Thank you, Mr. Chair. I want to thank our witnesses for being here.
Mr. Strickland, I want to thank you for being here. I want to ask you about something.
Last year, just after Minister Champagne announced the deal to give $15 billion to Stellantis and NextStar to build the Windsor plant, it came to light that NextStar was hiring at least 900 foreign workers to do that work. You were in the media quite a bit about this. Since you're before the committee now, I want to give you the opportunity to express your concerns around that issue. It goes without saying that $15 billion is an awful lot of taxpayers' money. For the minister not to cut a deal to guarantee that the skilled trades in Ontario would do this work seems to me to be negligence, essentially.
You've been on the record as calling this a slap in the face to Ontario workers. You said that Ontario construction workers are fully able to construct the plant and install the specialized equipment required, and it's an insult—very strong language—to skilled trades to suggest they are unqualified. You said it's absolutely unconscionable.
I'm going to give you a platform here to tell my Liberal colleagues on the committee exactly what you think in person.