We’re going to move to questions for the member.

The member for Ottawa South.

I want to thank my colleague and mentor, actually, for speaking for an hour, making us laugh at times and always providing important and interesting information.

Being in the GTA, we complain—and I know the Brampton member there in the back was complaining about what it feels like to be in gridlock on the roads here. But when I hear my colleagues from the north talk about the challenges they face as drivers, it’s very difficult to hear: accidents, as I see it mentioned, that result in four times more likelihood of death as compared to other parts of the province. We talk about gridlock. People are stuck in traffic in the dead of winter, sometimes for half a day, a day, or even more.

And so, my question is, what do you think it’s going to take for this government to adequately bring the investments to make the roads safer and where they need to be in the north? Or is it going to be lip service forever from them?

In London, agri-food is a big industry. At the London Economic Development Corp. we employ more than 7,000 people in 90-plus companies in London agri-food. The act, ARIO, was created in 1962, and you had mentioned there wasn’t a lot of feedback from OMAFRA, so I think maybe the government did do some discussion on this bill.

My question is, in the current scope of the bill, the research is limited to agriculture, veterinary medicine and household science. It doesn’t really adequately address the current research needs that farmers are anticipating, such as new technologies, robotics, digitization and data management. How do you think this new act will keep Ontario, number one, as the world leader in agriculture and food and share best practices and make sure that we actually thrive more in Ontario, keep the sector alive?

I want to thank my colleague for his presentation. He spoke about Chad’s Law. I think you called it Toby’s law—but Chad’s Law. Northern Ontario and the highways that we have—I come from the forest industry, I come from northern Ontario, so I’m not really a farmer, but you did speak about how sometimes these roads have been closed. We’re lucky this winter, to be honest with you; we’ve had a really mild winter, but we still had road closures that took quite a while. So, how does that affect animals that are being transported? I’ve seen two days of road closures, so how does that affect—because there is no other bypass that you can take. They’re stuck there, and it can get cold. So I’m very curious what happens in this situation.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Please refer it to the Standing Committee on the Interior.

Thank you. Next question?

Further debate? Further debate? Further debate?

Ms. Thompson has moved second reading of Bill 155, An Act to amend the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act. Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

Second reading agreed to.

Is there somebody on the government side? Oh, the deputy government House leader.

Orders of the day? Deputy government House leader.

The House adjourned at 1750.

A technical question: I come from a city where we have a gigantic farm—well, maybe not gigantic by your standards—in the middle of the city. It’s an experimental farm. So, how does that connect with the ARIO? What are the connections between—