As I said yesterday, we stand ready to assist the RCMP as they undertake a review. At this point, we have not been contacted by the RCMP.

The Leader of the Opposition, in her first question, talked about affordability. Imagine an NDP Leader of the Opposition talking about affordability when she and her party have voted against every single measure that would put more money back in the pockets of the people of the province of Ontario. They actually voted against—remember the LIFT tax credit. For those colleagues who were here in the last Parliament—they will know that we introduced the LIFT tax credit, which virtually eliminated the lowest income earners from having to pay taxes to the province of Ontario. They voted against it, because there’s a fundamental difference between them and us. They want people to rely on government and to be dependent on government. We want to give people the tools to succeed. And each and every day that is what we’re doing—working for the people of the province of Ontario to give them the tools to succeed. And that’s why 700,000 people have the dignity of a job—

Interjections.

Yesterday, this minister, along with the Premier, announced another over $2 billion in investment in the province of Ontario. Do you know who has confidence in the people of the province of Ontario? Investors around the world who have given over $27 billion of investment to this economy. Do you know who has confidence in this government? The over 700,000 people who have the dignity of a job—that they didn’t when they and they were in power. That is what we’re doing.

Do you know what the Leader of the Opposition can do to help us on affordability? She can call her leader in Ottawa and say, “Take the 14.3 cents a litre on gas off. Help us remove the carbon tax to put even more money back in the pockets of the people of Ontario.”

Will they do it? No, because they don’t care about the people of the province of Ontario—

Interjections.

As I’ve said on a number of occasions, we made a public policy decision that wasn’t supported by the people of the province of Ontario. That is why I introduced legislation yesterday to reverse that, Mr. Speaker.

But do you know what’s an insult to the people of the province of Ontario? Every time they go to the gas pump and they’re paying an extra 14.3 cents a litre because of the NDP and the Liberals; when they go to the grocery store and they see that the price of vegetables is higher—why? Because of the Liberals and the NDP and a carbon tax. When they open their gas bills over the winter season and they see the carbon tax on each of those bills, that’s an insult to the people of the province of Ontario.

If the Leader of the Opposition really wants to respect the people of the province of Ontario, she’ll call her federal leader in Ottawa and say, “Work with us. Let’s remove the carbon tax on the things that matter to the people of the province of Ontario. Let’s make this country more affordable, because we can do it.”

Colleagues, the leader of the NDP said that she doesn’t believe a carbon tax is costing the people of the province of Ontario anything. So I ask my colleagues, do you believe it’s costing us more? Yes—

Interjections.

I was speaking to Larry Simpson in my riding, a magnificent potato farmer, who was talking about a great crop this year, but the cost of taking that crop out of the ground and then delivering it across the province of Ontario is exorbitant. The cost of heating the potatoes over the winter to keep them available for delivery is incredible, and it’s because of the carbon tax.

If the Leader of the Opposition doesn’t believe that it is costing the people of Canada enormously, I ask her to call a few people who are struggling each and every day because of a carbon tax.

But we’ll continue to work for all people, to put more money—

They can talk about it as much as they want—what they really are saying, and we all know it, is that they want to put obstacles in the way of building more homes for the people of the province of Ontario, because they were so effective at doing it with the Liberals, right? They were so effective at putting obstacles in the way that they put Ontario into a housing crisis. Every single year that we have been in office, we have put measures on the floor of this Legislature to remove those obstacles, and they have voted against it. But we will not stop.

We will continue to make life more affordable for the people of the province of Ontario. We will continue to fight against carbon taxes. We will continue to build infrastructure. We will continue to build long-term care. We will continue to build roads so that we can get our product to market faster. And we will continue to see massive investments, like the over $27 billion that has come to Ontario, that has created over 700,000 jobs. That is what we’ll continue to do each—

I’ll tell you what we have here—we have the mayor of Brantford here. Do you know what he’s excited about? He’s excited about the groundbreaking of a brand new long-term-care home in his riding. That’s what he’s excited about. He’s excited about the jobs and opportunity that come with that investment. Do you know who never brought that investment? It was the Liberals and the NDP—because in their time, they brought 611. There are more long-term-care beds being built in that community, in Brantford, than there were in the entire province of Ontario when they had the opportunity.

That’s what people are excited about. It’s not a rant. It’s fact. And that’s what the people of Ontario care about.

Interjections.

It is they who have been dragging their heels, voting against every single measure that would grow the economy. They dragged their heels when it came to investing in hospitals, building new hospitals, refurbishing some of the old hospitals. They dragged their heels and continue to drag their heels when we talk about building the 413. They’re absolutely dead set against people bringing their product to market. They have voted against the investments that we’re making to bring back our auto sector. They have voted against the expansion of our colleges and universities. They voted against the changes that we’re making to our education curriculum that are finally seeing results for our students, who stagnated over 15 years of policies of the Liberals and NDP.

So when she talks about dragging your heels—the only people who are dragging their heels are the Liberals and NDP, a coalition of the doomed that saw this province brought to its knees.

We’re rebuilding this province and we’ll continue to do it, and 700,000—

Interjections.

Do you know what I did when I was the Minister of Long-Term Care and that I would do as Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing? I gave preferential treatment to tear down a home that should have been torn down ages ago, but the Liberals and NDP refused to do it.

What we want to do in Pickering is tear down an old, outdated home that still has ward rooms in it and build a brand new long-term-care home. That’s what we’re doing in Pickering. It’s the same MZO that I wanted to do in Port Hope—tear down two old homes that aren’t even sprinklered and replace them with brand new long-term-care homes.

And here you have it, on the floor of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario: The people of Ontario can see quite clearly that they don’t even want to build brand new long-term-care homes for the people of the province of Ontario. They vote against literally everything.

So will I stop doing MZOs to build new long-term-care homes? No, in fact, I’ll go just in the opposite direction. If I can do it better—

Interjections.

We’re going to continue to build brand new long-term-care homes, and I won’t let obstacles stand in the way. So when this Minister of Long-Term Care comes to me and says, “I want to tear down an old home and replace it with a brand new one,” I will say yes.

This is the very same party that held the balance of power for four years in this place—and did they make investments in long-term care? No.

If you want blood on your hands, look in the mirror. You had the option to do something—

Interjections.

What we will continue to do is to provide MZOs when it helps move the province of Ontario forward—MZOs for long-term care, MZOs to build hospitals, MZOs to build supportive housing in the city of Toronto.

Will I stop issuing MZOs when it supports the priorities of the province of Ontario, when it helps people in the province of Ontario, when it helps job creation, when it gives people their first home? No. I won’t stop doing that. Will I continue to issue MZOs when it means an old long-term-care home can be torn down and replaced by a brand new one? No. I’ll continue to do that.

They want to stand in the way of all of that; I won’t.

In fact, some of their own members have asked me for MZOs in their own ridings, so that we can get long-term-care homes, so that we can get socialized housing in their homes.

So I say to the member very clearly, for the caucus members around you: I will continue to issue it when it is in the best interests of the people of the province of Ontario.

What you’re hearing from the opposition is continued frustration that what we are doing is using the tools that we have to help build a stronger economy, to help restore confidence in industries that had lost it. This is a party that worked with the Liberals to drive out manufacturing. We lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs. The Liberals and the NDP said that we should transition our economy to a service economy.

What we’re doing is building a better, stronger Ontario—$27 billion in investment; over 700,000 people have the dignity of a job. And I will do whatever I can, along with this caucus, to support that.