It’s a pleasure to be able to stand here today and take part in debate on a very important bill that was originally introduced back in, I guess it was, April of this year, before we rose for an election. This bill is important to that measure because it really was our election platform, and I want to congratulate the 83 members of the Progressive Conservative caucus that were elected here to this House—83 members—including the member from Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke; I know he’s happy to be back—one of the largest majority governments in this province’s history, Madam Speaker, all based off of what we’ve been talking about with—

There are a few things I want to talk about here today. Obviously we’re here to speak about Ontario’s Plan to Build. The five key pillars of that are: rebuilding Ontario’s economy, working for workers, building highways and key infrastructure, keeping costs down—which is very important, given a lot of the uncertainty we’re seeing in the world right now—and, of course, our plan to stay open.

It was great to hear the minister speak a little bit earlier about the broader pieces of this, but I wanted to bring it a little bit closer to home for the people of Waterloo region, Kitchener–Conestoga and a little bit more for southwestern Ontario. I want to take us back to, realistically, I guess, almost 2018, when we released our first budget as a government here in the province.

One of the things that I heard at the door during the 2018 election that was really great to see in subsequent budgets past that was GO train expansion. This has been a huge, huge deal for Waterloo region over the last four to five years. Quite frankly, Madam Speaker, we had really next to no service in Waterloo region. We have, as a Progressive Conservative government, increased that service by almost 100%, and it’s great to see in the 2022 budget and what we’re debating here today that we’re actually expanding that service beyond Waterloo region to London. I know there are some members from London on the other side of the House here, and I’m sure that the people of London probably never dreamed—never in their wildest dreams—that they would have GO train service come to their city.

Now, mind you, yes, it is in its infancy and it is a bit of a trek right now to get from London to, let’s say, downtown Toronto, to Union Station, on the GO train, but there are constant upgrades being done consistently on the Kitchener line—as we like to call it, of course, being from Kitchener—to really speed up that trip. We’ve really built a much better relationship with CN rail, which controls a roughly 30-kilometre stretch of those tracks, and we’re now seeing more passenger service being allowed on those lines. There’s obviously a lot of work being done with level crossings through Guelph, making sure that underpasses and overpasses are being built out safely and that we’re able to get that time cut down.

I know there was a very recent announcement where the Premier and the member from Niagara West—it might have even been this week—officially announced better service to Niagara region, which is phenomenal to see. And of course, service is being extended out into Durham, which obviously, Madam Speaker, you would be well aware of.

Just keeping in the vein of a little bit more about what’s happening in this transit infrastructure piece, I want to talk a little bit—we were sort of joking about it earlier when the minister was speaking—about Highway 7. Highway 7, between Kitchener and Guelph, is obviously a two-lane highway, one lane each way. There are interchanges, stoplights, stop signs. It’s become quite unsafe over the last few years with the growth that we’ve seen through our communities, whether that be Waterloo region, which is now—I think we’re approaching 630,000 people in the region of Waterloo. Guelph has got to be somewhere up around 200,000 people themselves. It’s a key corridor. There’s a lot of advanced manufacturing, a lot of auto parts that are brought back across that highway every day.

Back in—gosh, it would be the late 1990s, early 2000s, I think, maybe even before that, this highway was going to be expanded and extended. It’s gone through successive governments for years upon years upon years, with very little being done. I just want to read a quick quote here. This is from 2007, Madam Speaker. This is from the former Minister of Transportation, a Liberal Minister of Transportation, Donna Cansfield. She says, “Times have changed; now it’s time to change Highway 7.” This was in 2007 when that quote came out, and I am very proud to be able to stand here and say that our government is actually getting it done when it comes to building Highway 7. We’ve completed the first phase of what is a three-phase project. We’re now into the end of phase two. Next to be built is the new bridge that will be spanning the Grand River. After that, it’s four lanes all the way to Guelph: no more stoplights, no more stop signs; there will be complete expressway interchanges. I know the people of Waterloo region are really excited to be able to see that actually come to fruition.

I want to talk a little bit more about our Plan to Stay Open. This is something that I’m very proud of. We’ve been working on this in the region for a long time now, and that is the planning of a new hospital. I was very proud to announce, back in April, a $5-million planning grant that is included in this budget. That $5-million planning grant is to start the process of a new joint hospital between Grand River Hospital and St. Mary’s hospital and to really explore what it’s going to look like to build a state-of-the-art, new 1,200-bed facility that, like I said, is going to serve the growing region of Waterloo. Our hospitals right now—we have three hospitals: Grand River Hospital, St. Mary’s hospital and, of course, Cambridge Memorial Hospital. Those three hospitals serve over a million people—the catchment area, when you really break it down into where we pull from in Waterloo region. St. Mary’s hospital, in particular, is very interesting. It’s actually the second-highest rated heart health hospital in Canada. But it’s in a building that’s 100 years old, and they’re doing façade work right now where bricks are actually falling off the building. Never mind going there to get your heart fixed; it’s dangerous just to walk around the outside. So it’s really great to be able to see those types of things put forward in this budget.

There’s obviously lots we can talk about. One of the other things that I want to highlight that the minister was talking about is skilled trades and working for workers. There are a few things that I think are very important in this budget that pertain to Conestoga College, which is the largest trade school in Ontario. Based on the resurgence of the trades and what this government has been able to do, they are now building a brand new trades campus that will centralize all of their trades training under one roof. It’s fantastic to see. We’re talking about state-of-the-art machinery, the best learning environment possible. Not only that, but I was at Conestoga College with the Minister of Colleges and Universities not too long ago to announce the extension of three-year degrees in colleges, which is fantastic. We’re going to be able to shrink down the time that people need to be in school, not necessarily having to go to university to get a four-year degree, if you will, but being able to extend that to your diploma, that you might at a college. So it’s really great to see these things in the budget.

Madam Speaker, I know that we have some other people who are going to want to speak this afternoon, so I just wanted to say thank you very much for the time, and it’s great to see you in the chair. Congratulations.