I want to thank the members for their contribution to the debate this afternoon, third reading of this bill. Actually, I want to commend the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, as well as her parliamentary assistants the members from Elgin–Middlesex–London and Chatham-Kent–Leamington. I think that it is unfortunately rare when a bill comes forward that has all-party support.

We have seen through committee work and, of course, through the advice of our in-house expert on rural and agriculture issues, the member from Timiskaming–Cochrane, who is part of our caucus, and everything I’ve heard, everything I’ve read and learned—this is a piece of legislation where I believe the process of good, solid public consultation was done before bringing the bill. I think that’s very important. I want to thank you for doing that.

I was wondering if you would share with the House a little bit more about that process, how much work went into the consultation. I ask this because it is so important—

My question is to the member from Don Valley East. In his remarks, when he was talking about education funding, he talked about how this government is not investing enough in the supports that are needed in our schools and for our students, but also mentioned that the government was instead—I believe the word he used was “instead”—investing in infrastructure.

I believe that we need to invest both in infrastructure and in supports. As you know, the school repair backlog is at over $16 billion; under the Liberals, it was at $15 billion.

I’d like to ask the member if he could clarify his comments, and also if he believes that we should be investing in addressing the repair backlog.