Provincially, here in the province of Ontario, we've seen hydroelectric prices skyrocket through something called the green energy act. This has been a policy to overpay for electricity in order to subsidize so-called green energy companies. Higher electricity prices are a regressive phenomenon, because they represent a higher share of a low-income person's family budget than the family budget of a wealthy person. The beneficiaries have been millionaires and billionaires who have secured these contracts to sell inflated electricity to the tune of $37 billion, according to the Auditor General.
While that is a provincial policy, it does certainly have an impact on poverty, because it raises the price of a basic necessity of modern human life and it transfers money to extremely wealthy people. I wonder if Catherine Swift can comment on policies like this and the impact they have on low-income people, the people who can least afford to pay.