First of all, I want to congratulate the new Minister of Children, Community and Social Services. This minister is very compassionate and hard-working. This minister is someone who talks from the heart. I’m very excited to work with him, as a parliamentary assistant.

I also want to thank and congratulate the new Associate Minister of Housing on her new role.

The 2023 budget is resonating in my riding of Markham–Thornhill; it was very well received.

My constituents at the Armadale seniors club, the Tamil seniors association, Box Grove seniors wellness club, and Greensborough and Middlefield seniors wellness clubs in Markham are all very happy with the budget and are commending the changes to expand the eligibility for the GAINS program—Guaranteed Annual Income System—for seniors.

The minister for seniors is right beside me. Thank you, Minister—the GAINS program for seniors is important news.

My constituents like Ms. Cho appreciate the increase in the ODSP benefits by our government.

Parents and students are also both very happy to know that, through the targeted math supports, an additional $12.6-million investment is provided. It will double the number of math coaches who will be responsible for implementing the early intervention strategy for better understanding math concepts.

Thank you to the member from Durham for eloquently talking about the federal budget and federal numbers. It’s scary. Staggering numbers are coming out in the federal budget. The debt alone—he was talking about $1.22 trillion and the interest on the debt they have to pay every year—Canadians, not they have to pay; Canadian taxpayers had to pay $43 billion. The numbers are staggering. We are mortgaging our country to generations to come, Madam Speaker. Could you elaborate on that number, that very staggering number?

Thank you to the member from Don Valley East for your presentation. I know you are a doctor and you understand the health care system very well and the dynamics of the hospital system. You’re asking why we are not hiring foreign-trained doctors in the system.

Actually, we are hiring 50 more foreign-trained doctors into the system, and we allocated a huge chunk of money in this budget. Also, our plan to both build the new hospital and expand the existing one—it’s a plan to build a brand new hospital serving Mississauga and Brampton, a plan to redevelop St. Mary’s General and Grand River Hospital in Kitchener-Waterloo, plan to build a new hospital in Uxbridge and one in Windsor.

We are doing huge investments through this budget. I will ask the member, don’t you think these are huge investments in the health care system?