I want to thank the member from Brantford–Brant for his extraordinary work, not just in his riding but working closely with Six Nations of the Grand River.

Madam Speaker, it’s true that the Oneida Energy Storage Project is one of a kind. It’s an exciting opportunity when political leadership aligns with its economic development priorities, goes out proactively and joins with major partners in the corporate world, and delivers on projects that benefit the community, the surrounding area and the entire province when it comes to the scope of this project.

That’s exactly what we were talking about in Vancouver earlier this week with the First Nations Major Project Coalition: a growing membership of Indigenous leaders and major businesses converging on the opportunity to grow infrastructure, to build out opportunities for Indigenous youth and ensure that they are a critical part of every resource project and every major critical infrastructure project across this country and, most notably, in Ontario.

One of the ways that we do this is we go out and tell people around the world, across this country about the extraordinary opportunities in store for the province of Ontario, and that it includes Indigenous businesses, Indigenous leadership that want to rally around these great opportunities.

The First Nations Major Project Coalition is helping to leverage and support the development of $40 billion worth of infrastructure. It covers myriad kinds of projects, but at the heart and soul of it is a values-driven opportunity to ensure that major financial institutes, major energy companies, major infrastructure construction companies are in play, working together with Indigenous leadership like communities from the Ring of Fire, like the opportunities that we’re seeing with Indigenous communities in southwestern Ontario’s corridor from St. Thomas to Windsor, to make sure that Ontario’s bright future includes Indigenous young people, Indigenous businesses and a better sense of prosperity for all people in Ontario moving forward.

Thank you to the member from Brantford–Brant for the question and for taking the time to raise awareness of this important topic. For many, this might sound like a simple thing, but underground locates are a critical step to ensure that communities and workers remain safe and that we don’t accidentally create service outages or damage underground infrastructure when we build. For example, telecommunications failures can cripple a business or cut off a person’s access to emergency services, posing a very real threat to the safety of Ontarians. That is why we continue to work with Ontario One Call to protect the well-being of Ontarians and their communities, just as this government has done since day one.

Thank you to my honourable colleague for the question.

Just over one year ago, our government passed the Getting Ontario Connected Act, which, amongst other things, made amendments to improve the locate delivery system, enhanced governance and oversight of Ontario One Call, and improved compliance tools. Speaker, if I may, I want to commend the incredible work by our Minister of Infrastructure, the Honourable Kinga Surma, to build this important piece of legislation, as well as the great member from Sarnia–Lambton, MPP Bob Bailey, for having worked with his colleagues across the aisle in 2012 to bring about Ontario One Call as we know it today.

So, whether you are planting a tree, building a fence or planning to dig for any reason, remember to visit ontarioonecall.ca to learn more about how to request a locate in just a few simple steps.