I want to thank the member from Waterloo for a very compelling 60-minute speech and bringing back some great memories from the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs, particularly the incident in Oakville, which, I think, can’t be matched by any other experience.

I think every member in this House wants as much health care for their constituents as possible. That’s why I’m so happy to see new investments in health care, particularly in my riding, Windsor–Tecumseh. One of the reasons I’m here is, basically, the NDP candidate in my riding did not support the hospital, so the community responded.

These include $2 billion in over three years in home and community care, ensuring that people get the care they need right at home, and an unprecedented increase of 4% in funding for hospitals to ensure that they have the supports that they need to provide critical care to the people of Ontario.

I haven’t mentioned the new medical school in Canada that is focused on training family doctors.

So, Speaker, my question to the member from Waterloo is this: Our government is making historic investments to help Ontarians in health care. Will you join us in supporting those investments in this budget?

I wanted to know if the member from Perth–Wellington can acknowledge that when people at committee, for instance, are asking about child care or asking about health care or asking about their parents being separated in long-term care or access to take-home cancer drugs or access to autism services, and he comes back and says, “Well, the carbon tax”—I don’t know if you understand how insulting that is for people who have genuine concerns about the well-being of their family, and you come back and talk about the carbon tax.

I mean, you did talk about health care somewhat. You didn’t reference how the Minister of Health says that she’s not concerned about the diminished supply of doctors. This has to be worrisome for you, because rural communities are suffering.

And you certainly didn’t reference the doubling of the costs of the Premier’s office and staff.

Meanwhile, they continue to make very poor policy decisions that impact your—

Questions?

I want to ask a question about the cost of congestion on goods and services that are brought to so many places across this province.

In Niagara, we see that in this budget is funding for a vital doubling of the Skyway, a key link between the GTA and so many international borders. We know that this is a proactive step, to ensure that we don’t have a reactive approach to infrastructure projects, that we don’t see people stuck in traffic because previous governments failed to think ahead about where population growth was going.

I’m wondering if the member could speak a little bit about the impacts of congestion and how this is a government that—after so many years of failing to address the backlog in our infrastructure projects here in the province of Ontario—is finally taking measures to ensure that traffic is able to get going and goods are able to go to where they need to go.

Thank you. Response?

Third reading debate deemed adjourned.

The House adjourned at 1759.

It was very interesting today to listen to that member talk about how he cares about Ontario.

Yet, this morning, your entire caucus voted against 3.3 million caregivers—just terrible.

Also, you mentioned how you support agriculture, but 319 acres of prime farmland is being destroyed by your government every single day.

The budget says there will be money to help support enrolment increases of 2,000 registered nurses, 1,000 registered practical nurse seats, but we learned today that Ontario would need 33,200 more nurses and 50,000 more personal support workers by 2032.

When will this government pull their heads out of the sand and take more aggressive action to address the front-line staffing crisis we face—a lot of it because of Bill 124, which you supported?

J’aurais une question pour le collègue. I would have a question for him.

Transportation is something that is very important for my riding, especially on Highway 11. This weekend, I was at a sports and trade show and everybody I was talking to was talking about an accident that came close to my colleague here—truckers just having almost head-on collisions. And because there is no passing lane, these truckers go very close together and then when something happens, sometimes they try to avert. It was a near-miss; you have to see the video to believe how close that came.

But I didn’t see in the budget anything—because we’ve been advocating for the 2+1 divided highway; we’ve been asking to clear the snow after eight hours. But mostly, people are asking now for more passing lanes on Highway 11, which we need because now we’re seeing more transport and to avoid the situation that happened in Matheson. But also, remember Chad’s Law; one of my constituents almost died in a head-on collision with a truck because they were passing a double lane. There are no passing lanes, so they take chances where they shouldn’t be taking chances.

I’d like to hear from the colleague, when are we going to start seeing investment on Highway 11 to see passing lanes to protect people from northern Ontario on our highways?

Speaker, in Chatham-Kent–Leamington, few things are more important to people than safe communities and a secure Ontario. Our government is investing $46 million over three years to enhance front-line patrols and improve response times. We understand our communities’ concerns.

The member from Essex asked a clear question to the member from Waterloo and she refused to answer it. So, Speaker, through you, I’m going to ask the member for Perth–Wellington to share what his community thinks about our budget and how it keeps communities safe.

Very quickly to the member of Perth–Wellington—first of all, great work done: What is your message to the people of Ontario and the Minister of Finance about this budget?