My question is to the Minister of Energy. My colleague the member for Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston has put forward a strong motion that calls on the federal government to take immediate steps to eliminate the carbon tax on fuels and inputs for home heating.

For many individuals and families, especially in northern Ontario, the use of fuels to heat their homes is a necessity, not a luxury. Unfortunately, for many people in rural, remote, and northern Ontario cities, they are extremely limited in the options they have when it comes to heating their homes. It is not right and it is unfair that they are being punished by this regressive carbon tax simply because of the fuel that they need to survive.

Speaker, through you, can the minister please speak to what impact eliminating the carbon tax would have on the energy bills of so many Ontarians, especially in rural, remote and northern communities?

Unfortunately, not everyone in the Legislature shares the same view about the negative impacts that the carbon tax has had on so many Ontarians and our electricity system. As we saw last week, the opposition Liberals voted against our motion to remove the carbon tax on groceries.

Speaker, through you, can the minister please share the concerns of so many Ontarians regarding why anyone would ever support this regressive carbon tax?

I want to thank the member from Carleton for a great question. She’s absolutely right once again: Heating fuels like natural gas and propane are often the only options for people in rural and remote parts of Ontario, including our First Nations. Over 70% of Ontarians heat their homes with natural gas and propane. Just this year alone, the federal carbon tax, as we’ve already established, is adding hundreds of dollars to those customers’ bills, making life more unaffordable—it’s about $25 a month per family.

These families and households are still facing the same challenges as the 2.5% of people who use home heating fuel. They’re the only ones that are being exempted from the carbon tax by Canada’s federal government. It doesn’t make any sense. Why are we not exempting all of those other people that are heating with natural gas and propane from the carbon tax as well?

I want to thank the member from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston for a great motion, and hopefully the Liberal caucus here will stop turning themselves in knots—

Interjection.

The Premier has already said it this morning: The carbon tax is wrong. It’s not fair to the people of Ontario. We need the opposition parties in this Legislature to join us and encourage the feds to scrap—

Interjections.