What's in Ontario's economic update for Ottawa?

The province has released its fall economic statement. Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy tabled the update today. And we've reached out to him to find out what's in store for the Ottawa area. Thank you for being here, Minister. My pleasure. You lay out how Ontario needs to build up its defence industry and you're coming up with an AI industrial strategy. How are you going to rely on Ottawa's tech and defense companies to bolster Ontario in the face of U.S. tariffs? Well, one of the ways is what we just announced in partnership with the federal government. I just announced yesterday an $8 billion Ontario competitiveness tax cut. Which is going to help incent investment in Ottawa and all parts of Ontario. Companies will be able to accelerate their depreciation of any capital investment on certain areas. We think it will help create 30,000 new jobs. And then, of course, one of the areas that will benefit is technology and defence. So, you know, that's an area where Ottawa is going to excel. The province's LRT upload was a major part of Mark Sutcliffe's re-election promise to lower transit fares. Now, there's no mention of it in your statement today. You do have a non-binding agreement right now. Just wondering how much longer until there's a signed deal? Well, I can't put a time limit on it. I know our minister and his team of transportation is doing the due diligence along with the city. So that takes time. That happened with Toronto when we did the deal with Toronto. So I know it's an active file. It's something they're working on. And, of course, today was an economic update and a fiscal update. I'll obviously have more to say in the budget. OK, so the infrastructure minister said yesterday that the province is spending $10 billion on the Ottawa Hospital's new civic campus. The cost of the project was estimated at $2.8 billion, with $2.1 billion coming from the province. Can you confirm the new estimated cost of that project and how much the city will be expected to pay? That's a file for the Minister of Health and the Minister of Infrastructure. I mean, what I can say is that, you know, we've committed to build Ottawa Civic. We're making some $64 billion of investments right across the province, $50 billion just for capital for building hospitals like Ottawa Civic. And really the goal is to make sure that we have enough acute care beds and enough capabilities For areas like Ottawa and a growing population and an aging population. And that's happening not just in Ottawa, but right across the province. Quebec's new government plans to abolish time change. You said today the government is still waiting on New York to do the same before following suit. Now, what's your message to businesses and residents here in the National Capital Region who would effectively be operating in two different time zones? Well, this is something you have to ask the Premier of Quebec. They just launched this, I think, in the last 24 hours. We've been very clear for some time that, you know, we are interested in doing the same, but we need Quebec, we need New York, and we need Ontario to be aligned. And, of course, New York's a key part of that. Because of the capital markets, and they're the financial center of the U.S., we're the financial center of Canada in Toronto and in Ontario. We certainly understand, certainly, the impacts of people crossing between Hull, Gatineau, and Ottawa. So we're very mindful of that. We're very mindful of that in Manitoba and northwest Ontario. And so we actually just made an announcement a few weeks ago that we would pair our daylight savings time. But this is something that the Premier of Quebec has just launched, and I'm sure there'll be discussions. Thank you for this, Minister. Peter Bethlenfalvy is Ontario's Finance Minister. Thank you for taking the time and speaking with us today. Always a pleasure.