Talking about numbers in health care—through the 2022 budget, our government announced plans to invest $1 billion over three years to get more people connected to care in the comfort of their own home and community. We are now accelerating the investment to bring funding for 2023-24 up to $569 million, including nearly $300 million to stabilize the home and community workforce. This funding will also expand home care services and improve the quality of care, making it easier and faster for people to connect to care. We are providing an additional $425 million over three years for mental health and addictions, including a 5% increase in the base funding of community-based mental health and addictions services—providing funding by the Ministry of Health. Expanding the scope of practice of pharmacies to provide over-the-counter medication of common ailments has been very successful—not only the money, but the efficiency and effectiveness—

Thank you for the question from the opposition side. It is very important that we need to carry on supporting the francophone communities in our education sectors. That’s why we are investing more in education. If we have the opportunity to read about our budget for this fiscal year, we may see that there is a $2.1-billion increase in investing in the public education sector. That is one of the reasons why we are supporting this bill: because we are investing more in education than ever.

This is very important to me, because we need to always understand our own jurisdiction. We don’t cross our border. We don’t step on other people’s toes. We help each other so that we can be a board that can help our students move forward. That’s why in this legislation, we need to provide more funding for school boards for trustee training so that they know what they should do and what they shouldn’t.

The Minister of Education also announced that we are investing more than $180 million for 2023-24 in math and reading support for Ontario students in our classrooms and at home. This is building upon our previous $200-million investment with support to students with our four-year math strategy. The numbers go on and on. I don’t know why you are not supporting this one, but this is very well-supported education—

Madam Speaker, through you: Thank you for the question. I think the best answer is not from me; it’s from the industry.

The investors are putting money into our province. GM is putting a more than $2-billion investment that will protect thousands of jobs. Tesla is manufacturing the equipment to make the battery for the future. Honda is making a $1.4-billion investment to make hybrid vehicles. Ford is making a $1.8-billion investment to produce EVs. Toyota has invested $1.4 billion to make vehicles, including hybrids. GM is building Canada’s first-ever full-scale EV manufacturing plant. And LG Energy Solution is investing more than $5 billion to build Ontario’s first-ever large-scale EV battery manufacturing plant, with 2,500 jobs.

Investment needs support from the government, and this is why we provide this tax credit for all the investors that want to invest in Ontario, so that we can move forward with the industry of manufacturing—not like the previous government, putting a lot of red tape into all the manufacturing sectors. We are helping them to prosper, to grow, and to invest in all the investments so that they can help—they can be a colleague for our government to work together to build a stronger Ontario.

As a previous school board trustee, I have a big concern with school violence. During my time as a school board trustee, I’d go to all the schools in my riding almost every single week. I talked to the administrators, the teachers, and they always needed the government to give them enough support, and also, when I was in the school board—they need support now because of that.

When we look at the budget for the education sector, in 2021, we had a $28.8-billion investment for the education sector; for the interim, 2022-23, we invested $32.4 billion; and in this year’s budget, we proposed $34.7 billion—which has an increase of $2.3-billion investment for the education sector.

Thank you for the presentation from the member of the opposition. But this budget is not only about spending; this budget is about building Ontario’s economy today and tomorrow. So it is a budget to also attract investment.

GM: They have more than a $2-billion investment to protect thousands of jobs. Tesla is manufacturing the equipment to help the batteries for the future. Honda is investing $1.4 billion to make hybrid vehicles. Ford is making a $1.8-billion investment to produce EVs. Toyota has invested $1.4 billion to make vehicles, including hybrids. GM is building Canada’s first-ever full-scale EV manufacturing plant. And Volkswagen in St. Thomas is also building their first-ever overseas battery cell plant here in Ontario.

So I want to ask the member from the opposition why her presentation is only about spending, but not attracting any investment into our province?

This question is for our great member from Mississauga–Malton on building Ontario’s economy. Launching the new Ontario Made Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit would provide a 10% refundable corporate income tax credit to help local manufacturers lower their costs, invest in workers, innovate and become more competitive; and also advance Ontario’s Critical Minerals Strategy, which supports better supply chain connections between industries, resources and workers in northern Ontario and manufacturing in south Ontario; and also improve competitiveness by planning to enable an estimated $8 billion in cost saving and support for some Ontario employers in 2023; and also talk about attracting over $16 billion in investment by global automakers and suppliers of EV batteries and battery materials to position Ontario as a global leader on the EV supply chain.

The list can go on and on. Can the member explain more about—

It’s great that our government is attracting investment from around the world to create jobs for our annual 65,000 STEM graduates.

For Ontario to outperform Silicon Valley, our government must also support the Ontario-made technology ecosystem.

We heard that in 2021 alone, Ontario attracted record levels of venture capital investments, leading the nation with $8.4 billion in investments.

Will the minister explain how our government is ensuring Ontario’s venture capital sector and high-potential technology companies are staying ahead of competitors to the south?