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.

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?

I’m glad to have one more chance.

It was interesting listening to the member talk about how awful it was that we are taking off $160,000-a-unit of cost for low-income and attainable housing for the people of Ontario, for purpose-built rentals and low-income development.

I would like to ask the member directly if he fully supports and feels that it’s appropriate that there’s $160,000 of cost per unit built into some of the costs for units for the most vulnerable Ontarians that municipalities charge. I need to have that answer from him here in the House. If he feels that’s appropriate that we took that away—that he supports that that should be charged by municipalities to the most vulnerable Ontarians, that they have to pay later through rent.

We’ve known each other for five or six years now, or even longer, I think, and I know how passionate she is about the agricultural community, especially in her own riding, but indeed across the entire province of Ontario. I didn’t hear whether she would be voting in favour of the budget or not, but I’m hoping she would consider supporting the budget, if for no other reason than just to support agriculture, because of the fact that we’re getting a new veterinarian school in the province of Ontario and that we are actually supporting veterinarians who will be going into the north or to underserved areas. I’m very, very excited about that for the agricultural community in my riding.

I was wondering if she had comment on her support for the new veterinarian school from the budget.

I appreciate being able to speak to this bill this morning. It’s a budget bill that I would describe as mediocre, underwhelming. Overall, I felt there was nothing really dynamic in the bill. I won’t use my time to talk about the numbers that have already been thrown around, but rather what I hear from my constituents.

The past three years have been difficult for the people of Ontario, including in my riding of Haldimand–Norfolk. I hear it, and I see it.

My predecessor taught me that we have government for a reason. It’s government’s job to look after the people and make tough decisions. And in the budget, I see neither tough decisions being made—nor little help for families.

Members on the government side, during debate, have said that Bill 85 is this government’s plan to build Ontario so we can have a strong economy for the future and the infrastructure needed to support growth across the province. It’s allegedly a plan to build the economy, build highways, build infrastructure, work for workers, keep costs down, and serve the public better. It sounds great, but I’m not certain the measures contained will actually help families as they continue to grapple with inflation.

Insurance, for example, is something my constituents are continually calling me about. They simply can’t afford it.

Folks who have never used a food bank are now relying on one to feed their family.

And for the first time in Haldimand–Norfolk, homelessness can be seen in most of our small towns.

I had hoped the budget would offer affordability measures for Ontarians struggling with inflation-related costs. Legislation enacted to counter price gouging, for example, would have been welcome.

Bill 85 fails to address some of the major crises we’re seeing in Ontario, such as the failures of our education system and the weaknesses in our health care, long-term care and home care systems.

I am the orphaned fiscal conservative, but I think there has to be more targeted and sensible spending on key areas. Oversight is badly needed when we continue to spend more while critical services get worse. The government can boast of delivering the biggest budget ever, but if these monies continue to chase after bad money, it becomes a moot point. I am a fiscal conservative, so I don’t really feel that this unprecedented spending is something to be proud of. This isn’t a fiscally conservative budget.

Sometimes, money isn’t the issue. I sat through the budget finance committee pre-budget consultations across this province, where some presenters were asking for a lot of money, and I called them out on that. Money isn’t always the problem. The problem, I believe, can be mismanagement, a lack of accountability. Sometimes the problem is systemic. And I see many issues in this province that can largely be fixed with a better approach or strategy. We simply have to listen.

We know the Ontario government has an ambitious plan to build one and a half million homes in 10 years. Along with the challenge of building those homes, allegedly 72,000 more workers are required. Credit where credit is due—the government continues to invest in skills training, apprenticeship and skilled trades to encourage the trades as a career. For example, the government is enhancing the Skills Development Fund with an additional $75 million over the next three years. That is good news. My overarching concern regarding the aggressive housing target, however, is that I don’t see any oversight to ensure proper housing is being built—and by “proper,” Ontario needs affordable housing and housing that’s affordable. I fear without proper oversight, we will see housing few people can afford.

I’m like a broken record on contraband tobacco, which has become one of the most common illegally traded goods in the world, and this province is ground zero. It’s ruining the social fabric of our communities. During pre-budget consultations, we heard from folks who recognize the damage illegal tobacco is doing to our communities as well as to the Ontario economy. All of us have heard from legitimate businesses, like corner stores, that suffer financially. The government loses out on $750 million in taxes annually. That’s a lot of money, especially when Quebec has proven that they have the recipe to deal with this disaster. I understand that Quebec model was going to be adopted in the 2019 budget, but it was pulled, and I’m very disheartened that it is missing again in 2023. There are some housekeeping items in schedule 10 of Bill 85 with respect to the Tobacco Tax Act, but they only scratch the surface of contraband tobacco. I’ve asked in this House and on finance committee, in the spirit of transparency, who or why the Quebec model and associated policy was pulled and why it is missing again. I still haven’t heard an answer.

Schedule 10 should have also corrected the definition of “unregulated tobacco” back to what it was originally—“contraband,” “illegal” or “illicit”—in the Tobacco Tax Act. When this government came to power, one of the first things that the Ministry of Finance did was change the wording from “contraband” to “unregulated.” Page 184 of the budget makes this reference. Why would the ministry change the definition from “contraband” to “unregulated”? It seems like an ambiguous term, and those enforcing the law tell me it is an ambiguous term and makes it much easier for criminals to work around the law. Once again, it’s a change that could have occurred without money being spent.

To address teacher and nurse shortages, we should be focusing on getting potential professionals through their education much faster than they are today. Implementing additional accelerated courses would get students to the front lines faster.

I represent many farmers. The veterinary training that has been of concern the past few years was addressed in the budget, and I hope that it works. It’s nice to see this government attempting to address this issue. Expanding high-speed Internet across rural Ontario is vital because not being able to connect puts our farmers at a competitive disadvantage.

In closing, when any legislation is introduced in this House, I take great care in determining how it will affect the people of Haldimand–Norfolk. Do I feel this budget will harm my constituents? No. Do I think it will help them? It will help some, but with the current environment—

Yes, I am a huge advocate for my farming community, and I see measures in the budget for our farmers, but I think we could have taken those measures a little bit further.

I will say that the Minister of Agriculture does a great job of supporting our farmers. I hear it every day. I heard it as recently as yesterday. But I think she has a very tough job in supporting our farmers to the best of her ability within this government.

I was heartened to see that there are some measures—veterinary training, agricultural soil health and conservation, and investments in high-speed Internet—because, as I said, we can’t have our farmers competing in a global market if they don’t have access and they’re not connected. It puts them at a competitive disadvantage.

I won’t let you know whether or not I’m voting in favour of the budget. But thanks for the question.

I thank the member for the question.

What we have a problem with is a government that completely ignores the affordability issue. What’s happening here is that they’re taking money away from municipalities and giving it to developers. They promised to reimburse municipalities, and they’re not doing that.

Money doesn’t just fall from the sky. You have $5 billion of revenue shortfalls created by the government’s housing legislation, and that money has to come from somewhere. It’s going to result in steep property tax increases and cuts to services that people need. That’s the result of the government’s decisions and their priorities in this budget.

It’s my honour to rise today to speak to this budget bill on behalf of the good people of Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas. You put me in this place, you trusted me, and I work every day to make sure that I continue to earn that trust and be an MPP you can be proud of. So you can be sure that what I’m about to say about this budget today reflects everything I have been hearing from you, all your hopes, your dreams and your disappointment in this government with this budget.

It really is like we’re talking about two Ontarios. In this province of Ontario, if you are, let’s just say, an international corporation like Therme getting a 95-year lease on our public lands, you’re doing pretty well. If you’re a for-profit corporation that is profiting from the privatization of our health care system, if you are profiting from seniors’ knees, their eyes, their hips, those operations, you’re doing pretty well in this province. If you’re a developer that now has got your hands on the greenbelt—the government was supposed to be a steward of these lands in perpetuity—you’re doing pretty well in this province.

But do you know what? We just heard it here: If you have a child with autism, you’re struggling in this province. If you are a middle-class taxpayer, you are having a hard time making ends meet. A small business owner, barely recovering from COVID: It’s going to be difficult for you. A working single mom in this province, trying to feed her kids, put clothes on their backs, keep a roof over their heads: This bill does not speak to you at all. It’s like this government doesn’t understand what’s going on in the real main streets of all of our ridings and all of our communities.

There’s an affordability crisis happening out there. People can’t pay their bills. People are struggling to buy groceries. The cost of bread is something that gets talked about in our communities. That’s what people are facing, and this government has set their priorities, and it’s not those people. You are not serving those people. There really are two Ontarios. The people who have the ear of this government, the corporations, the wealthy: You were reflected in this budget. But if you’re an average working Ontarian, this budget does not speak to you.

Recently, there was a survey done—very recently—by Angus Reid, a reputable pollster. They polled Ontarians to see what are their priorities, their number-one priorities: 79% of Ontarians selected health care as a top priority if they were over the age of 55. Cost of living and inflation: 62% of Ontarians were concerned with those, followed by health care and housing affordability. Those are the top priorities of the people of the province of Ontario, and this budget that this government put forward is exactly in opposition to what people are concerned about—absolutely in opposition to this.

When we talk about cost of living and inflation, the government talks about the cost of living, about inflation and inflation and inflationary pressures, but let’s be perfectly frank: This government has seen a windfall when it comes to inflation. While the people of the province of Ontario are struggling because of inflation, because of the high cost of everything—gas, energy bills, food, housing—this government is seeing a windfall. Your revenue when it comes to sales tax in the province of Ontario has gone through the roof. Why? Because people have to pay sales tax on hugely inflated grocery bills. That’s why.

In fact, this is a government that highly benefits from land transfer tax. Why is land transfer tax so high now? Why are people struggling to pay that? Because of the skyrocketing cost of housing in this province. This is a government that is benefiting from the struggles of the people of the province of Ontario. You’ve made money because people are struggling.

You would think, if this government actually was concerned with the people of the province of Ontario and the struggles they face, that they would share that windfall. That would be the decent thing to do, right? You’re the government. You took their money, their taxes, and now they’re struggling. Now would be the time for you to step up and help them, but in fact, that is not the case.

This is a government that currently has underspent their planned spending when it comes to health care. Even your promised spending is underspent, and the FAO has been very, very clear, particularly when it comes to the health care sector, that this shortfall of underspending in health care means that we will not be able to continue to support existing health care sector programs and announced commitments. So you’re already failing when it comes to health care and your spending in the province of Ontario, when people, as we know when it comes to health care, are really concerned and we are facing a crisis in health care.

This is not normal behaviour, really, for a government. It’s not normal for a government to profit off the misery of the people of the province of Ontario and not share that wealth. You would expect a government to say, “Do you know what? We did pretty well. People are struggling, so let’s give that back to the people who have paid this.” But instead, as I said, who do we see profiting in this province? Well-connected developers, huge multinational corporations that are getting their access to public domain lands and developers, not the people who we hear from every single day in this province here.

I’m not sure how this government measures success. They seem to measure success by talking about—

Interjections.

I’ll be brief because we don’t have a lot of time. The autism wait-list has grown from 28,000 to 60,000. There’s not one word on autism in the budget. I’m just wondering why the Conservative government doesn’t think that’s important?

It’s an honour to rise to participate in the third reading debate on Bill 85, the budget bill. You know, Speaker, you can oftentimes talk about your values, but you really have the opportunity to show your values when you put a budget forward because it really shows the priorities that a government has. Right now, when you look around Ontario, there seems to be a crisis kind of everywhere: the health and education systems; the housing affordability and cost-of-living crisis; the climate crisis; the crisis of poverty that so many people are feeling in our communities. I want to talk about what could be in this budget to address those crises but are not.

I’ll start with health care, mental health and education. According to Ontario’s Financial Accountability Officer, over the next five years, looking at how this budget lays things out, the province of Ontario is going to underspend on health care, long-term care and community care by $21.8 billion, when you take into account population growth, inflation and what the government has said they want to accomplish. That is going to continue a crisis in our health care system, a crisis that’s going to have profound additional costs to our communities: emergency room closures; surgical and wait time backlogs; the continuing loss of front-line staff in our health care system, who are overworked, underpaid and undervalued.

We just saw a report yesterday coming out in our education system on the rising levels of violence. I just met with Catholic educators a few hours ago in my office, talking about this issue. So much of it stems from the fact that we don’t have sufficient resources for educational assistants and other staff to support students in our classrooms, especially students with special needs. That’s why it’s so distressing when the FAO projects—again, looking at inflation and population growth—that the government will underspend what our education system needs by $6 billion.

Speaker, the values of the Ontario I want to live in are values that are centred in building caring communities and investing in the future. That’s why it distresses me to see this budget underfund education and health care and, finally, mental health services.

Mental health service organizations in this province said they needed a minimum 8% increase just to maintain existing services. The government will talk about the 5% increase that’s in this budget for mental health, and that is welcome—there’s no doubt about it—but it’s insufficient to actually maintain existing service levels, which to me is unacceptable when we have 28,000 young people on a wait-list to access mental health services that can be as long as two and a half years.

Think about young people on suicide watch. Think about young people with complex eating disorders and other complex mental health crises having to wait 18 months to two and a half years to access services. To me, that’s not the Ontario I want to live in.

Let’s talk about the housing affordability crisis. This government’s solution to the housing affordability crisis is “pave at all costs”: pave over the farmland that feeds us; pave over the wetlands and green space that protect us, clean our drinking water. It’s especially troubling when you think about the climate crisis that we’re experiencing right now. Look at the hazy skies you see outside this building right now from the forest fires in Alberta. Think of the people experiencing flooding in the Ottawa River valley—once again, a 100-year flood; it seems like we have one every couple of years. Yet this government wants to pave over the wetlands and green space that protect us at a cost that is fiscally irresponsible.

Think about this: It costs 2.5 times more money to service a sprawl household versus a home built within an existing urban boundary. The city of Ottawa did a study determining that it cost them $465 per person every year—that’s property taxpayers—to service a home through sprawl. They make $600 a year—they bring in more tax revenue—for one built within the existing urban boundary. That’s $1,000 per taxpayer per household per year if we decide to build homes in communities that people can afford, in the communities they want to live in, instead of sprawling out and paving over our greenbelt.

This budget wants to expand highway construction. We already owe $52 billion in unfunded infrastructure costs because of the sprawl developments of the past. Then on top of that, according to the Financial Accountability Officer, we’re going to pay an extra $26.2 billion this decade alone for infrastructure costs due to the climate crisis.

At some point, we have to ask ourselves, when are we going to start building communities we can actually afford, with houses where people want to live in close to where they work, not imposing the costs of sprawl on them and protecting them from the climate crisis?

Speaker, I want to close, and I only have a couple of minutes left. Poverty costs this province $33 billion a year, and yet this budget maintains legislated poverty for people on ODSP and Ontario Works. That’s not the Ontario I want to live in.

I want to thank my colleague for her remarks. Last week, we had a constituency week and I took the opportunity to visit a number of community service agencies in the London area. I visited staff at Community Living London, Thames Valley Addiction and Mental Health Services, L’Arche, Meals on Wheels etc. One of the things I heard repeatedly was that there has been no increase at all in base funding for many of these vital community support agencies for a decade or more. They are already dealing with wages in that sector that are far below the wages that are paid to similar workers in the institutional sector.

I wondered if the member would like to comment on whether there was any funding in this budget to help stabilize and ensure the sustainability of that vital community support sector.

Thank you to the members opposite. I appreciate the debate, because there was personal touch in that information you learn about the different members.

I was looking through my notes when we first debated the budget bill, and one of the things that really stuck out to me is—Angels of Hope Against Human Trafficking talked about the need for sustainable funding for not-for-profits. I’ve had conversations with other not-for-profits since I’ve been elected, and I have a difficult understanding why not-for-profits, some of them going on for decades—literally 50 years, for one in my community. Why is it they have to apply for funding every year? Why isn’t there a better formula where they can plan and have predictable funding for a longer stream after they have proved after a decade the great work that they do?

I want to thank both members for their remarks. Maybe this one will be directed to the member for Mississauga–Lakeshore, given I know he’s got tremendous experience in the manufacturing sector. I know it’s been a difficult couple of days for me and my community, Windsor–Tecumseh, with the discussion of the Stellantis plant. That’s evidence, however, of Ontario attracting billions of dollars in automotive and clean steel investments in the last few years. We definitely want to keep on attracting those investments. So this budget contains measures like the Ontario Made Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit. That’s introduced in this budget.

I’m wondering, why is it important that we have many, many facets of investment, including this particular tax credit in the 2023 budget?

Thank you to my colleague. This budget bill, when we look at it, talks about a lot of investment in the Ring of Fire. We’ve seen First Nations come here. You mentioned it in your allocution—dans ton allocution—and talked about what First Nations said: pre-informed consent. And last week, we heard the Premier telling First Nations—pit First Nation against First Nation. I would like to hear from you, is that worthy of a Premier, saying that—pitting First Nations. Instead of de-escalating the issue, he poured gas on the issue. I’d like to hear your concerns or your thoughts on this.

I listened to the remarks from my colleague the member for Thunder Bay–Superior North and want to thank her for the issues that she raised and the concerns that she identified with this budget.

One of the issues that we face in my community, in the London area, is a dire shortage of family physicians, primary care providers. We’re short 65,000 family doctors in the London area, which has a huge impact on people’s ability to access the preventive programs and services they need.

I wondered if the member would comment on whether there was anything in the budget to deal with that significant shortage of family physicians across the province and what the people in her community are facing in terms of access to primary care.

I thank the member for his question. He’s absolutely right. Inflation is running high. Inflation is running high across the world. We are participants in the world economy, and that is challenging for many, many people.

This is why this government increased ODSP by 5% and guaranteed with this budget that it would be locked into an inflationary index on an ongoing basis. It guaranteed that there was an increase in the allowance for them to work on top of that income, from $200 to $1,000. There are a lot of different ways that you can support people who are struggling.

Those are just a couple of them. The budget is full of many more of them, and I would encourage the member to focus on those and see the growth that the entire province is going to gain, and that will, in turn, pay for all of the social programs that we need.

I thank the member for his speech. Aside from all the things the member spoke of that were part of the budget speech, I don’t think there was really a true focus or an understanding of the fact that we are truly in the midst of an affordability crisis. I think we all agree on the need to create more jobs, that’s for sure. But there are countless thousands of people unable to work for a number of different reasons—people on OW and ODSP—and the government’s response was a below-inflation increase. In Toronto and other places, the cost of rent is at $3,000 a month. Do you truly believe that with a 5% increase to ODSP, to the most vulnerable among us, that this is enough? They are barely treading water, and they’re sinking. Don’t you think more needs to be done?

Thank you to the member from Hastings–Lennox and Addington. The member talked about working for workers, and I’ve got to tell you, that bar is really low. It is the “low-hanging fruit” bill. I want to know, in this bill—he talked about how, during the election, what he heard most was people talking about the government debt. What I heard most was people talking about the affordability crisis, talking about putting food on the table, putting gas in their cars.

So I want to know, in this budget, are you happy? Are you happy that more working people than ever before—every single year, that number increases—are having to use food banks to make ends meet? Does this make sense in this budget?