Thank you to the member from Barrie–Innisfil, who does a great job advocating for the skilled trades in her region of the province.

From day one, our government has known the skilled trades needed more attention and investments. I’m pleased to share with all members the success of our first-ever skilled trades career fairs for students. Over the course of 10 days, more than 13,000 students in five regions had the opportunity to try the skilled trades and learn first-hand about the trades from over 90 exhibitors, including unions, employers and colleges. Later this year, we’ll be bringing these fairs back and expanding them to even more locations right across the province.

Speaker, by giving more students a chance to see for themselves how rewarding and exciting the trades are, we’re setting them up for success. As Premier Ford always says, when you have a career in the skilled trades, you have a career for life.

Furthermore, we also passed legislation that eliminates the requirement for Canadian work experience to work in the skilled trades here in Ontario. We’re welcoming the skilled immigrants we need and breaking down the barriers that newcomers face when arriving here in Ontario.

Speaker, we need all hands on deck to build back a stronger province and a stronger country.

The skilled trades are a vital part of our province’s economy, but unfortunately, after 15 years of neglect under the previous NDP-supported Liberal government, we are experiencing critical labour shortages in this sector.

In Barrie–Innisfil, thousands of jobs are being unfilled in the trades sector. These jobs represent opportunities for people, many of them paying good paycheques, with benefits and potential pensions. These are jobs that are valued. They’re important and they’re urgently needed for our province to overcome the housing shortage we are facing and to rebuild vital infrastructure.

Can the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development tell us what our government is doing to address the skills shortage that is currently holding back Ontario from its economic potential?