Je remercie ma collègue pour cette excellente question.

Contrairement au gouvernement fédéral, qui stagne avec son projet de modernisation, notre gouvernement, sous le leadership du premier ministre Ford, a su moderniser notre cadre législatif incluant la Loi sur les services en français.

C’est en novembre de 2021 que nous avons mis de l’avant la Stratégie ontarienne pour les services en français, une stratégie qui englobe :

—la modernisation de la Loi sur les services en français, ce que nous avons fait;

—l’accroissement de la main-d’oeuvre bilingue et francophone; et

—l’adoption de modèles de services intégrés et aussi efficaces.

C’est en travaillant en collaboration avec les ministères pertinents et aussi leurs agences que nous continuons d’identifier les besoins et aussi les possibilités d’expansion de points de service en français dans la province. Contrairement au gouvernement libéral précédent, qui n’a fait que parler, notre gouvernement agit pour la communauté francophone de l’Ontario.

Les organisations qui choisissent d’obtenir une désignation en vertu de la Loi sur les services en français s’engagent à protéger et à promouvoir des services en français de qualité. Nous savons que la désignation est un outil important pour la vitalité de la communauté francophone, et c’est pour ça que notre gouvernement continue à moderniser le processus.

Global News just broke this story: Ontario Place for All has submitted seven freedom-of-information requests to the Ministry of Infrastructure. For each of these seven requests, this government has withheld the requested information. One request was for the lease agreement between the Ontario government and the private Austrian spa at Ontario Place. This agreement handcuffs this generation and future generations of Ontarians into spending an estimated 650 million taxpayer dollars and cost-sharing operational costs for the next 95 years.

Why won’t this government release the lease agreement so that the people of Ontario can judge for ourselves whether this is a good deal?

Since the minister didn’t answer the question previously, I’ll ask again.

At the announcement to move the Ontario Science Centre last week, the Minister of Infrastructure said the business case that showed it was more expensive to renovate the science centre than build a new one would be made public in due time. The minister then said that she would release the business case to the public once the numbers were verified and triple-checked.

The minister is now claiming that the business case is confidential and will not be released after all.

The people of Ontario deserve answers. Show us the business case. Why the secrecy?

Interjections.

The supplementary question. The member for Parkdale–High Park.

Minister of Infrastructure.

My question is to the Premier.

I was contacted this week by a resident of York region through a friend. The resident, an 80-year-old man, was just recently told that his prostate condition could no longer be controlled by drugs and that he needed surgery. He was offered two choices: He could wait for a year and a half to get surgery with his OHIP card through Mackenzie Health, or he could pay $6,000 with his credit card and get his care within three weeks at a private clinic.

Can the Premier tell me how he can defend his health care policies when people have to pay to get OHIP-covered surgery done in any reasonable time frame?

When the Premier’s decisions mean that people have to wait ages to get surgery to relieve suffering or to prevent death, then he has failed.

When will the Premier provide the funding for health care and health care workers so people are not suffering or forced to max out their credit cards to get treatment?

The member opposite talks about the need for constituents to have access in a timely manner to surgeries and yet opposes the very legislation and proposals that we bring forward that will ensure, in fact, we have those community surgical centres.

Of course, the member has conveniently left out some of the details of the example that he gave.

I can assure you that organizations like Mackenzie Health that have accessed our surgical backlog recovery of almost a billion dollars—as a result of investments that our government has made since the beginning of 2019—have ensured that Ontario is, in fact, leading Canada in terms of the shortest amount of wait times. But we need to do more because we understand that there are people who are waiting too long to get necessary surgeries.

We will do that work. I hope the member opposite appreciates that that will make a difference for their constituent.

Ma question s’adresse à la ministre des Affaires francophones.

L’Ontario compte la plus grande communauté francophone du Canada à l’extérieur du Québec. Avec 600 000 francophones et 1,5 million de locuteurs de langue française, l’accès à des services de qualité en français dans divers secteurs est d’une importance vitale.

Avec des initiatives comme le règlement sur l’offre active qui est récemment entré en vigueur, notre gouvernement a facilité l’accès des francophones aux services dans leur langue maternelle.

Monsieur le Président, la ministre peut-elle dire à la Chambre comment la stratégie des services en français se déroule encore aujourd’hui?

Bien que des progrès importants aient été réalisés, notre gouvernement doit assurer la continuité de ces travaux afin que la communauté francophone de l’Ontario dispose d’un environnement propice à son épanouissement.

La ministre peut-elle nous en dire plus sur ce qui a été fait pour faciliter la désignation des organismes?

My question is for the Premier.

Speaker, the Premier likes to say, “Under my watch, you’ll only ever need your OHIP card, not your credit card.” The Premier should tell that to Lisa, whose wait time for breast cancer surgery at the Ottawa Hospital was so long that she was forced to go to a private clinic to pay $50,000 for the life-saving surgery she needed. And Lisa is not the only one. Wait times for breast cancer surgery at the Ottawa Hospital are so long that surgeons are advising their patients to consider private options. Dozens of women in Ottawa are having their life-saving surgeries delayed and then rescheduled. The uncertainty and the wait is agonizing.

How is any of this in any way acceptable to this Premier?

My question is for the Premier.

The Eglinton Crosstown LRT is two years late and $1 billion over budget. This government has missed two deadlines for it to open.

To make matters worse, leaked emails note the government is now silencing Metrolinx, who prepared a video update on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. The Premier’s office’s staff would not allow that video update to be seen by the public.

A simple question to the Premier: What are you trying to hide?

Back to the Premier: The problem for our city, in Toronto, here, is that the P3 consultants who designed our failing LRT are the same ones this government has under contract for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, and red flags are popping up everywhere. For example, CityNews Toronto documented buckets of broken-up chunks of the Sloane station platform at Eglinton and Bermondsey, with barricades all of a sudden up everywhere after this LRT station appeared poised to open.

Over the weekend, the Toronto Star reported, as I said before, that Metrolinx officials are frustrated with this Premier’s staff silencing them when they’re trying to give the public an update on the project.

Speaker, I agree with Councillor Colle and Councillor Matlow and others who said we need a public inquiry into this mess. That was something good enough for Ottawa. It should be good enough for the city of Toronto.

Will the government commit to a public inquiry of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT today? Yes or no?

Interjections.

Thank you to the member for the excellent question.

Mr. Speaker, as an individual who was raised in the mine site village of Dome and Dome-Ex in South Porcupine, Ontario—our government not only recognizes the importance of the north, but we want it to prosper like the rest of the province. That’s why our Critical Minerals Strategy is so important. It will connect the mineral-rich north with the manufacturing might of the south. This will create jobs and supply Ontario, Canada and the world with critical minerals needed for the EV revolution and the technologies of tomorrow. Our strategy is backed by strategic funding and programs like the Critical Minerals Innovation Fund and the Ontario Junior Exploration Program that will build the supply chain and find the mines of the future.

Last week, I was honoured to join the Minister of Finance in Thunder Bay to announce the additional investment of $6 million into the OJEP through budget 2023. That brings our total investment in the Ontario Junior Exploration Program to $35 million.

Our efforts are working. Last year, Ontario regained the top spot for exploration spending, with over $870 million invested. We’re number one. These investments are creating jobs for northern and Indigenous communities so that they can be a vital part of the supply chain.

Our government, under Premier Ford’s leadership, is building a supply chain for EVs, and it all starts with exploration.

Supplementary question?

The Minister of Transportation.

Done and done. We have a historic investment in terms of recruiting and training health care professionals in the province of Ontario. We have invested in capital builds, over 50 in the province of Ontario, to expand surgical operating rooms and make sure that we have that. Through Bill 60, we will continue to expand what already exists in the province of Ontario—surgical units to ensure that people get access in their communities in a timely manner. This work is ongoing.

It is the member opposite and the party they represent who continue to want the status quo.

The example the member gave—there needs to be some context to it. And of course, that surgery, if it happens in the province of Ontario, is covered by your OHIP card.

This is the same member from the city of Ottawa who is opposing the innovation that is happening at the Ottawa Hospital today. Through our surgical backlog fund, the hospital has been able to utilize an innovative model that ensures an OR room within the hospital is being used on the weekend, when it was sitting vacant before. What does that do? It means that those critical surgeries that must happen and will continue to happen have the ability to happen sooner because we are utilizing those operating rooms over the weekend.

Mr. Speaker, I understand the frustration that community members feel with respect to project delays on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. It’s a project that we inherited from the Liberals, and from the beginning, unfortunately, they mismanaged the project.

Our government has been committed to doing transit differently. We brought forward legislation, the Building Transit Faster Act, that the opposition unfortunately voted against.

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite knows better than almost anyone in this House that there are risks associated with rushing a project. Transit riders deserve a lot better than the experiences of the Ottawa LRT.

That’s why our focus has been—and I’ve been clear on this since the beginning. Our focus is making sure that the crosstown opens as soon as possible, but that when it does, it is safe and reliable for transit riders.

With respect to the specific issue on the Sloane platform, repairs are being made on a section of concrete that was identified through Metrolinx’s very strict quality control and inspection process, and there are no additional costs required to fix this platform.

What people of Toronto don’t need are politicians forcing a system to open before it is ready. That is what happened in Ottawa when the mayor of Ottawa demanded that they shorten the testing period. And then what happened? Derailments. Transit riders were stranded and couldn’t get to work and couldn’t get home.

We will not rush a system to open before it is ready. Transit riders deserve better, and that’s what they will get under this government.

My question is for the Minister of Mines.

Everyone across this province is eager to help advance Ontario’s economic prosperity.

Northern Ontario is critical to the future of our province, and unfortunately, its tremendous potential was ignored for too many years under the previous Liberal government.

The rich supply of critical minerals found in the north is particularly important in our transition to clean energy technologies, especially in the production of electric vehicles’ EV batteries. Building a robust supply chain means that we must be able to extract the minerals out of the ground with urgency in order for Ontarians to become an EV leader in the world.

Can the minister please explain how our government is strengthening Ontario’s mining sector?

We can see that the investments that are being made, like those at Umicore in Lennox and Addington and Volkswagen in their EV production plants in St. Thomas, clearly show that our government is focused on building a strong made-in-Ontario supply chain, but we need those critical minerals to accomplish this.

To capitalize on this generational opportunity, we must act with urgency and create the right economic conditions for investments in our province’s mining and exploration industry. Critical minerals exploration is a key driver for creating good-paying jobs and building a strong, globally competitive economy. It’s vital that our government continues to make these targeted investments in order to help our companies search for minerals to be used in automotive and battery manufacturing.

Can the minister please explain what actions our government is taking to expand exploration for these critical minerals here in Ontario?

Speaker, I’m hoping that in the supplementary, the Premier will be able to explain to Lisa how he could allow this to happen.

Do you know how many women at the General campus of the Ottawa Hospital are getting their life-saving breast cancer surgeries within the safe recommended rate? Is it 90%? Is it 75%? No. Is it 50%? No. Is it 25%? No. It’s 13%. The situation for gynecological cancer surgeries is not much better; it’s 30%.

All the while, the hospital is renting out ORs to a private company while these women watch that and wait.

Every four weeks these breast cancer surgeries are delayed, the risk of death increases 6% to 8%.

There’s a reason that we started measuring wait times in 2007: so this wouldn’t happen.

Back to the Premier: How did this Premier allow this to happen under his watch?

My question is to the Premier.

Windsor Salt workers from Unifor Locals 240 and 1959 have been on strike for over nine weeks as they continue to fight for job security and against the outsourcing of their jobs by a US hedge fund company, Stone Canyon Industries. These workers mine and produce the table salt, road salt, agricultural salt and more that we all benefit from. In fact, the salt used in the kitchen and on the dining room tables right here at Queen’s Park is Windsor Salt.

Speaker, the Conservatives claim they’re working for workers, so Windsor Salt workers want to know: What specifically has the Premier done to support them during this strike and stop the outsourcing of their jobs?

And it’s very clear what you feel about workers, with Bill 124 and Bill 28.

Scab labour is used by employers to undermine collective bargaining and drag out labour disputes.

The Conservatives have a track record of supporting the use of scab labour time and time again.

I was joined by Windsor Salt workers here at Queen’s Park to reintroduce, for the 16th time since the Conservatives cut anti-scab labour, our anti-scab labour bill. The Conservatives wouldn’t answer whether or not they will be supporting it. In fact, they wouldn’t even look at the workers who were here.

So I’ll try again: Will the Premier tell workers today whether or not his government will vote in favour of our anti-scab labour bill and support Windsor Salt workers? Yes or no?

The member opposite should also talk about the wait times that are happening across Canada, because, in fact, Ontario leads Canada in the shortest wait times. Is that enough? Clearly not. We want to do more, which is why we are expanding immediately through the surgical backlog recovery.

Almost a billion dollars has been used by our public hospitals in the last three years to expand their operating room capacity. And it has worked, because, in fact, we are now down to wait times that are equivalent to pre-pandemic levels. That is a success that we have to point to and thank our hospital partners for. Is it enough? No.

We don’t want the status quo, which is why, through Bill 60, we are expanding the community surgical and diagnostic centres. That will ensure that people have access to regularly scheduled surgeries in a timely manner closer to home. It is exactly what the people of Ottawa and Ontario need and deserve.

My question is for the Minister for Seniors and Accessibility.

It’s important that Ontarians of all ages and abilities can participate in local programs across the province.

Because of our government’s commitment to helping seniors and people with disabilities to stay safe, active and socially connected, we are hearing encouraging reports about successful projects through the Inclusive Community Grants Program. To name just a few examples, the city of Burlington received funding to install portable beach mats to make access easier to the waterfront for everyone, and the public library in Dryden received funds to make accessibility improvements.

Can the minister please share more about the Inclusive Community Grants Program and how this contributes to advancing accessibility for all of Ontario?

Ensuring continuous improvement of accessibility and inclusion for everyone is an ongoing responsibility, and we all play a role in supporting the needs of our communities.

It’s vital that our government continues to provide funding that supports local needs and empowers community organizations so that improvements can take place everywhere in Ontario.

Can the minister please elaborate on how our government is investing in accessibility projects in both rural and small urban communities?

Supplementary question.