Speaker, we just returned from the BIO International Convention to promote Ontario’s thriving life sciences ecosystem. We talked about companies around the globe, and they’re intrigued by how rapidly Ontario life science is continuing to grow.

Ontario has the best talent pool with over 70,000 STEM grads annually coming out of our renowned post-secondary institutions. We want those workers to stay here in Ontario and succeed, which is why we’ve taken action to lower taxes, so they can keep more of what they earn.

But with the Liberal carbon tax, the federal government is moving in the opposite direction. They’re making life less affordable and risking the progress that we have made, Speaker. We need them to come around. Follow our lead. Scrap the carbon tax today.

The Liberals put up mountains of red tape. They hiked tax after tax after tax and they scared businesses away: 300,000 manufacturing jobs fled the province and key industries were on the brink of collapse. And now, the federal Liberals are trying to do this all over again with their carbon tax.

We need the Liberals to reverse course. Speaker, we ask them: Listen to the hard-working people and businesses in Ontario. Scrap the carbon tax today.

Speaker, we just returned from a successful mission to Korea and Japan. I must say that we met with leading global companies who were intrigued by Ontario’s success story.

In our auto sector, we went from zero to $43 billion in new EV investments in just four years. We added over 700,000 jobs since we took office, including 25,000 just last month alone. None of that would have been possible if we hadn’t reversed the Liberals’ high tax policies that chased 300,000 manufacturing jobs out of the province.

We’ve reduced the annual cost of doing business by $8 billion every year, creating the conditions for businesses to succeed in these good-paying jobs.

Speaker, we’ve shown the Liberals the way: Lowering taxes is the way to new investments in job growth. We need them to listen and scrap the carbon tax.

But unfortunately, Speaker, the Liberals are moving in the opposite direction by continuing with their carbon tax. We need the Liberals to listen to us. We’ve shown them the way that lower taxes is creating this economic prosperity. We want them to listen to us and listen to the hard-working people of Ontario and scrap the carbon tax today.

The members opposite have opposed economic development in our province at virtually every opportunity they get. We have tens of billions of prospects, new job-creating investments in our pipeline. In fact, we now have more prospects than we have land readily available. That is why the Premier put out a call. He put out a call to municipalities all across the province to get shovel-ready sites assembled so these companies can set up shop and create those good-paying jobs in their own communities.

Speaker, we are decades behind our biggest competitor, south of the border, when it comes to having shovel-ready sites. For that reason, we have now a dedicated team at our ministry and at Invest Ontario who are vetting lands sent by our municipal partners. Companies from across the globe know there is no better place to do business than right here in Ontario.

The last thing we’re going to do is to now listen to the NDP and Liberals, whose high-tax policy saw business and workers flee our province in droves—300,000 manufacturing and other workers left our province under the Liberals. We are creating the conditions for job growth in every industry and in every region.

Interjections.

The previous Liberal government, supported by the NDP, chased 300,000 manufacturing jobs out of our province and brought our auto sector to the brink of collapse. In 2019, Reuters reported that companies planned to spend $300 billion on EVs and none of it was coming to Canada.

Since then, over the last three years, Ontario has attracted $28 billion in new EV investments, creating thousands of good-paying jobs across the province. Unfortunately, the NDP and the Liberals voted against every single item that brought this unprecedented success to Ontario.

By creating the conditions for businesses to succeed, our province is now a global auto manufacturing powerhouse.

Interjections.

When we are in the US, companies tell us they cannot comprehend this carbon tax. They know any additional taxes are harmful.

Now, Ontario is the US’s third-largest trading partner after Mexico and China: $494 billion in two-way trade between Ontario and the US. That’s up more than $100 billion since we took office. But all the products that these companies buy from us are now more expensive because of this carbon tax. We are putting our trade at risk with our largest partner because of these rising prices. Mexico does not have a carbon tax. The US has alternatives than buying from Ontario. Scrap the tax.

Speaker, the mission to Germany was an opportunity to build on the $25 billion in auto and EV investments that we’ve landed in Ontario in the last two and a half years. We were able to thank the Volkswagen team who we worked with day to day to land this historic $7-billion investment here in Ontario.

It was an opportunity to discuss the nature of the main suppliers they now need to begin operations. Cathode, anode, separator, copper foil, electrolyte, lithium hydroxide: Speaker, these aren’t just words. Each of those are main components needed in a battery and each of those represents a $1-billion-to-$3-billion company coming here to Ontario.

Speaker, we’re also talking about a suppliers’ day to help identify opportunities for their new facility in St. Thomas.

We also took a day trip to Poland to meet with similar companies.

What we heard everywhere was consistent: In this turmoil-filled world—post-pandemic, Russian invasion, Chinese-dominated supply chains—they all look at Ontario as a sea of calm and a stable, reliable, trusted partner. They also view Ontario as a safe jurisdiction, safe for their employees, safe for their families, safe for their executives to visit. We showed them that Ontario is all that and more.

Last week, with the Premier, we were thrilled to welcome Moderna’s multi-million-dollar partnership with Novocol Pharma in Cambridge. They will expand vaccine manufacturing in Cambridge and ensure faster, more reliable access to life-saving vaccines. Not only will this investment create good-paying jobs, it will provide our health care workers and families with more reliable access to life-saving vaccines, helping to ensure we no longer have to rely on other jurisdictions to keep us safe.

Speaker, with the $4-million investment through our Ontario Together Fund, Novocol will add to their 500-plus highly skilled workers. It’s hard to keep up with the billions in life science investments: Sanofi, Roche, OmniaBio, AstraZeneca, Novartis; this list goes on and on, Speaker. The momentum of investments by these companies is a vote of confidence in our life-saving sector.

Speaker, think of where we were when the pandemic struck. We had almost zero PPE being built in Ontario. Today, we’re at 74%, and tomorrow, when the nitrile gloves are built in London, we’ll be at 94% of all PPE manufactured.

Volkswagen’s $7-billion investment will solidify a brighter future for tens of thousands of auto workers. Over 3,000 direct and 30,000 indirect jobs will be created in total. Major suppliers will be required to produce products that we’re unfamiliar with in Ontario: cathode, anode, separators, copper foil, lithium hydroxide. These are all billion-dollar companies that will land in Ontario.

We’re headed back to Germany to plan a series of supplier days, where we’re going to match Volkswagen with other Ontario companies. This will solidify Ontario’s position not only as the EV centre, but also as the best place in the world to do business, to invest, to live and to grow.

Speaker, we are building an EV sector that will continue to create good-paying jobs for generations.

That future, Speaker, is now: $25 billion in auto investments in just 2.5 years. That’s the story of Ontario. That story will continue with Ontario as the global leader in the EV supply chain.

Speaker, our long list of meetings included companies like Crowdbotics, Fever, ThoughtFocus, Justworks, Synechron and Citibank. They all agree that Ontario is a global innovation hub. We have 26,000 IT firms and over 400,000 IT workers. That’s why Ontario leads the country in venture capital investments. A record-breaking $8.4 billion came into Ontario in 2021 alone. That’s why our tech sector is growing 350% faster than Silicon Valley. With a highly skilled workforce and world-renowned innovation, Ontario continues to be tech’s favourite place to be.

By reducing the cost of business by $8 billion every year, Ontario is the jurisdiction for businesses to invest and grow.

Speaker, as they say in New York: Start spreading the news. Ontario is home to North America’s fastest-growing tech market. That was the message in New York as we met several companies in the fintech and life sciences sectors. With two-way trade between Ontario and New York valued at $37 billion, there’s no shortage of opportunity. And with over 300 New York-owned firms already operating here in Ontario, we are their natural choice to expand. That’s why the two companies we met with—Cockroach Labs and Globant—recently announced new offices in Toronto. Globant alone is creating 200 jobs right here in Toronto, and we know that is only a start for them.

Speaker, Ontario has everything that companies from around the world need to succeed, because Ontario is open for business.

Thank you to the member from Elgin–Middlesex–London for that great tour yesterday. Together, we welcomed over $14 million in new investments from two area manufacturing firms.

Great work, Rob.

Edge Automation builds massive machinery for companies to automate their businesses. They’re investing over $5 million to expand their facility. The facility is well under construction, and they’re buying really innovative equipment. They’re creating 12 jobs along the way.

We went over to St. Thomas and saw Takumi Stamping. They manufacture auto parts over there. They’re investing $9 million. They got a $1.3-million injection from the province. They’re expanding that current facility and creating 65 brand new, really good-paying jobs.

Speaker, this is how we’re supporting Ontario’s manufacturing sector.

It wasn’t that long ago that companies were fleeing Ontario. Speaker, 300,000 manufacturing jobs were lost, and our economic future was teetering.

Thankfully, the government of Premier Ford was elected and declared Ontario open for business. Taxes were lowered, energy rates were lowered, and the burden of red tape was reduced. This brought companies pouring back to Ontario.

Now, with budget 2023, there is even more great news for Ontario manufacturers: the Ontario Made Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit. If passed, it will provide companies with a 10% tax credit, up to $2 million a year, on investments in buildings, equipment and machinery.

Those companies will innovate, become competitive, and create even more great jobs for our families.

Speaker, just this morning, we welcomed a $40 million investment from VueReal. This is a made-in-Ontario start-up in Waterloo region. VueReal has become a leader in the development and manufacturing of MicroLED displays and sensors. They’re used in devices in aerospace, automotive and medtech. This investment, with a $2-million support from the province, will boost local manufacturing and strengthen clean-tech innovation while creating 75 new, good-paying jobs in the process.

Speaker, this is how we’re bringing new life to local manufacturing, and this is how we are building Ontario.

We have 26,000 tech companies, over 400,000 tech employees, 65,000 STEM grads every year—all part of a world-class innovation ecosystem. That’s our competitive edge. That’s the proof that we’re creating the conditions for companies like VueReal to succeed. And that’s why companies continue to land here in Ontario.

In 2019, Reuters revealed that car companies planned to spend $300 billion globally, but none of that money was planned for Canada or Ontario. So we put our Driving Prosperity plan in place. It started with lowering the cost of doing business by $7 billion each and every year. We met worldwide with companies looking to be part of the EV revolution and told them about Ontario’s skilled workforce, our clean energy, our EV ecosystem, our critical minerals. Within 24 months, we attracted $17 billion in EV auto investments in Ontario, and that’s before the Volkswagen announcement.

This year, Bloomberg ranked Canada as second in their annual global battery supply chain, first in North America, ahead of the US. We went from zero investments to the global leader.

When I have visited our prospects worldwide, we bring up the fact that Toyota was named the number one production facility in all of the world—again, not just the number one Toyota facility, but the number one auto plant worldwide.

And I have to say that the lowering of the cost of doing business in Ontario is a key factor—$7 billion. Premier Ford and I visited every auto plant, and they all told us, “You need to lower the cost of doing business in Ontario,” and you saw us do that by lowering the cost of business by $7 billion.

Plus, we have incentives that we have provided to every one of the companies I’ve mentioned. They tally about $2.5 billion. We have decided to put our $2.5-billion investment in the EV sector, into the plants, to hire these workers.

That is applause-worthy. It really is.

The auto sector accounts for 100,000 jobs throughout the province, and for the very first time in the history of the auto sector, northern Ontario will now be included. The auto sector now, because of electric vehicles, takes in critical minerals, the processing of critical minerals, the production of the parts for batteries, batteries, the production of auto parts—we have 700 parts makers in Ontario, and 450 tool and die and mould makers in Ontario. We’ve got 300 companies that are in the connected and autonomous vehicle business.

Think about the very first electric vehicle in Canada that came off the assembly line only a month or so ago, GM’s BrightDrop. It’s basically a FedEx delivery vehicle, the very first electric vehicle rolled off the assembly line. It was designed and engineered in Markham, Ontario, by GM. Seven hundred employees are there.

Ford has 500 of these types of employees in Ottawa. BlackBerry QNX has about 500 in Ottawa as well.

In Windsor, Stellantis has about 800 employees. They’ve put in almost a billion dollars and have two—two—North American centres of excellence, research centres. It is their head location for battery design and battery research.

That’s what’s happening in Ontario, and it’s because we’re competitive that we have this edge. We have a talented workforce. We have state-of-the-art research and development. We have award-winning manufacturing.

Look at Toyota. Toyota won the J.D. Power award for the best production plant in the world. This isn’t the best Toyota plant; it’s the best auto plant in the world. And because of electric vehicles, we now have this critical mineral part of it that’s added.

But we’ve also got a clean energy advantage. Speaker, if you bought an electric vehicle in the United States, you would think you’ve made a contribution to society by buying an electric vehicle. But in the US it’s made, sadly, with energy that’s made from burning coal. So if you buy a car that has a battery made in Kentucky, you’ve got about 6% clean energy. If you buy a car that has a battery made in Indiana, you have about 7% clean energy. You’ve got assembly plants that are made without clean energy. You’ve got steel in the doors and the hoods that are made with coal-produced steel.

Shift to Ontario for a second. You’ve got a clean energy environment—94% clean energy is what we build our cars with. Our battery companies will be able to buy an equivalent of 100% clean energy. At Dofasco and at Algoma, they’re now making steel not from coal, but from an electric arc furnace, which means we have green steel building our cars, with clean energy building our cars. So when you buy an electric vehicle, as they start to come off the assembly lines in Brampton and in Oakville and in Windsor, you will have a car that you can be proud of because it is not just an electric vehicle, it is a zero-emission—a green—vehicle, which will be the envy of the EV sector. That is a very, very big component. Think about Dofasco alone. You’re talking about the equivalent of taking a million cars off the road a year just by that one conversion alone.

The critical minerals are something that I think will be the sleeper story this year. I think it was the Windsor Star that did an interview and they asked, “What is going to be the exciting news this year?” And I said, “You watch. The sleeper story will be a lithium hydroxide plant for northern Ontario.” I genuinely believe that. I don’t normally overpromise because we don’t like to ever underdeliver, but I can tell you I really believe that we are going to see lithium projects in northwestern Ontario start to happen, and they’re going to need a lithium hydroxide plant. You need that liquid to make a battery, and we believe that the minerals of northern Ontario should be processed here in northern Ontario and tie the auto sector into the north for the very, very first time.

We have a real competitive advantage. Ontario is one of the very few jurisdictions that has every mineral necessary to make a lithium ion battery. We’ve got great, great new nickel finds around Timmins, if you can imagine—a gold town like Timmins. South of Timmins they have a fabulous new nickel find. Just north of Timmins, Canada Nickel is there with a great new nickel find.

In Sudbury, where we’ve seen Onaping Depth go down—it’s an old mine that couldn’t get any deeper because of the technology. Well, today you can actually send electric vehicles down there. You don’t need to worry about ventilation anymore because you’ve got electric vehicles doing the heavy work. They’re going to go deep, as deep as they possibly can. That’s because of the electric vehicle revolution.

Then we look at the Ring of Fire. Initially, the play was all about the chromite that is there. I think you’ll actually see them move the chromite out of the way to get to the nickel that’s there.

That’s why we’ve got this road to prosperity that we’re building. We’ve got $1 billion committed. We hope our federal partners will commit their $1 billion into that plan.

Bloomberg has acknowledged everything I’ve just said here today. Bloomberg ranked Canada as second in their annual global battery supply chain report. Think of where we were three years ago. We had zero—zero—electric vehicle production. Some $300 billion was invested in North America in electric vehicle and battery announcements. We got zero of it under the previous government—zero. We were able, through our Driving Prosperity plan, to put a plan together—$17 billion. I’ll be very frank: We have at least that much in the pipeline. We won’t win it all, but we’ve got a big pipeline of projects lined up for Ontario over the next two years. Bloomberg moved us from nowhere in sight of anybody to second in their annual global battery supply chain report. We’re first in North America, ahead of the US, second globally. That confirms that we have indeed created the right conditions to attract investments, create jobs and remain competitive.

That brings us to the one missing piece: why we’re here today. We are in fierce competition right now for large investments. As I’ve said, we have a big pipeline filled with projects, but we just don’t have the land. We need to assemble, very quickly, large pieces of land for large potential investments. Close to 40 US jurisdictions offer a certified mega site program—key competitors, all through the States. They have shovel-ready sites and an expectation of an investor locating there. That’s why we are laser-focused right now on securing large anchor projects in the auto and in the EV space, but this critical factor will be having a suitable site.

Timing is known. Costs are known. Project timelines are out there. We know we needed this land, and that’s why, in November 2019, we launched the Job Site Challenge program. This is Canada’s first challenge that went out where municipalities, economic development agencies and industrial property owners can put forward large tracts of land—500 acres, 1,000 acres, 1,500 acres—so that we can use them to support large-scale manufacturing operations. Just think about it. For context, 500 acres—that’s almost 400 football fields. That’s what 500 acres looks like. And 1,500 acres obviously can support three times that.

We need to immediately build an inventory of what we call mega sites. These are sites that are investment-ready. These are sites that would be owned, contiguous pieces of property, either serviced or ready to be serviced. We’ve seen the successes of LG Energy in Windsor. We’ve seen the success of Umicore in Loyalist township. There is a significant demand for shovel-ready sites.

Again, I’ve said we have a big amount in our pipeline. We’ve secured $17 billion, with several more announcements coming. We have about that much in our pipeline. But what we need is to give the investors and those potential companies the confidence in the future of Ontario—that we have land available for them.

This particular site in St. Thomas that we’re speaking about, and in Elgin county, is considered a highly attractive mega site. It has been identified as one of the very few potential mega sites in the province. It has a vast amount of acreage. It has close proximity to the major routes. It’s fully serviceable for electric, gas, water, waste water. And it has a high probability that it could be sold to one of these investors.

The site, as you’ve heard from Minister Clark, straddles two municipalities: the city of St. Thomas and the municipality of Central Elgin, which is in Elgin county. These two municipalities have very different steps in permitting requirements. They have different timelines for permitting. It creates confusion and complexity. You could imagine an investor who wants to buy a big hunk of land but has two municipalities with different rules and guidelines—a building that could potentially straddle two municipalities. We need to take the piece of one and join it to the other. There’s a lot of red tape that could come. There’s a lot of delay in meeting timelines.

Speaker, we need to unlock the full potential of this site, and that’s why the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing has introduced legislation that would change the municipal boundary so that site would be completely located in St. Thomas. It would reduce red tape. It would ensure that the St. Thomas site is truly shovel-ready in a very near term for a potential investment. This legislation would allow the city and the province to proceed quickly with permitting, proceed quickly in preparing the site to meet any potential investor timelines. It’s going to allow Ontario to remain competitive. It will allow us to position the province as an attractive place to invest and to grow.

These proposed changes have the potential to bring significant economic benefits to the people of St. Thomas, to the people of Central Elgin and all of the surrounding communities. We’re going to work very closely with the affected municipalities with respect to proposed legislative changes. We’re going to continue to consult with Indigenous communities about the St. Thomas industrial site.

And we will continue to work very, very hard to identify large-scale industrial sites throughout Ontario, where we know that we have so many prospects and so little assembled land.

We continue to say that Ontario is the ideal destination for manufacturers. We have a world-class auto supply base, we have a growing EV and battery-supply-chain footprint, we have reliable clean energy, we have northern Ontario’s critical mineral resources—we have an ecosystem in Ontario.

Certainly, we have one of the greatest auto ecosystems. We’re the only jurisdiction in North America with five different auto manufacturing companies. That’s unique in all of North America. We are the number two automaker in North America.

Speaker, we’re also the number two tech cluster in all of North America. When you look at the cars of the future, it’s basically going to be a computer on wheels. Well, as the number two tech cluster in North America, we have that tech ability, and as the number two automaker, we know how to attach them to wheels. That’s our expertise. We have absolutely great and spectacular days ahead of us in Ontario in the auto, in the EV sector.

But these mega sites can be for all kinds of projects, whether it’s in the tech field, whether it’s in the life sciences field, whether it’s in the aerospace sector, whether it’s in the chemicals sector. We have so much potential in Ontario, and I won’t say it’s untapped potential, because look at what we have achieved: 600,000 men and women went to work today in a facility in Ontario that they did not work at only four and a half years ago. This is a monumental shift in what was happening.

We saw the decline of Ontario’s manufacturing—the former government that threw the towel in and, in writing, gave up on the manufacturing sector.

Premier Ford came along, and Driving Prosperity was written. It was our blueprint for success. That’s why we have 600,000 men and women working today who weren’t working.

Since we’ve been out sharing the message of how Ontario is open for business we’ve been hearing interesting messages coming back. In a world filled with turmoil, companies see Ontario as a beacon; a sea of calm; a reliable, trusted partner; and a place they can locate their business.

While in Mumbai, 88 Pictures, an animation and media entertainment company, announced Ontario as the location for their first international expansion. Working with our great partner, Toronto Global, 88 Pictures will hire 150 professionals, starting in the new year. They told us that Ontario has everything they need to succeed. It proves that Ontario is open for business. Please welcome us in joining 88 Pictures to Ontario.

We met with leading companies like Essar, ITC Infotech, Tata Elxsi and up-and-comers like Pingkaksho and Witzeal Technologies, all leading India companies looking to locate worldwide. They’re fully aware that Ontario is the number-two tech cluster in all of North America: 20,000 tech companies, 400,000 employees, 65,000 STEM grads, all part of our world-class ecosystem. That’s our competitive edge. That’s why companies from around the world continue to locate in Ontario.

Brampton has been a key auto-assembly jurisdiction for decades, which is why our government led the Stellantis conversion to EV, shoring up thousands of jobs for further decades. We also fund the parts makers through our Ontario Automotive Modernization Program. In Brampton East, O-AMP supported Nahanni Steel, Tipco, RPPL and SHW Pumps, with more than $385,000 in funding. This boosts our supply chain competitiveness, getting them ready to build the cars of the future.

Since 2019, O-AMP has leveraged $36 million in private investments from 150 companies, creating over 820 jobs.

To the member from Brampton East: Let your businesses know that O-AMP has opened another intake just this week to assist even more businesses in Brampton to create good-paying jobs.

That’s why our government has consistently reduced red tape, lowered taxes and fixed that hydro debacle. Businesses are now saving $7 billion in costs every single year. Now we provide entrepreneurs all the tools they need to grow their business.

In Brampton, we fund their small business centre with over half a million dollars annually. We provide over $200,000 to their Summer Company and Starter Company Plus, to help students and young entrepreneurs start their businesses. We’ve provided over $165,000—

There was a time when companies were fleeing Ontario—300,000 jobs left here. But under this government, we have lowered the cost of doing business by over $700 billion a year, every year. The result? Look at Telus—a $23-billion investment in network infrastructure and broadband technology, creating 9,500 new jobs over the next five years. Tata Consultancy Services, an Indian tech firm, launched their fifth global hub right here in Toronto—5,000 new jobs and 100 internships for those 65,000 STEM grads.

We have created the right climate for companies like LTTS and Snowflake to locate right here in Ontario, all because Ontario is open for business.

The Liberals and the NDP gave up on Ontario’s manufacturing. In the last economic report, hear their true intention: “shifting employment from goods-producing industries, in particular manufacturing, to service sector.” That’s what they intended to do. But we changed all that, Speaker, by lowering the cost of doing business by $7 billion annually. We lowered taxes. We cut red tape. We reduced their hydro rates.

That’s why investments in Mississauga keep on coming. Cyclone Manufacturing invested $21 million to re-shore from the US a project and create 60 aerospace jobs. Bora Pharmaceuticals invested $2.5 million in Mississauga to scale-up their operation. And there are dozens of auto-parts manufacturers who have invested in their companies through our auto modernization program. Mississauga is, again, where businesses are investing.

With our support, Mississauga’s entrepreneurs now have all the tools they need to grow their businesses. We’re providing Mississauga’s Small Business Enterprise Centre with $420,000 to support local companies, and another $112,000 to support Mississauga’s Summer Company and their Starter Company PLUS. These are companies that help students and young entrepreneurs start businesses of their own.

We want entrepreneurs to know that this government understands them and fully supports their success.