Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, it is great to be here to speak on an important topic that impacts Canadians from coast to coast to coast. The region I live in, York region, will see over a quarter of the population growth in Ontario settle there in the coming years. With that, the need for new modern infrastructure investments will be even greater.

Business of Supply  I hear some of my colleagues on the other side agreeing with what I said. I thank them for those comments, and I look forward to their questions afterwards. What I will say is we have worked. We have signed bilateral agreements with provinces and territories from coast to coast to coast.

Veterans  Mr. Speaker, Take two minutes, would you mind? It’s a pittance of time For the boys and the girls who went over ... ...may we never forget... It’s a pittance of time This year marks the 75th anniversary of the Italian campaign. I had the honour to be a part of the delegation following the path of our 93,000 courageous Canadian soldiers who helped liberate Italy from Fascist occupation.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, as an economist and someone who follows the numbers in Canada quite closely, what is behind those numbers are stories of Canadians from coast to coast to coast. We have seen net full-time employment rise in the country by over 1.1 million, if not more, in the last five years.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for his question. I am in full agreement with the member from Quebec. In my comments on the throne speech, I said that I fundamentally believed in equality of opportunity for all Canadians to succeed. We need to ensure that Canadians living in rural Canada, in the beautiful parts of our country, are connected to the Internet.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, our economy can only grow and only benefit all Canadians with what is called inclusive growth. We need to target policies that benefit middle-class Canadians. We did it with the first tax cut, benefiting nine million Canadians. This tax cut would actually take 700,000 people from our tax rolls.

Resumption of Debate on Address in Reply  Mr. Speaker, through you, I wish to congratulate the member for Nipissing—Timiskaming on his election as Speaker. I am very happy for the member and I know he will do a wonderful job for everyone in the House. I am pleased to speak during the opening days of the 43rd Parliament to respond to the government's Speech from the Throne.

Business of Supply  Mr. Speaker, I listened to my colleague intently, who I have the pleasure of sitting on the finance committee with, to see if he would offer up some new ideas or policies instead of regurgitating talking points that I constantly hear. He did speak about small businesses, so I will comment on that.

International Trade  Mr. Speaker, the steel sector directly employs over 20,000 Canadians across the country and is vital to manufacturing companies in my riding of Vaughan—Woodbridge. In the face of the U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum, Canadians stood together and firm to defend these important industries and our workers.

Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement Implementation Act  Madam Speaker, when we started negotiations with our partners in the United States and Mexico, we appointed a panel to provide advice. The panel consisted of former members from all different parties. We have come to an agreement now with our major trading partners, an agreement which provides certainty.

Italian Heritage Month  Mr. Speaker, growing up in an Italian Canadian family taught me the value of hard work and sacrifice, how to face adversity and the importance of being a good neighbour. [Member spoke in Italian] [English] There are also the contributions we have made to Canada's diverse and rich social fabric.

Budget Implementation Act, 2019, No. 1  Mr. Speaker, one of the comments my hon. colleague made was about the Canada child benefit. Bill C-97, which came through the finance committee, a committee I am privileged to serve on, included the poverty reduction strategy. For the first time in law, we will have set targets for a reduction in poverty.

BOLT  Mr. Speaker, 342 scholarships, 80 apprenticeships, resulting in 63 job placements and counting is exactly what BOLT, Building Opportunities for Life Today, set out to do. It is creating an opportunity for under-resourced youth by connecting them to careers in construction. This Tridel initiative is a perfect example of how industry, government and unions come together to address two critical issues facing Canadians: youth unemployment and the need for young adults to enter the skilled trades.

Agriculture and Agri-food  Mr. Speaker, our government is committed to supporting the Canadian agri-food processing industry. Under the Canadian agricultural partnership program, I joined the Minister of Agriculture last week in announcing an $8.5-million investment in Vaughan-based and family-owned organic food processor Riverside Natural Foods.

Multilateral Instrument in Respect of Tax Conventions Act  Madam Speaker, if we look at all the policies we have implemented and where Canadian families are today, we see that an average family of four is $2,000 better off today than it was three and a half years ago. We know that has been done through a middle-class tax cut, which was funded by increasing taxes on the wealthiest 1% of Canadians.