Thank you to the member from Sudbury for his comments today.

We all know that this House and the comments made in this House are often replete with some rhetoric and intentions. Sometimes, as the previous question just indicated, they go off in a direction of what could be, should be, possibly might be in some future bill, certainly.

But I want to give the member an opportunity to correct something. At the beginning of his speech, he said that he was arguing in favour of supporting the wildfire forest firefighters getting defined. He said that this government was silent on it, but if I may read directly from Hansard, Speaker. His seatmate asked the question, “With wildfire season anticipated to start early this year, will the government finally do the right thing and classify forest rangers as firefighters?” That was the question from your own member. The answer from Minister Piccini was, “A short answer to the member opposite: Yes.” So I guess this government isn’t silent on these matters.

My question is for the Minister of Finance. When I’m out speaking with my residents across Hastings–Lennox and Addington, one thing keeps on becoming very, very clear: I hear constantly about affordability, specifically how unaffordable it is to fill up their gas tank, to heat their homes, to light their stoves. The federal carbon tax is raising the price of everything. Families in my riding and across Ontario can’t afford higher taxes that the opposition Liberals and NDP seem to want to impose, and the members opposite are failing to recognize that the rising cost of consumer goods is quickly becoming unsustainable.

So, Speaker, can the minister please tell this House how we are fighting for the people of Ontario to make their lives more affordable?

I really appreciated the minister’s comments for this debate. She was speaking about the mining industry and how this bill will actually help to move that forward. Leaning into her own experience as the Associate Minister of Small Business, I would like her to talk more about the multiplier effect; how all of those small businesses, which are the vast majority of businesses in this province, will continue to thrive and continue to build the revenues for this province like has never been seen before.