My question to the member is around the proposed Ontario Infrastructure Bank. There was an interesting article from the CBC entitled, “Why Is Doug Ford’s Government Creating a Bank to Finance Public Projects?” It goes on to say, “Questions swirl over Ontario’s plan for luring private investment....” One of the people who was quoted in the article—a former chief economist for the province—said, “The current [financing] system seems to be working pretty well”—the problem has always been around timelines to get projects completed on schedule.

Why has the government decided to move forward with this significant change, and why have so few details been provided about what this is going to mean for the province of Ontario?

In fact, the Middlesex-London Health Unit just wrote to this government a couple of weeks ago with the finding that households with low incomes in our community cannot afford to buy food, and that’s why we’re seeing record numbers of people accessing food banks—record numbers of new people accessing food banks in London and across the province.

What would have really made a difference is a doubling of social assistance rates, which is what social service agencies have been calling for for several years.