Thank you, Mr. Chair.
My comments were mostly focused on the question of the relationship between Quebec and Ontario. In my view, it would make far more sense to strengthen the interties between Ontario and Quebec for a number of reasons.
The principal reason is the nature of the Hydro-Québec system, which has a very large storage capacity. It would be, in many ways, an ideal partner for the deployment of intermittent, renewable resources in Ontario—wind and solar, principally. The two could balance each other off very nicely in terms of Quebec helping Ontario when there is lowered output from renewables. When Ontario's outputs are high, they could sell to Quebec. That's often in the winter, when Quebec has challenges around meeting peak and when Quebec doesn't run the hydro dams. It effectively stores the energy behind the dams.
There's been quite a lot of work done on this question. We worked with colleagues at HEC at the Université de Montréal on this question. There was work done by the IESO, as well, about the cost of the necessary reinforcements to the the interties that already exist between Ontario and Quebec. The corridors are there. They would have to be upgraded, but we have quite good costing on what that looks like. Many people have looked at this and said this would make far more sense as a way of avoiding a large increase in gas-fired generation in Ontario and all the increases in greenhouse gases that go with that.
Ontario should have focused on the relationship with Quebec. As I mentioned, Mr. Legault made repeated overtures to Ontario about this and got no meaningful response, so that was very concerning. Frankly, I and many others cannot understand why Ontario would not engage in a more constructive conversation with its neighbour to the east.