I’d like to thank the member from Brantford–Brant for the question, and it is a very important question.

Mr. Speaker, I think it’s important for all of us in this House to be very clear that hate and intolerance have no place here in Ontario. Every Ontarian, no matter their ethnicity or nationality, how they worship, or who they love, deserves to live in safe communities and without fear that they may be targeted because of who they are.

That is why our government, over the last two years, has invested over $100 million to combat hate and help foster inclusive communities.

Recently, our government has announced $25.5 million to help protect Ontario’s religious, diverse and other marginalized communities. This funding will help ensure that they have safe and secure places to practise their faith, showcase their culture and express who they are.

Our government will always be a champion for all Ontarians. We will continue working to build a stronger, safer and more inclusive Ontario for all people from all walks of life.

Mr. Speaker, first I want to thank all of those hard-working men and women who work for the WSIB, who are there every single day helping those injured workers across the province. They do great work everywhere, in all of our communities.

It was only a decade ago that the WSIB was on the brink of bankruptcy. Under the leadership of Premier Ford and this government, we brought in new leadership, a new board of directors, a new chair of the board—new leadership at the WSIB to build a better system for workers and employers.

I’m proud of the changes that we’ve made in our recent Working for Workers 3 legislation, truly historic legislation. We’re expanding pancreatic and thyroid cancer to presumptive coverage to firefighters across the province. This is going to help every firefighter, whether they’re full-time, volunteer, First Nations firefighters. And we’re making it retroactive to January 1, 1960.

There is no government in literally a generation that has done more for workers across this province than Premier Ford and the PC government. We brought forward three historic, game-changing pieces of legislation: Working for Workers 1, Working for Workers 2, and Working for Workers 3, and we’re not done yet. There’s more to come.

I appreciate the question from the member from Carleton because I’m very proudly standing in this House to say that our government is planning today for the future jobs of tomorrow. That includes our agri-food sector. Through our Grow Ontario Strategy, over the next 10 years, we have set a target to grow employment in our agri-food sector by 10%.

A key to attracting people is pulling them in and making them aware of the amazing jobs our sector has at a young age. That’s why the 4-H program in Ontario is so, so important. I had the pleasure just last week of sharing with people across this province how our government is continuing to invest in agricultural leadership development. One way is through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership program, whereby we’re investing $2.3 million over the next three years in Ontario 4-H. That is continuity and certainty for this program as they expose young people to the amazing opportunities in careers in the agri-food sector.

We’re engaging diverse communities through this program. We are ensuring that the four jobs that are waiting for every one individual graduating from agriculture or a food service program will have jobs available to them. This funding will benefit the already 6,000 4-H members and young people wanting to work in the agri-food sector in Ontario.

The supplementary.

My question is for the Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism.

Ontario’s diversity is one of our greatest strengths, with people from all backgrounds, faiths and walks of life. All people in Ontario deserve to be respected, no matter where they come from, what they believe or how they worship.

Unfortunately, we are not immune to the rise of incidents of hate and intolerance that we are witnessing across Canada and indeed around the world.

Acts of discrimination, hatred and violence have no place in our communities. That is why our government must take action to implement measures that will combat hate and protect the people of our province.

Can the minister please explain how our government is building safer, stronger and more inclusive communities?

It’s reassuring that our government is taking meaningful action to protect our communities and to combat hate wherever it exists. All Ontarians deserve to feel safe in their communities and should be able to live and worship without fear that they will be targeted.

Communities in my home region of Brantford–Brant are similar to other places across Ontario where there are people from a wide variety of faiths, beliefs and backgrounds.

The people of Ontario expect that our government will continue to put measures in place that will protect their safety and security.

Speaker, can the minister please elaborate on the scope of the Anti-Hate Security and Prevention Grant and how this will benefit organizations across Ontario?

I have two visitors to introduce today. I have lexicon legend Lynn Murphy, who was the first women editor hired by CBC Radio news. Woohoo! Her husband was, many of you may know, Bill Murphy. He was a reporter in the press gallery at Queen’s Park in the 1960s for CBC Radio news. And then I have lovely Louise Cass; she’s a globally acclaimed artist and a former archaeologist. It’s their first time—well, it’s Louise’s first time to the House.

Madame Gélinas moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 116, An Act to amend the Health Protection and Promotion Act with respect to sodium content in food / Projet de loi 116, Loi modifiant la Loi sur la protection et la promotion de la santé en ce qui concerne la teneur en sodium des aliments.

Point of order.

Interjections.

The bill is simple. It amends the Health Protection and Promotion Act to prohibit the selling or offering for sale of any food whose sodium content exceeds the maximum amount prescribed by the regulations. When prescribing the maximum amount for a food or class of food, the Lieutenant Governor in Council must not prescribe an amount that exceeds the applicable global sodium benchmark established by the World Health Organization.

Ms. Khanjin moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 117, An Act to proclaim Skilled Trades Week / Projet de loi 117, Loi proclamant la Semaine des métiers spécialisés.

From 2011 to 2021, over 31,000 Ontarians were the victims of gun-related violence. In 2021, there were 114 firearm-related homicides in Ontario, the highest of any province in Canada.

Promoting prevention, intervention and healing is necessary to reduce and ultimately eliminate gun violence. Awareness of this problem of gun violence is a first step in this process, and therefore, this bill proclaims the first Friday in June in each year as the Provincial Day Against Gun Violence in Ontario.

Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to welcome to the House Nathan Zhu, Sharon Ho, Pixie George-Benjamin and Jennifer Volk, along with a number of others here today to defend education.

The supplementary question?

The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing can reply.

The next question.

Member for Nickel Belt.

Call in the members. This will be a five-minute bell.

The division bells rang from 1140 to 1145.

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

Motion agreed to.

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

Bill 5, An Act to amend various statutes with respect to workplace violence and harassment policies in codes of conduct for councillors and members of local boards / Projet de loi 5, Loi modifiant diverses lois en ce qui concerne les politiques en matière de violence et de harcèlement au travail prévues dans les codes de déontologie des conseillers et des membres des conseils locaux.

The division bells rang from 1149 to 1150.

All those in favour of the motion will please rise and remain standing until recognized by the Clerk.

Second reading negatived.

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

Bill 91, An Act to enact two Acts, amend various Acts and revoke various regulations / Projet de loi 91, Loi visant à édicter deux lois, à modifier diverses lois et à abroger divers règlements.

The division bells rang from 1154 to 1155.

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 as entitled in the motion.

Third reading agreed to.

The House recessed from 1159 to 1500.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.

My question is for the Attorney General. Crime doesn’t just affect victims immediately following an incident; trauma can negatively impact them for the rest of their lives, often requiring long-term support. The effects of traumatic events can have lifelong implications as well as a possibility of negatively affecting their families and larger communities. It’s imperative that our government stand up for victims of crime, not only through promoting public safety but also by providing them with the support that they need.

There are many heroic individuals and organizations throughout Ontario that provide support to those who have been victimized. Their dedication, advocacy and leadership make a positive difference in the lives of those they are helping. Can the Attorney General please share with us how we recognize these individuals and organizations that support people who have faced victimization due to crime?

This government’s plan to build on the greenbelt is very alarming. In a letter I received from the federal Minister of Environment, Minister Guilbeault, concerning your actions on the greenbelt, he writes in part: “There are portions of Ontario’s greenbelt that contain critical habitat for species listed under the federal Species at Risk Act. Environment and Climate Change Canada officials have reached out the government of Ontario officials to ensure that the provincial and federal laws designed to support the identification, protection and mitigation of harm to species at risk and their habitats of concern are respected in the provincial approach to housing.”

So, my question is very simple, and I ask it on behalf of so many Ontarians who are very concerned with your government’s approach to housing: What steps are you actually taking to protect species at risk as you rush to pave over wetlands, agricultural lands and the greenbelt?

With so much at stake, why are you risking federal intervention and why are you further endangering our already vulnerable species, biodiversity and our green spaces in this province?

Again, I’d like to thank the member for the follow-up question. I think building on our investments combats racism and hate. The new $25.5-million Anti-Hate Security and Prevention Grant will help create stronger, safer and more inclusive communities, Mr. Speaker. We have expanded eligibility, after much consultation, to include more groups and organizations, because everyone deserves to feel safe in the environment to practise their faith and express their cultures and beliefs. This investment will make a difference in helping thousands of more organizations across the province better protect their facilities from hate-motivated incidents, vandalism and other acts of intolerance. This includes religious organizations such as churches, mosques, synagogues as well as cultural organizations that serve Black, Indigenous, Asian and 2SLGBTQI+ communities, who are all eligible. They can benefit from these funds, how they would like to invest it most—that will have the most—

The bill proclaims the first full week in November each year as Skilled Trades Week.

I proudly co-sponsor this bill, as well, with my colleague from Scarborough.

MPP West moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 118, An Act to proclaim Injured Workers Day / Projet de loi 118, Loi proclamant la Journée des travailleurs blessés.

It appears, Speaker, just like there is in the federal House, there’s a bit of Liberal-NDP alliance here in question period this morning provincially.

We’ve been crystal clear. We took a plan to the people last June under the leadership of Premier Ford that our government would build upon our success with our housing supply action plans and not only have a housing supply action plan each and every year under a re-elected government, under Premier Ford’s leadership, but that we would build 1.5 million homes by 2031.

Every measure we’ve put forward, whether it was More Homes, More Choice in 2019; More Homes for Everyone; More Homes Built Faster, and now we have the Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act, New Democrats have not supported it.

We’ve said many times we want to work with the federal government. We’ve got a great relationship with Minister Hussen, the housing minister. I don’t have a relationship with Mr. Guilbeault, so I can’t speak to that. But we want to move forward, and I know at our upcoming provincial-territorial meeting, we’ll have more to say about how the federal government can support our government.

Earlier today we had a young class group up there. This is what motivates our government, to ensure that those young people who want an opportunity to have housing close to where they grow up or that senior who decides that, at their stage of life, they want to downsize but there’s nothing that’s available in their price range where they’ve grown up and where they’ve raised their family—these are the people that our government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, are standing up for. These are the people for whom we’re going to ensure that by 2031 we’re going to hit our housing targets. We’re going to ensure that we have a plan in place that we build upon.

For the last two years, we’ve had 30-year highs in terms of housing starts. We’ve had an all-time high when it comes to rental starts. The one consistent measure is NDP opposition to—

Dairy Farmers of Ontario are hosting their advocacy day today in Queen’s Park and, on behalf of them, I would like to remind everyone to please join them after 4:30 this evening in the legislative dining room.

Good afternoon. I am very pleased today to be joined by representatives from schools in my riding, parent councils and students in the members’ gallery. They’re coming here from schools: Dovercourt Public School, Jean Lumb, Rawlinson Community School, Pauline, Clinton, Regal Road and other parent councils. I’m presenting this petition on their behalf. It reads as follows:

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas it has been widely acknowledged that the learning, mental health, safety and well-being needs of Ontario children, including the provision of a ‘normal, stable, enjoyable school year’ are a priority of the Ontario government;

“Whereas we are parents, guardians, education staff and community members concerned about the learning and well-being supports children in Ontario schools are receiving;

“Whereas we continue to experience negative repercussions related to and stemming from the ongoing global pandemic;

“Whereas Toronto, along with Peel region, was most frequently the epicentre of the COVID pandemic (prevalence of the disease on a per-capita basis) in Canada from March 2020 through the Spring of 2022 and, as a such, the TDSB worked closely with Toronto Public Health to make modifications to practice in order to keep staff and students as safe as possible;

“Whereas these modifications were associated with significant financial costs to the TDSB and likely to school boards across Ontario;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“—that the Ontario government” is “to reimburse school boards for the COVID-related expenses they paid out of pocket; and

“—that the Ontario government continue to provide pandemic funding for the 2023-24 school year, which will prevent the elimination of hundreds of staff positions within Ontario schools.”

Speaker, this has been signed by 1,211 Ontarians. I am very proud to affix my signature. I’ll pass it along to page Aananya to table with the Clerks.

I want to thank my friend and colleague from Brampton North for his support of victims and victim services organizations from around Ontario. We recently had an event and we had colleagues from all parties there to celebrate the individuals and the groups that are supporting victims of crime. People have their own personal experiences, and sometimes that motivates them to increase awareness.

I want to focus on just one today that happens to be in the gallery. I introduced them earlier: the Seasons Centre for Grieving Children. For over 25 years, with no government funding, they have provided services for children between the ages of 5 and 24 who have experienced a death of a parent or a sibling. It’s exactly those types of people and those types of organizations that deserve the victims awards they’ve been bestowed with.

The bill would proclaim June 1 as Injured Workers Day. Most of my colleagues, I think, are already aware that June 1 is Injured Workers Day—recognized across the province in multiple cities, and has been, and tomorrow will be the 40th anniversary. Unfortunately, we haven’t officially recognized it in the Legislature, so I want to thank the members of ONIWG and injured workers groups for bringing that to my attention so we can officially recognize it and give it the credit that it’s due.

Mr. Glover moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 119, An Act to Proclaim the Provincial Day Against Gun Violence in Ontario / Projet de loi 119, Loi proclamant la Journée provinciale contre la violence armée en Ontario.