Je suis ravi de prendre la parole encore une fois sur le projet de loi 63. Ce projet de loi vise fondamentalement un résultat simple : créer un site d’emploi pour les Ontariens de toutes générations. C’était crucial d’avoir un site industriel prêt pour achever le succès chez moi à Windsor–Tecumseh, et particulièrement l’usine de batteries pour véhicules électriques de NextStar Energy.

Notre gouvernement connaît bien que nous avons un excellent site industriel à Central Elgin. J’espère bien que ce projet de loi passe par notre Assemblée et que la ville de St. Thomas et la population de la région seront bientôt les bénéficiaires des centaines d’emplois dans le futur proche comme résultat de notre décision.

C’est essentiel que les employeurs majeurs connaissent qu’un choix de s’établir en Ontario non seulement est profitable pour eux et pour les employés, mais porte aussi le moins de risques. Leurs décisions seront prises dans le futur proche quant à savoir si on devrait choisir l’Ontario, et nos décisions ici vont les influencer.

Dans ce gouvernement, nous voulons faire de l’Ontario un choix facile. Nous devons rivaliser contre et vaincre la compétition, parce que les régions qui sont nos compétiteurs sont transfrontalières.

L’Ontario est loin d’être le seul territoire avide d’investissement. Dans tout le Midwest américain, de nombreux États ont vu leurs propres industries se vider. Ils veulent que leurs industries reviennent. Ils compenseront les coûts et le travail interne de l’entreprise pour sceller l’accord.

Les entreprises évaluent les coûts, mais elles évaluent également la complexité pour eux autres. Elles veulent que leurs constructions et leurs opérations soient fluides. Résider dans deux municipalités distinctes ajoute une complexité qui n’est vraiment pas nécessaire.

C’est essentiel pour ces entreprises que leur site d’affaires soit adapté et facile à utiliser. Nos concurrents savent que le calendrier et les coûts de développement associés doivent être facilement connus et rationalisés pour respecter les délais du projet. L’Ontario doit être concurrentiel à cet enjeu.

J’utiliserai comme comparaison la juridiction à l’autre côté de la frontière de ma communauté : le Michigan. L’État du Michigan est en bonne voie avec son propre programme d’amélioration du site. Le programme de préparation des sites stratégiques permet aux municipalités au Michigan de développer des sites prêts à l’investissement. Le programme des fonds stratégiques du Michigan, qui est lancé par le gouvernement de l’État, prend en charge les dépenses de préparation des sites stratégiques et méga-stratégiques pour les investissements, y compris l’acquisition des terrains; la préparation du chantier; le développement des infrastructures; la démolition et construction des bâtiments; l’assainissement environnemental; et soutenir les frais d’architecture, d’ingénierie et professionnels.

Un site stratégique ou méga-stratégique peut appartenir à des intérêts privés ou publics, et peut être utilisé à des fins manufacturières et commerciales.

Le Michigan n’est pas seul. Prêt de 40 juridictions proposent un type de programme de certification de mégasites. D’autres juridictions ont des sites prêts à l’emploi pour le développement. Nous devons les rejoindre ou nous serons laissés pour compte.

Speaker, this bill is fundamentally about one outcome: to create an employment site that will employ Ontarians for generations. Our government created, in November 2019, the Job Site Challenge. It was Canada’s first program to include municipalities, economic development agencies and industrial property owners who put forward large tracts of land of up to 1,500 acres to build an inventory of mega-sites that are investment-ready and could support large-scale manufacturing operations.

My home municipality of Tecumseh was one of the first to sign up for the Job Site Challenge. Mayor Gary McNamara had been advocating for a program of this kind for many, many years during my time on council. I’m quite happy to see that such a program finally came to fruition at the provincial level, and that it was our government who heeded the call.

I will send my apologies to all my colleagues here for being a broken record from our debate on the second reading of the bill, but the point remains relevant for the $5.1-billion NextStar project. They located it on lands within the city of Windsor that were previously annexed from the town of Tecumseh. Windsor was able to establish a market-ready site here. This foresight was a game-changer that landed the NextStar plant. The simplicity of the transaction carried the day.

I will give my thanks to Minister Clark as well for his minister’s zoning order, ensuring that the risk inherent with this project from the planning process, that could have delayed the project and knocked our site out of consideration, was mitigated.

I would also like to thank Minister Smith for his minister’s order to confirm with certainty that the required electrical transmission lines would be brought to Windsor and Essex county as quickly as possible, following many previous years of delay.

During the recent election, there were many commitments to ending MZOs made by political candidates and leaders. This was, quite frankly, an incredibly bold pitch to make in our community: “Vote for us, and we want to end the best shot at prosperity that you have earned in decades.” Thanks to Ontario’s voters and those in Windsor–Tecumseh, I’m delighted that this was never put to the test. Adding risk is just not good business in our efforts to grow employment.

The proof of success is there with NextStar—and Umicore, as well, in Loyalist township. Ontario has demonstrated confidence in the future of our industry, and is instilling that confidence in industry.

The Central Elgin site offers prospective employers 1,200 acres of potential industrial development. When we have a critical shortage of shovel-ready industrial sites here in Ontario, it is vital that we secure sites like those in Central Elgin that are accessible for development quickly. We owe it to our residents to ensure that good employers can have a home here in Ontario and provide benefits to all of its employees. Indeed, it is a lack of shovel-ready mega-sites that keeps Ontario held back. This is not an issue, happily, for the Central Elgin site, and it quite frankly is long past time to make this site work for the benefit of the residents of Elgin county, the city of St. Thomas and the regions surrounding.

We need to get it done for the people of Elgin county and the city of St. Thomas, but also for the people of Ontario. Otherwise, we just risk losing the opportunity to compete for and win these transformative investments. These investments bring hundreds, if not thousands, of jobs with them every time.

Many of the currently planned electric vehicle and EV battery-related investments are expected to come online in the mid-to-late 2020s, meaning that the window of opportunity to secure these investments, which are transformative in Ontario, is right now. Losing these investments to other areas is not acceptable to the people of my riding. We’ve lost enough manufacturing jobs in my riding of Windsor–Tecumseh. It is long past time to start taking back these investments, and our government is doing so.

But we need to have a solid inventory of fully serviced industrial parks and shovel-ready sites. Bill 63 achieves just that for St. Thomas and for Elgin county. The purpose of Bill 63 is a simple land boundary adjustment. The site is in two municipalities, as the minister stated earlier: the city of St. Thomas and the municipality of Central Elgin. We can address unnecessary and burdensome red tape that adds risk to our efforts to land large employers by consolidating all the lands within the regulatory environment of the city of St. Thomas.

But Bill 63 is not an end by any means. We need many, many more of these sites to be developed, and that means beginning with goodwill. The province will work closely with all the impacted municipalities and First Nations communities for this site, and going forward as well, as we identify more large-scale industrial sites.

Speaker, let us keep Ontario as the ideal destination for advanced manufacturing and for EV battery manufacturers, powered by our reliable clean energy, critical mineral resources and, of course, our world-class workforce and research and development ecosystem.

I recognize the member from Windsor–Tecumseh.

Thanks, Speaker. Good morning. It’s great to see you in the chair this morning.

I’m so glad that I’m able to share the government’s time this morning with the great member for Windsor–Tecumseh. I want to thank all of my colleagues for their support, but him particularly, for his advocacy in his riding. He’s a tremendous member. The people in his riding are very well-represented. Collectively, both the member opposite and the minister—we’re here for the same reason. We’re here to fight for jobs and investment, not just in Windsor–Tecumseh, but in all of Ontario.

I’m particularly pleased with my colleague the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. Vic Fedeli works tirelessly to attract jobs and investment across our province, Speaker. The minister outlined that our government has a record that I think we can all be proud of when it comes to attracting both jobs and investment to Ontario. With his wonderful enthusiasm, I think we can all acknowledge that we have no intention as a government to slow down.

The legislation in front of us this morning—I know some of the members opposite raised the question last week of why we’re acting so quickly. I take those questions very seriously. The answer is very simple: Ontario is a prosperous, growing province. We’ve got a great record for investment, jobs and growth, but our government is not going to just sit back and be content with the job that we’ve done. Our job isn’t done. We’re taking an all-of-government approach to build Ontario, to attract major new investment to our province.

You can see, Speaker, that this approach is carried through with many, many ministries right across government. My colleague the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade is leading our government’s efforts in attracting companies from around the globe to invest in Ontario. My colleague the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development is making sure that Ontario is equipped with workers that have the skills and is, really, creating the workforce to carry out these jobs. My colleague the Minister of Transportation is making sure that Ontario has the transportation network that’s ready to move more goods and people safely and efficiently from across the province. My colleague the Minister of Infrastructure is making sure that we have the right supports in place to attract and expand business in Ontario.

My own ministry is focused on the challenge. We’re taking some major steps in the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing to attract—and attack—more homes and better supply and to be able to create an environment where we can build 1.5 million homes by 2031.

We want to make sure that workers have a safe, attainable place to call home. I carry out this work alongside my ministry colleagues, my government colleagues, including my Associate Minister of Housing and my parliamentary assistant, the member for Thunder Bay–Atikokan. Speaker, the bill that we’re debating this morning should be seen in that light, that whole-of-government approach to attract investment and those good-paying jobs to Ontario. Because not only is it my ministry that’s working to get more homes built faster, but we’re working with all of our municipal partners—all 444 municipalities—to reduce red tape and bring in the sort of investment that will benefit workers, municipalities and our communities.

I’m so pleased with the initial response that we’ve seen to this legislation. There’s a clear recognition from so many Ontarians that everyone benefits with this sort of investment that we’re attracting here today.

I’m also pleased by the widespread acknowledgement from Ontarians that we need to pull together in a global economy that sees fierce competition for jobs and investment. We know that trade and international partnerships have long been an important part of Ontario’s economic success. But we’ve also seen that some countries around the world have pulled up the drawbridge in recent years. They’ve implemented protectionist measures that put Ontario jobs at risk.

Faced with this challenge, our government and its partners need to do everything in their power to attract investment and provide those good-paying jobs that Ontarians need. That of course means that we need to ensure that we have the housing, the transit, the infrastructure and the workforce to attract investment. But it also means that we have to deal with the unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles that come in front of major investments to our province. We’ve got to do everything in our power.

I’ve had the opportunity to visit southwestern Ontario many times as minister and as an MPP, including Elgin county. It’s really ripe for that investment. The member for Elgin–Middlesex–London, sitting beside me, is a fantastic representative and he knows that the location of this site is ideal. It’s fantastic to have major highways connecting St. Thomas and Elgin county to the rest of Ontario and beyond, to the rest of Canada. It’s just a few hours from the major markets in the United States and ports that can accommodate Ontario-manufactured goods across the world. It’s also in close proximity of some of Ontario’s leading universities and colleges.

With a skilled and capable workforce, it’s already a powerhouse. His riding is a powerhouse in advanced manufacturing already. It’s such an exciting opportunity for our government and our province to have a chance to demonstrate to potential investors around the world that Ontario is truly open for business, because we know that by getting it right at this site, we can attract more investment in every single corner of the province.

As I wrap up—I look forward to questions—I want to once again reflect on the why: why our government is moving forward so boldly with our plan to build and grow Ontario. The last few years have been challenging for many Ontarians. We faced an unprecedented global pandemic. We’ve struggled with supply chain troubles. We’ve coped with global upheaval all around us. But despite these challenges, I’m so very proud that Ontarians came through stronger than ever. We’ve shown what makes our province so great.

But these challenges have also shown us that there’s the need for more manufacturing. We need to invest in manufacturing. We need to ensure that our government and all levels of government are doing their part to support made-in-Ontario products. We know that further development in our province’s manufacturing capabilities will help Ontarians prosper in good times and protect them from economic fallouts in uncertain times.

Now we have a real opportunity to showcase the very best the province has to offer, to showcase why, in a world facing so many challenges, Ontario is the right place to invest. Our province is an ocean of calm when so many other parts of the world are facing turmoil. We have the skilled workforce. We have world-class infrastructure to support this investment. The investment, in turn—what does it mean? It means good-paying jobs. It means growing communities. It means prosperous businesses. It means thriving families. That’s something that everyone—no matter what side of the House, no matter what political ideology, political spectrum you have, you can all come forward. You should all be able to support this. I hope, as we move forward toward a vote on this important piece of legislation, that all members will do precisely that.

I just want to say that this is very important. Time is of the essence. Minister Fedeli has outlined very importantly this morning how many other jurisdictions have already done this. They’ve already created a mega-site. They’re already investment-ready. There are dozens of jurisdictions in North America that are looking to us today. We’ve had tremendous success, but we need to move fast. The people in St. Thomas and Central Elgin—this bill will provide that opportunity for our government. It will ensure that we have a site that can compete tomorrow, that has access to the world. We need to understand that if we’re going to be in this game—and I want us to be leading, as Minister Fedeli and the member for Windsor–Tecumseh have talked about this morning—we need to move forward. I appreciate the speed in which the House has moved to get us here for a third reading.

I, in turn, can commit that our government is continuing its relentless focus on attracting investment, on supporting Ontario families, on working for workers and for building Ontario. I look forward to the debate. I hope it’s as quick a debate as we were in the second reading because time is of the essence. We need to move forward.

I just want to thank everyone for their speeches this morning. I was quite excited when I was listening to the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade talking about the great things coming forward for our future. Part of our role here in government is to create the environment so people will invest in Ontario, so people will move and we can attract business.

My question is actually to his parliamentary assistant, the member for Windsor–Tecumseh. I’m wondering if you can elaborate on some of the efforts this government has made to date to attract jobs and ensure that Ontario is where it should be so people will move here and stay here once they’re educated—because we want to make sure we maintain that intelligence—and people will live in Ontario to raise families. How are we getting those new companies here?

J’aimerais saluer aujourd’hui l’un de nos pages, Adam Penner, de l’École élémentaire catholique Georges-P.-Vanier, dans ma circonscription de Windsor–Tecumseh. We are delighted to have you here with us, Adam, and we truly hope that you enjoy your time at Queen’s Park.