This particular bill is talking about the Strengthening Safety and Modernizing Justice Act. As much as I can appreciate that the social determinants of health and the social determinants of safety include housing as well—the opposition knows very well that we’ve put forward several bills on housing, historic bills.

We’ve also put forward a homelessness prevention strategy which is working very well. In my region of Peel, we recently announced a $42-million investment in the homelessness prevention strategy. I want to ask the member, is she is aware of the funding that was announced in her region? Every single region across Ontario has received dollars for the homelessness prevention strategy. So what was the number in her region?

I’d like to thank the member from London West for her excellent comments. I want to thank her for bringing forward the concerns and requests from front-line officers, especially with regard to permanent, stable funding for the COAST program.

This government ignored recommendations from budget consultations earlier this year, and they really missed the opportunity to commit to support front-line officers by funding COAST within this bill.

My question to the member: Why does COAST make sense from a mental health perspective as well as a fiscal one?

I want to assure the member across the way that I am very much informed about what is happening in my community.

There was an initial investment from the province that, following the budget, was supplemented by an additional $8 million for London-Middlesex; $1 million of that went to Middlesex, leaving London with an additional $7 million. That is funding that came after the city had developed the health and homelessness whole-of-community response. It is funding that needs to be supplemented to a much higher degree if the city is to be able to move forward with this model, innovative program to actually deal with the health and homelessness crisis that we are facing in the city of London.

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—

I thank the member from Hastings–Lennox and Addington for the question. It is also National Indigenous History Month, and yesterday we were reminded of that by the member from Kiiwetinoong in his member’s statement, and I appreciate his reflections. There’s always more work to do.

But over the course of this month, we’ll have an opportunity to reflect on some of the painful legacies in this country’s history with respect to Indigenous people, but also focus on the opportunities. Those are the things this government has been focused on over the past five years. We’ve made progress, and that was reflected in our discussions yesterday with the Premier, a number of my cabinet colleagues and my parliamentary assistant.

Mr. Speaker, there are a number of events across this province for us all to participate in. I’ve sent out a caucus package. Anybody from the other parties who is interested in events that are in their area, feel free to reach out to me, and we’ll be happy to provide those to you.

Sitting down with the Chiefs of Ontario and setting up a prosperity table led by Indigenous political and business leaders; matching the funding through the Indigenous Economic Development Fund for them to do things like supply chain mapping, to encourage access to capital for Indigenous-owned and -operated businesses: In the past business quarter, we saw a 19% increase in the resources going to Indigenous communities in northern Ontario, to ensure they have the tools moving forward for a prosperous Indigenous community.

But I might say to the member opposite a couple of important points. It was his party that decided to support a carbon tax and fuel surcharges that are driving up those costs. It’s that member opposite who voted against our initiative to reduce the cost of fuel for planes flying into the remote communities. And, so far, we have not been encouraged by the member opposite or his party to build the kinds of corridors that would provide reliable road access into many of our northern communities.

Now, if that member opposite wants to rally around that, planes cannot take in the kind of infrastructure that would put those communities in a better position from a perspective of health, social and economic development—

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.