I want to touch on the fresh flower market here in Ontario—and thank you to the member opposite from Peterborough for recognizing the TOGA party that was held here.

The Ontario Greenhouse Alliance has so much to celebrate. In fact, I was speaking to one grower who specializes in fresh flowers, and I want to quote something that he shared. They had a really good market leading up to Mother’s Day, and not only did they satisfy demand across the province, but he also stated that $1 million worth of flowers grown in Ontario was sold into the US market. I know the finance minister will appreciate this, because selling into the US market translated into $1.35 million returning to Ontario, so that we can continue to build Ontario, invest in our greenhouse business and, most importantly, continue to grow good Ontario jobs.

Speaker, that’s exactly why we stand with the members of the Ontario Greenhouse Alliance and farmers across this province to meet market challenges and to help them realize growth opportunities.

I do appreciate the question from the member from Cambridge because our government has set out ambitious growth targets for our agri-food sector through our Grow Ontario Strategy. In that strategy, we have committed to growing Ontario’s agri-food markets and exports by 8% annually by 2030, and I’m pleased to say that we have already taken steps to accomplish just that.

Last week, we announced our Grow Ontario Market Initiative, and while I was at the Earlton Farm Show, I want to share with you that an astute person said, “If you don’t lock in the sale, nothing else matters. You need good marketing initiatives to secure that sale.” That’s what we are doing, Speaker. We’re introducing a $6-million Grow Ontario Market Initiative program through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

Through the Grow Ontario Market Initiative, eligible businesses can receive up to a 50% cost share for their eligible costs in terms of ramping up their marketing initiatives, and that translates into up to $60,000 in funding. We’re also putting out supports for our industry organizations as well, and if they have eligible projects, they could receive up to $125,000.

We’re committed to building Ontario, and it’s through Ontario’s agri-food sector and the building of our marketing initiatives that we are going to absolutely prevail and show the rest of the world—

Just moments ago, we heard about the amazing news at Bimbo in Hamilton. I trust that everyone in this House has absolute confidence in the nutritious, high-quality food grown and produced right here in Ontario.

It’s because of the Ontario farmers’ best practices, coupled with research and innovation, that year over year our yields are increasing. And because of that, we’re in a position as the government of Ontario to be their best champions. We are increasing awareness of, and demand for, good, quality food grown and processed right here in Ontario.

We’ve recently sent a message around the world to our international markets that Ontario is open for business. Our Ontario farmers are growing capacity and increasing food production, and we have an incredible value chain that ultimately will not only meet domestic demand but demand coming from other jurisdictions around the world.

That’s why I was very pleased to take 18 delegates representing five key sectors in our agri-food industry to PAN Vietnam. We had representatives from beef, pork, grains, oilseeds and ginseng and, Speaker, it was a tremendously successful trade mission insomuch as we had memorandums of understanding signed. We hosted and facilitated over 100 business-to-business meetings. We met with business and diplomatic leaders and, Speaker, people are looking to Ontario. They are proud of the work that we’ve achieved, and I can tell you with absolute confidence, we’re going to continue to grow demand for good, quality nutritious food grown and processed right here in Ontario.