My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.

Before our government was elected, sadly—Mr. Speaker, very sadly—our auto and manufacturing sectors were in disarray. Hundreds of thousands of auto and manufacturing jobs fled the province, leaving Ontario unprepared to lead the charge on the future of electric vehicles. Thanks to our government’s efforts, Ontario auto is back, and this next generation of the sector will be a catalyst for economic growth. In order to ensure that this prosperity continues, we will need to focus on training people for the jobs of the future, including those in our growing auto sector.

Will the minister please tell us what our government is doing to introduce students to opportunities in the auto sector and beyond?

We know that our government has demonstrated its ability to attract and land a string of landmark auto manufacturing investments in just a few short years.

And it is great to hear that we are setting the stage for the next generation of Ontario autoworkers. But we need to ensure that there are also current opportunities for the province’s autoworkers. Would the minister explain how our government is creating these types of jobs for the autoworkers in Ontario?

Supplementary?

I’d like to thank the member again.

As I mentioned, I don’t even like using his name, Mr. Speaker—and sorry for the language, but he’s nothing but a scumbag. This SOB needs to be in jail 23 hours a day, in maximum-security. The crime was the most heinous crime in Canadian history. He tortured, he raped and then he murdered these two young girls. The pain the families are going through again should never be seen, ever, in the history of Canada. When we sentence someone to a life sentence, that means a life sentence in jail, maximum-security, 23 hours a day. As a matter of fact, I’d go one step further: That one hour he’s out, he should be in the general population. That’s what should happen to this SOB, as I said. Never have Canadians seen a more heinous crime than what he committed.

My question is for the Minister of Transportation.

The people in my riding of Brampton North have been negatively impacted for years by the dithering and delays from the previous Liberal government when it came to supporting critical transportation projects like Highway 413. Supported by the NDP year over year, the Liberals ignored action that should have been taken to build Highway 413 in favour of listening to downtown environmental activists who don’t live in Brampton, never visit Brampton and claim they know what’s best for Brampton.

The reality is, over the coming decade, Ontario is expected to grow by more than two million people, and the fact is that we need to build the necessary infrastructure to keep up with our growing province.

Brampton is a beautiful place, led by its diversity and its people, and no matter how much the opposition disagree, the people of Brampton deserve a new highway.

Can the minister please explain what our government is doing to support the people of Brampton by advancing transportation infrastructure with Highway 413?

Highway 413 is essential not only for the people of Brampton, but it’s essential for the overall prosperity of Ontario. Clogged roads don’t just keep people from getting from place to place; they trap transportation trucks from getting goods to market. They cost Ontario’s economy more than $11 billion every single year. Once completed, Highway 413 would help goods travel faster to and through the greater Toronto area, significantly boosting Ontario and Canada’s economy.

More than $785 million worth of goods per day move on Ontario’s highways, making the transportation system the backbone of our economy.

Can the minister elaborate on what our government is doing on highway infrastructure to support our province’s economy?

Mr. Speaker, what happened in Kanata last week was a distribution-level temporary issue with Ottawa hydro. The utility there, the LDC, has indicated that they’re going to repair the piece of equipment that was faulty that day so that this type of outage doesn’t happen again. But I can assure my ambulance-chasing friend over there that the provincial grid had more than enough power to meet the needs of the province on that very, very hot day. It was a record-setting day in Ottawa, to be sure, but we had a lot of excess energy that day.

I can assure all the members of the Legislature of one thing: If that member were in charge of our power grid, we wouldn’t have our nuclear supply—8,500 megawatts on that day that was there, at almost 100% of its capacity—and we wouldn’t have the natural gas fleet, which is our insurance policy, because not only is he against nuclear, he’s against natural gas as well.

While the member opposite clutches his pearls and pretends that the world is coming to an end, I can assure him that because of our consistent support for our nuclear grid, the refurbishments that are under way, on time and ahead of schedule, on budget—this member would not have those workhorses, those dependable baseload emissions-free power suppliers that we have in our province every single day.

At the same time we’re investing in new technology, a small modular reactor, that isn’t going to just power our grid; this is an SMR that’s going to be adopted by jurisdictions around the world to help them do what we’ve done in Ontario, and that is, reduce emissions and provide baseload power on a daily basis, 24/7, that the world can rely on. This is a great Ontario nuclear—

I thank my honourable colleague for the question. I’d be more than happy to address it. Unfortunately, this member would have to also communicate to her constituents that when their party was in power, they failed the families and people of this province. Under the previous government, 8,500 children and youth were receiving services. Today, 40,000 are receiving services. Why is that? Because while they neglected families, under the leadership of this Premier—he doubled the funding of the Ontario Autism Program. This year, we increased that funding by an additional 10% to make sure more children and youth continue to receive these services. More children and youth are now receiving not just one service, as under the previous government; they have multiple pathways to services.

We will continue to make sure those families are supported so that no one is left behind under the—

I think my colleague would know that since being honoured and appointed to this role, I have met with families, I have met with groups and organizations every single opportunity I have gotten. Why? Because we said from the beginning that we’re not going to leave people behind, which is why we doubled the funding.

The Ontario Autism Program was developed by the community for the community. That’s the program that we’ve implemented. Some 8,500 children were receiving services under the previous government. Now more than 40,000 children are receiving services—and not just one service. Children, as soon as they’re transitioned and they have registered on AccessOAP, have multiple pathways to service immediately, like foundational family services, caregiver-mediated early years support, the entry to school program—

Supplementary question.

The member for Niagara West will come to order. The member for Sault Ste. Marie will come to order. The Member for Brampton North will come to order. I want to hear the response from the Minister of Energy.

Start the clock.

Minister of Energy.

Interjection.

The next question.

My question is for the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.

Numerous families, including Sarah and her son Félix Demers, in Ottawa–Vanier are facing unreasonable challenges with the Ontario Autism Program. Sarah started the process to get help for her son three years ago, but she came across multiple barriers and wait-lists. As a result, her son Félix, who is now five years old, has aged out of programs in school. These children are being left behind.

What measures has the minister taken to address the wait-lists, ensuring timely access to essential support services for children with autism spectrum disorder?

Families face significant uncertainty while waiting for support from the autism program. Families are receiving no assistance and no communication as to when they might be able to get help.

Sarah told me, “We have now been waiting years for help, during the most vital years of our son’s developmental stages and just remain on the OAP’s wait-list as a generic number.”

The lack of communication is distressing and unacceptable. The least the government could do to reduce the distress of those waiting families is to establish a user-friendly communications platform through which families could at least track the progress of their applications.

What steps will the minister take to ensure that families, including Félix’s, have transparent and timely access to information regarding the status of their applications?

I thank the member from Brampton North for the question. He is absolutely right; the people of Ontario and Peel region spoke loud and clear when they re-elected our government with a historic larger majority. They want to see Highway 413 built, and our government is delivering on that commitment. The opposition members who continue to oppose this critical project are obviously individuals who do not live in Brampton or, quite frankly, they just don’t care about Brampton.

Speaker, it seems that every time our government supports projects that make life easier for the people of Ontario, the members opposite find some reason to say no.

Our government highlighted infrastructure projects like Highway 413 in our budget because we know that these are vital to our government’s overall plan for job creation and economic growth.

The people of Ontario can be assured that our government is committed to building important infrastructure, and this includes Highway 413.

I hope that when you met with the sisters, you also reinforced and highlighted the investments that are part of a $48-billion capital build that includes St. Joseph’s health care centre and a facilities redevelopment in that community. I hope you also highlighted to the sisters that the London Health Sciences Centre also has a facilities redevelopment plan in the works, and we’ve expanded the stem cell transplant unit in the city of London.

We are making the investments with publicly funded hospitals who are showing us that they can innovate and do things differently, to make sure that we are serving the people of London and all of Ontario.

To quote Allan O’Dette of the Ontario Medical Association, Bill 60—we believe it will free up hospital resources to focus on emergency, acute and complex cases, while relieving some capacity issues that are big, and they are real.

We know that the waiting lists cannot stay where they are. We understand that the status quo is not an option in the province of Ontario. We are making the investments to ensure that we have not only robust hospital capital expansions but also the ability to have surgical and diagnostic centres expand across Ontario.

I want to thank the member for emphasizing the real importance of getting Highway 413 built and what it means for local communities, but really for all of Ontario. Our government is critically aware of the importance of Highway 413, because we know it will grow our economy and it will support a growing Brampton and a growing Peel region.

Our roads and our highways are critical for keeping goods flowing across the province. An efficient transportation network is key to supporting our economic growth and also to unlocking our economic potential.

Mr. Speaker, we know the consequences of not building Highway 413, and we are determined to make sure that we reverse course on this. We are going to move forward to address congestion, to ensure the efficient transportation and movement of goods. Our government is committed to building critical infrastructure, because it is a solution to accelerate Ontario’s economic growth and our prosperity. Highway 413 is not only a fundamental piece of infrastructure; it is a key part of Ontario’s success and our future.

My question is to the Premier.

I recently met with the Sisters of St. Joseph, who reached out to me to voice their deep, profound disapproval of this government’s Bill 60 and privatization of our health care system. The sisters want government members to stop, listen to their conscience, learn from history and immediately repeal Bill 60. Will this government do just that; listen to your conscience, hit the brakes on greedy profit-making in health care and ensure that every dollar the government spends goes to patient care and not private shareholder pockets?

Sister Mary Giedemann of the Sisters of St. Joseph provided me a letter when I visited. She was worried about how these new private clinics would “rob the system of doctors, nurses, technologists, respiratory therapists” and penalize the poor. Sister Mary also wrote: “It also displays [Premier] Ford failing to keep his promise that privatized surgeries and diagnostic service were not his plan.”

Will this government listen to Sister Mary, keep their promises and repeal Bill 60 so that no one makes money off of someone else’s illness?

The Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.

I couldn’t hear the member for Guelph.

Restart the clock.

The member for Guelph.

Thanks very much to the member opposite for the question.

Quite the opposite: We’re investing in clean, non-emitting generation here in our province, like our nuclear facilities which are on time and ahead of schedule—those big Candu reactors at Darlington and Bruce—and potentially extending Pickering as well, where we get 60% of our clean, non-emitting electricity every day.

We’re investing in the largest procurement in Canada’s history in battery storage facilities. These are going to be located across the province to support all of the growth that we’re seeing in Ontario right now. Under the Premier’s watch, we’re seeing multi-billion dollar investments every day on an EV strategy.

I will point out that the member opposite loves his renewables. There is a role for renewables. But last Thursday, during the hottest day of the year, when it comes to solar, 14% of the solar capacity in our province showed up. If this member was in charge of our grid, we would have brownouts—

According to our system operator—I asked them last year what it would mean if we were to phase out gas in our system. They said it would be $100 extra per family per month—that’s more than a hydro bill—and it would result in brownouts and blackouts in our system. That is what the member opposite is advocating for. We’re not going to be doing that.

We’re going to make sure we’ve got the power that’s there so that we can continue to see the record, multi-billion dollar investments that the Minister of Economic Development and the Premier are bringing home to Ontario from other jurisdictions. They’re doing it because we have a clean grid.

We are going to ensure the power is there when residents go to turn on their lights in the morning and manufacturers are set to build—

My question is for the Premier.

As the climate crisis worsens and smart investors worldwide rush to renewables, Ontario risks being left behind in a cloud of carbon pollution. Global investment in the clean energy transition hit $1.1 trillion last year—$500 billion in wind and solar alone. Why? Because they are the lowest-cost sources of generation. Yet, over the next decade, your government is planning to ramp up expensive, dirty gas plants, increasing climate pollution by 400%, and increasing costs for people to cool their homes and keep the lights on.

At a time when we face a climate emergency, why is the government choosing high-cost, dirty gas plants when smart global investors and businesses around the world are choosing low-cost wind, solar and water power?

Interjections.

Speaker, through you to the minister: Will the government maintain Ontario’s clean-grid competitive advantage by abandoning their scheme to ramp up dirty, expensive gas plants and commit to a clean grid by 2030?

I thank the member opposite for his important question. Northern, remote and regional airports provide a vital transportation link in northern Ontario, and our government has been focused since day one to support transportation in the north.

We’re committed to making sure that airline carriers and passengers have safe and reliable operations available to them, and that’s why our government provides millions of dollars every year to support remote airport operations. This includes funding to facilitate improvements of runways, the replacement of garages, as well as terminal buildings. And we’re continuing to work with the federal government to provide additional funding, over $5 million to phase 3 of the Remote Air Carrier Support Program, which was announced in April of last year.

Mr. Speaker, this issue is national in scope. We work closely with the federal government to take steps to address the challenges that remote airports face, and I thank the member opposite for the question because it’s an important one. Our government’s going to continue to work with local members as well as with the federal government to address the challenges.

My question is for the Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Northern Development. June 1 marks the start of National Indigenous History Month, a time to celebrate rich traditions, heritage and the contributions of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples across the province and across the country. We look forward to many cultural activities and events planned for this month.

With 133 First Nations in Ontario, there are many vibrant communities that are located from Windsor in the south to the northern shores of Hudson Bay. Indigenous communities contribute significantly to Ontario’s economy, with many thriving businesses across a variety of sectors.

That’s why it’s vital that our government remains committed to building and maintaining strong relationships with First Nations and Indigenous partners. Speaker, will the minister please share how our government is working with Indigenous communities to build a stronger Ontario?

As we continue to build partnerships with our Indigenous communities, our government must strive to acknowledge, understand and address their concerns. Our province is enriched because of the accomplishments of Indigenous leaders and communities. First Nations and Indigenous communities deserve only our best and respect when it comes to working together as part of the reconciliation process to ensure a prosperous future for everyone.

Speaker, can the minister please explain what actions our government is taking to engage in meaningful reconciliation with Indigenous peoples?

My question is for the Premier. Youth correctional workers and transfer payment agencies under the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services are not receiving the same rights and protections as their counterparts in OPS. These workers are not covered under WSIB, but OPS workers are. These workers are not covered under the Ontario first responders act or have the same protections and tools that OPS workers do even though they handle the same youth.

Both groups of workers receive government funding and do the same job, yet they are not being treated as such. Can the Premier commit today to eliminating systemic inequities and ensure all youth correctional workers receive the same rights, benefits and protections?

Thank you very much. The next question.

The next question.

Next question.

Deferred vote on the motion for third reading of the following bill:

Bill 112, An Act to provide for the dissolution of The Regional Municipality of Peel / Projet de loi 112, Loi prévoyant la dissolution de la municipalité régionale de Peel.

The division bells rang from 1204 to 1209.

On June 1, 2023, Mr. Clark moved third reading of Bill 112, An Act to provide for the dissolution of The Regional Municipality of Peel.

All those in favour of the motion will please rise one at a time and be recognized by the Clerk.

Be it resolved that the bill do now pass and be entitled as in the motion.

Third reading agreed to.

The House recessed from 1213 to 1500.

Afternoon meeting reported in volume B.