Just over a week ago, I joined Premier Ford along with the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade on the banks of the Welland Canal in Port Colborne as our government welcomed one of the largest private sector investments in Niagara’s history. Asahi Kasei Corp.’s investment of approximately $1.6 billion to build an electric vehicle battery separator plant in Port Colborne is a game-changer for our region and this province. It’s going to be an industrial anchor job creator in Niagara. I know more exciting investments like this one are on the horizon.

From mining critical minerals to building cars and batteries, Ontario’s businesses and workers are attracting historic investments to help secure and create good jobs, grow the economy and reduce pollution.

Speaker, what’s even more exciting is that Niagara is right at the heart of this impressive economic growth. From building new hospitals in Grimsby and Niagara Falls to twinning the Garden City Skyway in St. Catharines; from refurbishing the Sir Adam Beck hydroelectric power station in Niagara Falls to expanding the Peach King Centre in Grimsby, Premier Ford and this government are making historic investments in Niagara that are strengthening our economy and building a better Ontario.

As I like to say, the world doesn’t end at the Burlington Skyway. With our government’s support for this region and the good news of a new battery component plant, Niagara’s future has never looked brighter.

To the member for Guelph, we had a question earlier where we wanted to be assured that the college would enforce issues of animal abuse. My colleague from Niagara Falls talked about a terrible case in St. Catharines. The corollary to this bill is the PAWS Act, if you ask me. I know that I had an instance in my riding—the dog’s name was Merlin, who was abused. It took a very long time for residents to get an answer or to get some action on that.

One of the things that’s really concerning is that the number of charges that have been laid under the PAWS Act has dropped—a shocking drop, a significant drop in the charges. Would you share my concern that we’ve changed the protecting animal welfare system but that we don’t have the resources and the budget in place to make sure that we have enough inspectors and enough investigations happening so we can actually continue to make sure that animals are safe in this province?