It’s ALS Awareness Month. Today in the House we have Ilayda Ulgenalp and CEO Tammy Moore. Welcome to the House.

I’d also like to extend a welcome to the OPSBA president, Stephanie Donaldson, who was the former trustee for the beautiful riding of Spadina–Fort York.

I’d like to welcome Dr. Arun Seth and Honourable Dr. Asha Seth to Queen’s Park. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Good morning, Speaker. This question is for the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Earlier today, the NDP released a document obtained from freedom-of-information requests showing that officials at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing were discussing the removal of specific greenbelt lands prior to the last election.

Will the minister tell us which officials were discussing these greenbelt removals and was he one of them?

Well, Speaker, there wasn’t much detail there, but I believe that I am familiar with what the opposition is referring to. My understanding is that the third party in question was the city of Hamilton and that the record should be released in due course.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The June 1 is Global Coptic Day. I would like to wish all the Coptics around world a happy Coptic day.

I do, Speaker. If you seek it, you will find unanimous consent to move a motion without notice concerning the appointment of the next Clerk of the Legislative Assembly.

As we all know, June is ALS Awareness Month. I am also pleased to join and welcome members from the ALS Society of Canada here at Queen’s Park. Welcome.

I’m honoured to introduce one of the hardest-working volunteers from my campaign, Reese Nemeth, to the House, as well as some of his colleagues: Christian von Donat, Jayme Wilson, Charlotte Reed, Sara Clark, Noah Mondrow and Holly Yoon. Welcome to the Legislature.

This morning, I have two groups that I’d like to introduce. First are the members of the Canada India Foundation, who are here today for the celebration of International Yoga Day being held in room 228 at 2 p.m.: Dr. Harish Verma, Dr. Pawan Chankotra and Mr. Satish Thakkar, the chair of the foundation.

The second group, Mr. Speaker, are members of my family, my friends and my constituency staff who are here for the beginning of Italian Heritage Month: Tanya Crimp, Rosarina Bonazza, Chelsea Jones-Duval, Dominic Sciullo, Adele Delia, Marcos Zottas, Miguel Tulloch, McCair Tulloch and, of course, my higher authority when I’m not in the House, my wife, Silvana Tibollo.

If you seek it, you will find unanimous consent to allow members to wear pins in recognition of June being Italian Heritage Month.

I’d just like to welcome Daniela Graziano from Vaughan, Ontario. She’s one of the nurses who works in far northern Ontario. Meegwetch for coming.

I’m so pleased to welcome the constituency staff from the best constituency in Ontario, Bay of Quinte, here to the Legislature today: Ian Chapelle is here; Adam Bramburger; we have Susan Smith—no relation—and Jennifer Kyte. Jennifer has worked for me for all 12 years that I’ve been here at the Legislature, and it’s her first time attending question period live. Welcome to the great crew from Bay of Quinte.

I would like to welcome two of the interns from the Ministry of Colleges and Universities to Queen’s Park today: Katherine Chouinard and Ryan Ross. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

The final supplementary?

Restart the clock. The next question.

I’m going to go to the Premier with this one. It now clear that government officials in the Premier’s office and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs knew specific details about the greenbelt removal plans much earlier than the Premier and the minister have claimed.

There is also evidence that certain landowners were tipped off about the greenbelt plans long before the general public learned about them. The NDP and journalists have filed more freedom-of-information requests for documents that might shine more of a light on who knew what about the greenbelt plans and when they knew it. We know these documents exist but the Premier and the minister are keeping them secret.

Why are these documents being kept from the public, and will the Premier release them now?

This next question is to the Premier. The dissolution of Peel is an unprecedented change that will affect the daily lives of millions of people. It’s going to be complicated and it could get very messy. If this is going to work, then the people of Peel need to be at the centre of the process. They need to be consulted. They need to be heard. So why won’t the Premier consult the public and conduct committee hearings to ensure that Bill 112 will deliver the best possible outcome for Peel residents?

People in Mississauga, in Brampton and in Caledon have a lot of questions about what’s going to happen to them, what’s going to happen to their municipal services, what’s going to happen to their tax bills or their utility bills. These questions are to be answered, apparently, by a transition board, whose mandate—and also who’s on it—remain completely unknown right now, with no guarantee that this process will be any more transparent than the last regional governance review, the findings of which, I’ll remind everyone, remain a complete government secret, right?

Who will serve on the transition board, and will their findings be released to the public well in advance before the government makes a decision about Peel?

Mr. Speaker, through you to the Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity, who is also the member for Brampton Centre: Why did she move the motion that blocked her Brampton constituents from being heard on Bill 112?

The member opposite knows very well that these are not unique circumstances to Ontario. In fact, we see it across Canada and around the world where health human resources are being stretched, and we are making sure that we put programs and incentives in place to make sure that hospital leadership have many different programs to tap into.

But I have to say, the NDP keeps talking about the status quo. We are not satisfied with the status quo. So while since 2018 we’ve had 1,800 new physicians opening and practising in the province of Ontario—which the NDP opposite voted against. When we voted and invested in two new medical schools, the NDP chose to vote against. When we expanded the ability for community surgical centres to have that critical access to critical diagnostic and surgical pathways in their communities, the NDP voted against. You stand—

Interjections.

I’m not familiar in totality with what the Leader of the Opposition speaks of, but if I understand it correctly, the request was from the city of Hamilton, a third party, and those documents will be released very, very shortly.

If the bill passes, we’ll appoint a transition board. That transition board will work with those three mayors and those mayors are going to have to roll up their sleeves, because it’s going to be a big process to be able to transition from the region of Peel, which has been in effect for 50 years, and end on January 1, 2025, with three separate municipalities that stand on their own but that still provide those same excellent front-line services enjoyed today.

But I can tell you exactly the same thing today that I said the day the bill was presented. We need all of those mayors in Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon, some of our province’s fastest-growing municipalities, to work together with the transition board to ensure that my mandate—that those excellent front-line services that people in Peel region receive today are going to be the same services they receive on January 1, 2025.

Secret documents that the Leader of the Opposition got in a freedom-of-information request—this is just another—

Interjections.

We won an election on a promise to build more homes. We won an election on a promise to grow the economy, to bring more people to the province of Ontario. They can stand in the way all they like, but it really comes down to one thing: They want people to be dependent and reliant on the government and Progressive Conservatives want to give people the tools and the resources to succeed, and we will not stop. We will remove obstacles. We will build homes and we will continue to ensure we are the most prosperous province in the country.

Interjections.

I will say very directly to the Leader of the Opposition, the reason why we voted on the legislation was because the NDP allowed the bill to collapse at 9 o’clock, right? We had scheduled hours of debate on this, and you know what happened? The members of Peel from the Progressive Conservative caucus all talked. They all had speeches. They engaged in comments and questions. They stood up on behalf of the people of Peel who sent them here unanimously—unanimously.

Do you know what happened with the opposition? Nothing—they went home at 9 o’clock. They allowed the bill to collapse in a whimper, Mr. Speaker. Do you know why? Because they know it’s the right thing to do. And do you know what this is about for the Leader of the Opposition? More obstacles in the way of moving the province forward; obstacles in the way of building homes.

This Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing will remove those obstacles. This caucus will get it done.

Ma question est pour le premier ministre. This morning, the people of Minden have lost their emergency department. There is now a big piece of plywood where a blue H used to be. The emergency departments in Chesley, Almonte, Arnprior and many others are in precarious positions. The hospitals in Fort Erie and Port Colborne went from having a full emergency department to a 24/7 urgent care centre, and now Niagara Health has announced a 50% reduction in the hours of operation. And even with this reduction in hours, they will not be able to cover all the shifts this summer in Fort Erie or Port Colborne.

What is the Premier doing to keep emergency health services going 24/7 in all areas of our province?

Meegwetch, Speaker. Remarks in Anishininiimowin. Good morning.

My question is to the Premier. In 2017, the chair of the Ontario Human Rights Commission toured a provincial jail in Kenora and found that every inmate was struggling with mental health and addictions disorders. Speaker, I was there last week, and I can tell you that that situation is not getting any better. What I saw—it’s as if the people who are there are not human. Ontario needs to act on its promises to provide more treatment in jails, especially as the addictions crisis continues.

Speaker, what is Ontario going to do to ensure inmates in northern jails are getting the mental health and the addictions they need help with?

The lack of resources inside provincial jails is simply a reflection of society—out of sight, out of mind. The answer is not building more correctional facilities. If we had proper addiction and mental health treatment for our communities, there wouldn’t be nearly as many people in jails in the first place.

What is this government doing to ensure that that the addictions crisis doesn’t continue filling Ontario jails, especially in the north, for our young people?

Interjections.