It is a pleasure to rise to today to share with this House some important investments our government has made in my riding of Perth–Wellington.

Last week, I was joined by the Minister of Education to announce a brand new Catholic elementary school in Drayton, Ontario. This represents $17.3 million in investment by our government in our rural education system and will create 222 new student spaces and 64 new child care spaces.

This is a huge investment for Drayton and area because, for too long, local families did not have any affordable child care options locally. But our government is delivering for rural Ontario after years of inaction from the previous Liberal government.

Speaker, the good news doesn’t stop there. I also had the pleasure of announcing that our government is funding a major expansion of St. Mary’s Catholic School in Listowel. This investment of $5.8 million will help build an additional 150 student spaces and 98 child care spaces. These two projects are part of our larger $1.3-billion plan that more than doubles the funding to build new schools and expands child care spaces across Ontario.

Since 2018, our provincial government has invested over $34 million in communities across Perth–Wellington to build 250 new child care spaces and 470 new student spaces. While the previous Liberal government closed 600 rural schools, our government will continue to invest in rural Ontario.

It’s wonderful to rise to talk about some important investments that our government is making, through our recent provincial budget, across Ontario, whether it’s the $1.8 billion for housing-enabling infrastructure, critical infrastructure to get more homes built across our province, whether it’s the $1.2 billion in the Building Faster Fund; $200 million for recreational facilities over the next 10 years; $15 billion to build new schools, doubling the amount of funding for capital this year in our provincial budget for our schools; and, of course, $50 billion over the next 10 years for hospitals across this province, from Toronto to Windsor, to the north and to Ottawa. We’re investing in Ontario, investing in the people in Ontario.

I know it was important to see the $50 million for stabilization of health care capacity in our northern and rural communities. It was also great to hear that we’re going to make the clinical extern program permanent. I know this is very important to our rural hospitals.

It was also great to see our government continue to build on our historic investments in primary care. Over $500 million will be invested to expand primary care across Ontario to ensure more people can get care closer to home.

Unfortunately, all the members of the opposition voted against the provincial government. They voted against primary care expansion. They voted against victim quick response programs. It is shameful.

We will continue to stand with the people of Ontario.

I rise today to recognize and celebrate some recent investments our government has made in my riding of Perth–Wellington.

Recently, I was able to announce on behalf of the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs that five worthy initiatives in my riding would be receiving a combined $270,000 in rural economic development funding. The municipality of North Perth will be receiving $137,000 for its agriculture excellence action plan, which will support our flourishing agriculture and agricultural technology sector. Perth county will be receiving $50,000 for its workforce attraction and retention kit for employers. Drayton Entertainment is receiving more than $49,000 to modernize operations and support the adoption of more environmentally friendly practices. The town of Minto is receiving $20,000 for their Move to Minto business attraction campaign—and I encourage all businesses to move to Minto. Lynes Blacksmith Shop in Kenilworth is receiving $17,000 to help maintain a historic and culturally significant landmark.

Our government has provided over $4.3 million to support 80 projects across rural Ontario in this recent round of RED funding. Speaker, as you know, rural Ontario is the backbone of our provincial economy. Annually, businesses in rural Ontario contribute $99 billion to our provincial economy.

I am proud to be part of a government that continues to support our small businesses and rural economic development.

Thank you, Speaker, and welcome back to the Legislature. Over the summer, I had the opportunity to announce a plethora of investments that our government is making in my riding of Perth–Wellington:

—$200,000 for local seniors programming;

—$300,000 for palliative care;

—$6.6 million for local hospital capital funding;

—$3.4 million for local ERs and hospital bed capacity;

—$188,000 for local events and festivals; and

—$400,000 for our local police services.

This is all great news, but there is more. Since 2018, our government has secured $25 billion in auto and EV investments and $3 billion in life science investments. There have been 700,000 new jobs created, including 40,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector. In the skilled trades, apprenticeships are up 24%. Our students are entering the health care sector in droves. Over 4,300 students have registered in the Learn and Stay program.

Our government continues to make historic investments in health care. We are increasing land ambulance funding by 6% for our municipalities, to $811 million in total. We are investing an additional $51 million in the Dedicated Offload Nurses Program.

Our government will continue to focus on building a strong Ontario. When will the opposition get on board?

Thank you to my two colleagues for their great remarks on the budget.

As a fellow farm kid, my question is to the member from Niagara West. I’m just wondering if he could expand on the important investments we’re making in the vet sector and with the University of Guelph, in particular.

Thank you to my two colleagues for their remarks on the budget. In my opinion, it’s a great budget for our province.

I know my friend from Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound has been answering a lot of questions, but I was wondering if my friend could talk about the important investments that we’re making in skilled trades, especially around Bruce nuclear, which employs a lot of people in my own riding, as well.

Thank you to my colleague across the aisle for the question. What I can speak about, Speaker, is the investments we are making in this budget and in this bill. The $425 million extra, as I mentioned, is in addition to the $3.8 billion. I know in my riding, I actually just recently had an opportunity to tour a youth wellness hub. It’s called Grove. It brings youth supports, capital and programming supports, so the wraparound supports, to rural communities in my riding that traditionally never had it.

When I went to school in Palmerston, they didn’t exist there, and now they have a Grove Hub there. They’re very appreciative of the investments we’ve made to bring these supports to communities that traditionally may not have had these supports and had to travel to Guelph or Kitchener in my area or larger urban centres.

Over the weekend, I heard from car salespeople, car manufacturers and people in the manufacturing sector that this was great news for our region and area and all of southwestern Ontario.

To respond to the question the member opposite posed to me, I’d like to highlight it’s $202 million additional dollars that we’re proposing. And I’d also like to point out that the members opposite had the opportunity to help facilitate more non-profit, affordable and attainable housing, but they chose to vote against Bill 23 and those decisions, which is shameful. But this side of the government and the middle over there, Speaker, will continue to fight for my generation that’s looking to get in the market and the future generations in this province to build more homes—all types of homes across the housing continuum—and this budget is one key step in that platform.

My question is to my great colleague from Chatham-Kent–Leamington. He mentioned some great examples of young people getting into the health care profession, and it’s great to see that. I just wondered if he could elaborate on some of our government’s good investments—I know it’s benefiting rural Ontario with the Ontario Learn and Stay Grant.