Thank you for the offer.

Mr. Speaker, I will be sharing my time with the member from Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound, who I see over there, and the member from Oakville, who is right behind me, who I see right there.

Today I rise to speak to the second reading of the fall bill, the Building a Strong Ontario Together Act (Budget Measures), 2023. The measures in this bill continue our responsible, targeted approach that will help get Ontario through the uncertainties of today and build critical infrastructure in communities right across the province, while also laying a strong fiscal foundation for future generations.

Mr. Speaker, Ontario is seeing significant growth.

Monsieur le Président, l’Ontario connaît une croissance considérable.

Nearly 500,000 more people came to the province last year, and 4,400 more businesses operate in our province today compared to last year. Our population is growing, jobs are being created, and companies are choosing Ontario as a place to do business. But we cannot take this good news for granted. This is because the world today is marked by rising geopolitical and economic global uncertainty. Now, more than ever, it is important to remain fiscally disciplined, responsible, and flexible so that we can emerge from these uncertainties stronger than ever before. We must continue with our plan to build a strong Ontario, and we must do it together.

Our plan is guided by two key pillars: building Ontario and working for you. Underscoring these pillars is our government’s prudent and responsible fiscal plan that includes a path to balancing the budget. I can say we are focused on responsibly eliminating Ontario’s deficit while delivering on the priorities of the people and businesses of Ontario.

Due to a slowing economy impacting revenues and an increased need for flexibility to respond to risks, our government is now projecting a $5.6-billion deficit in 2023-24. We are maintaining a path to balance, and following a projected $5.3-billion deficit in 2024-25, our government is forecasting a surplus of $0.5 billion in 2025-26.

As we have done since day one, we will continue to be transparent with the people of Ontario about the fiscal outlook of this province. Every 90 days, I’m out before the people of Ontario to provide an update on our finances. And we have received six clean, unqualified opinions from Ontario’s Auditor General ever since we came into government.

As we deal with the uncertainty ahead, our government will never hesitate to do what is necessary to support the people and businesses of Ontario.

Devant l’incertitude qui plane sur l’avenir, notre gouvernement n’hésitera jamais à faire le nécessaire pour soutenir la population et les entreprises de l’Ontario.

Our plan to build includes building the critical infrastructure we need to support communities right across the province. This means building hospitals, building long-term-care homes, building schools, building child care spaces, building highways, building roads, building transit.

Our population is now over 15 million people. Some 15.6 million people call Ontario home. And we have hundreds of thousands of people a year coming to our great province. Again, this growth is really good news—really good news; une bonne nouvelle, madame la Présidente.

To accommodate this growth, we need to build. We are delivering on our $185-billion capital plan, our historic capital plan and, dare I say, the most ambitious plan in the history of this great country. However, our government inherited an infrastructure deficit, and this growth is adding more strain to existing, aging infrastructure. We need to build, and we need to build even more.

Ontario taxpayers alone cannot shoulder the costs. That is why we are launching the Ontario Infrastructure Bank. Modelled on similar institutions in jurisdictions around the world, the Ontario Infrastructure Bank will attract pension plans and other trusted institutional investors to help finance essential infrastructure that otherwise would not get built. The bank will focus on large-scale infrastructure projects that will build long-term-care homes, affordable housing and major infrastructure in our communities and in municipalities—also investing in energy and transportation sectors. This will give the world-class pension funds that call Canada home, such as the Maple Eight, the opportunity they’ve been looking for to invest workers’ savings right here in Ontario.

While we build the infrastructure Ontario so desperately needs, we are doing so by building a stronger, more prosperous economy.

En bâtissant l’infrastructure dont l’Ontario a tant besoin, nous bâtissons également une économie plus forte et plus prospère.

Madam Speaker, for too long, the previous government failed—I see them over there—to seize Ontario’s critical minerals opportunity despite the value these minerals can bring to this great province. Key to us building the economy of the future is unlocking northern Ontario’s critical minerals—would you agree?

“Absolutely,” says the member right beside me.

Unlocking these minerals will help bring investments and better jobs with bigger paycheques to Ontario. This is why our government is committing close to $1 billion to support critical legacy infrastructure in the Far North. By “infrastructure,” I mean all-season roads, broadband connectivity and community supports in the Ring of Fire region—all of this is needed to keep moving us forward on one of the most promising mineral deposits in Canada.

Madam Speaker, these deposits will play a critical role in batteries, electronics, electric vehicles and clean technology. These are the building blocks of tomorrow. This is why we amended the Mining Act earlier this year to help ensure Ontario has a modern and competitive regime for mineral exploration and development—I see the Minister of Mines just over my right shoulder—thanks to his great leadership. And it is why, with this bill, we are proposing amendments to extend the Ontario Focused Flow-Through Share Tax Credit for expenses related to minerals considered critical minerals under the federal Income Tax Act. These critical mineral resources in the north need to be—and are being—connected to our world-class manufacturing sector in the south. So we must continue to grow the province’s manufacturing sector and create the conditions to attract new investments.

Madam Speaker, the Liberals decimated manufacturing in Ontario. Between 2004 and 2018, Ontario’s manufacturing sector saw a decline in employment of over 300,000 workers. But since we were elected in 2018, we have attracted billions of dollars worth of investments in automotive and clean steel manufacturing. In three years alone, we have attracted over $26 billion in electric vehicle and battery manufacturing-related industries. That includes regions like Durham and Oshawa, where thousands and thousands of GM jobs disappeared over a long period of time—but they’re coming back, through the actions of many, the conditions for growth, and the actions of this government.

Our government has done this through many new measures. We’re continuing to cut red tape. We’re now saving businesses $567 million in annual regulatory compliance costs. Our government is setting up Ontario to a more prosperous, more productive future.

While we continue to maintain important Ontario regulations that protect people’s health, safety and the environment in the province, we have more to do. That’s why we have implemented the Ontario Made Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit.

Interjection.

This new credit is helping local manufacturing companies invest and expand.

A couple of budgets ago, I talked about a road trip. We went on a road trip, didn’t we? We went out of the DVP; we went up from Queen’s Park, up the DVP. It took us about two hours to get to the 401, because there is much gridlock. We’ve got a plan to fix that with the Ontario Line, the Scarborough line, the Yonge extension. We have a plan. When we took that road trip, we touched points like Oshawa, to bring back those good jobs at GM to Oshawa. Then, we went up to Alliston. We did a little detour into Brampton—and all the great manufacturing jobs that are being found and returning back in Brampton. And then we did a little trip over to Oakville, didn’t we? We did a little Oakville trip and went to say hi to our member there. We also dropped in on Ford, which is bringing back good jobs, good-paying jobs, and electric vehicle manufacturing jobs in Oakville. Of course, we went down to southwest Ontario and said hello to our couple of MPPs out there and made a little pit stop in St. Thomas, where one of the largest car companies in the world has announced a 16-million-square-foot operation, to bring thousands of jobs to southwest Ontario. But we didn’t stop there; we kept going. We kept going all the way to Windsor. If the member for Windsor was here, he’d be clapping right now.

Interjection: Then we’ll clap for him.

Interjections.

This is about supporting Ontario. This is about growing Ontario. This is about creating the environment for those good jobs and those bigger paycheques so that people can put food on the table, so that they can deal with the cost of living and the affordability crisis we’re in, so that we can work together to build a more prosperous Ontario—an economically prosperous Ontario which then pays for the world-class health care, world-class education, world-class social services under the able stewardship of the minister.

Madam Speaker, may I recall, when the previous government was in power, how much did ODSP—was it indexed to inflation? Did they ever increase it by 5%? Did they ever increase the earning exemption?

And while they had the opportunity to do something, what did they do? Nothing.

Madam Speaker, I’m going to come back to the bright future that Ontario has, and some of the products of that future are right here in Ontario.

By continuing to attract electric vehicle supply chain investments to the province, we’re making Ontario a leading jurisdiction to build the cars of the future.

En continuant d’attirer dans la province des investissements dans la chaîne d’approvisionnement des véhicules électriques, nous faisons de l’Ontario un territoire de premier plan pour la fabrication des voitures de l’avenir.

We are also making Ontario a global leading producer of clean steel.

We must continuously find ways to make Ontario competitive. This is why our government is working with partners to have shovel-ready sites available for new, large manufacturing sites and projects. These investments in critical minerals and manufacturing also are enabled by the province’s clean energy advantage. Companies in various sectors are looking to invest in jurisdictions that can help them achieve their goals as they relate to environmental, social and governance measures, or ESG. And Ontario is very well positioned to leverage that clean energy advantage. To help companies achieve these ESG goals, and to help boost our competitiveness, is why we launched a voluntary clean energy credit registry.

I will add—and I was just speaking to the Minister of Energy, but he’s done a runner. I know he’s close by, though; we just spoke.

We are also supporting the continuous safe operation of the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station.

And we are leading in record battery procurements, with the largest battery storage project in Canada being built right here in Ontario. Folks, this is really a success story. It’s called the Oneida Energy Storage Project. It is being developed with our partners—Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corp., Northland Power, NRStor, and Aecon Group—and located in Jarvis, Ontario.

At the same time, to help create jobs and economic growth, we are keeping electricity costs down for businesses.

Madam Speaker, we will continue to strengthen Ontario’s competitiveness and make our province the best place in the world to do business.

As we grow our economy, we need to keep people and goods moving across the province, so we’re building highways, we’re building transit, and we are building infrastructure projects. Nous bâtissons des routes et nous réalisons des projets de transport en commun et d’infrastructure. We’re building the Bradford Bypass. We’re building Highway 413 right through Brampton, and the Ontario Line in—

Interjection.

And the Yonge North subway line. The Ontario Line, the Yonge North subway line, the Scarborough line—I could go on, but of course the time limits me to 20 minutes.

Madam Speaker, we’re also enabling the future widening of Highway 401, from Brock Road in Durham region and right on. We’re investing in more transit in the north, with the Northlander. These investments will help get people to where they need to be faster, and it’s going to help them spend more time with their family and loved ones, instead of being stuck in gridlock.

The people of Ontario can know that we are working for them. Everywhere, we are working for our families, workers, students and seniors. We know the challenges.

As we help create jobs across the province, we still face a persistent labour shortage in key sectors such as health care and construction—particularly those—education workers, skilled trades and many other significant sectors. That’s why we are investing an additional $75 million over the next three years in our wildly successful Skills Development Fund. We’re also providing an additional $224 million to leverage private sector expertise and expand training centres and union-led training halls, so we can help prep skilled workers for the jobs of not only today, but for the jobs of tomorrow.

We know that the Bank of Canada’s rapid interest rate increases and inflation have increased pressure on household budgets. That is why our government didn’t wait to act when the cost of living began to rise. We took early action to keep costs down for the people of Ontario. We eliminated licence plate renewal fees and licence plate stickers, and refunded the past two years’ fees for eligible vehicles, saving the average household over $600 so far.

Interjections.

We also are eliminating double fares for commuters transferring from GO Transit to most local transit systems in the greater Toronto area, saving transit riders up to—get this—$1,600 a year.

Interjection.

But, Madam Speaker, we did more than that. We increased the minimum wage by 6.8% in October 2023.

And because of the low-income individual tax credit, Ontario has some of the lowest personal income tax rates in the country for low-income workers, so they can keep more money in their pockets.

And we’re providing an estimated $115 million through the Ontario Seniors Care at Home Tax Credit this year to over 200,000 low-to-moderate-income senior families with eligible medical expenses.

We temporarily cut the gas and fuel tax rates. Contrast that with the city and the government down the road in Ottawa, where the carbon tax is hitting many people hard. We know that inflation remains high and people and businesses continue to feel the pressure—especially, as I just said, as the federal government’s carbon tax continues to make everyday essentials more expensive.

Passing this bill would extend the gas and fuel tax rate cuts to June 30, 2024. If passed, this would see savings to households of $260, on average, since the tax rate cuts were first introduced.

Madam Speaker, despite the uncertainty facing the world today, I’m confident in the future of Ontario, its economy, its workers and its people. Madame la Présidente, malgré l’incertitude qui règne actuellement dans le monde, j’ai confiance en l’avenir de l’Ontario, en son économie, en ses travailleuses et ses travailleurs, et en sa population.

We’ve seen before what the people of this province can accomplish when we come together. We can overcome any obstacle in our way.

By passing this bill, the members of this House can help us build a strong Ontario together.