Yes, I listened to the federal budget yesterday, like a number of Canadians across the country who were disappointed in what they saw.

Listen, massively increasing taxes—not helpful to getting more homes built; massive inflationary spending—not helpful to getting more homes built; inflationary spending, which leads to higher interest rates—not helpful to getting more homes built; not eliminating the carbon tax—not helpful to getting more homes built across the province of Ontario; no path to a return to a balanced budget—not helpful to getting more homes built.

What we saw in yesterday’s federal budget is a government whose spending is out of control, not focused on what matters to the people of the province of Ontario, which is affordability, giving them the opportunity to buy homes and giving the people who build the homes the opportunity to build those homes. We need lower interest rates, Mr. Speaker. We can’t accomplish that with a federal government whose spending is out of control and who will not reduce taxes for the people of the province of Ontario so that we can get our economy moving.

They’re dividing provinces against each other. That’s not what a federal government does. It’s up to Ontario again to lead the way and we will.

Now, Mr. Speaker, where the NDP can be helpful—but we know that they won’t be helpful, colleagues, because unless it’s increasing taxes, unless it’s making things more unaffordable for people—they just talked against the 413, even though they got wiped out in the last election about it. They’re talking against building communities. But where they can be helpful is picking up the phone, calling Jagmeet Singh and saying, “Do not support a budget that does not make the appropriate investments in getting shovels in the ground and making life more affordable for the people of the province of Ontario.” We can move forward with a government in Ottawa that—

Now, we went to Ottawa. We signed a new deal with Ottawa which was roundly applauded by the mayor of Ottawa and which was applauded by the community as a whole. Now a guy who built a train in Ottawa that does not work is giving us advice on infrastructure, coming from a party who, when asked to build bridges in the province of Ontario, built them upside down. So I’ll tell you what we’ll do—

Interjections.

Again, not only are we going to upload Highway 174, we’re going to make sure that transit and transportation in Ottawa actually work. For 15 years, the members opposite had the opportunity to do anything, but they did nothing.

But we’re not only doing that. On the advice, of course, of the members of provincial Parliament from the Ottawa area, we heard about the need to make investments in law and order in some of the parts of Ottawa, in social housing in those areas. I want to thank the member for Nepean and for Carleton for bringing those forward. They played a critical role in helping us negotiate a deal with the city of Ottawa, which the city of Ottawa has said will move that city forward, will ensure that we have a national capital that we can continue to all be proud of. We’ll have safer communities. We’ll have better transit and transportation.

The member for Nepean was fighting for how many years to get an interchange off of—what was it?

Actually, we’re doing no such thing. I suggest the member speak to the regional municipality if she has specific questions.

What she references in the bill, of course, is an issue that came before this House when the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade was trying to encourage the Volkswagen plant to operate or to establish itself in St. Thomas. The member will recall that a bill was brought forward into this House seeking to provide that community with the ability to provide incentives to help us land that. To the best of my recollection, that was passed unanimously by all members, including the member opposite. So if the member opposite and the party have a problem with what they unanimously passed, I would suggest that they chat with themselves about why it is that they would want to put at risk massive investments like the VW plant, like Stellantis and all of the other investments that we’re bringing that helped us create 700,000 jobs for the people of the province of Ontario.

Madam Speaker, no further business.