It’s an honour to rise today to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day, a pivotal moment in Canadian and world history.

On June 6, 1944, British, American and Canadian troops stormed the beaches of Normandy in the largest seaborne military invasion in history, which played a central role in ending the Second World War and the march of tyranny across Europe.

Canadian soldiers, sailors and aviators were instrumental in D-Day’s operation. Some 14,000 Canadians bravely landed on Juno Beach and pushed further inland than any of the Allied forces. Their bravery and sacrifice played a critical role in the Allied invasion, which ultimately led to victory in Europe and the end of the Second World War, the horrors of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust.

There were 1,096 Canadian casualties, of whom 381 lost their lives. Many of those heroes still remain laid buried in France, while others suffered injuries to body and mind that they would carry for the rest of their lives. Eighty years later, it is imperative that we remember the ultimate sacrifice they made.

Speaker, all of us in this House have a duty and a responsibility to honour their sacrifice by defending the freedom and democracy they fought for and died for, so today we honour the men and women who risk their lives on the beaches of Normandy, and we take time to reflect on the many privileges we have today as a as a result of their sacrifice. Lest we forget.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And, gosh, Mr. Speaker, you look great today.

My question is for the Minister of Energy. I don’t need any political spin; I want a straight answer. My question is: At a time when inflation and the cost of living continue to rise, the federal government has decided to further burden Ontarians and hike the carbon tax by 23%. Time and again, the federal Liberals and their buddies in the Ontario Liberal Party, led by the carbon tax queen herself, Bonnie Crombie, have continued to put failed policies that show a lack of empathy for Ontarians who are struggling with the cost of gas, groceries and heating their homes.

When the carbon tax queen, Bonnie Crombie, was mayor of Mississauga, she hiked taxes, just like her federal buddies are doing now. Ontarians cannot afford this Liberal tax grab. The carbon tax must come to an end.

With summer quickly approaching, could the Minister of Energy please explain how the carbon tax continues to affect—

The queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, knew well when she was mayor of Mississauga the cost of the carbon tax, particularly on public safety. The carbon tax costs a police car $6,500 per year; for a fire truck, $15,000 per year. We haven’t done the numbers, but I imagine the carbon tax is pretty pricey for private jets as well.

All parties in this Legislature, including the Ontario Liberals, including the NDP, should be calling on the federal government to abolish this punitive tax. Instead, the opposition NDP and the independent Liberals, led by the carbon tax queen, Bonnie Crombie, are choosing to do nothing. Ontarians deserve better. That’s why our government will continue to fight this disastrous tax until it is scrapped for good.

Can the minister explain what our government is doing to stand up against the carbon tax and put money back into Ontarians’ pockets?

It is great to be here and take part in what is truly a historic bill and debate on that today.

First, I want to thank the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and his team. Many of them are here listening right now and certainly watching on TV. Thank you for taking this very seriously and moving forward expeditiously, and putting together a bill that really is going to be transformative for many people in Ontario—not just, obviously, the seniors and typically elderly people who are affected by these scams, but also their families. I’m going to touch a little bit on some of that in my time here; I don’t have a lot, only seven minutes, but I did just want to touch on a few points.

Obviously, we’ve heard about what this bill is looking to accomplish: the 10-day cooling-off period for buyers of new freehold homes and, obviously, enhancing protections for condo owners, but I want to talk primarily about notices of security interest today. I think that’s made up the bulk of the speech and it certainly makes up the bulk of the bill.

It’s something that was brought to my attention a little over a year ago—about a year and a half—by David Mullock from Waterloo Regional Police Service. We’ve heard about him being the liaison officer who works with government on a regular basis. I know he’s actually watching right now. He was texting a few of our colleagues. So, thank you, David, for giving me a call last May and inviting me down to police headquarters to hear about the challenges that not only people in Waterloo region were having, but people across the province of Ontario.

It was a very sobering conversation. We had an opportunity to sit down with Detective Adam Stover, whom you’ve also heard talked about here this afternoon, and we walked through this notices-of-security-interest scam that had been going on in the region. We talked a little bit about what it meant, what it has done. You’ve heard that here today so I won’t dive too deep on it, but it was very interesting when you looked at the numbers. I want to provide a few of the numbers today.

When you look at the early 2000s, there were roughly 2,000 registrations per year of NOSIs on properties here in Ontario. That number has ballooned last year to 58,000 notices of security interest. You can really see how the scam has taken hold, how people have seen that it is profitable and that there were enough loopholes in legislation that you were able to go out and perpetrate these on individuals. Like we’ve heard, it’s typically on folks that have maybe some cognitive impairment; folks who are a little bit challenged from a health standpoint; elderly people who, quite frankly, are taken advantage of and always want to believe that people are there to do the right thing, are there to help them, but at the end of the day it’s not always the case.

Right now—and this is sort of the telling piece—there are roughly 350,000 consumer and commercial NOSIs registered against property, against title, in Ontario—350,000. When you total that all up, it translates to roughly $1 billion, which is staggering. You can understand how often organized crime, unscrupulous realtors, lawyers, folks who want to take advantage of Ontarians are out there doing that, because there is so much money in this.

When you look at what this bill accomplishes, obviously banning notices of security interest, or NOSIs, going forward is fantastic, but the real key piece—and I want to thank the minister again and his team for the fulsome consultation that they did with stakeholders through the fall of 2023. It is really the retroactive banning of these practices which is going to make the key difference. It’s great that you stop it going forward, but it’s to be able to go back and say, “No, we are not going to allow these lucrative, unscrupulous contracts to stand, and we are not going to allow you to fleece people out of their homes.”

I did just want to read a couple of articles that I think are quite important. This one in particular comes from—I will just paraphrase from a CTV article. This is about a gentleman—I believe actually he was from Bowmanville; he’s since passed away. The minister had talked a little bit about him earlier. I’m going to quote, and this is Melissa Irons. Her father-in-law was, as I said, Karl Hoffman. I’m just going to read through this:

“Melissa Irons says her elderly father-in-law, Karl Hoffman, would have loved to live long enough to see the government eliminate notices of security interest (NOSIs) after they were used 11 times against him and his Bowmanville, Ont., home.”

Thank you, Melissa, for telling your story. I think it’s very important that we’re able to hear those stories first-hand. I know that Detective Stover has been travelling around the province, working with other municipal police forces and hearing those stories first-hand, investigating and seeing what the impact is to not only the homeowners, the people on title, but also their families. Often, these folks who have been taken advantage of don’t want to tell their family members because they’re embarrassed or they’re afraid of what might happen. It can cause real challenges—real challenges—divide families and, ultimately, see some people lose their homes, their nest eggs, their livelihood, their retirement.

I also did want to talk a little bit about Kitchener resident Ian Craig. He has seven notices of security interest on his property totalling more than $150,000, which, if this bill is passed—I’m hopeful, and I know that all of our colleagues here in the House believe that this is a good bill and that it should be passed—this will eliminate $150,000 of potential payments that he has to make.

Interjection.

It’s a pleasure to join the debate today—almost a historic day, really. I’m really pleased that the member from Oshawa has brought forward this motion to the House. It feels very much like a “help us help you” kind of moment here.

It is important, actually, just to understand how we got here. I do think that it’s worth noting that when the Ford government first came into power back in 2018—then they zapped the compulsory garage plugs from all new houses and condos, effective 2019. This felt at the time like an absurd move, I have to tell you, because most of us would agree that people do want to transition away from your traditional automotive fossil fuel car.

EV has a little shininess to it, but there are some structural issues that stand in the way of consumers purchasing those cars.

I also want to make it very clear that there have been some major investments in this province towards the EV sector—$2.5 billion in taxpayer dollars going to Honda in a recent announcement. However, according to a recent CBC article, “The surge in investment comes as the underlying EV industry remains at a crossroads.” So this motion from the member of Oshawa can actually be a motivator, if you will, and an enabler, if the government is serious about the EV sector. “Growth forecasts have plateaued, charging infrastructure has not kept pace and electric vehicle prices have pushed the cars out of reach of many consumers.”

So this is where we are in the province of Ontario—major investments towards the automotive and the factories, but the missing piece to successfully rolling out and becoming a true global leader in the EV sector is the infrastructure piece.

According to the Pembina Institute, “Currently, Ontario’s EV market share is low and charging infrastructure is insufficient—in Ontario, there is approximately one public charger per 25 EVs on the road. Globally there is about one charger per eight EVs on the road.” We have a lot of work to make up for.

“However, EV sales are sagging, in part due to inadequate charging infrastructure”—and this is just from April 2024—“there are about 2,900 charging stations with 8,000 charging ports in Ontario.” This is insufficient.

This is why there is a lot of market interest in building these chargers into the building code. Build it right the first time. Create the market share. Address some of the stigma and the concerns and fears around range anxiety or access to charging, build that market share and demonstrate to companies like Toyota that Ontario really is serious about the EV market.

Other stakeholders—this is Daniel Breton, the head of the industry association Electric Mobility Canada: “The problem ... is people have limited knowledge and understanding of electric vehicle chargers.

“An Electric Mobility Canada survey found 88% of respondents said they would like their next vehicle to be electric but only 13% claimed to have an in-depth understanding of EVs, including the number of public charging stations, government rebates and battery life, among other aspects.”

“The entire industry agrees we are going to get to a place where we are at zero emissions. The only debate is how long it’s going to take.” This quote is from Flavio Volpe, who is head of Canada’s Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association.

“That timeline depends on several key factors. But price and charging infrastructure are among the most important.”

Everybody gets a second chance to correct a mistake, I think, in this House. We just saw a really important moment in this House where we worked together to try to address the predatory practices around NOSIs.

There are three major, key issues at play with the motion today. We want to make sure that going green shouldn’t be prohibitively expensive. When you install a charger in your home at the time of build, it’s approximately $500; later, after the house is built, it’s about $3,000 to $5,000. This is cost-prohibitive for so many Ontarians.

My son is an electrician. I’m very proud of him. He could work 24/7 in this province. We need more electricians to do this work. We will get more electricians moving into the trades if the building code is changed, if we build in this green infrastructure around the EV sector.

The other thing is that good union jobs are on the line. The provincial government has made these investments, but without a reliable consumer market, we have actually already seen the Ford Motor Co. delay their EV production by two years. So this would be a confidence builder, I would say, for the market, and then finally an easy fix to prepare for an electrified future.

This is the direction we should be moving. As the official opposition, with the leadership of the member from Oshawa—the time is now. Join us. Help us help you make the EV sector truly successful in the province of Ontario.