I appreciate the question from the member from Peterborough, because he lives it every day, as do I in my rural riding.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s from fuel to food—the cost for rural life is going through the roof because unfortunately Bonnie Crombie and Justin Trudeau have never met a tax they didn’t like. It’s affecting everything in rural Ontario, from getting to work to getting our students to school on our rural school bus transitways, and even down to driving seniors to their daycare programs, through to Meals on Wheels. This horrible Liberal carbon tax is causing the cost of everything to go through the roof, and therefore it’s jeopardizing the pillars of community that we need in rural Ontario.

Ladies and gentlemen, we all need to stand together and implore all Liberals, backed up by the NDP, to scrap the tax.

I appreciate the question coming from the member for Peterborough because he actually has an innovation cluster in his riding, in the city of Peterborough, that really is all-encompassing, including food production. I very much appreciated the opportunity to visit that with him recently.

I want to touch on the fact that we are not resting on our laurels, Speaker. We’re continuing to invest so that farmers and processors alike understand that they finally have a government in Ontario that is working with them to continue to increase production. We’re investing $25 million, in partnership with the feds, through the Sustainable CAP program. But the total results are going to be driven by Ontario farmers and processors through the Agri-Tech Innovation Initiative. This is going to reap incredible returns.

I think we need to recognize that all of our sectors are increasing production, and now we need the food processing to continue to innovate and match what the farmers are doing on the land.

I want to thank the member from Peterborough for being a genuine champion not only of rural communities but of our agricultural industry as well. He’s spot on when he talks about the contribution that Ontario beef farmer make to our overall GDP. That translates into tens of thousands of jobs right across this province.

Ontario beef farmers understand that they finally have a government that listens and understands. Never was I more proud earlier this year to stand with the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Colleges and Universities to announce a unique initiative whereby the Minister of Colleges and Universities oversaw a partnership between the University of Guelph and Lakehead to expand the veterinary program. My Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs complements that with a veterinary incentive program to ensure that large-animal vets are incented to work in underserviced areas. That’s just one example of many.

Another example would be just the briefing I had from the Minister of Labour, where we were talking about how we can better support the growth of the opportunities and capacities of our meat-processing plants—

This matters why? It matters because Ontario beef farmers know they have a government that stands with them as they travel the world to make sure that countries that are looking for good-quality beef products come to Ontario first. That matters because there’s a huge opportunity in terms of exports, and that translates into jobs right here at home. Whether it is Cargill in Guelph, or Cardinal Meats in Brampton, Norpac in Norwich or St. Helen’s right here in Toronto, we are producing—from farm to processing plant to table—protein that people can count on around the world.

I very much appreciate your devotion and the question as well. This is something that people across Ontario are talking about—not just pet owners, but Ontario livestock farmers as well.

I want to be perfectly clear that in terms of access to veterinarian services—this is an issue that’s across the nation, but here in Ontario, we’re taking action.

This past spring, we met with stakeholders from the veterinarian sector, and they identified very clearly that we needed to modernize. The fact of the matter is, the Veterinarians Act in Ontario hasn’t been looked at for over 30 years, but it’s our government that is taking action. We are working with our stakeholders to identify how we need to modernize, given the fact that there are new technologies and the scope of practice for both veterinarians and vet technicians has evolved. We need to get with the times and modernize our legislation in this province as well. It’s part of our Grow Ontario Strategy that we’re going to be moving forward with. I’ll speak more about it in my supplementary.

The member from Elgin–Middlesex–London will be leading these consultations across this province as he goes on tour. We want to hear, first and foremost, how the sector has evolved, how we need to modernize, and how we need to develop legislation in 2022 that creates less red tape and builds a stronger Ontario—because that’s what Bill 46 is all about.

As we look to grow Ontario, we want to make sure that people have their voices heard. We’re looking very much forward to an expansive consultation process that will identify the new scopes of practice that have evolved for vet techs as well as our veterinarians. First and foremost, the important aspect here is that we are engaging everyone in the veterinarian sector to make sure we get it right.