I am thrilled to introduce our newest team member, Tony Mantul and I am so happy to have some family here I haven’t seen for a long time from New Jersey: my three cousins David, Suzie and Paul Ham, and my beautiful aunt, my dad’s younger sister—hard to believe they’re related—Judy Ham. Thank you so much for visiting the Legislature.

Thank you to the member from Oakville for the question and for his tireless work in advocating for transit in his riding. It is indeed true: The Liberal government left Ontario unprepared for both today’s and tomorrow’s transit needs. Fortunately, this government is making the largest investment in public transit in Canadian history and bettering the rider experience all along.

On August 11 our government began offering riders on GO, Brampton, MiWay and Oakville Transit the ability to pay their fares by tapping their credit cards on Presto readers. I’m glad to let the members know that the technology is working and that commuters are choosing this option. They’ve tapped over 255,000 times using credit cards on these four agencies since we launched in August.

Enabling riders to simply tap with their credit cards is yet another example of how our government is bettering the transit experience, respecting taxpayers’ money and helping people get to where they need to go.

We’re not going to stop until we connect the entire grid with these payment options and better experiences for riders so that they can go more conveniently from work, school or wherever they need to be. When you combine this with our GO affordability pilot, our youth and post-secondary student 40% discount, our elimination of double fares for riders in the 905 connecting to and from GO on their local transit, it’s clear we’re getting the job done. We’re not only delivering record transit investments, we’re delivering a better experience all the way.