Good morning. It gives me great pleasure to welcome to this House members of the Amalgamated Transit Union, including John Di Nino, president of ATU Canada; Marvin Alfred, president of ATU Local 113; Crystal Cadeau, Frank Malta, Renee Coutinho, Eric Tuck, Chuck Fitzpatrick, Hariqbal Bal, Jacques Racine, Jay Khawaja, Jack Jackson, Jamie Larkin, Andrew Salabie and Amandeep Gill. Welcome to your House.

Speaker, to the Premier: Will he join the minister and admit the Conservatives’ plan is failing?

Yet again, this government is focused more on themselves and their friends than on real Ontarians, because if they would listen to real Ontarians, they would realize that they have to do a whole lot better than this. People can’t afford places to live, Speaker. And what is this government telling them? They won’t fix their failing housing plan; they would rather build luxury homes on the greenbelt; and that their insider friends are more important.

Speaker, back to the Premier: Will you at least bring back real rent control to get Ontarians some relief?

Back to the Premier: How is this going to help somebody who can’t afford their rent this month?

Speaker, back to the Premier: Managing public funds and ensuring that every single dollar is invested in the services and programs that people need is a core responsibility of any government. But this week we finally saw the end of the saga of a senior bureaucrat who was siphoning off millions of dollars in public funds, including funds marked for pandemic support. To the Premier: How did this government fail to notice $47.4 million going out the door?

In reviewing what went wrong in this case, were these hastily created funds identified as a risk of fraud?

The judge in this case called what happened a “fraud perpetrated ... on everyone ... who lives in this province.” While the perpetrator is headed to prison, there are very important questions that remain unanswered here.

We know the government has increased the amount that they stash away in contingency funds by fivefold since they took office. They’re shuffling billions away from public scrutiny. What assurances do Ontarians have that we won’t end up seeing more lost public funds as a result of this?