Thank you to my friend from Orléans for his comments. I’m glad he mentioned the failure of the government to reimburse municipalities for the billions of dollars in revenue that was lost, even comparing municipalities the other day in question period to beggars going hat in hand to the province.

What are some of the negative effects if Ottawa is not reimbursed for the revenues that they lost in terms of tax increases and service cuts?

When the derecho hit Ottawa and devastated communities right across the city, when it knocked out hydro to tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people across our city, the community was devastated. And then, a couple of days later, the Premier came—

Interruption.

When the Premier came to Orléans after the derecho to visit the fire station, there was great hope that there would be investment from the province to help farmers recover, to help Hydro Ottawa pay for the tens of millions of dollars they spent cleaning up from the storm. Unfortunately, while there was a lot of talk and there were a lot of photos to try to help their Conservative candidate win in the Orléans riding, none of those promises were backed up in real life. There is not a single dollar to help the city of Ottawa or Hydro Ottawa from the derecho as part of this budget.

In fact, the biggest critic of the current industrial policy to help the automotive industry here in Ontario, Madam Speaker, is the leader of the Conservative Party; he’s the biggest critic of the plan to invest in Ontario’s auto sector—

This question is for the member. The previous government has a long history of spending way more than its income. In 2003, when they were in government, the provincial debt was $138.8 billion, and when they stepped down in 2018, the provincial debt was $323.8 billion; it increased 133%. Their accumulated debt is way more than the accumulation of hundreds of years of debt. Theirs is such a record of spending and no investment, and this is a budget that can effectively bring in billions, billions, billions of dollars of investment, so I want to see why the member opposite is not supporting this budget.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. I wanted to hear from you the best riding: Mississauga–Malton, the home of the greater Toronto airport—you’ve been there, I’m sure.

It is always a pleasure to rise in the House to discuss the important work that we are doing, like today, budget 2023, and all the things this government, under the leadership of this Premier, is doing for the workers and the families of our great province.

Madam Speaker and colleagues, every day when I drive to Queen’s Park, I see the infrastructure. I see the beautiful buildings. But I have to say this: It didn’t happen overnight. It didn’t happen by itself. It was built by hard-working Ontarians over many, many generations.

So as always, I’d like to start by thanking the Indigenous community for taking care of this land for thousands of years. Thank you for allowing us to meet here. And thank you to all the immigrants who came to Canada before I landed and after I landed, especially those who came 300 or 500 years back and worked hard to build our country. Many of their descendants are the MPPs, my colleagues here, so I just want to say thank you as always to your ancestors for their hard work.

Madam Speaker, since 2018, that is exactly what this government is also doing: building a strong Ontario, an Ontario which allows everyone to realize our dreams. But it’s not going to happen by itself; to do this, we need to build. To build, we need skilled workers, and to ensure workers are given every opportunity, pathway and skill they need to secure better jobs with bigger paycheques.

Through this bill, government is working with workers by committing an investment of $224 million in the upcoming fiscal year to establish a groundbreaking initiative within the Skills Development Fund, a new capital stream to help build the necessary infrastructure to ensure Ontario’s economic potential. This transformative capital stream would harness the power of sector-specific expertise and bolster our existing training infrastructure, including union training halls, to create more accessible and flexible training opportunities for our valued workers.

Madam Speaker, in this rapidly evolving world of work, it is essential to equip our workforce, including those who are thinking about upskilling and advancing their careers, with the skills and knowledge necessary to thrive in the ever-changing job market. Through the Skills Development Fund’s new capital stream, we will expand the capacity of training centres across our province, ensuring that workers get the skills they need for these in-demand careers. Our investment will not only support the expansion of physical infrastructure, but also fuel the development of cutting-edge training programs. Investing in our training centres and union training halls equips students with the hands-on learning opportunities needed to develop the skills of our future.

And why is this important, Madam Speaker? It is important because it impacts all of our members. It impacts all of Ontario. Why? Because every worker deserves the opportunity to reach their potential, and this investment reaffirms our commitment to provide accessible, flexible and high-quality training options.

As a first-generation immigrant, I know how difficult it is sometimes to adjust to a new place. Family reunions and far distance are some of the big challenges. I’ll give you an example. My mother, for example, is in India, and last month she was not feeling well. Well, as I was celebrating Mother’s Day, I was happy I spoke to her, but I was concerned about her health. But I couldn’t travel because of the commitments with work and family here. These are some of the challenges we see, and we have to make the balance.

Another example I was thinking about is that whenever we talk about every day passing that brings us one day closer to the end of our lives, it is a reminder to cherish each day and make the most of the time we have.

Madam Speaker, I believe in personal heroes. They’re like a GPS, helping us to navigate through our life. My personal hero, for example, is Bhai Kanhaiya, “a soul so kind, served all the love, with no one left behind.” He believed that God lives in all of us. If we want to serve God, the best way is to serve people. When we serve people, we serve God. That is why it is important, when we come here, that we work and we’re able to get opportunity to serve the people.

Under the leadership of this Premier, our government is investing an additional $25 million over the next three years to enhance the Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program. Ontario has long been recognized as a destination of choice for skilled immigrants, and with this enhanced program, we aim to further strengthen our position as a hub of talent and innovation. The investment will allow us to streamline and expedite the immigration process, making it more efficient for skilled workers to come to Ontario and contribute to our vibrant labour market. Madam Speaker, receiving the important investment, we’re able to help over 18,361, which is double what we have today under this program.

Providing the Ontario bridge training program with $3 million this fiscal year will help internationally trained immigrants find jobs in their field. We’re also investing $32.4 million over the next three years to support 6,500 high-quality research internships.

Madam Speaker, health care is another big focus for our government. We are providing an additional $425 million over three years to connect more people to mental health and addictions services; accelerating investments to bring funding in 2023-24 to $569 million, including nearly $300 million to support contract rate increases to stabilize the home and community care workforce; and investing $3.3 million over three years for expanding health-care-related courses for 1,400 secondary school students.

Simply put, this budget delivers a loud and clear message, a message that we, as a government, are building up this province of Ontario with prosperity.

To everyone watching across the globe, if you’re looking to invest, then this is the province. This is the place where you have a business environment that is welcoming and you have a government that is progressive.

If you’re an immigrant looking to build a life, come to Ontario. We have a government that is providing support to you and will help you upskill and build a life you will be proud of. We can’t wait to welcome you to join us in this journey to make Ontario stronger.

Madam Speaker, I encourage everyone in this House, if you want to build a better Ontario, a strong Ontario, vote in favour of this bill to build a stronger Ontario.

Thank you to the member opposite for the question. When we talked about supporting Ontarians and I said that supporting all Ontarians—and you actually answered it somewhat as well, that we have increased support by 5%, and not just supporting only one time with a 5% increase. It is actually connected to inflation, so that going forward, whatever the inflation rate is, it gets increased by a similar amount.

Madam Speaker, that is what we’re doing with this budget: We’re actually investing. We’re making an historic investment in the whole community, and we will continue to do so to build a stronger Ontario.

Madam Speaker, the member was talking about the youth and the services, so I just want to quote some of the quotations. I’m going to read from the CEO of Safehaven, for example: “Safehaven is incredibly grateful for the funding commitment from” the minister and Premier Ford. This government’s support of the most vulnerable will impact the lives of many children, “ensuring that Safehaven has the capacity.”

And then another one, from the Child Welfare PAC and a former youth in care: “By implementing the Ready, Set, Go framework, the Ontario government is beginning to break down the complex barriers faced by the youth from care” whose experience is helping and supporting the people in Ontario.

Madam Speaker, these are some of the things we’ve been doing—

Questions?

Further questions?

Report continues in volume B.

My friend from Mississauga–Malton and I heard the same delegations, and we got such different information, apparently, because the fact of the matter is, on the autism file, autism isn’t even mentioned one time in this budget—or even in your prop, I’m sure. But I have to say, we heard very clearly from Bruce McIntosh from the Ontario Autism Coalition, who said, “Listen, this is a bureaucratic mess. Red tape is preventing children from receiving services.”

My question is an honest question to the member: You have families with autism in your riding. The wait-list now is at 65,000. Why did this budget not address the desperate need for autism services across the province of Ontario?

I’d like to thank the member from Mississauga–Malton for his presentation.

During the pre-budget consultations, we heard from many different organizations and individuals who were deeply concerned about the current housing allotment under the Ontario Disability Support Program. They advocated for an increase to that because the cost of living is so much higher than it has been in the past, but also—before this member answers and goes to the talking points about the paltry 5% increase—what we heard from people was that many people are struggling to afford basic necessities. Why has this government chosen to only support people living with disabilities by 5%, still leaving them underneath the poverty line?