I would like to welcome to the House my husband, Albert Wai, who comes to Queen’s Park to celebrate our 44th wedding anniversary with me. Thanks for all your support as I serve Ontarians.

I also, as we’re celebrating birthdays, would like to wish my good friend and colleague Jeff Burch a very happy birthday today.

Luke DeBoni is also page captain today. Joining us in the House are Luke’s parents, Jill Zelmanovits and Ross DeBoni, and Luke’s grandparents Judith Zelmanovits and George Zelmanovits. Welcome.

It’s my pleasure to recognize our page captain today, Sally Tabachnick, from my riding of Davenport. Sally’s parents, Scott and Nadia, and her brother Alfie, who was also a page here, are with us in the members’ gallery. I look forward to meeting with them all later today. Congratulations, Sally.

To the Premier: How many more ERs like Carleton Place will have to close this summer because of his government’s inaction?

Their plan is not working, and ordinary Ontarians are worried about what this means for them. Nearly 400,000 Ontarians took action in the Ontario Health Coalition’s citizen referendum. Members opposite dismissed it as a stunt, but this past weekend, across this province, tens of thousands of Ontarians everywhere took action with the Ontario Federation of Labour to tell this government that enough is enough.

Speaker, if the Premier is truly for the people, will he actually listen to the people?

I’d like to welcome two amazing members from my constituency team today: Victoria Varela and Aleks Draca. Welcome to your House.

Speaker, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent to move a motion without notice concerning the appointment of the next Sergeant-at-Arms of the Legislative Assembly.

The temporary or permanent closures are disturbing for communities, but I have to say, as we continue to invest in health care, the party opposite, the NDP, continue to vote against those investments, whether it is 50 new expanded renovations of hospitals in the province of Ontario, whether it is Learn and Stay programs that ensure paramedics, lab technicians and nurses can train in the province of Ontario and have their tuition covered if they are prepared to serve in an underserved community.

You continue to defend the status quo, and we continue to make the investments that are going to make generational changes in the province of Ontario. We’re doing that work. I only wish that the party of the NDP and the party of the Liberals, when they were in power, were making similar investments so that we were not, in Ontario, finding the same thing that is happening across Canada and, in fact, worldwide: shortages of—

We are having a family affair today. Last week, I introduced Chris Golder. We now have Keiko Yano, who is the mother of one of our wonderful pages, Arisa. I’m so pleased to welcome Keiko to the House.

I would like to welcome two people from the riding of Burlington who are with us in the gallery today. Welcome to Michael and Mark Mazzucco.

As I’ve said before, I want to assure Ontarians that the Eglinton Crosstown construction continues to make progress. Currently, the project is 98% complete. But, as I have said before, Mr. Speaker, politicians should not interfere in the timing and the opening of transit projects. When that happens, we see that transit riders are left stranded. The Ottawa LRT is a prime example of that, Mr. Speaker.

But you know, Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition stands in this House and asks about why we can’t get the Eglinton Crosstown built when her own party, when it had the chance to vote in support of it 10 years ago, declined to do so.

The NDP continues to vote against transit. They vote against subway expansion, they vote against new LRTs for the city of Hamilton and they vote against building transit faster.

Our government will continue to deliver for the people of Ontario despite the NDP and their opposition to everything we do.

Interjections.

She thinks that the Ontario Line, which will take 28,000 cars off the road every single day, is bad for Ontario. She says that the largest transit expansion anywhere in North America, which will deliver a new three-stop subway extension for the people of Scarborough, an Eglinton Crosstown West extension and a Yonge North subway extension as well as a new LRT for the city of Hamilton—according to the Leader of the Opposition, that’s bad for Ontario, and she will do everything she can to stop it. She votes against it every single time.

Mr. Speaker, a transit plan that united, for the first time in Canadian history, four levels of government—

Mr. Speaker, I say to the Leader of the Opposition, if she wants transit, then she should vote in favour of it. What the Leader of the Opposition needs to do is pick a lane.

Well, I can tell the minister that it’s time she put the partisanship aside and did the work it takes to fix people’s health care, because this is not the reality out there across this province—code blacks, code reds. Speaker, Ontarians are speaking out because they know this government is heading down the wrong path. They saw what happened in Quebec, where carpal tunnel surgeries at private clinics cost taxpayers 84% more than if they had been done in the public system. They hear experts when they say that further privatization of health care will lead to even more emergency room closures and worse outcomes for patients.

Real leadership is listening and changing your behaviour when you have made a mistake. Back to the Premier: Will he start listening to ordinary Ontarians and stop wasting public money on privatizing care?

Interjections.

Speaker, to the Minister of Transportation: When will the Eglinton Crosstown finally open?

These delays have been caused by the utter mismanagement of this project. Instead of taking responsibility, this minister is embroiled in a finger-pointing battle between the private contractors, Metrolinx, the TTC and even her own ministry. The Toronto Sun reported this morning that they can’t even get answers on just how bad things are.

Speaker, instead of blaming everybody else, can the minister specify what direct actions she has taken to fix this mess?

Interjections.

Interjections.

Back to the minister: With rumours swirling around a potential cabinet shuffle, does this Minister of Transportation still think she’s the best person for the job?

Interjections.

Dedicated off-load nursing programs that allow hospitals to have dedicated staff who are able to take those patients as the paramedics come in and allow the paramedics to go back out into community and do what they want to do, which is continue to respond to 911 calls; 911 models of care that ensure that instead of the paramedic’s only choice—to be able to take that patient to a palliative care facility, to a long-term care facility, instead of exclusively and only to an emergency department. These are the changes that we have been making that we are seeing, on the ground, make a difference. The number of paramedics who have spoken to me saying, “These programs are literally life-changing in our community. Please keep them coming,” tells me that the programs are working. And I continue to remind them that, unfortunately, the NDP continue to vote against them.

You talk about why you’re opposed to the expansion of surgical and diagnostic centres in the province of Ontario—centres that have operated for decades but have not had the investment of previous governments. We made that investment in January in Windsor, in Kitchener-Waterloo and in Ottawa, and we now have people getting those cataract surgeries and getting back into community.

The status quo doesn’t work. We’re making the investments.

Minister of Health.

Minister of Health.

Supplementary question?

The final supplementary.

The member for Ottawa Centre, come to order. The member for Waterloo, come to order. The Minister of Education, come to order. The member for Brampton North, come to order. The member for Kitchener–Conestoga, come to order.

Start the clock. The response? Minister of Transportation.

Mr. Speaker, we’re putting more money into Ontarians’ pockets. They voted against every single item we put forward. They voted against the 10-cents-per-litre gas tax. They voted against when we scrapped the licence plate stickers for eight million people, an average of $240 per family. We dropped the tolls on the 412 and 418, saving the folks millions of dollars; they voted against that. We increased ODSP by 5%, tied to inflation; they voted against that. We cut the income tax to 1.1 million low-income workers; they voted against that. We increased minimum wage; they voted against that. We extended a 10% tuition cut; they voted against that. And we’re doubling the payments for low-income seniors, which will provide a maximum increase of $1,000 per person.

Mr. Speaker, the NDP campaign on making gas more expensive. We have the carbon tax king over there from Ottawa Centre who wants the highest carbon tax in the entire world, and you’re proud of it. It’s absolutely unbelievable. You’re proud of that—

Interjections.

Meegwetch. My question is to the Minister of Education. Last week, Lambton Kent District School Board wrote to the Minister of Education about the 63% cut to their Indigenous education funding. Speaker, it’s wrong to cut funding during National Indigenous History Month. School boards across Ontario need resources for curriculum on residential schools, on treaties, on Indigenous history, as well as land-based learning. But I don’t know: What’s wrong with our history?

Speaker, how is the board supposed to implement their Indigenous education programming with a 63% cut in funding for next year?

Thank you to the member from Cambridge for that very insightful question. Mr. Speaker, our government has a responsible plan to ensure that all of Ontario remains on a strong and steady economic growth channel. Our plan is a commitment to support families, to support individuals, to support workers in this great province, as well as our business partners. We’ve laid a strong fiscal foundation which will continue to build Ontario into the future.

As inflation was rising, as the Premier said, we took action early to help the hard-working families of Ontario. We eliminated licence plate renewal fees as well as stickers and refunded two years of past fees for eligible vehicle owners. We extended the current gas tax until December 31, Mr. Speaker.

That is what the people of Ontario expect and deserve from this government.

For low-income seniors, uncertain times are even more challenging. That’s why we temporarily doubled the Guaranteed Annual Income System payments for eligible seniors until December 2023, expanding the GAINS program for up to a 50% increase in recipients, and adjusted, for the first time ever, the benefit to inflation.

Mr. Speaker, our track record speaks for itself. We’re committed to keeping costs down for the people of this province.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to know how a $4-billion investment, the largest in our provincial history, is not making access to high-speed Internet a priority.

Prior to COVID, there were 700,000 premises that did not have connections to high-speed Internet. We are now working on making sure that we connect the remaining 40,000 to 60,000 premises. Now, I would say that that is very good progress, Mr. Speaker, but we have not seen any support from the members opposite.

We will continue to make sure that we make those investments, but we pay our Internet service providers when they fulfill their project timelines and when they meet their milestones for construction, The $4 billion is there; we will continue to make sure that everyone is connected and no one is left behind.

My question is for the Minister of Finance.

Much like the rest of the world, Ontario continues to face economic challenges. Individuals, families, workers and businesses are all troubled by the rising cost of living. As prices go up on everything from groceries to gas, their household and business budgets are feeling ongoing financial pressure.

That is why our government must implement a responsible plan that supports businesses, families and workers across the province. Speaker, can the minister explain how our government is continuing to support people and businesses during these uncertain economic times?

However, the people of Ontario expect that our government will continue to follow through on our commitments to lower costs, build key infrastructure, build projects faster and attract more jobs and investments. But, most of all, the people of Ontario want our government to focus on issues that will help make everyday life more affordable, and they deserve nothing less.

Speaker, can the minister please elaborate on actions that our government is taking to make life more affordable for the people of Ontario?

Order.

To reply, the Premier.

Restart the clock. The supplementary question.

The response: the Minister of Infrastructure.