With winter impacting our cities, more people depend on our already busy public transit system. We know the GTA will become home to another million people over the next 10 years. Our transit system is strained, and people are feeling the impact of the neglect by the previous Liberal government. Quite simply, transit expansion needs to occur right now.

I understand that the government’s investment in the Ontario Line will deliver transit relief to the city core and connect my constituents in Scarborough Centre to downtown from the TTC’s Line 2.

Can the Associate Minister of Transportation please provide an update to everyone in Ontario?

Interruption.

After 15 years of the Liberals and NDP failing to get shovels in the ground, the Ontario Line presents a tremendous opportunity to expand transit. At the same time, building the Ontario Line and other major transit projects will benefit not only riders but all of Ontario.

Can the associate minister explain what our government is doing to ensure that this critical transit project is delivered for the people of my riding of Scarborough Centre?

Thank you very much for the question—and those are the great people of Scarborough calling the member. He’s doing great work. He’s answering that call.

Speaker, we recently marked a crucial milestone in the building of the Ontario Line, the crown jewel in our multi-billion-dollar GTA transit expansion plan. I’m glad to inform the member that on November 9 our government awarded the Ontario Transit Group the contract to design, build and finance the south portion of the Ontario Line, from Exhibition and Ontario Place to the Don Yard portal. We also recently issued two qualification requests for the Ontario Line’s northern segment to support underground station and tunnel building between the Gerrard portal and the Don Valley bridge, as well as the construction of three kilometres of elevated tracks in Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park.

Speaker, for 15 years, Torontonians were stuck with zero transit growth from the NDP-backed Liberals. Well, with this milestone, our government is filling the transit gap that we inherited from the Liberals by building a world-class relief line that will connect riders to the grid and get them from point A to point B.

What’s more, Speaker, riders from Thorncliffe Park, who have needed transit for way too long, will be finally able to commute to the downtown core in speedy time: 26 minutes, from 42.

To the member’s point, it’s called the Ontario Line, and it benefits all Ontarians by supporting 4,700 jobs a year during construction, cutting overall fuel consumption by more than seven million litres a year and generating up to $11 billion in economic activity for our province. In fact, every $1 billion invested in transit helps support 10,000 jobs and boosts Ontario’s real GDP by another $1 billion.

Unlike the Liberals and NDP, we’re saying yes to building transit, yes to connecting the grid, yes to the people of Ontario and to the great people of Scarborough.