Thanks very much to the member opposite from Brampton for the great question this morning.

Our government knows that a reliable and affordable electricity grid isn’t just good for the economy; it’s also great for the environment.

We’ve stabilized electricity prices since the harmful days of the previous Liberal government, through programs like the comprehensive electricity plan, which has stabilized rates. It has allowed manufacturing jobs and new investment to come back to our province, like the $3.6-billion investment at Stellantis in the member opposite’s riding and down in the Windsor region as well—but it’s more than just that. Stabilizing our electricity rates also means that companies can now invest in electrifying their industrial businesses, like we’re seeing with the green steelmaking processes coming soon to Hamilton and Sault Ste. Marie.

It’s because of a stable, reliable, affordable electricity grid that we will see reduced emissions in other parts of our economy, while at the same time watching our economy in this province grow.

The comprehensive electricity plan is reducing electricity costs for more than 50,000 industrial and commercial customers by 15% to 17%. To the member’s question: Why is that program necessary? Well, I can tell you, it’s necessary because of a decade of Liberals mucking up the energy policy in our province. They signed contracts under the Green Energy Act, locked in for 20 years, many at 80 cents a kilowatt hour, when our clean, reliable, affordable nuclear power was available for eight cents a kilowatt hour and our hydroelectric was available for four cents a kilowatt hour. The Liberals kept signing these contracts that were driving up the price of electricity and were going to continue to drive up the price of electricity by 6%, 7%, 8% year over year, through the end of the decade. The comprehensive energy plan is meant to fix the problems that were created by the Liberal government.

We are bringing back a stable electricity system to our province so that our economy can thrive.

I think she just outlined all your bills.

I’d like to welcome a good friend of mine visiting from eastern Ontario today. He’s not a doctor—he’s actually a lousy golfer. His name is Brian Erwin and he’s from McDougall Insurance, part of the IBAO delegation here today. Welcome, Brian.

Thanks again to the member for the question.

There’s a lot happening. I talked about what’s happening in North America. There’s a lot happening in Europe. The world really is watching what’s happening as this first grid-scale modular reactor is being built at Darlington. A company out of Poland has already signed an MOU with an Ontario company, BWXT out of Cambridge, to purchase a billion dollars’ worth of key components—that’s good jobs that will be in our supply chain here in Ontario, but there’s the opportunity for so much more.

Just last month, I was in Europe, visiting with officials in Poland and the Czech Republic, along with members from OPG and Laurentis energy, their international arm, where they signed two SMR collaboration agreements with Czech and Polish companies. Estonia is also very interested, and many others in Baltic countries and in eastern and central Europe are interested.

Our technology that we’re building right here in Ontario—technology that’s going to result in more economic activity, cleaner air for the people of Ontario, great-paying jobs—

Thanks to the member opposite for the question. He does come from Durham region, which is Ontario’s clean energy capital—Canada’s clean energy capital, as a matter of fact—home to Darlington and Pickering nuclear generating stations, with 76,000 people working in this sector in Ontario and across the country.

The Premier had the vision three years ago to sign an MOU and to lead the MOU with three other provinces—Alberta, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick—on the deployment of small modular reactors, and boy, have we seen progress on this file since he had the vision to do that.

This time last year, OPG decided on the technology that they were going to be building on the site at Darlington, the GEH BWRX-300, a 300-megawatt small modular reactor that is going to be producing clean, reliable electricity on our grid by 2028. Saskatchewan has signed on to purchase potentially four and site them in their province to help them eliminate coal generation in Saskatchewan. We have seen TVA, one of the largest utilities in the United States, sign on and collaborate. And just a couple of weeks ago, the federal government signed on with almost a billion dollars from the Canada Infrastructure Bank—

Thanks to the member for Durham for the great question this morning. I want to start off by recognizing the amazing job that Ontario’s nuclear workers are doing every day to keep the lights on in Pickering, at Darlington and also at Bruce Power. Pickering provides Ontario with a source of low-cost and reliable zero-emissions electricity every day to meet the province’s baseload energy needs, not like the intermittent wind and solar projects that were brought on—33,000 of them—by the previous government.

Our nuclear fleet, our world-class facilities—they’re providing power that’s available when we need it every day of the week. And at the same time, by supporting the safe continued operation of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station, we are standing shoulder to shoulder with those workers in the Durham region—those good-paying jobs, those hard-working people that are providing the clean power that Ontario needs for the future.

Earlier this morning, in estimates, we heard from the member from Kingston, who seems to be opposed to nuclear energy, Mr. Speaker. We heard from the member opposite who is now the leader of the NDP, who seems to be opposed to nuclear energy. That source of electricity provides 60% of our electricity every day. It’s a zero-emission source of electricity, one that is the only pathway to get us to net zero in our province. The leader of the NDP in this House, Mr. Speaker, on dozens of occasions has spoken about the lack of support for nuclear in our province.

We’re standing firmly with the people of Pickering, the people in Darlington, the people in Bruce, who are providing low-cost, reliable and affordable electricity—

Thanks to the member from Scarborough Centre for the question this morning. I appreciate it, and I can’t believe that the opposition Liberals want to strip the options away from people to heat their homes across rural Ontario. On the face of it, it seems that is what the bill that was introduced yesterday does.

Do you know that over 67% of homes, families, in Ontario heat their homes with natural gas, and more communities, not less, want to have natural gas as an option? My parliamentary assistants and I met with many of them at the Ontario municipalities association and the ROMA conferences earlier this year. That’s why phase 3 of our natural gas expansion program is so important.

At a time when energy security and affordability are top of mind, not just here in Ontario but around the world, Mr. Speaker, I can’t believe that the Liberal Party wants to reduce the options for people to heat their homes across Ontario.

Our government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, is focused on more customer choice and making life more affordable for the people of Ontario. That’s why we’ve introduced new electricity pricing plans, like the ultra-low overnight rate, Mr. Speaker, and also the “green button” standard, which is actually going to give residents across Ontario more control over their energy bills, potentially saving 18%.

That’s why it’s sad to see the Liberal Party, which was actually decimated in the 2018 election—and then a repeated decimation in 2022, largely because of their energy policy.

You know, the title of Bill 29—and I can’t believe the members of the Liberal Party that have been through this before—is Think Twice Before You Choose Natural Gas. That’s the name of the bill, Mr. Speaker.

Interjection.

Thanks for the thoughtful question.

The experts at Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator have been clear: Generation from natural gas plays a key role as a flexible, adaptable source of electricity that can respond quickly to periods of heightened demand.

The member is correct that we can’t move backwards—and we’re moving forward on the days that we’re bringing manufacturing jobs that were once fleeing our province back to our jurisdiction and sent electricity prices skyrocketing.

That’s why we’re looking at every option to ensure that Ontario doesn’t experience blackouts and brownouts. By maintaining our reliable and affordable grid, we’re also enabling electrification in other sectors, like transportation, resulting in a net reduction in emissions in Ontario.

Just one example is green steelmaking. As he mentioned in his previous question, Algoma and Dofasco switching to electric arc furnaces is going to mean emissions reductions equivalent to taking two million cars off the road.

We’re going to ensure that we have the reliable, affordable, clean and safe power that Ontario needs to keep our economy moving forward.

I want to assure the member from Whitby that, yes, the power is going to be there and the lights will go on when they flick the switches in Canada’s clean energy capital in Durham region.

We’re taking action to ensure that our electricity grid can support the incredible growth and the electrification that we’re seeing in Ontario. Our work includes announcing Canada’s first grid-scale small modular reactor on the site not too far from his riding, in Darlington. Just last week I was pleased to join my federal counterpart, Minister Wilkinson: $970 million is on its way to that project from the Canada Infrastructure Bank.

We’re supporting the continued operation of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station. We’ve increased efficiency programs—$342 million to expand those efficiency programs. We’re re-contracting biomass and hydroelectric, and our ongoing competitive procurement that’s in place is going ensure we’re getting the reliable and affordable electricity that we need to power this province.

Thanks to the member opposite for the question this morning. What our government is committed to is ensuring that the people of Ontario and the businesses in Ontario have a reliable supply of electricity, that we have an affordable supply of electricity—something that never happened under the previous government’s watch, as a matter of fact, as hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs left our province. They left our country for other jurisdictions because of the Liberal energy policy.

What we have done through the success of our Premier’s strategy and our Minister of Economic Development bringing companies back, repatriating companies to Ontario by electrifying our vehicle fleet, by electrifying our green steel-making process—we need electricity. We have a competitive procurement in place to acquire that electricity—790 megawatts, as a matter of fact, and the most recent procurement at a 30% savings from what was contracted by the previous government.

I know that’s a new member over there and he probably doesn’t remember the policies of the previous Liberal government that forced energy projects on communities without any type of consultation. They didn’t care about a willing host community over there, Mr. Speaker, which is why in 2018 the people of Ontario reduced that party to seven seats. And you know what? The people of Ontario didn’t forget in 2022, because now they’ve got eight seats, largely because of the energy policy.

The Minister of Municipal Affairs and our government have committed to working with the municipalities and the Independent Electricity System Operator to make sure there is consultation with municipalities for new energy projects so that we don’t have the mess, the divisiveness and the unaffordable crisis that we saw in Ontario created by the previous Liberal government.

Interjections.

No further business.

Good morning, everyone. I want to thank my colleagues across the aisle for their kind remarks about Mr. Taylor and all of the other members that we’ve recognized here today. This is such a great tradition that we have in the Legislature now, to honour our former members, and everybody has spoken very eloquently this morning.

Before I begin my remarks, I just want to say that I believe our collective thoughts are with Queen Elizabeth this morning as well. Hopefully, she is resting peacefully at Balmoral Castle.

I’m really honoured to see the Taylor family here this morning. We’re missing Cynthia, I believe, but I see Kim and I see James Jr. there, and I see a number of other people. It’s great to have you here with us today.

Jim was somebody I knew pretty well, having now been the member—not a spotted dog—for Bay of Quinte and Prince Edward–Hastings for 11 years. Jim was one of the guys who paved the way and he had a great career here at Queen’s Park. He was a great consensus-builder who discovered Prince Edward county in his travels. As we heard, he adopted it as his home and served its people for the rest of his life—including being elected to this House by the residents of Prince Edward–Lennox five separate times between 1971 and 1987.

He grew up in Timmins as the middle child in his family. He headed to Toronto for higher education, as many northerners did at that time, ultimately graduating from law school at Osgoode Hall in 1953. He was not only tough to best in the courtroom in those days, he also loved to box, and he was a championship wrestler and brought a title to the University of Toronto Blues back in his collegiate days. Of course, he linguistically wrestled many of his opponents for 17 years here on the floor of the Legislature—and I know he especially loved to wrestle the members of the NDP to the ground during his time here at the Legislature.

It was through the law that James got into public service and spent most of his life there. He started the legal department at the city of Scarborough, managed its affairs for a time before becoming a Queen’s Counsel.

Perhaps it was our region’s good fortune that he lost that federal election in Scarborough back in the early 1970s, because after that, he decided that he would move to Prince Edward county, and he had all the success there. He found some farmland in the county and adjusted to local life by raising beef cattle in South Marysburgh, one of the beautiful parts of Prince Edward county indeed.

Within three years, he had won his first election by a 3,000-vote margin, and as a backbench member of the Bill Davis-led government here at Queen’s Park, he sunk his teeth into committee work related to public accounts, justice, and natural resources.

Following his first re-election in 1975, it was at that point that he got that familiar phone call to serve in the cabinet as Minister of Community and Social Services. He once recalled to the Gazette that he thought that Premier Davis liked him because he was a tough, no-nonsense person who could make the difficult decisions needed in that era of rising inflation. In getting into the portfolio, he discovered that he had an opportunity to really shape social programming to make lives easier for Ontarians. He started a series of community-based pilot programs, as we heard, including one in Prince Edward county, to provide services for seniors living in their communities—what has now grown to become, in most parts of the province, Community Care for Seniors. They just celebrated their 40th anniversary in Prince Edward county. I would say that the Honourable James A. Taylor is responsible for that great program that exists in many of our communities across the province today. They’re beloved in Prince Edward county, offering Meals on Wheels, rides to appointments, social inclusion and recreation, and they were incredibly valuable during the recent pandemic, for the last two and a half years.

After his time at the Ministry of Community and Social Services, he did step into the energy portfolio in a challenging period. Canada faced an energy challenge with skyrocketing oil prices and supply shortages. He was a stern advocate for affordability, and he stepped down from his post when he felt that the House wasn’t doing enough to meet the challenge posed.

As the MPP for Prince Edward–Lennox, Jim continued to work hard in this place for his constituents for close to a decade, warning about inflationary costs and, again, sinking his teeth into committee work and advocating for his community.

The member from Kingston noted that he fought very hard for the Picton Arena when it burned down. There’s a great story behind that. I won’t bore you with the details today, but it is a great story about how he went to bat for his community and the arena.

He also spent time as the parliamentary assistant to the Honourable Frank Miller on the industry and trade file, and that allowed an opportunity to see the world. He travelled all around the world, bringing the Ontario message to countries everywhere.

After deciding not to run again in 1987, Jim enjoyed retirement with his wife and his children, Kim, Cynthia, James Jr. and Timothy, at their North Port home on the north shore of Prince Edward county on the Bay of Quinte. I know those family dinners at the dining room table were incredibly important and a great memory for the family members, of course, because it was there where Jim would also hold court. He had a great sense of humour and a dry wit and was a very, very knowledgeable person. I can just picture the family sitting around the table and the great memories they must have of those family dinners.

But he wasn’t retired for long. He felt that calling to public service, and an unusual opportunity presented itself in Prince Edward county. The legislated municipal amalgamations of 1998 would bring all of those separate communities in Prince Edward county together, and there was a change in the way that services were going to be offered and paid for. Who better to lead this new municipality as its first mayor than Jim Taylor, with all of the experience he had at Queen’s Park and also in Scarborough? He had the resolve to bring people together in consensus and the strength to demand professionalism. He was that pro at the table.

I was just talking to Kevin Gale, who was a long-time councillor, last night, about Jim. Kevin said, “Jim was the right man for the job, period,” at that time. And as the first mayor of the new municipality of Prince Edward county, he served two terms there. He also lent his experience on the finance resources committee and other economic bodies, and that’s when I first met him. I was a young member of the local media there, and Jim was super accessible as the mayor, always advocating for his community and always had great humour and a joke.

Years later, in 2011, I’m running in my first election, and being the good Tory that he is, he was at the campaign office opening in 2011, and he was there in 2014, and he was there in 2018 as well. A great sense of humour—same jokes every campaign, but they always went over extremely well with the crowd that was gathered there. Just a super supporter, and Mary was always at his side at these campaign office openings.

He was always there, and I remember visiting him at his home in Picton, and offering great advice and support to me during this time. I think we all have mentors in our lives, and I would say that Jim Taylor was one of those people for me. I’ve paid tribute to other former members like Doug Rollins and others that have passed, in my riding—Bud Gregory, the “Mississauga rattler,” as he was known in this place—who were great mentors. But Jim Taylor certainly was one of those people.

And I can tell you that in 2022, when we had our campaign office open, Jim wasn’t there, of course, because he passed in 2020, and it just wasn’t the same. There was something missing at our campaign office opening this time.

Jim did a fabulous job and was a great, great leader in our community for many, many, many years. I had the opportunity this summer—and the family members were there and Jim Jr. was actually speaking at that time. We were up at Macaulay Mountain in Picton and opened a special millennium project there in honour of James A. Taylor. It’s a lookout where you can see over not just downtown Picton, but you can see all over the county from this site that’s named in honour of Jim Taylor.

It was a great day, and Mayor Ferguson, the current mayor of Prince Edward county, and other council members were there to dedicate this park and lookout in his honour. It was there I joked about the similarities with Jim Taylor and another famous James Taylor, who was obviously huge in the 1970s. Member Yakabuski could probably sing a few of his tunes if I asked him to because he has 6,000 songs in his head. But the singer James Taylor aptly described a politician’s life in one of his hit songs:

I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain

I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end

I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend

But I always thought that I’d see you again

I think so many of us in this Legislature can relate to that. There are great days and there are lonely days as well in this job. His other big hit was You’ve Got a Friend. As was mentioned, he had friends on all sides of the aisles. He had some spirited debates in this House, Mr. Speaker, but at the end of the day, there was always a smile and a handshake. It was all in making the province a better place.

So to the family members who are here and to those who will be watching this, I want to say thank you to the family of Jim Taylor—a great member of the Legislature, an amazing first mayor for the beautiful county, Prince Edward county, where many of us go to visit, especially during the summertime, but all around the year now. It’s because of his great work that Prince Edward county is what it is today, and because of his great work on files at social services and also at energy, our province is in a better position today as well.

I just want to thank all of you for sharing your father and grandfather with us. His leadership meant a world of difference to the people of Ontario and the people of Prince Edward county. Thank you all for being here.

Thank you for your kind words.

Applause.

Thanks to the member from Canada’s clean energy capital, the Durham region, for this question this morning. It’s important, because when I talk to people who are interested in buying an EV, one of the first things that they talk to me about is potential range anxiety. They want to know that when they buy a car, they’re going to be able to get to where they want to go and not run out of electricity.

That’s why we’ve taken the steps to ensure that the EVs have the charging stations that they need in the province. Unlike the previous Liberal government that did everything they could to slow down EV uptake in our province, by driving the price of electricity through the roof and putting EV charging stations at places where they’re plugged in all day and only one vehicle can go there, like a GO station, we’re taking the steps to ensure that we’re building EV chargers at every single ONroute across the province, so that when people are travelling to visit our beautiful province, they can go to the Thousand Islands, or they can go to Sarnia–Lambton, or they can go to Kingston and the Islands, or they can go to London, or they can go to Brantford. They can go anywhere they want along the 400 series of highways and get a charge and power up.

That’s why, last year, I provided direction to the Independent Electricity System Operator that sets out the path to procure new electricity generation in our province over the next 10 years through a competitive process. This work is well under way. Just recently, we were able to renew new capacity, new generation in our province, saving the people of Ontario 30%-plus along the way. Unlike the former Liberal government, which drove up the cost of electricity, we have a plan in place that’s going to provide reliable and affordable energy—

No further business.

Again, I want to thank the member for a great question. He’s absolutely right: Demand is going to continue to grow as we continue to see these tremendous, unprecedented investments made in our province.

That’s why we have the SMR project, enough to power 300,000 homes with one small modular reactor. It’s why we’ve gone through this competitive procurement process for new electricity generation.

The member is absolutely right: Under the Liberal government, the price of electricity went up and up and up. But under these competitive procurements that we’ve been able to secure electricity for the future, we’ve seen the price go down, down, down, saving ratepayers in our province 30% under these new contracts.

We also have 55 companies from around the world that have submitted to provide energy to our province, many in the battery storage area.

We’re working with the Independent Electricity System Operator to ensure we have the power that we need, when we need it. Like the previous Liberal government did—they helped out their friends; we’re providing on the experts to give us the advice we need to—

I want to thank the member from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston for a great question, and I want to assure him and everyone in the province that we’re going to have the power that we need for families and businesses when they need it.

Our government has a plan in place. We’ve extended the Pickering nuclear facility to 2025. We have a plan in place for when the Pickering facility is no longer operating, and we have a plan to power this province when it comes to electrification. Because of the unprecedented success that we’ve experienced with the leadership of our Premier and our Minister of Economic Development, we have electric vehicle platforms coming to Ontario now to build the cars of the future here. Those EV batteries that are going to power those cars are going to be constructed here in our province. World-leading green steel is going to be made right here in Ontario.

These successes are great news, and we know there are going to be more of them to come. We have a plan to power our province, including the world’s first grid-scale small modular reactor at Darlington.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s a pleasure to see you in the chair.

I just want to comment on the remarks from my friend from Kitchener–Conestoga—very thoughtful remarks, looking back into history.

We’ve just heard a member of the NDP talk about the legacy, from his eyes, on what the one NDP government was able to accomplish. But I know that the member from Kitchener–Conestoga would probably have his own version of the legacy that the NDP government of Bob Rae left on our province. I was just wondering maybe if he’d be interested in enlightening us with the real story behind Bob Rae and that government and the mess that they left for the Premier to fix back in those days.

Thanks to the member opposite for the question. That’s exactly why our government is committed to a reliable, affordable, sustainable and clean energy sector. That’s why we’re leveraging small modular reactors and our first-mover status that we have so that we can untap the benefits to our economy in Ontario, in Canada and, indeed, around the world.

This past spring we announced our vision to partner with other provinces—New Brunswick, Alberta, Saskatchewan—for the deployment of small modular reactors across the country. We’re also creating new opportunities to export Ontario’s goods, technology and expertise to North America and around the world, especially in Eastern Europe.

Last week I joined OPG and one of the largest electrical utilities in the United States, the Tennessee Valley Authority, or TVA, to announce a collaboration that’s going to allow TVA to replicate what we’re doing with small modular reactors here in Ontario: a first grid-scale SMR. That’s why we’re going to continue to unlock the potential of SMR for our environment and our economy.

We also need to be ready for an increased demand for clean, reliable and affordable electricity here in Ontario. Whether it’s the electrification of our transportation sector, powering new electric vehicles, or EVs, or making green steel with electric arc furnaces, our economy is growing and it’s electrifying. Nuclear power is going to continue to be a key part of Ontario’s clean electricity grid.

As we move towards a clean energy future, it’s clear that there is no path forward without nuclear energy to get us to net zero.

I do have a number of people I’d like to welcome to the Legislature today: Mark Abbott, Doug Bagley, David Kroft, Daniel Cozzi, Katelyn Lockridge, Josh Clayton, Matthew Peck, Caitlyn Frost, Melonie Williams, Brayden Bagley, Kendall Garry, Lee Murdoch, Rick Koczka, Andreea Nicoara, Andrew Bull, Kelly Sander, Curtis Lockridge, Bart Adams, Mudasar Nawaz and Jess Maga. All of these people are Hydro One employees. They worked extremely hard throughout the spring and summer—when we’ve had violent storms that have made their way through the province—in restoring our power, our reliable supply of electricity.

I’d like to welcome them all to the Legislature here today and give them a big thanks, big gratitude, for their work.