It’s an honour to rise again in the Ontario Legislature, and I’d like to take this opportunity to share with the Legislature an update on an important infrastructure project in Sarnia–Lambton. This week, our government wants public consultations into the much-needed and much-discussed Highway 40 widening project in Sarnia–Lambton. Expanding the seven-kilometre stretch of highway that links Lambton county’s chemistry valley and Highway 402 is a critical infrastructure project that will support future growth in the chemistry industry in Sarnia–Lambton and Ontario and improve highway safety for residents of Lambton county.

Our government began the preliminary design and environmental assessment work for the Highway 40 widening in April 2022. Public consultations are the next step in delivering on this important project. I encourage all interested residents of Sarnia–Lambton to visit the website highway40widening.ca to review the project documents and to add their input on how best the Ontario government can expand this highway in the best way possible for our community.

Again, please visit highway40widening.ca before December 10 to share your opinion on the design and build of this future highway expansion.

Mr. Speaker, expanding Highway 40 is another example of this government’s plan to build Ontario with investments in our transportation system that will reduce gridlock, improve economic productivity, and get drivers home to their loved ones faster.

As the member opposite knows, we are bringing forward legislation around use-it-or-lose-it. The reason we can bring in such legislation is because this government is putting billions of dollars of infrastructure in the ground, and we want to make sure the infrastructure both below and above the ground is used for building homes for the people of the province of Ontario.

I’ll remind the Leader of the Opposition that her party has voted against every single investment that we’ve made in terms of helping unleash home building. She and that party have voted against every single investment that we have made in terms of building transit and transportation across the province of Ontario.

We are bringing forward use-it-or-lose-it legislation, because we expect those people who have permits, who are holding up sewer and water allocation, to get shovels in the ground. We’ll bring it forward. We’ll do it in a fair way that brings our municipalities on board as well as those who are building homes, and I fully expect that the Leader of the Opposition will get up in her place and support that legislation. For the first time, she’ll support building homes for the people of the province of Ontario.

The socialist NDP are in a frenzy. Do you know why? Because we’re creating jobs, because our municipal partners want to work with us to get shovels in the ground. Do you know who has come on board? Mayor Olivia Chow, an NDP stalwart. A former councillor, a former member of Parliament for the NDP has come on board, because she and the Toronto council understand that the best way to create jobs and economic growth is to cut taxes, work together, get shovels in the ground. It is only they who don’t understand that.

Do you know why we were able to strike a deal with Olivia Chow and the NDP council in Toronto? Because we work with them, Mr. Speaker. We work with our municipal partners, and that is why we are seeing growth across the province of Ontario, the likes of which we’ve never seen, despite policies of the federal government to hold back our economy.