My question is for the Minister of Energy. Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard from so many of my constituents who are deeply unhappy about the way that the federal government is handling the carbon tax. For years, our Premier and our government have seen that this tax on everything makes life more difficult and is unfair to all Ontarians. That’s why we fought the carbon tax all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

It seems that the federal government has finally recognized how harmful this tax on everything is for ordinary Canadians, and especially when it comes to home heating. However, not all people across this country are being treated fairly. Can the minister please explain how the carbon tax unfairly impacts the people of Ontario?

My question is to the Minister of Energy. Speaker, last week, the government spent two days debating a toothless motion on the carbon tax that will amount to no real action being taken other than a strongly worded letter to the Prime Minister. The motion had no weight and will make not a single change to any policy. So now, Minister, let’s refocus on what we can actually do for Ontarians.

People in my riding of Algoma–Manitoulin struggle daily to pay for necessities. Hydro rates continue to rise across the board, making it harder for people to afford to live and work in our province. When the government came to power, they promised that hydro rates would go down on their watch. They have not.

Speaker, these are the facts, so why is hydro more expensive today than when they took office?

Roslyn Taylor—we’ve spoken about her often—owner of Taylor Sawmill on Manitoulin Island, shared some of her hydro bills with me recently. When she gets her hydro bill the delivery charges are more than double her costs. Here are a couple of examples: usage $1,345, delivery $3,554; usage $1,514, delivery—more than double—$3,587. Here’s one more: usage $1,631 and again the delivery charge, $3,671. The Taylor Sawmill had 25 employees and they’re now reduced to 12 employees.

Minister, instead of sending letters on the carbon tax to another level of government, this is something you can actually address. When is your government going to act on the punishing costs of energy in Ontario?

Boy, that was a long way to get there. Thank you to the member from Algoma–Manitoulin. First of all, let me address the first part. If we don’t take these actions, trying to have motions that encourage the federal government to move on things, we wouldn’t have the HST off home builds, for instance. We wouldn’t have the child care program that we have now in the province of Ontario. By encouraging as a united force here in the Ontario Legislature, we may just get the break that Ontarians are looking for, and that’s the carbon tax off their home heating fuels.

I love this member, but when he was a long-time member of the New Democratic Party, they voted in favour of the carbon taxes that are driving up the price of fuel in his home communities. I’ve met a lot of those people in Algoma–Manitoulin. They drive big trucks. That’s what they drive there, and they are getting killed at the pumps—not because of our party; we’re reducing the price of gasoline. The federal party, the NDP and the Liberals are driving up the cost—

Interjections.

When we became the government of Ontario, we brought forward the comprehensive electricity plan, which reduced the cost of electricity by 15% to 17% every year. It has brought stability to our province. It has brought multi-billion dollar investments to our province.

I was the Minister of Economic Development prior to our Minister of Economic Development doing such a great job in that role, and the biggest thing we were hearing was, “You have to fix the Liberal hydro mess.” And we have done that. As a result, we’re seeing those multi-billion dollar investments in Windsor, in Loyalist township, in St. Thomas, in Algoma—the steelmaking facility is moving to an electric arc furnace because of the stability that we brought to the energy sector.

It’s time for that member to get on board. Join us. We’re getting—

Interjections.