I recognize the member from Hastings–Lennox and Addington.

I recognize the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

I want to thank my colleague for his excellent remarks as well. I’m pleased to join the debate on third reading of the Get It Done Act, an act that would make it easier and faster to build transit, housing and other critical infrastructure. Because all over our province, we’re seeing historic growth—465,000 new residents in the first half of last year alone—and this is a trend that will continue, with almost six million new people expected to come to Ontario in the next 20 years.

But we’re also seeing other incredible signs of growth in this province: 18,000 new businesses opening their doors in Ontario just last year. That’s over 40% of all the new businesses in Canada. And these new businesses are sprouting up in every corner of the province, from Barrie to Brockville, Innisfil to Ingersoll, and from Cornwall to Kenora. This includes investments—and I mean historic investments—in our auto sector.

Thanks to the leadership of this Premier, our government is strengthening Ontario’s position as a global leader across the electric vehicle supply chain. Over the past three years, we’ve attracted record-breaking automotive and EV-battery-related investments from global automakers, parts suppliers, and EV batteries and material manufacturers—and we heard a little bit from the previous speaker, who has a great investment of Umicore in his own riding as well.

But this is making us North America’s hub for building the cars of the future. It’s creating the jobs of the future. It’s historic investments like the one in Windsor, where LG Energy Solution and automaker Stellantis are joining forces to build the province’s first large-scale EV battery manufacturing plant. The NextStar Energy EV battery plant will support 2,500 Ontario workers, with more than $5 billion invested in Ontario. The plant is expected to be fully operational in 2025, and would be the first large-scale domestic EV battery manufacturing in Canada, with a production capacity of 45 gigawatt hours to supply Stellantis plants in North American markets.

And this morning, Speaker, I was in Alliston as Honda Canada announced a milestone $15-billion investment to establish a comprehensive electric vehicle supply chain, creating good-paying jobs right here in Ontario. This is a large-scale project that will see four new manufacturing plants in Ontario, and just next door in my riding of Barrie–Innisfil.

Honda will build an innovative and world-class EV assembly plant in Ontario, the first of its kind for Honda and the first in Canada, which will produce up to 240,000 vehicles per year. They will also build a new stand-alone battery manufacturing plant in Alliston, and to complete the supply chain, Honda will also build a cathode active material and processing plant through a joint venture partnership with POSCO Future M and a separator plant through a joint-venture partnership with another corporation.

Speaker, this is huge news. Today’s announcement not only secures the jobs of the 4,200 associates at its two existing facilities in Alliston, but it will also create more than 1,000 new jobs in Ontario. Make no mistake: This is the largest auto investment in Canadian history. It’s a strong vote of confidence in our government’s plan to build Ontario. Businesses know that under our government and under the leadership of this Premier, we have created the conditions for them to thrive and for Ontario to retake its rightful place as an economic engine of North America.

With today’s investment, I’m proud to say that Ontario has now landed over $43 billion in transformative auto and EV investments in the past three years. These are made-in-Ontario EVs that are not just a good-news story, but a great-news story for our environment and for our economy, and it has ripple effects.

Just on my way back from the announcement to the Legislature just now, I got a message from Matt McRae, who is an owner of a Tim Hortons in Beeton, just next door to Alliston where these thousands of jobs will be. He sees the great partnership we have with transforming the automotive sector, taking care of our environment but not forgetting small business owners like him by keeping taxes low and not raising fees, which is good news for his employers and his business. Certainly he’ll be providing coffee, tea and Timbits to way more workers.

But the fact is, over the last three years, Ontario has created more than 700,000 net new jobs—not just the jobs that Matt McRae, as I was speaking about, is creating in his own business, but all across the province, for today and tomorrow. We’re also building the infrastructure that is required. After all, those workers at Matt McRae’s Tim’s need roads to get on to get to work. Those workers are going to the Honda manufacturing plant, whether they’re waking up in Barrie, waking up in Innisfil, waking up in Alliston or today I met someone from Brampton who wakes up in Brampton and drives all the way down. They need roads to get to work.

And this government has an ambitious capital plan. It’s the most ambitious capital plan in Ontario’s history when it comes to building the infrastructure required. That’s because our government has planned investments over the next 10 years totalling $185 billion, getting shovels in the ground to build hospitals, highways and other critical assets for Ontario’s growing population, laying the foundation for a strong Ontario: investments like the new Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program, a $1-billion fund to largely support core infrastructure projects such as roads and water infrastructure, to enable housing for growing and developing communities, because we know that building more homes is critical to accommodating Ontario’s growth. Those workers who are going to be working at those Honda plants need a home to live in. Again, whether they’re in Barrie, Innisfil, Newmarket, Aurora or surrounding communities, need a place to live. They need roads to drive on to get to their jobs.

That’s why investments like the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund, which helps municipalities repair, rehabilitate and expand drinking water, waste water and stormwater infrastructure, are important. The government is quadrupling the housing-enabling water systems. Our government announced $200 million for this fund in January of this year, and then announced that it would be quadrupled to $825 million in the 2024 Ontario budget. This increase would make more funding available for municipal water infrastructure projects, which in turn would enable much-needed new housing.

Our government is improving flexibility on loans for water infrastructure projects, helping ensure that this growth does not come at the expense of the environment. We will provide municipalities increased access to financing for housing-enabling municipal water and waste water infrastructure projects under the Infrastructure Ontario Loan Program. Municipalities will be given options that will provide flexibility on things like construction period interest payments, including deferred interest payments until projects are substantively complete, long-term loans, more flexible repayment terms and lower administration costs. Deferring interest and principal payments until after the construction period will better align municipal revenues from new housing with payments on the loans from Infrastructure Ontario.

Speaker, I’ve given you just a few examples of the incredible growth occurring all across Ontario and a few examples of the programs our government has established or is establishing as part of its 10-year, $185-billion infrastructure plan, a plan that is certainly ambitious, a plan that will require everyone to work together. I can assure you that this government is up to the task. And as the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, I am ready and willing to play a vital role.

One of the ways we will be doing this is through modernizing and improving the environmental assessment process. We’ve taken a hard look at our policies and processes and found ways to make them smarter and more efficient, to get shovels in the ground to finish major projects sooner. It’s through these improvements that we will modernize Ontario’s environmental assessment program while maintaining environment protections. Over the past several years, we’ve consulted extensively with municipalities, Indigenous communities and key stakeholders on ways to do just that.

I’m here today to speak about a minor change to the Environmental Assessment Act that we’re proposing in the Get It Done Act, 2024. It will help municipalities, provincial ministries and other provincial government agencies when planning for infrastructure development. It would clarify the ways that property can be acquired for a project before the environmental assessment process is complete. This proposed change would provide greater certainty to municipalities and other proponents as they plan for future projects. Project proponents will still have to comply with all other applicable legislation.

I would like to thank my colleagues for allowing me to talk about building up Ontario’s infrastructure and to emphasize its great importance, and how we are continuing to build up Ontario, and how I, as the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, am playing my role in this government with my great team members as we are creating homes for the future, roads for those who need to get to work and creating lasting investments for generations to come, all while protecting our great environment.

It’s an honour to rise in the House today as part of the government’s leadoff of third reading debate of Bill 162, the Get It Done Act, 2024, alongside my caucus colleagues the Minister of Transportation, the Associate Minister of Transportation and the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

On behalf of the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery, it’s my pleasure to be here to highlight the details of the bill, which, if passed, will impact every corner of the province to provide relief to millions of drivers, vehicle owners and users of the Ontario photo card.

Since first forming government in 2018 and given a second mandate by the Ontario voters in 2022, our government and our ministry have been focusing our efforts on delivering customer-focused services to you—the hard-working people and businesses of Ontario, and we continue delivering this commitment through ServiceOntario, our hub for service delivery for the province and the public face of government.

Madam Speaker, our government is taking a responsible approach to rebuilding Ontario’s economy through smart investments and without—and I say this twice—without raising taxes. While Ontario households continue to struggle, families are feeling the pressures caused by high interest rates and global instability. Ontarians need to know that their government will be there for them. Under the leadership of Premier Ford, rest assured they can count on us to provide real, meaningful changes for Ontarians through this signature omnibus bill. By keeping costs down, we are going to do what’s needed to get it done.

This is not just important legislation, it’s a key piece of our government’s overall strategy to save the people of Ontario time and money and make government services simpler, faster and better. That is why our ministry has been proud to work with the Ministry of Transportation to make this a reality—changes that allow people and businesses of this province to keep more of their hard-earned money in their pockets while modernizing systems that they rely on.

Speaker, it has been two years since our government first removed licence plate renewal fees and stickers for passenger vehicles like trucks, motorcycles and mopeds. This change has resulted in an annual savings of $120 for vehicle owners—per year, per person, per car—in southern Ontario and $60 a year in northern Ontario.

Our latest proposed changes to the Highway Traffic Act are paving the way for the transition to automatic renewal of licence plates. With this bill, we are building on our government’s decision in 2022 to eliminate licence plate renewal fees, making the entire renewal process automatic, providing both convenience and affordability. In the meantime, it’s important to note that before the automatic renewal process begins later this year, vehicle owners will still need to renew their licence plates, at no cost, which can easily be done online or in person at a ServiceOntario centre.

With the renewal of licence plates being one of the most in-demand government services, we are proud to share this service to Ontarians 24/7 through ServiceOntario. Automatic licence renewal is just another way our government is working to develop new and improved online services to match the fast pace of our ever-evolving digital world.

Of course, we need to make sure that every driver renews their licence plates, and while our government has eliminated the fee, we did not eliminate the requirement to renew the licence plate itself.

Speaker, it is very important to note that this automatic renewal process will only be available to drivers in good standing. This means drivers that have outstanding fines or tickets and do not have valid insurance will not be able to renew online or at ServiceOntario until those procedures are paid. Starting this summer, this new process will begin to save drivers’ time by automating the licence plate renewal process, resulting in savings of more than 900,000 hours each year for vehicle owners.

Interjections.

The member from Cambridge.

Thank you to the member.

Questions?

I want to thank the member opposite for that question. Let’s look at the facts here. We work with local municipal leaders and leadership across this province to come to decisions that are reflected here, but what’s most important is we’re building 1.5 million houses over the next 10 years.

But what does this act also do? It helps us accelerate public transit and the building of the Hazel McCallion line across this province, where we’re building houses and making sure we can build for generations to come. We’re also looking at ways to speed up the building of public transit: $70 billion over the next 10 years.

We’re also looking at ways to speed up how we can build highways in this province. We know how important they are. It doesn’t matter where you live in this province. We’re going to build Highway 413, the Bradford Bypass, and Highways 11, 17, 69. We’re building all across Ontario because that’s what the future generations of this province deserve.

Thank you.

Additionally, the Get It Done Act, 2024, also proposes to make the current freeze on drivers’ licence and Ontario photo card fees permanent through this legislation. We originally put a freeze in place through regulation in 2019, and it has saved applicants $22 million since that time—a remarkable number. It’s estimated this change will save drivers $66 million over the next five years.

We have seen time and time again the opposition parties have never seen a tax hike they did not like, and that is why we are enshrining this freeze into law to ensure that when they attempt to hit you with more fees, they cannot sneak these fees in.

This legislation is a catalyst for positive change. It is all about putting customers at the centre of everything we do to save people precious time and money by putting money back in the pockets of fellow citizens and residents and stimulating economic growth. It ensures that our citizens and residents are respected and saved from the financial obligation of increasing fees when paying to renew their driver’s licence and when obtaining their Ontario photo card.

Last year, our government removed the tolls on Highways 412 and 418, and with this legislation we are proposing to prohibit the introduction of any new tolls on any highways. This is one of the most common-sense ways we are helping to boost our economy without adding any financial burden to the people of Ontario.

If passed, the Get It Done Act, 2024, will build on our government’s commitments to date with streamlined approvals for major infrastructure projects, housing and keeping costs down for people and businesses and support economic growth for long-term prosperity. It will also play a valuable role in empowering the citizens and businesses of Ontario by giving them a leg up in making ends meet more easily. This legislation aligns with the work our government and our ministry, the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery, has done to help create stronger communities in Ontario and better opportunities for future generations.

Madam Speaker and fellow members, our government is on a mission to keep costs down for families and businesses, and it ultimately makes life simpler, faster and more convenient for Ontarians in every corner of the province. I am very proud to stand here and say we are well on the road to building a strong Ontario.

With the growing number of passenger vehicles on the road, this multifaceted piece of legislation promises to be a game-changer for millions of vehicle owners who call Ontario home. The Get It Done Act, 2024, has garnered significant support from stakeholders such as the Ontario Motor Coach Association, Motor Coach Canada, the Ontario Trucking Association, the CAA Club Group and many more, including municipal partners. It is thanks to the support and feedback of our stakeholders that we can continue working with them to get it done for this great province.

A strong Ontario needs better transit, better roads, expanded high-speed Internet availability and more homes built for our growing population. To support these essential goals, Ontario is helping contain the costs of building roads and new homes.

The House recently passed the Building Infrastructure Safely Act, 2024, which enhances the locate delivery system and prohibits underground infrastructure owners and operators from charging fees to locate underground infrastructure. Underground infrastructure owners or operators will not be able to charge fees for locates. We are reducing the potential for spiralling costs while protecting our workers and the public as well as the critical infrastructure below us. It also enhances efficiency and is an effective approach to building critical infrastructure safely, like improving transit, connecting people to high-speed Internet and getting homes built.

Our government is making tremendous progress on reducing regulatory burdens and enhancing consumer protections so the people and businesses of Ontario can thrive. The Get It Done Act, if passed, will allow Ontario to reduce red tape and streamline approval processes for key infrastructure investments to help get shovels in the ground sooner and save taxpayer dollars.

Our proposed measures in this bill reinforce our commitment to cutting red tape and improving processes to better the everyday lives of fellow citizens and residents across Ontario. This is why our ministry is always considering ways to reduce burden, improve predictability and save businesses compliance costs by looking for these opportunities to eliminate administrative burdens for those seeking permits, licences, information or any other type of government approval, and improving the overall user experience by making it easier than ever to get required information and services.

This past January, our minister announced measures to make it easier and more affordable for Indigenous people to access records and services, reducing barriers for Indigenous communities and individuals seeking that information. We introduced permanently waived fees for death registration searches, death certificates and certified copies of death registrations for impacted Indigenous people. During what is no doubt an already extremely difficult time, this latest update will provide ongoing financial relief for impacted Indigenous communities and their families throughout Ontario.

Madam Speaker, these are just a few examples. I am proud of the role that I play in the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery in fulfilling our government’s commitment in reducing barriers for Ontarians and saving them time and money.

It has been my pleasure addressing you all today to highlight in detail the exciting components of this proposed legislation that touches upon our ministry’s work. As always—

My question is to the minister. I’m looking at schedule 3 of this bill as it relates to the official plan, and this schedule restores some of the forced urban boundary expansions that had been opposed by local municipalities. Speaker, it repackages the same decisions that were at the heart of the greenbelt scandal. So my question is, have you learned nothing from the greenbelt scandal?

Further questions?

Further questions?

I have a question for the minister about schedule 6 of this bill, which, of course, as the minister knows prohibits tolls on provincial highways unless there is an act authorizing the toll, which is currently what is in place in Ontario.

There are two acts authorizing tolls: the Highway 407 Act and the Highway 407 East Act. If the minister really cared about helping Ontarians’ pocketbooks, why did he not remove tolls off the two highways in this province that do have tolls?

I was just looking at the name of the act, the Get It Done Act, and son of a gun, if anything says get it done louder, it’s $15 billion worth of Honda investment in the province of Ontario. Now, that’s getting it done.

That’s just occupying everything that I’m thinking about today, so I’m going to toss this question over to the minister and say, how is your ministry interacting with this Honda investment, this incredible, life-changing investment, the most historic, the biggest, largest, most enormous automobile investment in the history of Canada? How is your ministry going to interact with that?

What I’m saying is from me, but it is the numbers that speak louder than the words: $68 million in approximate savings from the removal of tolls on Highways 412 and 418 over 2022 to 2027; $22 million in approximate savings to date due to freezes on drivers’ licence fees; $66 million in approximate savings due to freezes on drivers’ licence and Ontario photo cards, between 2024 and 2029; 30 minutes—the average time drivers will save with the building of Highway 413. This is incredible.

To the member from Cambridge: In my riding of Mississauga–Malton I’ve heard several complaints regarding the lack of affordability here in Ontario. Can you please highlight how this legislation, if passed, would help make life more affordable for Ontarians all across?

Now more than ever, we need to keep costs down for the people and businesses, and this is why our government is putting more money back in families’ pockets by removing unnecessary fines and fees, strengthening protections against new toll highways. Since day one, it’s always been a priority for our government that we wanted to do this.

We have also enhanced affordability and convenience for the eight million vehicle owners by eliminating licence plate renewal fees and the need for licence plate stickers. This will save Ontario drivers approximately $66 million between 2024 and 2029 due to the government’s proactive action in freezing fees for drivers’ licences and Ontario photo cards.

Our government has extended the gas and fuel tax rate cuts through June 30, 2024, and, with this extension, it is expected to save households an average of $260 each year. Also, thanks to our Fewer Fees, Better Services Act passed in 2022, our government has abolished licence plate renewal fees and the need for licence plate stickers for specified vehicles. Lastly, we’ve invested over $28 billion across Ontario to make commuting and our infrastructure more affordable.

Our government has taken action to get it done for the people of Ontario by proposing—

I’ll ask my question to the member for Brampton South—the minster. This bill is called the Get it Done Act, and I’ve got to say, there’s an incredible irony, because I’ve got a list of seven bills that this Conservative government has had to reverse because they got it wrong: Bill 124, Bill 28, Bill 35, Bill 39, Bill 112, Bill 136 and Bill 150. These cover things like stripping education workers of their constitutional rights and protections under the Human Rights Code, the paving over of the greenbelt, the dissolution of Peel and the reversing the urban boundary expansion.

Rather than calling this the Get It Done Act, should this government not be known as the ready, fire, aim, we got it wrong and have to reverse it act?

Thank you very much to the member for that question. What an important question. It doesn’t happen by chance, Madam Speaker. We’re competing with international sites across North America and across other jurisdictions. It’s because of the vision of this Premier that we have been able to land over $30 billion of EV investments.

You know what? It’s because we’re committed to building highways. We’re committing to building transit, we’re committed to building homes, something the Liberals and the NDP have said no to every step of the way. In fact, they continue to campaign against projects like the Bradford Bypass and Highway 413.

We need those critical pieces of infrastructure to attract investment, like the one the member is talking about: a $15-billion investment, one of the most historic—the largest investment in Ontario’s history for an auto manufacturing facility. Thank God we have someone like Premier Ford leading this province because under the Liberals and the NDP, all they know how to do is raise taxes, cancel projects, not build anything, be NIMBYs. But under this government we’re getting it done and we’re getting projects built.

When it comes to fighting for pocketbooks, when it comes to fighting for Ontarians, there’s only one Premier and one government that does it, and that’s ours. Whether it was removing the tolls off of Highways 412 or 418 it was this government, under this Premier, that led that charge. It’s so unfortunate that any time we bring any measure forward, whether it be tax cuts, fee decreases or other measures to support the people of this province, the NDP and Liberals vote against it. We’re always going to put more money back into the pockets of hard-working families.

We’ve landed $30 billion since this government has come in because of the measures we have taken. We have cut taxes on businesses and people in this province, and we have put more money back into their pockets. The NDP vote against every single one of our measures, every single one of these workers who are being supported by these EV investments.

Those members have an opportunity to vote in this budget, in our budgets, to support them. What do they do? They say no to every single thing that this government is doing, whether that’s reducing taxes, fighting the carbon tax or taking 10 cents a litre off your gas costs.

We’re going to continue to get to done. We’re going to continue to build over $180 billion over the next 10 years. This is about building for the next generation.

It’s always an honour to stand in the House. Today we’re doing Bill 162. The working title is the Get It Done Act. I’ve got to say, Thursday afternoons, we’re all struggling. A few of us on the government side aren’t struggling; I appreciate that.

Before I get into the formal remarks, today is the last day for the current group of pages, and I’d just like to make a thank you again for all their work. We couldn’t survive without them.

There’s another group of people who are here for longer periods, our ushers, and they all should have a medal of honour because they actually have to be here all the time and listen all the time. That’s pretty tough. One particular usher, this is his last day: Steve. Steve and I have a bit of a love-hate relationship, I’ve got to say, because Steve—where is Steve? There’s Steve. Give us a wave, Steve. Come on. Get up there. Give us a wave.

Steve has got the meanest evil eye. I come around the corner and I’m running my hand along the banister; that’s a rule that I found out you’re not supposed to do. There’s Steve. Another day, I come and I’m just finishing my muffin, so I have some in my hand, and there’s Steve. I’ve got to say, on all our behalf, to all the ushers—especially to Steve on your last day—thank you very much for your service to this province.

The last time I spoke to this bill, at second reading, I spent quite a bit of time talking about how it was called the Get It Done Act. It’s still the Get It Done Act and in northern Ontario, we hear “get ’er done.” And I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this, but we don’t think of smart, thoughtful things when we hear “the get ’er done act.” We just don’t. When you hire somebody and he goes, “I’ll get ’er done,” you just know that it might work, but it might not work very well. I might go back to that a little bit later.

But I listened very intently to the minister. I have a lot of respect for all the members of this House. I do. I respect this place. I respect people’s points of view. I often disagree and they often disagree with me, and that’s what makes this place cool.

He said, “Our track record speaks for itself.” The member from—

—Spadina–Fort York just brought up that this government has had to rescind seven bills. I would say that that part of the record also speaks for itself. That’s a lot of getting ’er done and then thinking “oops.” That’s a record. Your record speaks for itself, that you are the undisputed, unqualified get-’er-done kings and queens. No other government has put forward such egregious legislation that the same government has had to say, “Oops. Oops. We’ve got to get that undone, because we got caught.”

Again, we disagree with some things on philosophy. You won a majority government; I get that. I get that. We’re not disputing that. But some of the things that you do, you know it yourself. You know it yourself and you still let it happen. And that’s why, when I’m listening and listening to the minister say, “Our track record speaks for itself”—and those seven, these weren’t little things.

I can talk about a couple. The famous blue licence plates: That’s not going to change the world. Actually, no; it could change some people’s lives, because as soon as those things came out, you realized that you couldn’t see them at night. That’s a bad thing, right? And that wasn’t one of the seven bills. So then it was, “You know, okay, yes. Our careful planning and changing the colour to the Conservative blue—yes, okay, we’ll get rid of those.”

I have a friend who bought a car in that period—and I’m going to talk about cars later, because we all want to have the car industry be very robust in this province. He bought a car, a brand new one, with the blue licence plate, and I said to him, I remember—he’s a good friend of mine. I said, “Do you know what? The government just said that these things are no good, but when they send you the new one, hold on to it, because it’ll be a collectors’ item, kind of like a penny that wasn’t minted correctly.” And we waited and we waited, years and years and years, and then the government came out with their plan how they’re going to get rid of the blue licence plates: They’re just going to wait until they fall off. That is the plan.

Interjection.

That’s just a little thing, but some of the things that you’ve had to rescind—the greenbelt grab—it was obvious right when it happened, right when you announced what you were doing. It was obvious to almost everyone in the province that that wasn’t going to fly. It just wasn’t, and it didn’t, and you had to back up on your legislation. There are still problems, and I’m not going to dwell on it, but you have a few hangovers from it, particularly an RCMP investigation, so obviously this isn’t a philosophical difference. That’s much deeper than philosophical—much deeper.

So when you say that your track record speaks for itself, I would say you have to take that with a huge—not a grain of salt, but a big cube. I always use farm references, and I’m not going anywhere where people think I’m going, but anybody who has ever been on a farm—cows need salt, and farmers buy big blocks of salt. You can buy white ones, blue ones or red ones. So when this government says that they have this track record that speaks for itself, you need to take it with a big blue block of salt.

The Minister of Transportation also said that bumper-to-bumper traffic is tough on your mental health. I agree with that. I come from northern Ontario. I don’t do a lot of bumper-to-bumper traffic until I drive here. My trip here, if traffic here is good, basically from Queen’s Park to my home, is six hours—if traffic here is good. If traffic here isn’t good, it’s six-plus hours. I get bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Now, the government is very aggressive on Highway 413. We disagree philosophically. But bumper-to-bumper traffic is happening now, so even with the things this government is trying to do with the 413—actually, some of them might slow things down, because when you don’t do your due diligence, people push back much harder. If you’re going to do a quality, qualified environmental assessment, it might seem like it’s taking a long time, but if you don’t do it, you’re going to run into protests and it’s going to be much tougher. I’ll get back into that with the Mining Act.

So let’s say it takes—anybody got a guess? How long is it going to take to actually start and complete the 413? Twenty years? Ten? Let’s go for 15.

Interjection.

So we’re talking about the 413, the planning, blah, blah, blah. Who owns the land around the 413 also might run into some investigative problems. But all that time, people are still in bumper-to-bumper traffic. So although we differ philosophically completely on the 413, there’s something that the NDP proposed that we could do tomorrow and would help people’s mental health tomorrow—

Take the tolls off the 407 for trucks. The government forgave the company that owns the 407 a billion dollars in fees because, during COVID, they couldn’t come up with them. So, instead of forgiving that billion dollars, say, “Okay. We want, as a start, a billion dollars of coupons for trucks,” and get the trucks off the 407 so people can actually get home on the 401. That’s something that would help people tomorrow. The 413 is going to help them—if it helps them at all—20 years from now. The government is very opposed to that. We put that forward—maybe they’re just opposed to it because we put it forward, the official opposition put it forward.

Something else that the Minister of Transportation said is that we are opposed to everything. Actually, that’s not true, but I am very proud, extremely proud that we voted against every one of those bills that you had to rescind. We’re very proud that we had nothing to do with the bills that are causing that RCMP investigation—very proud.

We vote against your budgets because there are always financial measures in those budgets that we are opposed to. But when this government puts forward—and amazingly, I give credit where credit’s due. Sometimes they put forward legislation that moves the bar forward in certain areas, and we support them, as much as some days it pains me. But if legislation moves the bar forward, we’re happy to vote for it. That’s our job. It’s our job to criticize, to oppose, to propose, to hold the government to account, and also, when the government puts forward legislation that we agree with, to support. But that is not, it appears to us, the way the government operates.

Again, the Minister of Transportation said that we have some of the most congested highways in North America. We have them today, I think we could all agree, except for the 407. It’s not congested. The 407 was actually—if I remember, they didn’t actually sell the 407, right? A previous Conservative government didn’t actually sell the 407; they leased it out for 99 years. Didn’t they just lease out something else for—oh, no, Ontario Place. They only leased it out for 95—only 95. Nothing to see here, folks. Nothing to see here at all. What could go wrong with a 95-year lease? I’ll tell you what could go wrong. A 99-year lease on the 407, that could go wrong. We can’t change that because you can’t—any good government, you have to live by—I guess, when a government makes a law, when that law is passed and when companies base their decisions on those laws, you can’t retract. That’s the way our system works.

Actually, this government did for the first time—at least the first time since I’ve been here. I’ve been here a while, Speaker. Like, I’m not one of these 30-year-type people, but I’ve been here 12 and a half. In dog years that would be a lifetime, but in legislative years it feels like a lifetime, too. If it was 12 and a half years of Thursday afternoons, it would be tough, and as the Speaker sitting here Thursday afternoon, you know that, Speaker.

Now, I’ve completely lost my place. Oh, yes, now I know where I am. Okay. I do actually have notes for this speech; I just haven’t got there yet. I just haven’t got there yet. I’m just hoping that nobody does a point of order that I have to stay to the speech, because I can get really quiet and dry if you want me to. Okay.

But when this government was first elected, if you will recall, the former Liberal government was not actually supported by the NDP, because the only time the Liberals were supported by the NDP was between 2011 and 2013 or 2014. That’s when I first got elected, in the minority. And after that, there was an election, and do you know what happened in that election? The people of Ontario picked the Liberals over the Conservatives and over us, and they had a majority. And then they did it again. So, that had nothing to do with the NDP supporting the Liberals for those two majorities. That had to do with the people of Ontario making a decision. I didn’t agree, either. I didn’t vote for the Liberals in those two elections—obviously, I hope.

Getting back, when this government was first elected, the Liberal government prior had created the Green Energy Act and they tendered contracts for private companies to create power, wind and solar, and do you know what? Those contracts were far too high. I think we can all agree. They were not good contracts, but they were tendered by a duly elected government, and then this government made legislation to cancel those contracts. Again, a government can do that. But what this government did, and it should never be done, is they had a clause in that bill that the companies involved who lost those contracts could not sue or could not have remedy to keep themselves whole.

So, if you’ve got a great deal on a wind turbine or on solar panels and the government was wrong enough to do it, or miscalculated to do it—and then the next government says, “Okay, you got that deal. You spent untold millions of dollars building those windmills,” and then the next government says, “We’re going to cancel that, and do you know what? You can’t even sue us to get that cost back.” It said that in the legislation. I know it did; I had a long talk with the President of the Treasury Board at that time. That is the kind of rash decisions of a new government, kind of like the blue licence plates—much worse than the blue licence plates. And this government didn’t actually learn, because after that is when they started taking these big bills and then having to rescind them—basically things that they saw that the people of Ontario rejected wholeheartedly and completely.

Something else that the Minister of Transportation said in his speech—and I’m taking all these subjects, Speaker, from the minister’s speech, not directly from the legislation, but I listened intently to his speech. He talked about how the government was going to upload the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway from the city of Toronto. That’s something that we understand. I think I would agree with that. Those aren’t really city streets; they’re major provincial thoroughfares. But coming from northern Ontario, there are miles and miles—or, okay, we’re metric now, right?—kilometres and kilometres and kilometres of former provincial highways that were downloaded by a former Conservative Premier, Premier Mike Harris. Kilometres and kilometres—imperial is not unparliamentary, eh? No.

But anyway, I’ve got the town of Iroquois Falls. It’s got more kilometres of former provincial highway per person than anyone else in the province, and they’re having to close bridges, because do you know what? Their tax base just can’t maintain it. Does it make sense for the province to upload major thoroughfares that actually aren’t really part of the city’s infrastructure? I’ll give them that. But in farm language, we have what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. So if it’s good for Toronto—and Toronto is a huge part of the GTA. When you’re from northern Ontario, we basically think of Toronto as anywhere south of Barrie, really. I didn’t really start to differentiate until I got elected, because for us, that’s where it starts to get busy. We get it. For a northerner who doesn’t go south very often, we start to get really nervous around Barrie, because that’s where it gets busy—not from the people, but just the congestion. So we just think of that as Toronto.

But now I’ve been here for 12 and a half years, so I live here six months a year, and now I know. I know there’s a big difference between the downtown and Scarborough and Milton and Mississauga. I know there’s a big difference, and I’ve learned a lot, actually. I really enjoy the Legislature for that, because when I listen to other people’s speeches—and I do the same thing, right? We all focus on the places we’re from, and we do that for our own reasons too, so the people know that we are representing them. But it’s really interesting, if you listen to what drives different places. I really find that interesting.

Something else I really find interesting is listening to people—what they did before; their pasts—because there’s a lot of lived knowledge. It really makes a difference.

But getting back to the roads: You want to upload the Gardiner and upload the Don Valley? Go to it. But how about we also look at uploading roads not just in—I know northern Ontario, northeastern Ontario. I know my part in northern Ontario. Northern Ontario is a big place. But what about those roads? It’s easy to forget.

Another issue: I wasn’t going to talk about this very deeply, but I think I’m going to. There was a big announcement today about Honda EVs. I think everyone in this House wants to have a robust car industry, and right now, we’re in a transformational change between fossil fuels and EV. I don’t think there’s anyone here opposed, at all. But there’s a few—not “buts”; we’re not opposed at all. But it’s our job to say, “Have you thought about this? Have you thought about this? Have you thought about this?” That’s our job too, because we come from all across the province.

I think one of the reasons why big companies are coming here and making investments in battery plants and car plants is that we have a stable society—which we do. Compared to much of the rest of the world, we have a stable society, which I’m very proud of. And we should have access to natural resources, to supply—and the government’s good at talking about this, and I agree—the supply chain. I agree with that. But parts of the supply chain, you haven’t fully thought through.

The member from Kiiwetinoong asked a very important question this morning. I’m here asking it again, and it’s not something I fully understand either. But free, prior and informed consent, not just from one or two First Nations, but from the First Nations that are involved—obviously I’m not First Nations and I cannot speak for them, but I can speak for how we’ve gone through this cycle in northern Ontario too.

I come from a mining area, and I’m very proud of it. We have great mining companies. One of our biggest mining companies is Agnico Eagle. They’re very good to work with. They have a very good environmental record. But it has been that the minerals come from the north, the industry is in the south, and then when something changes, the north is just left. And no one knows that better than First Nations because it’s happened time and time again. I’m sure that the companies that you’re dealing with need the assurance that those minerals are available, and we have them. But I’ll tell you something, and this was very early on: When the Premier said that if the road wasn’t quick enough, he’d get on the bulldozer himself, that sent a chill through northern Ontario, because what that said is, you know what, we don’t really matter. If the south needs it, it’s going to happen. That is not going to speed things up.

I’m not saying this to—we want this to succeed, as Ontarians. We all want this to succeed, but when you’re going to pick one or two and leave three or four behind and say, “Oh, we’ve consulted everybody,” you’re going to run into problems, perhaps much bigger problems than you’ve ever envisioned, and that, that is a problem—I’ve said problems a couple of times. That could potentially slow this down, slow your EV supply chain down way more than some of you are considering, and we don’t want that to happen.

So we need—please, when someone asks if it’s going to be free, prior and informed consent, it means something. It really means something, because for First Nations in northern Ontario, they’ve signed treaties that no one has ever lived up to. So having us say, “Trust us, we’ll give you this and this; just trust us, everything is going to be fine,” they’ve heard that song and dance before. Northerners have all heard that song. And as a white son of an immigrant, I can’t speak for First Nation people at all, but as a northerner, I can speak to this: that we have all heard that song and dance before.

We need to make sure that the people of the north are actually partners, true partners. And I think that the companies we’re dealing with want that too. I heard the Minister of Transportation talk about mining and how they’ve changed, they’re removing the red tape. And the mining companies I’ve talked to—it does take too long to permit a mine in Ontario, right? We’re not disagreeing with that. But changing, removing the red tape and regulation isn’t actually the problem.

So one of our major mining companies in my area—they have gold mines in my area—Agnico Eagle, they also have a gold mine in Nunavut. Nunavut has stronger environmental regulations than Ontario—much stronger—but the permitting process is much faster. So that’s the issue, because modern mining has a good reputation. Mining didn’t always have a good reputation. We have lots of old mines in our area that left environmental degradation, lots, but modern mining now doesn’t. They need to protect that reputation, and that reputation is protected by regulation, so I’m not sure that you’re actually solving the problem. I’m not sure, because for mining to be accepted in a region—and we have lots of mines; we have some new ones being built—everyone has to be confident that everyone will be protected by the regulations.

Saying that we’re going to get rid of red tape and get rid of regulations is not actually doing that. Saying that we need to make the permitting process faster—have actual hard dates for mining—that’s really important. I’m sure it’s really important for the EV companies too, that they have hard dates, because when they’re talking about billions of dollars—the government is putting in billions of dollars—they have milestones and goals that they have to hit, because they also have to have major investors. This is a tough gig, so you need dates.

You don’t want surprises. I’ll give you a little surprise: You want to get to the Ring of Fire? You want a road to the Ring of Fire? Okay. But the road we have now from North Bay to there will never handle the equipment you need to get there.

I hear the Minister of Transportation say, “We’re going to improve Highway 11.” On Highway 11, to the former Minister of Transportation’s credit—Minister Mulroney—she actually got the 2+1 passing lanes approved. I give credit where credit is due. She did that. We worked very hard along with the GEMS committee to get that done, but that is not going to help you get to the Ring of Fire. You’re going to need millions—billions—of dollars. I don’t know how much it costs to build good roads, exactly, but from North Bay north you do not have the roads. Forget where you don’t have a road at all—you’re going to have to build a lot there too—but the roads from North Bay north aren’t going to get the stuff there either. That doesn’t come from me, that comes from the president of the Ontario Road Builders’ Association.

There are a lot of things that we’ve got to do and that we would support you on, but let’s really talk about this.

Before I run out of time, I actually better look at some of these notes. There’s one other thing—and it’s in the notes too. I do believe the actual name of the bill has something about carbon tax, that there’s not going to be any new carbon taxes allowed without a referendum or something.

This government is very opposed to the federal carbon tax, as the NDP has never been in favour of federal carbon tax, by the way—ever. We think it’s regressive. We did vote for cap-and-trade. This government scrapped it. The minister said, “We got rid of cap-and-trade. We took the government to court on the carbon tax.”

Just for the record, the federal carbon tax is a backstop program. If the province has its own program and it meets the goals of taking carbon out of the atmosphere, you don’t have to pay the carbon tax. Quebec doesn’t pay the carbon tax. Please correct me if I’m wrong, because I’ve been known sometimes to have the occasional misinformation—not on purpose—but Quebec doesn’t pay the carbon tax because they have cap-and-trade.

The province cancels cap-and-trade, then fights the federal government on the carbon tax, spends millions of dollars and loses the court battle. Now it’s basically become a political battle. They’re helping their federal friends and they’re blaming every problem on the carbon tax. Again, let’s make it clear: We are not in favour of the carbon tax.

Now they have in this legislation that if another government wants to put any other carbon pricing system in, they have to hold a referendum. The only carbon-pricing system that’s exempt from that is the one that this government itself implemented. They have a carbon tax. It’s an industrial compliance fee for carbon.

I’m not going to say who said this, but I had a conversation with one of the members. And when I asked him about it, he said, “Well, it’s more than two words. Nobody will understand it.” But this government has an indirect carbon tax. So because of this government, Ontarians are paying two. They’re paying a federal one, which we don’t agree with either, but they’re getting rebated for most of that. But for the industrial compliance fee, there’s no rebate.

Some of the government’s arguments I believe. The government continues to say that if you had a cap-and-trade system, the extra costs of cap-and-trade will filter through the system and end up making things cost more. You know what? That’s fairly good logic. So the government’s own industrial compliance fee for carbon—that cost will also filter through the system and make things cost more. So there’s no rebate for that.

I really would like a good debate on this. Don’t quote me on the number; I don’t have it in front of me. But I believe last year it was $140 million, $150 million, what the government brought in. Where does that money go?

Again, I think people have figured out by now that I’m not—we have a few PhDs in economics; I am not. I use farmer economics. Since the federal carbon tax is a backstop program—if you have your own program, you shouldn’t have to pay the federal carbon tax. To me, the government has that program, the industrial compliance fee for carbon. Maybe it’s not robust enough to meet the goals. I’m not qualified to say that. Maybe it’s not. But you would think the government is also spending quite a bit of money to change the Hamilton blast furnaces to electric, but that also reduces carbon, and all the EVs. Couldn’t the government actually use that to make the argument that we have a robust enough program so we wouldn’t have to pay the carbon tax? Like, put some horsepower behind it to actually do that?

I’m seeing a lot of noes, but the fact is, we do have a provincial compliance fee, which is very similar to cap-and-trade—very similar. So you cancel cap-and-trade, and you put in something else, but you don’t talk about that. Nobody wants to talk about the compliance fee, but it’s there. It’s there. So even if you make the argument: “You know what? We’ve already got our own system. Maybe we should pay less carbon tax than the other provinces because we already have at least a partial system”—but you don’t want to admit that you actually have a system. That’s crazy, because you should be proud of anything you do to reduce carbon, even if we disagree on how you’re doing it. For the life of me, I don’t understand.

You go through the theatrics of trying to tie a future government—or maybe your own government, because this government has been known for flip-flopping. So maybe you have in your caucus a big bunch of people who are pro carbon tax, so you’re trying to stop yourselves from putting in another carbon tax. I don’t understand. But the referendum—I really don’t understand what you’re trying to do, because you have your own carbon tax and you’ve exempted your own program from the referendum. What are you doing?

There are things in here—we’re going to get back to the 407. We’re not going to have any tolls. I didn’t know this coming from northern Ontario, I didn’t know this until very recently—I always thought that when the massive mistake was made to lease out the 407—that the whole 407 belonged to some private—is it a Spanish company? I don’t know where they’re from.

Spadina–Fort York.

Today.