This past Friday, MPP Jordan, the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Long-Term Care, and I announced $170,466 for the Village of Taunton Mills in Whitby, to help residents with complex medical needs like dementia and bariatric care connect to specialized care and supports in their long-term-care home instead of a hospital.

Speaker, this is part of a $20-million investment this year in 189 projects province-wide through a new local priorities fund. Under the leadership of the Honourable Paul Calandra, the Minister of Long-Term Care, we’re taking action to bolster our province’s long-term-care system and put residents’ needs first.

This work is built on four pillars: staffing and care; quality and enforcement; building modern, safe and comfortable homes; and providing seniors with faster, more convenient access to the services they need. Speaker, the government is fixing long-term care to ensure Ontario’s seniors get the quality of care and quality of life they need and deserve, both now and in the future.

The Norwich Chamber of Commerce recently handed out their annual Awards of Excellence. These awards honour outstanding individuals and businesses and recognize their contributions to the community. I congratulate this year’s winners:

—Schuurman Farms and Hoogenboom Family Farm, winners of the farm family award, are from Holland, and the Schuurmans and Hoogenbooms have created two successful farm businesses;

—Norma’s Coffee Bar, recipient of the small business of the year award, a place where every customer feels like family;

—Gunn’s Hill Artisan Cheese, winner of the large business of the year award—I recommend everyone try their delicious cheese;

—Max Van den Borre, who won the agricultural bursary award for his insightful essay on the Ukraine war’s impact on Canadian agriculture;

—Kendra Hussey, whose essay on fostering youth engagement in employment earned her the essay contest scholarship;

—Jazlyn Armstrong, a dedicated young leader who won the youth citizenship award;

—Randy Nobbs, a long-serving community leader and winner of the citizen of the year award for his contributions to minor hockey and baseball; and

—Karen McSpadden, another wonderful volunteer, received the Judy Cayley memorial award for her service to the people of Oxford and her involvement with the Norwich United Church.

Mr. Speaker, these winners embody Oxford’s values of hard work, innovation, dedication and community service. Congratulations to one and all.

I am absolutely thrilled to congratulate the community of West Lorne on being crowned Kraft Hockeyville 2023. It was so exciting for me to participate in the enthusiasm generated throughout this Canadian community challenge. West Lorne will now have the opportunity to host a pre-game NHL game and will receive $250,000 for much-needed renovations to their local arena.

I would like to take this opportunity to offer my sincere appreciation to Kraft Heinz for their generous support. For 17 years Kraft Hockeyville has proudly awarded a total of $4.5 million to 93 communities across our great country. Thank you, Kraft Heinz.

Speaker, the municipality of West Elgin lost their beloved mayor just a few weeks ago. I know everyone in my riding of Elgin–Middlesex–London believes Mayor Duncan McPhail is looking down with pride and admiration for West Lorne’s great achievement.

Again, well done to West Lorne. You have made Ontario proud. Go, Comets, go!

In 2013, Ontario was the first Legislature across Canada to proclaim April as Sikh Heritage Month. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the historical declaration.

Throughout this month, events will take place to honour and celebrate the rich history, culture and contributions Sikhs have made to Ontario and Canada as a whole. This year, the Sikh Heritage Month initiative has organized many events in my riding of Brampton East and across the city of Brampton, including art exhibitions, concerts and a number of workshops, including an official flag-raising at Brampton City Hall.

Speaker, this month is also significant to the Sikh community as April 14 is Vaisakhi, a spring festival which marks the beginning of the harvest season in Punjab and the day the order of the Khalsa was created. Vaisakhi is celebrated by visiting a gurdwara to pray, seek blessings and by doing “seva,” which is the act of selfless service. It is also celebrated through the organization of parades, like the annual Khalsa Day Parade from Exhibition Place to Toronto city hall. Thousands of community members from diverse backgrounds join and participate in the day’s activities.

Speaker, I would like to take this moment to sincerely wish every Ontarian celebrating a very happy Vaisakhi and a very happy Sikh Heritage Month.

Remarks in Punjabi.

I rise today to talk about the housing crisis and my riding of Don Valley West. The average rent in Toronto for a one-bedroom has reached $2,500. In the recently tabled budget, the government projects lower housing starts than they projected last year, and at this rate, they will miss their 10-year housing goals by at least 50%. Yet still, the government insists they have a plan. So far, their plan seems to be only about tall and sprawl, neither of which is sustainable.

In my riding of Don Valley West, we are still feeling the impacts of their irresponsible decision to waste taxpayer money and override city council’s Midtown in Focus plan. Now, they are allowing 35-storey-plus towers of mostly one-bedroom condos at a handful of choke points like Bayview and Broadway—not because it’s good for our community; in fact, the city and residents say exactly the opposite.

Our neighbourhood is losing a valued medical building, along with its family doctors, to a 32-storey development, which will leave thousands more without a family doctor. Speaker, we need housing, but we also need a plan for our communities, where families and retired seniors can live too; a plan to ensure schools which are not overcrowded, parks and hospitals, that have made Don Valley West a great place to live.

Speaker, I would respectfully ask the government to let cities be planned by our planners, to allow sustainable mid-rise density in our neighbourhoods, along with a plan for new schools, parks, community centres to keep Don Valley West the great place it is to live.

That concludes our members’ statements for this morning.

It’s with great pleasure I introduce Curtis Jordan to the House. Curtis is a trustee with the Upper Canada school board and, if I’m not mistaken, one of the first autistic individuals elected to any office in eastern Ontario. It’s great to have you in your House, sir.

Pour la première fois depuis que je suis élue, on a une page qui vient de ma circonscription d’Ottawa–Vanier, Mia Tocchi, et aujourd’hui, sa grand-mère et son père sont avec nous ici à l’Assemblée. Alors, bienvenue à Monika Tocchi et Silvano Tocchi. On se voit plus tard.

I’m really excited to welcome to the House today Megan Parry, Jason Kuzminski, Ben Kuzminski-Parry and Jude Kuzminski-Parry.

Jason worked at Queen’s Park for a number of years under our leader, Tim Hudak. They started as a family here in Toronto. They’re back to visit the city and friends, and they’re actually enjoying the hospitality of their host, Martin Regg Cohn.

I would like to introduce to everyone my beautiful and long-suffering wife Joni; her mother, my mother-in-law, Lena Bruining; her husband, Ben; and good friends, one of my heroes, Bill Janssen; his wife, Chris; and her sister, Mary Groeneweg.

I’d like to thank my daughter Ella and her choir mates for singing O Canada and God Save the King under the guidance of their director, Herman den Hollander.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome to the House today Peter Smith from the Durham region, a wonderful small businessman and a great community volunteer. Peter Smith, welcome to the House.

I would like to introduce my long-time constituency assistant from the riding of Nipissing, Keri Buttle. When she’s not in the office, Speaker, she has the pointiest elbows on the roller derby circuit. As well, she is a musher of her own dogsled team. Welcome, Keri.

My constituent, Morgan Kitching, is making his way through. He will sit beside trustee Curtis Jordan. Welcome to Queen’s Park, as soon as you get here.

On behalf of my seatmate, who forgot one of his friends here today, I would like to introduce Kelley Vandyk.

I want to be very clear that that migrant worker, that international student who is here to be part of our school system are all—and continue to be—covered through their health system, through Ontario’s publicly funded health system. There is no change in the way that uninsured persons will receive care in the province of Ontario.

The change that occurred was as a result of a program that we put in place when travellers could not return home. We have removed that change because we have a system in the province of Ontario where individuals are covered for OHIP-funded services, and we have a number of pathways for individuals to get funding through their health care system even without an OHIP card, of course.

I’ll share more in the supplementary.

There are 75 community health care centres operating in the province of Ontario that have a funding model that allows them to serve and assist individuals without a health care card. We have funding programs in place with midwives that ensures individuals who need assistance through the midwives program are able to do that, with or without an OHIP card.

There is no doubt that we want to protect the most vulnerable, but we also have to ensure that we have parameters in place to make sure unintended consequences don’t occur and we end up, in Ontario, being the health care for everyone else who chooses to come here to access this system.

We are returning to a program where there is no change in uninsured persons receiving care in the province of Ontario.

And in terms of the member’s question about expanding, I hope that as we continue to debate and vote on Bill 60, they will look at the expansions that are embedded in that legislation and vote to support expansions that are occurring and will be occurring because of the investments that our government is making in health to ensure that people get access to service in their communities.

I will ask for the House’s attention. I rise to inform the House of a change in the allocations for independent members’ participation in House proceedings, as we now have 12 members sitting as independents.

During question period, I will recognize an additional independent member to ask a question during each eight-day rotation. This means that one independent member will be recognized to ask a question each day, and a second independent member will be recognized to ask a question every Tuesday and Wednesday, with each of these questions followed by a supplementary. With respect to members’ statements, I will continue to recognize one independent member per day, and each independent member will be eligible to make a statement once every 12 days.

I thank the House for its attention.

Again, the Minister of Health to respond.

Good morning, Speaker. I would like my colleagues here to imagine themselves as a migrant worker, a refugee who fled persecution or a newcomer who came to Ontario with dreams of a good life. Now imagine you had an urgent health issue for which you needed treatment. On Friday, you’d be able to access care without having to worry about how you would pay for it. But by Saturday, that care became a lot harder to access, because this government cruelly eliminated the Physician and Hospital Services for Uninsured Persons Program.

Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Health: Will she restore this program to make sure no one risks going without receiving the care they need?

I’d like my colleagues to imagine that you are actually working at a community health centre. An uninsured client has come in. Their needs are beyond what you are able to provide. On Friday, you would have been able to connect them to the help they need so they can focus on getting better. But by Saturday, your client has to make a decision between paying their rent that month or getting better.

It’s never too late to do the right thing, Speaker. Back to the Minister of Health: Will she reverse her decision so no one is forced to make such an impossible choice?

As it happens, I spent time with Niagara community health centre workers last week, and the reality is that these programs the minister keeps mentioning are woefully inadequate. I met with one CHC worker from Niagara on Friday. Her CHC has a budget of a little over $1,000 to help uninsured clients—just $1,000. She told me that that doesn’t go very far—one year, just two clients. There are 500,000 uninsured people in this province.

Back to the Minister of Health: If she won’t restore the program, will she immediately boost investments in CHCs to make sure no one goes without the health care they need?

Interjections.

Speaker, to the Minister of Health: Will the government commit to making virtual ER funding permanent?

This government likes to talk about health care innovations—well, let’s talk about innovation. Virtual ERs were a pandemic-era innovation to reduce pressure on hospitals and keep health care public. They connected Ontarians to the care they needed and helped ease hospital overloading. But this government’s last-minute, eleventh-hour decision to extend it by just three months has effectively cancelled the program.

Back to the Minister of Health: Why is this government saying no to these public health care innovations?

My question is to the Premier. Ontario is facing a mental health crisis. Across the province, people are crying out for help. Mental health organizations are unable to keep up with rising inflation costs, staffing shortages and increased demands for services. All Ontarians should have access to high-quality easily accessible connected supports when and where they need it.

Speaker, why won’t the Premier properly address the mental health crisis in Ontario?

The final supplementary.

Thank you. Restart the clock.