I think it does a few things. Number one, it takes advantage of a natural resource that is renewable and recyclable. We can take these critical components and put them into batteries and then again create future batteries after they’ve been recycled. That’s a wonderful opportunity for northern Ontario.

It’s going to create jobs. Again, I’m assuming the member from Thunder Bay–Atikokan likes the idea of a lot of jobs in his riding and in his community, having been the mayor for, I think, 30 or 40 years, or 50 or 60 years—whatever it was, it was a long time that he was mayor of Thunder Bay. Economic prosperity is key to northern Ontario. I know that’s why he ran. That’s why I ran. And that’s why we’re proud of this historic announcement. It’s generational in nature, and that generational change and economic prosperity will benefit people in his riding and throughout northern Ontario.

Let me point out that two million vehicles have been taken off the road with the environmental actions of this province. It is a green economy. We are working hard. We are working strong. This is going to enhance that, and the changes within the provisions of this act, including remediation, enhance that.

I don’t think it’s going to stall any investment. It’s not going to put any tax burden on any Canadian. In fact, it will lower taxes. It will lower the burden. It will create income. It will put money in people’s pockets to enjoy a higher and more prosperous standard of living.

I rise to speak to third reading of Bill 71. I want to begin by saying the climate crisis is here: people in Alberta right now, the tragic wildfires they’re facing, the flooding we’re seeing once again in the Ottawa Valley, and so many other ways around the world. We know that mining is going to play a critical role as we electrify transportation, ramp up renewable energy and electrify home heating.

For over a decade now, I’ve been calling for a mining-to-manufacturing strategy to be able to make Ontario a leader in the new climate economy. We’re playing catch-up now. Other jurisdictions are ahead of us. We’re finally starting to see some investment in electric vehicles, and that’s absolutely welcome. We are going to have to mine the minerals that are going to be a part of those supply chains, but we’re going to need to do it right.

I voted in favour of this bill at second reading, hoping it would go to committee and be amended in some ways that address some, I think, important concerns that people have brought forward, one of which is defining what a qualified person is in addressing potential conflicts of interest in approving closure plans for mines. That would be a way to expedite the mining approval process while addressing legitimate concerns people have around the independence of oversight of mine closures.

I also talked about the need to make mine rehabilitation—to leave it better than it was in the past, which just seems to only make sense. When I go camping with my daughter every summer. I always say, “We’ve got to clean this campsite up and leave it better than we found it.” I think we can ask mining companies to do the same. Unfortunately, those amendments were voted down by the government.

But I think the issue that concerns me the most about where this bill sits right now is the concerns that have been raised by Indigenous leaders. The Matawa Chiefs Council has said that they believe this bill is exploitive and aggressive and runs contrary to the principles of reconciliation and the spirit of Treaty 9. The Chiefs of Ontario support them.

I would like to reach out to the government members, in the very limited time I have, in the interests of non-partisanship, and say: I want more mining in the north. I want that mining to be done faster, but it also has to be done within the spirit of reconciliation, where we have free, informed and prior consent from Indigenous nations. I believe the government should address that before moving forward with the bill.

From a broader perspective, I would say one of the things I’ve learned in this House over the past five years of being an MPP is that I think the province needs a consultation framework for how Indigenous consultation is going to work in this province, because in the absence of that, there’s a lot of confusion around what is meaningful consultation.