We are keeping cost down in spite of the costly federal carbon tax supported by the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie—the price of gasoline, the price of groceries, the price of home heating all going up thanks to Justin Trudeau and Bonnie Crombie’s tax supported by the NDP as well.

Now, we’ve taken a different pathway here in Ontario. We’ve reduced costs, like the 10.7 cents a litre at the pumps; One Fare for transit riders in Ontario, saving them $1,600 a year; making sure we’ve eliminated the licence plate sticker fees and other taxes and fees to drive down the cost of living and ensure that we’re seeing the type of growth that we’re seeing in Ontario, at the same time ensuring that we have the power that we need, with a plan called Powering Ontario’s Growth to ensure that we continue to see the multi-billion-dollar investments that we have been seeing right across our province.

You can do this, and it doesn’t require a punitive carbon tax.

Our economy is humming in Ontario. As the late Bob Cole would say, “Oh, baby.” We are seeing investments right across Ontario. In the electric vehicle and the EV battery sector, we’re looking like Connor McDavid, busting down the wing and breaking toward the goal, moving the Edmonton Oilers on to the Stanley Cup final for the first time in many, many years.

Let’s all get together, let’s support a Canadian team in the Stanley Cup finals and let’s support getting rid of this carbon tax in Ottawa.

It is indeed driving up the cost of everything across Ontario and parts of Canada where the federal government keeps the carbon tax in place.

But what’s really astounding, I think, to a lot of people is just the silence or even quiet support of the federal government’s carbon tax from the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, in Ontario. As a matter of fact, she has put together a climate panel that’s made up of supporters of the federal carbon tax.

And as a matter of fact, the provincial Liberals in Milton just announced their candidate for the upcoming by-election in Milton. Guess where the candidate stands on the federal carbon tax? Fully supportive.

The carbon tax is driving up the cost of everything. It’s hurting Liberal numbers here in Ontario, so we can fully understand why the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, isn’t putting her name on the ballot in Milton: because Liberals across Canada, including here in Ontario, are facing certain defeat because of the carbon tax that’s making life unaffordable for people.

Mr. Speaker, the new candidate for the Liberals in Milton is supportive of the federal carbon tax. The provincial Liberal caucus is in support of the federal Liberal carbon tax. Bonnie Crombie and the Ontario Liberals are supportive of the carbon tax. Bonnie Crombie and the Liberals—

Speaker, let’s just be really clear about what the member from Niagara is talking about this morning. The Parliamentary Budget Officer—this is the officer that oversees the finances on Parliament Hill in Ottawa—has said that the increased carbon tax coming up a week from today is going to cost an Ontario family almost $1,700 next year—$1,674. That means increasing grocery bills. It means increasing cost of home heating. It means increases, certainly, at the gas pumps as well, as you’re filling your vehicles.

As the member rightly points out, the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, isn’t fooling anyone. Crombie is one of only a few leaders across the country—and there’s hardly any anymore—that aren’t speaking out against the federal government’s carbon tax. That includes NDP, Liberals and Conservatives right across Canada. She continues to support the Trudeau government’s mammoth 23% increase.

We have to scrap this tax. There’s still time to do that, Mr. Speaker.

Our government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, has been focused on driving costs down for the people of Ontario, whether it’s cutting gas taxes by 10.7 cents a litre, bringing in One Fare to all transit systems across the GTHA, scrapping the licence plate sticker fees and other fees, eliminating the tolls on the 400-series of highways—we’ve taken many, many steps to ensure that the cost of living is more affordable for the people of Ontario. But a week from today, the feds are going to drive up the carbon tax—

Well, the OEB, in its own decision, said it was going to cost about $4,400, but they were looking at a cul-de-sac in the GTHA when they were using that analysis. We know and you know, certainly, being from Perth–Wellington, just how much more it’s going to cost to get that extra line out to your home or to the farms that are—boy, they’re starving for more natural gas in your community. I hear from them all the time at ROMA and AMO. It’s going to cost them tens of thousands of dollars more.

That’s why we won’t let this stand. That’s why we’re coming back with our natural gas policy, so that the Ontario Energy Board will be able to reconsider government policy and ensure that they’re hearing from the proper people, including the Independent Electricity System Operator, home builders, contractors, farmers and those who will be impacted by these additional costs that are heaped onto them as a result of this misguided decision.

In Niagara, where my colleague is from, a new business customer would see an upfront connection charge of approximately $53,000. That’s $53,000 more that they would have to pay up front instead of amortizing this over a 40-year period. Anybody who thinks that going from 40 years to zero years is rational is completely irrational—it just is. A recent restaurant project in Niagara would cost approximately $13,000 more up front. So it’s going to have an impact on the residents in Niagara, just as it would right across the province.

We have an opportunity, particularly in our greenhouse sector, to be a world leader. We already are, but we have an opportunity to grow that even more. And providing them with the ability to amortize the cost of pipelines up to 40 years makes a heck of a lot of sense and will increase our GDP dramatically.

The dissenting commissioner’s opinion, Allison Duff, was very, very clear as well: that the OEB commissioners didn’t hear from the stakeholders that they needed to hear from. They didn’t hear from the farmers, they didn’t hear from the home builders, they didn’t hear from the contractors, and most importantly, they didn’t hear from the system operator that manages our electricity grid. So we’re going to put this back in the OEB’s court once we set our natural gas policy.

Thanks to the member opposite for the question. April 1 is the date of the carbon tax increase by the federal government, and that’s no joke, Mr. Speaker. It’s not just a carbon tax that’s costing gas customers more, it’s driving up the price of everything. The Minister of Agriculture knows just as well as anybody that it’s driving up the cost of fuel for tractors. It’s driving up the cost of fuel for drying the products as they come off the fields. It’s driving up the cost of all those trucks that are transporting to the distribution centres and then the cost of the trucks to get them to the grocery stores. It’s driving up the cost at the grocery stores because they pay carbon tax too.

There’s one party in this Legislature that’s opposed to the carbon tax, and that’s Doug Ford and the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario. On April 1, we have to, as a group here in this Legislature, pressure the federal government not to cause an increase to the affordability crisis for the people of Ontario and for the people of Canada.

While the NDP have waffled around a little bit on whether or not we should be removing the carbon tax off the price of gasoline and home heating fuels, one party has remained steadfast in their support for the federal carbon tax, and that’s Bonnie Crombie and the Liberal Party of Ontario. As a matter of fact, members have stood in this House from that caucus and said that the people of Ontario and people of Canada are better off as a result of having a carbon tax than they are in eliminating that carbon tax.

We will stand every day in opposition to this crippling carbon tax that’s driving up the price of not just—

Interjections.