My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, who’s done phenomenal work bringing investment to Windsor-Essex like we’ve never seen before.

The carbon tax affects every single worker in Ontario. It doesn’t matter what sector you work in or how much money you make, the carbon tax is hurting everyone. Workers see it when they go to the pump to fill up their car with gas or when they go to the grocery store to buy food to put on the table for their families.

At the same time, it’s taking money away from business owners who want to invest in their workers. We want our businesses to succeed so we’ll have great-paying jobs. We need them in our country, in our communities all over the province. But we need the Liberals to stop burdening them with the carbon tax.

Can the minister explain how the carbon tax is hurting Ontario’s economy?

When the Liberals keep hiking taxes, they are pushing away entrepreneurs and businesses and stifling innovation. We want businesses to see Ontario as the place where they can succeed, but the Liberals are telling them not to come here, with their carbon tax.

Unfortunately, Bonnie Crombie and the Liberals in this House endorse the Trudeau Liberals’ approach. They want to see the carbon tax hiked every single year, to try to undo the progress we’ve made in Ontario.

We need the Prime Minister to stop listening to his Liberal friends and start listening to the hard-working people of this province.

Can the minister let the Liberals know the risks that accompany their carbon tax?

“Wow” is right. It’s a wow. I can’t believe what I just heard the member say. The people are not a little bit—they’re a thousand times better. There are 700,000 people collecting a paycheque who never collected a paycheque under them. There’s $28 billion of investment in the auto and EV sector that under their government—they ran them right out of our province. And wait until tomorrow: one of the largest investments in Canadian history in the auto sector. We’ll be announcing that.

So talk to the hundreds of thousands of people who have a secure job for years to come. Talk to the people who are in the tech sector—over $20 billion of investment. We’ve overtaken Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay area. We’re going 365% faster than that region when it comes to the tech sector.

Talk to the people who are employed with the $3-billion investment in life sciences, who have a stable job. Talk to all the businesses that we reduced $8 billion from—we have never raised a tax on the people or—

Interjections.

Tell the people who are filling up their gas tanks and looking at 17.5 cents more as we reduced gas by 10.7 cents. Talk to the kids behind me about the new schools that they’re seeing built across the province. You closed 600 schools; we’re building $16 billion of schools. Talk to the 12,500 doctors who are now registered right here in Ontario. Talk to the 80,000 nurses. When they were firing nurses, we registered 80,000 nurses.

Mr. Speaker, we have become an economic powerhouse, not just in North America but around the world. We’re going to continue growing Ontario—

I thank the member opposite for allowing me to answer the question. She touched upon the mental health; we’ve invested $3.8 billion in the Roadmap to Wellness with an increased focus on children’s mental health, increasing our investment by 25% to a half a billion dollars, which includes innovative programs. Currently, 120,000 children see this mental health support annually.

For children with special needs, our government took significant action. We’re investing an additional $105 million annually into children’s rehabilitation services. Our government will continue to ensure that the children are looked after for the future.

Listening to the children with lived experiences and the adults with lived experience was extremely important to ensure that we’re pushing this in the right direction.