Mr. Speaker, it’s great to be back at the Legislature.

Every February, people across Canada participate in Black History Month events and festivities that honour the legacy of Black people in Canada and their communities. In Orléans, we are fortunate to benefit from the diversity that a vibrant Black community has and the leadership that its members offer us.

The Global Community Alliance is a community-based organization, established with a mission to bring members of various communities together to organize and facilitate events that highlight diversity and inclusion, and to recognize the efforts of individuals, associations, businesses and others that are making a difference within our diverse community.

This year, Global Community Alliance is celebrating its 12th annual gala and awards ceremony in recognition of Black History Month. The brainchild of Orléans residents Kelly and Yomi Pratt, this annual event brings to a close Black History Month celebrations in the nation’s capital. Over the past 12 years, the gala has been one of the most sought-after events in Ottawa’s social calendar, and this year’s gala, the first since the pandemic, promises to be no different.

Proceeds will be donated to the Children at Risk association, an Ottawa-based community organization that provides services and programs to families of children diagnosed with autism. I’m very much looking forward to attending the event this weekend.

It’s great to be back in the House here, and it’s so nice to see everyone.

Maybe I’ll start with the cost of living. The Leader of the Opposition went around the province, she said, and looked at the cost of living. Well, let’s tell your constituents and everyone in Ontario that you voted against the one fare that we put forward that saves people $1,600 a year. She voted against getting rid of the licence sticker fee; again, voted against reducing the gas tax by 10.7 cents. She voted against getting rid of the tolls on the 412 and 418. So I don’t think the Leader of the Opposition really cares about the people and making sure that they keep the costs down, taxes down, because she’s voted constantly against us reducing the tax.

Let’s talk about health care. There’s no government in the history of this country, not to mention the province, that is spending $81 billion a year—that’s up over $20 billion since 2018. In the—

Do you know something? The nurses out there—we’re paying for the education of new nurses, and obviously, there’s a huge take-up, because we set another record of 17,500 nurses registered last year. We’ve seen over 80,000 nurses register in this province in the last five years. Over 10,400 doctors have registered. We’ve added more seats: 449 postgraduate seats, 260 undergraduate seats. We’re building new medical universities, which haven’t been built in decades. As the Liberals froze health care funding, we increased it $21 billion. As they slashed physician services and cut residency seats, we’ve added them. We’ve added over 3,500 beds. We’re going to add another 3,000 beds—