My question is for the Minister of Energy. During a period of rising costs and high interest rates, it’s important for all governments to make life more affordable for the people of Ontario. But the Liberal carbon tax is making life more difficult for Ontarians.

I keep hearing from people in my riding of Oakville about how much their gas and grocery bills have increased on a regular basis since the implementation of this tax. They’re concerned about how much more it will cost to feed their families and whether they can continue to take their kids to hockey, baseball or soccer practice. That’s simply unacceptable.

The federal Liberals and their provincial counterparts need to listen to what we’ve been saying from day one and stop the carbon tax.

Speaker, can the minister please explain how the Liberal carbon tax is creating financial hardship for everyone here in the province of Ontario?

The carbon tax is burdening Ontario families that are already struggling to make ends meet. But the Liberals in this Legislature, much like their federal counterparts, want to see this tax hike even higher. Ontario families and businesses need relief, and they need it now.

Unlike the carbon tax queen, Bonnie Crombie, and her minivan caucus, our government is focused on making life more affordable for the people of Ontario. It’s time the federal government do their part to get rid of the carbon tax once and for all.

Speaker, can the minister explain what our government is doing to protect the people of this province from the costly carbon tax?

Speaker, it’s no surprise to anyone, especially the member from Oakville, that the federal Liberal government’s carbon tax is making life more expensive for the people of Ontario and the people of Canada. That’s why we’re taking a different route. We’re procuring clean energy.

Just last week, I was down at the Power of Water Canada conference in Niagara, announcing a new small hydro program, a new northern hydro program, for 10-megawatt facilities and larger. It’s why I was in Cornwall with the great member from Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry on Friday, announcing that we were refurbishing the Saunders dam, a huge facility connecting Lake Ontario and the Great Lakes system to the Atlantic Ocean and providing clean electricity for over a million homes in our province. That work has started to refurbish that facility. Last week was a busy week when it comes to procuring clean energy for our province.

The one thing that our Powering Ontario’s Growth plan doesn’t include is a carbon tax because we don’t need it. All it does is punish the people of Ontario.

There’s only one party in this Legislature that’s opposed to a carbon tax, and that’s Premier Ford and our team. Instead, we’re doing the kinds of things that I talked about earlier: procuring new clean, non-emitting generation. That includes refurbishing our nuclear facilities that we have across the province, including at Pickering and at Darlington and at Bruce, and building small modular reactors at Darlington.

Last week, we had the largest procurement in Canada’s history for clean energy storage. Another 1,800 megawatts are being added right across our province to ensure that our system remains clean and reliable. Our plan, Powering Ontario’s Growth, which is working—

Interjections.

My question is for the energetic Minister of Energy. The federal carbon tax is raising the cost of everything: heating, eating, driving and even recreation. Yes, Justin Trudeau and Carbon Crombie want to tax your family for simply having some fun. Unsurprisingly, this is also forcing businesses to pay more taxes. It is clear that the carbon tax is punishing the very people it claims to protect: our families, our businesses and our future generations. That’s simply not acceptable.

Can the minister please tell the House how our government is providing Ontarians with clean, affordable energy as we fight against this disastrous carbon tax?

Speaker, Ontario families are feeling the squeeze. They want the federal government to scrap the carbon tax now.

Can the minister please explain what our government is doing to protect Ontarians from the costly carbon tax?

Thanks very much to the great member from Mississauga Centre for the question today. She’s absolutely right; the federal carbon tax is driving up the price of everything in our province, and the Bank of Canada has confirmed it’s even having an impact on inflation in our province.

The queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, the former mayor of Mississauga, supports the federal carbon tax, the NDP want to have the largest carbon tax in the land and the Greens are in full support of a carbon tax as well. We’re not. Premier Ford and our team are making life less expensive by cutting gas taxes, bringing in One Fare for our transit riders in Mississauga and other communities across the GTHA, cutting tolls and cutting taxes. We’re about making life more affordable and making this a friendly business environment.

The carbon tax: The member talked about the impact that it’s having on businesses. There is $1.3 billion owed to small businesses as a result of the carbon tax in our province. That money has yet to flow to them.

We already have one of the cleanest grids in the entire world, but we can continue to clean that grid, grow that grid, so we can grow businesses in our province by investing in nuclear, which we’re doing at Bruce and at Darlington and at Pickering, but also refurbishing our hydroelectric fleets that we have across the province, energy-efficiency programs—a billion dollars in that program—procuring new energy storage. The largest procurement of energy storage happened here in Ontario last week—another 1,800 megawatts there.

We can get the power that we need, and we don’t need a costly carbon—

My question is for the Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Northern Development. The carbon tax is exacerbating financial strain for all Ontarians. Communities across northern Ontario continue to face heightened economic challenges, notably at the gas pumps as a result of this punitive tax. The cost of transporting goods is already much higher in northern Ontario and these costs are being passed on to the consumer.

But, Speaker, the federal Liberals are not listening. In fact, they just increased the carbon tax last month by 23%, with plans to hike the tax an additional six times by 2030. That’s simply unacceptable.

Speaker, could the minister provide further details about how the carbon tax adversely impacts residents in northern Ontario?

I wanted to know if the member from Perth–Wellington can acknowledge that when people at committee, for instance, are asking about child care or asking about health care or asking about their parents being separated in long-term care or access to take-home cancer drugs or access to autism services, and he comes back and says, “Well, the carbon tax”—I don’t know if you understand how insulting that is for people who have genuine concerns about the well-being of their family, and you come back and talk about the carbon tax.

I mean, you did talk about health care somewhat. You didn’t reference how the Minister of Health says that she’s not concerned about the diminished supply of doctors. This has to be worrisome for you, because rural communities are suffering.

And you certainly didn’t reference the doubling of the costs of the Premier’s office and staff.

Meanwhile, they continue to make very poor policy decisions that impact your—