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?

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.

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.

We were in the Legislature here when First Nations chiefs came to the Legislative Assembly and they vocalized their disgust, really, around the fact that there wasn’t informed consent on this bill. It’s one of the things I think that the government isn’t listening to. The member talked at length about informed consent. It’s just another indicative factor that this government just wants to rush through things without consulting people who are directly affected by these changes, by this legislation.

I know the member talked about it, but has he heard directly from First Nation chiefs during the public hearings as to how this would affect this legislation going forward and the mining industry?