The residents of Windsor–Tecumseh—and truly all Ontarians—saw it on their hydro bills every month: The previous Liberal government ignored the needs of Ontarians when it came to providing reliable and cost-effective clean, green energy. As Premier Wynne stated about her Liberal government’s record, “‘Electricity prices are going to have to go up. How are we going to pay for this?’ I heard it. But ... I don’t think I took it seriously enough.”

As the Auditor General pointed out in her 2015 report, we spent $9.2 billion more than we needed to for green energy programs because of reckless policies.

The Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks recently attended the 15th International Conference on Candu Fuel in Ajax. Could the minister share what lessons he learned from this conference and what actions we are taking as a government to avoid the mistakes made by the previous Liberal government on green technology innovation?

We’ve seen how other parties played politics and stood on the sidelines, criticizing innovations and new technology without offering viable solutions. Could the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks elaborate on how we are tackling climate change by supporting electricity-generating technology and innovative solutions like SMRs?

Thanks to the member from Canada’s clean energy capital, the Durham region, for this question this morning. It’s important, because when I talk to people who are interested in buying an EV, one of the first things that they talk to me about is potential range anxiety. They want to know that when they buy a car, they’re going to be able to get to where they want to go and not run out of electricity.

That’s why we’ve taken the steps to ensure that the EVs have the charging stations that they need in the province. Unlike the previous Liberal government that did everything they could to slow down EV uptake in our province, by driving the price of electricity through the roof and putting EV charging stations at places where they’re plugged in all day and only one vehicle can go there, like a GO station, we’re taking the steps to ensure that we’re building EV chargers at every single ONroute across the province, so that when people are travelling to visit our beautiful province, they can go to the Thousand Islands, or they can go to Sarnia–Lambton, or they can go to Kingston and the Islands, or they can go to London, or they can go to Brantford. They can go anywhere they want along the 400 series of highways and get a charge and power up.

That’s why, last year, I provided direction to the Independent Electricity System Operator that sets out the path to procure new electricity generation in our province over the next 10 years through a competitive process. This work is well under way. Just recently, we were able to renew new capacity, new generation in our province, saving the people of Ontario 30%-plus along the way. Unlike the former Liberal government, which drove up the cost of electricity, we have a plan in place that’s going to provide reliable and affordable energy—