I want to thank the member from Niagara.

It’s about priorities. I started my speech this morning exactly on where their priorities are—and this being an opportunity for this government to tell Ontarians, in their fall economic statement, that this is their priority. Right now, from where I sit—and the member just hit it right on the head of the nail—this government’s priorities are a lot of window dressing. They’re saying the right things to have the bare minimum of impact on individuals, just enough to hit the headlines in the media, but no substance that is going to trickle down to those who are most in need—enough pixie dust to put on a little bit of shine, but really, no substance, no meat to put on the table.

When you look at what’s happening in the greenbelt, we see where the priorities of this government are—it’s for their friends, for the developers. Those are the individuals who are going to benefit from this fall economic statement. Very little do I see that is meeting the needs and the priorities of those—

It’s always an honour and a pleasure any time I have an opportunity, obviously, to rise in this House and represent my constituents of Milton—and the opportunity, this morning, to speak to Bill 36, Progress on the Plan to Build Act.

Just before I get started, I want to mention that I will be sharing my time with the honourable member from Carleton.

The Progress on the Plan to Build Act was recently introduced by our great Minister of Finance. I want to thank him for the tremendous work he has done, and his two PAs, who have put a lot of time and effort into this—the member from Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound and the member from Oakville—in collaboration with all of our colleagues here in the chamber. It’s a bill that has been introduced during, I would say, some of the most challenging times. We understand the economic uncertainty that’s going through the global world. The work done by this government over the last four and a half years—we had an election recently, and we took this very plan to the voters, to Ontarians, to let them have their say in terms of what they think, and I think we can all agree that it was a resounding success. They gave our government an even stronger mandate to continue to implement the plan that we have been working on over the last four years, and they want us to continue to build.

Interjection.

Madam Speaker, over the last four and a half years—let me just talk about some of the things that we have been able to do in my community. Milton has been able to benefit from the investments we have been making not just in Milton but right across this province. As most would know, Milton is one of the fastest-growing communities in the province. We’ve got lots of young families; we’ve got lots of young kids, so with that, of course, there come challenges, and the government of the day is expected to help residents with those challenges and work with our municipal partners and others to make sure the residents’ needs are being met and are being addressed. I am proud to say that we have been delivering on that.

Let me share some examples with you, Madam Speaker. In my previous term of four years, 2018 to 2022, our government invested in nine new schools—where the previous Liberal government was busy shutting schools down right across our province. Just in my riding of Milton, we introduced nine brand new schools and five expansions. You might ask what something like that would cost. That was over $250 million in investments into education—just the capital infrastructure to build new schools and expand. That, of course, included public; that included Catholic; that included French. Those nine new schools and five expansions would accommodate over 7,000 new student spaces just in my riding of Milton alone. That was obviously much needed; we recognized that after we formed the government. The mandate was given to us to get it done. I worked with my colleagues, the Minister of Education, our government to make sure those investments were delivered to my great riding of Milton.

Let me speak about another topic. Anybody who drives the 401 corridor along Milton understands the impact of gridlock and traffic congestion every single day. One of the asks was, of course, the expansion of Highway 401 right from Mississauga up to Milton. We delivered on that. Those new lanes are now in the process of being opened, and some of the residents and, obviously, the commuters who are driving through that stretch of the highway are realizing the benefits of the investment we made—and why we also ran as a party in the election, in terms of wanting to build more highways, like Highway 413, which is also going to connect our residents, our town of Milton, with the other municipalities.

These are the investments that are very, very much needed. That investment that I talked about—the expansion of Highway 401 that stretched from Mississauga to Milton was worth over half a billion dollars. These are all necessary. Parents, workers understand that if they need to get from point A to point B, they need to be able to—not every person living in downtown Toronto who has the luxury of a great public transit system—and might I add, we’ve also been investing billions of dollars in that. But in smaller towns, especially in the rural parts of Ontario, not everyone has that luxury. Not as a luxury but as a necessity in life—they are dependent on cars. They don’t have any other option but to drive their kids to school, drive themselves to work, to meet the needs of their day-to-day lives.

Another issue relevant to my riding that I’m proud to say our government has delivered on is rural broadband. Not a lot of people know, but my riding of Milton does encompass a large part of rural folks who don’t have access to the Internet—and especially during COVID-19, we saw that when students had to stay home and had to study online. Businesses and farmers, obviously, had to operate from home, and without having reliable access to Internet—it makes life very challenging.

I also happen to live in a rural part of my riding where we don’t have reliable high-speed Internet and we are dependent on satellite in some cases. Obviously, the speed is next to nil. But the investment that our government has been making over the last four years is proving to be very, very fruitful. Residents in my riding, in the rural parts, are now, finally, for the first time, getting access to high-speed Internet, reliable Internet, so they can run their businesses online and their kids can study online, if need be. We know the importance of high-speed Internet in this day and age, how it affects our lives, and how much we are dependent on that—small things.

I heard the members opposite talk about our reduction in the gas tax by 5.7 cents a litre, which was introduced initially for few a months, and now we’re extending it for another year. As I mentioned earlier, for residents in a riding like mine, where people are dependent on cars—they have to drive. You should talk to somebody in my riding and ask them what that 5.7-cents-a-litre reduction in the gas tax means to them. It may not mean a whole lot to the members opposite.

I understand the opposition has a role to play and their main job is to oppose everything that the government is putting forward. At the same time, they also need to learn to be reasonable. When the government is putting forward a good piece of legislation with good policies that benefit all Ontarians, they need to get behind it. They need to work with the government. They need to support some of the measures. They can’t sit on the other side and criticize the government all day long and continue to vote against some of the important measures that are in every piece of legislation, and then stand up and say, “Why isn’t the government doing anything? Why isn’t the government delivering on priority A, B or C?” Yes, we absolutely are—but if they fail to see it, if they fail to support the government in our progress and what we’re trying to do, then that’s really unfortunate.

I know I’m close to my 10 minutes, Madam Speaker, so, with that, I want to thank everyone for the opportunity. I’ll turn it over to my colleague for the rest of the 10 minutes.

I want to thank the honourable colleague on the other side for that question again. What I would say to that is, we understand and recognize the importance of helping those who need help the most—part of the reason why this has been introduced in this important piece of legislation.

If the member opposite really cares and really wants to get this going and deliver these supports that we’ve introduced as quickly as possible—talk to his other colleagues on the other side and get them to support this piece of legislation; get them to move this along quickly so we can get the necessary supports to Ontarians. We’re doing our part on this side, and I would encourage the members opposite to get behind it. Let’s continue the important work that has been given to us, assigned to us by Ontarians and the mandate that was given to us on June 2. We are focused on that, and we will continue to do it.

I’m very privileged to say that there are a number of vulnerable-road-user advocates with us in the chamber today: Mark Fernandez and Bob Murphy from the Toronto Community Bikeways Coalition; Ingrid Buday, Taqrim Syed, Tasnuba Syeda, Syed Abukarem Ahmed, Stewart Wallace and Colleen Worsley. Thank you so much for joining us today for the Moving Ontarians More Safely Act.

I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge John Sewell, who apparently was led out of this building by police officers because he’s standing up for our province.

Thank you, John, for being here.

Yes, I would. Thank you, Speaker. It’s with great pride that I’m able to read an explanatory note explaining this bill.

This bill, of course, is being introduced days before Trans Day of Remembrance, on November 20, and I’d like to share with you that the bill enacts the Gender Affirming Health Care Advisory Committee Act, 2022. This act provides that the Minister of Health shall, within 60 days of the act coming into force, establish a gender-affirming health care advisory committee. The advisory committee shall submit a report making recommendations to the minister for improving access to health care and coverage for gender-affirming health care for all Ontarians. After receiving the advisory committee’s report, the Minister of Health shall inform the assembly of the measures that the minister intends to recommend to the government of Ontario so that they can implement the recommendations to ensure that every Ontarian has gender-affirming health care and that it be delivered as speedily and as freely as possible.

Mr. Glover moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill Pr10, An Act to revive Maizal Tortilleria Inc.