Colleagues, I want to share two recent important events in the great riding of Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound.

On May 25, I was in Wiarton to attend a wonderful ceremony for the unveiling of the cenotaph restoration. The cenotaph in Wiarton is located right downtown on Berford Street, a few blocks south of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 208. The town of South Bruce Peninsula and the Legion worked together on the restoration project, and commissioned Silvia Pecota to create a beautiful tribute to our soldiers, including Indigenous soldiers, who fought to give us all the freedoms we enjoy today. There were many in Wiarton to see the unveiling first-hand, including local residents, veterans and representatives from Saugeen Ojibway Nation. Congratulations to all who helped us make this great event possible.

Then, this past Friday, it was my pleasure to be in Dundalk with representatives of the Bluewater District School Board, members of Southgate council and the Minister of Education to announce the construction of a new Dundalk elementary school. Dundalk has been growing very substantially over the past several years, with many new families and new homes. The new school will accommodate 735 students, include 54 licensed child care spaces and have great recreational facilities. This will be a $28-million investment.

Thank you to the Dundalk community for being a vibrant and growing presence. Thank you to the school board and council. And thank you, Minister Lecce, for your incredible support of the great people of Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound.

I really appreciate the representatives from the government talking about the red tape reduction bill. It’s quite extraordinary: Since our government came to power in 2018, this is, as I understand, the 13th red tape reduction package. It’s really an amazing achievement.

This stuff is, perhaps like me, not very glamorous—

Interjections.

Maybe I could ask either the associate minister or the parliamentary assistant just to summarize the impact that this particular bill will have on getting housing built and our targets. Whether it’s in infrastructure or otherwise, it’s just very, very helpful to get a sense of how it will impact our housing goals.

My question is for the Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Northern Development.

Individuals and families across Ontario, especially in northern and Indigenous communities, face unprecedented economic challenges due to additional costs arising from the Liberal carbon tax. Residents in the north rely more heavily on their vehicles for work and for other everyday essentials; it’s not fair that they’re being hit the hardest at the gas pumps.

Unlike the opposition members and independent Liberals, who remain silent even after last week’s 23% hike, our government will continue to stand up for all Ontarians and call for the end of this tax.

Can the Minister please share with the House the negative impacts of the disastrous carbon tax on the northern and Indigenous communities?

Colleagues, Tuesday morning I had the pleasure, along with Ministers Todd Smith and Lisa Thompson, of attending a great event at the Toronto board of trade, at which Bruce Power presented its 2023 annual review and energy report. It was an excellent presentation that outlined all the terrific things the company is doing.

Let me give you a few highlights. Operations at Bruce Power are going very well. Bruce Power is the largest operating nuclear power plant in the world—amazing. To keep these great operations going, the company is actively under way with its historic life extension program, Ontario’s largest private sector clean energy infrastructure project, which will extend the life of the existing units to 2064. Under this program, unit 6, which powers more than 900,000 homes in Ontario, was returned to service last fall on budget and ahead of schedule.

Of course, there’s Bruce Power’s exciting work with medical isotopes. For cancer patients, medical isotope technologies and treatments allow for fewer hospital visits, shorter treatment durations and hospital stays, and fewer side effects. They have the potential to revolutionize cancer care—truly amazing.

To CEO Mike Rencheck and the thousands of hard-working staff at Bruce Power, thank you for all you’re doing to produce clean energy that will power Ontario now and into the future and for your exciting work to beat cancer. This is legacy work and is truly appreciated by us all.

Good morning, colleagues. I want to tell you about a great Ontario event I had the pleasure of attending this past February 2: Groundhog Day in Wiarton.

Groundhog Day started back in 1956, when Wiarton resident Mac McKenzie donned a fur hat, dug a burrow in the snow and made a weather prognostication. The next day, the picture was in the paper, and the annual tradition was born.

The morning began with a beautiful display of fireworks at 7 a.m. Wiarton is nestled right on the shores of Georgian Bay, so the fireworks were very special. At 7:40, the McLaren Pipe and Drum Band led us to the stage. The sound of bagpipes is also extra special on a frosty winter morning. Town criers Bruce Kruger and MacGregor Tannahill were both dressed in their bright red uniforms, and their message to the crowd of 500 was clear and loud.

I was in the group known as the shadow cabinet, which included Mayor Jay Kirkland, Ronnie Ottewell and Regan McKenzie, the daughter of founder Mac McKenzie. We were all in white tuxedos and top hats.

Wiarton Willie then joined us on stage with his amazing handler, Gord Glover. Willie looked great and was in a chatty mood. Mayor Kirkland listened intently, considered what he’d heard and proudly announced Willie’s forecast: an early spring.

Colleagues, this is a great event for Wiarton and for our province. Thank you, Willie, for your great work. See you next year.

Exactly.

The numbers for transit over 10 years are staggering: $70 billion invested in transit. That’s what makes our economy go. That’s what contributes to a better environment. We are getting that done with a huge investment in transit—so important.

We also have a plan to build vibrant complete mixed-use communities at or around transit stations. Transit-oriented communities will help increase transit ridership, create sustainable communities and build more homes, including more affordable housing around GO Transit, light-rail transit and subways. This is a sensible solution. It’s happening and we are going to make it happen even more.

We are also building new schools, child care spaces, hospitals and long-term care. In terms of education infrastructure, $22 billion over 10 years—again, a record amount, so important. We’re building new hospitals and expanding existing ones, like the redevelopment of St. Mary’s General and Grand River hospitals in Kitchener–Waterloo, and I’m looking forward to the opening of the Markdale Hospital in our great riding of Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound this year, on time, on budget. In total, our 10-year health care infrastructure spend is $56 billion, an incredible investment for today, but more importantly, for tomorrow, for our generations yet to come. Their health care is why we’re doing that.

Safe and comfortable long-term care homes are going up in communities across the province, including Owen Sound in my riding of Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound.

In total, there’s $184.4 billion of investment in infrastructure in all these sectors over 10 years. This is a historic commitment to our province that our government has made, and we will ensure we get that done. I’m so proud to be part of this team that’s investing so heavily in this amazing infrastructure commitment.

Madam Speaker, among our government’s priorities is ensuring the safety and well-being of everyone who calls Ontario home, and this approach to safety and well-being includes protecting people as consumers. In the spring budget bill, we are proposing changes to enhance consumer protections when interacting with a financial professional. These specifically are proposed legislative amendments to the Financial Professionals Title Protection Act, 2019. You see, Madam Speaker, people deserve to have confidence when they are seeking out financial advice that they are dealing with someone who has the adequate training, expertise and credentials. These amendments, if passed, would give the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, or FSRA, the power to make a rule about the use of protected titles by credential holders when a credentialing body’s approval has been revoked or an approved credentialing body ceases to operate.

The title protection framework would also give financial planners and advisers the confidence that there is a plan for their future if their credentialing bodies are no longer able to operate. This is a very important enhancement to investor protection in the province of Ontario.

Madam Speaker, we know that these are challenging times, but our plan is working. It is the right plan to not only get us through these challenges, but to emerge from them as a stronger Ontario. So if the members of this House support building Ontario’s economy, building highways, transit and infrastructure, working for workers, keeping costs down and better services, then vote for this bill. Pass this budget so that together we can get to building a strong Ontario.

Madam Speaker, I’ll now share my time with the fantastic member for Oakville and parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Finance.

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?

It is my pleasure this morning to bring this House news about two recent events in Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound.

The first is the two fantastic fall fairs I had the privilege of attending this past weekend. In the great community of Durham, our colleague the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs was there with us to see this excellent fair. There was a great presence from the local agricultural community, including many members of local 4H clubs—lots of future farmers showing their skills. Then I was off to Desboro for their fall fair opening. The Desboro fair always starts with a great parade through town. I was pleased to be part of that parade as MP Alex Ruff and I rode in a manure spreader. I understand that Bill Murdoch started this great tradition, and it was lots of fun. Congratulations and thanks to the organizers of both these great fall fairs.

The other event I want to highlight and make this House aware of was the Stanley Cup coming to Sauble Beach on August 29. Kurtis MacDermid, who plays for the Stanley Cup champions, Colorado Avalanche, grew up in Sauble Beach and played minor hockey there and in nearby Shallow Lake. Kurtis and his family were all there, along with an estimated 10,000 local people. The sun shone brightly on Lord Stanley’s cup in Kurtis’s hometown. Congratulations on your great achievement, Kurtis. You’ve made our great Grey-Bruce community very proud.