Yet another example of how the carbon tax is hurting Ontarians—and there’s a better way. Of course, there are industries that can’t help but produce CO₂ in what they do to make our lives better every day.

You can have a carbon tax that’s punitive against everyday individuals, or maybe you can go about it in a different way, like this government has gone about it; like this Premier, like this Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade—by supporting electric arc furnaces in Hamilton and Sault Ste. Marie, taking the equivalent of two million cars off the road. That’s an incredible number. And you can go about it a different way, in opening up the opportunities for carbon capture and storage in Ontario, like we’re doing through my ministry, to make sure that that CO₂ never hits the air and is safely stored for eternity—or provide options around green hydrogen. There are other ways. It’s called supporting business, not being punitive to the families in Ontario with a carbon tax that achieves absolutely nothing.

But here we are—again, a government that’s taking steps to make Ontario greener and cleaner. The Minister of Energy is expanding our nuclear fleet. The Minister of Mines is working on building that road to the Ring of Fire, which will extract those precious metals to support the EV battery capital of the world here in Ontario, thanks to the great work of our Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade and the support that this government has shown for what the future of automobiles will be.

There’s so much opportunity to support businesses in Ontario. Through my ministry, our forest biomass program, a $20-million program, is looking towards innovation, looking towards a green economy: use of wood products in medicine, bioplastics, 3D printing green economy, biodiesel, even jet fuel—fewer emissions, more jobs. Fewer emissions, more jobs, Mr. Speaker: It’s that easy. That’s what innovation looks like.

This carbon tax is punitive. All it does is beat up the wallet. Well, we’re not going to support it. We’re going to support businesses here in Ontario.

I’ll be sharing my time with the member from Don Valley West. It’s always an honour to rise in the House to discuss matters of importance to the constituents of Don Valley East and, more broadly, across the entire province. Today, of course, we’re discussing Bill 146 and the fall economic statement, and I have to admit that it is clear this government has been so busy covering its tracks and reversing its commitments that they have not been able to focus on the matters of real importance to Ontarians. Indeed, they’ve been so preoccupied with a range of things—the greenbelt debacle, an RCMP criminal investigation, a special prosecutor, an urban boundary flip-flop, three ministers resigning—that they have not been able to take meaningful action on real issues relating to affordability.

For example, they could have instituted rent control. They could increase the Ontario Child Benefit. They could look into potential collusion around grocery prices. But no, sadly, they have failed to do any of these things. Indeed, it is so clear that the Premier is a conductor on his own gravy train on which he’s yelling “all aboard” to donors, friends and people who stand to benefit from for-profit private corporations.

Now, as it relates to the fall economic statement, very clearly this government has not taken action. Rather than dealing with real issues, they proposed a $3-billion infrastructure bank with very, very questionable prospects.

As it relates to health care, we have a number of issues. Amidst the FAO reporting a $1.7-billion period of underspending in the last financial quarter—no action. They are leaving hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government on the table rather than raising the wages of health care workers such as PSWs. It was actually really difficult to hear the member across speak about the government’s so-called work on increasing hospitals in our province as we see unprecedented emergency department and hospital closures ever since this government took power.

In fact, on health care the number of things the government has done has been, frankly, minuscule. We saw a $72-million investment that is targeted specifically towards private, for-profit clinics. And just yesterday, we learned the consequence of investing in this manner. We learned that a private, for-profit hospital is being paid two to four times what the public hospital is being paid to provide the same service—the same surgery, the easiest surgery with the least complex patients at the most convenient times with the least oversight, and yet they are making the most money. This is how our budget is being mismanaged.

Moving forward, we now also see a number of so-called investments on home care, supposedly $569 million, which is, by the way, not at all a new investment into home care. It is merely a recommitment of hundreds of millions of dollars that were already supposed to be spent.

Let’s not forget that this government is merely dragging its feet. There is much more that I could say around the fall economic statement’s shortcomings on northern development, on Indigenous affairs, on colleges and universities, but I’d like to surrender the rest of my time to the member from Don Valley West.