I thank the member for her remarks on the fall economic statement. It’s much appreciated.

The member was talking a lot about affordability throughout, and I just wanted to offer three points to have her and her party consider:

(1) We’re extending the removal of the gas tax to mid-June to keep the cost for Ontarians low. That’s an affordability measure.

(2) We’re removing the HST from rental construction projects, which will enhance the affordability of rental properties throughout Ontario.

(3) Overall program spending is $193 billion expected versus $173 billion, which is an increase of 11% over the year—well in excess of inflation.

Does that not cause the member to consider supporting this bill?

I thank the member opposite for his remarks. The member used the word “investment,” and I agree with that investment. Certainly, this government agrees with that approach. That’s why the Ministry of Economic Development has been so incredibly active in all the investment opportunities here in Ontario—$25 billion in the electric vehicle industry.

You mentioned investment in terms of numbers, and I come back to one of my favourite pages in the budget, page 139, where we look at health care spending, which increases $15.3 billion over the next three years from the previous, including $1 billion extra in home care, with education increasing as well. Wouldn’t the member agree that those are very substantial investments in health care and in Ontario?

Thank you to the member for his remarks. I’m always impressed with his presentations at the financial committee meetings, where we were all over Ontario in these last five weeks—quite literally, starting in Kenora on January 9. I appreciate it.

I also appreciate his remarks about the need for the industrial growth here in our province, and economic development. He knows it has been a priority of this government, and so I appreciate that. We know things were introduced quickly, but I appreciate his flexibility in that regard.

My question is in relation to the economic development and looking at the opportunity throughout there. We’ve seen what is happening with EV plants around, and here is an opportunity to directly have one of those in our province, in our region—in your region directly—that has the high-paying jobs that we all talk about, to have those delivered. My question is: Is that opportunity not enough to have you support this bill and have that come to reality in your community?

I thank the member for his question. A lot has been talked about ODSP, and we on this side of the House are very proud of three major measures we’re doing to this program:

(1) We’ve increased it by 5%, as you well know. That’s a major change, something that hasn’t been done before, and that’s now in the books.

(2) Indexing it to inflation, beginning in July of next year, and that again will connect ODSP payments to inflation—a fundamental change.

(3) The measure in this fall economic statement of increasing the income threshold from a monthly level of $200 to $1,000 is a game-changer. We heard from committee representatives in the finance committee first-hand how powerful that will be, and we’re looking forward to seeing that as an effective change, if this bill is passed.