Does the member opposite know what the exchange rate was in 2015, with the US and Canadian dollars?

I actually have a 20-minute speech that I could do for you. I think the key issues that I didn’t get to are the things I talked about, in St. Catharines and Niagara Falls, in my area—and I’m not blaming anybody, but mental health is a huge issue in Niagara. The opioid crisis that we’re all facing in every one of our communities—I don’t think there’s anybody over there who isn’t facing an opioid crisis in the province of Ontario. These are two things that I think we have got to do better on. That’s for sure.

And Bill 60—I didn’t get to tell you what happened to the Americans. Do you know, today, in the United States of America, because of the cost of health care—45 million people today claimed bankruptcy because of health care costs in the United States, and people died, particularly those who are on the lower scale. They die earlier because of the cost of health care. We can’t go down that road.

You want to talk about Oshawa? They had 21,000 working in that Oshawa plant when I was president of the local union in 1999. Do you know what they’re down to now? A few thousand.

What about Brampton?

Do you want me to go on? Do you want me to talk to the parts sector?

I can talk about every sector—and it was because of the high Canadian dollar. The reason why they’re coming back is because of the dollar. There’s no doubt about that. You can’t argue—

Your second question was about—what was it? Help me out here.

Think about it: Every new build since 2018 can charge whatever they want.

We’ve already said as a party—I’ve said it many times here—we should have rent control on all units—

Interjection: And when people move out?

Why did it change? Because they made sure that they helped their corporations and developer friends—that they could make money, to a point that they can’t wait to build rental units because they’re going to make more money on the rental units, because they’re charging $3,200, $3,500. And it won’t be long before it will be $4,000 to get a rental in Toronto.

I know the Speaker is from Toronto. Your area is probably one to talk about, quite frankly, when you get a chance to talk over here.

We need rent controls. We need to make sure we take them off new builds from 2018. And we’ve got to make sure that we take care and get rid of renovictions, which is really, really—

I’m going to tell you that when I was the president of the local union, I was arguing for incentives for small businesses, quite frankly, and small manufacturers. As a matter of fact, when we got our V6 plant in 1997 bargaining, it came with incentives. The same way that you’re doing with the Chrysler plant now in Windsor, where you’re giving them X number of dollars to invest here—well, we did the same thing at the bargaining table in 1997. It’s one of the reasons why the Big Three stayed in Canada.

Even though, in 1997, we bargained the collective agreement—no, sorry; it was 1999—and we were number three in the world of manufacturing of auto parts and auto assembly; we dropped to 21. A lot of it had to do with the cost of the dollar and some of the bad policies that were brought forward by the Liberals—I’m not blaming it all on one. The Liberals were not very good at handling that, as well, when it came to jobs.

So I appreciate that, and I agree with you. Check the date. Write it down. We agree on it.

I will concur with the member from Niagara West about the dollar. The Canadian dollar was higher than the US dollar for a very short period during the financial crisis of 2008-09, but that’s neither here nor there. It’s ancient history.

Let’s move forward. We all want to get manufacturing jobs back in the province of Ontario. I think we all agree on that. I would hope the opposition would agree with that.

So my question to the member opposite—there may be parts of the budget you’re not supportive of; that’s fine. You’ve mentioned that in your speech.

But with respect to the manufacturing tax credit that we’re providing small, private manufacturers to incent them to buy new equipment so we can have good, high-paying, in many cases union jobs right here in Ontario—is this a part of the budget that you can see yourself supporting?

To the member from Niagara Falls: I want to give you an opportunity—you were so passionate, and I’m sure there are many things that you didn’t get to talk about that are very concerning to you that this government is failing to address when it comes to the budget.

You talked about long-term care.

You talked about the privatization of our health care that’s happening under this government’s watch. People are going to find it even more difficult to access health care, and they’re going to have to pay for it.

Is there another thing that you want to add, in one minute, that you didn’t get to in your very impassioned speech?

On January 9, 2023—governments enjoyed broad immunity against civil lawsuits, generally, and a 2022 Ontario law was passed barring all types of COVID-19 legal action against long-term care. A judge overruled that and said that there could be a class action lawsuit against the atrocious—actually, against the government. How do families feel about that decision that was recently passed?

Thank you to the member from Niagara Falls.

One of the things that he was talking about in terms of leases and housing and affordability is that there’s this offer for a private company to have this 99-year lease, or for long-term care, a 30-year lease; meanwhile, in terms of new builds, for anything built after 2018, there’s no rent control.

Why is there this change where rent control can be wide open for people who are trying to find housing in places built after 2018, but if one of the developer friends wants to have a lease for long-term care or other developments, it’s 99 or 30 years locked in?

Question?

Question?

Report continues in volume B.

I did want to ensure that the member opposite knew that in 2015 the exchange was 76 cents, on average, and in 2022, it was actually 76 cents. So to claim, in a revisionist history, that the only reason we’re seeing investments in the auto parts sector here in the province of Ontario is because of the parity with the American dollar is revisionist in a way that I can’t say I’ve seen a lot of in this House. Having been here six years, I’ve heard the member opposite—but that is such a disrespect to the people who have negotiated in good faith with the auto parts sector to make sure that they are coming to our province, those who have put forward policy idea after policy idea to make sure that we’re able to attract and retain good jobs here in the province of Ontario; $25 billion worth of investments in auto parts manufacturing, let alone the spinoff economic activity that has happened as a result of that. And the member opposite attempts to tie that to something that has essentially remained unchanged for the past eight years? I don’t buy it.