Further questions? The member from Whitby.

Thank you, Speaker, and through you to the member for Carleton: I’d like her to talk about the impact of the budget specifically on her riding and what those investments mean to her hard-working families in Carleton.

I rise to speak to Bill 85, and I want to thank the House for the opportunity to speak to this on behalf of the good people of Scarborough Southwest—to debate the budget bill.

As we heard in this House many, many times—and I know my colleague from Waterloo talks about it—budgets are about priorities, about the investments that we make to care for the people of our province, about the choices that prioritize the needs of the people.

This budget that is in question here, according to members opposite, is the biggest budget in the history of this province—and this is actually a quote from government members—the biggest spending, which seems like a great start, when you look at the current reality of so many people in our province.

I know my government colleagues will heckle me, so I’m ready for that. Go ahead.

I want to start off by saying what happened during the pre-budget consultation. Let me just read a quote from the pre-budget consultation, from economic affairs. This is what the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario and the Association of Municipalities Ontario, who have, all together, summarized and highlighted in this report—which is, a number of wit-nesses expressed uncertainty about the financial impact of the changes on municipal budgets. Some witnesses asked that the province ensure financial support for municipalities to mitigate potential negative outcomes. And they went on to talk about some of the needs.

We know that municipalities are dealing with the post-COVID crisis right now and what’s going on and the reality that we’re facing in our province. This is a dire situation. People are struggling, people are suffering, and we need to do anything and everything possible to support them.

There were many people who came during the pre-budget consultation, and we thought that there would be a lot of hope—to make sure that we support them.

Right now, we’re facing an affordability crisis. When we talk about the cost of food, the cost of living, housing, rent, it’s impossible—especially with the lack of rent control. The dream of home ownership seems very far away. We’re talking about social housing wait-lists, which is about 85,000 right now—families waiting, people waiting. The LTB has about 38,000 people waiting for hearings. The cost of bills like hydro, gas etc.—everything has gone up. A health care crisis, especially with staffing—recruitment, retaining of staff, especially with Bill 124. The needs in our schools—the amount of infrastructure and staffing that we need in our schools. OW and ODSP—just to keep up with inflation. All of these asks were in the pre-budget consultation. And we hear it from our constituents every single day, and I know members opposite hear that as well.

Many Ontarians tell me about how they wake up at 5 a.m., they work hard, they work and work and work to pay the bills and to put food on the table for their family, and yet it’s just not enough. People are losing hope.

When we look at a budget that the province comes up with—we are hoping that this budget will address those concerns that I just highlighted.

So when we talk about the biggest spending ever—but then I look at this budget. And when the budget was released, as soon as people took a look at it, one of the first things I heard was how cruel this budget is, because it is the biggest spending, and yet the budget missed the mark in addressing so many of the issues that people are facing across this province.

Let me tell you what the Toronto Star editorial board said—and not my words; this is the Toronto Star’s editorial board: that this government is spending, but it’s not getting to the people in the province. From the education sector, to the health care sector, to the community services, to the people, to our children, this budget completely misses the mark.

Instead of a budget that pulls people up when they’re drowning, you have a budget that actually pushes people further into poverty and leaves them behind. Goods and services cost more and more. And this budget does nothing to support those people. When we talk of price gouging, for example—it does nothing.

I want to talk about what happened after the budget was introduced. We were sitting in finance committee and we heard—I have a very limited amount of time so I’m trying to rush through everything that I have here, and I know I won’t get to everything. So let me just start off with one of the organizations that I thought was really interesting in the way they kind of put together the holistic summary of what they’re facing. This was actually Vista Centre Brain Injury Services that came to the deputation for the budget hearings. This is what they said: “In Canada, every 3.5 minutes, there is a brain injury. I will repeat that: In Canada, every 3.5 minutes, there is a brain injury.”

And he went on to talk about what the needs are and how to effectively address this, which means investing in our health care system. What they asked for was an increase in their budget. And Speaker, let me tell you what the government has done so far. Over the last 10 years, they have only received a 2% increase in their budget.

What was really interesting is that from a health care perspective, the Vista Centre Brain Injury Services talked about housing, and I was really intrigued by this because they actually brought it back and said: “Do you know what the number one issue our clients tell us? Housing.” This is what he said: “The number one issue that has been identified in my area is housing, and when I talk about housing, I mean specialized housing not only for people” who are facing “a disability, but people who have an acquired brain injury” as well. And guess what the number of years they wait for it? From 15 to 20 years, they wait for housing.

We heard from other organizations, like non-profit organizations. One of them was Earth Education League, and I want to quote Jodi, because I think she does a fantastic job about Bill 85. She said, “Bill 85 includes funding for school boards for the next academic year at a mere 2.7% increase; 2.7% is significantly below the rate of inflation and won’t meet the students’ needs. Critics have indicated that when accounting tricks are set aside, we are seeing a decrease in per-student funding of nearly $1,000 as a result of this budget. We need to invest in classrooms, in educators and adults in the room, not on online learning, not on TVO and D2L, not on privatization through back doors.”

I thought Jodi just did a fantastic job talking about the needs of our education system and how this budget fails to address that as well.

Speaker, I wish I could share some of the other organizations that talked about their disappointment as well, because not only did the budget not address some of this, they did not even keep up with inflation. They did not even keep up with inflation for our needs in our education, in our health care system, in housing. And yet we have the biggest spending ever in a provincial budget. That’s what the government is bragging about. But it does not go to the people who are struggling, who are suffering, who are hurting right now.

So let’s look at what this government is actually spending the money on, and I hope I can address this in the next few minutes that I have.

Bill 23, which is the result of this government, a bill that they brought forward: What’s happening is that municipalities are losing money and now they don’t have the ability to keep up with a lot of the expenditures that they have. And now that will actually cost taxpayers more money because a lot of municipalities are concerned that they have to raise property taxes.

We also have Highway 413. This government won’t even talk about how much Highway 413 will cost. We’ve got report after report, article after article that talks about how the Premier fails to talk about the exact cost of Highway 413—another idea brought by this government which will pave over wetlands, protected lands. Not only that, it’s going to cost taxpayers a lot of money and the government won’t even tell us exactly how much it’s going to cost. And you know, my colleague the NDP critic for finance and the member from Waterloo, during her presentation, went on about some of the other ways the government is losing revenue for this province as well.

The FAO reported that this government—$6.4 billion didn’t even go where it was supposed to. We have Bonnie Lysyk, the Auditor General—and I want to thank her for her service to this province—who talked about how this government is losing money on the OLG. So not only does the government not have the amount of revenue they’re supposed to be getting, they have a smaller share of revenue coming in and then they’re spending it on the 1%, the 2%, the select few that they choose, and not the people of this province, Speaker. And where—I’m almost out of time.

Ontario Place: You’ve got $650 million that’s going to go to a luxury spa, an Austrian spa—not even a business of this province—$650 million. And then there is a $450-million parking lot that’s supposed to be an underwater parking lot, I think, like the biggest car wash, I guess, that this province has ever seen—the costliest—but this is where the money will be spent.

Then, if you think about Highway 407—this is a comparison I can make because that’s the result we’re facing right now, where we have a 1,200% increase of what the cost of this—

I thank the member for her comments. There were a couple of words that I heard from her remarks. One was on housing, and the other was on spending. On housing, I’m delighted to hear the member say that we have a need for housing. I’ll just remind her that this government plans to build a million and a half homes over the next 10 years—an excellent plan—and further, to encourage affordable homes, removing development charges on affordable homes. Also, the Homelessness Prevention Program: $202 million in this budget. I was delighted to hear what I thought was support for these housing initiatives.

On the spending side, this is the budget document. On page 139—people have heard me refer to that before—health care spending will be up $15.3 billion over the next three years. I’m curious as to whether those are important positives for the member to consider.

Thank you so much for the opportunity. I want to thank the member for his question. Honestly, I wish this were the type of dialogue that we could have because we need to have a public park, a public space that is serving the people of this province, that is accessible, that won’t cost the people money and actually give profit to a private company that is not even Ontarian.

And not to mention, one of the things that’s really difficult for me is understanding—has the government actually done research on Therme? We’re giving $650 million to a luxury spa. Have we done—like, what their financial track record is? They have a very problematic track record in the UK. Have we done our research to see what they have done, what their track record looks like and what it will mean when we have a 95-year lease for Ontario? Because that’s a defective sale—

Interjection.

That means we need to make sure that people don’t go hungry, don’t go homeless. That is the most important part when we talk about budgets because then you’re prioritizing things like housing, you’re prioritizing things like the amount you need for ODSP and OW. We’re not keeping up with those things. We’re not keeping up with the inflation rate of any of these needs, and that’s what the result is. We’re seeing thousands of people lining up, and some people who have never gone to a food bank are now getting food at a food bank.

Thank you. Questions?

Thank you very much, Speaker. To the member who just did her best to squeeze all of the voices of Ontario into only 10 minutes, I wanted to ask her some of the things she’s hearing from people whose voices did not make it into this budget.

We’re hearing a lot across communities—and the Conservatives are as well, if they’re listening—from the folks who are dependent upon food banks. Unfortunately, those stats are growing and food banks are reporting that they are meeting new neighbours they’ve never met before, that they are serving people who have jobs, perhaps have a home and a mortgage and who aren’t typically the people they have seen. What is in this budget for them or what could have been a help for them?

There’s no need to.

I’ve also looked at the budget and read the budget. One of the other things that I looked at was, during the pre-consultation, what people talked about, and after the budget was released, during the committee hearings. You know what? I agree with the member: When we talk about housing, we do need to build housing. We need to do it ASAP, and we’re so behind. I mentioned the fact that we have 85,000 people waiting for housing. But we also need to make sure that we address the type of housing that we’re building, that we address the way we’re doing that. First of all, we cannot be building it on the greenbelt.

If they’re not affordable, people are moving from this province. That’s what we’re seeing right now. We have health care workers who move away from the province because they don’t earn enough, first, and then they can’t keep up with their rent or they can’t keep up with their mortgage. Some don’t even have a mortgage because they can’t even imagine buying a home.

I actually had a few students who came to Queen’s Park to visit me, and they brought me a report. They brought me an actual report that they’d compiled about the gun violence, about the stabbings that we’re seeing. Guess what was one of the conversations that we talked about? We talked about the fact that kids are facing loneliness. They have felt isolated. They have mental health needs. A lot of people are facing poverty. Some don’t even have breakfast before they come to school. All of these things have an impact on the way they come to learn in their institutions. That impacts that as well.

The other thing is, we have to make sure that we have enough educators in our spaces, that we have enough staff in our schools to be able to be there. The fact that Birchmount Park Collegiate did not even have enough hall monitors is a problem. These are the people who can actually address what’s going on in our schools and make that environment safe and accessible—

Further questions?

I rise today to debate Bill 85, the budget measures act.

The people of Ontario really want one thing from their government: to do the right thing for the people of Ontario, the people they are elected to serve. Today, we are debating a budget that this government’s Minister of Finance says is about investing in people and the economy of Ontario to support our collective well-being and prosperity. I have to say, I beg to differ. Let me give you some context.

Before this government came to power, the Liberal government invested in health care, reducing the shortage of family doctors and significantly reducing emergency wait times.

The Liberal government built transportation, including the Union Pearson Express, GO train expansion service, the Yonge subway expansion as well as the resurrection of the Eglinton line following the irresponsible and short-sighted cancellation by Conservative Premier Harris. And we resurrected the Finch subway line. We started the Eglinton Crosstown and built Highways 412 and 418.

We created the greenbelt to protect our environment, to protect our agricultural lands, to protect our water.

We ended the burning of coal, turning Ontario into one of the most environmentally friendly jurisdictions in the world, with clean energy at 96% in 2017, which has indeed attracted manufacturing jobs the Conservatives brag about. What will happen to those jobs under this Conservative budget, which sees Ontario’s clean energy shrink to under 90%? That remains to be seen.

While jobs were lost during the global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, the Liberal government steered the province through that crisis. In fact, from 2004 to 2018, during the Liberal government, the number of jobs in the province increased from 10.3 million to 12.5 million.

Most significantly, our Liberal government introduced all-day kindergarten and brought up high school graduate rates from 67% to 87%.

Fiscal responsibility is making good decisions for the people of Ontario, investing in our greatest resource: the people of our province. Yet that is not what the people of Ontario see when they read this budget bill.

In 2018, this government came to office promising to fix hallway medicine and the cost of housing, heralding a new era of fiscal responsibility. And this government continues to brag about their record on that, so let’s do a reality check. Five years into a Conservative government, and the Conservatives brag about record investments in health care in this budget—but spending record amounts of money and seeing our health care system fall apart at the same time is nothing to brag about. With ERs closing and the number of patients receiving hallway health care 20% higher than it was in the last year of the Liberal government, I think it’s fair to say that this money is not being spent responsibly. One example I’ve spoken of before is spending three times as much for a nurse through a private agency instead of paying that nurse what she deserves in our public system.

Let’s talk about housing and the government’s disappointing results on that. In 2019, the median rent for an apartment in Ontario was $1,200; now it’s $1,400. The crisis is worse in our major cities—and those numbers include apartments still protected by rent control. The average list for a one-bedroom is $2,523 a month, in Toronto, and $3,347 for a two-bedroom.

Let’s talk about spending and provincial debt. We have record spending and debt in this province right now under this government. In fact, we have the biggest spending spree in Ontario history, a budget of $204 billion and a record $406 billion in debt, with priorities given to a twin highway, the 413, for the 407 because they sold it off at a bargain basement price.

So while this government likes to deflect from their own record of broken promises and propensity to do backroom deals that benefit their friends more than Ontarians, the numbers tell the real story.

Spending on the people of Ontario is a good investment. It’s investing in the health and education of our people, in the infrastructure that supports life and commerce in this province. And spending has indeed ballooned under this Conservative government, to over $200 billion, as I said, and $406 billion in debt—the highest it’s ever been.

That’s right. The Conservatives—not the Liberals, not the NDP—take the prize for the biggest budget in Ontario history. And what indeed is there to show for it? Plans for new highways at the expense of our health care, housing and social programs that support the people of Ontario. While there are some positive investments in jobs and retraining, is life for the people of Ontario better after five years of a Conservative government?

As I mentioned, health care and housing are worse. The opioid crisis rages through our communities, with a 56% increase in emergency department visits and a 52% increase in deaths from opioid overdoses—not one new cent allocated to that in this budget. Farmland is disappearing at a record rate of 319 acres per day, threatening our food supply and worsening affordability.

In regards to people experiencing homelessness, we can’t easily find the total number because the government cancelled their own recordkeeping on that matter, but our eyes don’t deceive us. It is clear in cities large and small that the homeless population has skyrocketed, with tent cities and people sleeping in transit stations. The $202 million announced in the budget for supportive housing and homelessness programs is a start, but underfunding agencies like CMHA is not supporting those who offer support to the homeless and others suffering from mental health issues and addictions. To end homelessness, we need to end the housing crisis and ensure that every person in the province can have a roof over their heads.

But the budget shows that housing starts have slowed and that the province is behind on its housing goal. This is because inflation and labour shortages are making it too expensive to keep building, especially affordable homes. That means it’s time for this government to step up and build homes instead of highways, to put meaningful taxpayer money into the construction of housing, supporting not-for-profits that are asking to do just that instead of asking the federal government to pick up the whole tab. Just today, in my meeting with CIJA, their housing not-for-profit executive director said, “I have been in housing for 35 years and I have never seen things so bad.”

Similarly, high office vacancy rates, particularly in downtowns, could be converted into housing for cheaper than new builds. This would create new housing in areas served by existing infrastructure. The Alberta government is doing just that, and this budget was a missed opportunity to do so here in Ontario.

Let’s talk about health care in rural areas. The announcement of the emergency department closure in Minden is a punch to the gut for that community and a canary in the coal mine for other rural towns. The government’s laissez-faire attitude in regard to this is equally disturbing. Rural hospital departments will continue to close as they lack staff and funds, and this government needs to take serious action to ensure this does not happen.

Let’s contrast that with what the government is going to spend taxpayer money on: half a billion to build an underwater parking lot for the mega-spa project, more than double the new investment in housing supports. That is not a good trade-off for the people of Ontario.

This budget invests $27.9 billion in highway projects over the next 10 years. While this government stands in the House and spreads misinformation about the Liberals being opposed to highways, let me remind the government that a Liberal government built Highways 412 and 418. What I and the people of Ontario are concerned about is the process in which these highway projects were selected, as the Auditor General found that political staffers cancelled highway projects approved by the Liberal government in favour of projects deemed low priority by non-partisan public servants. This includes Highway 413, which the Auditor General estimates will cost more than other high-priority projects, including highway-widening projects in the north. This is not a transparent way to decide how to spend billions in infrastructure, and it’s the opposite of fiscal responsibility.

Perhaps most concerning of all is the lack of transparency in the budget, like with contingency funds and legal fees. The government refuses to tell the people of Ontario how much they’re spending on legal fees to continue their fight to appeal decisions like the one that found Bill 124 unconstitutional, and their refusal to disclose cabinet mandate letters.

Similarly, the budget provides for almost $4 billion in contingencies, a completely un-transparent form of accounting that flouts all the best practices of fiscal responsibility. The budget does include a placeholder, though it’s not specified, for the Therme spa and new parking lot underwater at Ontario Place. While the government provides no details themselves, there are reports the province has given this company a 95-year lease of our public lands, yet the details have not been disclosed—more non-transparency.

While the government says this is a typical lease, I would say it’s more of a bargain for Therme. Even if they spend $500 million, that is less than $5 million in amortized expense per year. With a facility of, I think, 236,000 square feet, that’s a cost of $21 per square foot. Speaker, given the market price for space in downtown Toronto is $42 a square foot—half of what Therme is paying—I would say Therme is getting a pretty good deal on the backs of Ontario taxpayers. And let me just add: Therme’s owners are also not known to the Ontario public. We know it is their CEO and a company called A-Heat, but we do not know who owns A-Heat, so we do not know who stands to profit from this deal.

The government budget shows spending of over $200 billion, a record sum, yet the people of Ontario are being left behind: left behind in hallways of hospitals, left behind with dismal options for housing, left relying on food banks even though they have full-time jobs, left on the streets to face—

Thank you for your presentation. You were talking about really shortchanging schools in terms of their funding. I know that the COVID funding was never replaced that they were supposed to have replaced and that the funding does not come close to matching inflation. We’re also hearing about increased violence in schools. I’m wondering if you can make the connection for us between the lack of funding and resources and what is actually happening in schools right now.

One of the things that I talked about yesterday in my little 10 minutes of debate—and you’re right; it’s hard to fit in 200, 300 pages of budget into 10 minutes—was manufacturing jobs. We lost about 300,000 manufacturing jobs under the previous government. Roughly 20,000 of those were in Waterloo region, where I live. It’s really great to see a lot of that come back. A lot of that is coming back because of the government’s investment in the auto sector, specifically around electric vehicles.

The member opposite has several tier-1 and tier-2 auto parts manufacturers in and around her general area. I’m just wondering if I can get her thoughts on what she thinks of those investments and how we’re bringing those jobs back to the province.

As the member may know, I have a particular interest in this budget, which I have been concentrating on for quite a while. It’s $13.4 million that has been dedicated to the guns, gangs and violence strategy, which I think is a very good strategy which will keep drugs out of high schools and away from teenagers by breaking up the drug supply chain.

My question to the member is this: Will she support the $13.4 million for the anti-guns, gangs and violence strategy, or will she support the NDP defund-the-police policy?

Thank you. Questions?

I think I’ve given a lot of reasons here today why this budget is not supportable by me or my constituents, whether it’s a lack of transparency on what the government is spending, spending money on parking lots instead of housing or not fixing our opioid crisis. We see the problems in front of us, Speaker, and this government knows that those problems are not being addressed by this budget.

I’d like to thank the member from Don Valley West for her presentation. At the pre-budget consultations, we had the opportunity to hear from the Ontario Library Association, and they talked about the incredible value that public libraries provide. They also almost were a stand-in for MPP offices during COVID. They offer things like job training, small business support; they have access to broadband as well as children’s programming; access to physical resources as well as digital resources.

One thing that is a grave concern is that over the past 25 years, Ontario’s public library systems have not seen an increase in their base funding. I wonder if the member would like to comment about the need to fund public libraries appropriately.

I’d like to say to the opposition member here, based on her presentation, I would have to assume you would want to support our very ambitious plan to invest over $180 billion in building capital for this province, unlike 15 years under the Liberals, where you closed over 600 schools. How many hospitals did you build? I don’t know. We’ve got 50 that are planned. Never mind long-term-care homes; you only built—how many was it, 600? In my riding alone, we have over 700 in the works right now. So my question to the member is: Will you not support this ambitious plan?

The member from Don Valley West and I both listened at finance committee—and I just heard the member from Essex talk about defunding the police. What does she make of the fact that this Conservative government actually is defunding the police? They’ve lost the OPP detachments in Gogama, Foleyet, and the OPP is now fighting for the French River area.

So the great irony is that you are defunding police services in northern Ontario, and you should be ashamed of yourselves for that.