Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I thank the witnesses for coming to talk to us today.
Mr. Stensil, I spent some time in the north, although not as much, obviously, as Mr. McLeod. After Greenpeace has done more to destroy the way of life, and the income, and the hunting and trapping, and the sealing industry, etc., with their international campaigns against Inuit people up there, I think they'll view your offer of help probably with suspicion, like they would from someone from Toronto. I think that has been a tragedy, and I note there are some Inuit organizations that are looking to bring a class action lawsuit, actually, to recoup some of the damages that have been inflicted on their communities.
Speaking of damages to the people of Ontario, I noticed your concern for significant taxpayer dollars having been spent on the nuclear industry, but between 2006 and 2014, hydro bills for homes and small businesses in Ontario rose 70%. Ontario's auditor general, Bonnie Lysyk, placed the blame on Ontario's Green Energy Act. She noted that hydro companies will pay a total of $9.2 billion more for wind and solar projects under the Liberals’ 20-year guaranteed price program for renewable energy. Soaring hydro rates are forcing people out of their homes, closing small and medium-sized businesses. We're hearing about people having to choose between heating or eating, or choosing between heating and paying for their prescription medication.
The premier herself, Kathleen Wynne, has admitted that high electricity prices were her mistake, and that people had been placed in an unacceptable position of having to choose between paying their electricity bill and, as I said, buying food or paying rent.
With about 60% of Ontario's energy currently generated by nuclear energy, I know that Greenpeace has also opposed hydroelectric projects. You said we shouldn't be making policy that benefits the nuclear industry. We've seen what the policy looks like. We don't have to guess. We don't have to pontificate. We don't have to model it. We've seen how disastrous the Ontario green energy policy has been, so why would we repeat that right across the country? Have you done any modelling that would show how much that would cost ratepayers, the people who actually have to pay the bill, if we repeated, right across the country, the mistakes that Kathleen Wynne has made?