Thank you. The other priority that I read out for the people of the province of Ontario is housing affordability. We know that we have a housing crisis in this province. We’ve been saying it for quite a long time. We are talking about the entire spectrum of housing, from single-family homes to rental units to social housing. All of that needs to be addressed by this government.

This government’s idea that they can hand over the greenbelt to developers, that developers will build these large homes on wetlands and protected lands and that that will magically trickle down to allow there to be housing in other areas is magical thinking. It’s not borne out by economics, and it really is just another way that this government has a cover story for how they are making sure that their friends, their donors and their connected folks benefit without any protections, any assurances that what they’re doing will allow everyone to benefit.

We need look no further than the homelessness crisis that we’re facing in all of our communities and the costs, both the financial and the social cost that the homelessness crisis is causing in the province of Ontario. The government introduced Bill 23. The most significant thing about Bill 23, this housing bill that they put forward, is that it basically takes away revenue from municipalities and gives a break to developers. It is simply a taxpayer-funded gift to developers. This revenue hole at the municipal level is absolutely going to cost taxpayers.

The government also promised that when they took away the development charges, they would make municipalities whole. It’s not in the bill. I don’t see it in the bill. Municipalities are left holding the bag. You gave developers a gift, but you gave it with somebody else’s money. And you know what? The Association of Municipalities of Ontario was very, very, very clear on this—very clear that what you are doing would, in fact, cost municipalities.

But it’s not just municipalities. When I talk about municipalities, I’m talking about the things that municipalities provide. They build our roads. They provide the water and the waste water infrastructure. They collect our garbage and our recycling. They build roads, and they build schools. And municipalities are now in crisis, and they have to do one of two things. They have to raise property taxes—which they are doing all across the province of Ontario. This government has created a chaos in municipal budgets by dumping costs on them which they are unable to support, unless they cut services or raise taxes.

There’s only one taxpayers’ pocket, and this is a government that doesn’t care whose pocket it comes out of as long as the changes they make benefit their friends and benefit their insider developers. It’s such a narrow-minded, short-sighted approach to housing, with absolutely no guarantee that what you are doing will result in housing that people can afford or housing that will address not only just the homelessness crisis but the fact that tenants can’t pay their rent. Tenants are being renovicted with absolutely no protections by this government.

The municipalities have been begging you not to do this, to make them whole, but you’ve turned your backs on them, including turning your backs on taxpayers and people who live in municipalities. All 444 municipalities across the province of Ontario are going to struggle because of your actions and your lack of investments in this budget.

But don’t take it from me. Let’s return to the Angus Reid poll that said “the majority of those who voted for the Progressive Conservatives”—so your voters, people who voted for you in 2022—“believe the government has done a bad job ... on the cost of living.” Seventy per cent said you did a bad job on the cost of living, 65% are saying you’re doing a bad job on health care, and 70% said that you’re doing a bad job on housing affordability. These are your voters, and do you know what? For once, I agree with them. This is a budget that fails to meet the moment, and it is a budget that is a disgrace when people in this province are struggling.

I would say when it comes to crown wards, there’s a lot that this government could do. I would say that I work with a group that has worked with universities, including McMaster University in my riding, to make sure that anyone that was a crown ward at any point in their life, even if they’re now adults, is able to access free post-secondary education. So anything that we can do to improve the outcomes for crown wards is something that I would support.

I want to thank my colleague for her remarks. Last week, we had a constituency week and I took the opportunity to visit a number of community service agencies in the London area. I visited staff at Community Living London, Thames Valley Addiction and Mental Health Services, L’Arche, Meals on Wheels etc. One of the things I heard repeatedly was that there has been no increase at all in base funding for many of these vital community support agencies for a decade or more. They are already dealing with wages in that sector that are far below the wages that are paid to similar workers in the institutional sector.

I wondered if the member would like to comment on whether there was any funding in this budget to help stabilize and ensure the sustainability of that vital community support sector.

Thank you very much to the member for the question. We stand up all the time and read a petition from Sally Palmer and the work she does to help us understand that the ODSP and OW rates in this province are legislated poverty. We need to understand that not everyone can work, and people go through very difficult periods of their lives. In fact, this motherhood earning penalty, as I described it, says that when women have babies, they plunge into poverty and it takes them many, many years to recover.

So looking at the social assistance rates and the ODSP rates that are punishing and that ensure people live in poverty—it’s something that this government should do. The first thing they did when they came to office was cut in half the increases to OW and ODSP. It’s my feeling that it would just be the humane thing to do to understand that families and children live in homes where they’re suffering under these rates.

In fact, the chief planner of the city of Hamilton, Steve Robichaud, told city councillors: “Will the purchaser or tenant actually benefit from that?” Speaking to the development charge waivers, he said, “The developer keeps those profits and prices stay the same.”

So in fact, the evidence, even from the chief planner from the city of Hamilton, is clear that waiving these development charges does not benefit young families that want a home. They benefit developers, and it costs taxpayers more money.

I just have to say, this is a government that has had the biggest spending budget in the history of Ontario. They still have the second-largest debt-to-GDP, but let’s just say this: They have the lowest per capita spending in all of Canada on the kinds of social services that we all rely on. And who’s picking up the slack? Those not-for-profit agencies that are seeing their doors bulging with people there looking for the help that they’re not getting from this government.

Interjections.

For 31 years I was the mayor of my community, 10 years of which I sat on the district social services administration board. Through 15 years of the previous government, we lobbied for increases in funding to help those most vulnerable and at risk of homelessness. We never received anything.

I’ve sat here and I’ve listened to the members opposite talk about how there’s nothing in the budget for the most vulnerable. Do you not think a 40% increase for homelessness prevention programming, nearly $202 million more, bringing the total to $700 million for homelessness prevention programming—that represents a tripling of funding in Thunder Bay for the Thunder Bay DSSAB. How can you sit there and say there aren’t supports in this budget for those most vulnerable in our community? Do you not think that an increase of 40% for homelessness prevention programming is a benefit?

I want to clarify what I believe is incorrect information regarding development charges in the province of Ontario. Madam Speaker, the member opposite was talking about affordable housing and not-for-profit housing. Our government is giving organizations, not-for-profits like End Well—one of the best not-for-profit organizations in Ontario. They’re waiving development charges so that they can build more units. They’re waiving development charges so that people can build more rental units, purpose-built rental units.

The opposition says we need more units for people across Ontario. We’re incentivizing builders to build more of these rental units. They are freezing—not taking away, but freezing DCs, development charges, on new builds so that young families can finally realize the dream of home ownership.

My question to the member opposite: Why are you against giving not-for-profits, people who want to rent and young families a break in getting into the housing market?

It’s an honour to rise to participate in the third reading debate on Bill 85, the budget bill. You know, Speaker, you can oftentimes talk about your values, but you really have the opportunity to show your values when you put a budget forward because it really shows the priorities that a government has. Right now, when you look around Ontario, there seems to be a crisis kind of everywhere: the health and education systems; the housing affordability and cost-of-living crisis; the climate crisis; the crisis of poverty that so many people are feeling in our communities. I want to talk about what could be in this budget to address those crises but are not.

I’ll start with health care, mental health and education. According to Ontario’s Financial Accountability Officer, over the next five years, looking at how this budget lays things out, the province of Ontario is going to underspend on health care, long-term care and community care by $21.8 billion, when you take into account population growth, inflation and what the government has said they want to accomplish. That is going to continue a crisis in our health care system, a crisis that’s going to have profound additional costs to our communities: emergency room closures; surgical and wait time backlogs; the continuing loss of front-line staff in our health care system, who are overworked, underpaid and undervalued.

We just saw a report yesterday coming out in our education system on the rising levels of violence. I just met with Catholic educators a few hours ago in my office, talking about this issue. So much of it stems from the fact that we don’t have sufficient resources for educational assistants and other staff to support students in our classrooms, especially students with special needs. That’s why it’s so distressing when the FAO projects—again, looking at inflation and population growth—that the government will underspend what our education system needs by $6 billion.

Speaker, the values of the Ontario I want to live in are values that are centred in building caring communities and investing in the future. That’s why it distresses me to see this budget underfund education and health care and, finally, mental health services.

Mental health service organizations in this province said they needed a minimum 8% increase just to maintain existing services. The government will talk about the 5% increase that’s in this budget for mental health, and that is welcome—there’s no doubt about it—but it’s insufficient to actually maintain existing service levels, which to me is unacceptable when we have 28,000 young people on a wait-list to access mental health services that can be as long as two and a half years.

Think about young people on suicide watch. Think about young people with complex eating disorders and other complex mental health crises having to wait 18 months to two and a half years to access services. To me, that’s not the Ontario I want to live in.

Let’s talk about the housing affordability crisis. This government’s solution to the housing affordability crisis is “pave at all costs”: pave over the farmland that feeds us; pave over the wetlands and green space that protect us, clean our drinking water. It’s especially troubling when you think about the climate crisis that we’re experiencing right now. Look at the hazy skies you see outside this building right now from the forest fires in Alberta. Think of the people experiencing flooding in the Ottawa River valley—once again, a 100-year flood; it seems like we have one every couple of years. Yet this government wants to pave over the wetlands and green space that protect us at a cost that is fiscally irresponsible.

Think about this: It costs 2.5 times more money to service a sprawl household versus a home built within an existing urban boundary. The city of Ottawa did a study determining that it cost them $465 per person every year—that’s property taxpayers—to service a home through sprawl. They make $600 a year—they bring in more tax revenue—for one built within the existing urban boundary. That’s $1,000 per taxpayer per household per year if we decide to build homes in communities that people can afford, in the communities they want to live in, instead of sprawling out and paving over our greenbelt.

This budget wants to expand highway construction. We already owe $52 billion in unfunded infrastructure costs because of the sprawl developments of the past. Then on top of that, according to the Financial Accountability Officer, we’re going to pay an extra $26.2 billion this decade alone for infrastructure costs due to the climate crisis.

At some point, we have to ask ourselves, when are we going to start building communities we can actually afford, with houses where people want to live in close to where they work, not imposing the costs of sprawl on them and protecting them from the climate crisis?

Speaker, I want to close, and I only have a couple of minutes left. Poverty costs this province $33 billion a year, and yet this budget maintains legislated poverty for people on ODSP and Ontario Works. That’s not the Ontario I want to live in.

Next question?

It’s a special honour to be able to rise here today to speak in support of Bill 85, the Building a Strong Ontario Act, introduced by the Minister of Finance, because as parliamentary assistant at the Treasury Board, I’ve had the opportunity to work with the minister and with our colleagues to help develop the 2023 budget. I want to thank the minister and his staff, and also the President of the Treasury Board and our team at TBS, for all their work over the past few months.

Speaker, before I begin, I’d like to note I will be sharing my time with my friend the member from Kitchener–Conestoga.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to travel around the province for a pre-budget consultation with the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. In Mississauga, the minister and our team visited the Hazel McCallion Campus at Sheridan College to listen to stakeholders, including many from Mississauga–Lakeshore. The 2023 budget reflects their concerns and their priorities.

In this budget speech, the minister got into his electric vehicle and took us on a trip around the province. This afternoon, I’d like to take us on another trip around Mississauga–Lakeshore, and I will start at the Mississauga Hospital, where I was born and my sons were born, and my mother worked in the kitchen as a first-generation immigrant. The hospital opened in 1958, and Mississauga needed a new hospital 15 years ago, but the former Liberal government never approved the funding.

Our 2023 budget includes a historic multi-billion-dollar investment to support a complete reconstruction of the hospital, and work is already under way, with an eight-storey parking structure with spaces for 1,500 vehicles. The new hospital will be almost triple the size, 24 storeys and three million square feet, with a thousand beds and 80% in private rooms. Speaker, this will be the largest and most advanced hospital in the history of Canada.

In total, the 2023 budget includes over $48 billion in hospital infrastructure. That is an increase from $40 billion last year and $30 billion in 2021. Speaker, that is an increase of 60% in the last two years.

In March, Trillium Health Partners and Infrastructure Ontario signed an agreement with EllisDon and PCL Healthcare Partners to deliver the new Mississauga Hospital with a progressive P3 approach. There are projects like this under way right across the province. Soon we’ll be able to drive just over to Etobicoke Creek to visit the Queensway Health Centre, where they’re building a new nine-storey, 600,000-square-foot tower with over 350 new hospital beds in a modern centre of complete care. As the minister said, in 2023-24, the health budget is $81 billion, an increase of over $6 billion over last year. That is an 8% increase.

Back in Mississauga–Lakeshore, we’ll be able to walk outside our new hospital and take the new 18-kilometre Hazel McCallion LRT line on Hurontario, which is on budget and on schedule to open in the fall next year. We’ll be able to take the LRT down to Port Credit GO station, with 15-minute service or better, and to our new BRT line along Lakeshore. We’re building a modern, reliable interregional transit network across the GTA. In total, the 2023 budget includes $71 billion in transit infrastructure, up from $62 billion last year. That’s an increase of 15% just in the last year alone.

Along Lakeshore, we might find a new home in Brightwater or the new Lakeview Village, which will add almost 20,000 new homes along the waterfront thanks to an MZO announcement on Friday by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. And again, I want to thank him and his team for all their work on this file. The 2023 budget also recognizes the need to build on previous investments, like the Lakeshore Lofts, Indwell’s first affordable and supportive housing development in Mississauga, which just celebrated its first anniversary.

I was proud to join the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing in Mississauga, where we announced more details about our investment of $700 million each year through the Homelessness Prevention Program, including a $202-million increase over last year and over $42 million for Peel region, a 38% increase.

I want to thank Jannies Le, the executive director at Armagh House, for joining us at our consultation at Sheridan College in Mississauga. Armagh is the only transitional health facility in Peel for victims of domestic violence. They’re working on doubling their capacity, and the 2023 budget will help them finish their project. As Jannies said, “The additional investment into the Homelessness Prevention Program is hopeful for the women and children living in shelters in the region of Peel. Armagh’s current expansion to build 10 additional apartment units is nearing completion, and with the support of the HPP funds, we will be able to serve those families.”

Speaking of families, we can stop next at Alpha Discovery Kids Preschool in Sheridan Park, and I want to thank the Minister of Education for joining us at the grand opening for 93 new child care spaces, which is part of our commitment to add 86,000 new high-quality child care spaces by 2026. In total, the 2023-24 education budget is $35 billion. That is an increase of over 7% since last year.

Then we can walk over to Wellbrook Place, a new state-of-the-art long-term-care home on Speakman Drive that will open later this year with 632 new residents. This will be the largest long-term-care home in Ontario. As I said earlier today, I had the opportunity to visit the construction site with the Minister of Long-Term Care, and I want to thank Tess Romain and her team at Partners Community Health for all their work on this project. It is part of the historic investment of $6.4 billion in the largest long-term-care building program in Canadian history, adding 31,000 new beds and upgrading 28,000 beds, and that includes 1,100 new and upgraded beds in Mississauga–Lakeshore alone, more than any other riding in the province of Ontario.

My constituents are excited about this investment in health care, education, transportation and long-term care. It’s worth taking a moment to ask how we have been able to do all this. Well, we’ve been able to do this because the Premier and the Minister of Finance have made Ontario open for business once again. We are cutting taxes and energy costs. We are building a world-class skilled workforce, and we’re reducing the burden of red tape. The Minister of Red Tape Reduction is continuing to work on Bill 91. These policies have produced an economic recovery that leads the country, and it’s given us the resources we need to make these investments.

For our final stop today, we can drive our electric vehicle to the Ford assembly plant in Oakville where I worked for 31 years. When we were elected in 2018, companies were leaving Ontario. Ontario had lost over 300,000 manufacturing jobs, including many in the auto sector. Sergio Marchionne at Fiat Chrysler told us that Ontario was the most expensive place in the world to do business, and the former Minister of Finance from Mississauga–Lakeshore said assembly line manufacturing was a thing of the past. My friends at Unifor 707 in Oakville watched as Ontario lost automotive sector jobs in St. Thomas, Oshawa and Windsor to Michigan, Mexico and overseas.

Now, since 2018, Ontario has added over 600,000 new jobs in the last two and a half years. We have attracted over $25 billion of investment from global automotive manufacturers. That includes $1.8 billion to transform Ford’s Oakville assembly plant into a global hub to manufacture electric vehicles beginning next year.

The 2023 budget includes a new Ontario-made manufacturing tax credit to attract even more investment in new equipment and machinery. Speaker, on Saturday Unifor 707 celebrated their 70th anniversary with a new confidence and optimism that we didn’t have five years ago, and in large part, that’s because of this Premier and our Minister of Finance and budgetary policies of this government. So I look forward to voting for this motion, and I urge all members to join me.

Now, as I said, I will share my time with the member for Kitchener–Conestoga.

We’re going to move to questions.

I thank the member for his very passionate speech outlining what we should be focusing on. I heard a government member, during their line of questioning, proudly proclaim that this government was looking to increase ODSP by 5%. In the midst of an affordability crisis, do you believe that this is enough money—below inflation—for some of the most vulnerable among us?

I always appreciate questions from the member from Kitchener–Conestoga. We’re neighbours. We may not always agree, but we always figure out ways to work together, so I appreciate that.

When it comes to building highway connections between the two cities, multiple governments have talked about this. I’m not opposed to building the highway, but I think there are ways that we can address gridlock more immediately and that are a higher priority.

First of all, why don’t we have an all-day direct bus connection between Guelph and KW? We finally got an announcement for a limited connection from Metrolinx just in the last few weeks, but let’s actually start building direct transit.

Secondly, and this is something I know the two of us agree on and have been working on: Let’s actually finally deliver all-day, two-way GO between KW, Guelph, Brampton, Toronto. I think we can go a long way towards addressing gridlock in a very affordable, environmentally responsible way by prioritizing transit links between our two great cities.

No, it’s not. How can we expect people to live on $1,200 a month when the average rates in a city like Toronto is—rent for a one-bedroom apartment has hit $2,000 a month. I was distressed; I want to read this out: The Daily Bread Food Bank just recently had a news conference, and in March of 2023, there were 270,000 client visits to the food bank in Toronto alone.

We’re facing a serious crisis here that is having a direct impact on people’s lives, not to mention the fact that it’s costing our province $33 billion a year. That’s the highest number ever recorded in the history of a food bank.

They support doubling ODSP rates, but I want to put it on record today that they asked for at least a $100 top-up for individuals and $200 per month, just to get us—

While I may disagree philosophically with a lot of what I heard from the member from Guelph, the one thing we do agree on is better connection between Waterloo region and particularly Kitchener and Guelph. There is a long-standing tradition of governments talking about building a new Highway 7, and it’s something that has moved very slowly, but we have seen the most progress under this government.

I’m very curious to know whether or not the member from Guelph supports building a new Highway 7 and whether or not he sees it as a way to reduce gridlock, reduce congestion, reducing idling and make it safer for people to get back and forth between our two great cities.

Again, I’m wondering, in the spirit of collaboration that both you and I have, how do you feel about the federal government really actually trying to keep up to their end of the bargain, and should this all just rely on the province?

Thank you very much, and a big thank you to my good friend the member from Mississauga–Lakeshore for sharing his time with me.

I think it’s always important to be able to speak to the budget. While the budget features many initiatives that will benefit my riding and our region, I want to take a moment to discuss one portion that I was able to help announce just a short time ago. Animal and animal-related agriculture are both crucial to the economic stability of rural Ontario. This is something that residents of Kitchener–Conestoga know very well. I have about 1,200 farms in my riding. However, many regions across the province are experiencing a shortage of veterinarians who care for livestock.

Any gaps in service create risk to farmers and their animals, and also jeopardize the security of our food supply chains. I was pleased to join the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, as well as the Minister of Colleges and Universities, at the University of Guelph to highlight the $15 million we are allocating in this budget to help address veterinary shortages in rural and northern communities.

The government is also launching the Veterinary Incentive Program to encourage recent veterinary graduates to practise in underserved and northern communities. We do have some members from rural and northern communities here today, and I’m sure they’re very excited to hear about this announcement. Students will spend two years at Lakehead University and two years at the University of Guelph.

What does this mean for the residents of Kitchener–Conestoga? This means that agriculture, a key sector of our region’s economy, will continue to be healthy. For our farmers, this will mean they can be confident raising healthy livestock, with qualified vets available. Vets diagnose and treat diseases and disorders, as well as advise farmers on hygiene and general strategies for their animals. It also means that our food supply chain will be kept safe, which is something we all rely on.

After our announcement at the university, the day concluded with a tour of Ontario Drive and Gear. Some of you may have heard of the Argo all-terrain vehicle that serves many people across, quite frankly, North America. It’s manufactured in Waterloo region, in my riding, in New Hamburg, Ontario.

This leads me to my next point, Madam Speaker. Here are two damning quotes from the former Liberal government’s final report on the economy: “The structure of the Ontario economy will continue to shift from goods-producing to service-producing sectors.” It goes on to say, “shifting employment from goods-producing industries, in particular manufacturing” to other sectors like the service sector. Years of mismanagement under the previous government cost Ontario a staggering 300,000 manufacturing jobs. Just in Waterloo region alone, we lost about 20,000 manufacturing jobs under the previous Liberal government.

A week ago today, I was able to attend the 12th Annual Manufacturing Summit, hosted by the Greater Kitchener Waterloo Chamber of Commerce. The Premier spoke of the importance of manufacturing in Ontario, and it seems this sector has taken note. Let’s compare the tone of what I like to call the Liberal’s eulogy to manufacturing jobs in Ontario to the reaction to this budget: “Manufacturing is no longer an afterthought in provincial budgets, it is a centrepiece. With this consequential budget, Ontario establishes a leading position among provinces in spurring an industrial resurgence.” This is Dennis Darby, the president and CEO of the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters. Quite frankly, Madam Speaker, I couldn’t have said it better myself. This is great news for the people of Kitchener–Conestoga, as manufacturing makes up roughly 20% of our region’s economy.

Waterloo region currently has about 650,000 residents, and the population is expected to hit a million people by 2051. As the Premier noted again in his remarks last week, we can’t keep attracting workers to Waterloo region if they don’t have a place to live. Our government is doing everything in its power to get more houses built while addressing other key housing issues. We’ll be investing $24 million over the next three years in the Ontario Land Tribunal and the Landlord and Tenant Board in an effort to help clear backlogs and streamline processes via more adjudicators and administrative support. Speaker, this is something that comes up often at my constituency office, and I’m sure it does at yours as well. We want to make it easier for both tenants and landlords to have their cases heard in a timely manner.

The budget also contains a promise to continue pushing the federal government to reduce taxes on new and rental housing. To again borrow a comment from the Premier’s remarks at the manufacturing summit in Kitchener last week, “Solving the housing crisis requires that all levels of government work together,” so we hope that the federal government will do the right thing and follow our lead by reducing the cost to make new and rental housing.

We’re investing $25 million over three years to attract more skilled workers through the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program. So what does this mean, again, for Kitchener–Conestoga residents, Madam Speaker? This means that we are taking the fight to the skilled labour shortage to ensure that critical infrastructure we need gets built and that critical jobs are filled. We’re investing $2 billion in the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund over the next five years to help small and rural municipalities pay for roads, bridges, water and waste water projects. This is incredibly important for my riding as we continue to grow, Madam Speaker.

As I begin to wrap up my remarks here today, I want to highlight why I am proud to support this bill. My riding of Kitchener–Conestoga and the entire region enjoy many competitive advantages. We have a good quality of life, three post-secondary institutions, hospitals, innovation hubs and, as I alluded to earlier with the member for Guelph, access to highways connecting to several US border crossings. That said, we need to work hard to keep these advantages, so we will be investing $70.5 billion over the next 10 years for transit, including continued investment towards that all-important two-way, all-day GO service along the Kitchener Line.

The budget builds on our commitment to addressing backlogs by providing more OHIP-insured cataract surgeries. The Ministry of Health is investing up to $8.5 million annually to support the delivery of cataract surgeries for patients at four facilities across the province, including—we’re very lucky to have this partnership in our region with TLC Laser Eye Centres in Waterloo. They’ve been doing fantastic work with St. Mary’s hospital, might I add, to help alleviate some of the pressure in cataract surgeries in the region for almost a decade.

We are also funding historic hospital expansion, including the construction of a new acute-care facility, seeing the Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s hospital come together as our region, as I had said, expands to somewhere in the neighbourhood of a million people over the next 40 years.

Through this budget, we are investing in housing, highways, transit, education, health care, skilled trades, manufacturing and, of course, mental health. These are exactly the kinds of investments that will enhance our competitive advantage here in the province of Ontario and keep Waterloo region a world-class place to raise a family for years to come.

Thank you. I recognize the member for Kitchener–Conestoga.

We’re going to move to questions.

Thank you very much to the member from Sudbury. I think there has been quite a focus on not-for-profits. If we look just alone at what we’ve done with not-for-profit housing organizations over the last year, give or take, with the housing bills that we’ve seen come forward from the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, we’ve actually given the opportunity for non-profits to really, truly participate in mostly the rental housing sector by removing development charges charged to them, which is a major hindrance to them actually getting involved and being able to make a difference in their communities.

But if we go back, too, we’ve also seen lots of great things in regard to fundraising. There has been some more ability for them to work with the public, especially involved in 50/50 raffles. I know that’s something in my community that has been a big hit in helping clubs like the Kinsmen Club or the Lions Club, especially through the pandemic, to be able to continue the good work that they’re doing. So I’m very happy to stand behind this budget and very happy to see what we’re doing for the non-profit sector in Ontario.

Thank you to the members opposite. I appreciate the debate, because there was personal touch in that information you learn about the different members.

I was looking through my notes when we first debated the budget bill, and one of the things that really stuck out to me is—Angels of Hope Against Human Trafficking talked about the need for sustainable funding for not-for-profits. I’ve had conversations with other not-for-profits since I’ve been elected, and I have a difficult understanding why not-for-profits, some of them going on for decades—literally 50 years, for one in my community. Why is it they have to apply for funding every year? Why isn’t there a better formula where they can plan and have predictable funding for a longer stream after they have proved after a decade the great work that they do?

I want to thank both members for their remarks. Maybe this one will be directed to the member for Mississauga–Lakeshore, given I know he’s got tremendous experience in the manufacturing sector. I know it’s been a difficult couple of days for me and my community, Windsor–Tecumseh, with the discussion of the Stellantis plant. That’s evidence, however, of Ontario attracting billions of dollars in automotive and clean steel investments in the last few years. We definitely want to keep on attracting those investments. So this budget contains measures like the Ontario Made Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit. That’s introduced in this budget.

I’m wondering, why is it important that we have many, many facets of investment, including this particular tax credit in the 2023 budget?

Next question?