Goldie Ghamari - April 17, 2019


Speech： Fixing the Hydro Mess


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Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

160.79079

Word count

1,689

Sentence count

103

Harmful content

Toxicity

2

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Summary

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Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
00:00:00.000 Mr. Speaker, it's always humbling to rise in the Ontario Legislature to speak on behalf
00:00:12.620 of the people of Carleton. I still can't believe that nine months have passed since
00:00:16.760 June 7, the day that the people of Ontario put their faith and their trust in Premier
00:00:22.120 Ford and his all-star team. It really seems like it was only yesterday that I first had
00:00:27.080 the privilege of speaking in this House on behalf of the people of Carleton.
00:00:31.580 And I guess they say time flies when you're having fun.
00:00:34.840 Mr. Speaker, I can say that after 15 years of waste, mismanagement and scandal after
00:00:40.160 scandal after scandal that cost Ontario's taxpayers billions and billions of dollars,
00:00:46.020 diving headfirst under the Premier's leadership to fix the mess has been a lot of hard work.
00:00:51.880 But it's also been really fun.
00:00:54.440 The feedback that I have received from the people of Carleton after our government for
00:00:57.860 the people has tackled and solved yet another problem left by the previous government not
00:01:02.440 only motivates me and energizes me to work harder, but it also makes the job fun.
00:01:08.000 And so, yes, time does seem to fly by, especially since I'm enjoying every moment of it.
00:01:13.940 And that brings me to Bill 87, the Fixing the Hydro Mess Act 2019, and why it's so critical,
00:01:20.320 Mr. Speaker, to have this time allocation motion.
00:01:23.720 We need to fix this mess, and we need to fix it fast.
00:01:27.640 After 15 years of liberal waste scandal and mismanagement, Ontarians just don't have
00:01:32.780 the luxury of waiting any longer.
00:01:35.220 I'd like to take an opportunity to thank the Minister of Energy, Northern Development
00:01:39.560 and Mines for introducing this important piece of legislation.
00:01:43.840 Even before our Government for the People was elected, the Progressive Conservative
00:01:47.460 Caucus that was in the opposition was focused on the hydrophile.
00:01:52.320 All throughout the election, our party was very vocal on the need to clean up the hydro
00:01:58.200 mess created by the previous Liberal government.
00:02:01.240 In fact, it was one of our five core commitments, and it is critical that we fix this mess quickly,
00:02:08.060 and that is why it's so important to have time allocation on Bill 87.
00:02:13.900 Part of the reason that we were so focused on the hydro file, and my colleagues who served
00:02:18.100 then and the candidates who fought so hard in the lead-up to the last election will know.
00:02:23.300 And the reason we fought so hard is that we saw the damage that was being done to the
00:02:27.820 residents of Ontario.
00:02:30.460 Since we got elected, Mr. Speaker, we have been methodically taking a step-by-step approach
00:02:35.940 to bring back our hydro system, to put back into place a system that our small, medium
00:02:41.760 and large job creators can rely upon, and most importantly, bring back a system that
00:02:47.140 taxpayers of Ontario can rely upon. For decades, one of the things that separated Ontario from
00:02:54.900 other jurisdictions we competed with was the fact that we had a strong, stable, reliable,
00:03:00.500 and affordable energy sector. It's what drove our manufacturers to the province. It's what
00:03:06.500 gave us confidence in those long winter months, and it's what allowed our great province to thrive
00:03:12.020 and grow. That was an advantage that we lost, Mr. Speaker, not because we had a bad energy
00:03:18.140 sector, but exclusively because of bad government policy. Ontarians have been waiting far too
00:03:25.300 long for us to get that advantage back, and that is why we need time allocation on this
00:03:31.520 legislation. For 42 years, Mr. Speaker, Ontario had a strong, stable, progressive government
00:03:38.180 in this province that built a magnificent infrastructure built on a hydro sector that
00:03:43.900 helped us become the engine of Canada's economy. And I know you've heard this time and time again,
00:03:50.260 Mr. Speaker, but that is because it's true. A strong Ontario means a strong Canada. When
00:03:57.700 Ontario is booming, so is the rest of the country. That is what we lost because of bad policy
00:04:04.080 decisions.
00:04:06.140 Over the years, it has been policies that have been built up and introduced by the Progressive
00:04:11.480 Conservatives, backed by a strong energy sector that have helped us build and pay for this
00:04:16.860 massive infrastructure and the economy.
00:04:20.960 Where we have gone wrong in this province over the last 15 years of the Liberal NDP
00:04:25.200 coalition government is that we lurched from one ideological disaster to the next, looking
00:04:30.960 for a solution in terms of energy policy.
00:04:34.860 We all fought for the opportunity to get elected, and we fought, Mr. Speaker, because we knew
00:04:40.560 what was at stake.
00:04:42.760 We knew that when we got elected, we were going to have to do something about the hydro
00:04:47.500 mess.
00:04:48.740 We also realized that we could do one of two things.
00:04:52.920 We could follow the failed approach of the previous government, or we could take a step
00:04:57.780 back, reevaluate, and do it properly.
00:05:01.780 We would consult.
00:05:03.240 We would work with communities.
00:05:04.820 We would work with industry.
00:05:06.660 We would work with the sector that helped build a strong Ontario.
00:05:10.960 And step by step, Mr. Speaker, we would unravel and we will unravel the bad policies that
00:05:17.540 were put in place and make those policy decisions that did work, work even better.
00:05:24.100 And we will reduce the cost to our taxpayers, to our ratepayers.
00:05:27.860 And we will really sit down with our small, medium and large job creators to find out
00:05:33.440 how we could do things better.
00:05:36.180 We needed to act, Mr. Speaker, and we needed to act fast.
00:05:40.640 That is exactly what we are doing with this bill.
00:05:43.660 And that is exactly why time allocation on Bill 87 is so important.
00:05:50.260 It follows on the important work that we have already done on the Green Energy File and
00:05:54.440 on the Green Energy Act.
00:05:56.320 It follows, of course, on the work that the Premier, the Cabinet and the Government Caucus
00:06:00.840 has worked on with respect to eliminating contracts for power that we simply did not
00:06:05.660 need.
00:06:06.660 And as I said, Bill 87 is the next step.
00:06:11.040 This bill focuses on three main areas.
00:06:13.680 It focuses on energy conservation.
00:06:16.160 It focuses on modernizing the Ontario Energy Board, and it talks about changes to the rate
00:06:22.500 structure and how we finance some of the bad policies that were brought in by the previous
00:06:27.100 Liberal government.
00:06:29.000 One of the first things that you will see in the bill, and I think it's critical to
00:06:33.020 how we move forward, is how we deal with energy conservation.
00:06:37.760 Of course, there is a role for conservation in the energy sector, and it is important.
00:06:42.920 It is something that consumers, businesses and all of us focus on daily.
00:06:48.200 Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, a big part of the reason why many of us have been focusing
00:06:53.040 on it so intensely is because of the horrifyingly high cost of electricity that was brought
00:06:59.520 on by the previous government, which forced Ontarians into looking at different alternatives.
00:07:05.400 There are some programs that work.
00:07:07.400 However, there are a great many more that simply do not.
00:07:11.760 That is what the government is looking at.
00:07:13.900 We looked at how the financing was handled, and under this bill, we're eliminating those
00:07:18.680 energy conservation programs that just don't make sense.
00:07:22.380 That costs too much.
00:07:24.080 That costs ratepayers more than the benefit that we get back.
00:07:28.480 That is why time allocation is so important, Mr. Speaker, because we cannot afford—Ontarians
00:07:33.700 cannot afford—to have any more of their taxpayer dollars wasted on these devastating
00:07:39.760 and totally—I haven't had my coffee yet, so I was—you know, we were allowed coffee.
00:07:50.160 Useless. Useless programs. Useless programs. 0.97
00:07:52.540 Useless. Useless programs, essentially. That's what it was. 0.99
00:07:56.180 And, Mr. Speaker, as always, we are working closely with our small, medium, and large job creators
00:08:03.200 because we understand that there is work to be done.
00:08:06.200 And despite the fact that we have had tremendous job success in creating jobs since this government took office, built in no small part by the hard work of the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, removing red tape is extraordinarily important.
00:08:23.660 But there is still a lot of work to be done, Mr. Speaker, particularly when it comes to the high cost of energy.
00:08:30.540 This is something that all of us on both sides of the House continue to hear about,
00:08:35.600 and it's something that we all focus on.
00:08:38.480 So, we're working closely with that sector as well.
00:08:42.800 And, Mr. Speaker, here's a quote from the Auditor-General's report in 2017.
00:08:47.320 The Auditor-General of Ontario herself said that it was known that the planned financing structure
00:08:54.140 undertaken by the former Liberal government could result in significant unnecessary costs
00:08:59.760 for Ontarians. She went on to say the substance of the issue is straightforward. Ratepayers'
00:09:06.160 hydro bills will be lower than the cost of the electricity used as a result of the electricity
00:09:11.040 rate reduction. However, power generators will still be owed the full cost of the electricity
00:09:17.440 they supply, so the government needs to borrow cash to cover the shortfall to pay them.
00:09:23.440 The Auditor General, Mr. Speaker, is an independent legislative officer. She is
00:09:27.600 nonpartisan. So for her to say this, Mr. Speaker, it means a lot.
00:09:33.040 And Mr. Speaker, the Auditor-General and the Financial Accountability Officer were very
00:09:37.680 clear that the program that the previous Liberal government had put in place was not in the
00:09:42.480 best interests of Ontario taxpayers. Forget the fact, just for a moment, that their policies
00:09:48.280 led to horrifying job losses in the manufacturing sector, that their policies led to shaken
00:09:53.900 business confidence that all small, medium and large job creators were in fear of making
00:09:59.560 investments in the province.
00:10:02.740 If you set all of that aside, when people ask you what it is that shakes them most about
00:10:07.640 government, it's how the previous Liberal government set up a mechanism, a scheme, to
00:10:11.980 hide the damage they had done to the hydro system.
00:10:15.160 That is why I support this motion for time allocation, because we need to move fast,
00:10:21.760 We need to fix the mess, and we cannot afford—and, in fact, Ontarians cannot afford to waste
00:10:26.860 another penny on these disastrous policies.
00:10:30.000 Thank you.