Our government recognizes just how important the manufacturing sector is in our economy. Already this year, we’ve welcomed $65 million in investment in Niagara region alone:

—Stanpac manufactures food, dairy and beverage packaging for global businesses—they invested $35 million to retool their facility in Smithville;

—AMSI, a company that designs and constructs support buildings for on-site development—they invested $20 million to construct a 67,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Beamsville;

—St. Davids Cold Storage invested $9 million to expand their cold storage facility for food and beverage manufacturers—they created a total of 46 good-paying jobs with $6.7 million in investment support from the government.

Stay tuned, Speaker. The game-changing investments are just starting.

Thank you to the minister for the answer and also the work he is doing to attract good-paying jobs to Niagara and to every corner of this province. It’s great to hear that new, good-paying manufacturing jobs are being created in our province following years of news about manufacturing jobs—some 300,000 of them—fleeing Ontario under the Liberal government.

In fact, manufacturing employment in Ontario is now at one of the highest levels it has been since 2008. It is a testament to the measures our government has taken to cut red tape, slash taxes and get our economy back on track while rebuilding the manufacturing sector.

Speaker, could the minister share more about how these manufacturing investments are coming to Ontario?

This is such a historic number that it bears repeating: In 2023, Ontario created more manufacturing jobs than all 50 US states combined. In the last three years, Ontario has attracted more than $29 billion in new manufacturing investments, creating more than 11,000 new jobs in that sector.

This year, Ontario welcomed an investment from a Kitchener-based med-tech firm, FluidAI. They’re investing $25 million, hiring 38 new technicians with a $1.4-million investment from our government. This investment will strengthen our world-class manufacturing sector and create jobs for hard-working families in Ontario.

We have continued to create the right conditions for job growth in every region of the province.