Recently, Premier Ford and our team Hamilton attended the grand opening at Bimbo Canada. They announced a $15-million expansion and an investment to boost local manufacturing and solidify their competitive edge.

Speaker, Bimbo is Canada’s largest and oldest commercial bakery, producing over 1,000 products for 18 brands. As we walked through their exciting new facility, we saw popular names, such as Dempster’s, Villaggio, Stonemill, stacked as deep as the eye could see. With a $1.5-million investment from our government, they’re expanding their lines of tortillas, as wraps are becoming more popular in lunch bags.

But this isn’t just an investment in advanced manufacturing, it’s an investment in people, creating new, well-paying jobs in Hamilton.

Thank you for the question from my friend and the member from Sault Ste. Marie. We joined the Premier in Sault Ste. Marie to announce a $5.8-million investment through the Ontario Junior Exploration Program—because it starts with exploration. You know the genesis of Algoma Steel in the discovery of iron ore in Wawa—and Wawa right now is thriving on the basis of exploration and development activity. From Wawa back over to Dubreuilville and over to Marathon, it starts with exploration. That’s why we have funded 32 mining companies and have invested an additional $12.5 million in private capital to find critical minerals.

Here’s the kicker, Mr. Speaker: The opposition voted no to these investments. They voted no to jobs in northern communities and they voted no to finding new critical minerals. This government, under the Premier, is taking decisive action to secure our supply chain and our future, and it all starts with exploration.