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.

It’s my pleasure to rise today to, first, congratulate the page captain for the day, Morgan Burkitt, and then to introduce her family: her mother, Sophia Burkitt; father, Michael Burkitt; and her younger sister, Ashley Burkitt; and welcome them to the House today.

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.

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.

My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. We know that Ontario has a unique and carefully cultivated entrepreneurial spirit. Yet for more than a decade under the previous Liberal government, Ontario’s entrepreneurs felt abandoned. The previous government did everything to punish people starting a business, but our government is focused on supporting small businesses like the ones in my riding of Scarborough–Rouge Park, making sure they have the support they need to strengthen their economic success.

Speaker, will the minister please explain how our government is creating conditions for Ontario’s entrepreneurs to succeed?

Speaker, will the minister please explain what else our government is doing to help entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground?

The public meeting that the member opposite referenced is actually community coming together to solve problems. They have a new hospital president and CEO who will bring that innovation and those ideas to ensure that, absolutely, the Chesley emergency department does not have the same challenges they had last summer.

It is important for the member opposite to understand that as our government expands the number of pathways for individuals to be able to train and become nurses in the province of Ontario, like the Learn and Stay program, as we work with the College of Nurses of Ontario to ensure that individuals who are waiting to get their licence assessed get that done quickly—we have made those changes, Speaker, and we will continue to make those changes. Why? Because we want to ensure that people who want to practise medicine and serve the people of Ontario can do it quickly in the province—

Thank you for that question. Mental health and addictions is a priority for our government, and it has been since day one. That’s why we’re making crucial investments in mental health and addictions. We’re creating a recovery-oriented system, a continuum of care by which everyone will be able to get supports and services as needed, and with respect to that, we’re making a $500-million investment annually over the next 10 years.

In addition to that, recognizing the needs in the province, the Minister of Finance announced last week an additional investment of $425 million over three years, and an additional $202 million in supportive housing. Why? Because it is one of the most important social determinants of health that must be addressed.

Those are investments that are being made by the province. They’re being recognized by community members. Perhaps in the supplemental, I’ll give you some of the quotes from the service providers that are partnering with us to ensure that we deliver these services to the people of the province.

Speaker, it’s not just virtual emergency rooms either. Hundreds of people gathered in Chesley in a town hall held by the local health coalition to talk about their fears around Bill 60, as their local ER again continues to have unexpected temporary closures.

Back to the Minister of Health: What do you have to say to the people of Chesley and the 158 other communities experiencing temporary ER closures due to staffing shortages?

Speaker, we can all recall the days under the Liberals when Ontario’s entrepreneurs were closing up their shops, frustrated with a government that made businesses too risky and expensive. But our government changed all that. Lower taxes and less red tape brought a revival of Ontario’s entrepreneurial spirit. There were 85,000 new businesses opened in Ontario last year alone, Speaker. And with budget 2023, expect even more.

An additional $2 million is being invested into Futurpreneur Canada. They’ll help 18-year-old to 39-year-old young business people with mentorship and loans of up to $20,000. Speaker, entrepreneurs once again can take that next step and know that their government is here to support them all the way.

In addition to Futurpreneur, there’s a wide range of other supports. Small business enterprise centres offer all the tools they need to start and grow their businesses. In the member’s riding, he pushed very hard for $2 million in funding for Scarborough’s small business centre, with a further $620,000 for their Summer Company and Starter Company Plus that help their area’s students and young entrepreneurs start their business in his riding, and we’ve provided more than $77,000 in the Digital Transformation Grant to over 30 businesses in Scarborough. Speaker, that is what this member is doing to help his entrepreneurs.

I want to thank the member from Niagara. I’ll tell you what we’re doing, and I’ll tell you a little bit about economics, because I know the NDP don’t have a clue about economics. I wouldn’t trust them running my lemonade stand.

Anyway, in saying that, what drives cost up about 30% of inflation is gas prices, and the folks across the aisle, they’re for the highest carbon tax in the world. The member from Ottawa was preaching he wants the highest gas prices in the world, the highest carbon taxes. That’s what drives up the cost.

Our government reduced the cost of gas by 10 cents a litre. I encourage the NDP, I encourage the Liberals not to fall in step with the federal government, but stand up for the people of Ontario, reduce the gas price, reduce the carbon tax, put money back into people’s pockets rather than just sit there and complain.

Interjections.