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—

Interjection.

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.

Thanks to the great member from Perth–Wellington, who no doubt feels the pinch as he drives in to Queen’s Park every day. People across the province are feeling it as they take their kids to hockey playoff games and—of course, soccer and baseball games are getting started. Construction workers are making their way in to work on our brand new subway systems we’re building here in Toronto—and the refurbishments that we’re doing at our nuclear facilities at Bruce Power.

It’s costing a lot of money, is the bottom line, and it’s having an impact on people as they plan for their summer getaways. Maybe they’re planning on taking a tour across Ontario and visiting one of the most beautiful provinces in the entire country and some of the great places that we have, like Prince Edward county, Tobermory and all those great tourist attractions.

I was down in Niagara Falls; you might have heard of it. It’s a pretty significant tourist attraction in our province and in the world.

The bottom line is, Bonnie Crombie, the queen of the carbon tax, the Liberal leader, is supportive of federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax, which went up a whopping 23% a week ago—it’s resulting in $1.80 at the pumps today. It’s completely unacceptable.

As a matter of fact, the federal environment minister says she’s happy to have the federal carbon tax in place.

We are opposed to that. We believe there should not be a carbon tax in the province.

The member, in his question, said it’s not having an impact; it’s not driving down emissions in our province.

The federal environment commissioner said the federal government is missing out on all of its climate goals. So all they’re doing is punishing people across our province and across our country.

We’re seeing the results at the grocery store. We’re seeing the results on our natural gas bills—massive increases to our natural gas bills. And we’re certainly seeing it at the gasoline pumps—$1.80 a litre today in parts of Ontario.

Prime Minister Trudeau and the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, need to do a 180 and do away with the federal carbon tax now.

Thank you to the very robust member from Perth–Wellington, who comes from one of the largest agricultural communities in the entire province.

The carbon tax isn’t just affecting energy bills; the cost is affecting everything that we purchase in the province and making life more unaffordable for the people of Ontario. That’s why, under the leadership of Premier Ford, we’ve fought the federal carbon tax since 2018. It is causing, obviously, a tax on greenhouses where tomatoes are grown. It’s putting a tax on the transportation to get those tomatoes to the grocery store. It’s creating a tax at the grocery store, where they’re paying the carbon tax. So, clearly, it is having a multiplying effect and driving up the cost of everything, and everybody seems to understand that across Canada except for federal Liberals and Ontario Liberals in this House.

We know the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, supports her federal cousins Justin Trudeau and Steven Guilbeault. We don’t, Mr. Speaker.

Now, the federal Liberal government wants to slap the carbon tax on everybody, and they don’t just want to slap it on now, which they did last week; they want to increase it by triple by the end of the decade, which is unheard of. It’s going to make everything in our province unattainable and more expensive.

At the same time, the NDP in this House are opposed to Bill 165—which is going to make it impossible for natural gas to be extended to these same grain farmers who want to use it to drive down their emissions from higher-emitting fuels.

So there’s only one party you can really trust when it comes to the energy system in Ontario, and that is Premier Doug Ford and our Ministry of Energy that’s making life more affordable for the people of Ontario, in spite—

Well, the OEB, in its own decision, said it was going to cost about $4,400, but they were looking at a cul-de-sac in the GTHA when they were using that analysis. We know and you know, certainly, being from Perth–Wellington, just how much more it’s going to cost to get that extra line out to your home or to the farms that are—boy, they’re starving for more natural gas in your community. I hear from them all the time at ROMA and AMO. It’s going to cost them tens of thousands of dollars more.

That’s why we won’t let this stand. That’s why we’re coming back with our natural gas policy, so that the Ontario Energy Board will be able to reconsider government policy and ensure that they’re hearing from the proper people, including the Independent Electricity System Operator, home builders, contractors, farmers and those who will be impacted by these additional costs that are heaped onto them as a result of this misguided decision.

In Niagara, where my colleague is from, a new business customer would see an upfront connection charge of approximately $53,000. That’s $53,000 more that they would have to pay up front instead of amortizing this over a 40-year period. Anybody who thinks that going from 40 years to zero years is rational is completely irrational—it just is. A recent restaurant project in Niagara would cost approximately $13,000 more up front. So it’s going to have an impact on the residents in Niagara, just as it would right across the province.

We have an opportunity, particularly in our greenhouse sector, to be a world leader. We already are, but we have an opportunity to grow that even more. And providing them with the ability to amortize the cost of pipelines up to 40 years makes a heck of a lot of sense and will increase our GDP dramatically.

The dissenting commissioner’s opinion, Allison Duff, was very, very clear as well: that the OEB commissioners didn’t hear from the stakeholders that they needed to hear from. They didn’t hear from the farmers, they didn’t hear from the home builders, they didn’t hear from the contractors, and most importantly, they didn’t hear from the system operator that manages our electricity grid. So we’re going to put this back in the OEB’s court once we set our natural gas policy.