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March 5, 2014

40th Parliament, 2nd Session

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Hansard Transcripts

Votes and Proceedings

Orders and Notices

Hansard Transcripts 2014-Mar-05 (PDF)

L110 - Wed 5 Mar 2014 / Mer 5 mar 2014

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

ASSEMBLÉE LÉGISLATIVE DE L’ONTARIO

Wednesday 5 March 2014 Mercredi 5 mars 2014

ORDERS OF THE DAY

COMPLYING WITH INTERNATIONAL

TRADE OBLIGATIONS ACT, 2014 /

LOI DE 2014 DE CONFORMITÉ

AUX OBLIGATIONS COMMERCIALES

INTERNATIONALES

INTRODUCTION OF VISITORS

UKRAINIAN FLAG

ORAL QUESTIONS

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

PAN AM GAMES

HYDRO RATES

HYDRO RATES

HEALTH CARE

HYDRO RATES

PUBLIC TRANSIT

APPRENTICESHIP TRAINING

PAN AM GAMES

MUNICIPALITIES

RENEWABLE ENERGY

ELGIN-MIDDLESEX

DETENTION CENTRE

SENIOR CITIZENS

VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS

HEALTH CARE

REGIONAL CENTRES FOR THE

DEVELOPMENTALLY DISABLED

CORRECTION OF RECORD

INTRODUCTION OF VISITORS

MEMBERS’ STATEMENTS

MUNICIPALITIES

ACCIDENT BENEFITS

PARLEMENT JEUNESSE FRANCOPHONE

BOB LANGSTAFF

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

STRONG GIRLS STRONG WOMEN SYMPOSIUM

M. SULLIVAN AND SON LTD.

OAKVILLE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

LYME DISEASE

REPORTS BY COMMITTEES

SELECT COMMITTEE ON DEVELOPMENTAL SERVICES

INTRODUCTION OF BILLS

YMCA OF HAMILTON/BURLINGTON/BRANTFORD ACT (TAX RELIEF), 2014

MOTIONS

COMMITTEE SITTINGS

PETITIONS

LYME DISEASE

TAXATION

USE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

SENIORS’ HEALTH SERVICES

EMPLOYMENT STANDARDS

ONTARIO COLLEGE OF TRADES

AIR QUALITY

ONTARIO DRUG BENEFIT PROGRAM

OFF-ROAD VEHICLES

WORKPLACE INSURANCE

ONTARIO DRUG BENEFIT PROGRAM

MARKDALE HOSPITAL

LYME DISEASE

ORDERS OF THE DAY

INFRASTRUCTURE FOR JOBS

AND PROSPERITY ACT, 2014 /

LOI DE 2014 SUR L’INFRASTRUCTURE

AU SERVICE DE L’EMPLOI

ET DE LA PROSPÉRITÉ

The House met at 0900.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Good morning. Please join me in prayer.

Prayers.

ORDERS OF THE DAY

COMPLYING WITH INTERNATIONAL

TRADE OBLIGATIONS ACT, 2014 /

LOI DE 2014 DE CONFORMITÉ

AUX OBLIGATIONS COMMERCIALES

INTERNATIONALES

Mr. Chiarelli moved second reading of the following bill:

Bill 153,

An Act to amend the Electricity Act, 1998 with respect to a World Trade Organization decision / Projet de loi 153, Loi modifiant la Loi de 1998 sur l’électricité en ce qui concerne une décision de l’Organisation mondiale du commerce.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The Minister of Energy.

Hon. Bob Chiarelli: I rise today to begin second reading debate of the Complying with International Trade Obligations Act, 2014. I’ll be splitting my time with my parliamentary assistant, the MPP for Mississauga–Streetsville.

The bill, if passed, makes modifications to the Electricity Act, 1998, that would enable Ontario to comply with the World Trade Organization ruling on domestic content provisions in the feed-in tariff or FIT renewable energy program.

Mr. Speaker, I’d like to provide the context for today’s debate, namely the rationale and benefits of our renewable energy policies and the role of our domestic content legislation.

When our government was elected in 2003, Ontario’s electricity system was in a mess. There was a deficit. The government of the day was importing $1 billion a year in expensive imported electricity. The previous government had lost generation capacity. They lost the equivalent of Niagara Falls running dry. They lost transmission capacity, and prices were skyrocketing as a result of the Tories’ failed privatization efforts. It was a dirty, polluting system.

The Harris government, which included the present Conservative leader in cabinet, increased dirty, coal-burning generation by 25%. That’s 25% of total capacity. When our government took over in 2003, it took over a system that was unreliable, that was dirty, with skyrocketing costs.

So our government implemented three priority policies in the electricity system: number one, it must be reliable; number two, it must be clean; and number three, it must be affordable—all of equal priority, Mr. Speaker.

Starting in 2003, our government began investing in our system, a system that had been allowed to degrade and didn’t meet the energy needs of Ontario. Since 2003, this government has invested $31 billion in the electricity system, including $21 billion for new generation and $11 billion of upgraded transmission infrastructure, including the recently completed 500-kilovolt Bruce to Milton line.

We have moved from a deficit to a surplus of electricity. In 2013, our surplus of electricity generated $300 million of revenue to reduce system costs, and this year, we have totally eliminated dirty coal, the largest greenhouse emissions reduction project in North America. Mr. Speaker, that’s the equivalent of taking seven million cars off of our roads in Ontario.

The health impacts of getting off dirty coal are: $4.4 billion in avoided health care and environmental costs; 668 fewer premature deaths per year; 928 fewer hospital admissions per year; 1,100 fewer emergency room visits per year; 300,000 fewer minor illnesses, such as headaches, coughing and other respiratory symptoms, per year; and almost total elimination of smog days in cities like Toronto and Ottawa.

If I could use a couple of personal examples, for 10 years or so, for a number of years, I was helping to coach my daughter’s hockey team. They were nine, 10, 11, 12 years old as they were going through the system. Every single year, there were four, five or six children playing hockey with puffers, suffering from asthma. When I was mayor, I used to visit grade 5 classes, because grade 5 classes do a unit on government, and there was always a question-and-answer afterwards. When I was Minister of Infrastructure a couple of years ago, I again went into a grade 5 class.

After my dissertation, I had a 10- or 11-year-old girl stand up and ask a question on air pollution. I didn’t answer the question; I asked another question, having gone through the experience many times. I asked, “Out of a class of 18, how many in this class suffer from asthma and use puffers?” It was seven out of 18, Mr. Speaker, and the teacher put up his hand as well. That’s what we’re talking about by investing in clean energy.

A major contributor in eliminating dirty coal generation in Ontario is our Green Energy Act and our Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff Program—all clean and emissions-free. Our Green Energy Act renewable energy program not only successfully turned a dirty, polluting electricity system into a clean system but, in the process, we created a vibrant, world-leading renewable energy industry right here in Ontario. It created over 31,000 jobs, including manufacturing facilities in Guelph with Canadian Solar, in Toronto with Celestica, in Tillsonburg with Siemens and Samsung and now in London with Siemens and Samsung.

It is expected that by the end of 2014, we will have added over 6,000 megawatts of clean, renewable energy to the grid in most parts of the province.

When the Green Energy Act was enacted, there was a lively debate about the domestic content provisions. Everyone was aware that there would likely be a WTO challenge and that the provision would possibly or likely be ruled to be in contravention of world trade laws and therefore would likely be temporary. That is in fact what happened. That is why today’s legislation is required. But, in the meantime, Ontario’s growing renewable energy sector has had the benefit of domestic content rules and therefore has created over 31,000 jobs.

And I might add that the 255 FIT contracts still in completion, still yet to be completed, continue to carry the benefits of domestic content rules into the next two or three years. So we are getting, out of that provision, six to seven years of domestic content provisions, which have enabled us to build a strong renewable energy industry right here in Ontario.

Our ministry has been engaged with many renewable energy stakeholders, and we collectively believe together we can continue to foster a healthy and growing renewable and clean energy industry here in Ontario. Manufacturers like Samsung, Siemens and Canadian Solar have promising export initiatives. They’re already starting to export. We meet with them regularly. We visit their sites. They’re excited about this industry; they’re investing in it, and they’re creating jobs.

I said at the beginning that we had three equal priorities: reliable energy, clean energy and affordable energy. We made significant investments: $31 billion to make our system reliable and clean. These investments have put predictable pressure on prices for about four or five years. So we have taken major steps to help our system to be affordable. We have taken steps to mitigate our energy-electricity costs. Our government modernized an electricity system that needed to be fixed to ensure Ontarians had reliable and clean power, and we’ve accomplished that.

We are taking action to reduce overall electricity system costs and ensure electricity bills remain affordable for families and businesses.

Moving forward our 2013 long-term energy plan, as I’ve just indicated, we have necessarily, almost on an emergency basis, had to invest $31 billion to make the system reliable and clean. Moving forward, we have taken close to $20 billion out of our projected cost base. We renegotiated the Samsung renewable energy contract and removed $3.7 billion out of the next 20 years, deferring the construction of two nuclear reactors at Darlington generating station. That avoids $15 billion of investment. I must say that the opposition wants to continue investing in energy we don’t need, and they will make costs skyrocket.

We introduced dispatching rules for wind generators, saving over $200 million to ratepayers plus $65 million in savings to the Ontario Power Authority. That means that wind, when they’re generating—if they’re generating electricity that’s not needed, they don’t get paid for it. That’s a tremendous improvement over how wind started into the system.

The leaders of both opposition parties have confirmed that they would not lower electricity rates, nor would they freeze them. In fact, the PC Party, as I mentioned, would spend $15 billion on new nuclear plants that we don’t need, which would cause prices to skyrocket.

Currently, Ontario’s residential and industrial electricity rates are and will remain competitive with similar jurisdictions in North America. Ontario’s residential rates are forecast to rise by 2.8% annually over the next 20 years.

Mr. Speaker, the opposition will mention a very significant increase in prices that’s in our long-term energy plan, which we disclosed as part of the 20-year program. They will refer to those years, but they will never refer to the other years which show an average increase of 2.8% for residential customers over that period of time. According to the National Energy Board, that’s less than in most other large Canadian provinces. The National Energy Board keeps these records of 20-year projected costs: Alberta, 3.7%; BC, 3.0%; Manitoba, 3.2%; Quebec, 3.0%—incidentally, Quebec just raised their rates by 5.8% about two months ago—Saskatchewan, 3.3%; and, I repeat, Ontario, 2.8%.

Our industrial rates in northern Ontario are among the lowest in Canada and lower than 44 US state jurisdictions. Industrial rates in southern Ontario are lower than in Alberta, Michigan, New Jersey and California and in line with states like New York, Virginia and Tennessee.

We have a number of significant programs, not including conservation measures, by which people can significantly reduce their rates. We have significant programs to help reduce the cost of electricity for families and small businesses—programs the opposition, in fact, voted for. The Ontario Clean Energy Benefit helps families, small businesses and farms manage electricity prices by taking 10% off hydro bills.

Mr. Speaker, the next couple of items you will almost never hear, or rarely hear, the opposition members mention, even to their constituents, even though it’s for the benefit of their constituents, because they voted against these provisions. That’s the Ontario Energy and Property Tax Credit. It saves qualifying individuals up to $963 per year off their energy bill, with a maximum of $1,097 per year for qualifying seniors. I would like to see how many times the members of the opposition have reminded their constituents of those provisions, which they voted against.

We also have a number of programs to help reduce costs of electricity for industrial and commercial consumers. As of 2013, the Industrial Electricity Incentive Program makes eligible companies qualify for electricity rates among the lowest in North America in exchange for creating new jobs and bringing new investment in the province. That saves up to 50%.

I’m going to look directly at the member from Renfrew-Pembroke, because I was at an event about three or four days ago, and there was a delegation there from the economic development arm of Renfrew-Pembroke. Mr. Speaker, they almost jumped over the table and gave me a hug. The reason why is that, several months ago, a sawmill paperboard maker applied under the IEI Program, and they were accepted into the program. They are going to reopen those facilities which have been closed for a couple of years. That’s the benefit of the IEI Program.

The member from Barrie reminded me—I’m inviting you to the official announcement. I hope you will come, and I hope you will give us credit for starting those new businesses with our reduced industrial electricity prices.

The Industrial Conservation Initiative helps large consumers save on costs by incenting them to shift their energy consumption to off-peak hours. That will save up to 20%. Of course, as I mentioned, the Northern Industrial Electricity Rate Program reduces electricity prices for large northern industrial consumers by 25%.

Renewable energy is a very significant part of our electricity system. We now have 255 unfinished contracts. These are legal contracts that have been signed, awarding electricity proponents the right to create renewable energy in their designated sites.

The Leader of the Opposition has taken so much pride in introducing the Million Jobs Act. Embedded in that Million Jobs Act, Mr. Speaker—

Applause.

Hon. Bob Chiarelli: What they’re applauding is a provision in that act that would allow the Minister of Energy to cancel contracts which have already been awarded. That’s 255 contracts that have a $20-billion revenue stream associated with them. I just want to indicate the opinion that we have from third-party professionals. FIT contracts allow for termination only in cases where project developers do not meet their contractual obligations, and the OPA would be subject to legal action if it terminated FIT contracts for projects which have met their obligations.

If they had the intention, by putting that in, to put a chill in the electricity sector in Ontario, they have been very, very successful, because there are now 255 companies who have invested significant funds in their contracts who are sitting there saying, “This is Russian roulette. Maybe I’m going to be the one that’s going to get axed.” You know what, Mr. Speaker? I’m sure that they have heard from the stakeholders as well.

I’ll wrap up with those comments; I want to leave enough time for my colleague. Our domestic content measures for renewable energy have served our province well, and our renewable energy program, as laid out in the long-term energy plan, is extremely viable, with a strong future ahead of us, beneficial, creating jobs that they want to kill.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Bas Balkissoon): The member from Mississauga–Streetsville.

Mr. Bob Delaney: It’s my pleasure to pick up where the Minister of Energy left off and to talk about the fact that one of the province’s objectives in establishing the feed-in tariff program, which is the cornerstone of Ontario’s Green Energy and Green Economy Act, passed in 2009, was to kick-start the development of a new clean energy manufacturing and service sector, something at which it has been very successful.

The Green Energy and Green Economy Act was created to expand Ontario’s production of renewable energy, encourage energy conservation and promote the creation of clean energy green jobs.

The goal of the act was to expand Ontario’s renewable energy production and to create clean energy jobs in a number of ways: by creating a feed-in tariff program that establishes fixed rates for energy generated from renewable sources, such as solar photovoltaic, biogas, biomass, landfill gas, wind and solar power, and to establish minimum levels of Ontario labour and materials required to qualify for the program; by establishing a streamlined approvals process for small-scale renewable energy projects that meet regulatory requirements; by implementing a smart power grid to support the development of new renewable energy projects and to prepare Ontario for new technologies such as electric cars.

Four years later, Ontario’s energy sector is one of the economic engines that are driving our provincial economy, one of those engines that lifted us out of the global recession early and have made us the best-performing jurisdiction anywhere in North America.

Ontario’s clean energy initiatives have attracted billions of dollars in new private sector investment, and they’ve contributed to the creation of more than 31,000 clean energy jobs across the province: knowledge-intensive, high-value jobs—more than 31,000 of them.

Today, Ontario boasts a strong renewable energy sector, with more than 30 manufacturing facilities currently producing materials for local wind and solar projects. Consider manufacturing facilities like Canadian Solar in Guelph. They’re among the top five module producers globally. The company employs as many as 400 people, with a 220-megawatt module production capacity in Ontario. The whole world would like to have a plant like that. This assembly line is being used in solar photovoltaic projects around the world, including here in Ontario, with more than 30 megawatts installed.

Another example is Celestica, an international R&D and solar manufacturing firm that has its global headquarters right here in Toronto. Celestica has more than one million square feet of space and employs some 1,600 people in Ontario, 500 of whom perform cutting-edge research into renewable energy products to find, for example, innovative ways to produce more efficient solar panels and inverters. An inverter is a device that takes DC power and converts it to AC power, commonly used on the grid.

Speaker, it is the technical and management acumen of companies like these that brings the promise of renewable energy from the lab through financing to deployment and employment right here in Ontario. This has been good for Ontario.

Ontario’s wind and solar manufacturing facilities are suppliers to global markets. Indeed, on my first trip to India, one of the things that the first minister of the state of Gujarat, Mr. Narendra Modi , told me point-blank—he said, “You people are recognized, in Ontario, as world leaders in solar and in wind production.” He said, “Get your companies over here. Just get them over here.”

Ontario will continue to expand the role of renewable energy in our supply mix as its cost comes down and the industry’s capabilities go up. Don’t forget, we’ve been in the renewable energy business a long time in Ontario, with hydroelectric power being the principal source of clean, green and renewable energy.

By 2025, some 20,000 megawatts of wind, solar, bioenergy and hydroelectric generating capacity will be online, representing about half of Ontario’s installed generation capacity.

We have confidence in the resilience of the clean energy manufacturing sector in Ontario and that our clean energy investments will continue to be not merely a source of jobs for Ontario, not merely a source of careers for the young people in our colleges and universities, but a source of pride for all of our people, knowing that in North America, uniquely, we are now off dirty coal.

This province has more than 4,000 megawatts of wind and solar capacity currently under development, which will largely use locally manufactured equipment. Last year, Ontario committed to making 900 megawatts of new capacity available between 2013 and 2018 through the feed-in tariff and microFIT programs for projects up to 500 kilowatts. These projects are expected to create more than 6,000 jobs while producing enough electricity each and every year for more than 125,000 homes.

This new capacity will help Ontario maintain its position as a leading jurisdiction for renewables, maintain important clean energy jobs, and continue to introduce clean energy sources in the supply mix. Starting in 2014, this year, the feed-in tariff program would have an annual procurement target of 150 megawatts, with a 50-megawatt annual target for microFIT projects. This is one industry that, in the 21st century, has developed from a standing start in the province of Ontario, is a source of pride for our people, for our province and for our businesses, and it’s one of the reasons that Ontario remains a winner in the North American business community.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Bas Balkissoon): Questions and comments?

Mr. John Yakabuski: I’m pleased to join the debate. I want to respond a little bit to the Minister of Energy’s speech here earlier. He’s very good at telling half the story. He talks about the money that Ontario is saving in the changes they’ve made to their long-term energy plan resulting from the fiasco that is the Green Energy Act. Speaker, their renewable energy plan will go down as one of the most egregious economic disasters in Ontario’s history. He talks about saving $20 billion from where it would have been.

That should give you some idea of how bad a deal they were prepared to make in the first place, with people like Samsung—large, multinational, very, very rich corporations. He talks about choosing wind over nuclear. He talks about reliability. How can you classify any kind of generation that runs at less than 30% capacity as being reliable, when our nuclear fleet is among the most reliable in the world? Some of the Darlington units have run at 99% in the last couple of years. That’s how reliable our nuclear fleet is.

So you’re going to trade that in for something that is less than 30% reliable, because we don’t control the wind?

The money that has been invested—I shouldn’t say invested, but wasted—on the Green Energy Act— that is one of the reasons they have this IEI Program, to give some cherry-picked companies a break on electricity, because they’ve got such an excess, because they allow all this excess energy into the grid, because they’ve overpaid for it and they’ve contractually agreed to take it into the grid. So when Ontario doesn’t need the energy, it was giving it away to the United States, or Quebec, or even paying them to take it.

Well, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that maybe it’s a better idea to give it to some of the companies that can actually use it here to create jobs, and stop giving it away. It’s not hard to figure out. But I want the Minister of Energy to tell the whole story the next time—

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Bas Balkissoon): Thank you. Questions and comments?

Miss Monique Taylor: I’m really happy to be able to have the opportunity to stand up in this House and speak about hydro rates, and the cost that it has on what I know—small businesses in my riding, and how it’s affecting them. The cost of global adjustments—I didn’t hear anything in the minister’s speech about global adjustments and what those costs are doing to our small businesses and our businesses in our ridings and to our economy. How many manufacturing jobs have we lost in this province because of the cost of hydro? I didn’t hear any of that in the minister’s speech.

But he did talk about the fact that we on this side of the House didn’t talk about lowering rates or freezing rates. Well, quite frankly, we New Democrats put forward a solution—a small solution it may be—to take HST off hydro for families, so that they could afford it just that little bit more.

But again, I’d love to hear more about the global adjustment. I would like to know his view on the global adjustment. I’ll give you an example. For a small business in my riding, his electricity use is approximately $1,000. By the time he has the global adjustment, all the delivery charges and everything else, his bill is over $10,000. That’s a huge increase. These are the kinds of things that we need to talk about.

These are the kinds of things that are going to make a difference for people in all of our ridings across this province, and make sure that we have viable jobs in manufacturing to keep them here, because hydro rates are definitely a sure factor driving those jobs out of our province.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Bas Balkissoon): The Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities.

Hon. Brad Duguid: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I’m delighted to take a few minutes just to share a few thoughts with the members and the public that are watching. Having a viable, realistic and visionary plan for energy takes courage. A number of years ago, we set out with a long-term energy plan. The current minister has put together a long-term energy plan that levels with the people of Ontario and talks about the challenges of having a clean, reliable, modern energy system. It doesn’t happen easily. It takes tough positions.

If you want to have a clean energy system, if you want cleaner air—unlike the party opposite, who have done everything they can to put barriers in our way in getting to that place—then it does take investments. If you want a reliable system, you have to invest in infrastructure, unlike the party opposite when they were in power. They just put their heads in the sand and let our energy system go down the tubes. That’s why we’ve had to make significant investments.

Our long-term energy plan ensures that we never go back to the Tory days, where we had to rely on dirty sources of energy, like coal, to provide power to our people and our businesses. We’re not going to go back to the Tory days, where we completely ignore the need to invest in transmission.

This legislation before us here today that the minister has introduced is important. There are at least 31,000 jobs in the clean energy sector that would not exist today if this government had not had the courage and the wisdom to move forward and make the decisions needed to build a clean energy economy in this province.

The people on the other side talk about creating jobs. Their policies would kill jobs. Some 31,000 jobs today in this province in the clean energy sector would not exist if the Leader of the Opposition had his way, Mr. Speaker. It’s something we can be proud of, something we are proud of, and I thank the minister for bringing this legislation forward.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Bas Balkissoon): Questions and comments?

Mr. Rob E. Milligan: It’s always a pleasure to stand here, but some mornings you just have to shake your head as to what actually is being said here. I hope the viewers back home are paying close attention to what this minister is saying about renewable—supposedly renewable, supposedly affordable—energy.

Let’s get the facts straight, Mr. Speaker. What this government has done is they’ve actually been an invasive species themselves when it comes to dictating to municipalities throughout the province for these industrial wind turbines to be placed and located here, pitting neighbour against neighbour. Let’s face it: The minister knows himself, if he reads the studies and is up on the file, that wind is only 18% reliable, so it’s not reliable. If you look at the Auditor General’s report on how much the Green Energy Act cost this province last year, it’s over $1 billion. That’s not affordable.

So, they talk about dirty coal. They talk about the bad old days of Mike Harris and the Tory government. Well, why there’s not as much pollution per se is because we have lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs in this province under this Liberal government in the last decade. They’re proud to say, “We’ve lost 300,000 jobs, but we’ve created 31,000 jobs.” That’s what I refer to as Liberalnomics; it doesn’t add up.

So I would say, in closing, that the Green Energy Act is not reliable, it’s not affordable, and this Liberal government is not electable.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Bas Balkissoon): Thank you. Response?

Mr. Bob Delaney: I have to acknowledge the contributions of my colleagues from Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke and Hamilton Mountain, the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, and the member for Northumberland–Quinte West.

Speaker, one cannot miss the irony of listening to the Conservative Party say that they would throw out 50% of Ontario’s generation capacity plan to be from renewable energy and listen to the NDP say they would throw out 50% of Ontario’s generation capacity coming from the refurbishment of our world-class Candu nuclear reactors. Both parties taken together would take all of our generation capacity and just toss it. I’m not sure how they plan to generate electricity for the province of Ontario.

I can say to people watching, however, that only this government has a balanced, decentralized, diversified plan to take power generation and do with power generation exactly what has happened with computing power in our lifetime: It went from large, centralized mainframes to many diversified, decentralized servers and routers. That’s the way the electricity grid is going everywhere in the world.

We don’t need to throw out half of our generation capacity that’s designed to be renewable. We don’t need to throw away half of our generation capacity which is designed to be our baseload nuclear generating capacity. Both parties will tell you about the electricity they won’t generate, but only this government is going to tell you about how they’re going to bring to Ontario a world-class, reliable, economic, dynamic electricity generation and transmission system. That, Speaker, is the job that Ontarians sent us here to do.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Bas Balkissoon): Further debate?

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: It’s my pleasure to join the debate today on Bill 153 on behalf of Tim Hudak and the Ontario Progressive Conservative caucus. This piece of legislation is actually very serious, with far-reaching implications if it is not done properly, which is probably my biggest criticism here today.

Speaker, I think what I’ll do in my time is lay my speech out this way: what this legislation is and how it became; I’ll talk about the problems in Ontario today with respect to our electricity system, our hydroelectric system and the prices people are paying; and then I’d like to talk about some of the solutions that we in the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party believe we could bring forward when we are elected to govern this province.

As you’re aware, Speaker, in 2009, when my colleague and seatmate was our energy critic before I, one of the largest, most omnibus pieces of legislation put forward in this assembly was the Green Energy Act. At the time, we took, I thought, a very principled stand, which has guided us in the last half of a decade in opposing this and understanding what the implications would be with respect to wind and solar power generation in Ontario, what that meant to our supply mix but, as importantly, what it would mean to the price of hydro and our electricity system here in the province of Ontario.

At the time, Speaker, you will likely recall that we talked about the Green Energy and Green Economy Act costing Ontario residents who pay for their power about 50% more. That’s now coming to fruition—not my numbers; it’s their numbers.

The long-term energy plan put forward by the Liberals in the last year has said that they will increase our hydro bills by about 50%. People can’t afford that anymore. We stood here and we said that. We know, for example, that we raised the issue of stripping locally based decision-making. We identified very early on that that would be a key and significant problem for municipalities across Ontario. Now we have over 70 municipalities in rural Ontario who have signed resolutions suggesting and stating that they are not willing hosts.

They don’t want wind and solar farms or turbine developments in their communities. They want a say. You can understand, at the time we’re talking about, municipalities had the right to have their say on shopping centres in their community; they were able to have a say on whether a gas station was in their community. They were able to have a say on virtually any development in their community, with the sole exception of whether or not wind or solar power energy were going to be developed in their community.

They were stripped away from that, and that has caused widespread anger and disdain in rural Ontario against this current government. We warned them; we said that would happen. We asked them to remove that clause in the existing act, but they chose not to do it. We said it would cost jobs.

Now, at the time—they’ll talk about 31,000 jobs, which means probably 3,000 jobs—they promised in this assembly 50,000 jobs. You want to know what? I remember George Smitherman standing directly across from where I stand today, and in his place he demanded support for this because it would create this mythical 50,000 jobs. They have never materialized. In fact, our previous Auditor General here in the province of Ontario, Jim McCarter, did an assessment of the Green Energy Act, and do you know what he said?

He said for every job created by the Green Energy Act, four more are lost because of the extent of the subsidies and what it has done to drive up the price of power in our province. That was a significant concern put forward by the Ontario Progressive Conservatives and my seatmate, John Yakabuski from Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke, and all of those predictions that we had at the time have come true.

We have stood here in the assembly on two other issues, notably, placing a moratorium on wind turbine developments until proper health effects and environmental effects have been studied. This government put forward a plan without any financial or economic assessment, and they also put forward a plan without any health or environmental impact assessments.

What we know today is, whether it is a community that is dealing with turtles that may be almost extinct or birds that are losing their migratory patterns because of these wind turbines—we also know, for example, that there is a group called Mothers Against Wind Turbines because they are concerned about their children living too close to the setbacks, and we talked about those issues as well. At the time, I remember going through the hearings in Ottawa, when committees actually used to travel here in this assembly, and I remember those from NavCan and other airports were concerned about this as well.

So there’s a whole set of circumstances that needed to have been studied before we proceeded with this, and we’re now just finding out that that hasn’t been done. There are impacts, and that’s why the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy is studying this, as well as Health Canada. They are now studying this, because they are very concerned with the impacts. Again, we at the time had said those issues needed to be developed.

Those are, I believe, some very significant impacts and arguments that have been made against the Green Energy Act. They were very well thought out at the time. I credit my colleague from Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke and I also credit my colleague from Newmarket–Aurora, who took a special interest in it as well. At the time, we stated these very serious objections, we stated these very serious concerns and we talked about the implications.

Now today, I stand before you, and as I listen to the Minister of Energy, we find out that since 2010, a year after the Green Energy Act was first introduced, they have known that there would have been challenges through the World Trade Organization because of domestic content laws and the protection of contents within the Green Energy Act. They have known since 2010 that they were breaking international law. Now we are faced with a compliance deadline of March 24 and we are not sitting next week.

There is a very real possibility that they have known for four years that they were breaking the law, yet are only now, at the eleventh-and-a-half hour, trying to fix the problem and fix it with this piece of legislation.

It’s two things. I’m not quite sure we’ll actually meet compliance, and secondly, I think I can make the case and lay it out for you why we should actually be rescinding the Green Energy Act rather than just putting forward Bill 153 and amending it simply by removing one clause in the Electricity Act, 1998.

Right now, the minister is saying that we should remove

section 25.35 of the Electricity Act which permits the minister to direct the OPA to develop a feed-in tariff program. The bill repeals

section 23.353 of the act, which requires the minister to issue and the OPA to follow directions that set out the goals relating to domestic content to be achieved during the period to be covered by the program. The government has known that they have violated the results of the Uruguay round of multilateral trade negotiations for four years.

I’m going to read this section. Folks like to talk, and I notice that the Liberal government chose instead to attack our political party and tell half of the story. Let me tell you a little bit about international trade law. When we begin to mess with international trade law, there are severe repercussions elsewhere in our economy for that, because that allows those complainant countries to retaliate against us and our goods and products. So this is important. I’ve had several briefings with international trade lawyers because of the severity of this situation.

The issue here is “Review by the Council for Trade in Goods.” First, I’ll go to “Consultation and Dispute Settlement”:

“The provisions of articles XXII and XXIII of GATT 1994, as elaborated and applied by the dispute settlement understanding, shall apply to consultations and the settlement of disputes under this agreement.

“Review by the Council for Trade in Goods

“Not later than five years after the date of entry into force of the WTO agreement, the Council for Trade in Goods shall review the operation of this agreement and, as appropriate, propose to the ministerial conference amendments to its text. In the course of this review, the Council for Trade in Goods shall consider whether the agreement should be complemented with provisions on investment policy and competition policy.

“Illustrative list:

“

(1) TRIMs that are consistent with the obligation of national treatment provided for in paragraph 4 of the

article III of GATT 1994 include those which are mandatory or enforceable under domestic law or under administrative rulings, or compliance with which is necessary to obtain an advantage and which require:

“(

a) the purchase or use by an enterprise of products of domestic origin or from a domestic source, whether specified in terms of particular products, in terms of volume or value of products, or in terms of a proportion of volume or value of its local production; or

“(

b) that an enterprise’s purchases or use of imported products be limited to an amount related to the volume or value of local products that it exports.”

Mr. John Yakabuski: They admitted today they knowingly went against it.

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: My colleagues remind me, once again, that this government admitted today that they knowingly broke the law. They’re not happy or satisfied with having one OPP investigation into them on the gas plants and another OPP investigation into them on the Ornge scandal. They now have become international law breakers, and they knowingly broke the law. That’s why we have this bill here before us.

So let’s go back a little bit, because it was in May 2012 that the WTO ruled that Canada broke international law and broke the trade agreement. They knew they were going to break it. The WTO, in May 2010, adjudicated and ruled that they broke the law—those complaints, as I’ve stated, came from the European Union and Japan—that our high subsidies for wind and solar projects with domestic content, those protectionist policies broke the law. That’s why we have this bill. This is their attempt at compliance on an issue that they have known about since 2010. I cannot state that enough: They knowingly broke the law.

It removes a

section from the Electricity Act dealing with domestic content of the FIT program. However, given this legislative timeline and the date that we have for compliance, the Liberals know we have a very slim chance of meeting the compliance deadline by March 24, because they have dragged their feet. I believe it is in order to embarrass the federal government. But at what cost? I ask you, at what cost, Speaker?

Interjections.

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: As the members opposite like to chirp, here are the real costs: If we end up in a trade war, there could be retaliatory measures by Japan and by the European Union. What could they retaliate against? Well, they could retaliate against our automotive industry here in the province of Ontario, which is struggling. What else could they retaliate against? Perhaps our Ontario beef; they could decide to make a retaliatory effort against that.

I look at my colleague from Oxford, who is our agriculture critic; I see my colleague from Perth–Wellington, and I see my colleague from Northumberland–Quinte West. They understand our rural agricultural community. Not only are they dealing with these massive subsidies and the invasion of these wind turbines into their community, they are concerned that if this bill does not pass in time by this government and they do not meet compliance, we will see retaliatory measures on their constituents who are beef farmers. We could also see retaliatory measures against Niagara wine.

This is a reality, and it is the first time in Canadian history that a provincial law has put the Canadian government into an international situation such as this—an international situation, by the way, which could lead to a massive trade war in retaliation against products that we make right here in Ontario.

What are the other challenges with this bill? Well, I can tell you what they are, Speaker.

First of all, in the briefing I had with the minister’s office, the minister’s office says to us, “This won’t be retroactive. It’s any wind turbine development moving forward.” The trade lawyers that I consulted with—and I did have several briefings—told me, “Well, that’s impossible. We’ve never, ever heard that, that it’s not retroactive.”

So let’s just be very clear: Any wind turbine that’s erected in the province of Ontario today, if it needs to be repaired and the domestic content laws are changed, they can buy that replacement part anywhere in the world, meaning they’re probably going to buy it cheaper outside of Ontario than they would here.

It also means people like Samsung and others, who are supposedly building and manufacturing here, are actually going to go somewhere where it’s cheaper to make these goods. It means the jobs that these people have suggested they’ve acquired or created are actually going to leave anyhow. It also means we don’t know necessarily if we are going to meet compliance, because they are not rolling these back.

The third thing which I find is most interesting is that the minister here today has suggested that they have made a $22-billion investment into 1.1% of our energy supply. They could end up ripping up their own contracts. I mean, it’s all very convenient for them to pontificate in this assembly that everything bad in the world is Tim Hudak’s and Lisa MacLeod’s and John Yakabuski’s fault, but we all know, when you get beyond the talking points, when you consult with the trade lawyers across this country, the real concern here is threefold. They don’t meet compliance: We’re in an international trade war.

They meet compliance—there are no more domestic provisions—the jobs that they pretend they’ve created leave. The third issue is, how do we know we are not up for a NAFTA

chapter 11 suit following through with this?

These are all very real concerns, and I am very concerned, as an elected member of this assembly and as the energy critic for the official opposition, that that hasn’t been thought out by these folks.

Now, I had the opportunity to speak at length, not only with officials from the minister’s office; I had an opportunity to speak with trade lawyers here in Toronto from major firms. I also had the opportunity to speak with the Department of Foreign Affairs federally, the department of international trade, and, of course, the Minister of Justice’s office, who supplies the lawyers for all of these. Again, they were hoping that this government would actually in good faith comply with the WTO ruling.

But it is very clear to me that if they do not comply in an unprecedented way, there’s going to have to be federal intervention in order for us to comply. I think that’s a very clear issue that the minister has rejected, it is one that he has ignored and it is one perhaps he just chose not to explore. But, again, it speaks to the competency and the motivation of a government that is so rigid in its ideology that it would rather plunge Canada into an international trade war than actually work in a sophisticated manner in order to alleviate the challenges.

I want to go back. Let’s talk a little bit more about the Green Energy Act. I checked the IESO today, the independent electricity supply organization. They tell me that our nuclear capacity today is at 51.3%. Hydro is 24.1% of our capacity. Gas is 22.2%. Hold your hats, folks. Hold your hats, because for $22 billion, this Liberal government can get you 1.1% capacity of wind and solar in the province of Ontario. They are telling us that they’re going to stand here for $22 billion so that we have 1.1% of our capacity on our grid today.

They have wasted our money. They could put us into a trade war. They have cost us jobs. They are forcing seniors out of their homes because they can’t afford their heat and hydro. That is the Green Energy Act. That is why we’re here today. That is the big problem we have.

So we have a government that has completely eroded the confidence of the people in this province in its ability to manage the electricity system, and all they can do is stand here with platitudes, rhetoric and anger about a decade ago. I have news for them, Speaker: For the last decade, they’ve been in power. For the last decade, they’ve doubled the deficit. For the last decade, they’ve doubled the debt. For the last decade, our taxes have gone up. For the last decade, we have seen our hydro increase to the point that many in Ontario who are on a fixed income—and our seniors are seeing that their old age security cheque is less than their hydro bill.

Their solution to all that ails the electricity system in Ontario is the removal of one

section in the Electricity Act of 1998. It’s a pretty sad state of affairs when a government, elected by the people for the people, can so quickly abandon those people.

Bill 153 has little chance of meeting the compliance deadline because this Liberal government would rather pick a fight with Stephen Harper than do their job. This Liberal government chose a Green Energy Act that cost Ontario dearly because of a rigid ideology. This Liberal government would stand here and blame everything on Tim Hudak and the Ontario Progressive Conservatives rather than take responsibility for themselves, because they know they have led us astray.

I want to talk about dirty coal for a second, because I think I’ve heard a lot of rhetoric from the member opposite. I remember running on platforms where we would end coal, but not only did we run on a platform to end coal, we ran on a record. We were the first party in Ontario to start decommissioning coal-fired plants. That’s an inconvenient truth by a government that doesn’t want to tell the whole story. But I know Elizabeth Witmer. He is no Elizabeth Witmer. I can tell you something: When she sat here in this assembly, she was the first to move us in that direction. They don’t want to tell the whole story because it doesn’t fit the narrative that they want to talk about.

But if they want to talk about children’s health, I’ll talk about a child’s health. I’ll talk about Madi Vanstone, who every day we’ve brought up in the assembly here. I can’t help but think that the Ontario that I live in, the Ontario that I’m raising my daughter in, is spending $22 billion for 1% of energy to make Liberal friends rich when little girls in this province who need life-saving drugs can’t get them. And why can’t she get them? Because this Premier said it costs too much. She said that it costs too much; we couldn’t afford it.

We could afford to make Mike Crawley a rich man, we can afford to make NextEra a rich company and we can ensure that Samsung basically has a seat at the cabinet table here, but apparently our government cannot and will not choose to support a child who needs help. That’s the reality that we’re in in Ontario today. People can’t understand it. It was well documented, I thought, by Christina Blizzard. I thought she laid out the case on that quite clearly, and I thought that she pointed out what most people in Ontario are saying.

You look at the cost of power now—and I had the opportunity to speak to the supply motion, I guess it was a week ago. I talked about the opportunity I had to visit many of my colleagues’ ridings and talk to many people who are in their communities, and we talked about the high cost of energy and how that is hurting the people of this province and hurting manufacturers, and we talked about what our plan would be.

We’ve written a number of white papers. Some of them were just, effectively, ideas that we put forward that we’ll run on; others were ideas for discussion that we’ve talked about. But, very clearly, people are looking for a rational solution to the mismanagement by the government.

We’ve put forward a number of, I think, very thoughtful ideas and very sensible ideas to review not only the existing Green Energy Act—I think we’ve been very clear that we would repeal it—but we also talked about looking at some of the entities that we have in Ontario, like the OPG and Hydro One, monetizing them to bring more accountability. We know that there are some very serious and straightforward concerns there. We know, for example, that we’re exporting about $1 billion worth of power.

I get a kick out of it. I see that the leader of the third party is saying that she’s going to end this $1 billion worth of subsidies. Where the heck does she think the subsidies are coming from? We’re overproducing power because we’ve got this wind and solar program that she has supported. She wants to get rid of the export, but what are we going to do with the power? Is she going to build storage we can’t afford? Is she going to subsidize that? She is so incoherent it’s not funny.

In fact, she actually puts silliness in front of stupidity, because if I would consider these guys to be the latter, they would certainly be the former, and I can tell you, Speaker, that is just not going to go over very well with the people of the province. I think they have seen and they have heard enough.

I’d like to read into the record a couple things. I’m not sure when you’re going to cut me off. I do know we’re close to 10 o’clock, so if I’m going to have about 10 more minutes, that’s great. But I wanted to talk about the Ottawa Council of Business Improvement Areas, and perhaps the minister would like to respond at some point to this organization that wrote him a letter on December 9—a very real organization that impacts his constituents as well as mine. I’m going to read into the record just some excerpts of their concerns that they put forward in the letter, but they also took the time to meet with Tim Hudak and myself in Ottawa. This is what they say:

“It should be stated that the OCOBIA is a volunteer organization representing 18 business improvement areas across urban, suburban and rural Ottawa that account for nearly $4.5 billion commercial, office, shopping centres and industrial property assessment. The businesses which our BIAs represent are not exclusively retailers but also include professional and personal services such as health clinics and Legions.”

They talk about small business in Ontario, and then they say this:

“I’m sure you would agree that it is unfair to those 97% of taxpaying operators that they should ever need to make the decision whether to close their doors permanently, lay off employees or pay their Ontario hydro bill. We are asking you, please do not work against Ontario small businesses.... Our government should be supporting our businesses, not aiding in their demise.... We urge you to please work on the side of Ottawa retailers, on the side of job creators and on the side of Ottawa employees and reconsider your government’s crippling hydro increases.”

AMPCO, the Association of Major Power Consumers of Ontario, I’m going to quote them:

“AMPCO’s latest benchmarking analysis compares Ontario’s industrial rates with those in other provinces in Canada as well as selected US markets. Our analysis shows that Ontario has the highest industrial rates in North America. Ontario not only has the highest delivered rates of all these jurisdictions; the disparity in rates also is growing.”

The Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association says that in Ontario, we are at some points 129% higher than some US jurisdictions.

Going back to AMPCO:

“Industrial customers in Ontario face the highest delivered cost of power among the provinces compared.... The cost of power ... for large and small industrial customers remains significantly higher than comparable rates in US markets.

“AMPCO estimated the cost of power for a typical industrial customer in US markets: New York, New England (including 6 states), the Midwest (including 15 states), markets served by the PJM System Operator ... and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas....

“The highest delivered cost of power in the US markets selected ... was $20 lower per MWh than the comparable rate for an industrial customer in Ontario.”

So the highest is still $20 a megawatt lower than it is in our province. This is troubling. It validates all of those concerns that we have had in the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party with respect to high energy rates and the global adjustment and what the cost of power is doing to our manufacturers and our power consumers, but it also speaks to why the Green Energy Act needs to be abolished. And when I get back to Bill 153, I think, well, that’s fine and good if you sort of want to maybe, whatever, some way down the road, think about compliance. Well, I guess that’s your choice.

But if you want to show the world that you’re serious about getting hydro rates under control, that you’re serious about meeting your international trade obligations, that you’re serious about bringing back the jobs, then you will get rid of the Green Energy Act in its entirety.

This is a province that cannot continue to afford this reckless spending. I go back to that $22 billion—$22 billion for 1.1% of power. I couldn’t think of a bigger waste of money. That’s 20 cancelled gas plants. You know what the minister said? I should send—can I have a page, please? The Minister of Energy told us that the cancelled gas plants were just a cup of coffee. I’ll send this over. He could win a free cup of coffee a year from Tim Hortons, because that’s what the province of Ontario wants to tell him. They’re tired of these silly games by this Liberal government. They’re tired of the mismanagement.

You think about this: He has just acknowledged in this House that to create 1.1% of power is $22 billion. They had to acknowledge, albeit it was the Auditor General who forced them, that it was $1.1 billion for them to save five seats. With that amount of waste and that amount of mismanagement, we could not only eradicate our deficit, but we could make significant investments into our communities in health care and education, and we would still have power that we wouldn’t have to export. A novel idea, Speaker, but that is the reality; it is the truth, and it is something that we have said consistently—and the only party to do so since 2009.

That’s why we stand here day in and day out. We stand for the people in Strathroy and Stratford. We talk to the people in Cobourg, the people in Oxford and the people in Barry’s Bay. We talk about the people who are opposing these high subsidies and who are opposing these invasions on their land. We talk to them. We ask them to stay in Ontario and make sure that they continue to support us so that we can change this.

I see my colleague from Leeds–Grenville is here. I had a great meeting, I think it was before Christmas, with some manufacturers in his riding. They handed me a sheet, not unlike this one, that showed 10 Fortune 500 companies that left Brockville in the last decade—major employers in Brockville. They left, and why? They said: the high cost of hydro. They then showed me another sheet that came from the neighbouring community across the St. Lawrence, which is an American state in upstate New York. They were telling Ontario businesses to relocate because they could guarantee cheaper power.

My colleague comes here every day, and he stands and defends the people of Leeds and Grenville. He defends those businesses—small, medium and, in this case, very large. He knows the number one issue for them staying and creating and maintaining the jobs in Ontario today is the high cost of energy, and he has fought for them. I couldn’t tell you how much of an impact that had, other than I can bring it to the floor of this assembly. That is the real challenge with their bill, with what’s happening.

My colleague from Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry is not, at the moment, in the chamber, but I want to talk about going into his riding. We met with a local mayor of Long Sault. They had a round table. The mayor’s mother was there, and she was beside herself —a senior. She was the one who first told me, “I’m getting an OAS cheque, and it is not covering my hydro bill. It is higher.” When you sit there, their number one issue—and they equate the high cost of hydro at Hydro One and they equate this Green Energy Act as the cause of that skyrocketing bill.

These aren’t people who have major policy analysts employed for them. They’re senior citizens. They’re sitting there, opening up their bill from Hydro One that’s higher than it has ever been—in some cases, 600 bucks, 900 bucks, 1,200 bucks. They don’t need a high-priced analyst from the University of Toronto to sit there and review the bill and tell them where the increase is coming from. They can tell, when they see the wind turbine development or the solar panel farm crop up, that somebody is paying them exorbitant fees in order for them to build these monstrosities. Those seniors are subsidizing it.

The Ontario government is not subsidizing it. The Ontario government is only as good as the people who pay in to the government, and it’s only as wealthy as the amount of people who are able to pay in to the government. When those folks who have no extra money can continue to subsidize, that’s who they’re hurting.

I’ve talked a little bit about health care, and I’ve talked a little bit about seniors, and I’ve talked about the impact on small business. It’s only going to get worse if we do not comply with World Trade Organization laws. If we do not comply, the high hydro rates, the job losses, the health and scientific and environmental effects, the arrogance which our small rural communities are being challenged with—it’s all going to get worse, because they will have put us in a trade war. There will be real concerns for those communities who build cars, who farm beef, who grow wine.

Let me be abundantly clear, Speaker: This is a government who is too concerned with its own ideology, and too concerned with its buddies that they could make a little bit more rich, that they had no concern whatsoever about the people paying the bill; that they have no concern whatsoever of the broader implications in an international trade war that they have now thrust us into. They don’t care, Speaker. They didn’t do their job at the beginning. They’re not doing their job now, they didn’t do their job then, and everybody in Ontario is paying for it.

You know what? They cling to the hope that saint Kathleen is going to actually win a by-election or, possibly, somehow miraculously eke out an election win so they can come back here and subsidize more things and then send jobs elsewhere.

I would say right now that my friend Steve Clark is probably saying that the business person of the year in Massena is Kathleen Wynne. In Massena, New York, she is probably business person of the year. I can tell you, having sat down with the people in Brockville, that is the truth.

I can tell you right now that my friend Bob Bailey, from Sarnia, could probably tell you that she’s also, in Detroit, the business person of the year, because he’s seeing businesses in his community leaving and going across the border.

I can tell you that our new friend Wayne Gates, from Niagara, probably is going to tell us that she’s business person of the year over in Buffalo too, just like Bob Rae was, back in the 1990s, sending the jobs south.

People in Ontario, job creators in Ontario, manufacturers in Ontario, can’t afford this expensive green energy experiment. In fact, it has failed in so many ways, it’s amazing that they’re still clinging to it on life support. I mean, think about it.

I’m going to close on this, but it’s going to take me until you shut me down, Speaker, to finish. I’m going to close on this.

Interjection.

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: I’m going to close on this—for the third time. We said that the Green Energy Act would increase hydro rates by 50%, in 2009, and it has. We said that stripping away locally based decision-making from municipalities would cause major disruptions in rural Ontario, and it has. Seventy-two communities have signed Not a Willing Host.

We said there would be health and environmental impacts that need to be studied. They didn’t do it. Now the federal government has to do it, and a university in Ontario has to do it. We said it. We said it. That’s what’s happening.

We said that this job-killing policy would cost us jobs. The Auditor General has said that for every job these guys pretend to create, we lose four more. During their tenure, we lost 330,000 manufacturing jobs and—

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Bas Balkissoon): A point of order, the Minister of Energy.

Hon. Bob Chiarelli: —unanimous consent to let her continue debating.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Bas Balkissoon): I’m sorry; I can’t accept your point of order.

Second reading debate deemed adjourned.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Bas Balkissoon): Seeing the time on the clock, this House stands recessed until 10:30.

The House recessed from 1015 to 1030.

INTRODUCTION OF VISITORS

Mr. Garfield Dunlop: I’d like to welcome today to the Legislature Ducks Unlimited Canada, who are here on a lobby day. Many of them are over here in the audience in the members’ gallery. They are celebrating their 75th anniversary and they have a reception here today both at 12:30 in room 230 and tonight from 4:30 until 7 o’clock in the legislative dining room. I hope everyone can come out and visit and listen to the issues and the concerns that are faced by this great conservation organization we have here in Ontario and Canada. Welcome to Queen’s Park, everyone.

Mr. Percy Hatfield: It’s my pleasure to introduce a good friend of mine from my old CBC days, a constituent of Mr. Holyday’s in Etobicoke–Lakeshore. Leroy Siemon is here this morning to see what goes on in question period.

Mr. Bob Delaney: Speaker, on behalf of the member for Peterborough, I’m pleased to introduce not merely our existing page captain, Nik Skilton, but his mother, Mary Anna Zakula, who will be in the public gallery this morning. I welcome them to the Legislature.

Mr. Rob E. Milligan: I just want to welcome to Queen’s Park a very good friend of mine, Mr. Paul Norris from the Ontario Waterpower Association.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. The member from Nickel Belt.

M me France Gélinas: Merci, monsieur—Nickel Belt?

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): It’s what I said.

M me France Gélinas: Okay, merci.

Ça me fait extrêmement plaisir de souhaiter la bienvenue à tous les étudiants qui sont ici pour le Parlement jeunesse francophone. Du Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario, Collège Notre-Dame, on a Benjamin Doudard et Chad Savard, et de l’École secondaire catholique Champlain, on a Sylvie Rachelle Bigras. C’est leur première visite à Queen’s Park. J’espère que vous allez leur souhaiter la bienvenue, et on invite tout le monde à la réception ce soir pour le Parlement jeunesse francophone.

Hon. Tracy MacCharles: Good morning, Speaker. On behalf of the Minister of Economic Development, Trade and Employment, I’d like to welcome Nadia Fordham here from Etobicoke. I’m not sure if she’s in the gallery yet, but welcome to Queen’s Park.

Mr. Robert Bailey: It’s a pleasure this morning to welcome to Queen’s Park Garry and Janice Jordan, constituents of mine from Sarnia–Lambton, from the village of Wyoming. Welcome.

M. Gilles Bisson: Pour ne pas être en conflit avec la députée de Nickel Belt, j’aimerais dire bonjour aux élèves qui sont ici de Hearst, de Kap et de Timmins pour le parlement des jeunes. Puis on regarde avec anticipation de les rencontrer un peu plus tard.

Hon. Yasir Naqvi: I want to welcome to Queen’s Park Chris Drummond, who is a teacher at a great Ottawa Centre high school called Nepean High School. He’s part of the Ducks Unlimited delegation today.

Mr. Todd Smith: On behalf of our member from Etobicoke–Lakeshore, I’d like to welcome the family of page captain Samer El-Galmady: mother Hadir Ashry and father Ahmed El-Galmady, both in the Legislature this morning. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Ms. Soo Wong: I’m pleased to welcome my guests who are sitting in the east gallery. They are from my riding of Scarborough–Agincourt and they are students and their teacher from Sir John A. Macdonald, students Nagma Mathur and Michelle Tom, and their teacher, Matthew Sheehan. They are here also participating in the Ducks Unlimited “show and tell” this afternoon. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Mr. Michael Prue: I would like to introduce on behalf of Anne Lafaury, our page, her mother, Fionnuala Donaghy, and her grandmother Maureen Donaghy. They will be in the members’ gallery this morning.

Mr. Joe Dickson: I’d like to welcome anyone here this morning who has had the good fortune to receive the crucifix on their forehead with holy ashes to commence the holy season of Lent today.

Hon.

Mario Sergio: I’m very pleased to welcome to the Legislature today the very hard-working members of the Ontario Seniors’ Secretariat liaison committee, and the various organizations and representatives which are about to make their way into the House now from the National Association of Federal Retirees, the Older Women’s Network organization, the Canadian Association of Retired Persons, the united seniors council of Ontario, the Councils on Aging Network of Ontario, Ontario Society of Senior Citizens’ Organizations, Quarter Century Club, la Fédération des aînés et des retraités francophones de l’Ontario and the Multicultural Council for Ontario Seniors.

I’d like to welcome all of them here today, and I hope they have a wonderful time.

Hon. Charles Sousa: Please join me in welcoming today the parents of Sarah Forbes, a page here in our Legislative Assembly. With us today is Robin Forbes, her mother; Chris Forbes, her father; and her young brother Liam is here as well. Thank you guys for being here today.

Mr. Jonah Schein: I’d like to welcome students from Perth Avenue public school to the Legislature today.

UKRAINIAN FLAG

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member from Prince Edward–Hastings on a point of order.

Mr. Todd Smith: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Given the rising tensions in eastern Europe—and I know that all three parties in this Legislature have spoken in support of the people of Ukraine and the tensions that are rising there, the world focusing on the invasion of Ukraine—I would ask that this Legislature seek unanimous consent to fly the Ukrainian flag on the courtesy pole for one week.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member from Prince Edward–Hastings has requested permission for unanimous consent to fly the Ukrainian—before I get to that, I want to entertain, on the same point of order, the government House leader.

Hon. John Milloy: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. We’re certainly, on this side of the House, supportive of this. Members may know that we’ve reached out and are in the process of actually drafting a letter to you, which I understand is another way to do that, which would express the interest of all parties to go forward—just so members are aware of that. But obviously, the member is bringing that forward, and we’re very supportive.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): House leader of the third party and member from Timmins–James Bay.

Mr. Gilles Bisson: I just want to say we wholeheartedly support that, in order to give some solidarity to those people who are struggling to have the democracy that we have in this country. Whatever way we do it that makes the most sense is what we would support as New Democrats.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I’m going to ask for your indulgence to provide you with feedback and seek your direction. Since it’s a country flag and the process that we already used is doable, it only requires a letter from the House leaders to proceed. Unanimous consent is not necessary; it’s not required.

However, I do need more specific information inside of that unanimous consent if I’m getting a sense that the House is willing to move in that direction immediately, or we could defer the unanimous consent to allow the House leaders to complete the letter and send it through.

I’m going to be at the will of the House to allow me to do that. I would ask the member to decide how he wants to proceed. If he does, then we will. If he doesn’t, we’ll allow the House leaders to complete that task, and it doesn’t require unanimous consent. So if the member would like to comment, I’ll defer back to him.

Mr. Todd Smith: I would ask that the question be put and that we seek unanimous consent to fly the flag of Ukraine for one week on the courtesy flagpole.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Can you be more specific? Can you give me the date? The date in which the one week—

Mr. Todd Smith: Okay. Beginning today until the Legislature resumes sitting.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I don’t want to get picky, but you have to understand that we need that kind of clarity. So if it’s to resume, it means we resume tomorrow.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Seven days starting today. I’m trying to be helpful but make sure that we understand and we do this right. So the unanimous consent stands, and the member from Prince Edward–Hastings is seeking unanimous consent, starting today for seven days, that we fly the Ukrainian flag on the courtesy pole. Do we agree? Agreed. Thank you.

This is somewhat of a slight throwback to the comment that I had made in one of my rulings in that I was basically making sure that, if we co-operate in this manner, which is what happened today—that is, if we converse with our House leaders to ensure that we might know, or we don’t know, what’s going on at that level, it would be very appropriate for us to all co-operate with that process. I will sit down for a moment.

The simplest of things can be turned into something more complex. I’ve been briefed that there are a few occasions where the courtesy flag has already been committed to be used during that time frame. Will we adopt the same process that we did for the games, meaning that the flag will come down, the courtesy flag will go up for the people that have booked it, then come down and the Ukrainian flag goes back up? Are we in agreement? Agreed. Thank you all.

ORAL QUESTIONS

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Mr. Rob Leone: My question is for the education minister. Minister, the government is spending $8.5 billion per year more on education than it did in 2003, while we have 250,000 fewer students, and our students are falling behind in math. To be clear, we’re spending way more on education, serving fewer students and math achievement is worse today. My question to the minister is a simple one. How can you justify spending more money while our students are doing worse?

Hon. Liz Sandals: Oh, my goodness, where do I start? Okay. So let’s just deal, first of all, with what we got for more money. What we’ve gotten for more money is the roll-in of the full-day kindergarten program, which we understand you want to get rid of, but that’s what you got. What you got was a whole bunch of new programs called specialist high skills majors, which help teach kids practical skills in areas that they might want to pursue as careers. What you got was a high school graduation rate that rose—do you know what it was when they were in charge of education? One third of the kids in this province did not graduate from high school. Now—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. Stop the clock. Be seated, please. Supplementary?

Mr. Rob Leone: What we got was our students doing worse today than they did in 2003. It’s not only parents and students who are concerned but business leaders as well. Let me read you a quote. “It’s time to stop congratulating ourselves on the quality of our primary, secondary and post-secondary education systems and face up to the fact that our performance in international rankings is getting worse, not better.” Who said that, Mr. Speaker? It was the former Liberal Deputy Prime Minister, John Manley. Unfortunately, that’s exactly what your government has been doing for the last decade, as our students continue to look less and less competitive on the world stage.

Minister, isn’t a decade long enough? How many years have to go by before you take students’ performance seriously and fix the problems in our education system?

Hon. Liz Sandals: He actually needs little bit more information here. If he would look at the EQAO performance—something that you brought in, I might add—at the end of their mandate, about half of the kids in the province were reaching the provincial standard, which is quite a high standard. It’s an A or a B for those of us who still think in old letter grades. Now, 71% of the students are meeting the provincial standard. I really wish that the people across the aisle would stop trashing our public education system and actually look at what’s really going on.

In fact, I was interested to note today that when he was talking about school performance on PISA, he did say that the score had fallen 16 points. He didn’t tell you that that was on a scale that was 16 out of about 700.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Final supplementary.

Mr. Rob Leone: Mr. Speaker, I can’t believe what I’m hearing from the education system. A 16-point drop in our scores is actually a good thing? What’s going on here?

Today, the Ontario PC caucus unveiled our math achievement action plan, which provides proven solutions to the problems that students have been facing over the last 10 years. When it comes to mathematics, our students are not performing at the level they should be. Numeracy and literacy skills are crucial to both individual job success and our province’s economic growth. The fact that our students are slipping when it comes to basic math skills is beyond troubling.

Our plan focuses on the fundamentals and gives students the support and education they need as they move through high school to post-secondary education and into the job market. Teaching the times tables, rewarding the best teachers and prioritizing students over union bosses is the only way to get our students and schools back on track.

Minister, will you support our math achievement action plan?

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Be seated, please. Thank you.

Minister?

Hon. Liz Sandals: Actually, I kind of thought he was supporting my plan, because I’ve been saying for the last couple of months that we need balanced instruction, and part of that—

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member from Nepean–Carleton, come to order.

Hon. Liz Sandals: Part of that, Speaker, is that kids learn times tables. We agree: Kids should learn times tables. But we also think that kids should understand the basic concepts so that they can understand more sophisticated concepts and so that they can achieve what the chambers of commerce all across the province are asking for: that we have graduates who have critical thinking skills and who can apply those math concepts to do actual problem-solving. That’s what employers tell us they want.

We also believe you should support teachers. He wants to do it with performance pay if they get better math scores. I want to invest in teacher training—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you.

New question.

PAN AM GAMES

Mr. Rod Jackson: My question is to the Minister of Finance. Minister, you’re the leader of the Pan Am babysitting team. The minister reports bi-weekly to you, chair of the treasury board. So are you the one coaching him to fudge the numbers?

We’ve seen security move from $113 million to $206 million to $239 million. Transportation has moved from $55 million, according to documents last July, to between $75 million and $90 million. I can’t wait for the next milestone update on that one, really.

In the real world, the plan is supposed to fit the budget. You don’t update the budget to fit the plan—the Liberal way.

Minister, you’re just as guilty. At which point is it public misfeasance?

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Before I move to the Minister of Finance, I just want to warn the member that he’s on the edge when he makes that kind of allegation. I would ask him to temper his question and his comments under those circumstances. I appreciate his co-operation.

Minister of Finance.

Hon. Charles Sousa: Mr. Speaker, let me take this opportunity to congratulate the minister responsible for the Pan and Parapan American Games. That individual is a man of great integrity. He’s a man of great sensitivity, and he’s a new Canadian, like many others who come to this country looking for opportunity and equality.

He has done everything he can to be inclusive and to invite many to participate in these games and in the economy of Ontario. I’m very proud of the work that the minister of the Pan/Parapan American Games and Minister of Tourism does to represent our province and our country. It’s shameful what the member opposite has been trying to do to characterize this man as anything but an honourable individual. He’s doing a good job for the Pan Am Games. He’s being very open and transparent, and he’s doing everything necessary to protect the interests of our province.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Be seated, please. Be seated, please. Thank you.

Supplementary?

Mr. Rod Jackson: Only in this Liberal world that we live in down here would you actually congratulate the minister responsible for the Pan Am Games for this debacle.

Yesterday, TO2015 released their quarterly report. Apparently, three venues still have outstanding contracts. We also learned this week that a major milestone in security has been achieved—a security contract was almost reached. That almost contract is costing us taxpayers another $33 million somehow. Honestly, you’re 17 months away with contracts still pending. How can you possibly carry on like you’re still on budget?

By the way, TO2015 has already reported one project over budget, and apparently half of the total spending hasn’t even happened yet. Pan Am is a black hole, plain and simple.

Minister, once and for all, who is responsible for the Pan Am mismanagement anyway?

Hon. Charles Sousa: The Pan Am/Parapan American Games—all the venues that we’ve been providing in the southern corridor of Ontario around many communities are to benefit not just during the games but during the legacy of these games and in the future. We now have communities that are going to benefit from an aquatic centre that is second to none in North America. We’re going to have an all-season velodrome in the town of Milton that’s going to provide access to many in that community and around the world to come and train. We’re going to be able to provide venues for our athletes all over Canada to be able to train and perform and succeed in Ontario and in Canada.

They are on time. They are under budget. In fact, all those capital improvements have occurred as necessary. And of course, there are certain things that we’re going to do going forward, including security and transportation, to protect the interests of the public.

I’m very proud of what Ontario is going to do to represent Canada in the future of these games next year, and so should they.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Final supplementary?

Mr. Rod Jackson: Maybe the Minister of Finance should actually read the financial update that came out yesterday.

Speaker, here’s another one: The government invested $709 million tax dollars in the athletes’ village to benefit from the return on investment. But we know that if something looks too good to be true, it probably is, especially coming from this government. We will only ever see a fraction of it again: between $65 million and $70 million of that $709 million.

To put it plainly, Ontario could have funded 2,085 new doctors this year or paid for medicine for almost 2,000 kids like Madi Vanstone. So who is benefiting from the remainder of our invested money? Yes, another generous Liberal donation to the private sector.

Honestly, if Chan isn’t job-searching today, then you should be, Minister. Which one of you is going to step down over this?

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Stop the clock, please.

Sit down, please. Be seated, please. Thank you.

Minister of Finance?

Hon. Charles Sousa: The Pan Am village is going to provide social housing. It’s going to provide a YMCA. It’s going to provide a residence for students at George Brown College. It’s going to provide a cultural centre. It’s going to provide so much vibrancy in that community and on our waterfront. It accelerated the development of that area for the future benefit of all Torontonians, Ontarians and Canadians because of the attraction it’s going to bring. That is a legacy that is going to be left behind in those respects.

I am so proud of the work being done by Toronto 2015. I recognize that there are always things that can be done better, and we’re doing just that. That’s why we have put in a new chair. We have a new president, and we have a team out there that’s doing what is necessary to provide great games in 2015. The member opposite knows this. We’ve invited him to briefings. He has chosen not to read them.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Stop the clock, please.

I’m also going to take a moment just to remind members that I do—I’m trying to be forceful about this. Please use either the title or the riding when you refer to any member in this House during question period or any other time. I don’t want to keep reminding people. It’s tiring.

New question.

HYDRO RATES

Ms. Andrea Horwath: My question is for the Acting Premier. Does the Acting Premier think families in Ontario should be paying a billion-dollar subsidy for power that lights up the Manhattan skyline?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: I’m afraid, once again, the leader of the third party just has her facts wrong—completely wrong. When it comes to energy exports, we do not subsidize exports to other jurisdictions. The leader of the third party has mixed up something pretty important. She hasn’t taken the net benefit of our exports. In fact, since 2006, the independent electricity system operator has made over $2 billion in net revenue from those energy exports.

So once again, we have a party with no plan, no ideas and no facts, unfortunately.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Speaker, the people of Ontario certainly know what they’re paying for when they pay for the Liberal boondoggle in the electricity system these days.

Does the Acting Premier think that families and businesses in Ontario are being well served when private power speculators are profiting from electricity that Ontario ratepayers are subsidizing? That’s a fact. Does she support that?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: To the Minister of Energy.

Hon. Bob Chiarelli: The private sector has been investing tens of billions of dollars in Ontario energy, in various ways. I’d like to ask the leader of the third party: Where will she find that type of investment in the future in government? Where will the money come from?

Most importantly, she refers to hydro rates. I don’t know where the NDP gets their figures from, but Hydro-Québec conducts a study of electricity prices in major North American cities every year. It’s available on their website for anybody to look at. Here are some of the numbers from the 2013 comparison for residential customers: Ottawa, 12.39 cents per kilowatt hour; Toronto, 12.48 cents per kilowatt hour; Edmonton, 13.9 cents; Calgary, 14.81 cents; Halifax, 15.45 cents; Detroit, to look across the border, 15.54—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you.

Final supplementary?

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Other provinces are actually making money on exporting electricity and passing the savings on to consumers in their jurisdictions. But here in Ontario, it’s costing us over $1 billion for private power speculators to dump our power into the US, and people are paying the highest bills in the country. We simply cannot afford that any longer.

Does the Acting Premier agree that the status quo isn’t working and it’s time to take hydro sales out of the hands of private power speculators and start saving money for Ontario’s ratepayers?

Hon. Bob Chiarelli: We provided a briefing on the export of electricity to the critic for the third party. He obviously has not briefed his leader, because last year alone, exports reduced costs for Ontarians by $300 million in 2013. It’s been billions over the last decade.

Again, I want to repeat the numbers. The numbers—she just said again, we have the most expensive electricity rates in Canada. You know what, Mr. Speaker? The numbers belie that statement. I just read the numbers city by city and I didn’t finish them. The accusation that we’re selling cheap electricity across the border—in Detroit, they pay 15.54 cents; Boston, 16.5 cents; New York, 21.75 cents. Our rates are extremely competitive.

HYDRO RATES

Ms. Andrea Horwath: My next question is also to the Acting Premier, and I think it’s pretty clear that Liberals play with figures quite a bit. The only figures that are important to Ontarians are the figures they see when they open their hydro bill, which they can’t afford anymore.

People paying the highest electricity bills in the country, in fact, are looking for some relief. All they see is a bloated alphabet soup of agencies and executives who are collecting even more bloated pay packages. Other provinces are able to provide lower rates and even turn a profit on their exports at a fraction of the cost, which is an important factor.

Does the Acting Premier think that her current status quo is actually working for Ontarians?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: We’re very focused on the issue that the leader of the third party raised, and that is that people are feeling stretched. When they do open those hydro bills, there’s cause for concern. That’s why we’ve taken the steps we have. The clean energy benefit has saved Ontarians an average of $174 per year, and since we introduced it it has saved Ontario ratepayers $2.4 billion. On top of that, decisions that have been made will mean customers will pay $520 less over the next few years than compared to previous estimates.

That’s amending the domestic content rules; it’s updating the Samsung contract; it’s not proceeding with new nuclear. A range of decisions have been made that have the impact of reducing those hydro bills.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Andrea Horwath: The Liberals have been promising to cap public sector CEO pay for years now, but when they had an option to vote for a public sector CEO pay cap, they voted against it. For over 10 years, the Liberals have insisted that they won’t tolerate sky-high hydro salaries, and for over 10 years, the sky has been the limit. What explanation can the Acting Premier offer to the families of businesses who are stuck paying the bills for these sky-high salaries?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: We look closely at what opposition parties present in terms of policy ideas and, sadly, there’s not much to learn from the NDP policy on this. Their approach will do very little to reduce—in fact, it will do nothing to reduce rates for people. They seem to oppose nuclear. We’re not sure where they are on green energy. I think the only thing that the NDP actually are in favour of when it comes to producing power is gerbil power. I think their idea must be a bunch of little rodents on little wheels producing power, because they seem to be opposed to every kind of electricity generation.

I think it’s time we heard from the NDP what their plan is. What is their plan for power production in the province of Ontario?

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Final supplementary?

Ms. Andrea Horwath: What New Democrats are opposed to is Liberal waste and disrespect of the people who pay the bills in this province. That’s what we’re opposed to.

Today, I did actually lay out some pretty simple steps that we could take to make sure that life is more affordable for people who are paying the bills. Perhaps the minister wasn’t paying attention. It’s time to start cleaning up the mess in our hydro system instead of hiking the pay and million-dollar bonuses of those top CEOs. It’s time to make the bills a little more affordable for the people in Ontario instead of forcing families to pay for cheaper power in New York.

Now, is the Acting Premier ready to take some action on this file, or is she going to keep defending a status quo that isn’t working for people and that continues to waste their money and allows CEO salaries and bonuses to climb sky high?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: To the Minister of Energy.

Hon. Bob Chiarelli: The Deputy Premier alluded to the fact that the third party has no policy on energy. Well, they took a first baby step yesterday when the leader of the third party sent a letter to the Premier making some suggestions for the electricity system. One of the suggestions was to issue, once a year, a $100 cheque to all the electricity customers in the province. That $100 cheque will cost half a billion dollars. So I have a question for the leader of the third party: Will she get that on the rate base from the Ontario Energy Board and let the other consumers of electricity pay for it?

Or will she get it on the fiscal side and find half a billion dollars? Where will you find half a billion dollars? By raising taxes? What will you cut?

HEALTH CARE

Mr. Jim Wilson: My question is to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. Minister, you and the Premier say you’re going to push hard to cover the cost of Kalydeco for 12-year-old Madi Vanstone and others with cystic fibrosis. It has been seven months since I first raised this issue with you, and what have you done? Nothing.

Who do you think you’re fooling with this charade? You’re the only one who can make this decision, not Alberta, not the Pan-Canadian Pricing Alliance, but you. You’re the health minister. Health care and the well-being of little Madi are your responsibility. Stop playing games. Stop stringing Madi and her friends along. Make a decision. Are you going to cover Kalydeco?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: As a former health minister, you know as well as anyone that these are difficult decisions that come to health ministers. We have taken the politics out of determining what drugs we cover and what drugs we don’t—based on evidence. I can tell you that Kalydeco is a very promising drug that offers real hope and better outcomes for patients, which is why we are working at a pan-Canadian level to be able to purchase this drug.

I think it’s really important that the member opposite understands that we have had great success working on a pan-Canadian basis to get better prices for drugs. It’s time for Vertex, the US-based manufacturer of this drug, a publicly traded company, to step up and participate in these negotiations.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Jim Wilson: That answer simply isn’t good enough. Yes, I am a former health minister. In the past, we would cover the drug for extraordinary circumstances. Once we had a number of patients on the drug, we would work with other provinces to go back and say, “We’re your number one worldwide customer. Give us a better price.” And we would often get a better price.

You created this Pan-Canadian Pricing Alliance so that you and other health ministers across the country, I guess, can hide behind it. At the end of the day, no matter what any other province says and no matter what this committee says, you and you alone will make the decision on whether you will fund Kalydeco.

It’s a smokescreen you put up. Madi is not buying it. Other children who need help are not buying it. No one on this side of the House is buying it, and none of your people should be buying it either.

At the end of the day, it’s your decision. Will you do the right thing and help Madi and her friends?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: I think it’s important that the member opposite recognize that the Pan-Canadian Pricing Alliance, so far, has saved Canadians $50 million as they have worked to negotiate the best possible price for 29 drugs. What that means is that we can fund more drugs for more people.

I do want to remind the former Minister of Health—I have a quote from Hansard from 1996 here. The then Minister of Health said, “As you know, the Minister of Health doesn’t directly approve the alternative. The medical committee that’s called the Drug Quality and Therapeutics Committee, which is the same committee that’s been around for many years ... makes the final determination.”

This member opposite is playing politics. I find that offensive. We are doing what we can for Madi and for all people who need access to these rare drugs.

HYDRO RATES

Mr. Gilles Bisson: My question is to the Minister of Energy. Ontarians look at their hydro bills every day, and they see them going up. They see that they’re paying the highest bills in Canada, and yet we’re going to get another 42% increase as a result of this government’s policies. Does the energy minister agree that it’s time to hit the pause button on new private contracts until Ontario’s Auditor General reviews the private power contracts in Ontario?

Hon. Bob Chiarelli: We have a hybrid system in Ontario. The OPG and Hydro One make major investments in Ontario. The private sector also invests in Ontario. The private sector is a big part of the billions of dollars of investments in the sector.

I asked the leader of the third party, and I’ll ask this particular member: Where will you find the replacement investment dollars? Do you know how much you will have to replace in Ontario in energy investment if the private sector is not investing? Please answer the question.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Gilles Bisson: Coming from the government that cost the Ontario ratepayers over $1 billion for cancelled contracts in this province, this is a bit much. What’s clear here is that the government has messed up this entire file. What we’re saying is that you’ve got to hit the pause button on the continuation of putting out these contracts. So I ask you again: Will the Premier and her government agree to have the Auditor General look at all of Ontario’s private power contracts to ask whether we can get a better deal?

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I’m going to ask that the supplementary dialogue that’s going on between the two caucuses stop while the question is being put.

Minister of Energy.

Hon. Bob Chiarelli: I’ve said on a number of occasions we have three priorities, equal priorities: to have a reliable system—we did not have a reliable system when this government took over; secondly, to have a clean system, and we did not have a clean system when this government took over; and thirdly, to have affordable electricity rates in the province of Ontario.

Our $31 billion of investment put pressure on our hydro rates, and we’ve created price mitigation measures to help the residents of this province, including the Ontario energy and property tax credit, which that party voted against.

I would like to know if you’re informing your constituents of the programs that are available to mitigate their price in terms of tax credits, particularly in the north—and I speak to this member, Mr. Speaker—because they are getting a lot of credits, and it’s making a big difference in price mitigation to your constituents.

PUBLIC TRANSIT

Ms. Dipika Damerla: My question is to the Minister of Transportation. Like many days, this morning I got on the GO train to come to work. I can tell you it was standing room only on the GO train, a testimony to the popularity of GO Transit in my riding. It’s also a testimony to the way suburbs like Mississauga are being transformed because of the investments made by the Liberal government in public transit.

Would the minister please tell this Legislature the string of investments we have made in and around Mississauga when it comes to GO Transit?

Hon. Glen R. Murray: We have now taken our trains from 10 train units to 12 train units. We have added more trains now on the Milton line, which is a very popular line. We are now adding and expanding parking facilities and better integrating and coordinating with the regional and local transit authorities. The totality of investments at this point in GO will, within the next year, be over $10 billion. It’s the largest expansion of GO.

We are also working with the region of Peel and the city of Mississauga in communities for what we’re calling huburbia, which is to actually bring more jobs and create employment sectors. That’s a collaboration, and I want to give a shout-out not just to the member but also to Mayor McCallion and our friends in Mississauga who are leading the reurbanization and expanding the employment base and jobs.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Dipika Damerla: I want to thank the minister for that very comprehensive answer.

Now, the fact of the matter is that as popular as the GO train is for bringing people from Mississauga into Toronto, the reality is that people in Mississauga today are increasingly working not just in Toronto but across the GTHA, and I have my constituents going to Hamilton, going to Orangeville, going to Vaughan. I’d like to ask the minister what investments he is making in transit across southwestern Ontario, because I know this is important for my constituents.

Hon. Glen R. Murray: I had the great pleasure of joining my friend the member for Ancaster–Dundas–Flamborough–Westdale, which not only has a long name but now has long trains going into Hamilton. We were there for the unveiling and the construction start of the new Hamilton GO station, which is an architectural jewel, and we were looking at it right beside what we now call the unistation, the old Grand Trunk station, and that is amazing.

We are going to have four more trains going into Hamilton, and we’re now moving ahead with the acquisition of track between Aldershot and Hamilton to get Hamilton fully integrated into the Lakeshore line.

It doesn’t stop there. I want to give a special shout-out to my friend from Kitchener Centre and Regional Chair Seiling and Mayor Zehr of Kitchener, because they approved yesterday the final approvals for the Kitchener-Waterloo LRT, which will connect to our new GO service. This is a big day in Kitchener, and I want to thank my friend Minister Milloy for his leadership on this.

APPRENTICESHIP TRAINING

Mr. Garfield Dunlop: My question is to the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities. Yesterday, I introduced the Saving Apprentices’ Jobs Act. The bill will save over 85,000 apprentices’ jobs because of a deadline of April 8 that requires apprentices to join the College of Trades, and you may note that right now only approximately 10,000 of 95,000 apprentices have actually joined the college. That leaves only four weeks for the remainder to join or to lose their jobs, according to the regulation.

As well, the bill also allows 4,300 journeyperson candidates who have not written their CFQ to continue working without an expiry date. This bill will be debated on April 3. And I’m asking you, Minister, if you can’t intervene between now and April 3, if you will support this bill and even at second and third reading—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you.

The Minister of Training, College and Universities.

Hon. Brad Duguid: The member raises an important challenge for the College of Trades that I know that Mr. Tsubouchi and Mr. Johnson are working very hard on. In fact, I met with them on this very issue about a week or so ago. They have given a year of grace period for apprentices to join the college. They’re looking at this potential deadline in April as a challenge for them as well, as they work towards getting more and more apprentices to join. I guess the challenge I have is: Why would the member come forward with a piece of legislation?

All he has to do is pick up the phone and contact David Tsubouchi, somebody whom I think he knows very well, somebody whom this side of the House has a lot of respect for. Instead, the member decides that, instead of picking up the phone and talking to Mr. Tsubouchi about some suggestions he may have, he decides to try to hatchet Mr. Tsubouchi by putting forward provocative legislation in this Legislature. That’s not a good way to deal with this issue.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Garfield Dunlop: Thank you for that. I guess that was an answer.

Minister, on this side of the House, we believe in creating one million jobs, not driving away jobs with bureaucracies like the College of Trades. I’m not sure why you don’t take this more seriously. I shouldn’t be having to call David Tsubouchi. That’s your job, to figure that out.

I have a letter dated February 21 to apprenticeship sponsors from your five directors—from your staff, Minister. It clearly states, “If your apprentices fail to renew their membership by April 8, 2014, their college membership will expire, and their registered training agreement will be cancelled. This means you will no longer be able to train them as apprentices and they will not be able to work in the compulsory aspect of their trade.”

Minister, there are at least 85,000 apprentices counting on you, and they have not joined the Ontario College of Trades. Are you going to allow this to happen, or will you join with me and the PC caucus and support this bill—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. Be seated, please.

Minister?

Hon. Brad Duguid: This is another in a long line of attempts from the member opposite to try to usurp the power of the College of Trades and bring it back to Queen’s Park, where these decisions could be made in smoky backrooms in the Albany Club. We’re not going there. We have faith in Mr. David Tsubouchi, a former cabinet minister in this Legislature, in the very cabinet that his leader served in. We have faith in Mr. Ron Johnson, a former PC MPP from this Legislature. We know that the College of Trades is facing challenges from time to time, and this is one of them. I have faith in those two gentlemen.

Unlike the member opposite, who, time and time again, tries to do a hatchet job on the hard work that those gentlemen are doing, I have faith in them that they will resolve this challenge, as they have every other challenge that that member has brought forward to this Legislature. Time to put the fear-mongering away and support—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. Be seated, please.

New question. Nice and easy.

PAN AM GAMES

Mr. Jagmeet Singh: My question is to the Acting Premier. During the TO2015 quarterly report media conference, the TO2015 CEO said that hugely erroneous estimates for the games were in the security bid book. However, as he was not a part of the process, he did not know what the elements were in determining the cost to be $113 million. Are we to believe that the new CEO was not briefed by the new chair of the board, who was hand-picked by the former Premier to lead the Toronto 2015 bid?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: The Minister of Finance.

Hon. Charles Sousa: I’m very confident in the new CEO of Toronto 2015 and the work that he’s doing. He has actually been very familiar with the budget of 2015. He has been actively involved with the ministry of community and security, looking at ways that we’re going to protect the interest of the public. They are doing what is necessary to do just that. I’m very appreciative of the work being done by our ministry, in association with 2015 and their team as well.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary.

Mr. Jagmeet Singh: We’ve seen how completely out of touch the current security costs are with what was in the bid book. Many more questions are now raised about the other costs in total. With 60 months to go, we haven’t signed a security contract. The private security contracts have not been signed. If we haven’t signed them now, how much higher will the cost be when you actually get to it?

The Vancouver-based security firm that’s in the running worked on the G20 and was one of the companies that didn’t even have an Ontario licence. It has paid its fine, but do you think it’s appropriate, Mr. Speaker, that a company that has blatantly disrespected the laws of this province and of this country is in the running?

Will the Acting Premier commit right now to directing TO2015 to do a complete comparison between the actual costs and the bid book to determine how far off we really are?

Hon. Charles Sousa: The Minister of Correctional Services.

Hon. Madeleine Meilleur: I want to thank the member for his question. Mr. Speaker, $113 million was based on our best assessment of security needs four years ago. Since 2009, much has changed. Games plans have progressed; so have security plans also. Our current estimated cost is $239 million.

This whole process is headed by the Ontario Provincial Police. There are experts there. They have taken advice from other communities across the world where they have hosted such an event.

Right now the security threat is very low. If the security threat is raised, we will react accordingly. We are not going to gamble with the security of our athletes, our coaches and our visitors in Ontario.

MUNICIPALITIES

Mr. Grant Crack: My question is for the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. I had the honour and privilege of attending last week’s Rural Ontario Municipal Association and Good Roads combined conference, along with our Premier and many ministers in this House. I can tell you that, as a former mayor, I’m well aware of and respect the important role that our municipal leaders and our municipalities play in delivering the invaluable services across this province.

Speaker, our government’s partnership with municipalities is strong, but municipalities are still concerned about what they can expect as to what supports will be provided by the government to strengthen their communities. As we continue to work together in improving the lives of all Ontarians, Speaker, through you, I’d like to ask the minister if she could update this House as to how we are providing ongoing support to our municipal partners.

Hon. Linda Jeffrey: I want to thank the member for the question. As a former municipal councillor myself, I know how important our municipal governments are. That’s why I was proud that many members of our government and the opposition, indeed, came out and attended the ROMA/OGRA conference here in Toronto. I was able to meet with 25 municipalities from across Ontario to discuss their pressing needs. Though we listened to their concerns regarding land use planning, property assessment and the provincial land tax, we heard their support for the almost $3.2 billion our government has provided in municipal uploads since 2013 alone.

I heard their concerns following the PC leader’s address. They are concerned that this important investment in Ontario may not continue should they become elected. Elected officials worry that a Tory government will bring back the forced amalgamations and the $3 billion in downloading that occurred the last time the opposition was in power. Unlike the party opposite, our government believes that a collaborative approach creates a stronger, more productive and respectful relationship with municipalities, and that’s what—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. Supplementary.

Mr. Grant Crack: I’d like to thank the minister for the answer. It’s good to know that our government will continue to work with our municipalities on issues that are of concern to them.

However, Speaker, while at the conference, the minister gave a keynote address, and she mentioned the provincial policy statement. I know that land use planning isn’t the most exciting, most attention-grabbing topic, but the provincial policy statement guides direction on how land use planning provides future housing and economic and agricultural development while protecting our environmental heritage, such as the greenbelt.

Rural and northern municipalities worry the changes to the provincial policy statement will not recognize the unique challenges that these municipalities face. I’m asking, through you, Speaker: Can the minister explain to the House what she has done to ensure that this important guide to development takes these municipal concerns into account?

Hon. Linda Jeffrey: I would argue that good land use planning is exciting, because it ensures the long-term economic prosperity of Ontarians. Certainly in northern Ontario that’s true, as well as in southern Ontario.

We’ve listened very carefully to the concerns of northern and rural Ontarians. My ministry undertook extensive consultation with municipalities across the province, as well as community groups and aboriginal communities. We gave careful consideration to suggestions from northern and rural stakeholder work groups to ensure that the provincial policy statement takes into consideration the distinct and specific needs of these communities.

Our government’s new provincial policy statement is exciting. It includes rural policies that will help them unlock new economic opportunities, and these opportunities will allow a greater range of economic uses for farms for tourism and home-based businesses, which will help Ontario attract new businesses and grow already existing ones.

RENEWABLE ENERGY

Ms. Lisa M. Thompson: My question is for the Minister of Energy. Last week at the ROMA/OGRA conference, Minister, you faced criticism from municipalities for your government’s total disregard for rural Ontario, as demonstrated by your failed green energy scheme. And you know what, Speaker? The NDP can’t get a free pass on this either, because they talk out of both sides of their mouth, but the fact is, they are supporting —

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Some time ago, that has been deemed to be unparliamentary. I’ll ask you to withdraw.

Ms. Lisa M. Thompson: I withdraw.

Minister, back to you. While you like to focus on how you will do things differently on a go-forward basis just to confuse people, right now, today, we have a major issue that can no longer be ignored, and that is your continual approval of applications that have been in the queue, as well as the extension of deadlines for projects facing ERT appeals. You’re choosing to ignore missed deadlines that could serve as off-ramps.

Minister, when we don’t need the energy and people can’t afford the electricity, why isn’t your government choosing to take opportunities—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Be seated, please. Thank you. Minister of Energy.

Hon. Bob Chiarelli: Mr. Speaker, there are approximately 255 contracts which have been awarded for renewable projects which are still not completed. The issue has been raised consistently in this House by the opposition.

In the first instance, the leader of the third party said that he would cancel those contracts. Then he said he would not cancel those contracts. Then, at the International Plowing Match, he intimated that he would cancel those contracts. Now he’s really put it in writing. He now has the Million Jobs Act, and in the Million Jobs Act they are assigning to the Minister of Energy the right to cancel these contracts, contracts that represent $20 billion in energy. They are going to expose the province to $20 billion in liability by that thing.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Lisa M. Thompson: Minister, you’re spinning more than a turbine. This government proclaims that it is honest and transparent, but the fact is that communities and concerned citizens are no longer able to find out if a proposed wind project has gone past its commercial operating date, therefore violating the terms of its FIT contract. To be specific, this information is no longer on the OPA site. It has been removed on purpose.

Minister, when will your government finally be honest and transparent and tell the people of Ontario exactly what is going on with your fiasco?

Hon. Bob Chiarelli: Mr. Speaker, the member spins more than a wind turbine.

We have indicated that we’re changing the procurement of large renewable moving forward. We’re going to have the Ontario Power Authority do a request for proposals. There will absolutely need to be an agreement with the municipality to move forward with new projects.

The reality is, since the first award of contracts—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member from Huron–Bruce asked the question. You will listen.

Hon. Bob Chiarelli: —under the FIT program for wind, large wind and large solar, there has been an actual moratorium on wind, because we have not issued more wind projects. We have wind projects that are already under contract. We’re going to respect those contracts. New contracts for wind will require a new process that will engage the—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. New question.

ELGIN-MIDDLESEX

DETENTION CENTRE

Ms. Peggy Sattler: My question is to the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services. As the minister knows, today, three employees at the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre were charged in relation to the death of an inmate in October 2013. For years, the ministry has known about the problems at EMDC, including severe overcrowding, understaffing and design flaws that prevent direct supervision. Why is this government failing the inmates, their families and the correctional officers at EMDC by not addressing the understaffing, overcrowding and design flaws at the facility?

Hon. Madeleine Meilleur: I want to thank the member for her question. Mr. Speaker, I am aware of the charge. As she knows, it would be inappropriate for me to comment given the ongoing criminal proceeding as well as the ministry’s own internal investigation. I do want to offer, though, my condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.

I know that the ministry takes its mandate very seriously to ensure the well-being and health of all those in our custody. This government believes that everyone in our custody should be treated with respect and held in humane and safe conditions.

Despite best efforts, violence is a reality for correctional facilities everywhere. On a daily basis, correctional staff deal with and manage the risk of inmate violence.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Peggy Sattler: Minister, as far as I’m aware, there have been frequent lockdowns at EMDC but no changes that will stop a situation like the murder of Adam Kargus from happening again. Minister, for two years now, we’ve been calling on this government to address the issues at EMDC. A class-action lawsuit has been filed highlighting the concerns. What exactly is the minister planning to do so that overcrowding at EMDC does not lead to another death?

Hon. Madeleine Meilleur: Mr. Speaker, as I said, the health and safety of our staff and inmates are a top priority. As you know, I have introduced a 12-point plan to address concerns at EMDC. I have met with the union on two occasions. We have done quite a lot of progress. We have installed over 300 security cameras. We have a new control model. We have hired 11 additional staff as correctional officer positions, and we have hired three surgeons and one additional mental health nurse. We now have 24-hour nursing that has been established, resulting in seven additional nurses.

We now have an advisory board of volunteer community members. Mr. Speaker, I will continue to work with the management and the union to improve health and safety in EMDC.

SENIOR CITIZENS

Mr. Shafiq Qaadri: Ma question est pour le ministre délégué aux Affaires des personnes âgées, l’honorable Signor Mario Sergio.

Speaker, I believe that my own constituents in the great riding of Etobicoke North are pleased by a number of the very significant investments our government has made, many of which, as you’ll appreciate, are historic.

It’s important to my residents that our government continues to invest in people, infrastructure and that it support a dynamic and innovative business climate. I’m pleased, therefore, that the Ontario Seniors’ Secretariat has created Ontario’s first grant dedicated solely to seniors.

Can the minister please inform this chamber: How does the Ontario government continue to work with seniors to establish these valuable programs?

Hon. Mario Sergio: Je voudrais remercier le député d’Etobicoke-Nord pour une très bonne question sur nos personnes âgées.

Speaker, I would like to really thank the member because I know he’s got the seniors in Etobicoke North in his heart, and the seniors are the reason why we’re here today.

I was delighted, indeed, to announce this very important grant program. The Seniors Com