It’s always a pleasure and a privilege to take my seat on behalf of the good people of Algoma–Manitoulin, talking to the budget bill this morning. As I’ve always said, I try to bring a northern Ontario lens to the floor of the Legislature, and that’s what I’m going to be doing this morning, talking about particular matters that were not addressed for individuals in my riding of Algoma–Manitoulin.

I want to start with Donna Benke from Elliot Lake, who is an ODSP recipient. Donna is a huge advocate for fairness. She has shared many of her life stories with me, and her struggles that she has. She doesn’t want to wish anything worse for anybody else, but she does want to be seen; she wants to be heard, because as a single individual without children at home, she has not benefited in any way, shape or form from some of the benefits that have come from this government. She wants to be heard and is saying, “What about me? As an individual who is hurt, who cannot work, who cannot supplement my income, why aren’t there any supplements for me?” That’s one of the individuals.

I want to talk about Roslyn Taylor. Roslyn Taylor owns a small sawmill on Manitoulin Island. Roslyn has shared her hydro costs for her small mill with me. She employs about 20 to 25 employees. This has gone on with this government and the previous government—that I brought it to their attention. Her usage fees, on average, range somewhere between $700 to $800. Her delivery fees are always in excess of double what she is utilizing. I’ve worked with the minister—and I actually was with the minister at a reception just a couple of days ago, and I asked him once again, “When will your ministry reach out to Roslyn at Taylor Sawmill?” I wanted to provide him with her direct contact and say, “Hey, what can you do?” The minister, to his credit, indicated to me that it would take some major policy changes in order to address her issues. Okay. Well, that’s why you’re in government: to make those changes. We didn’t see those changes in this budget. Roslyn is still receiving those high costs for her sawmill, and the 25 jobs that she provides for individuals on Manitoulin Island are at stake here. So I’m hoping that, finally, the government will reach out to Roslyn, or Hydro One, and look at some of the savings that they can provide for her so she can continue doing the operation and the work that she enjoys doing.

The other thing that wasn’t addressed in this budget is a serious doctor recruitment and retainment program for rural and northern communities. I didn’t see that in this budget.

I see this government making some investments. I see legislation which is opening up more opportunities for the privatization of certain surgeries in this province. I see this government creating an environment where we’re going to need more agency nurses. I see this government creating, again, an environment where we’re going to be losing a lot of our public service workers—our doctors, our nurses, our PSWs and so on—to going towards the private sector. I see a lot of nurses who were burnt out due to a lot of decisions that were made by this government during the COVID pandemic, which now—these individuals have left and are now reappearing as agency nurses at a much higher cost. I don’t see how they’ve addressed that in the budget. I don’t see how they’ve addressed the need for locums in northern Ontario.

The hospital up in Wawa has been looking to this government and trying to get this government to continue with the locum days that they’ve had there. They’re down another doctor, and they do not have the proper coverage that they had. What is going to happen? The three remaining doctors who are there are going to get burnt out, and they’re going to move on, and they’re going to leave, and then Wawa is going to be left out.

This is the exact position that is happening on the west end of Manitoulin Island and Gore Bay. There are three doctors there: There’s one doctor who is holding down the basic practice that is there; and there’s a husband and wife, but they’re looking to move on because they’re at an age where they need to retire. That has not been addressed. Again, a serious doctor recruitment and retainment program is not addressed in this budget.

I will always give credit where credit is due, and I want to thank the Minister of Transportation, because she has actually responded to the need for a turning lane and investments in highways, particularly on Highway 17, as you turn in off Goulais River into the trading post and also the LCBO that is there. There’s a family, there’s an individual who passed away a few years ago. We’re finally going to make the investments to improve that area and add a turning lane, making it a little bit safer.

There are some investments that went into Manitoulin Island, as well, with those highways, but the resurfacing that was done just last summer—I was out on those highways this summer, and they’re already starting to deteriorate. So there are going to be some major improvements that are going to be needed to be done.

Highway 637 into Killarney is an absolute mess.

There are more investments that need to be done into those areas, and are they on this government’s radar?

Highway 551, Highway 542—again, there are more investments that need to be done in those areas.

Were there home care investments—a real strategy for this government to invest into home care. If we are actually going to prevent and help long-term-care homes, we need to have home care investments, major home care investments, because people want to remain staying in their homes.

In the short time that I had, these are the shortfalls that I’ve identified from a northern Algoma–Manitoulin lens, and unfortunately, this government has failed to meet these needs of Ontarians in the budget.

I have a petition here.

“To Raise Social Assistance Rates.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontario’s social assistance rates are well below Canada’s official Market Basket Measure poverty line and far from adequate to cover the rising costs of food and rent: $733 for individuals on OW and $1,227 for ODSP;

“Whereas an open letter to the Premier and two cabinet ministers, signed by over 230 organizations, recommends that social assistance rates be doubled for both Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP);

“Whereas the recent small budget increase of 5% for ODSP still leaves these citizens below the poverty line, both they and those receiving the frozen OW rates are struggling to live in this time of alarming inflation;

“Whereas the government of Canada recognized in its CERB program that a ‘basic income’ of $2,000 per month was the standard support required by individuals who lost their employment during the pandemic;

“We, the undersigned citizens of Ontario, petition the Legislative Assembly to double social assistance rates for OW and ODSP.”

I agree with this petition, will affix my name and give it to page Mackenzie to bring to the table.

I want to thank the students at the McMaster faculty of social sciences for this petition to raise social assistance rates.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontario’s social assistance rates are well below Canada’s official Market Basket Measure poverty line and far from adequate to cover the rising costs of food and rent: $733 for individuals on OW and $1,227 for ODSP;

“Whereas an open letter to the Premier and two cabinet ministers, signed by over 230 organizations, recommends that social assistance rates be doubled for both Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP);

“Whereas the recent small increase of 5% for ODSP still leaves these citizens below the poverty line, both they and those receiving the frozen OW rates are struggling to survive at this time of alarming inflation;

“Whereas the government of Canada recognized in its CERB program that a ‘basic income’ of $2,000 per month was the standard support required by individuals who lost their employment during the pandemic;

“We, the undersigned citizens of Ontario, petition the Legislative Assembly to double social assistance rates for OW and ODSP.”

I will affix my signature and send it to the Clerk.

I truly appreciated the story that you shared from your constituent who is on ODSP with a kettle that doesn’t work, with shoes that she needs to glue back together in order to be able to have decent shoes, with the different problems directly linked to poverty. We all know that poverty is the number one determinant of health. For every $5,000 more you make a year, we can see the improvement in the health of each and every one of us. Could you share with us how much money there is in the budget to help your constituent on ODSP receive enough money so that she can live a healthy life? How much money is in the budget so that she receives enough money to be out of poverty?