Speaker, the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, the leader of the Liberal Party, is ebullient in her support of Justin Trudeau’s federal carbon tax, which is going up every April 1, including two months ago, with a whopping 23% increase that is affecting the price of groceries and gas and home heating, as the member from Lambton–Kent–Middlesex mentioned. The Liberals and the Greens and the NDP, their leadership was having a press conference this morning, and they want to go back to the ways of the Green Energy Act, where we paid over-market prices for energy and electricity generation in our province.

We brought in a new way of doing business, Mr. Speaker. It’s competitive procurements that are driving down the cost of energy in our province. Bills like Bill 165, keeping energy costs low, is what our Premier and what our government believes in. And the result is massive, massive multi-billion-dollar investments in our—

Interjections.

Speaker, the member is absolutely right: At a time when families are trying to get a little relief to enjoy their summer with their kids and their family, now is not the time for a job-killing carbon tax.

The carbon tax has proven that it is a tax policy; it is not an environment policy. But under the leadership of this Premier, we’ve been able to prove that we can protect the environment, grow the economy and create good-paying jobs without a carbon tax.

We’re working with industry, not against industry. For example, take green steel in Hamilton and Sault Ste. Marie. We’re creating electric vehicles made here in Ontario, creating high-paying jobs, while using our green steel. Instead, the Liberals, with carbon Crombie, would drive manufacturing jobs—and we’ve seen it: 300 manufacturing jobs out of this province.

Instead, Speaker, our government is balancing the environment while creating good-paying jobs and creating the right economy that will spur economic growth.

Do you know what else is going to help those families get to discover their beautiful province? It’s the 10 cents off of gas that we’re giving them in relief. Those Ontarians can enjoy their summer in an affordable fashion. But if it was up to the Liberals and the opposition, they’d continue taxing Ontarians, making their summer holiday plans more expensive. Perhaps that’s because Bonnie Crombie would rather go glamping in her Maserati.

The question is for the Minister of Energy. The federal carbon tax is a tax that farmers, small business owners and Ontario families have repeatedly said no to. While our government continues to deliver measures to make life more affordable, the Liberals and NDP fail to empathize with Ontarians who are struggling. They have no problem seeing this carbon tax triple over the next six years—triple.

While the cost of living is at an all-time high, it is beyond disappointing to see opposition members fail to do the right thing and hold the federal government accountable.

Speaker, can the minister please tell the House why the Liberals must stop playing politics and finally scrap the carbon tax once and for all?

Thanks again to the member for Milton. It’s no surprise to anybody from coast to coast in our country, especially here in Ontario, the impact that the federal carbon tax which is fully supported by the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, is having on residents in our province. It’s driving up the cost of everything from groceries to gasoline to home heating.

Now, we’ve taken a different approach here under the leadership of Premier Ford and our team. We’ve cut taxes. We’ve cut fees. We’re keeping energy costs low. You’ll remember not so long ago when the Ontario Liberals were in power, our electricity bills tripled under their watch. It chased jobs out of our province by the thousands—300,000 jobs left our province. Now this morning, I was astonished to hear that Mr. Green, Mrs. Green and the Liberals—

Interjections.

My question is for the Solicitor General. It is clear to everyone but the federal government and their provincial buddies that the Liberal carbon tax is hurting Ontario’s economy. As the Liberals impose one tax hike after another, it is costing more for a police cruiser, fire truck or an ambulance to fill up their tank.

Speaker, individuals and families across Ontario rely on police and firefighters to keep their communities safe. It’s imperative our first responders have the resources they need to do their job. The carbon tax is impacting the very institutions that provide essential services for Ontarians. We need the federal Liberals to listen and remove this tax.

Speaker, can the Solicitor General please tell the House how our government is ensuring Ontario’s safety by fighting against the carbon tax?

I appreciate it. It wasn’t a question about the carbon tax; thank you.

So the solution is: Instead of paying $500 million, you’re going to pay $1 billion to cancel the contract. Again, you know what? When I go and purchase a bottle of wine or a bottle of beer, I go to the LCBO public workers. And the money goes back into government coffers directly. It doesn’t go indirectly. It goes directly there to pay for things like health care, reconstructing roads and other things like that.

But there is an absolute religion on this side to privatize everything and at any cost. So I understand how it goes in line with their brand and their ideology, but we are spending $1 billion when we have record deficits and massive priorities that we need to be spending on countless other things But no, let’s put beers in corner stores and spend a billion bucks to do it. Come on.

I want to talk about something. Let’s pretend this is question period in the morning and I’m in the government. Do you know who likes Justin Trudeau more than the federal Liberals themselves—because I don’t think they like him very much right now; I think they’re having a little bit of buyers’ remorse. It’s this government. Can you imagine if Justin Trudeau wasn’t there—that they could just focus all the venom and hatred in that one direction and jump on any train to lead there? What would they talk about, honestly? We’re sitting here, in the most cynical moments ever of this government, constantly talking about this. I want you all to go home, if you have a faith that you follow, and say a moment of prayer to him and just thank him that he’s there in Ottawa so you can direct all your venom towards—because do you know what? In the last couple of years, you guys were working really well together, I can tell you that.

I was so impressed with the member from Humber River–Black Creek that—he was talking about the carbon tax. We do talk about the carbon tax a lot in this House because it’s so important to the people of not only Ontario but Canada.

I would just like to ask the member what his opinion of the carbon tax is. Maybe—

To the member: Listen, when you go home tonight, just take a moment for Justin Trudeau and just thank that he’s there so that you can talk about him and his carbon tax. Please do that. Take a moment to do that.

And I want the member, after he leaves, to go back and say to his team, “Guys, you know what? We’re doing stuff here, okay? We’re actually doing some stuff”—I’m not going to say it’s great. “We’re doing other things. Can we just ask one carbon tax question in the morning so that we could talk about something else?” Because all we hear about from this government, by and large, is just beer and carbon tax. And then, when it’s not about the carbon tax, it’s beer, and then it’s more carbon tax on top of it.

Please. There are probably millions of people watching the legislative network. We know that, right? And they’re getting tired of hearing the same things. It’s almost as if the government of Ontario is doing nothing but complaining about carbon tax—