It’s always an honour to be able to speak in the House and, today, speak for a whole hour on An Act to amend the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act. One of the changes to this act is, instead of “institute,” it’s going to be Agricultural Research and Innovation Ontario. So be prepared for an hour on that slight change.

Interjections.

ARIO, as we know it, those in the agriculture community know it, is the owner of 16 agriculture research sites in the province. That’s really what its meat and potatoes are.

Agriculture is a big industry, and particularly agri-food is a big industry. Agriculture is a big part of it: the actual growing of the crops, the raising of the livestock. It’s dependent on research, and to do research, especially in agriculture, you need places to do it. I’m going to go through a list of a few of the things and what they do, just so you gain an appreciation. As I’m meandering through Ontario, I might stop at a few places that aren’t ARIO, but we’re going to do that.

We were just talking about a former agriculture minister, Jack Riddell. The first one on my list is the Ontario Aquaculture Research Centre in Alma. That was established when Jack Riddell was the Minister of Agriculture. It was also interesting for me, because I’ve been in agriculture my whole life and I didn’t know that all of these places existed. I’m going to be honest: This is a learning experience for me as well.

Alma is about aquaculture. It’s the fish research centre. I didn’t know that we had a fish research centre, and I certainly didn’t think it would be in Alma, but it’s in Alma. In Alma they have 10 buildings and 365 fish-rearing units for production and research of a full range of fish, from eggs to brood stock. The quarantine unit has successfully introduced Atlantic salmon, Arctic char and new strains of spring-spawning rainbow trout to the Ontario aquaculture industry. Since 1993, more than 170 research studies involving species have been conducted. Maybe everybody else knew this; I didn’t. It’s good that we all know it.

The next one—