Last week, Ford Motor Co. announced details of its $1.8-billion investment to transform the Oakville assembly complex, where I worked for 31 years, into a North American hub for manufacturing electric vehicles, beginning in the second quarter next year. By retooling the existing assembly building, three body shops and the paint facility, Ford will be ready to produce electric vehicles beginning in 2025, two years faster than a completely new facility.

The new Oakville electric-vehicle complex will also include a new 407,000-square-foot battery plant to manufacture battery packs that will be installed in electric vehicles right here in Ontario. This will support thousands of well-paying jobs in a more sustainable plant. That’s great news for my friends at Unifor Local 707. I’m looking forward to seeing them next month to celebrate their 70th anniversary.

As the Minister of Economic Development said, four years ago economists expected investments of $300 billion across the global electric-vehicle industry, but nothing in Ontario. Today, we are attracting over $17 billion. I want to thank the minister and the Premier for everything they’re doing to ensure that the cars and the batteries of the future are built right here in Ontario, using Ontario minerals, by Ontario workers, at the Ford plant in Oakville and across the province of Ontario.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas to address the new funding that has been provided to support Ontario’s long-term-care homes, the government is investing $5.5 million in 2023-24 to build new behavioural specialized units in long-term-care homes, including approximately 70 new specialized beds, to expand care for individuals with complex needs; and

“Whereas Ontario is providing $1.2 million to the Ontario Personal Support Workers Association to help with recruitment efforts by promoting the personal support worker profession in the long-term-care sector; and

“Whereas Ontario continues to make progress on its plan to build modern, safe and comfortable long-term-care homes for senior residents:

“—through planned investments that total a historic $6.4 billion since 2019;

“—Ontario is on track to build more than 31,000 new and over 28,000 upgraded beds across the province by 2028; and

“Whereas the government is helping to increase long-term-care capacity in communities across the province by providing development loans and loan guarantees to select non-municipal not-for-profit homes;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To urge all members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to support the passage of the Ontario budget bill, Bill 85, Building a Strong Ontario Act.”

I can’t think of a better place to sign my name. Thank you very much.

My thanks to the member for University–Rosedale for her participation today in debate, I listened with interest to her contributions this afternoon, and one of the pieces that I thought was fairly interesting was her commentary around BC, and specifically—I know you mentioned Burnaby and what they’re doing. “We support Burnaby’s plan,” I think was what you were saying. You said there’s a lot of building happening there.

I think that’s great. I think it’s really important, as legislators, that we’re looking at other jurisdictions who are bringing forward ideas. I think there’s always more that can be done. I think there’s a lot that’s good in this bill, that’s moving things forward to help tenants and to build more housing stock.

But I’m wondering if she could elaborate a bit further as to what she is seeing in Burnaby, where, as she mentioned, a lot of housing is being built and a lot of progress is being made. What is she seeing there that she believes could be learned here, as well, in future housing bills?

Obviously, I can’t speak to a specific building, but I do know that the Premier in the past has referred to using government buildings. When we talk about red tape reduction, I think that’s part of it. Red tape has become sort of metaphorical for messy, duplicate laws, but it’s also about just all of the unbelievable extra material that the government carries, that it has accumulated about itself. You know as well as I do that reutilizing or divesting government of those types of assets is not an easy process. It is something that seems like it should be easy; however, it becomes incredibly difficult in the actual execution of it. Again, none of that means that it is impossible, but it goes back to my point about continuing to talk about this openly and with less polarization.