It is, once again, a true honour to rise in the House today. Today it is in recognition of the second annual Convenience Store Week in Ontario. Last year, our government passed the Convenience Store Week Act to recognize the important role convenience stores play in our day-to-day lives. We’re very proud to be here today to kick off this important week and celebrate the hard-working employees in the convenience store industry and their significant contributions.

When we think about convenience stores, we often think about shops in our own communities, the corner store staples that we pick up, the people we see when we are visiting. We remember those friendly faces at the cash register, aisles with all of our daily necessities, and that familiar sense of community that you get when you enter a convenience store. But all of that would not be possible without the dedicated business owners and the employees who work around the clock to ensure that their stores are open and ready to serve all of their customers.

Convenience store owners and their employees are some of the hardest-working people in our communities. Many of them, as we all know, work seven days a week; they’re open 365 days a year, all to make sure that they can meet their customers’ needs. And this is especially true in rural and remote communities, where convenience stores are often the only source of fresh food and other daily necessities. I think of the Trout Creek convenience store that’s owned by Sam and Tariq—and that’s it. There’s nothing around Trout Creek. There’s not another place that you can go into and get fresh food, produce and things like that. Sam and Tariq are some of the hardest-working people I’ve met. My wife, Patty, and I have had a great opportunity to have dinner with them, with supplies, by the way, that were purchased at their Trout Creek store. It’s a great little spot.

On behalf of our government and all of the people of Ontario, we say thank you to the thousands of convenience store owners and their workers for the incredible impact they have on all of us each and every day. Ontario is home to more than 8,500 convenience stores that employ more than 78,000 people across the province. From Cornwall to Kenora, from Wawa to Windsor, you probably know somebody in a convenience store, especially your local convenience store.

We know that small businesses, like many convenience stores, are vital to our communities and critical to Ontario’s economic growth. Our government is quite proud of our support for these hard-working men and women. That’s why we have consistently cut red tape and made it easier for people in Ontario to start a business. And that is why we continue to put money back into the pockets of our business communities. Since the day we took office, we’ve lowered the cost of doing business in Ontario by $7 billion a year—I think I’ve stood in this Legislature and said that almost every single day I’ve ever stood up. We’ve cut red tape, fixed the Liberals’ hydro mess, lowered taxes so that businesses in Ontario have more money to invest in growth and invest in their people. We’re creating jobs and opportunities in every single corner of the province.

In July, Ontario had one of the lowest unemployment rates in the past 30 years, at 5.3%. That tells you we are strengthening the economy. We’re building these vibrant communities for all of the people in Ontario.

Convenience stores remind us that there are opportunities right across the province for everyone and anyone. We hear stories all the time about these hard-working individuals who open their own stores and hire people in their communities. Many of these stores have 10 or less employees, including their own family members.

To me, these aren’t just talking points; this is the story of my own family. My dad, Hub, opened Hub’s cigar store on Main Street in North Bay, right across the street from my office, in the 1960s. Employed there were my mom, my grandmother and my aunt Emelia. They worked there every single day. My dad then expanded to open Hub’s Hilltop, and as it sounds, it was on top of the hill in North Bay. It was a really popular convenience store—although I never understood the word “convenience” then. We opened at 10 in the morning, so I don’t really know what was convenient about that. But we closed at 10 at night. We were open for 12 hours a day. This was long before there was ever such a retail category—

I see Minister Monte McNaughton nodding. He comes from a small business family in a small town—which we visited together, at your store. You know exactly what we’re talking about. This is how our families bonded.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I can tell you that around our kitchen table at dinner every night, there were discussions on courier rates and Bus Parcel Express times. That was the kind of thing we talked about—

Interjection.