Speaker, we believe fully in and have exercised the duty to consult on these projects—fully. The Building More Mines Act was endorsed with royal assent in May of last year. We have finished the regulations, and they will be enacted on April 1. We’re fully committed to the duty to consult, and we’ve filled every obligation that’s required of us. Our relationships with the First Nations people are superb. Mining has done a great job.

What else are they doing with that $3 billion and with the technology? They’re so concerned about the environmental impact that they won’t even discharge water. That’s what miners do. All across Ontario where we mine, the discharge water is cleaner than the intake water. That’s why we support the mining sector in Ontario. That’s why we’re committed to—

Speaker, I’ve said many times, we are open for consultation. We have an open-door policy. Actually, all of the members in the mining community have the same philosophy. We passed that new Mining Act without changing a word in Ontario’s world-class environmental standards or the duty to consult. We believe in it, and we carry it out.

Speaker, in the last 15 or 20 years, the population in northern Ontario was declining. Why is it declining? Because they didn’t have any focus on mining. One of the last Premiers said, in fact, that the economy of Ontario will not be defined by people digging holes in the ground. But let me tell you, we dig world-class holes in the ground that produce critical minerals, and we have to get the infrastructure into the towns to make sure that people that live in those communities—I’m one of them who lives in that community.

Forty per cent of the workforce, of course, is women. There’s only 14% of women that are employed in the mining sector. When you talk, as we have, with the young women that are employed in that sector and they find how rewarding the communities are, it’s truly uplifting. It’s an incredible experience.

Not that long ago, we were in northern Ontario but on that particular trip we were also in Sudbury, and I told you about the young woman who was from Moosonee, who got her education and was working at 9,600 feet at the Creighton Mine. What did she want to do? She wanted to be a mining engineer. What was she working on? Electric vehicles at 9,600 feet at the Creighton Mine and absolutely loving it—from Moosonee.

That’s the opportunity that exists for women in mining, and ensuring that we maximize the opportunity and exposure of women working in mining.

Report continues in volume B.

Madam Speaker, to the member from Timmins: I know that he is an expert in mining, and he has a long history in that industry. But I also know that he is a former mayor of Timmins.

My question to the minister: We know how important infrastructure is in the municipalities and making sure that we have the ability to continue to grow our municipalities. So this government has not made the “out of sight, out of mind” mistake that the previous Liberal government did. So, through you Speaker, I ask the minister to please explain why our government has decided to invest more to build the infrastructure needed to construct new homes in all municipalities across the province.

Meegwetch, Madam Speaker. Listening to the mining minister on the approach to the Ring of Fire—you know that your current approach will not work. What are you going to do when the project becomes dead, the Ring of Fire becomes dead? What will you do then? Because your approaches will not work.

When I had the chance to go up north to be with the Minister of Mines and got to experience the mining community and how much pride it brought to so many miners, but especially the women working in the mines, and I had the opportunity to meet some women underground who are—their lives have completely changed, because the opportunities that having a job, working in the mining field, has awarded to them.

Can you speak to the further impacts and how generationally it’s going to change the lives when we see more women working in the mining industry and contributing to Ontario’s economy?