When we heard that the Domtar mill was idling, we took action right away, reaching out to community officials and having conversations with them about how this could affect them; reaching out to the company to say, “How can we keep this conversation going, and what can we do to facilitate the re-energization of this mill in the future?”

Mr. Speaker, we remain very concerned about the businesses that are attached to this mill—not just the 450 jobs at the mill, but the secondary and tertiary companies that supply the mill and the forestry sector all throughout Ontario. We have taken action when we heard this news. We will continue to work with all parties involved to make sure we get the very, very best outcome, not only for Espanola but for the entire forestry sector. We will continue to work with all these parties as closely as we can every single day.

We have a fantastic forestry sector here in Ontario, and we are extremely proud of it. We’ll continue to make sure that that forestry sector remains strong.

As I said in the original answer, we continue to work with all sectors of our forestry partners that are affected by the closure of this mill, and that includes the operators that the member has spoken about.

We continue to make investments in the forestry sector. Our $20-million forest biomass program is an unprecedented investment to drive the sector forward. Our Forest Sector Investment and Innovation Program, $10 million—again, to drive the industry forward. We want a strong industry so all the players in the industry have a chance to succeed, and we continue to make those investments. We continue to work with everyone involved.

Last week, I actually joined the member on a call with members from Espanola and the community there to talk about what we can do to assist. So we’re there; we’re helping; we’re making sure the forestry sector in Ontario continues to succeed.

As I was in the north last week talking with forestry companies about the previous question, I was also there to make a very important announcement—an announcement of $20.5 million further investment in helping us fight wildland fires in Ontario, an investment that looks to the future and recognizes that we may have some challenging fire seasons ahead of us, so we need more technology like aerial drones that can help us with detection and suppression; supporting attraction and retention of forest firefighters; also, making sure that they have a good mental health program attached to that position.

Mr. Speaker, we continue to make investments to ensure that communities, people and infrastructure in Ontario remain safe—and again, $20.5 million will help advance that. And this is in addition to the over 90% increase that we’ve included in base budgeting since we took office in 2018. We are—

Also, as I mentioned, the historic $20-million investment in the forest biomass program and the streams within it—we had an application process open until the end of September. It’s all full up—because innovation in the forestry sector is here in Ontario. We are driving this sector forward, and it will prosper here in this province.