Pursuant to standing order 7(e), I wish to inform the House that tonight’s evening meeting is cancelled.

Resuming the debate adjourned on May 15, 2023, on the motion for third reading of the following bill:

Bill 85, An Act to implement Budget measures and to amend various statutes / Projet de loi 85, Loi visant à mettre en oeuvre les mesures budgétaires et à modifier diverses lois.

Good morning. Let us pray.

Prayers.

I’m pleased to rise and speak to the Building a Strong Ontario Act, 2023, a plan that takes a responsible and targeted approach to supporting people and businesses while outlining a path to balance next year, so that future generations can inherit a strong Ontario. This plan is our blueprint for building a strong province during a time of global challenge and change.

Our work to deliver our plan for building a strong province starts now. It starts with a path to a balanced budget. Thanks to robust revenue growth, our prudent plan and our disciplined planning have led us to a path to balance. I am proud to say that starting next year, we will return Ontario to the black with a modest surplus of $200 million. While uncertainty persists, this puts us in a position of fiscal strength. In fact, Ontario’s net debt-to-GDP is now forecast to be 37.8% in 2023-24, down 3.6 percentage points.

Our budget assumptions are based on an in-depth analysis and inputs from leading private sector economists whom we consulted a great deal with. In our budget modelling, our government never assumes that the extremes will necessarily come to pass. Instead, we take out either the best-case scenario or the worst-case scenario so that we have more of an average. For example, in our economic and fiscal assumptions, we are always prudent. We will always be a little bit more cautious than the average of private sector forecasts.

Recently, I was very pleased to see that Moody’s has changed Ontario’s credit outlook to “positive” from “stable,” something that we have not seen in almost two decades, ladies and gentlemen.

Interjection.

This reflects our government’s commitment to prudent, responsible fiscal management and a strong economy. By taking a disciplined approach, our budget has ample room to react to uncertainties that may lie ahead. To be frank, the world is a much more uncertain place today than it was last year, and, despite the turbulence of the past year, Ontario continues to be resilient. Today, because of the leadership of our government and our targeted and responsible approach, we are in a better position than most. Today there are parts of the world that are showing they have no intention of being reliable or fair trading partners. This means Ontario needs to increase its self-sufficiency and lower its dependence on imports.

Il y a aujourd’hui certaines parties du monde qui ont démontré qu’elles n’avaient pas l’intention d’être des partenaires d’échange fiables ou équitables, madame la Présidente. Le fait est qu’aujourd’hui, l’Ontario doit accroître son autosuffisance et diminuer sa dépendance envers les importations.

This is good news. It’s good news that Ontario is well positioned to pivot its approach to this shifting landscape.

Take the Ring of Fire: The Ring of Fire can help reduce Ontario’s dependency on unstable or unfriendly foreign regimes by tapping the potential of the north and getting these minerals out of the ground. With the support of the First Nations in northern Ontario, we can decouple economically from these adversarial regimes and thrive in doing so. While Ontario is investing $1 billion to unlock these critical minerals in our north, we continue to call on the federal government to match our commitment, because what is good for Ontario is good for Canada.

Our government is determined to get the important things right. Getting the important things right is a core concept in the 2023 budget.

Madame la Présidente, le gouvernement provincial est déterminé à faire ce qui doit être fait et à bien le faire. C’est là un concept fondamental du budget de 2023.

These are serious times, and serious times call for a serious budget, like the plan our government has put forward, which this legislation—of which I am extremely proud.

It is no secret, as I said, that these are uncertain times. Our province is not immune to the impact of global forces, including geopolitical tension provoked by Russian aggression against Ukraine, the reopening of China’s economy, the energy transition, and policies such as the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act. Families and workers are feeling the squeeze of inflation on their wallets. Our 2023 budget takes a responsible and targeted approach to navigating this uncertainty while supporting people and businesses.

Despite the global challenges around us, there are plenty of reasons for optimism. While much has changed in the past year, economic circumstances have confirmed that the government has the right plan. And it is already showing results.

Ontario is seeing an increase in manufacturing and jobs all around the province. Take Oshawa as an example, a city that is benefiting from part of GM’s more than $2-billion investment that will protect thousands of jobs. Or Richmond Hill, where Tesla is manufacturing equipment to help make the batteries of the future. Or Alliston, where Honda is making a $1.4-billion investment to make hybrid vehicles. Or take Oakville—please, take Oakville—where Ford is making a $1.8-billion investment to produce electric vehicles. ArecelorMittal Dofasco in Hamilton is making a $1.8-billion investment in producing green steel, including for the auto sector—green steel, Minister of Energy. What do you think of that? In Cambridge and Woodstock, two very proud auto towns, Toyota has invested $1.4 billion to make vehicles, including hybrids. Or Ingersoll, where General Motors is building Canada’s first-ever full-scale EV manufacturing plant. Or St. Thomas, the future home of Volkswagen’s first-ever overseas battery plant.

Madam Speaker, this province is the heartland of Canada’s electric vehicle manufacturing revolution. In two and a half years, Ontario has attracted some $25 billion in investments from global automakers and electric vehicle batteries and battery material suppliers.

As the Minister of Economic Development says, we weren’t even on the map when we took over government. We’ve gone from zero to second place in the world. When we work together, Ontario and Canada can achieve amazing things.

We’re not stopping there. By supporting this bill, the members of this House would be saying yes to the new Ontario Made Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit, a tax credit that would provide a 10% refundable corporate income tax credit to help local manufacturers expand and grow, creating new jobs and opportunities right here in Ontario.

This, along with all the other steps our government has taken since 2018, would enable an estimated $8 billion in cost savings and support in 2023, making Ontario more competitive for both large and small businesses. As much as $3.6 billion of these savings and supports would be going to small businesses. These measures include the proposal to expand access to the small business corporate income tax rate by increasing the phase-out range. This change would provide Ontario’s small businesses with an additional $265 million in provincial income tax relief from 2022-23 to 2025-26. Think about that: helping small businesses expand, risk their capital, create jobs, and create prosperity in this great land.

Madam Speaker, we need to build the infrastructure to support these growing communities. That is why we are continuing to deliver on our historic $185-billion capital plan, the most ambitious in the history of this great province. As part of our historic 10-year infrastructure plan, we are investing almost $28 billion in highways, like the new Highway 7 from Kitchener all the way to Guelph, and Highway 413, and the much-needed Bradford Bypass. This is very much an investment in more livable and affordable communities that allow safer, more comfortable and more convenient commutes.

We’re also continuing to make large new investments in transit, including increasing GO service to Niagara from Union Station and bringing back the Northlander from Timmins to Toronto. We are making progress on the Ontario Line and the Yonge North subway extension.

We are also investing in new schools, new child care spaces, new hospitals and, of course, new and more long-term care. Our plan is to build both new hospitals and expand existing ones. It is a plan to build safe and comfortable long-term-care homes across the province.

This ambitious infrastructure plan needs workers. Through the Skills Development Fund, we are training workers with the skills they need so they have stable careers in the skilled trades and other in-demand jobs. We are working with private sector unions and other partners to upgrade their training facilities so that workers get the best possible training from the experts on the ground. What a concept: experts on the ground with reliable partners like the trade unions.

Our $224-million investment in the capital stream of the Skills Development Fund will leverage private sector expertise and expand training centres, including, as I said, and very specifically, union training halls, so they can provide more accessible, more flexible training opportunities for all workers in Ontario.

Notre investissement de 224 millions de dollars dans le volet immobilisations du Fonds pour le développement des compétences permettra de mettre à profit l’expertise du secteur privé et d’étendre les centres de formation, y compris les salles de formation syndicales, afin d’offrir aux travailleurs des possibilités de formation plus accessibles et plus souples.

Our government is continuing to support those who need it most, like families whose children are receiving pediatric care.

While we are investing more than $200 million to connect children and youth to care at hospitals in the communities, we are also supporting Ronald McDonald House Charities in Ottawa. When they need it most, Ronald McDonald House Ottawa provides families whose children are receiving care at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario with a place to call home. With our government’s investment of $3.1 million to expand Ronald McDonald House, they will be able to double their capacity from 55,000 to 115,000 overnight stays per year. I’ll say that again: from 55,000 to 115,000 overnight stays. Think about the impact on families and their children through their most trying time. That’s why we are there to help more families and children. By the way, I was in Ottawa a few weeks ago and went to visit the Ronald McDonald House. You can’t believe the people who volunteer their time, the board, all the funding, at Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. And this $3 million allows them to go forward with the $22-million expansion. We’re so grateful that we could help them so they can help the families and the children.

During a time of economic challenge and change, our government is also supporting those who have fallen on hard times, such as those who are experiencing or are at risk of experiencing homelessness. We have increased funding for our homelessness prevention programs by more than 40%. Our government is now investing an additional $202 million annually in homelessness prevention programs to help those experiencing or at risk of homelessness, and to support community organizations delivering supportive housing. This is part of a bold and transformational change we’re implementing to tackle the housing supply crisis and get more homes built faster across Ontario, including supportive housing for those who need a hand up.

As the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services often says, we’re there for all Ontarians.

This new funding will be provided through the Home-lessness Prevention Program and the Indigenous Supportive Housing Program. It builds on the government’s investment of nearly $4.4 billion over the past three years to grow and enhance community and supportive housing. This includes an investment of $11.5 million each year in the Indigenous Supportive Housing Program to provide Indigenous-led, culturally appropriate long-term housing solutions and support services to Indigenous people experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

We are using the measures in the 2023 budget and in the spring budget bill to make changes and deliver investments and services that bring more peace of mind and more security to families, to workers, to businesses and to individuals.

Nous nous appuyons sur les mesures énoncées dans le budget de 2023 et dans le projet de loi budgétaire du printemps pour effectuer des changements, réaliser des investissements et fournir des services qui offriront une tranquillité d’esprit et une sécurité accrues aux familles, aux travailleurs, aux entreprises et aux particuliers.

I am as confident about the province’s future as I have ever been. While I do see a brighter future ahead for all of us, we know success in life is not automatic nor is it guaranteed. That’s why we will continue to work extremely hard for the people of Ontario and to deliver on our plan.

Madam Speaker, let me conclude by saying that the budget and spring budget bill capture what our government is doing to build a strong province. We are building Ontario’s economy, investing in infrastructure, working for workers, keeping costs down, and providing better government services. For today and tomorrow, we are doing more to support employers, more to support a better deal for workers, and more to support a strong health care system, all the while balancing the budget.

Supporting this bill means supporting better jobs and bigger paycheques for all Ontario workers. It means supporting payments for more low-income seniors. Supporting this bill supports people and businesses today while laying a strong fiscal foundation for future generations.

Madam Speaker, this is the right plan. This plan, led by the right Premier with the right team, is the right plan for all Ontarians.

Colleagues, let’s get it done for all the people of Ontario.

Madam Speaker, through you: I thank the member opposite for that question.

I categorically reject the statement by the member opposite that we are being deliberate, hurting our children.

I would ask the member opposite to actually read the budget; in fact, read last year’s budget—the historic and unprecedented investments in our education system, over $2.3-billion increase this year. What does that money go for? Of course, that money goes for more funding per pupil, and that’s a fact, but that money also goes for more mental health and addictions supports for our youth, right in the classroom.

In fact, the Minister of Education just made mandatory in grade 10 mental health lessons—the first time ever by any government. We’re taking action.

I do want to correct the record, Madam Speaker. We also got some butter tarts.

Madam Speaker, it’s a very serious question. Government doesn’t create jobs; we create the environment for risk takers, both small businesses and large businesses, to risk their own capital, hire people, train people, retain people, train workers. That’s why it’s so important to support our businesses—in this case, private corporations in the manufacturing space in Ontario. This will allow them to keep more money so that they can reinvest in their equipment, they can reinvest in their workers. What a concept: that they can invest in their workers so that we can grow the economy, have better jobs and bigger paycheques in this province.

What’s so critical about what the member from Thornhill said is—you think about the $25 billion of auto manufacturing and battery in this province. Well, everyone—or everyone who took an economics class—knows there’s a massive multiplier effect. Economists say for every job created, nine more jobs, so that’s why we need—

I want to make sure that the member opposite has read our budget, because if she has—and I believe she has—she would know that the increase in health care funding over the next three years is over $15 billion. It’s the largest increase in the history of the province. We are providing support for our health care system.

Let’s talk about family physicians. Let’s talk about nurse practitioners. I visited Kitchener very recently and went to a nurse practitioner-led office—great concept, supporting that. Why don’t we talk about the medical schools in Brampton and Scarborough that we’ve launched to have more doctors in this province? We’re taking action. Why don’t we talk about my own community of Durham, where Queen’s University and Lakeridge Health have launched an innovative program for 20 new medical seats, working in partnership, fully dedicated to streaming family physicians?

We are taking action, we’re providing the funds, but we’re not accepting the status quo anymore. The status quo is done. It’s gone. We’re innovating. We’re working creatively—and we’d ask the member opposite to work with us to create the conditions for the health care system, not just for today, but also for tomorrow.

I think often of, at the beginning of the pandemic, when the Premier came to me and said, “Minister, we have a pandemic. We don’t know how long it’s going to be, we don’t know how hard it’s going to be, but we can spare no expense in protecting people’s lives.” Think about if I had said to the Premier, “We don’t have any money. We’re tapped out.”

That’s what the previous government left us with—the highest debt-to-GDP in the history of the province, since 1867. What kind of fiscal management is that? You’re not preparing the finances of the province for whatever risks are out there.

Working together, we’ve been able to lower the debt-to-GDP so that we can give to our children a better fiscal house than we inherited.

I can still remember the previous Liberal government, supported by the NDP. They built a very strong structure, which was structural deficit, resulting in billions in debt for the province.

I want the minister to share with us why it’s so important that we need to work hard to rebuild the finances and also balance the budget.

We all know that there are close to two million Ontarians without access to primary care; in my riding, it’s 30,000 people who don’t have access.

We also have some underemployed nurse practitioners, right here, right now, who would love to go pick up a thousand people from Capreol, from Coniston, from the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre, yet there is very little money in the budget to do this. Why is it that after all of them came and presented for the budget, telling us that we need investment in nurse practitioner-led clinics, in Aboriginal health access centres, in community health centres so that they can hire the nurse practitioners who live in Ontario right now and would love to take on a roster of primary care clients, the budget didn’t deliver?

What have you got to say to those thousands of Ontarians who know that they could get access to primary care if only your government would be willing to fund nurse practitioner-led clinics and community health centres and Aboriginal health access centres?

I want to thank the minister for his very thoughtful presentation.

I’m very fortunate to have a great group of team members. The minister engaged me in my own riding of Thornhill, and I was happy and very proud to be able to bring him to my community. We stopped, we got a bagel, we talked about the local economy and we talked about manufacturing. Thornhill has a thriving manufacturing business that circumferences the entire riding, but we’re worried about losing a lot of these businesses to our neighbours down south.

Could the member please explain to the House why the Ontario Made Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit is so important to bolster our economy and create more jobs, including those in Thornhill?

We’ll move to questions.

I’d like to thank the minister for his presentation.

During the pre-budget consultations, presenters spoke about the explosion of violence in schools and were concerned that the Ontario government has continued to ignore this explosion of violence. In fact, one educator said, “It really does feel like we are being broken on purpose.” According to a recent survey, 80% of educational staff reported witnessing violence at levels they’ve never seen before.

This government and this budget have deliberately ignored school violence. In fact, it isn’t even mentioned once in the budget.

When is this government going to get its act together and invest in children, invest in smaller, safer classes, and invest in school-based mental health supports?

We’re going to move to further debate.

To my colleague the member for Durham, who is doing a terrific job as well in his riding: I believe you can do both. You can build Ontario; you can support the economy; you can build infrastructure—almost $50 billion of infrastructure for hospitals, almost double than when we got in.

We are building the infrastructure not just for today but for tomorrow: subways, highways, public transit, GO rail system, housing, broadband, long-term-care facilities. We have to build. We got almost half a million people into this province last year. Where are they going to live? How are we going to move them around? That’s why we’re taking action. The member highlights very wisely that you can do both. You can build Ontario by being targeted and responsible and transparent, while at the same time being fiscally responsible for this generation, for the next generation and the next generation after that.

It’s a pleasure to rise today to speak to Bill 85, Building a Stronger Ontario Act.

This budget is another missed opportunity by this government to address the main issues that are confronting Ontarians. In Niagara, we’re seeing more and more people struggling to find an affordable place to live as the cost of housing continues to rise. We’re seeing patients waiting months for medical tests and appointments, off-load delays worsening and hospital services being cut. This budget is a missed opportunity to address many of those issues. We’re seeing this government once again break their promise to municipalities after promising to make them whole after Bill 23. And we’ve been focusing, the last week, on some of those issues.

AMO has calculated that cities will see a $5-billion revenue shortfall from this government’s legislation, Bill 23. Municipalities are cancelling affordable housing projects. The city of Toronto says its entire housing capital plan will need to be scrapped if the minister doesn’t cover the shortfall of his failed legislation. We’ve heard, from Peel and Brampton, of huge property tax hikes that will have to happen—and service cuts—if they are not reimbursed as this government promised. There’s no money in the budget to make municipalities whole, and the government is cutting things like the Streamline Development Approval Fund by 25%, as I raised last week in a question, and the Municipal Modernization Program by 70%. These are the programs that fund initiatives to speed up housing development approvals and fund audits. If the minister is holding off on compensating municipalities for Bill 23 because he wants to speed up housing and perform audits, I ask the minister, why is he cutting the very programs that fund these initiatives instead of addressing them in the budget, and why is there no money in the budget to make municipalities whole as was promised? This is causing, obviously, a great deal of a stress and anxiety for municipalities as they struggle to meet targets that this government imposed but is not supporting with their budget.

Budgets are about choices, and it’s clear that this government is choosing to help the well-connected and wealthy few, because there’s very little in the budget to help out Ontarians with the cost of living or improving access to public services and the other issues that they care so much about.

Speaker, as you know, this is Niagara Week at Queen’s Park, and there are many local mayors, councils and representatives here from all different political backgrounds to advocate for Niagara. This year’s theme is “Growing Better, Together.”

I have to recognize folks who put on a really nice reception last night. I want to congratulate Niagara College, who provided the food and some refreshment, as well as 13th Street Winery. And of course, it was sponsored by the Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce. I want to congratulate folks from Niagara for putting on a great reception.

I also have to recognize the team that came from Niagara, who came with some very focused asks of the government; some very well-researched, factual and strategic priorities. I understand that their meetings are going quite well with government ministers and they’ve made some headway. We’re grateful for that, but of course the budget was an opportunity to address these concerns, which is why municipalities are coming, hat in hand, to the government. I’d like to talk about some of those priorities.

There’s nothing in the budget that will attract the health care talent that we need to reverse the health care crisis. We know the health care crisis was created by legislation like Bill 124, which this government could have chosen to reverse and address the funding shortfalls that have resulted in wages that have been suppressed. We know that the health care crisis is a human resources crisis. Nurses and others are leaving the profession. This budget was an opportunity to address those problems.

For Niagara Week, the Niagara region is seeking reimbursement for local property tax dollars that were used to mitigate ambulance off-load delays. Niagara has been asking, for some time, for that issue to be addressed.

Between 2021 and 2022, Niagara experienced a 55% increase in off-load delays. It’s a tremendous problem in Niagara. In the latter half of 2022, a total of $1.7 million of the regional levy was spent to address the record number of EMS calls in Niagara. The region has pointed out that three of Niagara’s hospitals consistently rank near the bottom for off-load times. In 2022, EMS incurred 33,908 off-load delay hours. That’s equivalent to 24 paramedics working for 365 days. Yesterday, I directly asked the Minister of Health if the government would commit to reimbursing the region the $1.7 million and ensure that Niagara is funded for an additional health team to help address the underlying causes of our EMS crisis, as requested by municipal leaders. I hope that the government is seriously taking that request. Unfortunately, the answers that we’ve received from the government so far is to list other investments, as if everything is okay in Niagara. Let me tell you, Speaker, everything is not okay.

Back in April, all the parties in this House supported a motion that I put forward to keep full emergency department services and acute-care services at the Welland hospital. What has happened at the Welland hospital has created a great deal of stress in the community. Without warning, local Niagara Health decided that they would permanently remove after-hours and weekend emergency surgery. If you know Niagara, there is some distance between hospitals, and many of the hospitals in Niagara have shut down. We have urgent care centres where hospitals used to be. Shutting down those urgent care centres is being discussed in places like Port Colborne and Fort Erie.

Folks in Port Colborne—which is in my riding—have to travel to Welland, to the Welland hospital, if they’re seeking emergency services. Well, as of a couple of months ago, if somebody from Port Colborne comes to Welland and they need emergency surgery, for example, for an appendix, where it’s recommended within an hour, guess what they have to do? They have to wait for an ambulance to come and take them to another hospital. In a region where off-load delays are a huge problem, that is creating a huge amount of stress and anxiety for people in the community. Many front-line doctors, nurses and medical professionals have made clear to me that losing those services will almost certainly result in avoidable deaths for patients who need to be in an operating room within an hour.

From 2018 to 2020, the Welland hospital ran at over 100% capacity, as did all of the Niagara hospital sites.

We hear from the government constantly that a new hospital is being built in Niagara Falls, and that’s true, but it’s not supposed to be done until 2028-29, and we’re seeing a reduction in all of our hospital services now. Having a hospital being built four, five or eight years down the road is not helping folks who are spending time in ambulances in loading bays and not having their health taken care of. That’s something that this government could have chosen to address in this budget.

As a region, Niagara surpassed both national and provincial average growth rates, increasing its overall population by 6.7% from 2016 to 2021.

The city of Thorold, where I live, had an increase of 26.7%. It’s the eighth-fastest-growing community in all of Canada, and here we have emergency services being cut, reduced and completely removed from a local hospital.

I’ve requested to meet with this government and the Ministry of Health multiple times to come up with a plan to save these services at the Welland hospital; each time, this government has refused to even meet. I’ve asked the government during question period if they’re willing to leave the people of south Niagara without timely access to life-saving care; each time, they’ve avoided directly answering the question. If this government won’t listen to me, they should at least listen to the thousands of folks from various political backgrounds who have signed our petition to save the hospital.

In talking to people at the Seaway Mall, where I recently spent some time in Welland—talking with folks as they walked through the mall and having them sign our petition. Folks were absolutely shocked and dismayed with the direction that this government is taking our health care system in. They know that privatization will only allow the wealthy few to jump the line while the rest of us are stuck waiting even longer.

In our community, one of the examples that people are aware of of this government’s lack of priority—and we talked about this during the election campaign, actually—is their plans to expand the Garden City Skyway in Niagara, which is a bridge over the canal that goes from St. Catharines to Niagara-on-the-Lake, and the hundreds of millions of dollars that the government is planning to spend. I’m not against highways. I’m not against bridges. Fixing them, repairing them, expanding them creates jobs and can be good for the local economy. But what does it say when you’re losing life-saving emergency services in a hospital—an issue the government won’t address—but they will expand a bridge that is not terribly busy at the present time? That has been talked about on local radio shows, and it really shows that this government is completely out of touch with the priorities of people in Niagara.

Under this government, it has become even harder to find an affordable place to live. There’s nothing in the budget to actually build the houses we need. The province’s own budget shows that we’re moving in the wrong direction on housing. And the dismantling of the greenbelt isn’t doing what the government promised. The budget predicts fewer housing starts next year than this year, and they’re nowhere near on track to meet their stated goal of 1.5 million homes in 10 years. In 2022, 96,100 homes were started, with even less projected to start in the following years—in 2023, only 80,300 new homes, and another decrease in 2024 is projected. As reported recently by Global News, that means that over four of the 10 years set out in the province’s plan, just 23% of its total target of homes will be built. When I asked about the government’s ability to meet these targets, the Minister of Housing said that we will do “everything we can” and “there’s things out of my control.” Well, it’s within the minister’s control to make or not make commitments and to admit when a plan is not working.

It’s becoming clearer to the people of Ontario that their plan is not working. The government needs to change course if it’s to effectively address the housing crisis and meet any of its targets. They can only make excuses for so long.

For Niagara Week, the region’s representatives have made clear that they’re asking senior levels of government for co-investment in long-term capital funding for Niagara’s consolidated housing master plan, which will allow us to grow sustainable housing solutions. These are some of the local investments that could be made through a budget to help municipalities build more homes. This plan lists shovel-ready sites that are awaiting co-investment, and it will guide the development of new community housing units between 2022 and 2045. It includes unique opportunities to leverage investment in non-profit and co-operative housing—something that this government has completed ignored—as well as municipal housing. It identifies existing land assets that will support the development of approximately 11,000 new community units. So here’s a program that the government could choose to partner with municipalities on to build more of the kind of affordable units that people need and have asked for.

In addition to the low number of homes started, we know that many of the homes being built are not affordable.

In Niagara, we’re seeing people spend upwards of 60% of their take-home income on housing alone. According to the Niagara Association of Realtors, in March 2023, the average home sold was $699,913. It’s becoming more and more unaffordable for folks. And of course, that has a tremendous effect on rental prices.

We all agree that we need to build more homes, and we need to keep pointing out that you can’t just look at supply. We’ve talked about this many times. The government’s ideological bent is really just to look at supply. They’re not looking at demand—which is a demand for affordable homes.

The Niagara region recently created the attainable housing team to focus on building more of the missing middle, and I hope that the government listens carefully to the proposals that the region makes.

There’s no new funding in the budget to help struggling tenants afford skyrocketing rents. There’s no real rent control.

The 5% ODSP increase puts people even further from a livable income, following a year of skyrocketing rents and inflation in Niagara and across Ontario.

For Niagara Regional Housing, the wait-list for an affordable unit in Thorold, where I live, is 10 years; in Welland, you’re waiting seven to 12 years; in St. Catharines, eight to 19 years. And in Niagara Falls, you could be looking at anywhere from five to 20 years for an affordable housing unit.

This government has ignored the advice of its own experts and its own Housing Affordability Task Force by not ending exclusionary zoning. The minister is failing to enable missing middle housing to make it easier for people of all incomes, ages, family sizes and abilities to access affordable housing options in the neighbourhoods and communities that they live in.

Governments used to play an important role in building new, affordable and non-market housing and stabilizing the housing markets, but starting back in the 1990s, successive Liberal and PC governments abandoned any meaningful public role in the delivery of new non-market housing, and it’s being completely abandoned in this budget as well. That’s what set the stage for the housing crisis we’re facing today.

I want to talk for a few minutes about modernizing municipal services.

For the first time in the Niagara region’s 53-year history, we have dedicated resources through a new council-approved office with a mandate to accelerate shared service opportunities across the region. This is an ask that our team from Niagara is making of the government, and the reason that we need to come forward with this request is because nothing was provided in the budget. There was no new funding for municipal transit operations in the budget, and that is creating quite a bit of stress on municipal budgets as well.

The government promised to make municipalities whole, as I’ve mentioned, and there’s nothing to make up for Bill 23 municipal deficits which will result in service cuts and higher taxes. Municipalities have cancelled affordable housing projects, as I’ve mentioned. The government is cutting the very programs that municipalities use to try to speed up the construction of more housing.

When I asked the Premier about this in question period, his response was, “When I went down to city hall, I heard the same song and dance. First meeting with the CAO—’We’ve got to raise taxes 30%.’ ... We found a billion dollars, did a 0% tax increase, never went once to the province hat in hand.” I was amazed by that answer, because it’s like asking a mugging victim why they want their wallet back. The Premier has taken $5 billion in infrastructure revenue away from municipalities, then promised to reimburse them, and when municipalities asked for that promise to be fulfilled, the Premier accuses them of acting like beggars and going hat in hand to the province. They’re the ones who took the revenue away. They’re the ones who promised to return it.

This is a situation that is going to become more and more acute as municipalities struggle with their budgets. We’ve heard of some enormous tax increases and service cuts that are going to happen. That’s something that could have been addressed in this budget—treating municipalities like partners rather than creatures of the province or beggars.

My time is just about up, Speaker.

Clearly, we are disappointed with a budget that is full of missed opportunities. We hope the government will take a good look and listen to municipalities and many Ontarians who believe, as we do, that we can do a whole lot better.

My question for the Minister of Finance is—he speaks of, I believe, striking the right balance. How is it important to do so by investing in both health care and education with this proposed budget bill in this time of economic uncertainty?

Suck and blow.

Thank you to the honourable member for the question.

The point I was trying to make is that the government, with Bill 23, took away $5 billion in infrastructure revenue, and then, when municipalities complained how it would actually hurt their ability to build more housing, the government promised to reimburse to make those municipalities whole; and then, when municipalities said, “Well, are you going to keep your promise?”, the government turned around and compared them to beggars going hat in hand to the province. That is the kind of doublespeak I was talking about, that I believe the government is guilty of.

I used to be a budget chair of a large municipal organization. You can’t run deficits municipally. There are very few choices when you lose a huge chunk of revenue. You’re either going to raise taxes, or you have to cut services. That’s the situation that municipalities are being put in. So when you hear the government promising to make them whole, that’s a huge commitment, and when they go back on that commitment, what happens is, you have municipalities like Brampton that are saying, in order to cover that shortfall, they have to raise property taxes 80%. That’s backed up by numbers. They’re not making that up. So that revenue has to be replaced somehow or we’ll end up with huge tax hikes and cuts to services, which will then hurt the municipality’s ability to participate in the kind of partnerships that build more housing in that municipality.

What I can tell you is that I have very few people in Niagara who are concerned about hospital services, who are concerned about finding affordable housing, who call my office and say, “Do you know what we really need? We really need a luxury spa near Lake Ontario. That’s what I need. Don’t worry about the emergency services that are being taken out of the hospital. Don’t worry about finding an affordable place to live. I would really like for the government to facilitate a luxury spa near Lake Ontario in Toronto.” I don’t hear that at all.

So I think we need to really look at what our priorities are when we put a budget like this forward—and I doubt that this party will support those kinds of priorities.

This is probably the biggest issue in Niagara in terms of stress for folks. We have one of the oldest populations, not only in Ontario, but in Canada, and it’s also a growing population. In my riding, it’s the part of the region which is growing most rapidly, and yet they’re losing hospital services, losing emergency services. When you shut down an emergency department in one city, it puts stress on the entire system.

The government did not provide any kind of money in the budget to facilitate one emergency department closing by making another one in another city bigger. They just had to take on that stress, and so we’re seeing ridiculous ambulance delays of eight to 10 hours, of people sitting in an emergency bay when they really need to get into an emergency room. It’s a situation that’s getting worse, and it’s a real shame the government didn’t look in their budget—

To the member from Niagara Centre: I really appreciated your comments today.

You mentioned Bill 23, the “building fewer homes slower in Ontario act.” We have a housing crisis in this province. You mentioned that this government downloaded a taxpayer-funded donation to developers of $5 billion, and when the Premier was asked about this, about how the municipalities cannot build housing because they can’t afford that tax donation to the developers, the Premier basically accused them of being beggars and insulted the municipalities. What is your response to this? When you’re having to manage the budget and the government is handing out municipal tax dollars to developers so that they have to pay for the infrastructure, what is your response as a former city councillor?

I want to thank the member for his speech and for his advocacy on behalf of the Niagara region.

Yesterday in this Legislature, there was a reception hosted by a number of elected officials and others from the Niagara region, and I had the opportunity to talk to the chief of the paramedic service in Niagara. He talked about the impact that off-load delays are having on the people in that region, both from the point of view of not being able to access emergency transportation when someone is in a medical crisis and also for those paramedics who are stuck waiting in hospital parking lots.

I wondered if the member wanted to comment on whether this budget provides any hope that the government has a plan to deal with the off-load delay pressures in Niagara.

We’re going to move to questions.

We know that we are living in uncertain economic times, with higher-than-normal inflation. And so with Bill 85, will the member opposite and his colleagues—given that, in these uncertain economic times, the most vulnerable are the hardest hit, will the opposition support our proposed expansion to the guaranteed annual income support plan starting in July 2024 so that 100,000 more seniors can receive monthly benefits?

I always enjoy engaging with the member from Niagara Centre. I think we have a great relationship.

I have to ask him a question about his speech. He spent a good chunk of his speech talking about how we’re not doing anything to help build affordable and attainable housing, and then he spent the last part of his speech talking about how bad it is—what we’re doing to help support the building of affordable and attainable housing. I have to ask him: Which is it? Does he support what we’re doing to make attainable housing by getting rid of the $160,000 per unit in development charges and fees that builders have to pay, so that they can build those units much cheaper to get those on the market? Or does he not support those decreases in fees so that we can see more attainable housing get on the market? You can’t—

The reality is, we’re getting more housing starts than ever.

And we’re hoping for the opposition’s support on the budget.