I’d like to thank the member from Timiskaming–Cochrane for a very entertaining debate session this afternoon. It makes all of us smile a little more often. That’s welcome.

I actually want to talk about a serious question about an email that I’ve had recently from a constituent who is concerned about the pricing of medicine for their pets. Talking about the increases in the last few years, their speculation is that it’s largely due to the presence of the private equity industry or sector in taking over veterinary practices. I wonder if you could talk a little bit about what more the government could do to make sure that pricing for medications for pets is affordable and fair for Ontarians.

I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation from the member from Timiskaming–Cochrane. He mentioned his experience where he had had an injured animal and he had to take steps to nurse that injured animal back to health, and that kind of made him transition from a farmer to a pet owner.

I would like to hear the rest of the story. I would like to hear what happened with the animal after the animal’s leg was wounded and after it had healed. What happened to the animal after that?

I would like to thank my friend from Timiskaming–Cochrane for an engaging and entertaining, but also genuine and forthright, presentation. I think it’s important that we give credit where it’s due—although I would say that we don’t see much credit coming from the government towards us in the official opposition, and I think our scorecard is quite a number higher in that regard.

I also want to commend the committee and commend the member for recognizing the work of the committee, getting Gay Lea and Parmalat to pull Thornloe Cheese from the fire. It’s a shame that the member couldn’t pull Jack from underneath the two-by-four in time, but that remains to be seen.

With Bill 171, we see that the government has engaged in years of open and transparent public consultation. How is this unlike many other pieces of legislation that this government has put forward?