Ms. Lisa MacLeod: My question is to the Premier. Ontario families saw you use the HST to sneak a greedy eco tax past them and they've had enough. At the time, they demanded that you show them respect and do something about the eco taxes that you added to literally hundreds of household products that they use every day. After you were caught, the last environment minister was fired for his part in trying to slip those eco taxes right past Ontario families. Now we learn that the new environment minister is ready to agree to sell Ontario families down the river and make them foot the bill for an $18-million eco tax cancellation. How will you hold him accountable?

Hon. Dalton McGuinty: To the Minister of the Environment.

Hon. John Wilkinson: It's important to remember that on this side of the House, we don't believe that hazardous materials should get into our landfills. That contaminates our groundwater, and that's exactly why we have a number of programs, which are increasingly successful, to keep hazardous materials out of our landfills.

Now, the member opposite needs to understand that, of the fees that were brought in on July 1, they are cancelled and they're not coming back. It's that simple. But there were six items that we thought it was in the public interest that we ensure do not get into a landfill and that the cost does not rise. We do not believe that the cost of a fire extinguisher should go up. People should buy fire extinguishers, and that's why our government is proud, when it comes to fire extinguishers, compact fluorescent light bulbs and switches that contain mercury, that we will bear that cost and we were very clear. But if Stewardship Ontario thinks that ...

 ... extinguishers. That's why our government is proud, when it comes to fire extinguishers, compact fluorescent light bulbs and switches that contain mercury, that we will bear that cost and we were very clear. If Stewardship Ontario thinks that they can negotiate on the front page of the Toronto Star-

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The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Thank you. Supplementary?

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: I don't think Ontario families are really in the mood to listen to the father of the $3-billion greedy HST tax grab, and he's going to nail them with another $18 million.

They're fed up. They've had enough. They stood up to you when you tried to sneak that tax grab through with the HST, and they demand respect. It does not respect Ontario families to try to slip it past them again. That's $18 million of their money.

Ontario families are asking for relief, but you're still trying to make them foot the bill for this $18-million eco-fee fiasco.

Why should Ontario families believe you won't try to raise taxes again tomorrow or before the next election?

Hon. John Wilkinson: It's very clear that the party opposite wants to do what they did when they were in government, which is to download the costs on to municipalities, and we have uploaded that cost.

Once again, the Tories are trying to have it both ways. They think it's acceptable to waste. They said to people, "We're going to get rid of those fees." Well, where do you think all of that hazardous material is going to go? It's going to go into our landfills, it's going to contaminate our groundwater for our children and our grandchildren. We will ensure, and we'll continue to ensure, that that is not happening.

There will be no additional eco-fees. We've been very clear. But we will not negotiate with Stewardship Ontario on the front page of the Toronto Star.

According to my officials, I can tell you that the number that is reported is inaccurate. The taxpayers of Ontario will make sure that if there are any fees, that they will be paid by our government to ensure that hazardous materials stay out of landfills. It will be audited.

We are not going to go down the path of the previous government that said that, "Well, we'll just get rid of these fees," and it's all right by them that these hazardous-

The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Thank you. New question.