I’m very excited to introduce some special guests to the House. We’ve got some long-time New Democrats, dedicated volunteers and leaders and community builders in the House today.

Please welcome Dan Danielson, Bob Spencer, Ian Roberts, Paula Masterson, and Reshad Ahmed to the House.

I also have Tejas Dhebana, a wonderful intern who has joined us in our office.

Welcome to your House.

It’s my pleasure to introduce Darah Wiens and her two children, Deacon and Daytona, from Chippawa, Niagara Falls; Danielle Randall and her daughter Kennedy, from Fort Erie; and Jaena Randall.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’m also pleased to welcome the Grey Cup champion Toronto Argonauts to the chamber today, and members of Football Toronto and Football Ontario. There will be a reception in 228 at 11:45. Come by and see what I believe is the oldest professional trophy in the land on display.

It’s my pleasure to welcome Dana McKiel and representatives from Football Canada, Football Toronto and the Toronto Argonauts.

Dana, to you and your colleagues: It’s so good to see you here today.

It’s my pleasure this morning to welcome the members of the Ontario Association of Landscape Architects. They hosted a great breakfast this morning. I want to thank them for the important work they do in making our communities safe, resilient and inclusive.

I’d like to welcome students here today from Central Peel Secondary School in Brampton. These remarkable students took part in an international space competition at NASA. Out of 26,000 participants, these two teams from Central Peel placed first in their respective categories, and they’re the only Canadian teams to be recognized this year.

I’d like to introduce the students, up on my right: Kashyap Patel, Mashraful Choudhury, Ruhaim Ali, Mehtab Cheema, Anant Duggal, Tanvir Gahunia, Kushal Patel, Pragalva Sharma, Mahimn Patel, Deep Patel, Rehan Jaffar, and Neel Pathak.

They’re joined by their teachers: Kiranbir Sahota, Harbinder Sahota, and Simona Matei.

Congratulations and well done, guys.

Randall Marsh from Port Colborne is page captain today and has very proud family and friends from Niagara visiting in the members’ gallery: Scott and Deonna Marsh, Randall’s parents; Randall’s aunt Darah Wiens and her two children, Deacon and Daytona; his aunt Danielle Randall and her daughter Kennedy, from Fort Erie; and his cousin Jaena.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It’s my honour and pleasure today to announce Joan Fisk, who is the executive officer for United Way Waterloo Region Communities and currently the chair of the college of business and economics advisory board at the University of Guelph. She has done wonderful things for our community, and I thank her for it.

I would like to welcome Manny and Roslyn from my office.

You’re not leaving today, but I’m glad that you’re part of our team. Welcome.

I will highlight what the Auditor General’s report on outpatient surgeries in Ontario emphasized—that the experience in other Canadian jurisdictions is that community surgical centres can treat 20% to 30% more patients within the same amount of time. Why are other Canadian jurisdictions doing it, and why is Ontario doing it more? Because we want people to get access to surgery and not sit in wait lines.

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.

I’d like to welcome, from the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies: Nicole Bonnie, Ashleigh Egerton, Sean McGrady, and Samuel Ashirbekov.

Welcome to the House.

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?