My question is to the Minister of Education. The classroom must always be a safe place for students to focus on the necessary life, job and critical thinking skills that they need to succeed. Students and staff in Ontario’s schools need to know that when they go to school, they will be free from physical harm. Students and staff should never be afraid to go to school, and parents much be assured that their children are safe and secure in our schools. In order to do this, our province needs to invest in schools and partner closely with community organizations that will support our young people in their everyday lives.

Can the minister please explain what actions our government is taking to protect the safety and well-being of both our students and our staff?

Can the minister please explain what our government is doing to ensure the safety of students inside the classroom and beyond it?

Ma question est pour le premier ministre. We heard what happened at Minden hospital. Now let’s go to Carleton Place hospital, where the local hospital was forced to close its emergency department overnight because there weren’t enough staff to keep it open. A week before, it was its sister hospital that was closed overnight due to staff shortages—its third closure in as many months.

Ontario had exactly one—one—unplanned emergency room closure in the last 15 years, but in the last year alone we’ve now had 160—160—emergency room closures in a single year. This isn’t normal, Speaker, and we should not pretend that it is. What new measure will the Premier take today to stop the closure of emergency rooms across our province?

I want to thank the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington for his service as an officer and someone who wore the uniform, keeping families safe in this province. And while we stand with the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington, we stand with all law enforcement, ensuring children and communities are safe from the rise of violent crime in this country.

Mr. Speaker, we just announced on Monday an additional $23-million investment specifically to combat crime as well as violence and bullying happening within our school system. Part of that is a partnership with the Pinball Clemons Foundation extended to many school boards across Ontario, designed specifically to offer counselling, leadership and career development for kids at risk.

We announced a 38% expansion of the Focus on Youth program: 28,000 kids are benefiting. This is an investment across school boards to encourage them to get access to jobs and mentorship development.

We have also announced a partnership with Sheldon Kennedy’s Respect Group to help counter bullying in schools—and, most importantly, anchored by a $100-million investment in mental health, a 500% increase from the former Liberals. This is going to help keep kids safe right across Ontario.

We have also required every educator to have fulfilled sexual abuse prevention training this past September. That extended to all teachers and all early childhood educators—the first province to do so.

We were the first province to mandate that every school has an anti-sex-trafficking plan to counter the rise of trafficking, particularly in the province up the 400-series highways. It’s so prevalent in our communities.

We’re the first province to have mandated within the curriculum learning specific to cyber bullying, to privacy, to healthy relationships and to consent. This is important as we build a young generation of kids who understand how they, themselves, can be part of the solution of deterring crime.

We’re all in this together. We are committed to working with everyone—the College of Teachers, the faculties, unions and boards—to make sure schools are safe for kids in Ontario.

To reply, the government House leader.

The government House leader has the floor.

Restart the clock. The member for Kingston and the Islands has the floor.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Interjections.

I think there’s a point that needs to be clarified. For a supplementary question to be valid, it has to have some relationship to the original question—the same subject—and follow and flow from the original question and the original response from the government. But the Speaker has to be able to hear the member who is asking the question to ascertain whether or not it does follow and flow. So I would ask the indulgence of the House to assist me in this regard.

Interjections.

We’ll start the clock. The member for Chatham-Kent–Leamington.

Speaker, does this government really plan? Last night, the Norwich township council passed motions having the effect of banning Progress Pride flags on municipal property and rejecting Pride Month. Is it discrimination? Well, this government has allowed a backlog of two years to accumulate at the Human Rights Tribunal.

It waited for a crisis and waited for thousands of small landlords and tenants to be hurt before putting—

Interjections.

The government has said it was triple-checking the business case for tearing down and moving the Science Centre. Then it said there was no business case to release. Then it said the site could be used for other purposes.

This government is shooting from the hip. With the help of a developer, they have a plan for Ontario Place, but there’s no plan for Ontario. Who’s in charge?

I actually appreciate the question from the honourable member because it was literally a calling card for every single failed policy that brought this province to its knees under the previous Liberal government. Every single thing he talked about, actually, we had to reverse so that we could bring back thousands of jobs. The policies of the previous Liberal government created an energy crisis in the province that cost manufacturers hundreds of millions of dollars and cost homeowners. They had to make a decision between heating and eating. We saw students fleeing the province of Ontario; we saw opportunity fleeing the province of Ontario. They did literally nothing to combat our—

Interjections.

You remember. You tried to build transit but couldn’t get it done. This Premier was in office for a couple of months and built the biggest transit infrastructure program in the history of the country.

You also remember, you tried to build long-term care and you didn’t get it done, but it was this Premier who said, “We have to end hallway health care; we’re going to build 60,000 new and upgraded long-term-care beds.”

You also remember that manufacturers were leaving in droves. It was this Premier, with this economic development minister, who brought back $25 billion worth of investments in the auto sector when you were saying we had to transition to a service economy.

It was this Premier who brought back the energy sector—

Interjections.

My question is to the Minister of Health. People across Algoma–Manitoulin are struggling to access health care. My office is often hearing from individuals and families who are having to wait two, three, four or more years to be matched with a family doctor through Health Care Connect. The Ontario college of physicians reported in February that 2.2-million Ontarians are currently without a family doctor. Rural and northern communities are especially struggling to ensure residents have access to a physician and primary care.

In pre-budget consultations this year, Dr. Stephen Cooper from Manitoulin Island told this government that northern Ontario is facing a shortfall of 350 family doctors and specialists. Dr. Cooper said in his submission, “It is hard to overstate the consequences for access to care if this trend continues.”

Speaker, what is this government’s plan to stop the growing shortage of health care professionals in the north?

Dr. Chantelle Wilson from Manitoulin Island reached out to my office recently about the struggles she is facing practising in small communities on western Manitoulin. She said, “My area has not had access to a home care nurse for two weeks. Dressing changes, etc., are coming to my office, adding to my already overflowing plate. I feel that providing care to western Manitoulin, including 45 in-patients at the local nursing home, will not be sustainable in the not-so-distant future.”

Speaker, physicians are trying their best to service their communities, but without help from this government, they are burning out and are being left no choice but to close their practices.

Will this minister and this government immediately introduce measures to recruit and retain health care professionals in northern Ontario before more physicians are forced to leave?

My question is for the Solicitor General.

People in my riding and in the province are very concerned about the safety and welfare of animals. Through media reports, we hear about situations of neglect and cruelty, such as inhumane conditions where animals are kept in cramped enclosures, and animals that are in distress because they don’t have the basics like food and water. Other circumstances where animals can be abused include the mistreatment of wildlife, and animals that are used for entertainment purposes.

Abuse, neglect and cruelty towards any animal cannot be tolerated. The people of our province expect our government to ensure that Ontario animals are protected and treated in a humane manner.

Can the Solicitor General please explain how our government is keeping animals safe in our province?

The Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.

I want to thank my great friend, our colleague from Cambridge.

Many of us here in this chamber and in the galleries have pets that are part of our families. In our family, we have Hal the rabbit, who’s 10.

After years of neglect from the previous government, our government passed the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act, or the PAWS Act. I want to give a special shout-out to our great member from Etobicoke–Lakeshore, who is a great champion and advocate for this. A first of its kind, the PAWS Act has established a robust, transparent and accountable organization staffed by over 100 qualified and passionate inspectors. Our animal welfare legislation has one of the most severe punishments in the country.

Mr. Speaker, over the years, our inspectors have rescued thousands of animals and levied thousands of orders and charges against abusers because people in Ontario care. With your help, we will always make Ontario a better place for our pets.

One of the really important measures that is embedded in Bill 60 and the Your Health document, which I hope the member will seriously consider supporting, because it is an as-of-right program that ensures individual clinicians who are practising in any other Canadian jurisdiction can come to Ontario and immediately start working here in Ontario, in communities. That is one very specific example where we have been able to work with the College of Nurses of Ontario to make sure that people who have trained in other jurisdictions are able to quickly get their qualifications assessed and approved if appropriate.

Another important initiative: The Minister of Colleges and Universities has really been a true leader in the learn-and-stay program, where we are able to provide tuition and cover books for students who want to practise as nurses and other critical care health care providers. We’ve had a historic number of students apply for those programs, because they want to participate.

We are making the investments, whether it is in education, whether it is in capital builds, whether it is ensuring that we have as many people as possible who wish to practise in the province of Ontario with have right and ability to do so.

I was so pleased earlier this year, through the investments of the Ministry of Finance, to be able to announce the Blind River Huron Shores Family Health Team in the northeast—of an additional $1.1 million. This will ensure that they have the ability to hire two new full-time nurse practitioners, two service workers, two new registered nurses, one RPN, one full-time physiotherapist, a system navigator—all that will support over 5,000 orphaned, unattached patients along the North Shore corridor.

These are the investments that our government is making to ensure that communities across Ontario have access to health care close to home.

Sometimes you have to take things into your own hands. On behalf of my entire corner, I’d like to wish the good member of Algoma–Manitoulin a happy 55th birthday.

It’s my pleasure to introduce this petition for the first time in Ontario’s Legislature. It’s entitled “Say No to Urban Sprawl in Waterloo Region.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario,

“Whereas the government is overriding and rewriting local official plans to move urban boundaries and violate the countryside line by opening up previously protected lands to development;

“Whereas green spaces and farmland are what we rely on to grow our food, support natural habitats, prevent flooding, and mitigate future climate incidents;

“Whereas the government’s Housing Affordability Task Force found there are plenty of places to build homes without destroying the greenbelt, and a recent report from the Alliance for a Liveable Ontario says Waterloo region has the capacity to build 230,000 new housing units within the current area boundary;

“Whereas there is a lack of comprehensive research or analysis on the aquifer in Waterloo region and how unanticipated” growth and “sprawl will affect source water protection;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately stop all plans to force sprawl in Waterloo region by reversing the recently announced changes to the regional official plan amendment.”

It is my pleasure to present this petition. I fully support it, will affix my signature and give it to page Maya.

This petition is submitted by the Ryerson Community School, the school where I first taught as a teacher back in 1989.

“Petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from the Elementary Teachers of Toronto to Stop the Cuts and Invest in the Schools our Students Deserve.

“Whereas the Ford government cut funding to our schools by $800 per student during the pandemic period, and plans to cut an additional $6 billion to our schools over the next six years;

“Whereas these massive cuts have resulted in larger class sizes, reduced special education and mental health supports and resources for our students, and neglected and unsafe buildings;

“Whereas the Financial Accountability Office reported a $2.1-billion surplus in 2021-22, and surpluses growing to $8.5 billion in 2027-28, demonstrating there is more than enough money to fund a robust public education system;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to:

“—immediately reverse the cuts to our schools;

“—fix the inadequate education funding formula;

“—provide schools the funding to ensure the supports necessary to address the impacts of the pandemic on our students;

“—make the needed investments to provide smaller class sizes, increased levels of staffing to support our students’ special education, mental health, English language learner and wraparound supports needs, and safe and healthy buildings and classrooms.”

I fully support this petition, will affix my signature and pass it to page Dominic to take to the table.

I’d like to thank the residents of Parkdale–High Park who recently attended our transit safety town hall and signed this petition titled “Fund the TTC.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas former Premier Mike Harris and his” Conservative “government cancelled provincial funding of 50% of the TTC’s net operating costs over 20 years ago, downloading these costs to Toronto ... and transit riders;

“Whereas subsequent successive Ontario provincial governments have maintained this underfunding;

“Whereas the TTC is the least subsidized public transit system in North America;

“Whereas this underfunding, for over two decades, has resulted in reduced TTC services, inadequate staffing, and an inability to expand public transit services in line with population growth;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately restore the provincial funding of 50% of the TTC’s net operating costs.”

I fully support this petition and will affix my signature to it.

I want to thank the member opposite for this question. I’m very pleased to confirm that French-language education funding in Ontario is at the highest levels in Ontario history. In addition to that, we introduced legislation in the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act that is specifically responding to the need to certify French educators quicker. I hope the members opposite will put ideology aside and vote for quicker processing times of new French teachers.

In addition, in that very bill, we allow French educators based on what’s called an experience certificate, to allow more individuals mid-career with professional competence working with kids in the French language to work within our schools—a request of school boards to help ensure we attract more. We announced a joint French-education recruitment program with education unions, with federations, school boards and the French community itself to recruit French educators. We announced $13 million more to do it. I am proud that we’ve recruited more French-language educators as a result of that, with a commitment to do much, much more for French schools in Ontario.

Thank you for the lovely privilege to table this petition today on behalf of the residents of Barrie–Innisfil. I’d like to table:

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the federal government is increasing the escalated carbon tax by 14%, on April 1, 2023;

“Whereas carbon tax cost increase will put more pressure on consumers who are already struggling with inflation;

“Whereas we call on the federal government to stop the carbon tax, which is a tax hike that Ontarians and Canadians cannot afford;

“Whereas the government of Ontario is helping to reduce the cost of living by keeping taxes low, freezing and eliminating licence plate renewal fees and scrapping the requirement to have licence plate stickers for passenger vehicle, light-duty trucks, motorcycles and mopeds and building on these measures in Bill 85, Building a Strong Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2023, the government continues to help Ontarians with the cost of living;

“Whereas we call on the Ontario government to urge the federal government to halt the carbon tax increase, that will raise the cost of everything;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To support the passage of Bill 85, Building a Strong Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2023.”

I will affix my signature and pass it to the page.

J’aimerais remercier Erick Brunet de Blezard Valley dans mon comté pour cette pétition.

« Soutenez le système d’éducation francophone en Ontario. »

« Attendu que les enfants francophones ont un droit constitutionnel à une éducation de haute qualité, financée par les fonds publics, dans leur propre langue;

« Attendu que l’augmentation des inscriptions dans le système d’éducation en langue française signifie que plus de 1 000 nouveaux enseignants et enseignantes de langue française sont nécessaires chaque année pour les cinq prochaines années;

« Attendu que les changements apportés au modèle de financement du gouvernement provincial pour la formation des enseignantes et enseignants de langue française signifient que l’Ontario n’en forme que 500 par an;

« Attendu que le nombre de personnes qui enseignent sans certification complète dans le système d’éducation en langue française a augmenté de plus de 450 % au cours de la dernière décennie; »

Ils et elles demandent « à l’Assemblée législative de l’Ontario de fournir immédiatement le financement demandé par le rapport du groupe de travail sur la pénurie des enseignantes et des enseignants dans le système d’éducation en langue française de l’Ontario et de travailler avec des partenaires pour mettre pleinement en oeuvre les recommandations. »

J’appuie cette pétition, monsieur le Président. Je vais la signer et je demande à Nicholas de l’amener à la table des greffiers.

I do appreciate the question from the member from Cambridge because our government has set out ambitious growth targets for our agri-food sector through our Grow Ontario Strategy. In that strategy, we have committed to growing Ontario’s agri-food markets and exports by 8% annually by 2030, and I’m pleased to say that we have already taken steps to accomplish just that.

Last week, we announced our Grow Ontario Market Initiative, and while I was at the Earlton Farm Show, I want to share with you that an astute person said, “If you don’t lock in the sale, nothing else matters. You need good marketing initiatives to secure that sale.” That’s what we are doing, Speaker. We’re introducing a $6-million Grow Ontario Market Initiative program through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

Through the Grow Ontario Market Initiative, eligible businesses can receive up to a 50% cost share for their eligible costs in terms of ramping up their marketing initiatives, and that translates into up to $60,000 in funding. We’re also putting out supports for our industry organizations as well, and if they have eligible projects, they could receive up to $125,000.

We’re committed to building Ontario, and it’s through Ontario’s agri-food sector and the building of our marketing initiatives that we are going to absolutely prevail and show the rest of the world—