Thanks to the member opposite for the question this morning. What our government is committed to is ensuring that the people of Ontario and the businesses in Ontario have a reliable supply of electricity, that we have an affordable supply of electricity—something that never happened under the previous government’s watch, as a matter of fact, as hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs left our province. They left our country for other jurisdictions because of the Liberal energy policy.

What we have done through the success of our Premier’s strategy and our Minister of Economic Development bringing companies back, repatriating companies to Ontario by electrifying our vehicle fleet, by electrifying our green steel-making process—we need electricity. We have a competitive procurement in place to acquire that electricity—790 megawatts, as a matter of fact, and the most recent procurement at a 30% savings from what was contracted by the previous government.

I know that’s a new member over there and he probably doesn’t remember the policies of the previous Liberal government that forced energy projects on communities without any type of consultation. They didn’t care about a willing host community over there, Mr. Speaker, which is why in 2018 the people of Ontario reduced that party to seven seats. And you know what? The people of Ontario didn’t forget in 2022, because now they’ve got eight seats, largely because of the energy policy.

The Minister of Municipal Affairs and our government have committed to working with the municipalities and the Independent Electricity System Operator to make sure there is consultation with municipalities for new energy projects so that we don’t have the mess, the divisiveness and the unaffordable crisis that we saw in Ontario created by the previous Liberal government.

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker, we’re in a rush to procure enough electricity to replace the Pickering nuclear plant closing in 2025. How do we know it’s a rush? Well, this government has an expedited procurement for power starting in 2027, with a big bonus for starting earlier. For example, if you produce electricity on business days between May and August 2025, they’ll pay you 50% more.

In July 2018, this government cancelled renewable energy projects, letting hundreds of millions of dollars of investments go down the drain and losing four precious years. The Premier said then that he was “so proud” to have done that. Now we realize that we need that clean electricity.

You have to dig a little, but the list of qualified applicants for the next round of long-term procurement is full of renewable energy. Can we just admit that this government is quietly getting back into renewable energy, something it should never have abandoned?

La clôture de la centrale Pickering constitue une menace—peu de temps; contraintes liées au changement climatique. On ne peut pas attendre jusqu’à la prochaine élection. Et alors je voudrais influencer le programme du gouvernement maintenant.

I would like the government to think about the following question for the good of Ontario: We’ll need to produce lots of renewable energy quickly. Developers are already approaching landowners quietly in anticipation. Could the energy and the municipal affairs ministers talk and then start now to help municipalities prepare for deciding how they will or will not be part of this critical project? For example, could they help municipalities decide whether or not to zone areas for wind and solar projects now, so that developers could know beforehand where they could build clean energy projects with the speed we need?