I have to compliment the member from Timiskaming–Cochrane because, in reality, it’s a lot easier to speak for an hour on a bill that you oppose than it is to speak on one that you actually support, because there’s a whole lot more on a bill that you are opposing. And we are grateful that you are supporting this bill because we know it’s a good piece of legislation. No piece of legislation is necessarily perfect, but this one does hit a lot of the right marks.

You talked a little about—well, no, you talked a lot about it; I’m only going to talk about it for a few seconds—the extension and the expansion of the powers and the authority of a veterinary technician. You’re a rural member and you talked about the vastness of rural and northern Ontario. That change, what kind of real, positive impacts is that going to have for people who are in the practice of agriculture in your neck of the woods, in their ability to get veterinary help when it’s needed?

I listened intently to the member on his speech, and I didn’t hear very much about Bill 134 until the last couple of minutes when, out of the blue, they announced that they’re going to support the bill, as they did Bill 63.

If you remember when Bill 63 was going through the Legislature here, what tipped the scales in favour of the NDP supporting was the calls they received from union leadership that said, “You’re toast if you don’t support this bill redefining the boundaries around St. Thomas,” because it was integral and of paramount importance to be able to establish an EV battery manufacturing facility in the St. Thomas region. So again, they were taking their marching orders from their stakeholders—not necessarily the people of Ontario—who will support this bill without question.

Bill 134 is so important to people in my riding who do have lower-than-average incomes and pay more as a percentage of their income to pay for housing. Thank you for supporting it. It’s about time you got behind this government’s entire—

The NDP obviously are going to support this.

I want to thank the member for Orléans for what I would say was a pretty balanced approach to what is and isn’t in Bill 79, contrary to what I heard from the New Democrats earlier, where they wanted to go back for 20 years and a litany of things that they don’t like. Because, you see, they have abandoned workers in this province, but we’re supporting workers in this province. And I appreciate what the member for Orléans had to say about the positive aspects of this bill, because no bill can address everything, otherwise they’d be that thick. But this bill is about supporting workers and also making sure that Ontario has the workforce to see that we can advance and progress over the next several years and the next number of decades.

So you did talk about the flooding in 2019 and your support for reservists, and I couldn’t agree with you more. Can you elaborate a little more on some of the aspects of that part of the bill that you find really positive and will be really good for families that have someone serving in the reserves?

The bureaucracy is expanding to support the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.

I want to thank the member for Thunder Bay–Superior North for her address to the Legislature this morning.

When I listen to the honourable member and the members of her party, what I see is a narrative that is very supportive of those groups that raise money being opposed to the government—so they’re lining the pockets of their supporters as well.

What I don’t understand is why any party that wishes to govern in this province someday would do everything they could to stop the province’s and municipalities’ ability to build housing for their residents and the residents who are coming here—half a million newcomers coming every year for the next number of years, with the federal government’s immigration plan.

We have a housing crisis. We need to build 1.5 million homes.

Why is it that we’re the party that wants to see Ontario grow, and you continue to be the party of Ontari-no?

You actually have to have a legitimate alternative to what the government is proposing to finally get the barriers out of the way that stand in the way of building more housing in the province of Ontario. We have no choice. The crisis is upon us. And all you people do is say no, no, no—you criticize, but you do not have any kind of viable alternative to reaching that goal of 1.5 million homes in the province of Ontario. Come up with something real or get on board with a plan that will help grow Ontario and give those young people you’re talking about a real chance in the future.