Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak to this motion. I would like to focus my comments, as brief as they must be, on Ontario and the Premier of Ontario, who has publicly called on the Prime Minister to meet with her to discuss Ontario's woes. I would like to mention the things she may want to talk to our Prime Minister about.
As we know, and as has been discussed today, when our Prime Minister believes there are pressing matters to be discussed, he does hold a number of meetings. We have heard about the over 300 meetings he has had with premiers.
As I was listening to the debate today, I wondered what the Premier of Ontario would want to talk to the Prime Minister about.
Perhaps she might want to discuss the misguided Ontario pension plan, for example, which really is just an additional payroll tax that would benefit contributors after 40 years of regular contributions. I am hoping that I do not have to work another 40 years, but if I do, I will receive a pay-out from the Premier of Ontario's pension scheme. This has uniformly been decreed to be a complete waste of an idea and a terrible tax on small business that will drive away investment from our businesses.
The premier might also want to talk to the Prime Minister about her failed green energy program, which has led to higher power bills for homeowners and small businesses, and is also driving investment away from businesses in Ontario.
She might want to talk about Ontario's $12 billion deficit, which is so large that we just received another credit downgrade in Ontario.
I am hoping that perhaps the Premier of Ontario can give our Prime Minister an idea of the kinds of things she would like to talk to him about. I for one would be interested in knowing what those agenda items might be.