of engagement and testimony from sectors and stakeholders that will be impacted by OEB decisions.

“The challenges of agriculture and food production around the world—providing safe, affordable, sustainable and secure agriculture products—means providing more of Ontario’s greenhouse products to consumers here at home and around the world.

“I’d like to thank the Ontario government for this legislation and ensuring a fair and managed approach to Ontario’s energy transition.”

The CEO of the Ontario Real Estate Association, Tim Hudak, said, “The OEB’s bad move to upend Ontario’s long-standing approach to finance infrastructure like natural gas over time puts new neighbourhoods and desperately needed new homes in jeopardy.

“Ontario’s ambitious housing supply goals necessitate new utility connections and infrastructure, including natural gas, to address the rising affordability crisis.

“OREA is in full support of the Ontario government overturning the OEB decision by whatever means necessary, including via legislation, to ensure Ontario can build the homes we need to house our population, both today and in the future.”

These are just a few of the examples that you’ll hear throughout the debate. But as you hear more, I think you’ll hear one central theme emerge, that being that our government is taking a pragmatic approach to the issue of home heating and the role of natural gas in our system more broadly, an approach that advances a reliable system, that advances an affordable system, one that is maintaining and building on Ontario’s clean energy advantage. That approach also reflects the work that we’re doing as a government to ensure a reliable supply of electricity and that it continues to be available for all Ontarians as demand continues to grow across Ontario.

At the start I mentioned how the incredible economic growth we’re experiencing as a province, alongside an ever-increasing move toward electrification for our homes and businesses and vehicles, and the fact that our population is expected to increase by millions of people by the end of this decade, is impacting our demand for electricity. In fact, for the very first time since 2005—20 years ago—Ontario’s electricity demand is rising. That’s right: For the first time in 20 years we’re experiencing increased electricity demand growth. It’s because of all of the reasons that I talked about earlier: the massive investments that are being made in our province and all of the new homes that we’re building.

In fact, expert analysis from Ontario’s IESO—the Independent Electricity System Operator—shows that electricity demand could more than double by 2050. Think about that for a minute: could double by 2050. That means our entire current supply, which includes all of the nuclear and hydroelectric capacity that we currently have, would need to double to meet the anticipated demand. That represents the biggest build-out of our grid since Sir Adam Beck created our hydroelectric system over a century ago.

That’s why we’re taking action now, and have been for the last couple of years: to ensure that we have the energy. And we know that we’re going to need that energy down the road, so we put these principles in place.

And while we’re already building new projects like the energy storage systems, government and those in the energy sector need to start planning for other major projects immediately so we have new, clean, zero-emissions projects ready to go when we need them.

That’s why, last summer, I released Powering Ontario’s Growth, laying out our plan to provide families and industries with the reliable, low-cost and clean power that we need to power Ontario’s future. It sets out the key steps that we’re taking to provide reliable, low-cost, clean power as our economy grows, as we electrify transportation and industry and we build those new homes. Powering Ontario’s Growth builds on the key strengths of our system in Ontario: our diverse supply mix, made up of nuclear, hydro, natural gas, and intermittent renewables, and soon, the battery storage facilities that will make our system that much more efficient. It also builds on the significant action that we’ve already taken to meet demand through the end of the decade with major projects and procurements, and that includes a $342-million expansion of energy efficiency programs and the largest energy storage procurement in Canada’s history. And it builds on Ontario’s international leadership in nuclear power and SMRs, on our legacy as the birthplace of the Candu reactor—still the safest, most reliable reactors in the world today—and on our reputation as a world-leading source of life-saving, cancer-fighting medical isotopes.

Nuclear power makes up more than half of our current electricity supply. And as a source of affordable and clean power, nuclear energy is why Ontario is able to maintain one of the cleanest electricity grids not just in Canada or North America, but in the entire world. That’s why expanding our province’s nuclear fleet is a key component of our plan to meet future demand. Through Powering Ontario’s Growth, we’ve begun the planning and licensing for three additional small modular reactors at the Darlington new nuclear site to round out the SMR fleet there to four units in all, increasing our supply of clean, non-emitting, reliable baseload power—1.2 gigawatts of new power. That’s enough to power 1.2 million new homes.

A Conference Board of Canada study estimates that construction and operation of four SMRs would increase Canada’s GDP by almost $14 billion and sustain, on average, approximately 2,000 jobs per year. And building four units provides more opportunities for Ontario companies to make investments to expand their operations to serve the growing SMR market both domestically and abroad. These companies are in all of our ridings. There are over 220 companies in our nuclear supply chain, all doing amazing world-class work.

By being North America’s leader in SMRs, we have the potential to grow the 65,000-person-strong nuclear sector that we have here in Ontario as well as drive economic growth and export opportunities that would allow us to be a potential supplier of products, services and expertise across a global market.

We have had visitors from around the world coming to Darlington, to tour the site. I always say, when I have an opportunity to speak about the SMR program, that the world is watching what’s happening at OPG in Darlington. And I could tell you, we’ve had visitors from all around the world: from Poland, from Estonia, from the Czech Republic, to the United Arab Emirates, to Australia. They’re coming from everywhere because we are in the pole position.

We had the governor of Indiana come up, as well, and I told him we were in the pole position. He’s looking forward to the Indy 500 that’s coming up a little bit later on this spring.

In addition to our SMR expansion, we’re working with Bruce Power to begin pre-development work for the province’s first large-scale nuclear station build in more than 30 years. As part of that project, Bruce Power will start community consultations and conduct the environmental assessment for federal approval to determine the feasibility of siting up to 4.8 gigawatts—that’s 4,800 megawatts—of new nuclear generation on its current site of Bruce C. That’s enough generation to power almost five million homes.

Recently, I was at Bruce for the launch of its request-for-information process to evaluate new nuclear technologies that could demonstrate value for ratepayers, stimulate the Ontario economy and be constructed within a timeline that meets Ontario’s clean electricity demands. Initiating this early planning will ensure that the province has a reliable, low-cost and clean option ready to power the next major international investment, all the new homes that we’re building in the province and those industries and sectors across the province as they grow and electrify.

This new supply will complement the extensive work already going on in the sector, and that includes the significant progress that has been made on refurbishment projects at Darlington and the major component replacements at Bruce. The refurbishments of these Candu reactors at Darlington and Bruce, which have been on time—actually, ahead of schedule—and on budget, represent the largest clean energy projects in Ontario, securing a steady supply of emissions-free baseload power.

Just last month, I announced that our government is supporting Ontario Power Generation’s plan to proceed with the next steps toward refurbishing Pickering Nuclear Generating Station’s B units, securing another 2,000-plus megawatts at that site.

Madam Speaker, the world is watching. They’re looking to Ontario to leverage our expertise as they make decisions on their own nuclear projects, including their own SMR deployment, to help them achieve energy independence, clean the air and meet their climate goals. That was apparent during my recent nuclear trade mission to France and the United Kingdom, and COP 28 in Dubai. Through meetings and events, I caught up with many of the jurisdictions who are looking to Ontario to inform the development of their own SMR programs, like Estonia, Poland, the UK and many others. In fact, Estonia’s Fermi Energia has chosen GE Hitachi’s SMR technology, the BWRX-300, for deployment in Estonia, specifically citing the Darlington SMR project as a factor in their selection decision.

It’s clear that there is recognition globally that nuclear power is essential to achieving net-zero goals and long-term energy security, particularly in the face of Russian aggression and the unprovoked attack of Ukraine. In Dubai, we saw 22 countries, including Canada, sign an international resolution to triple global nuclear capacity by the year 2050, and I also signed a partnership agreement, along with my colleague the Minister of the Environment, while in Dubai, making Ontario the first subnational jurisdiction in the world to join the Net Zero Nuclear initiative to help the world deploy reliable, affordable, clean nuclear energy, to provide energy security for countries around the world.

With Ontario already well ahead of the curve, with decades of experience with our Candu reactors and years ahead of the world on SMRs, we have an incredible opportunity to export our expertise, our experience and materials from our world-class nuclear supply chain, helping to create even more jobs here at home. And while I know not every party in this Legislature supports our nuclear workers—just a week ago, the energy critic from the NDP and the MPP for University–Rosedale said in a flyer for a town hall meeting that “nuclear is harmful to the environment and human health”—our government will always stand with our nuclear workers, who do so much for our province.

Beyond nuclear energy, Powering Ontario’s Growth is also committed to continuing our competitive approach to procuring a diverse set of resources to meet our growing capacity and energy needs, an approach that has already delivered early successes. The IESO’s first medium-term request for proposal re-contracted five facilities, representing more than 700 megawatts of capacity, at about a 30% savings compared to the previous government’s contracts.

We’ve also achieved impressive results with the province’s recent expedited long-term request for proposals, which kicked off the largest clean energy storage procurement in Canada’s history, an achievement for which I was very proud to receive the Friend of Energy Storage Award from the team at Energy Storage Canada. Through this procurement, the IESO has already secured contracts with 15 energy storage facilities, acquiring a total of 880 megawatts of capacity. And Indigenous participation in this procurement was significant, nine of the 15 contracts having at least 50% Indigenous ownership. I’m looking forward to seeing similar success stories with the first long-term RFP, the LT1 procurement, which is currently under way.

Just to keep in mind: This competitive approach is drastically different than the Liberals’ Green Energy Act, which awarded handsome, lucrative, way-over-market-price feed-in tariff contracts. You will all recall the 80-cent-per-kilowatt-hour solar contracts that were awarded during the Green Energy Act. Those contracts continued to be signed year after year, after the price of electricity was tripling in Ontario under the Liberals’ watch.

On top of all of these things that we’re doing, including bringing a competitive approach to procuring the energy that we need, we’re also investing in low-carbon hydrogen projects that will promote sustainability in the sector and contribute to our clean energy economy. We’re proceeding, again, with the competitive procurement of non-emitting energy resources to meet demand and support the operation of our grid. We’re building out our transmission system to distribute electricity to new areas of the province, all over the province, so that everybody can participate in our growing energy sector. We’re increasing energy efficiency programs in the electricity and natural gas sectors.

Just like with home heating, natural gas generation is part of our pragmatic approach to keeping the lights on, an approach reinforced by the Independent Electricity System Operator, whose natural gas phase-out study that I asked them for said, “Natural gas generation plays a crucial role in the reliability of the electricity grid. It provides a range of services that no other resource today can provide on its own, including producing large amounts of power to meet high demand and running for extended periods when other resources are not available.”

In short, while most of the time Ontario can meet its electricity generation needs with nuclear and hydroelectric and biomass and renewables, we need to face reality. Sometimes the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow, which is why natural gas is needed to meet those peaks and to keep the lights on when demand surges and ensure we don’t have to resort to emergency actions like rotating blackouts.

I was in Edmonton about a month ago now, stepped off the plane, and it was minus 42 degrees Celsius. I don’t know if you remember how cold it was in Alberta during that weekend. Their system operator, the AESO, was sending out bulletins to the residents of Alberta—kind of like we do our Amber Alerts here in Ontario—advising the residents in Alberta to conserve their electricity immediately or they were going to experience brownouts and blackouts.

Why did they have to do that? Because the wind fleet that they have did not show up. It was so cold, the wind turbines couldn’t turn, so they needed Saskatchewan’s natural gas and British Columbia’s natural gas to keep the lights on in Alberta and keep their residents warm. Natural gas comes back to save the day again in Alberta.

Ontario’s existing natural gas plants are doing the exact same thing right now. They’re the insurance policy to keep the lights on. I think, as a matter of fact, down at the Portlands generating station right here on the waterfront in Toronto, when it was built, it was strategically placed there to keep the lights on in downtown Toronto on the hottest and coldest days of the year. We know all too well what can happen if those plants are removed too quickly.

It was last summer when a large crane—not the bird, the piece of mechanical equipment—came into contact with a high-voltage transmission line, disconnecting the Portlands plant down there. The disconnection caused an extensive, hours-long power outage in downtown Toronto that disrupted the lives of millions of families and businesses that work here every day. Imagine if you live on the 50th floor of one of these condo buildings here and the elevators are out, which they were for hours.

The fact is, there is currently in the province no like-for-like replacement for natural gas. That’s why the IESO has concluded that natural gas generation is needed to maintain system reliability. In the end, thanks to our early planning, Ontario is well positioned with enough electricity to power growth in the near term. And, as our panel report has pointed out, we’ve got to be careful to pace the rate of increase in electricity demand with the rate at which new supply can come on stream. That’s why our government has done so much to prepare for the latter part of this decade and beyond.

Madam Speaker, as Ontario plans for a prosperous future and an energy system that continues to deliver power that is clean, reliable and affordable for all of its citizens, Bill 165, Keeping Energy Costs Down Act, is critical to our success. It recognizes that we’re working in a complex landscape with distinct regions. We are a massive, massive province. We have unique communities and organizations across this massive province that are facing unique challenges, but they’re also facing unique opportunities. And the legislative changes that this bill proposes are going to enable us to cut red tape. It’s going to enable us to get transit and homes built faster and without additional financial burden on customers. These changes will improve Ontario Energy Board processes, ensuring that the public has more input into OEB decisions, and will ensure those decisions are made with clarity on future government policy priorities to protect ratepayers.

Again, just imagine hearing this case without getting feedback from the Independent Electricity System Operator as to whether or not there’s enough electricity planned or in the system to ensure that we would have the electricity and the energy that we need to keep our residents warm each and every winter, and allow for our air conditioning to turn on in the summer.

Finally, Bill 165 is going to preserve customer energy choices by ensuring that natural gas remains an available and affordable option for all consumers.

Madam Speaker, when our government took office, we made a promise to put people first and make life easier and more affordable for families and businesses while sending a clear message that Ontario is open for business. We’ve seen the results of the work that we’ve done. Ontario is open for business. It is a powerhouse in North America. It is the economic engine in our country, once again, after years of Liberal policies that drove hundreds of thousands of jobs to other jurisdictions in North America and elsewhere in the world. The Keeping Energy Costs Down Act is going to allow us to continue to build on that promise, Madam Speaker, and ensure that Ontario is that economic powerhouse.