I think the Premier has responded to that, as has the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

But what we’re doing with the greenbelt—in fact, what we’re doing across the province of Ontario—is ensuring that we have more than enough housing so that people can have their very first home, in many instances.

Look, Mr. Speaker, there are 350,000 people—think of that: 350,000 people—who are coming to Ontario each and every year. That’s a city the size of Markham. Do you know why they’re coming to Ontario? Because we’re bringing back economic prosperity to the province of Ontario; we’re creating thousands of jobs.

In order to ensure that they also can have the same dream as generations of others who have come and helped build this province, Mr. Speaker, we have to ensure that they have homes, that they have the best schools, that they have good hospitals. We are building a bigger, better, stronger province of Ontario, and that includes utilizing resources that this province has so that everybody can participate in the dream that is the province of Ontario under this government.

My question is for the Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Northern Development. The opportunities in northern Ontario are endless and we are hearing accounts of northern Ontario ingenuity daily. Our government recognizes and appreciates and values northern Ontario. Investments made by our government continue to provide support to improve the quality of life and promote economic development in our communities.

But there’s more that needs to be done in order to further advance the successes we have achieved. Speaker, can the minister please explain how our government is increasing economic prosperity for people across northern Ontario?

Numerous success stories have emerged as a result of the excellent creative and professional work by the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. Northern communities are unique, and not just geographically. These communities have specific needs when it comes to infrastructure, supply chains and supporting businesses. Our government must continue to invest in initiatives that bring practical and resourceful solutions to enhance the lives of individuals, families and communities in rural and remote areas of our province.

Speaker, can the minister please elaborate on how our government’s investment in the NOHFC is supporting communities across the north?

Speaker, I thank you for the opportunity to speak to Bill 63 this afternoon here in the Legislature.

I want to begin by thanking my colleague from Elgin–Middlesex–London for his leadership on this issue as well. As you know, the boundaries that we’re talking about—his riding encompasses all of this, and he has shown tremendous leadership in making sure that his region is working together to bring prosperity not only to the people from St. Thomas and area, but, indeed, prosperity to our great province.

I listen sometimes—not all the time, but I do hear the members of the opposition, and we have a competing vision for Ontario. But it’s not really a fair competition, because their vision is not backed up with any real action. Their vision for Ontario is to leave things the way they are and not make the necessary changes.

I just heard the member from Niagara Centre talking about—we all want to see jobs created, we all want to see prosperity, but wanting and getting it done require two different steps. The NDP, on the other side, may want jobs and prosperity for the people of Ontario, but they are absolutely not willing to take the necessary steps that will actually make that happen. They would rather sit back and say, “Oh, no, we can’t do that, because that might cause this, and some of our supporters might get upset”—or the lobbyists who love to talk to the NDP and write cheques to the NDP won’t like that.

We were elected in 2018 on this premise: Ontario is open for business. And since that day, we have maintained that as a founding principle of this government. Ontario is open for business.

Think about where we are today with respect to where we were when the Liberals, those folks over there who just about destroyed the manufacturing sector in Ontario—where we were in 2018. Because of the commitment of this Premier, this government, the world has changed in Ontario. We are seeing a renaissance in the auto industry here in Ontario.

In his address the other day, Minister Fedeli talked about the investments—$15 billion to $18 billion, if I recall—coming into Ontario, into our auto sector; Ontario being the only jurisdiction in the world that has manufacturing facilities for General Motors, Ford, Stellantis, Honda and Toyota all in this jurisdiction—the only jurisdiction anywhere that has manufacturing facilities for all of those companies. Why? Why are they showing a willingness to continue to invest—or should I say, to actually re-prime the pump of investment—here in Ontario? It’s because of the leadership and the vision of this government—this government that has said to manufacturers and companies around the world, “Come back to Ontario. We’re waiting for you. We’re ready for you. Do you know what we’re going to do in addition to welcoming you? We’re going to make the environment work for you.”

So what are we going to do?

When I was a kid—some people say I still am, and that’s a matter of opinion. When I was younger, let’s just say, in the 1970s—do you remember, in the 1970s, when all of these towns were opening up what they called their industrial parks, because they were all recognizing that they wanted to take part in the industrial growth and the growth of manufacturing? It was small manufacturing in smaller places, big manufacturing in bigger places, but they all were opening up these lands that we would call our local industrial parks. It was designed to send the message to people of “We’re here and we’re ready to work with you.”

Well, things started to change after the 1970s. We had the recession in the 1980s. We had the big meltdown in the 2000s, with the tech meltdown and stuff like that—and we lost. Then we had the unfortunate culmination of those two forces meeting at the same time—we had the Liberal government, supported by the NDP every step of the way, who wanted to stifle our manufacturing sector here in Ontario, who wanted to shut it down—

Interjection.