It’s an honour to rise in this House every single day, and it’s a privilege to have this role and to serve the people of Ontario.

I stand today because for the first time since 2006, the credit rating agency DBRS upgraded Ontario’s rating to AA. Ladies and gentlemen, that is what fiscal responsibility looks like.

We are proving that we can reverse the trends of the previous 15 years, where we saw jobs leaving the red tape capital of North America, no fiscal plan whatsoever, credit downgrades. But we’ve been able to reverse that trend in six short years. Now, jobs are flocking back to Ontario. The conditions for economic prosperity—

But do you know what this credit upgrade will allow us to do? It will help lower the province’s borrowing costs—what a concept. It will also protect taxpayers and support more investment in Ontario, creating more jobs and financing the province’s historic infrastructure plan. That’s what real government looks like. That’s what a plan in the bill for the people of Ontario—all 16 million people—looks like, and it’s this party that’s doing it for the people of Ontario.

Before the session apparently ends, I really did want to take a moment to thank all the people that keep us going here. First of all, I want to thank my caucus, my incredible team here; our House team in particular; and all of the staff in the NDP caucus, the official opposition, who are so essential to helping us hold the government to account, to do the work that we do here and serve the people who we represent.

I really want to thank the hard-working assembly staff, the Clerks and broadcast and recording services and counsel. Let’s give them all a big round of applause. They do extraordinary work every day.

Applause.

I do want to wish everybody in this room a very happy and a very safe and a very productive summer. The work does not stop; that is true. We are going to continue to work hard over the summer to offer real solutions to real people in the province of Ontario—to the real problems that people are facing. I hope everybody, again, has a safe, productive and wonderful summer.