Good afternoon, everyone. Bonjour tout le monde. Premier Ford, it is a great pleasure to be with you again. Minister Fedeli, Minister Bethlenfalvy, thank you for your presence. Colleagues, thank you for being here. I think you see, I would suggest by who's here, how they're mixed in together, that we're working together for Ontario and working together for Canada, and that's because we share the same conviction.

Canada is the best country on earth, and Ontarians and Canadians are making it better still. This is happening all across Ontario. We're building big. We're building, again, small modular reactors at Darlington, the first in the G7, $2 billion invested clean, affordable energy for 300,000 homes, a new fleet of armored vehicles at GDLS in London, Ontario, $2 billion invested, more than 6,000 jobs, just one of many defence contracts in Ontario, designed by Canadians, built by Canadians with Canadian steel, a new fleet of all Canadian passenger rail cars built by workers at Alstom in Thunder Bay, 700 jobs, 900 Canadian suppliers across this country. When Ontario grows, Canada grows, generating more than $1.6 billion for our economy. New mining projects across northern Ontario. Canada's Nickel’s Crawford mine near Timmins, creating 5000 jobs and securing low-carbon nickel needed for battery steel production for decades to come. Together, we've cut taxes on incomes, investment in homes up to $200,000 on new homes in Ontario. I've seen the ads. I've seen the ads. Did you see the government of Canada being mention? No, it's okay. I guess we've got to pay for our own ads. It's okay. We're doing all that while protecting vital social programs that Ontarians and Canadians rely on every day. So, here in Ontario and right across the country, Canada is growing stronger. Canadians from coast to coast to coast agree. The Alberta referendum was a huge clear vote for United Canada focused on building. Canada is working and we're just getting started.

There will always be forces beyond our control that will seek to divide and break us. They will not succeed. Because Canadians take care of one another. We have always done so, and we know that we are stronger together.

Now, the U.S. tariffs have upended a trade bargain that's existed for decades. They've raised costs for American families while putting Ontario workers and businesses at a disadvantage and under a cloud of uncertainty. I just said we can't control what others do. So, we're focusing on what we can control and building Canada strong at home and diversifying our partnerships abroad. We're investing more than $30 billion in steel, aluminum, lumber and the auto sector, protecting nearly 35,000 jobs, helping a thousand small and medium sized businesses pivot to better opportunities, creating a bridge to keep good jobs here while our companies invest for the future. And we're making Canada the best place in the world to invest, including through the new Productivity Mega Deduction. With it, our businesses, large and small, can immediately deduct 100% of the cost of new capital investment. The result? Canada's effective tax rate on new investment is by far the lowest of any major economy and less than half the rate in the United States. 

The world may have changed, but what makes Ontario and Canada great hasn't changed. We have the minerals, we have the steel, we have the ingenuity, and we have the best workers on earth. Now, protecting what we have is not enough. We have to go further to transform our economy and to secure the future. And to that end, Premier Ford and I are proud to announce a new action plan, a $9 billion partnership that protects jobs today and makes bold investments to build a stronger, more resilient, more independent Canada. A billion dollars to the Ring of Fire to unlock the critical minerals supply chain essential for our strategic autonomy, creating an opportunity for 70,000 jobs. More than $5 billion to our steel mills, so steelworkers in Hamilton and Sault Ste. Marie can make what Canada in the world needs, protecting 100,000 jobs. And two and a half billion dollars to the assembly line so Ontario workers and plants from Windsor to Woodstock can build the vehicles of the future, safeguarding more than 120,000 direct jobs in our auto sector. So, from mine to mill to line, the critical minerals in the ground, the steel in the frame, and the vehicles on the road made in Ontario, made in Canada, made for the future. 

Let’s start with the first link in the chain: the minerals in our own backyard. Ontario has plenty of nickel, lithium, platinum, cobalt, and other raw materials needed for electric vehicles, industries of the future, and defence. We are investing more funds than ever before in critical minerals to protect the sovereignty of our supply chain, strengthen our strategic autonomy, and create new well-paying jobs, right here at home.

The Ring of Fire has the potential to add over $22 billion to our GDP. We can secure a sovereign supply chain and bolster Canada's position as a critical minerals’ leader. Now, to build those mines, we need roads. And today, Canada's matching Ontario's $1 billion investment to build road infrastructure to reach the Ring of Fire, an area rich in critical minerals over 500 kilometers north of Thunder Bay. To build mines, we need to build together. Canada and Ontario are creating a working group to engage with local Indigenous communities, so together we’ll identify opportunities for economic development, conservation and Indigenous protected areas. And to seize opportunities in a fast-changing world, we need speed. Historically, it has taken over 15 years to open a mine in Ontario. We're changing that. Canada will always be a country of high standards, but high standards do not mean decisions have to be slow. With bill C-39, the Building Canada Strong Act, we will improve the effectiveness of federal decisions. For projects and supply chains, our standard will be simple: one project, one review, one year. That means proponents tell us once the information. It means coordination across federal and provincial governments. It means extensive, comprehensive and focused consultations with Indigenous peoples to build in true partnership and create real opportunities. On mining, Canada and Ontario are establishing a coordinated process for federal and provincial permitting, removing duplication, streamlining systems, and cutting wait times.

Now, turning to steel, generations of steelworkers have built our country. As I said earlier, more than 100,000 work in the industry today, including in Hamilton and Sault Ste. Marie. At present, our steel companies rely heavily on the auto sector. In the future, pipes, rail, ports, defence will be increasingly important sources of demand. And to support the industry in pivoting and increasing competitiveness, we're launching a more than $5 billion Joint Steel Action Fund. We have the best steelworkers in the world. We have vast natural resources. Yet, we import over six and a half million tons of steel a year. And that's often because we don't make the steel that Canadian companies need. It's time to be our own best customer. And so, today's investment will enable mills and companies to upgrade machinery and manufacture more products Canada needs to expand to meet demand in non-U.S. markets. And at the same time, we are further strengthening CBSA enforcement to protect against foreign steel dumping. When projects in Canada need specialized steel, they can increasingly count on Canadian mills, Canadian steelworkers to supply it.

Canada and Ontario will establish a joint working group to implement these measures. Its first priority will be to recommend ways to reduce the cost of transporting Canadian steel and to open up new opportunities, here in Canada and around the world.

And finally, to the assembly line. It's more than 120,000 people who wake up go to work every day because we make cars and trucks in this country in Ontario. Ontario builds more than 1 million vehicles every year, and we're among the best. The Toyota Canada plant is now the most decorated auto plant in the world. And for decades, there's been no greater symbol of how closely the Canadian and American economies have been intertwined than the automobile. The average car is built from parts that travel across our border up to eight times. But in the past year, 18 months, Canada's auto exports to the U.S. have declined by more than 10%. U.S. exports to Canada have fallen by over 20%, even though Canada's still far and away the United States’ largest customer. Nobody wins from this. Tariffs make both our industries weaker and reduce choice for our families. And that's why Canada remains ready to negotiate a fair deal when the U.S. is ready to sit down in good faith. An integrated North American auto sector will be stronger, more competitive, and provide better jobs, but we recognize that these are not necessarily the current objectives of the U.S. administration. Their approach has changed and so must ours.

The imperative to invest is reinforced by the radical transformation of the global auto sector, with rapid shifts towards lower emissions, greater connectivity, and even more advanced manufacturing. For example, within five years, electric vehicles are expected to account for more than 40% of all car sales worldwide. As Canadians, we know we must skate to where the puck is going. So, last February, we launched Canada's new auto strategy to position ourselves as a global leader in EV production. And today, this announcement takes a next major step forward. Investing two and a half billion dollars so the industry can advance this pivot and increases competitiveness so Ontarians can build the connected electric vehicles of the future. From all Alliston to Oakville to Oshawa, cutting-edge technology on the factory floor is needed. We need optimized production lines, investments and innovation. 

We are advancing our economy while protecting the environment. Earlier this year, Canada chose its own more ambitious method of reducing motor vehicle emissions. By 2035, we will make Canada’s vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards more than twice as strict. That will allow us to reduce emissions as much as if 75% of vehicles were electric. To mitigate the impact of unjustified tariffs, federal performance standards that apply to vehicle fleets will be maintained at the same level from 2027 through 2029. This will give vehicle manufacturers more leeway in the short term, while enabling Canada to reach its goal of reducing emissions in the long term. We are also establishing a new Canada–Ontario automobile working group, which will implement these new measures, develop our domestic market, and increase our competitiveness on the international stage.

So, from mine to mill to line, we are connecting all the links in the value chain as part of a larger plan. Our Defence Industrial Strategy will catalyze half a trillion dollars in investment over the next decade. And this will create enormous opportunities in these areas from critical minerals in the Ring of Fire, steel from southern Ontario, vehicle manufacturing across Ontario, as well as building on Ontario's and Canada's strengths in aerospace, shipbuilding, AI, cyber, quantum, robotics and autonomous systems. Our major projects from port to power will create enormous demand again for those critical minerals, for those metals, for the machinery, for that advanced manufacturing. More jobs, more opportunity, more prosperity, more sovereignty, so we can live our lives as we choose.

That’s what makes a Canada that works. A Canada that seizes opportunities and works together.

We're becoming stronger, more independent. Our exports to non-U.S. markets are on track to double over the next 10 years. Foreign direct investment in Canada is at its highest level in two decades, running at twice the rate of our nearest competitor. Our economic growth is accelerating and we're creating jobs at twice the rate of the U.S. We're already giving ourselves more than others could ever take away. We're just getting started building Ontario strong, building Canada strong for all.