I’d like to welcome two guests from Haliburton-Norfolk, Laurie Burroughs and Jeff Muller. Welcome to your House.

Thank you to that member for that question. She’s absolutely correct. We simply had a process that allowed decaying hydro poles to collapse without being able to fix them right away. That’s, frankly, ridiculous and dangerous, and that’s because such things were mired in bureaucracy and red tape under the Liberal government.

We know the opposition is okay to maintain the status quo, which drives up the cost of living and does absolutely nothing for the environment. But this is why we’ve been working hard under the leadership of this Premier to modernize a more than 50-year-old environmental assessment process. This is in response to calls from municipalities and communities that were frustrated that critical infrastructure projects were being caught up in unnecessary bureaucracy. Through extensive consultations with municipalities and Indigenous communities, our officials were able to identify products with known outcomes and processes so these projects can get done quicker for all Ontarians.

Speaker, construction methods have come a long way in the last 50 years. The way my ministry does environmental assessments has come a long way in 50 years. It’s time the process itself was brought up to date as well.

Speaker, it’s not only just on this change that we’re helping and listening to Ontarians, but it’s also part of our initiative to exempt regulations to streamline environmental assessment for Indigenous land claims as well and Indigenous settlements. This regulation will help resolve historic land claims more quickly by providing a single yet robust process for First Nations to settle these important claims.

More recently, our government has also removed the unnecessary yet mandatory 30-day wait period on routine projects. This is one change that will allow municipalities to build roads, bridges and water-treatment facilities faster.

Under the leadership of this Premier and this government, we will make sensible, practical changes that will ensure a strong environment and—