Speech： Fixing the Hydro Mess
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Summary
Learn English with Honourable Doug Ford. Doug Ford speaks on Bill 87, the Fixing the Hydro Mess Act, 2019, a bill that seeks to restore Ontario's hydro system to its former glory and restore a reliable and affordable energy supply.
Transcript
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Mr. Speaker, it's always humbling to rise in the Ontario Legislature to speak on behalf
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of the people of Carleton. I still can't believe that nine months have passed since
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June 7, the day that the people of Ontario put their faith and their trust in Premier
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Ford and his all-star team. It really seems like it was only yesterday that I first had
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the privilege of speaking in this House on behalf of the people of Carleton.
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And I guess they say time flies when you're having fun.
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Mr. Speaker, I can say that after 15 years of waste, mismanagement and scandal after
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scandal after scandal that cost Ontario's taxpayers billions and billions of dollars,
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diving headfirst under the Premier's leadership to fix the mess has been a lot of hard work.
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The feedback that I have received from the people of Carleton after our government for
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the people has tackled and solved yet another problem left by the previous government not
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only motivates me and energizes me to work harder, but it also makes the job fun.
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And so, yes, time does seem to fly by, especially since I'm enjoying every moment of it.
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And that brings me to Bill 87, the Fixing the Hydro Mess Act 2019, and why it's so critical,
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Mr. Speaker, to have this time allocation motion.
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We need to fix this mess, and we need to fix it fast.
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After 15 years of liberal waste scandal and mismanagement, Ontarians just don't have
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I'd like to take an opportunity to thank the Minister of Energy, Northern Development
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and Mines for introducing this important piece of legislation.
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Even before our Government for the People was elected, the Progressive Conservative
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Caucus that was in the opposition was focused on the hydrophile.
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All throughout the election, our party was very vocal on the need to clean up the hydro
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mess created by the previous Liberal government.
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In fact, it was one of our five core commitments, and it is critical that we fix this mess quickly,
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and that is why it's so important to have time allocation on Bill 87.
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Part of the reason that we were so focused on the hydro file, and my colleagues who served
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then and the candidates who fought so hard in the lead-up to the last election will know.
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And the reason we fought so hard is that we saw the damage that was being done to the
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Since we got elected, Mr. Speaker, we have been methodically taking a step-by-step approach
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to bring back our hydro system, to put back into place a system that our small, medium
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and large job creators can rely upon, and most importantly, bring back a system that
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taxpayers of Ontario can rely upon. For decades, one of the things that separated Ontario from
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other jurisdictions we competed with was the fact that we had a strong, stable, reliable,
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and affordable energy sector. It's what drove our manufacturers to the province. It's what
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gave us confidence in those long winter months, and it's what allowed our great province to thrive
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and grow. That was an advantage that we lost, Mr. Speaker, not because we had a bad energy
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sector, but exclusively because of bad government policy. Ontarians have been waiting far too
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long for us to get that advantage back, and that is why we need time allocation on this
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legislation. For 42 years, Mr. Speaker, Ontario had a strong, stable, progressive government
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in this province that built a magnificent infrastructure built on a hydro sector that
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helped us become the engine of Canada's economy. And I know you've heard this time and time again,
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Mr. Speaker, but that is because it's true. A strong Ontario means a strong Canada. When
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Ontario is booming, so is the rest of the country. That is what we lost because of bad policy
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Over the years, it has been policies that have been built up and introduced by the Progressive
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Conservatives, backed by a strong energy sector that have helped us build and pay for this
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Where we have gone wrong in this province over the last 15 years of the Liberal NDP
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coalition government is that we lurched from one ideological disaster to the next, looking
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We all fought for the opportunity to get elected, and we fought, Mr. Speaker, because we knew
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We knew that when we got elected, we were going to have to do something about the hydro
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We also realized that we could do one of two things.
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We could follow the failed approach of the previous government, or we could take a step
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We would work with the sector that helped build a strong Ontario.
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And step by step, Mr. Speaker, we would unravel and we will unravel the bad policies that
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were put in place and make those policy decisions that did work, work even better.
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And we will reduce the cost to our taxpayers, to our ratepayers.
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And we will really sit down with our small, medium and large job creators to find out
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We needed to act, Mr. Speaker, and we needed to act fast.
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That is exactly what we are doing with this bill.
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And that is exactly why time allocation on Bill 87 is so important.
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It follows on the important work that we have already done on the Green Energy File and
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It follows, of course, on the work that the Premier, the Cabinet and the Government Caucus
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has worked on with respect to eliminating contracts for power that we simply did not
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It focuses on modernizing the Ontario Energy Board, and it talks about changes to the rate
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structure and how we finance some of the bad policies that were brought in by the previous
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One of the first things that you will see in the bill, and I think it's critical to
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how we move forward, is how we deal with energy conservation.
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Of course, there is a role for conservation in the energy sector, and it is important.
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It is something that consumers, businesses and all of us focus on daily.
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Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, a big part of the reason why many of us have been focusing
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on it so intensely is because of the horrifyingly high cost of electricity that was brought
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on by the previous government, which forced Ontarians into looking at different alternatives.
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However, there are a great many more that simply do not.
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We looked at how the financing was handled, and under this bill, we're eliminating those
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energy conservation programs that just don't make sense.
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That costs ratepayers more than the benefit that we get back.
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That is why time allocation is so important, Mr. Speaker, because we cannot afford—Ontarians
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cannot afford—to have any more of their taxpayer dollars wasted on these devastating
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and totally—I haven't had my coffee yet, so I was—you know, we were allowed coffee.
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Useless. Useless programs. Useless programs.
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Useless. Useless programs, essentially. That's what it was.
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And, Mr. Speaker, as always, we are working closely with our small, medium, and large job creators
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because we understand that there is work to be done.
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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.
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But there is still a lot of work to be done, Mr. Speaker, particularly when it comes to the high cost of energy.
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This is something that all of us on both sides of the House continue to hear about,
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So, we're working closely with that sector as well.
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And, Mr. Speaker, here's a quote from the Auditor-General's report in 2017.
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The Auditor-General of Ontario herself said that it was known that the planned financing structure
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undertaken by the former Liberal government could result in significant unnecessary costs
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for Ontarians. She went on to say the substance of the issue is straightforward. Ratepayers'
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hydro bills will be lower than the cost of the electricity used as a result of the electricity
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rate reduction. However, power generators will still be owed the full cost of the electricity
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they supply, so the government needs to borrow cash to cover the shortfall to pay them.
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The Auditor General, Mr. Speaker, is an independent legislative officer. She is
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nonpartisan. So for her to say this, Mr. Speaker, it means a lot.
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And Mr. Speaker, the Auditor-General and the Financial Accountability Officer were very
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clear that the program that the previous Liberal government had put in place was not in the
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best interests of Ontario taxpayers. Forget the fact, just for a moment, that their policies
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led to horrifying job losses in the manufacturing sector, that their policies led to shaken
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business confidence that all small, medium and large job creators were in fear of making
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If you set all of that aside, when people ask you what it is that shakes them most about
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government, it's how the previous Liberal government set up a mechanism, a scheme, to
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hide the damage they had done to the hydro system.
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That is why I support this motion for time allocation, because we need to move fast,
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We need to fix the mess, and we cannot afford—and, in fact, Ontarians cannot afford to waste