I want to thank the member from Carleton for a great question. She’s absolutely right once again: Heating fuels like natural gas and propane are often the only options for people in rural and remote parts of Ontario, including our First Nations. Over 70% of Ontarians heat their homes with natural gas and propane. Just this year alone, the federal carbon tax, as we’ve already established, is adding hundreds of dollars to those customers’ bills, making life more unaffordable—it’s about $25 a month per family.

These families and households are still facing the same challenges as the 2.5% of people who use home heating fuel. They’re the only ones that are being exempted from the carbon tax by Canada’s federal government. It doesn’t make any sense. Why are we not exempting all of those other people that are heating with natural gas and propane from the carbon tax as well?

I want to thank the member from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston for a great motion, and hopefully the Liberal caucus here will stop turning themselves in knots—

Interjection.

The Premier has already said it this morning: The carbon tax is wrong. It’s not fair to the people of Ontario. We need the opposition parties in this Legislature to join us and encourage the feds to scrap—

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, the member from Peterborough is correct yet again. The Prime Minister clearly stated that this pause that was announced last week to the federal carbon tax is only going to apply to those who use home heating oil, which is only 2.5% of the people in Ontario, Mr. Speaker.

The vast majority of the people in Ontario—more than 70% of them, Mr. Speaker—are using lower-emission forms of energy, like propane and natural gas, and what they’re going to see is the carbon tax continue to go up and up and up. That means more money out of their pockets, Mr. Speaker, at a time when affordability is tough for people across Ontario.

As the Premier just mentioned, the carbon tax is driving up the price of gasoline—it’s driving up the price of housing, it’s driving up grocery prices, Mr. Speaker.

This change from the federal Liberal government—the government of Canada, Mr. Speaker—is too little, too late. They need to start acting like the government of Canada—

Just this year alone, the federal tax is adding almost $300 to households on their natural gas heating alone, Mr. Speaker. That’s more than $24 a month. The same goes for households that heat with propane, which are already paying $250 more in taxes this year.

But it’s not going to stop there, Mr. Speaker. By 2030, the federal government—with the opposition parties’ support here at Queen’s Park that includes the current Liberal caucus and the NDP opposition, Mr. Speaker—wants to nearly triple the carbon tax across Canada. The feds aren’t done yet, is the bottom line.

Ontarians can’t afford higher taxes, especially at this time, Mr. Speaker, and these parties—the Liberals, the NDP and the federal Liberals—couldn’t be more out of touch. While we’re reducing the cost of living, they’re continuing to make it more and more expensive for the people of Canada.

I’d like to welcome a number of guests from the Association of Power Producers of Ontario: the wily veteran David Butters, Grant Berry, David Timm, Stephen Somerville, Lynn Wizniak, Pat Dalzell, Charles Conrad, Safouh Soufi and Nick Best. They have a reception this evening in room 230 between 5 and 7. I encourage all members to attend. Welcome, everyone.

I’d like to thank the member from Ontario’s clean energy capital, Durham region, for the question this morning.

Mr. Speaker, Ontario’s electricity grid is one of the cleanest in the entire world, at over 90% clean. How we accomplish that is largely because of the nuclear fleet that we have in Ontario, providing anywhere from 50% to 60% of our electricity every day in a clean, emissions-free, reliable and affordable way. It employs 76,000 people across Canada, almost all of them here in Ontario. And it’s those same people, those skilled trades, those nuclear operators, who are doing incredible work.

I was with my good friend from Huron–Bruce, the Minister of Agriculture, a couple of weeks ago at Bruce Power, where they brought back unit 6, one of the nuclear refurbishment projects, on time and on budget.

Our government is standing firmly with those skilled tradespeople in support of our energy sector, which is world-class.

It is sad, actually, that the opposition is not working with us. They’re working against us, and they’re saying no to clean, reliable and affordable electricity in our province. They’re saying no to new, good-paying jobs across our province. They’re saying no to the economic growth that we’re experiencing largely because we have a world-class nuclear fleet.

Perhaps most disappointing, though, is those same members from the NDP and the opposition are saying no to the skilled tradespeople, those boilermakers, those electricians, and those nuclear engineers who are working so hard every day to power our province to ensure that we are an economic powerhouse here in Ontario, one that has created 700,000 jobs—not lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs, when we had an NDP-Liberal coalition in this province.

The Ontario PC Party and this government are going to stand up every day for those power workers across Ontario.

Thanks to the member from Peterborough for the tough but fair question this morning. He’s absolutely right when he says one thing: Under the previous Liberal government, supported every step of the way by the NDP, we saw hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs leaving our province. Since we brought in some economic stability to Ontario, under the leadership of our Premier and our Minister of Economic Development and everybody working so hard to remove red tape and make this a sought-after jurisdiction, we have multi-billion-dollar electric vehicle platforms that are coming back to Ontario, Mr. Speaker—EV battery manufacturing.

The folks from Dofasco are here with us today. They’re putting in electric arc furnaces at their facilities in Hamilton, just like they are at Algoma in Sault Ste. Marie.

For the first time since 2005, we’re seeing increased electricity demand in our province to make sure that we’re powering those businesses and those homes that we’re going to be building as well, Mr. Speaker. We know that millions of people are coming to Ontario because this is the place where they want to do business and, earlier this summer, I unleashed our plan to power Ontario’s growth and I’ll have more to say in the supplementary.

Under the plan we’re investing in 4,800 new megawatts at Bruce Power on the west coast of Ontario, taking that world-leading facility to an even bigger emissions-free generating facility for our province. We’re not just building one small modular reactor on the site at Darlington with OPG; we’ve announced under the Powering Ontario’s Growth plan that we’re going to be building four small modular reactors there. That’s enough clean power to power 1.2 million homes. We’re making the investments that we need in large-scale and small-scale nuclear reactors. We have the largest energy procurement in the country going with our battery-storage facilities located across Ontario, and we’ve invested $1 billion into energy-efficiency programs. We’re going to have the power that Ontario needs.

I’d like to welcome a bunch of members from the Association of Major Power Consumers in Ontario to the Legislature today: Victor Stranges, from ArcelorMittal Dofasco; Francois Abdelnour, from Ivaco Rolling Mills; André Ouimette, from GreenFirst Forest Products; Jeff Pagnutti, from Vale; Wayne McChristie from Agnico Eagle; and Colin Anderson, who heads up AMPCO. They are hosting a reception this evening as well in rooms 228 and 230, and I invite all members to stop by.

Point of order.

Let me first start by saying that we are very fortunate in Ontario to have an electricity system that is 90% clean, among the cleanest electricity systems not just in North America but in the entire world. Our intention is to keep it that way because it’s attracting new investment into our province.

When the NDP and the Liberals teamed up previously and we saw electricity prices soaring, we saw communities that had energy projects forced into their communities—we changed that in 2018 when we became the government. We gave municipalities the ability to make decisions on what would be located in their project.

In the case of Thorold that the member opposite mentions, we won’t be putting a new gas plant in that community, because the members of that council voted no to that. Having said that, we are at the peak of our nuclear refurbishment process here in Ontario, and we’re going to need to ensure that we have the power for all the growth that we’re seeing.

I look forward to the supplementary.

We are investing in energy efficiency programs, the conservation demand management programs. We have a billion dollars in that four-year framework, and we’re out consulting with municipalities and other stakeholders on a new CDM energy efficiency program for Ontario.

But we saw the track record of the Liberals and the NDP teaming up on energy policy. For many years, electricity prices were soaring in this province, out of control. Manufacturing jobs were leaving for other jurisdictions. Since we became the government, we’ve seen 700,000 new manufacturing jobs coming to Ontario. Why is that? It’s largely because of energy policy that makes sense, that’s predictable, that’s affordable and reliable, something you won’t get with those—

Interjections.

The member can speak for herself.

We have some guests here from Alberta, fresh off a tour of the world’s largest nuclear facility at Bruce Power: Minister Nathan Neudorf is the Minister of Affordability and Utilities and the vice-president of the Treasury Board in Alberta. They’re in your Speaker’s gallery this morning, Mr. Speaker. Also, a couple of staff members—Jon Dziadyk, the chief of staff, and Michael Smith—are joining us today, all the way from Alberta.

Point of order.

I would love to get an answer to my question. It’s well documented what the NDP critic for energy and environment has said and how he feels about continuing to have our province powered by nuclear, which makes up 50% to 60% of our electricity every day. Our nuclear sector employs 76,000 people in this province, Madam Speaker. We know how the NDP critic feels about this. He’s against nuclear in Ontario.

I’m just wondering how widespread it is in the NDP caucus, because the NDP member from Thunder Bay—now, I know the Conservative member from Thunder Bay is supportive of our nuclear assets, but the NDP member for Thunder Bay: Is she for or is she against our Ontario nuclear advantage, which isn’t just powering Ontario but has the potential to allow other jurisdictions around the world to do what we have done and eliminate coal-fired electricity generation?

I do have a question for the NDP member from Thunder Bay who was wondering about the Conservative stance on fighting climate change.

Certainly at the Ministry of Energy we’ve been very, very busy over the summer rolling out our plan for powering Ontario’s growth, investing in our nuclear assets that we have in the province. Those assets have allowed us to undertake the largest environmental action by removing coal from our electricity system, largely because of our major component replacements, our refurbishments that we’re doing and at our Candu nuclear supply facilities and also building out the new technology—small modular reactors.

Now, it’s come to my understanding that the NDP member from Thunder Bay has recently joined a group called something to the effect of “nuclear free north.” I’m wondering if she stands with the long list of NDP members that are opposed to what many in the environmental community are saying is the only answer to continuing to remove emissions from our electricity grid, and that is support for our nuclear supply chain and nuclear assets in Ontario.

It was the Liberals.

Thanks to the member for the question. It was great to be at ecobee on Toronto’s waterfront last week to announce the Peak Perks program and to talk about it here in the House as well. This is a program, Mr. Speaker, that’s going to save residents even more money by saving more energy, and it’s also going to save the equivalent of $650 million to our Ontario electricity grid.

But that’s not the only program we announced last week, Mr. Speaker. As part of the government’s $342-million expansion to energy efficiency programming in Ontario, we’re launching three new and enhanced energy efficiency programs for businesses and municipalities that are also going to help them save energy and drive down their costs and save the grid some dollars as well.

You’ll remember, Speaker, the Liberals drove a lot of jobs out of the province, and they raised electricity prices considerably during their time in office. We’re saving businesses and families money.

These programs are going to mean annual electricity savings equivalent to powering approximately 130,000 homes every year and reduce costs for consumers, as I mentioned, by $650 million by 2025. These programs are very important, Mr. Speaker. They’re a win for the people of Ontario. They are a win for the climate—

Thanks very much to the member opposite for the question.

Quite the opposite: We’re investing in clean, non-emitting generation here in our province, like our nuclear facilities which are on time and ahead of schedule—those big Candu reactors at Darlington and Bruce—and potentially extending Pickering as well, where we get 60% of our clean, non-emitting electricity every day.

We’re investing in the largest procurement in Canada’s history in battery storage facilities. These are going to be located across the province to support all of the growth that we’re seeing in Ontario right now. Under the Premier’s watch, we’re seeing multi-billion dollar investments every day on an EV strategy.

I will point out that the member opposite loves his renewables. There is a role for renewables. But last Thursday, during the hottest day of the year, when it comes to solar, 14% of the solar capacity in our province showed up. If this member was in charge of our grid, we would have brownouts—

According to our system operator—I asked them last year what it would mean if we were to phase out gas in our system. They said it would be $100 extra per family per month—that’s more than a hydro bill—and it would result in brownouts and blackouts in our system. That is what the member opposite is advocating for. We’re not going to be doing that.

We’re going to make sure we’ve got the power that’s there so that we can continue to see the record, multi-billion dollar investments that the Minister of Economic Development and the Premier are bringing home to Ontario from other jurisdictions. They’re doing it because we have a clean grid.

We are going to ensure the power is there when residents go to turn on their lights in the morning and manufacturers are set to build—

Mr. Speaker, what happened in Kanata last week was a distribution-level temporary issue with Ottawa hydro. The utility there, the LDC, has indicated that they’re going to repair the piece of equipment that was faulty that day so that this type of outage doesn’t happen again. But I can assure my ambulance-chasing friend over there that the provincial grid had more than enough power to meet the needs of the province on that very, very hot day. It was a record-setting day in Ottawa, to be sure, but we had a lot of excess energy that day.

I can assure all the members of the Legislature of one thing: If that member were in charge of our power grid, we wouldn’t have our nuclear supply—8,500 megawatts on that day that was there, at almost 100% of its capacity—and we wouldn’t have the natural gas fleet, which is our insurance policy, because not only is he against nuclear, he’s against natural gas as well.

While the member opposite clutches his pearls and pretends that the world is coming to an end, I can assure him that because of our consistent support for our nuclear grid, the refurbishments that are under way, on time and ahead of schedule, on budget—this member would not have those workhorses, those dependable baseload emissions-free power suppliers that we have in our province every single day.

At the same time we’re investing in new technology, a small modular reactor, that isn’t going to just power our grid; this is an SMR that’s going to be adopted by jurisdictions around the world to help them do what we’ve done in Ontario, and that is, reduce emissions and provide baseload power on a daily basis, 24/7, that the world can rely on. This is a great Ontario nuclear—

I think it’s important for the opposition to know exactly how clean and green and reliable our electricity system is in the Ontario jurisdiction. That’s one that’s going to allow us to remove megatons of emissions from our system in the future. By ensuring that we have a clean, reliable system in Ontario, one that only emits about 3% of our total emissions in the province, and by keeping the price reliable and affordable, we are going to see emissions reduced in other parts of our sectors, more emitting parts of our sectors, like our transportation sector.

It’s why we’ve seen multi-billion-dollar investments in our EV manufacturing facilities. It’s why we’re seeing manufacturers now moving to electrifying their processes in Ontario, which is going to remove emissions from our system. It’s why we’re seeing our steelmakers moving to green steelmaking with electric arc furnaces. It’s ensuring that the price of electricity in our province is affordable. That will move more people to electrify their processes, making our environment here in Ontario even cleaner and greener than it is today at 90%.

Speaker, we have a grid in Ontario that is the envy of all jurisdictions in North America: one that’s clean, one that’s affordable, one that’s reliable and one that’s safe. God help us if the NDP were ever in charge of our energy system. We’re seeing multi-billion-dollar investments in our province from companies around the world like Volkswagen, Stellantis, Umicore—so many others because we have a system that people can rely on.

We’re making sure that we’re hardening the infrastructure here to deal with some of the conditions that the member is talking about, but at the same time, because of our success on this file, we’re now building North America’s first small modular reactor that’s going to go online in 2028. Our nuclear fleet is being refurbished. When they come back a little bit later on this decade, that’s 3,500 megawatts of clean non-emitting electricity, enough to power the city of Toronto for the next 35 years—the largest procurement of energy storage in Canadian history—

Thanks very much to the member opposite for the question. My number one job is to ensure that we have an energy system here that’s reliable, one that’s affordable and one that’s clean. I’m glad to say it’s an A+ on all three of those categories in Ontario. We have a system that is 90% clean, one that is attracting investment from all around the world. They’re coming here because our system is clean, because it’s reliable and it’s affordable.

If the member opposite was in charge of our energy system—God forbid that that should ever happen—we certainly would become one of the most unreliable jurisdictions in the world because he is against baseload power.

I’m so pleased to welcome the constituency staff from the best constituency in Ontario, Bay of Quinte, here to the Legislature today: Ian Chapelle is here; Adam Bramburger; we have Susan Smith—no relation—and Jennifer Kyte. Jennifer has worked for me for all 12 years that I’ve been here at the Legislature, and it’s her first time attending question period live. Welcome to the great crew from Bay of Quinte.