I want to recognize a few special guests in the Legislature this morning. The winners of the future builders scholarship powered by Scottie Barnes from the Skilled Trades College of Canada are with us here today. I want to welcome Serjenka Paul, Malik D’Cruz, Alden Patterson, Abrahan Belisario.

Congratulations on starting your exciting careers in the skilled trades, and welcome to Queen’s Park.

I want to thank the member from Carleton for being such a champion of those in the skilled trades. I remember being with the member and the local ironworkers at the ironworkers’ training centre in her riding and meeting two young female apprentices who really advocated for the government to improve washrooms and improve PPE for women. So I want to thank the member again.

Speaker, as the Premier and I often say, a career in the skilled trades is truly a career for life. That is why our government is investing more than $1.5 billion over the next several years to get more young people into the trades.

Today, I am pleased to be joined by Serjenka Paul, Malik D’Cruz, Alden Patterson and Abrahan Belisario, who are starting their careers in the skilled trades thanks to the innovative and game-changing future builders scholarship, powered by Scottie Barnes, in partnership with the Skilled Trades College of Canada.

Working with community leaders and role models like Scottie Barnes, we’re going to continue to get more people into the skilled trades.

This is why we’re changing our Employment Ontario system for those on social assistance, to ensure we’re now buying workboots, we’re buying uniforms, we’re buying transit passes. We’re sitting with those on social assistance to ensure they’re writing résumés properly and they know how to enter interviews, to ensure they can get meaningful employment. We’ve made a lot of changes to Employment Ontario throughout the province. In the three regions where we brought forward these changes, I’m proud to announce to the House today that 63,000 people have now gained meaningful employment, filling labour shortages—but most importantly, ensuring that people are providing more income, so they can build families, beyond these careers.

We’re going to continue working every single day for those on social assistance by lifting them up and removing barriers to get into in-demand careers.