I want to give a big shout-out to the students from Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic High School. These amazing students, part of Beaverworx, FRC team 2609, were the champions at the FIRST Robotics world championship in Texas—the only Canadian team to compete in the finals.

Congratulations. You’ve made us proud.

Speaker, I’d like to welcome the CEO of the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies, Nicole Bonnie, and CEO of the Children’s Aid Foundation of Canada, Valerie McMurtry, to the Legislature this morning.

I’d also like to give a shout-out to Van, Rose, Samuel, Kaygan, Byanka, Troy, and Aidan, who were all part of the OACAS #ForgetMeNot campaign.

Welcome to Queen’s Park. I look forward to meeting you all later on this afternoon.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As you know, last night, my Peterborough Petes defeated the North Bay Battalion and are the Bobby Orr cup champions for the eastern conference of the OHL. So I seek unanimous consent for the member for North Bay to wear the Peterborough Petes jersey today in the chamber.

Yesterday, we kicked off National Nursing Week. Doesn’t it say so much that just yesterday, this Conservative government passed a law that’s going to sell off our health care system to corporations that can make money off the backs of sick people? I want to remind everyone here that this is something that the nurses of this province deeply oppose.

The Conservatives are going down a path that both Quebec and British Columbia already found was a dead end. It cost everyone more—the government, individual patients. It worsened health outcomes. In the end, it made it harder as well on health care workers.

To the Premier: How will you stop the hemorrhaging of nurses out of our public health care system when there was nothing in the legislation to prevent it?

I’m so happy to welcome my hard-working EA Sarah Bokhari. She’s also celebrating a milestone birthday today.

I would like to welcome Kevin Goa, a grade 9 student at Forest Hill Collegiate Institute.

Welcome to the Legislature. Thank you for coming.

Nipissing.

My question is to the Attorney General.

The Ombudsman’s damning report called out the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board’s failure to provide justice to thousands of Ontarians.

The Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario has been sounding the alarm for years that tenants have been struggling to participate in the LTB’s online hearing process.

We read in the Ombudsman’s report about a woman who waited 10 months for a hearing, only to have trouble logging on on the day, and as a result, her case was dismissed and her access to justice was denied.

To ensure everyone gets a fair hearing, experts are calling for in-person hearings to be easily available to people who request them. Can this government implement that recommendation?

This is how out of touch this government is. If they actually got out of the backrooms and talked to the people on the front line—the nurses, the health care workers—they’d know the mess that they have created already in health care staffing.

Ontario’s nurses have been chronically overworked, underpaid and undermined by this Conservative government, and now nurses are currently without a contract. This week, we’re going to be tabling petitions with thousands of signatures calling on this government to present a fair and meaningful offer to their negotiations.

Speaker, to the Premier: Will his government give Ontario’s nurses a contract that shows how much we value them?

Speaker, that response does not give me a lot of hope, because while this government says one thing in this House, they say quite another thing to Ontario’s nurses. And their actions speak louder than their words.

This government continues to take our nurses to court. It’s a fact. They’re fighting with them and with other public sector workers over their unconstitutional wage restraint law.

Speaker, to the Premier: Will he celebrate National Nursing Week by ending his campaign to take Ontario’s nurses to court?

I was in Thunder Bay last week, and like many communities across the north, they’re worried that the local hospitals that they proudly support and rely on are going to be closing their doors as staff are forced out by low wages and private sector competition in the south.

Speaker, to the Premier: Why is this government putting private profits ahead of the needs of patients in the north?

As these for-profit corporate clinics set up shop in more lucrative urban locations, it’s going to be even harder or even impossible for smaller rural hospitals to recruit and retain the staff they need. That is what we are hearing from the front lines. You should listen to them.

Northern and First Nations communities know that this government’s plan to replace community-based care with private, for-profit clinics is going to make their access to health care even worse.

Speaker, to the Premier: Why are you making it even harder for people in the north to get the care they need?

Let me introduce a concept to you: highway health care. Highway health care is what happens when this government forces northerners to travel long distances, sometimes thousands of kilometres, away from their families to receive the health care that they need. The Northern Health Travel Grant Program gives them $100 for a hotel. Well, good luck finding anything for that price anywhere. And worrying about that when you’re sick? Just great.

To the Premier: If he’s focused on destroying our health care system and more northerners are going to have to travel even further to get the care they need, will he at least enhance these supports?

The supplementary question.

There is no doubt that we on this side of the House understand the very valuable, important role that nurses play in our health care system, which is, frankly, exactly why at the beginning of the pandemic we initiated a Learn and Stay program under the leadership of the college of nurses ministry. It allows nurses who want to practise in the province of Ontario and train in the province of Ontario to have their tuition and their books covered if they are willing to practise in an underserviced area for two years after graduation. What did that one program do? It ensured that we had the highest number of students applying for those programs.

There are many, many people who want to practise in their communities in health care, and we’re going to enable that through our legislation.

In our ability to ensure that whether it is new nurses being trained, internationally educated nurses who want to come to Ontario—we are doing the work here.

What are we doing through Bill 60? We are ensuring that your constituents who are waiting in line, who are waiting for scheduled surgeries, have the opportunity to get that faster. We did it at the beginning of the year by announcing three expanded cataract surgeries in Windsor, in Kitchener-Waterloo and in Ottawa. That means that people are back with their families, back on the job, back in community, where they want to be. They don’t want to be on a wait-list. And we’re expanding because we want to make sure that your constituents have the ability to get access to the health care they deserve in community faster.

The other part is actually building out the health human resources so that, as an example, because of the passage of Bill 60, we have as-of-right in the province of Ontario—the first Canadian jurisdiction to do so—which means that a physician practising in British Columbia today can start working in Ontario tomorrow. We want to eliminate the barriers, eliminate the red tape to make sure that individuals who want to come here, who want to practise, who want to be in our world-class medical facilities, have that ability without the many, many red tape barriers that we’ve seen in the past.

That is what Bill 60 is about. It is about challenging the status quo, ensuring we’re engaging in innovation that is happening across Ontario. We’re empowering hospitals to do that.

The supplementary question? The member for Toronto Centre.

I remind members to make their comments through the Chair.

The Attorney General.

I thank the member for the question.

Speaker, unlike the previous government, we’re focused on getting results for the entire province, including for the city of Brampton. Our government is making incredible progress to improve transportation infrastructure that was neglected in Brampton for far too long under the Liberals and the NDP. This includes upgrades to GO Transit stations in Brampton—one of the busiest stations along the Kitchener GO line.

The upgrades at Bramalea GO station will support two-way, all-day GO service along the Kitchener GO line and will make travel easier for the growing Brampton community. The enhanced Bramalea GO will include a new bus loop, more parking and an improved platform that is connected by tunnels and elevators.

Speaker, this government is focused on making life easier for the people of Brampton, and I look forward to providing an update on the Bramalea station in the near future.

The NDP and the Liberals think they know what’s best for Brampton residents, but if it were up to them, nothing would get built. That is unacceptable.

We have a balanced approach that expands public transit, like Bramalea GO, and that builds new highways, like Highway 413.

In the last election, the people of Peel and Brampton spoke, and our government is listening. I hear first-hand from residents in Peel region of the impact that gridlock is having on their lives and on their economy. It’s unacceptable. We won’t stick with the status quo. We are building Highway 413.

Speaker, now is the time to act, and now is the time to build.

My question is for the Minister of Transportation.

Like many communities across Ontario, the city of Brampton is rapidly growing. Every day, new families are calling Brampton home, and along with this rapid growth comes the need to build new transportation networks.

For 15 years, the previous Liberal government stuck with the status quo and ignored Brampton’s growing transportation needs. Rather than making urgently needed investments into large-scale transportation infrastructure, the Liberals were more focused on building bike lanes—it’s true; you did that.

The people of Brampton, the region of Peel and the surrounding communities are counting on our government to make the critical transportation investments and upgrades to keep Ontario moving.

Speaker, could the minister please explain how our government is expanding public transportation networks in my community and beyond?

Speaking from experience—I take the Kitchener line most days; I took it this morning—those trains are packed. What a great investment by this government in the Kitchener line. And it’s great to learn about the upgrades at the Bramalea GO station. These improvements will make travel more convenient for individuals and families who rely on this very busy GO line.

The previous Liberal government failed to plan ahead for the growth in transportation needs of Brampton. Even now, Liberals and NDP are out of touch with reality and they take every opportunity to oppose the transportation solutions that Brampton needs, including Highway 413. I guess they didn’t learn their lesson from the last election. As a result, many residents and commuters are delayed every day with the endless traffic congestion and gridlock, which causes frustration, but it’s also a threat to our province’s economic prosperity.

Speaker, can the minister please explain how our government is addressing the urgent transportation needs in Brampton and—

With the greatest of respect, the member opposite is dismissing the fact that we’ve actually worked with the Ontario Medical Association to make sure that there are appropriate billing codes for our primary care practitioners who are treating and assisting individuals with long COVID. It is an important piece to make sure that individuals with long COVID are not left abandoned by our health care system—which is not going to happen under this government. To suggest that this is a dismissive and not important piece to ensure that individuals who are suffering with long COVID have the support that they need in the province of Ontario, I think, shows a great deal of disrespect to those individuals.

There is excellent work happening, in our research hospital facilities as well as at our universities, to study and assess the impacts of long COVID. As we develop and see how those outcomes continue, we will be there, as we have been through the entire pandemic, to make sure that they have the resources to continue to serve these important long COVID patients.

Ma question est pour la ministre de la Santé.

Last week, the Canadian press received access-to-freedom-of-information documents from the Minister of Health that said Ontario’s lack of a long COVID strategy has led to “fragmented” clinics that offer little to no support to patients. The health ministry’s strategic policy branch wrote: “Ontario does not have a coordinated approach to care for patients with a post-COVID-19 condition.”

My question to the minister: Aside from billing codes—can the Minister of Health tell the 750,000 Ontarians living with long COVID where they can access the care they so desperately need?

Again, I quote from a briefing that the minister received: “While some providers are responding to the immediate demand for post-COVID care, these offerings are insufficient, fragmented and unsustainable without dedicated funding. This model is not sustainable and could result in little to no support for Ontarians with” post-COVID needs, the briefing warned the minister.

These clinics are currently at risk of closure due to the lack of funding. The minister’s briefing documents said, and everybody agrees, that a provincially coordinated approach would be most effective.

Minister, where is the dedicated funding for a provincially coordinated approach to care for the 750,000 Ontarians with long COVID, like BC, Alberta and Quebec are already funding?

There has only been less than 1% of actual hearings that were actually in person.

My question is to the Premier, on the same specific issue.

The Ombudsman’s scathing report included many heartbreaking stories.

A tenant’s home was so unsafe that it made her ill, so in December 2020, she then applied to the LTB. Her case was then heard only 16 months later, after she already made the difficult decision to leave the home that she could afford.

This all happened under this government’s watch—where the caseload blew up from 20,000 and in 2022 to 38,000.

You can’t blame the Liberals for everything. They broke it, but you made it worse. There’s still no relief in sight.

When will the government actually own up to their failures and table a detailed report with timelines to clear the historically high backlog of the LTB?

Interjections.

I appreciate the report from the Ombudsman. One of the things that he did say was that when we took government in 2018, the previous government, supported by the NDP—and I’m paraphrasing what the Ombudsman said, of course. He said that the technology was redundant, that it was broken.

We have invested $28.5 million in cutting-edge systems so that people can access justice.

In terms of in-person hearings, people can request in-person help. They can go to locations in London, Ottawa, Toronto, and other spaces.

We also have a mobile service to help people who don’t have the technology.

So we are doing things to make sure that we’re doing digital-first but not digital-only.

I look forward to the supplementary question, when I’ll talk about some of the other investments that we’ve made.

Let me tell you, Mr. Speaker, what the NDP have done. They’ve said: “Have hearings.” “Don’t have hearings.” “Have them in person.” “Have them quick.” I think I’m going to start calling it the party of turnstile.

Thanks to the member from Peterborough, and congratulations to his Petes on advancing to the OHL final against the London Knights.

Since day one, our government has been working hard to make sure that life is more affordable for the people of Ontario, particularly on the energy file.

That’s why, last fall, I was pleased to announce $4.5 million for the Clean Home Heating Initiative, where members of his community in Peterborough; members in London, home of the Knights; members in St. Catharines, home of the IceDogs; and members in Sault Ste. Marie, home of the Greyhounds, can apply to get a hybrid home heating system. Just last week, I was pleased to join the Attorney General and the member from Barrie–Innisfil in Barrie—home of the Colts—to announce that our government is bringing that investment up to a total of $8.2 million, so that we can offer this additional program to another 500 homes across the city.

This is great news for energy bills, but it’s also great news for the environment.

Our government is excited to provide this opportunity to more communities and more homeowners across the province to lower not just their home energy bills, but also do their part for the environment and reduce emissions. The Clean Home Heating Initiative is going to allow most households to leverage Ontario’s world-class green energy, clean energy grid that we have to both heat and cool their homes with a hybrid heat pump that switches between electricity and natural gas. Switching to hybrid home heating could save them about $300 a year on their energy bills. That’s a significant amount. They would also be cutting their emissions by a third, which is great news for the environment.

We know that people across the province want to have more choice, and we’ve been providing that. People across the province want to have more control over their monthly costs, especially on their energy bills, and I’m proud to say that the Ontario government is delivering on that.