Speaker, as everyone knows, insurance rates are going up. People are getting sick at work from heatstroke. People are being forced from their homes by out-of-control forest fires. These damages from climate change are already here. It is not a distant issue but one people are being hit with today.

We need to help people make their homes better able to withstand extreme weather. We need to ensure that the measures to protect people from climate-driven floods are not abandoned, as is being done with attacks on conservation authorities; in fact, we need to put in more flood protections. Making homes and communities safer from fire saves lives and avoids huge personal and financial costs. Failure to act and, in fact, action that makes things worse mean that people will lose their homes and that all of us will pay higher insurance premiums.

The government’s refusal to carry out a credible climate plan or to put in place measures to protect us from existing climate damage is hurting people in Ontario.

The government must act now on climate.

Speaker, to the Premier: Last Thursday, Canada released its annual report on greenhouse gas emissions. Ontario is showing sharp increases in GHGs since they bottomed out at the beginning of the pandemic. The report showed the increases in Ontario’s emissions were the largest in Canada.

The Conservatives’ inadequate climate plan is headed towards failure. When will the Premier take action to sharply cut Ontario’s emissions to protect our standard of living?

My question is to the Premier. Throughout this past summer’s heat waves, unprecedented wildfires, deadly smoke and catastrophic flooding, your government has done virtually nothing to prepare Ontarians for the impact of the climate crisis. In fact, you have suppressed vital reports that could help Ontarians and local governments address these horrendous impacts of climate breakdown.

Will the Premier commit today to release all reports of the climate change impact assessment and the report of the Advisory Panel on Climate Change?

I’m going back to the Premier. Last week, the province’s Financial Accountability Officer released yet another report showing how Ontario will be paying a fortune for the impacts of climate change on public infrastructure. The burden of dealing with washed-out roads, disrupted municipal water supply and downed hydro lines will be huge for Ontarians. And yet, your government won’t even release the reports detailing what we need to do to protect the public.

When will you release the reports so communities can take steps to protect themselves from the climate disasters you are creating?

Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity. As you’re well aware, we face a crisis around the climate. We have wildfires in Canada that are unprecedented; we’ve seen them around the world—flooding, drought, disruption of food supply—problems that are profound and are scheduled or expected to become far deeper.

At the same time, we have a government that is ramping up the production of gas-fired electricity. It’s undermining the work that was done over a decade ago to reduce emissions from our electricity sector, and frankly, they’re setting things up for electricity to be more expensive to be produced. That’s a simple reality. We know that just recently, $4.8 million was offered to Napanee to host a gas plant. We know that these gas plants will increase air pollution, cause health problems and deepen the climate crisis.

Royal Bank of Canada and the Electricity Distributors Association of Ontario have both said that there is a cheaper, non-burning option to address this issue. That’s been ignored by this government. I call on the government to abandon its investment in expansion of gas plants, take the solutions offered by the Royal Bank and by the electricity distributors, and put money in the hands of homeowners and businesses across Ontario to cut their energy use and to cut their energy bills. The direction the government is going is disastrous.

Speaker, my question is to the Minister of the Environment.

This week, Superior Court Judge Marie-Andrée Vermette issued a decision on a legal challenge filed against Ontario by seven young Ontarians for the weakness of its climate targets. She found that Ontario’s target “falls severely short” of what the scientific consensus requires and that this increases the risk to Ontarians’ life and health.

Why won’t the minister act to protect the life and health of Ontarians?

What will it take for this government to actually protect the health and lives of the people of this province?

My question is to the Premier. The climate crisis is already driving up the price of food. It’s causing power outages and it’s forcing people out of their homes. Yesterday, the United Nations panel on climate change pleaded for aggressive climate action from governments around the world to deal with the crisis we’re facing.

What we have is a government whose plan is a complete failure. It will not do what is needed. It will not meet the United Nations standard. When will the Premier cut emissions by the amount necessary to protect the people of Ontario?

The cuts have to happen now—now. When will he take the action we need?

Speaker, to the Premier: During the provincial election, 11 people died in a climate pump storm system that charged through Ontario and Quebec. The climate crisis is deadly and yet the Premier has no credible climate plan. When will the Premier present a serious and funded plan to address the climate crisis?