It’s my pleasure to introduce Doreen Armstrong-Ross, CEO of Dryden Regional Health Care Centre, and Andrew Williams, CEO of Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance, also from the great riding of Perth–Wellington.

My question is for the Minister of Energy.

Speaker, last year’s Feed Ontario report saw a 38% increase in food bank usage in Ontario, with over 800,000 Ontarians having to access a food bank. This is the single largest increase ever recorded. Sadly, Ontarians are being forced to visit food banks because the regressive and harmful carbon tax is driving up the cost of food.

Interjections.

Interjections.

The independent Liberal members in this place and the federal Liberal government need to understand that if you tax our farm families who grow the food and the truckers who ship the food, you end up taxing the Ontario families who buy the food.

This regressive tax is a disgrace, and it must be scrapped.

Can the minister please explain how the Liberal carbon tax is making life harder and more expensive for hard-working Ontarians?

Thank you to the minister for his response.

As a young member in this place, I know the carbon tax has done nothing for the environment but instead has driven up the cost of basic necessities and made it difficult for food banks and other non-profits to serve our most vulnerable citizens.

Food banks across the province are now paying more for gas and diesel to transport the food, more for natural gas to heat their buildings, and more for the food on their shelves. Speaker, 69% of food banks are concerned that they don’t have enough food to meet the demand, and the carbon tax is forcing them to stretch their already limited budgets even further. What’s worse is that this tax burden is only going to rise every single year.

Speaker, can the minister please explain what our government is doing to protect our food banks and other non-profits from this disastrous carbon tax?

Thank you to the member opposite for his remarks. He talked at length about the importance of having women in our workforce, which we all agree is very important here and important to prevent gender-based violence.

On page 108 of the budget we are investing an additional $13.5 million “to enhance initiatives that support women, children, youth and others”—racialized communities—“who are at increased risk of violence or exploitation....”

Can the member opposite please tell this House and those watching why they voted against the budget a few short hours ago?