I recognize the member for London West on a point of order.

Colleagues, I want to share two recent important events in the great riding of Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound.

On May 25, I was in Wiarton to attend a wonderful ceremony for the unveiling of the cenotaph restoration. The cenotaph in Wiarton is located right downtown on Berford Street, a few blocks south of Royal Canadian Legion Branch 208. The town of South Bruce Peninsula and the Legion worked together on the restoration project, and commissioned Silvia Pecota to create a beautiful tribute to our soldiers, including Indigenous soldiers, who fought to give us all the freedoms we enjoy today. There were many in Wiarton to see the unveiling first-hand, including local residents, veterans and representatives from Saugeen Ojibway Nation. Congratulations to all who helped us make this great event possible.

Then, this past Friday, it was my pleasure to be in Dundalk with representatives of the Bluewater District School Board, members of Southgate council and the Minister of Education to announce the construction of a new Dundalk elementary school. Dundalk has been growing very substantially over the past several years, with many new families and new homes. The new school will accommodate 735 students, include 54 licensed child care spaces and have great recreational facilities. This will be a $28-million investment.

Thank you to the Dundalk community for being a vibrant and growing presence. Thank you to the school board and council. And thank you, Minister Lecce, for your incredible support of the great people of Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound.

Good morning, Mr. Speaker. June is Italian Heritage Month and today, at 12 o’clock, I hope everyone will come out and join us in raising the Italian flag to celebrate la Festa della Repubblica, the independence of Italy.

Point of order.

That concludes our members’ statements for this morning.

I’d like to welcome community leaders from the National Council of Canadian Muslims: Uthman Quick, Hooriya Zafar, Wisam Osman, Ghazala Fauzia, Khalid Rashid, Nafisa Ahmad, Sheneeza Kanji, Mohammad Ijaz Tahir, Nehal Al Tarhuni. Welcome to your House. I’m looking forward to meeting with you later today.

I’m very proud to welcome to Queen’s Park my incredible constituency assistant, Alida Troini and her dear mother, Febbronia Troini, today. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to welcome Owen Bachert, our intern for Elgin–Middlesex–London this summer, a political science student at the King’s University College.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome to the House today six members of my extended family:

—from Hamilton, my cousin Colleen Meyer and her husband, Fred Meyer, both dedicated Hamiltonians and big Ticats fans—Fred, an engineer with Stelco, and Colleen, a banker with Scotiabank;

—my young uncle Frank Switzer, a former Queen’s Park staffer, now with the CPP Investments board, and his lovely wife, my aunt Gwen, a long-time educator of our children; and

—my great-uncle Ray Switzer from Ottawa, a former justice of the peace and a great public servant, and his lovely wife, Mary-Patricia, my aunt Pat, from Ottawa, a great educator who welcomed the Honourable Bill Davis as education minister to her school in the 1960s.

Good morning, colleagues. On behalf of the government, I too would like to welcome the National Council of Canadian Muslims and leaders from Ontario Muslim communities who are here at Queen’s Park today.

I’d also like to let everyone know and invite you all to room 228-230 this evening at 6 p.m. for a reception.

I’m very pleased to be able to welcome today, from my constituency office in Ottawa, my executive assistant, Darren Tyrrell, and from my Queen’s Park office, my legislative assistant, Samantha Webber–Gallagher.

Thanks for all the work you do on behalf of Ottawa West–Nepean.

I don’t believe that he’s here yet, but I would like to introduce a very special guest from Etobicoke Centre: Jack Boeki, who turned 100 years old this past Friday. Jack is a Holocaust survivor but also a World War II veteran. He was born in 1924 in the Netherlands, and of course the Second World War changed everything.

Jack had a series of miraculous escapes and eventually escaped to France, where he joined the underground resistance. With fake documents, Jack was able to go to the UK, from where he went to the United States for military training. In early 1944 he returned to Europe, now as an agent of the counter-intelligence corps.

On June 8, just two days after the initial D-Day landings, Jack’s team of agents landed on Utah Beach in Normandy, France. Jack’s unit followed the US advance fighting forces, liberating camps and arresting spies, collaborators and anyone who posed a threat to the Allies. When the war ended, Jack and his unit were assigned to the security force at the Nuremberg war crimes trials.

Dear Jack and his loving family: Welcome to Queen’s Park, and thank you for spending your birthday with us today.

Applause.

I’m so pleased today that we’re being joined by the National Council of Canadian Muslims for their lobby day. I want to welcome everyone to their House here at the Legislature and encourage everyone among my colleagues to join us for the reception this evening at 5 o’clock in rooms 228 and 230. I’m very honoured to be able to speak at that time. Thank you for being here.

I would like to welcome Shahzada Benazir from World Trade Developers, who is hosting the Lifestyle Expo Business and Investors Conference in Brampton on September 26 and September 27. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Good morning, everyone. I just wanted to introduce a powerful page from beautiful Beaches–East York, Hosanna Ledetu. His mother works here as well in our precinct properties. So welcome to the chamber and thanks for all you do, Kalkidan.

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish our member from Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry a very happy birthday.

Just another introduction, Speaker, with your permission?

I also want to welcome my principal secretary, Stephanie Nakitsas; her father, George Nakitsas, who is a former principal secretary to Ed Broadbent and a senior adviser to Jack Layton for many, many years; as well as my daughter Lila Berger-Stiles, who is back from university.

Speaker, with this in mind, my question is to the Premier: Why is the government choosing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to get out of the Beer Store contract that would have expired in a year anyway?

The government themselves have admitted that it’s going to cost at least $225 million to break this contract early. But we all know on this side that the true cost could be so much higher. When you factor in the lost revenue to the LCBO or other associated costs of this deal, we’re hearing it could reach as much as a billion dollars—a billion dollars just to get out of a contract that would have expired anyway.

People are shaking their heads at this terrible deal, Speaker. Is this costly contract exit just another one of the Premier’s vanity projects that everybody else in this province is going to be left paying for?

People in Ontario are putting off all kinds of things right now because their bank accounts are being stretched to the limit. They’re making very careful choices every day, and do you know what? They expect their government to do the same with the public purse.

But with this Premier, it’s one vanity project after another—licence plates you can’t read, partisan promo ads—and it is the people of Ontario who always pay the price.

So, to the Premier: People in this province are facing real issues. Will the Premier start focusing on them instead of his own personal projects?

Interjections.

And I want to tell you, Speaker, this is why it matters: Every few days we hear of yet another unplanned closure of an emergency room or a critical hospital department.

Last year, there were more than 1,000 emergency room and urgent care closures in the province of Ontario. That means families facing emergencies drove to their local hospital and found the doors were closed.

Huron–Bruce declared a state of emergency. While they are experiencing ongoing and simultaneous closures, they’re being told they will lose even more beds.

What does this government have to say to Ontarians scared about losing their emergency rooms?

That’s typical Liberal-NDP math. I might add, with that as well, I’d like to thank the Minister of Education for bringing financial literacy to our high schools, because clearly the members opposite could take some lessons from there.

Speaker, the government of Ontario is ending a 97-year monopoly by a 10-year horrible deal that was signed by the previous Liberal government. Our government is bringing in convenience and competition. That’s what we ran on. That’s what the people have elected, Speaker, and that’s what the people of Ontario want.

And do you know what, Speaker? I’m willing to bet, when the cameras are off, the cameras are away, the members opposite will be in a convenience store on a Friday night picking up a bottle of wine after a rough week at Queen’s Park.

So, Speaker, our government is providing choice and convenience, and we’re doing it and we’re helping smooth the transition for workers through a difficult period.

Clearly, we understand, here on this side, why workers en masse are coming over to support the Progressive Conservatives. We are bringing legislation that is supportive of workers. The members opposite are clearly not supportive of workers, because they don’t want to help workers through this transition.

Why are we proceeding with this? Number one, economic growth: This is going to create 7,500 jobs right here in the province of Ontario, $200 million in GDP. Second, it’s helping convenience and competition, something the opposition is against. And third, we are supporting small businesses, the backbone of our province here in Ontario.

Well, Mr. Speaker, this goes back to—you were mentioning about the beer and wine in the corner stores, ready to drink. I agree with my colleagues: Each and every one of you, why don’t you give us your word you’ll never show up to a convenience store, you’ll never show up to a retail store—never going to happen, never, ever going to happen.

But, Mr. Speaker, this is in comparison to—the NDP and Bonnie Crombie and the Liberals want to increase taxes. They’re all right with a monopoly. They’re all right with three international companies controlling the market for 97 years. This is about convenience for the people. This is about creating another $800 million to a billion dollars of economic development, 7,500 jobs just in the convenience, not mentioning the retail. Isn’t it amazing everyone from the wine growers to the wine producers, the beer producers, they’re all for it? The only people who aren’t for it are the NDP and the—

Interjections.