Questions and answers.

Questions?

Second reading debate deemed adjourned.

I’m honoured to rise for the first time to give my member’s statement in the 43rd Parliament.

I would like to thank the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and the city of Ottawa for hosting this year’s AMO conference. The AMO conference presents an opportunity for the provincial government to have extremely productive meetings with our municipal partners. These vital discussions are influential in securing the ongoing and future success of our province. Municipal governments get the opportunity to individually meet the various ministries and discuss important, relevant topics specific to their communities.

Through AMO, Ontario’s 444 municipalities work together to achieve shared goals and meet common challenges.

Investing in our local communities remains a top priority for our government, as we know how important it is for the people of Ontario to have investments that will promote their health and safety.

The government is building Ontario’s future by investing in health care, infrastructure, education, community safety, and transportation in municipalities across the province to best serve their individual needs and improve quality of life for residents. Our government, alongside our municipal partners, will continue to get it done for the people of our great province. We will leave no stone unturned to make sure that we will continue to deliver for the people of Ontario.

My question is to the Minister of Transportation.

Speaker, parts of my riding of Brampton West have been crippled by gridlock for far too long. People are sick and tired of sitting in traffic. This was one of the top issues I heard during the election campaign. But this issue didn’t arise overnight.

Successive Liberal governments in the province failed to build. As a result, they left Ontarians with a massive infrastructure deficit.

We need to get shovels ready on projects like Highway 413 because we simply cannot afford delay. Can the Minister of Transportation inform the House on the progress of this vital project?

Thank you to the minister for the response.

Speaker, there has been resounding support for Highway 413 in my riding of Brampton West, and I am proud to see our government pushing it forward. Despite the support, there are still critics out there who believe that we should be focused only on limited transit solutions. The naysayers believe that transit is a one-and-done solution.

Can the minister tell us how Highway 413 fits within the government’s broader plan to get Ontario moving?

I really wish the member from Davenport had shown the same passion for the last 15 years when they were playing friendly matches with the Liberal government. They did nothing to improve the quality of health care and long-term care when they had the opportunity, for the last 15 years.

There’s no government in the history of this province that has invested more in health care and long-term care, Madam Speaker—unprecedented investments. If I talk about my community of Brampton, we got two new long-term-care homes, the long-term-care homes that community was demanding for many, many years: culture-based long-term-care homes. And who delivered this? This government delivered those long-term-care homes. So we are the government that will leave no stone unturned when it comes to improving the quality of health care and quality of long-term care.

My question to the member opposite is: Why, when given the opportunity to support this commitment, did the member opposite vote against it?