Madam Speaker, before I start, I want to say this: that I will be sharing time with our wonderful member from Carleton, my colleague.

Today I rise in the House to talk about a budget to build a stronger Ontario, an inclusive Ontario. Colleagues, I want to share with you that this morning I had an opportunity to go with the Premier to Pearson airport. I was actually standing in terminal 3 arrivals, exactly the point where, on January 15, 2000, I landed. Those memories came back.

When I landed on January 15, 2000, at terminal 3 of Pearson airport and I came out of those doors, I saw my brother’s friends Puneet Sharma and Chetna Sharma, with a sign in their hands—because they had never seen me, and back then there was no WhatsApp and no Facebook, so they had no idea how I looked, so they were holding a sign with my name.

As I was coming out of those doors, I was excited for a better future, but at the same time, I was concerned. I had no idea where to start. There was a concern about the decision and how it would pan out, especially when you have a young family. My son was five months old. My decision—or maybe I’d rather say “our decision;” my wife and I took that decision. How will it impact him, his life? There were no ready answers available. Twenty-three years later, I just want to say two words, and those words are “Thank you.” Thank you, Canada, for helping us to build a life here in Canada.

I want to add more thank-yous to the list, Madam Speaker. I want to start by thanking the Indigenous community for taking care of this land for thousands of years. Thank you for allowing us to come and meet here.

We see we have infrastructure here—we have such a beautiful building—but it didn’t happen overnight. It didn’t happen by itself. Thank you to all the immigrants who came to Canada 300 years, 500 years back and worked hard to build this country. Many of their descendants are the MPPs, my colleagues here, so I want to say thank you to the ancestors of all of you for building such a wonderful, strong Ontario; an Ontario which allows everyone to realize your dreams. We have infrastructure, we have health care, we have services and we are going to build homes in the future. But it’s not going to happen by itself, Madam Speaker. To build, we need skilled workers.

I had the opportunity to criss-cross the province as part of the finance and economic affairs committee, and we heard from the stakeholders. I want to say, in addition to the thanks, thank you to Felix, Jeri and Beth, the members from the staff who were there before us and stayed after us, so that we had a smooth consultation, so that we could hear from our stakeholders. A big thank you to all of you.

Through this budget, we’re making a promise to ensure Ontario remains competitive on the global stage, and it’s not going to happen by itself. To achieve this goal, we are providing an additional $75 million for the Skills Development Fund for the next three years. As you know, since 2020, the government has invested $700 million to support people facing barriers to employment. We’ve been able to help 400,000 people directly through 388 projects. We’re providing $224 million for the Skills Development Fund’s new capital stream, a stream for brick-and-mortar projects which will help build training centres. Through those centres, we’ll be able to help Ontarians to upskill their skills and build a stronger Ontario.

We’re investing an additional $50 million for Better Jobs Ontario. Madam Speaker, it’s not been easy. Sometimes it’s not under your control. I’ll give you an example. There were a lot of people who were working as taxi drivers, helping people to commute at the greater Toronto airport when the number of visitors was 50 million. But the number came down, due to COVID, to 10 million, 15 million, 12 million. Obviously there was less need for the jobs, less need for that service, and those taxi drivers who were helping for decades had no place to do. What should they do now? Investments like Better Jobs Ontario helps Ontarians like them. It helps with up to $28,000 to cover expenses like child care, tuition and transportation for 52 weeks, so that you can enrol in a training program. It will help you or somebody looking for a skill to succeed and give back to the community.

Speaker, the Ontario government is working for our women. As our associate minister talks about, when women grow, Ontario grows. We are expanding our support for the Investing in Women’s Futures Program, adding 10 new sites, bringing the number of locations to 33. I’m happy that two of those locations, Achēv in Mississauga and Roots Community Services Inc. in Mississauga, will benefit residents from our riding. This program has helped 1,300 women in Ontario secure employment, start their own business or pursue further training or education.

Another big announcement we’re going to see through this budget is providing an additional $25 million for three years to support the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program to fight the labour shortage. The allocation for the ONIP program will increase from $9,000 to $18,361 in 2025. I want to give a shout-out to Minister Monte McNaughton for being a champion for Ontario to build this number.

We’re providing an additional $3 million through the Ontario bridge training program. When we talk about it, we want to say that we have a place for you in Ontario where you can come and grow. But of course, it’s kind of saying that when you take a plant and move it from one place to the other, it may take time to adjust to the soil. It may take time for you to get your leaves back. Remember, your government is here to welcome you. Through the Ontario bridge training program you can get the training to get back into the workforce when you’re a new immigrant.

This program, in 2021, helped almost 6,000 newcomers secure a bright future and stable employment, and this additional investment will help our government support newcomers with more opportunities. We’re investing $32.4 million over the next three years to support 6,500 quality research internships, and of course, health care is our key focus as well.

We’re making investments. Through this budget, we are spending, over 10 years, $100 billion in transit, $57 billion in health and $22 billion in education. We’re making sure that we’re building Ontario’s economy for today and tomorrow. To do that, we are giving a 10% refundable corporate income tax credit for qualifying investments. We’re building the skilled workforce of today and tomorrow.

Madam Speaker, this is a budget which is building a strong Ontario. Let me get straight to the point. The message through this budget is loud and clear to everyone watching across the globe: If you are looking to invest, Ontario is the place. If you’re looking to come and join, Ontario is the place.

As I stood at the airport today, looking back at my life, I could also look forward and talk about the wonderful future we have. But I want to take a pause here and hand over the mike to my wonderful colleague from Carleton.