I want to thank the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington for his leader-ship in southwestern Ontario promoting the skilled trades.

Speaker, our government has an ambitious plan to build, working together with Ontario’s leading construction unions and builders.

Last week, I joined leaders representing 14 private sector unions from across our province, including Marc Arsenault, business manager for the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario, who represents over 150,000 hard-working tradespeople who are building our future. Alongside our Minister of Finance and the Solicitor General, we announced an additional $40 million for our Skills Development Fund. We’re expanding the fund to include training for high school students for the first time in Ontario history. We’re on a mission to get more young people into our skilled trades.

I’ll have more to share in our supplementary.

Our Skills Development Fund is investing $3.5 million to support four building trades province-wide training initiatives. These programs will help nearly 2,000 young people launch rewarding careers in the skilled trades and put them on a path to union-sponsored apprenticeships. Training like this is how we’re preparing the next generation for six-figure salaries, delivering our ambitious infrastructure plans, including building 1.5 million homes by 2031. Within two years, we funded 388 training projects and trained nearly 400,000 workers for in-demand jobs across every sector.

Mr. Speaker, to build an Ontario that leaves no one behind, labour, government and business must work together. We need all hands on deck, and we’re not slowing down.