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.

Thanks to the member for Newmarket–Aurora for a great question this morning.

Once again, I’m going to stand up in the Legislature, as I have for the last several months—or, actually, a couple of years now—and talk about the fact that the federal carbon tax imposed by Justin Trudeau and the Liberals is driving up the cost of everything, from gasoline to food. People are choosing between heating and eating in this country.

And the huddle has broken over here. The Liberals are back on the line. We still don’t know exactly how they feel about the queen of the carbon tax Bonnie Crombie’s position today. She revealed it about 45 minutes ago—that she won’t be imposing a provincial carbon tax.

Our question for the Ontario Liberal caucus—because we know we’ve had members of that caucus stand up and say that people in Ontario and people in Canada are better off with the federal carbon tax than they would be without it—is what will they say today to Justin Trudeau and the federal Liberals? Will they join us in asking for them to scrap that tax?

Will she stand with us? Will these Liberals that are here, the nine of them that are here, stand with us, and will they stand with our friends in the NDP, who are calling for an end to the federal carbon tax? You all should stand up as join us this morning as we call for Justin Trudeau and the federal Liberals to—

Interjections.

Thank you to the new member of the Green Party for the question. I believe it’s her first question in the Legislature—

Interjection: Second.

You know what? It’s really, really important that the people of Ontario understand that the Green Party has been fairly consistent in their views on where we’re going, while the NDP and the Liberals continue to try and figure out what it is that they want to do.

What I can tell you is what we’re doing here in Ontario, as the government of Ontario and the Progressive Conservative government, is ensuring that we have a diverse energy system, one that is reliable for the people of Ontario so that we will continue to see the growing economy that we’ve been experiencing that the minister of economic development just explained to the Liberal members in their small caucus here. We are seeing thousands, hundreds of thousands, of jobs coming back to our province, because we have a reliable, affordable and clean energy sector here in Ontario, one that’s seeing Ontario become the engine of Canada’s economy—

Interjection.

The Green Party members and the NDP can look up at the members of the Canadian Propane Association who are here today and tell them, “Get out of our province. We don’t want you anymore”—because, basically, that’s what they’re saying—when there are people across this province who live in rural and northern parts of our province who need propane; they need natural gas to heat their home. They need a reliable, affordable, clean energy system.

We’re very, very lucky that we live in one of the cleanest jurisdictions in the entire world when it comes to energy. Some 3% of the province’s emissions are coming from our electricity sector, but they want us to shut down natural gas plants. The NDP energy critic wants to shut down natural gas and nuclear. Where would that—

Yes. We’re exploring innovative new solutions in our world-class nuclear sector as well, with cutting-edge advancements in medical life-saving isotopes and small modular reactors, or SMRs. In fact, we’re making progress on developing the country’s first grid-scale SMR at the Darlington new nuclear site. This isn’t only a first for Canada, but it’s a first for the Western world and G7 countries. As a result, we’re attracting major interest from around the world, helping us open new export opportunities for our province in countries like Poland and Estonia and the Czech Republic, and the list goes on and on.

This incredible economic growth, alongside a population that’s forecast to increase by millions of people by the end of this decade, means that we need a lot more energy. One of the biggest drivers of that demand is our government’s plan to build one and a half million new homes for Ontario’s growing population by 2031. Bill 165, if passed, would make the legislative changes needed to help ensure that these homes get built faster and that the families who buy them have affordable choices for home heating.

But before we get too far into that discussion, I think we really need to set the playing field and consider where we are today. If you look broadly at our province’s entire energy demand, natural gas currently meets 39% while electricity only meets 21%. If you look at home heating, natural gas plays an even bigger role. It’s the primary heating source for approximately 70% of the people in this province, or about 3.8 million homes. While our government is supporting new options through the Clean Home Heating Initiative that I mentioned earlier, we still need to ensure that we have broad access to all forms of heating, and that includes natural gas.

That’s why I was extremely disappointed in an Ontario Energy Board decision that was made just before Christmas in late December that would effectively increase the cost of new homes. In an unusual two-to-one split decision, and this is very unusual at the OEB, the Ontario Energy Board reduced the revenue horizon—that’s the period of time that natural gas utilities use to calculate the upfront costs of new gas connections—for new residential and small commercial gas connections from 40 years, which has been in existence for almost 30 years—amortizing the cost from 40 years down to zero years by January 1 of next year.

What this means is that natural gas connection costs, which are normally paid over those five years, would be owed in full upfront, and that would lead to thousands of dollars added to the cost of building new homes. To be frank, the OEB simply strayed out of its jurisdiction, out of its lane when making this decision. It’s not only a huge departure from the realities of our energy system, but it’s also a huge departure from the historical practice which, as I say, has been in place for nearly 30 years—since 1998.

In fact, according to the OEB’s own decision, the cost of a new home would increase by about $4,400 on average across the province. Yes, that’s bad enough, adding $4,400 to the cost of a new home. But it would cost significantly more, in the tens of thousands of dollars, for farms and residences in rural and northern Ontario that have access to these natural gas pipelines. Think what happens when a residence in rural or northern Ontario can’t connect to natural gas. I’m sure there are some members of the NDP and maybe a few in the Liberals who would just tell them to go buy an electric heat pump and hope for the best. As a matter of fact, we just heard the member from Sudbury supporting a petition in the Legislature telling them to do exactly that. But in Ontario, especially in the harsh winters that you can experience here in Canada, in northern Ontario in particular, that may not be a realistic option.

Madam Speaker, I installed a heat pump at my house a number of years ago. I really like it. I don’t have access to natural gas where I live because I live out in the boonies in Quinte West. But even during a southern Ontario winter, even during a winter like this one that’s been pretty mild compared to other winter seasons, my furnace—my electric furnace—still kicks on on the coldest days of the year to keep my house warm, meaning that the electric open air heat pump can’t always heat my home.

So what do you do, Madam Speaker, if the NDP or the Liberals or the Greens had their way? They would have everybody on open air heat pumps, and there would be times during the year where people actually would be freezing in their home because they can’t keep their house warm. If folks in northern and rural Ontario don’t have access to natural gas like those in the big cities do, they’re often forced to rely on home heating oil or propane, which are more emitting than natural gas is and they’re also more expensive.

Now, one argument I’ve already heard from the opposition is that this additional cost of connecting to natural gas is carried by the developer and it’s not—

Thanks very much to the member opposite for the question.

Quite the opposite: We’re investing in clean, non-emitting generation here in our province, like our nuclear facilities which are on time and ahead of schedule—those big Candu reactors at Darlington and Bruce—and potentially extending Pickering as well, where we get 60% of our clean, non-emitting electricity every day.

We’re investing in the largest procurement in Canada’s history in battery storage facilities. These are going to be located across the province to support all of the growth that we’re seeing in Ontario right now. Under the Premier’s watch, we’re seeing multi-billion dollar investments every day on an EV strategy.

I will point out that the member opposite loves his renewables. There is a role for renewables. But last Thursday, during the hottest day of the year, when it comes to solar, 14% of the solar capacity in our province showed up. If this member was in charge of our grid, we would have brownouts—

According to our system operator—I asked them last year what it would mean if we were to phase out gas in our system. They said it would be $100 extra per family per month—that’s more than a hydro bill—and it would result in brownouts and blackouts in our system. That is what the member opposite is advocating for. We’re not going to be doing that.

We’re going to make sure we’ve got the power that’s there so that we can continue to see the record, multi-billion dollar investments that the Minister of Economic Development and the Premier are bringing home to Ontario from other jurisdictions. They’re doing it because we have a clean grid.

We are going to ensure the power is there when residents go to turn on their lights in the morning and manufacturers are set to build—

As a matter of fact, I can. Thanks again to the member.

All types of businesses, including those in the automotive sector, are placing a greater emphasis on corporate environmental goals to use 100% clean or renewable energy. This registry announced this morning means those businesses are going to have one more tool to meet those commitments and demonstrate that their electricity has been sourced from clean resources.

We had the folks from Bruce Power here earlier this morning, as well. They’ve got a great medical isotope announcement that James Scongack is making later today.

As well, proceeds from this credit registry, these sales, are going to go into the newly established future clean energy electricity fund. That means we’re going to be reinvesting that money in Ontario for new clean energy projects that are only going to make our grid greener, make our grid more reliable, and drive down electricity costs for the people of Ontario.