I’m proud to welcome OPSEU Local 535 AGO workers to Queen’s Park today: Paul Ayers, local president; Ruth Jones, who works in facilities: Teya Vitko, bargaining team member; Charles Audu, local vice-president; and Mark Thornberry, bargaining team member. Welcome to your House, for the love of the arts.

To the Premier: Over 400 Art Gallery of Ontario workers are on strike, and many of these cultural workers are artists themselves. They’re here today. These are the people who welcome us into the AGO. They set up and they dismount art installations. They hang the art. They provide educational enrichment through tours. They helped raise funds for the AGO’s new building. They clean the gallery. But they are struggling to pay rent and buy food. Because of their hard work, the AGO has become a world-class destination, and yet this government hasn’t increased the AGO’s budget in over 10 years.

My question is to the Premier: Will this Conservative government properly fund arts institutions so their deficits aren’t being balanced on the backs of the least-paid workers? Will the Premier show them the “Monet”?

I won’t repeat what I just said, because of the importance of the AGO and the workers there that we see when we go over every day and the great work that they do.

I did mention at the outset, on the previous question, that they are in the midst of negotiations. I believe they’ve been to the table. I’m not sure if this means—I’m not sure what’s going on, but I will leave it in the hands of the experts and those who run the AGO and OPSEU to come to an agreement that will help the workers and those people get back to where they want to be.

The AGO is an important part of what we do in our community. It drives tourism, in spite of what is often talked about in this Legislature, which makes me really quite sad at times—when we don’t look at tourism as a driving force of this economy.

I’m confident that a deal will be reached, and I’m positive it will be good for both the AGO and the workers.