I stand here today, shoulder to shoulder, with the good people of St. Catharines. In fact, I’m going to hand you a letter after question period. There’s an elephant in the room that we cannot ignore: affordable housing and mental health resources. Our dedicated mayor has sounded the alarm for emergency support. I stand with him. We must protect and celebrate our vibrant community.

Premier, when asked about this support last week, the response was that we need more rehabilitation facilities. That misunderstands the problem. Homelessness is not just about addiction; it is more a mental health and housing issue. It is complex and we need to face it with a comprehensive solution. We cannot stigmatize our people by oversimplifying the issue. They need our help, not our judgment. You cannot rehabilitate a person if they do not have a roof over their head.

St. Catharines’s downtown is a hub for Niagara’s large festivals and sporting events. Take a stroll down our lively streets rich with culture and history. From the charming boutiques on James Street to the culinary delights of St. Paul Street, St. Catharines is a gem that must be supported. This is why we fight.

Our community stands united, calling for immediate funding to protect our region, our city, our people. When we stand together, we serve our constituents the best. I ask you to stand with us.

We have a special guest with us in the members’ gallery today, a former member who was the representative of the riding of St. Catharines from the 31st to the 41st provincial Parliament and is now the chair of the regional municipality of Niagara. Jim Bradley is with us today. Welcome back.

Government House leader.

As we’ve all heard, it is Niagara Week here at Queen’s Park. So, in addition to welcoming those who have already been mentioned, I want to also note that we have the regional councillor for Lincoln, Rob Foster, in the House, and we also have Diana Huson, the regional councillor for the town of Pelham. I also want to acknowledge CAO Ron Tripp and Daryl Barnhart, who are here today. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It is Niagara Week, and I want to extend a warm welcome to Jim Bradley, chair of the Niagara region, and all my friends who are here with us today from the region. I know that you’ll be having great discussions about how we can work together to better grow Ontario and Niagara. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It’s Niagara Week, and we’re very excited. I’d like to give a warm welcome to some of our elected representatives from Niagara who are here today. We’ve already met Regional Chair Jim Bradley, who I was looking for on this side; he’s over there, so I apologize for that. Also, I’d like to welcome the mayor of the town of Fort Erie, Wayne Redekop, the Lord Mayor—and the only Lord Mayor in the province of Ontario—from the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Gary Zalepa, and the mayor of the city Niagara Falls, Jim Diodati.

I’d also like to welcome my two staff members who are here today, Quinn and Gillian. Gillian is a student who has been working in our office for the last six weeks, and she’s now going on to university. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Back to the Premier: Those stats should be concerning to any government, and it’s the result of a health care crisis. This crisis, fuelled by the government’s disrespect of front-line health care workers, has created those significant off-load delays in our hospital. Niagara deserves to be refunded the $1.7 million of taxpayer dollars that have gone into the off-load delays. We can’t continue to go down this road. Three of Niagara’s hospitals consistently rank in the bottom quarter of off-load times.

Speaker, with the local leaders from Niagara here today, will the Premier listen to their solutions and commit to ensuring long-term solutions to EMS off-load delays immediately?

Speaker, through you, to the Minister of Health: Between 2021 and 2022, Niagara experienced a 55% increase in EMS off-load delays, and in the latter half of 2022, a total of over $1.7 million of the regional levy was spent to address the record number of EMS calls. In 2022, Niagara EMS incurred almost 34,000 off-load delay hours, which is equivalent to 24 paramedics for 365 days. Will the minister commit to reimbursing the over $1.7 million spent on additional off-load delays and ensure that Niagara is funded for an additional health team to help address the underlying causes of our EMS crisis, as requested by Niagara’s municipal leaders?

My thanks to the member for the question.

The Niagara region has experienced a renaissance since this government came to office in 2018. We are experiencing, currently, record-low unemployment. Jobs are coming back to our region. We’re seeing investments in the areas that matter most. Here are a couple of examples of this in various ministries: We are seeing a new hospital being built in my riding—the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital; we’re seeing new hospitals being built across the region, including the advancement of the new 1.3 million square feet being added to the South Niagara Hospital; we are seeing new long-term-care homes spring up across the region; when I first was elected, we had 16 hospice beds, and there are now 40 hospice beds in the Niagara region—incredible investments in health care. We’ve seen the Brock nursing school go from 300 students to 600 students. And we’ve seen thousands of manufacturing jobs come back to a region that, for too long, was left behind.

The people of Niagara know that under this government, the world doesn’t end at the Burlington Skyway.

A couple of examples of this: the Homelessness Prevention Program was expanded by 86% to $20 million annualized, supports that go to the most vulnerable in our communities. We are building housing in the Niagara region to make sure that the dream of home ownership becomes a reality. We are expanding GO train service across the Niagara region to make sure that people can get from A to B faster, easier and smarter. We’re also making sure that all of these investments are focused on the well-being of our communities, building connected communities where people have the opportunity to build a better life for them and their family.

Under the leadership of this Premier and this government, we’re getting it done for the people of Niagara.

I would also invite everyone to rooms 228 and 230 this evening from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. for the Niagara reception.

Je remercie ma collègue pour son excellente question. Contrairement au gouvernement libéral précédent, qui n’a rien fait en 15 ans, notre gouvernement déploie, pour la première fois dans l’histoire de l’Ontario, une stratégie francophone en soins de longue durée pour l’Ontario. Nous avons récemment inauguré l’agrandissement du Foyer Richelieu Welland dans la région de Niagara. La construction du Foyer Richelieu est l’un des 39 projets de soins de longue durée en développement à travers la province où les services aux résidents francophones seront offerts. La nouvelle résidence agrandie aura le double de sa capacité originale pour un total de 128 lits.

Monsieur le Président, le ministère des Affaires francophones travaille en collaboration avec le ministère des Soins de longue durée pour s’assurer que les personnes qui reçoivent des soins de longue durée obtiennent le soutien dont elles ont besoin, et ce, dans la langue de leur choix.

Le Foyer Richelieu Welland, désigné en vertu de la Loi sur les services en français, est une institution de première ligne desservant la communauté francophone. Son agrandissement témoigne de notre volonté de bonifier la prestation des services en français sur le terrain partout dans la province. Mes collègues et moi continuerons, monsieur le Président, à déployer les efforts nécessaires pour assurer le bien-être de la communauté francophone et de répondre à ses besoins.

Pursuant to standing order 63, your committee has selected the 2023-24 estimates of the following ministries and offices for consideration: Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing; Ministry of Infrastructure; Ministry of Transportation; Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport; Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturalism; Office of the Lieutenant Governor.

Report presented.

Thank you to the member from Niagara West for sharing his time with me and for sharing his important point of view in supporting this bill. This bill is called Building a Strong Ontario Act.

I rise today to speak on this budget. This budget represents our government’s commitment to driving economic growth, expediting vital infrastructure projects, and attracting more jobs and investments to help businesses, families and workers.

Our government has an ambitious plan in place to build more roads, highways, hospitals and over 1.5 million homes. We are expanding subways and public transit and creating more opportunities for people in communities throughout our province. We are taking a responsible and targeted approach that addresses the needs of today while establishing a solid fiscal foundation for future generations. We are building a stronger Ontario that works for everyone.

Speaker, our government has been creating the environment and the conditions for companies to come here and to thrive, prosper and grow. When companies thrive, prosper and grow, so do the people who work at these companies. Ontario continues to lead the nation in job creation, with more than 600,000 jobs added to the province since 2018.

I am proud to share with you some remarkable achievements that have occurred in recent months. For April 2023, the monthly employment data released by Statistics Canada showed that employment in Ontario has increased by 32,700 jobs. This is seven consecutive months of job growth for our province as we continue to attract significant investments that create good-paying jobs for workers across our province.

Over the last two and a half years, Ontario has successfully attracted over $25 billion in automotive and electric vehicle battery-related investments, including a $7-billion investment from Volkswagen to build their first overseas EV battery manufacturing facility in St. Thomas. This groundbreaking investment from Volkswagen, Europe’s largest automaker, will generate up to 3,000 direct jobs and up to 30,000 indirect jobs. Ontario’s partnership with Volkswagen, among many other global automakers, demonstrates our ability to attract historic investments and reinforces our position as a global leader in the electric vehicle supply chain.

Furthermore, our government has also attracted over $3 billion in investments from the life sciences sector and global bio-manufacturers over the past two and a half years, the most recent being a multi-million dollar investment from Moderna to partner with Novocol Pharma, an Ontario-based manufacturer, which further reinforces our commitment to economic growth and job creation.

To complement these achievements and continue to build a strong economy, we need the infrastructure to support it. Our government’s plan to build is investing in critical infrastructure projects that are needed to support growth across the province. We are building new highways, roads, schools, hospitals, long-term-care homes and transit. We are making significant progress and taking action to ensure we have a safe and reliable transportation network, regardless of where in the province you live.

One of the projects that holds a high importance for my constituents is the Yonge North subway extension. The extension is a key part of our government’s plan to fight gridlock. It is a critical project for York region that will provide much-needed access to reliable public transit and will connect more people to major employment centres in Markham, Vaughan and Richmond Hill. Once completed, the approximately eight-kilometre TTC Line 1 extension will put 26,000 more people within a 10-minute walk from transit, and it’s expected to reduce daily travel times for commuters up to 22 minutes.

We are committed to reducing gridlock, connecting people to more jobs and making travel faster for everyone, and we are getting it done on public transit.

But we are not stopping here. We must keep the momentum up. As we continue to attract global investments, as we build Ontario, we are facing a historic labour shortage, the largest labour shortage in generations, with hundreds of thousands of jobs going unfilled each and every day. We must tackle this issue hands-on, using every tool at our disposal.

This is why our government is investing heavily in training to help people prepare for good, in-demand jobs. We can grow our economy by filling all these jobs to care for those in our communities who need it most and to help build new homes, schools, hospitals, highways and transit. We need more skilled workers, and we need them now.

Our government will continue to invest in our people and support our growing community and economy. This is why we are investing $25 million over three years to make it easier and faster for skilled newcomers to come to Ontario to help fill the jobs in the skilled trades and health care. This new investment will ensure Ontario is ready to welcome new skilled workers. We will focus on removing the barriers that newcomers need to deal with, recognizing their credentials and helping newcomers find more meaningful employment sooner in their field. We are committed to building a better life for them and their families, because no matter where they come from, they can build their Canadian dream right here in Ontario.

Speaker, we are making the historic investments to train the workforce of tomorrow as part of our $1.5-billion skilled trades strategy, including a $225-million investment to upgrade and build new training centres. Ontario has the jobs, and our government has the plan—a plan that has a bright future for the people of Ontario, a future that includes a skilled workforce to build our historic infrastructure plan. Whether it is upskilling workers through our skills development programs, attracting more young people into the skilled trades, or breaking down barriers to get more skilled newcomers into the province, we are leaving no stone unturned. We are building a stronger Ontario that works for everyone.

I urge all members in the House to support this plan, to pass this budget, so that together, we can build a strong Ontario.

It’s hard to sit here and listen to the member for Niagara West. I’ve got to wonder what planet he’s living on—for stats.

I will tell you that in Windsor, we are facing an opioid crisis; we are facing a homelessness crisis.

And I know in Niagara—per capita, Niagara is in the top five regions reporting opioid-related deaths, and there is an increase in homelessness.

I suggest that the member from Niagara West take a walk through St. Catharines, perhaps, or some other areas in Niagara to see the reality, because while you’re talking about Moody’s—to the people who are dying on the streets, to the first responders responding to those calls and the families losing people, Moody’s means nothing. The fact that you are not spending to actually address the opioid crisis or the homelessness crisis is what matters to people in this province.

So maybe the member for Niagara West could actually acknowledge, first off—instead of talking about culture, talk about the people who are actually struggling in this province as a result of the lack of spending and policies that specifically target these people in the province.

This isn’t where I was going to start, but I want to welcome the mayor of Fort Erie, who’s here today, Mr. Wayne Redekop.

Before I get into my complete speech, I just want to say to my colleague from Niagara, you’re seeing a different Niagara than I’m seeing on the streets of St. Catharines and Niagara Falls and Welland. We’ve got to do better for people on our streets. But I’ll address that during my speech.

But because the mayor of Fort Erie is here, I want to start by talking about the Fort Erie Race Track. I’m hoping that the Minister of Finance is listening in his office because it’s so important. What’s happening is—and I brought this question up last week—Woodbine is bullying the Fort Erie Race Track as they try to close us down. They’re trying to close us down. There’s no doubt about it. We’ve been fighting this for a number of years. The mayor knows this.

What they started with—and it’s a little complicated, but I’m going to explain it the best I can—is that horses that are in Fort Erie and Woodbine, they stable at Woodbine; they can come and race in Fort Erie. Under Jim Lawson’s leadership—the CEO—he has put a policy in place that if they stable in Woodbine, they can’t come to Fort Erie, which means that’s going to hurt us trying to get horses to come to our track. They are an A-level track. They’re the best of the best. We’re a B-level track, so we run claiming races for $5,000, $7,500, and some allowance races. But the problem is, once they say, “You can’t come to Fort Erie,” where are they going to go?

What Lawson has done is he’s now running races that are B-level races at $5,000 to $7,500 claimers. So he’s keeping the horses in Woodbine to run in those races. He knows he’s not supposed to do it. Here’s the catch—and this is why it’s important to the ministers that are here, because you guys talk about money all the time; taxpayers’ money is important. Woodbine is getting $110 million of taxpayers’ money to run that track, and the money can only be used for purses at Woodbine, which means your purses would run the higher races—$16,000 claimers, sometimes allowance races. So what I am saying to this government: We need your help. Fort Erie has been there for—I think it’s 116 years. It’s by far the prettiest racetrack in the entire country—actually, I think in North America.

The other thing that they did with us—we have a race called the Prince of Wales, and they have the Queen’s Plate. And it’s usually spread out so that you can run the—Triple Crown race is what it’s called. It’s similar to the one they have in the States. But what you can do is they spread it out so the horse that runs in the one race—the Queen’s Plate—then can run in the Prince of Wales. We get 15,000, 16,000 people coming to the beautiful track in Fort Erie. They put the races so close together those horses can’t even run in Fort Erie for our biggest race of the year, the Prince of Wales. It’s called bullying. And you know what? Fort Erie deserves better. Fort Erie has supported that racetrack, including through the town council, including when we had the slots here—which was a big mistake, taking the slots out of Fort Erie. That was done under the Liberals; it wasn’t done under you guys. So I’m asking all you guys, when you guys go to your caucus meeting—Sam, you go to your caucus meeting. You know about the Fort Erie racetrack—

Earlier this morning, I answered a question where I spoke about the “renaissance” that we’re seeing in Niagara, but I believe that extends across the province. The reason I use that word is because it speaks to culture. We’re building a culture of responsibility, of respect for taxpayers’ dollars, something that was sorely missing. So to turn that large ship of state from a position where we saw consistent downgrades of our credit rating in international markets to a position where we’re seeing it going higher and higher and people understand that Ontario is taking a responsible approach that’s reflecting a culture of stewardship that permeates each and every ministry in this government is a demonstration of the Minister of Finance and his team’s commitment—as well as the entire caucus and Premier—to getting it right and respecting each and every tax dollar that is provided here, reducing costs where they are unnecessary, but continuing to invest in the things that people in our communities expect and deserve, including right in Niagara region and across communities in every corner of this province.

We saw in Niagara, which was an incredibly important centre for auto parts manufacturing, that abandonment under the previous Liberal government, supported by the NDP, but we’re seeing that come back now under the leadership of this Premier and this government. We’re seeing record low unemployment levels in the Niagara region as a result of the policies that this government has put forward. So we’re building a stronger economy that supports the people, while also investing in the most vulnerable. I’d love to welcome her down, and we can walk around and I can show you what that looks like.

I grew up on a 100-acre farm. We had a number of different cattle and obviously some sheep. We had pork, as well.

To be able to ensure that your animals are kept safe and healthy and that they’re treated well, it’s vital to ensure that there is access to veterinarian services.

This government took action that we hadn’t seen in previous years by expanding the number of veterinary school spots so that we’re able to see more vets. I think one of the top issues that I actually hear about from the agricultural community is the need for more veterinarians in every corner of this province. So whether it’s in the Niagara region, whether it’s in Perth–Wellington, or whether it’s in Timiskaming–Cochrane, we’re going to see the vets who are graduating from that incredible school go on to provide world-class care to the animals that I know we all know and love—and, in the case of farms, perhaps we love to eat at some point.

Niagara West.

Sorry, Niagara West—I apologize. All I’m saying is, take a serious look at what they’re doing. It’s wrong in the province of Ontario. What we should be doing is growing the industry. We have two thoroughbred tracks in all of Ontario—just two—and if you get rid of Fort Erie, you will have one. And you’re going to hurt all of the small municipalities right across rural Ontario that have horses. That’s where the breeding is all done.

So I wanted to raise that because the Fort Erie mayor is here, and he came out of his way. To the Fort Erie mayor, I’m going to continue to do everything we can, and I’m asking the Conservatives to really take a serious look at what Lawson is doing to a beautiful track down in Fort Erie in my riding, but quite frankly, what he’s doing to Ontario. Because it’s all about Ontario with horse racing: It’s rural Ontario; it’s the small communities that, quite frankly, support some PCs here. Anyways, I wanted to get that out, Mayor, and hopefully you will continue to support us on that.

I’m going to start with affordability on the budget. Like I said, I’m seeing different results in Niagara. Niagara is a wonderful place to live, great place to raise a family—all the things that we’re talking about. We have jobs there; some manufacturing is coming back. I believe it’s coming back—it has nothing to do with your government, by the way, with no disrespect. It has to do with the dollar. I said this about the 300,000 jobs that we lost under the Liberal government: It was about the dollar, the petrodollar. It was the petrodollar. Nobody on your side, if they know anything, including the labour minister, who is here—nobody can deny that the dollar plays a major role in bringing investment into the country. If you have a dollar that’s worth 110, and now you have a dollar that’s worth 72—the manufacturers left the province of Ontario under a petrodollar, and that was under Harper when he took care of the west at the expense of Ontario. I can tell you today they’re coming to this province because our dollar is 72 to 74 cents. We’re competitive, by the way, in the manufacturing sector at 80 cents. We’re competitive at 80 cents, and actually, we could live to go to 84. So think about that: That’s another 10 cents that these manufacturers are coming from all over the world and investing in Ontario—they’re making more money.

The thing that we have to be careful with—and I’m saying this again to my colleagues that are here, in particular, the labour minister who is here, and I really appreciate him being here—our big advantage in manufacturing, do you what it is? Speaker, I’m looking right at you. I’m not looking at anybody else. Do you what our big advantage is? It’s our health care costs. You talk to any bargaining team that’s bargained in the last 30 years, they’ll tell you the same thing I’m telling you. It’s the envy of the world, but it’s a big cost advantage when you’re trying to bring manufacturing back to Ontario, and if you privatize it, we lose that advantage. And then if the dollar goes back up, I’d hate to see what’s going to happen to the province of Ontario. So you really have to rethink your position on Bill 60, for sure.

I’ll get back to affordability. I can tell you rents in Toronto, as we all know, most of you—I have a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto, and I talked to people that are living in my apartment—$3,000, $3,200, $3,400 a month. I challenge any of you guys who are here: How many of you could afford that? Even though you got a 16% raise—we know that—how many can afford $3,000, $3,200 or $3,400 in rent?

In Niagara, a one-bedroom apartment—my good friend from Fort Erie, the mayor—is $1,300, and how many times has the mayor gone and they had renovictions? I think we had two or three of them in Fort Erie. We had renovictions where they got rid of seniors who were paying $800, $900 and $1,100, and then you see it advertised in the paper less than a week later, that same apartment, for $1,700, $1,800, $1,900 or $2,000.

Where is a senior going to go? There are no senior apartments out there. They’re not getting raises. As a matter of fact, our CPP and these types of things—old age—that’s what they’re trying to live on. They don’t get increases of 6% and 7% when inflation rises, so we’ve got a crisis in affordability for our seniors.

Take a look at our groceries. Has anybody gone to the grocery store lately? Put your hand up. We can have this kind of participation if you want. I’ll put my hand up. Grocery stores are going on—I put a video up. I’m sure you all watched it, because I’m sure you follow me on social media. I see some of your comments. I thank you for that too, by the way, all the compliments.

But groceries: I went and checked the price of bread. I try to eat healthy; I’m not very good at it, because I really eat a lot of hot dogs that I shouldn’t. But at the end of the day, I buy 14-grain bread. I went to the dollar store. Madam Speaker, I don’t know if you’ve ever been to the dollar store, but I went to the dollar store, which is just around the corner from where I live. It was $3 for that bread. Then I went to Shoppers, which is owned by the Weston family, who are gouging people—we all know that; the government should never have taken them on, because they’re friends. I went to Shoppers. I went right into the store, and I videoed it—they ran over, by the way; they weren’t happy that I was trying to video the price of it. It was $4.49, and they’re not a block away. They’re not a block away, in the same area.

That’s price-gouging. That’s the reality. I had some people say, “No, that’s competition” and all that. No, it’s not. It’s price-gouging. Do you know that the Weston family has made more profit during COVID than at any time in their history? They’re making so much money, they don’t know what to do with it—well, I apologize; that’s wrong. They do. They gave the Weston CEO a million-dollar bonus for doing so well.

We see it at the gas pump; $1.50 a litre is what I saw today. And do you know what else? This all should be taken care of with the budget. Do you know what else? Guess who is making record profits? The oil companies. They’re making more money than at any time in their history, and we’re not talking millions, like we were talking with the Weston family; we’re talking billions, with a B. Where is that coming from? It’s coming from us, who can’t afford rent. We can’t. We’re lucky; we’re probably—well, we’re not fairly compensated, but I know you guys are. But at the end of the day, what do you do with it? You can’t continue it. They’re making billions in profit. What’s that called? It’s the same like groceries: It’s called gouging. They’re gouging us at the pump. They’re gouging at the refineries, is really where it’s really starting.

Your Ontario might not be the same as mine and what I’m seeing. And yes, are some people doing really well? Absolutely. CEOs are making more money than they ever have in their lives. Some of the people at the higher scales are doing fine. They’re the same ones who love Bill 60. They love our health care. They love your bill around health care, because they can afford to pay. But there are people who can’t afford to pay for their health care. There are people who can’t afford to pay for their rent. They can’t afford to pay for their groceries. Seniors are being pushed out of their homes.

So when you stand up and say everything is wonderful, it’s not, and I can’t be the only one seeing it. You go walk down the street in St. Catharines. I’m going to use my whole riding. I haven’t been to Sam’s riding. I’ll be honest, I’ve been to Sam’s once to talk about the greenbelt and what you guys are doing with selling off the greenbelt. I had a town hall in Niagara West, in his riding, talking about the greenbelt. Talk about another mistake you guys are making.

And I want to be clear, because the Minister of Housing is here, and I’ve said this to him many times: I believe we should be building 1.5 million homes. As a matter of fact, the studies are saying we can build two million. Every study says there’s enough land to do two million. Here’s where we differ: I don’t believe we need to do it on the greenbelt. That’s where we differ.

And do you know today, under your leadership, under Premier Ford’s leadership—Madame Speaker, you may know this. I’m not sure, but you might know this. Do you know, today, we’re losing 319 acres of farmland every single day in the province of Ontario? I might be wrong on this, but you might think that we would have learned our lesson with COVID. When we got COVID, we didn’t have PPE. Do you remember that? We were scrambling. China wouldn’t send us any PPE and we had shut down all our manufacturers who were making PPE. We had to start that all back up really quick. Well, what are we going to do when you get rid of the greenbelt? What are you going to do when you get rid of all the farmland? Who’s going to feed us? Where are we going to get our food from? Are you going to rely on China or Mexico or another country? We already see some countries trying to get involved in our elections. It’s a mistake. Because once it’s paved over—any one of my colleagues know what happens when it’s paved over?

Interjection: It’s gone forever.

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?

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.

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?