Madam Speaker, I welcome my colleague from Oakville to the House. I also welcome his statement that he will be a strong advocate for the automotive sector. I believe he is sincere with respect to that. However, we just had a Speech from the Throne and his leader decided to ignore the auto sector 100%. He mentioned all kinds of sectors except the auto sector and the manufacturing sector.
My community of Oshawa depends on the manufacturing sector for a lot of jobs. One assembly job actually has a spinoff of seven other jobs in the community. We have had 300,000 job losses in Ontario. In speaking with the manufacturers who have left, the reasons were the high costs of energy and labour.
Therefore, going forward with the budget, I was wondering if we could get a commitment from the member as to what the Liberals will put into their auto action plan to contradict the policies they have put in place to decrease the competitiveness of Ontario, such as the increases to payroll taxes, which increases the costs of labour, and a tax on carbon, which will increase energy costs. When we compare Ontario to Michigan, Michigan has competitive electrical rates, stable payroll taxes, and does not have a carbon tax. What will the member put forward in his policy to ensure that his leader and the forthcoming budget will have measures in there for the auto sector and manufacturers?