I’d like to welcome my EA from MCU, Navita Sukhdeo, who is here today in the members’ gallery with her daughter, Eliyanna Ali, and also my EA from my constit office, Caroline Raskin, who is here today with her husband, Steve Raskin.

I would like to welcome two amazing ladies from my constituency office, Barbara Greene and Yesenia Morillo. I’d also like to wish a very happy birthday to Yesenia’s daughter Mia, who is watching from home today and graduating from school. All the best.

I noticed in the gallery one of my interns, Adshayah, is here. Also, Spencer Fair from my office—he says it’s his mom, but I think it’s his sister: Valerie Fair is with us as well.

I’d like to introduce L’Arche Daybreak to Queen’s Park today: executive director Trish Glennon; regional director Jeff Gilbreath; and core members and my very dear friends, Amanda Winnington-lngram, Kim Lageer, Darryl Dickson. Welcome to Queen’s Park. Thanks very much for being here.

I have my amazing team visiting from the MTO. We’ve got Michael Thomas, Greg MacNeil, Nicholas Tibollo, Matthew McIntosh, Barbara Stevenson, Ashley Seo, Tony Manful and, although he’s not in the Legislature, David Lu. And from my constituency office, we’ve got Vanessa Clarke, Rosanna Ma and Jess Lee. Welcome to the Legislature.

First of all, to Jack Sullivan, who is moving on, I say thank you very much. It’s been an amazing journey.

Secondly, I’d like to welcome to the House the OMAFRA interns: William Hollis as well as Faiq Farooq.

I believe my nephew, Jack McMillan, is in the House somewhere as well.

It’s a true honour to rise today to pay tribute to Ontario’s eighth legislative Clerk-in-chief, Todd Decker, for his service to the members of the Ontario Legislative Assembly and the people of Ontario, and for the leadership, Todd, you have provided for everybody who works in this building.

Prior to being appointed Clerk-in-chief in 2016, Todd served in this building for 32 years, totalling 39 years of service to the people of Ontario. He has earned our trust and our respect with his wisdom, his integrity, his non-partisan guidance and his famous poker face.

Todd has had to navigate this Legislature through extraordinary times during much of his tenure, not only during the pandemic emergency, where he played an essential role in ensuring the functioning of the parliamentary democracy in this province and the business here in the House, but also in managing an unprecedented number of independent members of the Legislature.

My election as Ontario’s first Green MPP in 2018 resulted in the first time that there was a fourth party elected to this Legislature since 1951 and, with the results that the Liberals experienced in that election, the most independent members in the Legislature since the 1940s. Let’s just say the standing orders were not written for such an unprecedented number of independent MPPs. I’ll admit that I spent much of the summer of 2018 in Todd’s office, not only learning how this place works, but also working with him to ensure the rights and privileges of independent members in this House.

Todd, I’ll be forever grateful for the wisdom, guidance and time that you took, and the patience you had to work with a team of newbies who had no idea how this place worked, and to work with us to ensure that we had the opportunity to have full participatory rights in this House. That legacy will endure. Todd, our democracy is stronger because of your service, and the people of Ontario and all members of this Legislature owe you a debt of gratitude—

Applause.

I’m pleased to recognize the government House leader.

I’m pleased to recognize the member for Timiskaming–Cochrane.

Speaker, it’s an incredible honour for me to be able to stand today, on behalf of the official opposition, and I believe on behalf of all people in the Legislature, to pay tribute to Mr. Todd Decker, the eighth Clerk to sit in that chair.

I have a little bit of history: When he finished university, he was hired as a committee Clerk, and he started as a co-op student here.

I’ve got to say that sitting here in the last while and serving on some committees with Todd, there’s no one more deserving of the accolades he’s getting today and no one more uncomfortable with them. I can guarantee you that.

Some of us might remember a cartoon in the Bugs Bunny series—this has a point—where the sheepdog and the wolf would clock in and beat each other up all day and then go home, right? And that’s what we do. And the only thing missing in that cartoon is where the sheepdog and the wolf go up to this table and ask what the rules are. The person at the table watches it go on and his face never changes. Todd fits that to a T.

In his career, and certainly in the 12 years that I’ve been here, for everyone here, despite our political differences, who was the one person we trusted to give us the square deal on how we could do it or what we couldn’t do? Who was the head of the ship? Mr. Todd Decker.

It’s incredible to be elected here. One of the things that we all share as elected representatives is we all like to be heard. We have egos. We like to talk. There are only a few people here who actually have a lot of control, maybe ultimate control of this place, and don’t have an ego. Their true role is to make sure that our democratic process runs as it should. Todd Decker is the ultimate example of that—the ultimate, ultimate example of that.

I have also had the incredible honour of sitting here on a few Thursday afternoons. You know what? This place isn’t always exciting. It can be, and it might be incredibly exciting in a few minutes, but it isn’t always exciting. And it’s always amazed me that all at the Clerks’ table, but particularly Todd, can listen and his face just stays as—he never shows a side but he never shows that he’s disinterested. But I’ve got to admit, there have been a couple times where Todd and I have both been fighting to keep our eyes open. Now, he did a much better job of it than I did because once I opened my eyes and he was looking right at me.

I don’t know if I share this with everyone: I don’t come from a political background. When I was first elected, I was as far over there as you could get—and there’s no bad seat in this House. I want to make everyone aware: There’s no such thing as a bad seat in this House. And I actually wondered—I didn’t know anything about how parliamentary democracy worked—what these people were doing and what happened behind the dais. I didn’t have the knowledge or the respect, but now I do.

I’d like anyone listening to this—the people here at the Clerks’ table, behind the dais, on the dais, they’re what make our Parliament work, our democracy work. And once again, there is no better representative of that in this country than Mr. Todd Decker. On our behalf, thank you very much, sir.

Speaker, if you seek it, you’ll find unanimous consent to allow members to make statements in tribute to the outstanding service of Mr. Todd Decker, the eighth Clerk of the Legislative Assembly, with five minutes allotted today to His Majesty’s loyal opposition, five members allotted to the independent members as a group and five minutes allotted to His Majesty’s government.

Speech, speech.

Thank you very much.

I recognize the government House leader and Minister of Legislative Affairs.

It is truly an honour to be able to rise on behalf of our caucus to pay tribute to Todd and the extraordinary work that he has done. I think the opposition House leader is quite correct that he is probably the most uncomfortable person in the chamber today. My office mentioned to me earlier in the week that Todd was fabricating a sickness so that he could not be here today. I had actually reached out to the Minister of Natural Resources to ask for one of those tracking devices so that we could find him, and we’ll probably have to leave it on him for a couple of years so that we can find him and call him back in.

It’s funny; I was a staff member here in the 1990s, and in 2003, when the people retired that particular government, I was a young guy. When I came back in 2018, I came back to this place old, fat and grey, and Todd looked exactly the same. So immediately, we started off on the wrong foot, because he was looking so good and I thought, “What the heck? What happened?”

He has been an extraordinary public servant. It is truly hard to explain in five minutes—and I know we all feel the same way—just how important the job of the Clerk is. But what an incredible job he has done. All members should know and will know how forceful and fierce he is about this place: the pride that he has in this place, the pride that he has in all of the members and the extent to which he goes to not only protect the institution and the people who work for him, but us as members. It is truly unbelievable.

I’m told that when he signed the Bible that the Clerks sign, he signed it as the ninth Clerk, out of respect for somebody who took the job on an interim basis. That’s really just the type of person that he is.

Now, I know that certainly since I’ve been House leader, that spirit of co-operation has been so good that the job has been just so much easier for him, because we get along so much better, and I know that he is grateful for that. But colleagues, I do want to really zone in—and the leader of the Green Party talked about it—on what Parliament decided during COVID, that we would continue on as a Parliament and that we had to do the work of the opposition holding us accountable and the government moving forward. When that request was made—and, colleagues, this was literally the only Parliament in North America that decided not to stand down, all of us. That was Todd and his team, and it was remarkable. People from all over North America were asking, “How the heck did you guys continue to do this, on both sides?” Everybody—their work, his work, his leadership are what made it possible for us to continue on doing the job. So we can talk about the hours spent in debating how we got it done, but literally it got done because of Todd and his team.

It is also the work—one of the hardest jobs, I think, of a Clerk is when they look at who the next person will be and they get to decide who the Deputy Clerk is going to be, and Todd started right from the beginning looking at where he would be, when he would bring his time to an end as our Clerk, who would be the person that he could prepare to take on that job. That is probably one of the most difficult decisions a Clerk would have to make, and he did it right from the beginning. I really can’t thank him enough for just the extraordinary work that he has done.

Yesterday was another extraordinary day, probably one of the first times in Commonwealth history that four Clerks were seated around one table, one learning from the other.

As we started to talk about the process, all of us, all of the members, on what we would do with this building, how we would fix it and renovate it to make sure that it was respectful and really pay tribute—it was Todd who helped us design what it is, how we could ensure that members were protected in that process. Everything that we brought forward and everything that Parliament voted on unanimously was because of the extraordinary work and advice of the Clerk. Knowing full well that he would not be here in the chair when the time came, he never relented at any given point. He was fierce in defending us, fierce in defending this Legislature and all of the members in it.

What he doesn’t know—I know, because I truly fear that he’s just going to run out and be gone, because he just really, truly hates accolades. You could never be a politician, because we—not me. But we know how much John loves to get accolades, right? It’s just a quiet, reserved respect for the chair, so much so that I was literally terrified to even ask him a question for the first year that I took over as House leader. So I was always with Trevor, and one of my staff said to me, “Why don’t you ever ask Todd a question?” I said, “I’m afraid of him,” not because he gave me any reason to be afraid, but he was literally able to not—you say you don’t show emotion. It is hard, because there are some things sometimes, once in a while, that make you want to have facial expressions, and he has not done that.

Just the last thing, as I close: When we get elected, we all fight to get in a picture with the Clerk. It’s the one thing that will be on our walls—all of us, forever—and it’s the one thing that we will brag about and we will talk about. It is not only the person; it is also the office, and that is one thing that, Todd, you have done very, very well. You have always upheld the dignity of the office in a way that we are all grateful for. So congratulations, and thank you for everything that you’ve done on all of our behalf.

Applause.

Yes, go ahead. I’ll finish there.

Applause.

Is anyone going to request unanimous consent?

We have with us in the Speaker’s Gallery some very special guests: Todd Decker’s wife, Zina; his daughter, Natalie, and son-in-law, Andrew; and Clerk’s office staff past and present, Grace, Lucie, Nadège, Gabriela, Peter, Julia and Meghan. We’re delighted to have you here as well.

I want to thank the members for those eloquent tributes, and on behalf of the office of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, I thank you, Mr. Decker. It seems strange to be addressing the back of your head. Thank you for your devoted service to the people of Ontario and their Legislative Assembly. Farewell, dear and faithful friend.

Applause.

I have personally appreciated Mike’s steady hand over the last half a year and the leadership he’s provided to the Sergeant-at-Arms and precinct properties division of the Legislative Assembly.

As of June 19, Mike will reassume his role as director of the Legislative Protective Service, which he has been instrumental in building up over the past several years. I know his advice, support and the depth of experience that he has will be essential to our new incoming Sergeant-at-Arms and to the ongoing success of the Legislative Protective Service.

I want to ask all members to join me in thanking Mike Civil for his dedicated service to the assembly.

Applause.

Speaker, it looks as though this will be the last question period for a while, and so I’d like to do a bit of a review of this government’s priorities.

This government has really delivered, if you’re a wealthy developer with insider connections. We saw this government prioritize carving up protected greenbelt lands for the benefit of deep-pocketed friends of the Premier and his party, lands that help Ontario mitigate the effects of climate change, lands of ecological significance and crucial farmland.

Speaker, to the Premier: Will he prioritize our environment and stop carving up the greenbelt for his insider friends?

The NDP proposed a solution to turn the lights back on in the public operating rooms that we already have and get Ontarians the surgeries they’ve been waiting for. The Conservatives voted no.

Speaker, back to the Premier: Will he finally prioritize patients over insiders and make health care public once again?

Speaker, investing in health care or education or housing—instead of doing those things, the government is prioritizing giving $650 million to an Austrian corporate conglomerate to build a luxury spa on top of a public park. While small-town emergency rooms are being shuttered, the company behind this elite luxury spa is being given hundreds of millions of dollars and a 95-year lease.

Speaker, back to the Premier: Will he cancel his $650-million private spa and instead invest that money in communities that desperately need it?

Interjections.

Interjections.

Before I respond to the opposition: John, the wolf was Ralph and the sheepdog was Sam. I just figured you’re Ralph; I’m Sam. I’m protecting the herd, and you keep trying to go after the herd.

And to the Clerk, there are many attributes, but one of the most important things is that you’re an Etobicoke boy, so thank you.

I think I ran half my time out, but—the supplementary question.

Mr. Speaker, let’s look at our accomplishments just over the last year, just since January: We reached a record-low unemployment, the lowest since 1989. That’s 34-year record unemployment. We landed a historic Volkswagen deal to build the largest manufacturing plant in the history of Canada. We—I’ll go to supplementary.

Mr. Speaker, we expanded GO service to Niagara, bringing the total to 21 round trips per week.

Talking about health care, there’s no government in the entire country that has invested more in health care than we have: $81 billion. We’re building 50 new sites or upgrading 50 new sites to a tune of $50 billion. We had more nurses registered last year than in the history of this country, 12,000 of them—12,000. We added 3,100 beds. We’re going to be adding another 3,000 beds—more than, again, any time in the history of this province. We’re investing in our doctors and new doctors coming online with two medical schools—

Interjection: Tell us more, Premier.

As the Liberals and NDP chase these companies out of the country, out of the province, we’re attracting companies from all over the world to invest right here in Ontario, the best place to live, work and raise a family.

Thank you for the question. Actually, the facts are we’re building the largest transit project in North America—$30 billion with four new lines, getting people out of their cars into transit. There’s nowhere in North America that’s doing four subway lines. But thank you for that question.

In housing, we have a housing crisis. Last year, there were 27,427 housing starts in this province. That’s up 16% from the previous record year. Purpose-built rental starts across the province are up 143%—more than double than last year. Housing starts in Toronto are up 178% from last year. Housing starts in Brampton are up 65% from last year. Multi-unit construction in Ontario has increased 7.6% since February—the largest increase in the country. We saw a 25% increase in condo permits—also the largest in the country.

Mr. Speaker, let’s talk about education. This year, education spending is at an all-time high of $34.7 billion. Education—

Mr. Speaker, let’s go back to transit for just one second before I get to education. Over $70 billion is being spent on transit, $23 billion on roads, building the 413 and the Bradford Bypass, widening Highway 3 down to our great friends in Windsor. Let me tell you about Windsor. They’ve never seen more love from any government than they’ve seen from us, no matter if it’s a new hospital, Stellantis, job creation, Highway 3, schools—they’ve seen the love, and I felt it when I went down there.

Let’s just go back to education. As I said, education spending is at an all-time high of $34.7 billion. Education funding has seen a 27% increase since 2018. While the Liberals closed—remember those days, Mr. Speaker? They closed 600 schools. We’re investing $15 billion to build new schools and child care spaces, including an additional $600 million in this year’s budget. We’ve invested $30 million more to double the math coaches across Ontario—

My Minister of Economic Development sends me a list every single night of companies coming in from all over the world.

And when people are out at work, do you know what they need? They need child care. They need child care that we partnered up with the federal government for to a tune of $4.69 billion, 28% over last year alone, Mr. Speaker.

Then, when it comes to long-term care, we know that the Liberals and NDP built—what, 617 beds over 15 years? We’re building, through our great Minister of Long-Term Care, over 60,000 new homes for long-term care, 30,000 new ones and 28,000 renovated ones.

Mr. Speaker, I have an opportunity to speak to governors and ambassadors all over the world. They’re saying, “What are you doing in Ontario? You’re on fire. You’re leading the world.” We’re—

Interjections.

Speaker, thank you. It’s a government with the wrong priorities; it’s a government that’s become far too comfortable on the government gravy train.

Ontarians across the province are writing, they’re calling, they’re rallying because they see a government that’s out of touch. So I’d like to ask the Premier some more questions about his priorities, because after five years of this government’s transit policies, the Eglinton Crosstown project is completely off the rails, years behind schedule, way over budget—not so unlike the Ottawa LRT fiasco—all while people are waiting and businesses are shutting down.

Speaker, to the Premier: Will he prioritize getting the Eglinton Crosstown back on track so Ontarians aren’t left waiting any longer?

I want to talk again about the government’s priorities—

Interjections.

Speaker, the Conservatives like to say that they’ve prioritized workers, but when push comes to shove, they let workers down every time. Exhibit A: They took away the three measly paid sick days that people fought for at the start of the pandemic. Exhibit B: They took away the constitutional rights of education workers. Exhibit C: The Conservative members from Windsor won’t lift a finger to help the striking workers at the Windsor Salt mine, out of work now for 111 days, where the company is bringing in scab labour. The list goes on and on, Speaker.

Back to the Premier: Will he prioritize workers and pass the NDP’s anti-scab legislation?

Interjections.

To wrap up: This is the state of Ontario now after five long years under this government’s watch. We’ve got a non-existent climate plan while communities are dealing with the most severe forest fire season we’ve ever experienced. We have emergency rooms closing while this government takes health care workers to court, a broken transit system held hostage by private contractors, and it’s harder than ever before to afford a safe place to live.

Ontario is a place that we are all proud to call home, but this Premier’s wrong priorities are hurting people now and, yes, they are threatening the economic prosperity and future of this province.

Speaker, back to the Premier: When will he change course? Will he change course today?

Interjections.