In September 2021, I was pleased to announce a $100,000 Community Building Fund grant for the Barrie Trojan Swim Club. The grant was used to help the club with staff salaries to support success through and beyond a pandemic rebuild. Funds from the grant also contributed directly towards the club’s ability to continue offering quality programming for local athletes.

Not only did this grant help secure job opportunities as well as improve the mental and physical health of people of all ages in Barrie, but it also has led to a personal best for the team. The Barrie Trojan Swim Club had five swimmers participate at the 2023 Bell Canadian Swimming Trials at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, which set an impressive record for the club. The Barrie Trojan Swim Club athletes did fantastic, and as a result of their performances, two of their swimmers and the head coach have been named to represent Canada at upcoming international events. Laila Oravsky has been named to the Pan American Games team that will compete in Chile in October. Jordi Vilchez and Endi Babi, head coach, will be part of the Canadian team competing at the World Aquatics Junior Swimming Championships taking place in Israel this September. I want to congratulate them on their grit and their stamina and wish Laila, Jordi and coach Endi the best of luck as they take on the global stage.

Through your sportsmanship, you inspire a whole community and a generation of future athletes in swimming. Keep swimming, Barrie Trojans. Congratulations.

Speaker, I am very happy to keep talking about Scarborough, and let’s get to it, because there’s a lot happening in that member’s riding.

Let’s talk about crews widening the Sheppard Avenue West bridge between Bakersfield Street and Chesswood Drive, for the increased future service that GO expansion is bringing to the Barrie line. In fact, construction is well under way and slated to continue until September this year, with bridge installation set to begin shortly thereafter. This is another vital infrastructure upgrade for our government that we are delivering: game-changing transit, Speaker, that includes GO expansion that will see riders benefit from more than 6,500 weekly trips on the GO network. When you break it down Speaker, what this really means is that we’re ensuring that more people can connect to local transit, work, health care, education and other critical services across the entire region.

Speaker, the Premier said it best: The members opposite did nothing to build transit in this province. That includes the fine people of Scarborough. We’re doing things differently. We’re getting it done for commuters.

The opposition left a giant transit deficit in this province. We’re filling that gap and we’re building record transit—