Environmental.

Environmental, oh my God. I mean, I know the independent officers are sort of on eggshells a little bit, because this government is not a fan of impartial non-partisan critiquing.

But this case is so interesting, because the Ontario Energy Board, please remember, is responsible for ensuring that energy policy in Ontario serves the people that we’re elected to serve, that it’s in their best interests. In this instance, the OEB decision reviewed where the government was going with natural gas, and the “decision requiring new gas infrastructure to be paid upfront was an attempt to grapple with the realities of the energy transition off fossil fuels.” Remember, this is the hottest year that we’ve seen, I think ever. Climate change, just for the record, is real and it is impacting the province of Ontario and this great country. “As fossil fuels are phased out in favour of clean alternatives, allowing Enbridge to pay off fossil fuel infrastructure by spreading costs over all ratepayers into the 2060s represents a significant financial risk to the public.”

The Ontario Energy Board found that the government was moving in a direction which was fiscally irresponsible, that was not conforming to our environmental responsibilities and that was going to be very costly for the people, including many, many stranded assets. That’s their job. Their job is to be forward-looking and to see what the land is like out there.

So, the government said “it is overriding the regulator in the interest of keeping housing costs down, but that position isn’t supported by evidence,” much like the legislation and policies of this government. “In fact, high-efficiency heat pumps are more affordable over the lifetime of the equipment than new gas hookups, meaning Ontario’s decision to reverse the regulator’s decision could actually make housing more expensive.”

Given what I have just shared about the lay of the land around housing in Ontario, the fact that housing starts are down, that housing has never been more affordable, that this provincial government is actively getting in the way of permitting the development of 3,400 affordable housing units in north Waterloo, why would a government overrule this decision when this is the context of the lived experience of Ontarians?

The Minister of Energy was questioned at length about this policy decision, and it goes on to say that he bristled at questions asking if the government was taking control of the regulator, and he said that the OEB decision, which emerged after a year of hearings, thousands of pages of evidence and testimony from environmental advocates, industry representatives and utility experts alike, was simply “wrong.”

Independence of the OEB is key.

Don’t worry; more hot air is coming, more gas is coming. The minister said that they’re now going to come out with a natural gas policy statement to provide further direction to the Ontario Energy Board. That’s not really how it’s supposed to work. The government does not control the independent regulator. The regulator provides information and data and evidence to the Minister of Energy, and that should inform policy—but not in this new Ontario, under this PC government.

They’re going to bring in this policy, and then they’re also going to bring in a new chair of the OEB. This is what the minister said: “I’ll expect the appointee to help ensure the [OEB] conducts appropriate consultation before reaching any decisions, and to reinforce the government’s priority”—essentially, he’s looking for a new chair of the Ontario Energy Board who is like-minded. I raise this characterization, if you will, of “like-minded” because this is a new direction that we have not seen this government go in. The fact that the Premier is bragging about appointing like-minded judges is such a dangerous direction for this province.

Earlier this morning, I did have a chance to meet with the Ontario trial lawyers, and we had a really engaging conversation about the sad state of affairs of our court system in Ontario—the backlogs, not just for the Landlord and Tenant Board, but for victims of sexual assault who are not getting their day in court, and rapists are walking free because that 18-month threshold has not been met.

Ourselves here and my good friend from London North Centre introduced the HVAC—sorry; what was it called?