Thank you to the two members for your statements today. They were very interesting and very important, and I hope people out there were listening to what our two parliamentary assistants had to say today.

One thing that comes up often is ODSP. Over the years, no government really has done anything about the ODSP rates—you look at vulnerable citizens, and you look at people who just are really not making a lot of money.

ODSP is certainly not a job, but I’m wondering if you can elaborate on some of the work that is in this budget that touches on ODSP rates and the positive for the future.

I want to thank the members for their presentation.

Budget 2023 is one of the biggest budgets that we’ve seen in decades; I agree with the members on that. However, it is still one of the cruelest budgets, that fails to reach individuals, people, families or communities. In fact, we heard from so many people who came to present and talk about how this budget will actually increase suffering for so many people. One of those groups includes those who live on reserves.

My question to the members is, why is this government failing to spend or put any money, any investment, on infrastructure on reserves for services like clean drinking water?

Thank you to my two colleagues for their remarks on the budget. In my opinion, it’s a great budget for our province.

I know my friend from Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound has been answering a lot of questions, but I was wondering if my friend could talk about the important investments that we’re making in skilled trades, especially around Bruce nuclear, which employs a lot of people in my own riding, as well.

Thank you to both of my colleagues for your comments this afternoon.

To the member from Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound: I know you talked about some particular pages of the budget that you really enjoyed—obviously, for me, I have a certain section with the investments in training, specifically in the health care area.

You also mentioned Learn and Stay—we’re going to be together with the Minister of Health tomorrow; tomorrow is the actual kickoff day to Learn and Stay. Can you tell me what you’re hearing from students in your area, or even from the hospitals and long-term-care homes, about what it’s going to mean for the Owen Sound area?

Thank you, Speaker, and to the member opposite, thank you for your presentation today. As the finance critic, I think you probably share your concerns about the province’s financial situation, and the budget, of course, is the blueprint to our financial situation. I wanted to share some news from the last week or two and quote Moody’s, which is a rating agency: “While the slowing economy and ever-growing demands on government spending will challenge the province’s ability to keep its budget balanced ... it now sees ‘a material probability’ that Ontario gets back to balance faster than it previously thought.

“This view is supported by the province’s revenue collection and ‘a building track record of controlling spending even when revenue exceeds prior expectations’....

“Balancing the budget sooner would allow the province to reduce its debt and keep its debt service costs under control, despite higher interest rates....”

So you may not agree with all the details in the budget, but is it fair to say you’re happy with this good news, as all Ontarians should be?

I just want to say that this budget has launched the largest health care recruiting and training initiative in the province’s history. As one of the immediate actions last year, we introduced a lump sum payment of up to $5,000 for eligible nurses in order to retain and stabilize the workforce. And building on the 12,000 new nurses registered to work in the province last year, our government is also investing in a wide range of initiatives to attract, train and hire more nurses and get them into the system sooner. We’ve added $342 million to add over 5,000 new and upskilled registered nursing positions and registered practical nurses as well as 8,000 personal support workers. We’ve also expanded the Learn and Stay grant to help our graduates receive full tuition reimbursement in exchange for committing to practise in an underserved community.

There’s a lot more that we’re doing.

I appreciate the member raising this important subject.

This government likes to throw around big numbers, but when you actually look at the spending, this is a government that’s sitting on $3 billion of unallocated funding. If you look at the expenditure report from the Financial Accountability Officer, when it comes to health care, this government was going to have a net funding shortfall of $21.3 billion. That’s a shortfall that will mean that we don’t get the kinds of supports in our hospitals and all the health care supports that we need.

We’re already seeing evidence of your underfunding in health care. In Ontario, we had the lowest wages in Canada for nurses. The average length of stay in the emergency for patients has increased by 34%. In fact, in the first quarter of 2023, 1,300 people received care in hallways—not to mention all of the emergency wards that were closed in this province.

How can you justify these numbers when this is the evidence of what this budget is doing to the people of the province of Ontario—

Talking about numbers in health care—through the 2022 budget, our government announced plans to invest $1 billion over three years to get more people connected to care in the comfort of their own home and community. We are now accelerating the investment to bring funding for 2023-24 up to $569 million, including nearly $300 million to stabilize the home and community workforce. This funding will also expand home care services and improve the quality of care, making it easier and faster for people to connect to care. We are providing an additional $425 million over three years for mental health and addictions, including a 5% increase in the base funding of community-based mental health and addictions services—providing funding by the Ministry of Health. Expanding the scope of practice of pharmacies to provide over-the-counter medication of common ailments has been very successful—not only the money, but the efficiency and effectiveness—

Thank you to my two colleagues for their great remarks on the budget.

As a fellow farm kid, my question is to the member from Niagara West. I’m just wondering if he could expand on the important investments we’re making in the vet sector and with the University of Guelph, in particular.

I will concur with the member from Niagara West about the dollar. The Canadian dollar was higher than the US dollar for a very short period during the financial crisis of 2008-09, but that’s neither here nor there. It’s ancient history.

Let’s move forward. We all want to get manufacturing jobs back in the province of Ontario. I think we all agree on that. I would hope the opposition would agree with that.

So my question to the member opposite—there may be parts of the budget you’re not supportive of; that’s fine. You’ve mentioned that in your speech.

But with respect to the manufacturing tax credit that we’re providing small, private manufacturers to incent them to buy new equipment so we can have good, high-paying, in many cases union jobs right here in Ontario—is this a part of the budget that you can see yourself supporting?