J’aimerais souhaiter la bienvenue aux gens de TFO qui sont ici aujourd’hui avec nous. J’ai eu la chance de les rencontrer ce matin. J’ai eu la chance aussi de participer à leur évènement à Ottawa, la rentrée. Je dois les féliciter pour la programmation puis aussi pour leur implication dans l’éducation de nos francophones en Ontario. Donc, madame Godin, madame Séguin : bienvenue à Queen’s Park.

My question is for the Premier. Last year, the former Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing overrode Ottawa’s urban boundary expansion and added an additional 654 hectares for development after city council had already evaluated and added other lands. The former minister added lands that were so unsuitable for development because of their agricultural designation that they weren’t even evaluated by experts. This includes a 37-hectare parcel on Watters Road in Orléans that was designated an agricultural resource and is an active farm.

After the city confirmed this designation, the farm was purchased by a group that has donated significantly to the Conservative Party and stood to make millions from the development. After holding up the city’s official plan for two years and after receiving tens of thousands of dollars in donations from the landowners, the former minister added these lands to Ottawa’s urban boundary.

Mr. Speaker, can the Premier share with us the process used to evaluate the suitability of these lands for inclusion in the boundary, who was involved in that determination, and what influence, if any, did political contributions and personal relationships have on the decision?

As I just said, look, the city of Ottawa remains in control of when or if those lands will be developed or serviced, for that matter. But here again is another question from the opposition, from the Liberals, who for 15 years put obstacle after obstacle after obstacle in the way and led us into a housing crisis.

But I know why they’re having such trouble, right? Because this Minister of Finance cut taxes for purpose-built rentals. Do you remember when he did that? And what did we say? We said to the federal government, “You have to come on board. You have to help us by matching that with a GST cut.” But we know Liberals hate to cut taxes, but thanks to one person in the Liberal government, Minister Fraser, they finally had to admit that cutting taxes means improving an economy. Now, they did it only once, and that’s because of the leadership of this Minister of Finance.

We’re going to work with Alberta and every other province to cut taxes for all Canadians to unleash the economy so that everybody can participate in the Canadian dream that they took away.