SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
March 28, 2023 09:00AM
  • Mar/28/23 5:40:00 p.m.
  • Re: Bill 85 

First of all, I want to say thank you to the member opposite for the question. By the way, my riding is Mississauga–Malton. Our minister from Milton is doing an incredible job, so I’ll let him take care of Milton.

Madam Speaker, talking about—and I truly say yes when I talked about that I want to say thank you to our Indigenous community for taking care of this land for thousands of years. I actually had an opportunity to meet this afternoon the members from Taykwa Tagamou Nation. When they were talking about building a centre of excellence—I think it’s a great idea. When it comes to supporting the First Nations, the Indigenous community, this government will stand shoulder to shoulder. That’s why we’re investing in the Skills Development Fund with an additional $75 million. We are investing $224 million for the new capital stream so that we can build those kinds of centres of excellence to support all Ontarians, including our Indigenous community.

171 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
  • Mar/28/23 5:40:00 p.m.
  • Re: Bill 85 

I was listening to my colleague from Mississauga-Milton who thanked the First Nations for taking care of the lands. We’ve seen in this budget—we’ve talked a lot of the Ring of Fire, the investments of building the road and everything that is tied to the Ring of Fire and the minerals up north. We heard also some communities are saying no to the road to the Ring of Fire, because of what’s happening in Neskantaga. And even the Chief was pretty adamant when it came to the Ring of Fire road. Don’t forget, Neskantaga has 28 years of boil-water advisories.

I ask you, the First Nations—because even in my riding, there are two communities who made a moratorium on their traditional territories. So I ask you, if First Nations say no, what will your government do?

So I ask again: If you don’t get consent from the communities of the James Bay coast that are affected by the Ring of Fire road construction, what will your government do? Because most of the budget—there’s a lot of investment related to these materials that’s going to happen. So I ask you, what will your government do if you don’t get the consent from these First Nations communities?

218 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border