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.

Thanks very much to the great member from Haliburton–Kawartha Lakes–Brock, one of the sweetest members of this Legislature, no doubt, who has concerns and has shared them with us here at the Legislature that she’s been hearing from her constituents. But it is not just constituents from Kawartha Lakes-Brock that are feeling the impact of the punitive carbon tax, it’s residents of Toronto, it’s resident of London, it’s resident of Ottawa, it’s residents right across the country, because of Prime Minister Trudeau’s massive increase to the carbon tax on April 1, last Monday. It’s having an impact at the grocery stores. It’s having an impact at the gas pumps. It’s having an impact on your home heating.

So what we’ve done is ensure that we’ve reduced the cost of gasoline by 10.7 cents a litre. We’re making sure that there’s an Ontario Electricity Rebate for the people of Ontario. We’ve eliminated fees and tolls and licence plate sticker fees. And we’ve introduced One Fare for transit riders right across the GTHA. Every step of the way, we’re doing everything we can to make sure that life is more affordable for the people of Ontario while the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, and her pal Justin Trudeau are driving are up the carbon tax by a whopping 23% last week—

We’ve done everything we can to get this message through to the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau. As a matter of fact, the Premier sent him off another letter last weekend, encouraging him to step away from this harmful policy. But what did he do? He said, “Well, we wouldn’t have this carbon tax if we still had cap-and-trade.” That is just another energy tax, Mr. Speaker.

What we’re saying is get rid of the carbon tax. Get rid of cap-and-trade. Make life more affordable for the people of Ontario today. He could have done it last Monday. He still has time.

Thanks to the member from Carleton. She’s a great advocate for the people of the Ottawa region, and particularly in the riding of Carleton. She’s helping with the affordability crisis that Justin and Jagmeet have created in our province and across our country.

We’re bringing forward changes here every day to make life more affordable, whether it’s ending the carbon tax, which we did back in 2018—and fought it all the way to the Supreme Court; removing 10 cents a litre on the price of gasoline; bringing our electricity prices under control through the comprehensive electricity plan and the Ontario electricity rebates; all the fees that we’re returning to people to try to make life more affordable.

The members of the Ontario Liberal caucus continue to stand up and say that the people of Ontario are better off now than they were because of the carbon tax. It’s unbelievable. It’s shocking that we hear those kinds of statements made, when it’s obvious to everyone, including the federal Liberals, that the carbon tax is having a negative impact on the lives of the people of Canada and the people here in Ontario.

Just this week, on Monday, I was in Saskatchewan with Minister Duncan, their energy minister there responsible for SaskPower, entering into a new agreement with SaskPower and Laurentis Energy and OPG to deploy small modular reactors. Of course, we’re leading the way here in Ontario, not just in Canada, but around the world, on our small modular reactor program. That’s reliable, affordable, emissions-free power that we’re going to be able to send all around the world and to Saskatchewan as well, Mr. Speaker.

The NDP are twisting themselves in knots again. I’m curious to see what they do now that the Ontario Federation of Labour has fully supported our decision to build out our nuclear fleet here in Ontario, which is world-leading.

It’s a bit like Groundhog Day, listening to the member from Ottawa South talking about the things that we can do to reduce the cost of living, when he votes against every single thing that we bring forward. The member from Ottawa South was a part of the caucus that introduced the Green Energy Act, one of the most harmful pieces of legislation in this province’s history. Their energy minister told us, at the time, that it was going to cost a dollar more a month on electricity bills. We know that drove people from every part of our province into energy poverty and reduced his caucus to a minivan caucus—

Interjections.