Point of order.

Just on the budget itself, I know there’s a lot in the budget in terms of community infrastructure—we talked in the past about building new schools; there are more schools to be built—but other infrastructure needs in the community.

Something I hear a lot about through parents especially is the need for more sports and rec opportunities, especially as many communities are growing. It has a great impact on youth, on children, on students. It’s great for their mental health. It’s something for them to do outside of the classroom as well.

And the fact that there’s actually money allocated to this budget on community sports and recreation, I just wanted the member to elaborate on what she is hearing about the need for sports and recreation in her community, and if her local municipalities have noticed the funding that is available for application in this budget?

I’m really pleased to rise to speak to second reading debate of Bill 180, the Build a Better Ontario Act, 2024. Similar to the Minister of Finance, when you think about building a better Ontario, you think of those who came before us, but you also think of what led us here.

I would be remiss if I didn’t wish my mom a happy birthday today, because I wouldn’t be here without her, so: Happy birthday, Mom.

I was really fortunate. She made the ultimate sacrifice in our family in the sense that when I was four years old, our grandparents chose to move to Barrie, Ontario, from Cuba. When they arrived in Gander, Newfoundland, they called her and said, “By the way, we have your daughter in Canada,” and the best decision she could have made was to allow them to continue to raise me in a different country, obviously not being able to see me as a young four-year-old. So I’m forever grateful to you, Mom, for allowing my grandparents to raise me here.

And now, finally, she’s in Canada. She has spent the last decade or so here, so I’m really grateful for that. But I wouldn’t be here without her, and as we reflect on building a better Ontario, I could not build a better Ontario without her, so I wanted to mention that.

But we also couldn’t build a better Ontario without our veterans, and I also just wanted to give and pay my respect to the fact that it’s the 107th anniversary of Vimy Ridge and the Battle of Vimy Ridge, and I want to thank those veterans who fought for our freedom and the reason we, as parliamentarians, are able to speak in this chamber and have the right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression, and this just comes on the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force as well.

My riding neighbours CFB Borden, and CFB Borden was actually a training ground for many of those military personnel who trained to go to Vimy. It was also the scene a few days ago, or just last week, where they raised a monument to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force, so I have to thank them for their great sacrifices.

Leading back into discussion of the budget, my community of Barrie–Innisfil is a growing community, and this budget really reflects the fabric of those people. They work hard every day. Often they have to use Highway 400 to commute from A to B in the city—because the city’s growing so much—in order to get to work or to drive their kids to school and all those things.

But what we’re really trying to do is that, as much as we are creating a lot of attainable housing within the city of Barrie and Innisfil, we also want to spur job creation. Something I heard a lot about in our community, not just in Barrie and Innisfil but all across Simcoe county, is the need for a regional innovation hub. It was clear that the fact that the closest regional innovation hub was 90 kilometres south in Markham, and the closest regional innovation hub north was 300 kilometres, in Sudbury—two great communities, I’m sure, but not a lot in common with what the needs are of Barrie–Innisfil, Simcoe county and our great area.

So a lot of folks came together—

Interjection.

What we heard very clearly from all on innovation hubs, whether it’s Nottawasaga in the member from Simcoe North’s riding, is the fact that the businesses that are there have room to grow, they have room to innovate, but they don’t have the tools they need. As I mentioned, the tools that were close to them for a regional innovation hub, we’re looking at 90 kilometres south in Markham and 300 kilometres in Sudbury. How is someone in Simcoe county supposed to get the right innovation and supports they need to grow their business if those supports are so far away? Luckily, we worked as a team, Team Simcoe county and Barrie to bring these resources closer to home, to allow for that job creation to happen so people can live and work all in one place.

I would be remiss, Speaker, if I didn’t mention the folks whom we’ve heard from already who are greatly supportive of this project. We have Craig Busch, who led the Sandbox in Barrie. He was very supportive of getting this project off the ground, as well as the Henry Bernick Entrepreneurship Centre, with Mira taking the lead there with all the work that they’re doing within Georgian College. They really contributed some great thought ideas to this project.

Speaker, I just wanted to quote a few great supporters of the regional innovation hub. We have many to come, but I’m only going mention a few because I have a short time to speak on this particular matter.

I want to thank Georgian College for stepping up to support this. Their CEO says, “We’re thrilled that a regional innovation centre with a network approach will be in our area and look forward to continuing to collaborate with our partners to leverage our collective strengths, build capacity and, ultimately, expand our impact.” That’s a quote by Kevin Weaver, the president and CEO of Georgian College.

He goes on to say, “Our Henry Bernick Entrepreneurship Centre is a well-established business accelerator in the region with a reach extending across Simcoe, Grey and Bruce counties. We’re proud to be a key partner in the innovation ecosystem and this new centre will further strengthen the influence we and our partners can have on the growth and development of our communities, local businesses and economy.”

That is really building the knowledge economy we have within our area, and it does start with great institutions like we have with Georgian College. They really see the great potential in having a regional innovation centre close to home.

But the other folks who see the great potential is the mayors that I get to work with in my riding. The Barrie mayor, the Innisfil mayor both see the great potential in this project. In fact, the Innisfil mayor, who knows that Innisfil is home to the DMZ—Speaker, that stands for digital media zone; it’s an arm’s-length of TMU’s digital media zone we have just down the street from Queen’s Park—says:

“We are excited to learn that the province is investing in Simcoe county’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.... The establishment of a regional innovation centre will support programs like the DMZ Innisfil and will drive growth and innovation in Simcoe county which is essential for future economic prosperity.”

Speaker, the mayor in Innisfil, she sees the growth we’re having in our area, the fact that we want to keep a lot of that knowledge in our community instead of having it leave our community. By doing that, we’re fostering it and investing in all of the economic and innovation potential we have in our region so we can continue to grow the jobs, and we’ve seen the successes already with the digital media zone, for instance. They have been so successful that one of their businesses that started there—it’s called FreshSpoke, so congratulations, FreshSpoke; I’ve spoke about them in the House before—they’ve grown so big that the footprint they used to be in, I just went to an opening of a different business there last week called Green Bowl that does a lot of upcycling of food, and they’re trying to get rid of food waste. That’s where the former business used to be. Now, they’ve gotten so big, they moved out of that location. Now, that location is home to a new innovative business that I’m sure will also be a great contributor to the regional innovation centre.

But, Speaker, this speaks to our government’s vision and agenda for building complete, whole communities and building interconnected communities where everyone has a sense of belonging and has a place to be. Like we said, we’re not only building regional innovation centres where we can again build that thought leadership and create more jobs. We’re building parks. We’re building Ontario parks. We’re building homes. We’re building ways for people to use transit more effectively. In Barrie, for instance, we have Barrie public transit, and many students in Barrie, when they graduate from high school, they choose to go to post-secondary in the greater Toronto area. Because they make that choice, they also want to save money. So, often, they stay at home and live at home, and they commute from Barrie and they go—whether it’s to York University, TMU or Humber; you name it—anything that is on a transit corridor.

Part of the government’s changes to, again, be connected with people and putting people at the centre of what we do is affordability. And because of our One Fare program, those students who are choosing to continue to live in Barrie or continue to live in Innisfil are able to use the benefits of One Fare, where they’re saving about $1,600 a year on their transit. That is good news for them in making sure that affordability is at the centre of what we are doing.

But part of the centre of what we are doing in terms of affordability is also making sure that we have those strong paycheques. That’s where we invest in training. Just like the regional innovation centres, it’s going to be such a big game-changer in local communities by empowering more of those businesses to grow, to strengthen those high-paying paycheques so that people can afford more things, and the cost of living.

In addition to that is investing in other training opportunities like skilled trades. In our community, not a day goes by where you can’t see a truck, you can’t see a crane. Our skilled trades and training community is vibrant and strong. But many of these individuals who work in contracting business or building business, they understand that gassing up a gas tank is going to cost them more, and they’re grateful for the fact that we’ve been consistent as government for lowering the gas tax. In fact, as a household now, Ontarians are going to save $320 for gassing up their vehicle. That’s $3.2 billion in gas taxes—

Interjections.

And, Speaker, if you’re wondering what the background noise is as I’m trying to speak to what the residents of Barrie–Innisfil care so much about, it’s the opposition. They’re very opposed to lowering the price of gas. If it was up to them, these poor residents of Barrie–Innisfil wouldn’t have a way to get to work, and it would certainly drive up the cost of them getting to work. You can be assured that the folks that I speak to in my riding that I will fight day in and day out for their affordability, for them to be able to gas up to get to where they need.

Our government’s been very clear that we are standing up against the carbon tax, which is no joke, Speaker. The fact that it still increased on April 1, raising the cost of home heating, natural gas, gassing up the gas tank is certainly out of touch with reality. It’s so out of touch with reality that your own Bank of Canada and the Parliamentary Budget Officer said Canadians are actually paying more into the carbon tax than they’re getting out, Speaker, which is a terrible deal. You can’t take your money out of one pocket, transfer it to the other one and say it’s the same amount: You’re still taking money out of the same pocket.

It’s not just the folks at work in the skilled trades economy who have to gas up their trucks to get to work and the fact that we’re going to be lowering that price for them, but it’s also our farmers.

Innisfil is home to many farmers. We’re next home to the vegetable basket known as the Holland Marsh, and you have a lot of farmers who are also speaking out and saying that they can’t afford the carbon tax either. These are people who bring food to table. They’re the ones that feed our cities. They’re the people that feed many of the folks that we’re trying to help every day, and if their costs go up, that means everyone else’s costs go up. So certainly, we will continue to stand up for them.

But in addition to the farmers in my community and, of course, those folks who work in the skilled trades original innovation centre, I would be remiss also, Speaker, if I didn’t address health care.

In our community of Barrie–Innisfil, we are fortunate to have the regional innovation centre. We’re really grateful to have the skilled health care force that we have, and thanks to Georgian College, we now are able to train nurses all four years at Georgian College, which will help us locally with retention.

One thing we’ve heard a lot of is the need for more primary care in Barrie–Innisfil, and I was thrilled that I was able to stand with my colleague from Barrie–Springwater–Oro-Medonte to introduce two new initiatives in our region. One would be a nurse practitioners clinic in Innisfil, something that is very much needed in addition to the family doctors that we do have. This will complement our long-term vision of building a hospital in Innisfil. Currently, we were successful, working as a community to get a $1.2-million planning grant and this will build on that entire ecosystem, again delivering that level of care that is so needed.

This also builds on another need within Innisfil specifically, which is home care. I was really thrilled to see—and I know I shadowed some home care nurses in my community and was able to go with them to see a dialysis patient, for instance. For them, they wanted to see an extension of home care and this budget does that. We invested in home care in our last budget and this one, and certainly we’ll continue to address all elements of health care, including the fact that we’re getting the nurse practitioners clinic in Innisfil.

Just north of us, in the member for Barrie–Springwater–Oro-Medonte’s riding, but it affects all residents, they’re investing in a mobile service vehicle which actually goes directly to Indigenous communities to help service those numbers. But this speaks to the Ontario investment we’ve already made, which is $90 million, which triples the original $30 million earmarked to expand interprofessional primary care teams, Speaker, and I’m grateful that we in Innisfil are able to benefit from those changes, thanks to the leadership of the Premier and the Minister of Health, to make sure that the residents and municipalities continue—we have a growing community—to have the health care needs that are close to home.

But, Speaker, in addition to a growing community in my local community of Barrie–Innisfil, there are a lot of great things I did want to highlight. One thing I did want to turn to briefly is a passion of mine that’s been a passion since even before I was elected, and that is the crown jewel of Barrie, Lake Simcoe. It’s something that I remember, when I ran for the Progressive Conservatives, was a key, core platform of mine on my many brochures when I went door-knocking door to door, and I was thrilled, when we first got elected as a government—I was honoured—to be chosen to be the parliamentary assistant for the environment. As a result, we’ve seen a lot more—millions in investments into Lake Simcoe. Two projects that are highlighted in this specific budget—Lake Simcoe has been mentioned in previous budgets before, but in this budget is something that has been on the books by the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority for about a decade, and that is a phosphorus treatment plan.

Interjections.

Again, I remember when I sat down with Mike Walters, the former CEO of the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority. He was shocked that no government had picked up this project.

Again, thanks to my great colleagues the member for Bradford West Gwillimbury and my fellow colleagues in Barrie–Springwater–Oro-Medonte. With a team effort and a lot of your leadership in working with partners, we’re able to make this project not just a line item in an annual report by the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, but make it a reality—not just with funding, but now there’s a feasibility study that’s going to be started to make this project come to fruition, and the amount of phosphorus that it will reduce from the lake, changing that ecosystem that is Lake Simcoe for the better, is grand.

Lake Simcoe depends on—we’re the ice fishing capital in our region, so we certainly depend on it on an economic basis. I remember, when we were doing consultations around the betterment of what we can do in terms of projects for Lake Simcoe health improvement, that a lot of what we heard is the fact of how much the lake is tied into the local economy. So you’ve got a lot of folks who are very vested in making sure that that remains our crown jewel. But it wouldn’t be possible, again, without some of the funding that we were able to give out through the Ministry of the Environment, thanks to this government—millions of dollars we’re putting towards the lake, in things like ensuring that we have lower chloride levels, which is, of course, the salt runoff off our roads.

Again, something I was able to work on is best management practices with some general contractors, who are the ones who lay down the salt, about best usage—of how we could reduce the amount of salt usage on the road so that we reduce the chloride levels in Lake Simcoe. We had some great feedback. We got some best management practices—things out of New Hampshire that we can build on, as well, things that really work.

That, again, shows you, working together in a community—again, I’m focusing on Barrie–Innisfil, but it shows you what really can happen in that community when we all work together towards a common goal to achieve great things, and that allows us to keep Barrie–Innisfil a crown jewel in our area for generations to come.

We’re just getting started—there are certainly more announcements that come with my colleagues, that I get to work on for this project. We’ve had some really great successes, and again, it wouldn’t be possible without many of our partners.

Speaker, this builds to a greater theme within our government, within Progressive Conservatives, and that is, whether it’s the last park that was created—the last provincial park that was created was over 40 years ago, and that was under a Progressive Conservative government. Now, in this budget, we’re building two new Ontario provincial parks, under a Progressive Conversative government. This builds on our former legacies, whether it’s at the federal level, with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and what he did with acid rain, or whether it was what Mike Harris did when he announced the Ontario’s Living Legacy program, which added about 370 new parks and protected areas, bringing the total in Ontario to 650, increasing Ontario’s protected areas to more than 95,000 square kilometres. Thanks to this budget and previous budgets, we’re building on that legacy by protecting more green land through the green lands fund.

So far, to date, since this government was elected in 2018, we have been able to protect 420,000 acres of land, which is more than the Liberals did in their 15 years of government—we did in the first few years of government. But I digress.

This also builds on another Progressive Conservative legacy—the legacy of Bill Davis, who actually created the first Ministry of the Environment and appointed the first Minister of the Environment, George Kerr.

So I think the overlying themes that you see, Speaker, is that it’s not just the Minister of the Environment here who is doing things for the economy and the environment—but it’s building complete communities, whether it’s transportation that’s building subways so we can get more cars off the road and save people a little bit on commute times and their quality of life, whether it’s our EV strategy, which we’re doing to create more jobs. Certainly, in my region of Barrie–Innisfil, there are a lot of people who work in the manufacturing sector, and they benefit from that EV ecosystem.

Speaker, this is a budget to be proud of.

Well, we will never apologize, on this side of the House, as the government, for actually lowering the cost of living for Ontarians by cancelling cap-and-trade, which has lowered their cost of living and energy rates. It was our government that came in and swiftly stabilized electricity rates and since then has been keeping them stable. It’s our government that has actually embraced the fact that we need to diversify our energy needs in order to, again, embrace a clean energy grid.

In fact, we even have the Minister of Energy here, who signed a core agreement for net zero nuclear, something I know the opposition does not support but is the result of our clean energy grid that is an envy around the world.

Just recently, we were able to use the Trillium grant to upgrade the Morgan Russell centre. That is named after Morgan Russell, an officer for South Simcoe police who, unfortunately, we did lose to an incident that happened, which many people are aware of—they went to a home, and they were shot on scene. It’s to commemorate his memory.

It just shows you the need and those positive memories created in our communities, through the community recreation funds, like the one we have in our budget—so that everyone can enjoy their communities more as they grow.

I’m glad to be part of this government. We’re now opening the first new medical school in decades. We’re training more nurses. We’re hiring more nurses. We’re building new hospitals, under the leadership of this government. We’re building more primary health teams. We’re investing in home care. All around, this government is finally fixing the 15 years of mess in our health care system, to finally bring it back to life and put the care back in health care.

I want to thank the member and congratulate her on Wendat in her riding. It’s a place I like to frequent a lot with my family for hikes. Now, thanks to the work of this government, in partnership with the federal government—is expanding those park opportunities at Wendat.

This builds on not just expanding our parks, like we have at Wendat, but this budget is actually going to build two new parks: one in Muskoka, which is really exciting—that one, again, is in early stages, but it will be a new operating park—and, of course, we have our first urban provincial park in Uxbridge.

When I was in Uxbridge talking to some high school students, they had some really exciting, bold ideas of what they want to see in their urban park. Just to put it into perspective, this is something that—many people who have gone to New York City have gone to Central Park—is going to be larger than Central Park. So this is not only going to be great for Ontarians, for students, connecting people to nature, but it’s great for their mental health and great for our province.

And do you know what is a big saving in terms of value for money? Getting rid of a carbon tax, cap-and-trade included, full stop.