Ms. Lisa MacLeod: It's a pleasure to support my colleague from Leeds-Grenville on his motion here today. It's important to debate this, and it saddens me that my colleague opposite wouldn't take a more responsible view of what's happening in Ontario today.

I think the reality is, and if they took the time to meet constituents-and I understand that in their situation it's not that easy to actually go out and speak to the public at this point into time. Because if they had, as myself and our energy critic did last night at a round table with seniors-and we wanted to talk about the aging-at-home strategy, we wanted to talk about pension, we wanted to talk about the HST. But I need to assure my colleagues opposite that the number one issue that was coming up at that round table with our energy critic, Mr. Yakabuski, last evening was hydro rates and the resulting bills. If my colleagues opposite on the government benches had taken the time to actually consult with their constituents, they would understand that they have lost the confidence of the people of Ontario in dealing with this very important matter.

I'm going to read into the record a few things from my constituents because I believe that it's important. Linda Farr from Greely-Greely is a growing community in a rural part of my riding with many young families and many seniors-says: "My hydro bill has gone from $200 to almost $400 in less than five months. Please stand up for us." Linda, today Steve Clark and the Ontario PC Party are standing up for you.

I have Bill Ellam, who has contacted me: "A lot of your constituents, including myself, heat with hydro, and these bills are crippling us." Bill Ellam has asked me to stand up for him and to stand up to this McGuinty Liberal government that believes, time and again, that they can continue to raise taxes on heat and hydro through sneaky backdoor levies that my colleague wants to shut down and that darn HST that we fought against in this Legislature and we will continue to fight that party on.

Gerald Watt of Nepean-as many of you know, Nepean-Carleton is my riding. The former city of Nepean, a great area of that, probably the majority of the old city of Nepean, is in my riding. Gerald says to me, "As a retired individuall, every penny to me counts. The HST has hurt me as everything I buy has HST applied. I am going to tell you now that Dalton McGuinty has committed political suicide with his tax increases." I think that's probably why my colleague opposite wants to talk about Christmas past. He's so stuck in the past that he has no regard for what his government is doing today to the taxpayers of this province.

There are seniors, like my friend Gerald Watt, who have to penny-pinch. While Mr. McGuinty is out on spending sprees with Samsung and IKEA-and he's not buying furniture and he's not buying radios; he's subsidizing them for massive energy schemes that my friends, like Gerald Watt, are paying for.

Then I think of Fraser Wilton, who's from Ottawa. He says this: "I am completely outraged at what [Mr.] McGuinty is doing with hydro and how he is effectively treating us like fools." By the way, this is an aside and a sidebar from this quote that I'll continue with, but I think that speaks to what Mr. McGuinty was doing with the Sussex report, where someone on that side had hired consultants to try to confuse Ontario voters about energy. That's why you'll always hear them say, "dirty coal" this, "clean green" this. Well, I'm going to tell you something: They're not confusing people, because Fraser Wilton of Ottawa says he's effectively treating us like fools. The people of Ottawa and the people of Ontario understand what this government is doing to them.

Fraser continues: "The reason for the increase in hydro rates is due to his promise to `green hydro' and his sweetheart deals he is making with people and companies (including foreign nationals).

"This man has got to be stopped along with his minions that carry out his missions to treat us with a lack of respect." I respectfully suggest that he's talking about these minions across the way who want to revisit history in a way that completely disregards the truth.

This is a government that only looks through rose-coloured glasses, the way that they want Ontarians to see it. Well, the reality is, as my friend Fraser Wilton says, we will not be treated like fools no matter how much money you're going to pay for Sussex Strategy Group.

Christine Goodwin-I mentioned the great village of Greely. It's a rural community. It's perfectly situated: 20 minutes to downtown, 20 minutes to the airport. It's about an hour from the border with the United States and, of course, it's actually even close to Leeds and Grenville, where my colleague is who put this bill forward. Christine says, "I just opened my monthly hydro bill from Hydro One. They have increased my monthly billing plan amount by 50%! These increases are outrageous."

I need the members opposite, these Liberals, to think about this for a second. People don't have an infinite supply of money to pay for Dalton McGuinty and his expensive energy schemes. They don't have an infinite amount of money to continue to pay for the Niagara Parks Commission when they decide to go on a spending spree with the corporate card, which, by the way, is paid for in full by the taxpayers of this province. They don't have time nor do they have the money to continue to spend on boondoggles like eHealth, Cancer Care Ontario or, everyone's favourite, the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. But that, sadly, is what's happening. This government has given themselves the power through the Green Energy Act to increase hydro taxes via regulation. That's what my colleague from Leeds-Grenville wants to stop in its tracks. He believes, as well as everyone in the Ontario PC caucus, that if you're going to bring through a tax, you should have the guts to put it through this Legislature. But we've seen time and again that this government doesn't have the guts.

This is the second tax in one year that they decided to put through regulation. Let me remind you the other tax was that eco tax, that eco tax that went so wrong that they had to rescind it. But they still haven't paid over $85 million in taxpayer dollars from consumers in this province back to those consumers.

The reality is energy utilities are going to be forced to collect this new, hidden hydro tax from an additional charge on hydro bills. The McGuinty government used this regulation to impose a $53-million energy tax last March. Think about that.

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My friends opposite want to talk about rhetoric and want to mock people who celebrate Christmas, but it's becoming tougher for people across this province to make ends meet. Can you imagine if you were the father, the breadwinner of your family, in a community? You work hard to play by the rules; you volunteer at your kids' sports. All you want to do is pay those bills, make sure there's money in your children's education fund and make sure that, like in the good old days, you have a little bit of money not only to put some turkey on the table but some presents under the tree.

I'm going to tell you something: This government and the policies they've embarked upon have made that more difficult for people who live outside this Legislature. That's why we're standing up for them today.

No public notice-no public notice-was given of this tax increase. The regulation did get routinely posted on March 17, only to be hurriedly pulled down shortly after a Toronto Star reporter began asking questions. That's how much they wanted to hide this tax increase from the public.

We're not alone, Mr. Speaker. I know you have travelled this province extensively. You've worked hard on behalf of the people of Ontario, and you have heard what I have heard. Whether it's the secret G20 law that that cabinet put in place, whether it is the eco tax that was shoved through by regulation-of course we saw later on that they rescinded that after the public outcry-and again right here: a tax increase regulation that did not hit the Ontario Legislature. Why? Because they didn't want to deal with the public backlash. But the problem is, they got caught. The only fools in here sit on the opposite side of the aisle.

I want to talk a little bit more about section 26.1. It is schedule D of the Green Energy Act. As you will recall, Speaker, at the time, this party stood tooth and nail and fought every inch of the way against that Green Energy Act because we knew it was going to have catastrophic effects for the Ontario taxpayer.

The Liberals gave themselves the power in that act to have electricity utilities collect revenue to fund Ministry of Energy conservation programs. Ontario regulation 66/10 names a specific dollar amount of $53 million to be collected under section 26.1. Where is that money going, why is it going to them and why did they not tell the Ontario public what they did?

As I have a few minutes left, I want to talk about the eco fees again, and I think it's important. Over the summer, people across Ontario rose up. They did it by calling their MPP and by calling the media, and in many cases they actually travelled to Ottawa to protest to Premier Dalton McGuinty.

Let me quote Debbie Jodoin, who is part of a protest group against the Dalton McGuinty Liberals. She said: "We are protesting because this government backtracked on the eco tax implementation to do damage control for an ill-conceived plan. Ontarians still have not received a penny back on all these fees we were charged between July 1 and July 20. Ontarians have been ripped off by the eco fees. We want our money back, and we deserve our money back. It is ridiculous and unacceptable for any government to do this to the taxpayers. It is not your money; it is our money."

That is exactly the sentiment that my colleague from Leeds-Grenville is fighting for today. He wants to ensure that people like Debbie Jodoin, Gerald Watt, Bill Ellam, Linda Farr, Fraser Wilton and Christine Goodwin have somebody standing for them in the Ontario Legislature to stop this McGuinty government from its increased taxation.