Thank you to the member opposite. Welcome to the Legislature. It’s good to have you here. I know your predecessor was here for many years, a very honourable gentleman.

My question relates to the statement you made about the environment. You mentioned that in the budget, there were no words related to that. I did want to just get your thoughts on what we’ve done with respect to electric vehicle manufacturing in the province.

The previous government had a subsidy for multi-millionaires to go and buy $80,000 vehicles, and get money for vehicles that were built in California. What we’ve done as a government is to put a focus on manufacturing right here in Ontario, so we can have good-quality jobs—in my community of Oakville, but also in other parts of the province—and build the vehicles here, which is (a) good for business, (b) good for local communities and (c) good for the environment. I just want to get your thoughts on the government’s proactive approach to getting electrical vehicle manufacturing right here in the province of Ontario.

First, thank you to the union workers who I hope will be doing that work. But I’d also like to point out that there is nothing in the discussions about the manufacturing of electric vehicles that addresses the undoing of environmental policies that took place during the last government. I think it’s fantastic that we will be building these vehicles, but what are we doing about making sure that our building processes guarantee that future generations will have a livable world to live in? That has to be a part of every project, and so far I have not heard that from this government.

I will certainly be listening and fighting hard for what we need. We have recently gone through an exercise in which ambulances have been cut from the region. This means that people in Beardmore, for example, are at least two hours away from getting any assistance in an emergency.

Now, Beardmore, for people who don’t know, is on Highway 11, mostly a two-lane highway that has thousands of trucks travelling on it every day—many truck drivers, who unfortunately have not been well-trained and who are under a great deal of pressure to get where they’re going fast. More reputable employers actually don’t put the same pressure on their drivers, but what we are seeing is a constant number of trucks going off the road, and some of these accidents can be severe.

When I think of the area near Beardmore and Rocky Bay, which is just down the highway, there is no turning lane, and yet a school bus has to go back and forth from Rocky Bay to Thunder Bay or to Nipigon, which is about an hour, and there’s no safe way for that bus to get in and out of that community. So I will be—

We could also use money to improve snow clearing. I believe it was brought to this House last term that we need to change to an eight-hour snow-clearing cycle, and not the 16-hour one that we currently have.

We certainly want to see money invested in health care, and I would support this bill if I truly believed that that was what was happening, but what I see is that there is punishment taking place of the workers who are there right now, the workers who have been there during the pandemic and are being punished—for what? For being there—while private services continue to be funded excessively out of the public purse. That’s why I don’t support it.