I want to thank the member for Hastings–Lennox and Addington for his work here in the Legislature on behalf of his constituents.

It was a beautiful, sunny, bright day in northwestern Ontario. Business leaders and Indigenous business leaders gathered to discuss the opportunities. In the morning, we talked about supporting and unlocking communities in transition and surging as a result of resource-based activities and tourism. We also talked about opening northern Ontario for international business. We talked about the need for the province to maintain and stay focused on reducing red tape for businesses, the modernized Northern Ontario Heritage Fund and the northern energy assistance program to make sure we had that competitive advantage to compete globally.

The good news is that we were very well received by these business leaders. We’re looking forward to building out the kinds of projects, Mr. Speaker, that can complete an exciting supply chain that very much includes northern Ontario.

I mentioned it was a bright sunny day. It turned partly cloudy, Mr. Speaker, because I chaired the discussion on processing and refining of our critical minerals in northern Ontario, and I had to tell the folks at the table about the recent vote here in the Legislature and the lack of support from the NDP for mining, which means processing in northern Ontario, northwestern Ontario. It could only mean one thing, that NDP stands for “Not Doing Processing.” What an incredible opportunity—

Interjections.