I’m sure we can all remember Peter Kormos, MPP from Welland—an incredible human being. It’s the 10th anniversary of his passing, so I just wanted to make sure that I mentioned that and that we’re all thinking of Peter. I saw that Jeff Burch put a nice post up for him this morning.

My question on Working for Workers—I’m going to ask you what’s not in the bill. This isn’t our first Working for Workers bill; we’ve had three. Deeming is not in the bill. Anti-scab legislation is not in the bill. Maybe you can elaborate on why it wouldn’t be, as our labour critic.

How many?

It’s always a pleasure to rise in the House.

A couple of things, a couple of little statements I’ll make: Our lives are not for profit. I want to make sure we know that.

But I’m going to start with the same comment I heard again this morning and again this afternoon, about the job loss in Ontario. I want to be clear about the job loss in Ontario, because I lived it, being president of Local 199. What killed the manufacturing sector in the province of Ontario was the Harper government that allowed our dollar to go to $1.10. It was a petro dollar. It benefitted the West; we all know that. Their residents were getting paycheques and all kinds of extra stuff from the government. But in Ontario, it killed the manufacturing sector. That’s what really started the problem—it was $1.10. Why are we doing so well in Ontario today? I stood up in this House nine years ago and I said we needed an 80-cent dollar; today it’s at 72 cents. People are coming here because of the cheap dollar. But the other reason why they come to Canada and why they come to Ontario is because we have a publicly funded health care system, which this government is attacking. They’re trying to privatize our health care. That will be one of the benefits that will be gone. Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever.

The other thing I wanted to talk about, because I raise it all the time—I listen to this all the time and I don’t even know how to respond to them. You say, “You guys always voted with the Liberals.” Going back to 2011, 2014, most of the people around here weren’t even here at that time, but that’s okay. What they forget to mention is that the Conservatives were not in power, in official opposition, for 14 of those years—14. And you know what they did? They voted for the Liberals and Bill 115 that attacked workers and teachers. They voted against anti-scab, and not once. Anybody want to guess how many times you guys voted against it? Yell it out. I’ll help you out then: 16—16 times, as they continue to say they stand up for workers.

Last night I was fortunate enough to go watch a Leafs game. I live on Wellesley while I’m up here. I walked from Wellesley to the ACC. And while I was walking down the street, I saw exactly what Ontario is like with an affordability crisis, with a homeless crisis. You know, Madam Speaker, it brings tears to your eyes to walk from Wellesley to the ACC and see 20—20, because I counted them last night—people lying on those grates where the heat comes up, with blankets around them. That’s our Ontario. Nobody here should be proud of that—nobody.

I’ll get into the bill. I’ll probably get into some other things, but I’ll get into the bill as well. As we are talking about our health care system, there is another bill that they are bringing forward almost at the same time with the budget. It’s Bill 60. But because the budget talks about health care, during the committee hearings we had a lot of unions come to present at committee, to talk about health care and where we’re going in health care and the privatization of health care.

The OFL represents 1.2 million workers in the province of Ontario. You would think a government that is saying they are working for workers would consult with them. Anybody on the Conservative side know if they did? Want me to help you? They never consulted with the OFL.

SEIU came, representing workers in the province of Ontario. I asked them the same question: Were you consulted about the future of our health care? You know, Madam Speaker, what they said? “Never consulted.” So the OFL and the SEIU were not consulted. I said, “Wow, that’s really strange.”

Then Unifor came. I said, “Well, they must have talked to Unifor.” I asked the same question. I believe it was Kelly-Anne Orr, from Unifor, who was there. She said, “We weren’t consulted.” I said, “You weren’t consulted on health care, which is probably the biggest thing, including the budget?” “No.”

Then I got lucky; CUPE came. Well, CUPE would have been consulted, right? I ask my colleagues on the other side, who have got their heads down and aren’t looking at me, was CUPE consulted? Not consulted.

Think about that when you’re talking about a party that is trying to say “We’re working for workers”; when we have a crisis in health care. We have a crisis in long-term care, where 5,500 people have now died in long-term-care facilities in the province of Ontario—78% in private long-term-care facilities. Not consulted? These are the workers that represent the nurses, the PSWs—not consulted. Whether it be in home care, retirement homes, long-term care, they didn’t even consult them. You should be embarrassed by that, quite frankly, not even talking to the workers that you should be.

I’ll start my speech now I guess. I chewed up a couple of minutes here. I apologize for that.

I think we came into this budget season knowing what to expect. Since the provincial election, we’ve seen the disregard this government has for public services, the affordability crisis in our province and the lives of our workers. They have told us the pandemic is behind us, although it’s not, and we have seen the true Conservative government. It’s a government that prioritizes wealthy corporations over everyday people. It’s a government that works to dismantle our public health care system. It’s a government that refuses to participate actively in our legal legislation. It’s a government that I believe is showing its true colours.

Madam Speaker, the members across the aisle have a habit of standing up and telling us that we voted no to their bills. We said no to their ideas, but I feel that those members have a very short memory—and being fair, when I look around, I don’t see anybody who might have been here during the Harris days. From 2004 to 2018, the Conservatives in opposition voted against every single budget. I want to repeat that—because we’ll have the House leader and other people stand up and talk about the NDP saying no. For 14 years, you voted against every single budget, every single one. Although you did vote with the government on a couple bills: Bill 115, voted down anti-scab legislation. You did vote, but that was against labour.

What do you expect from this budget? First, I think we expected something to address the affordability crisis we face in Ontario. But we didn’t get anything like that, nothing to actually help working people make ends meet in Ontario.

Maybe I thought we’d get something similar to their gimmicks around the last election, like the licence plate stickers that didn’t stick, that rebate they offered to voters. Maybe this budget would offer some discount coupons, like you get in the mail: discount, two-for-one, maybe buy-one-get-one-free eye surgery. But we didn’t get the classic vote-buying gimmicks we’ve seen from this party before. We got a budget that didn’t even try to address the affordability crisis in Ontario.

Because of that, I think it’s important for us to begin talking about the affordability crisis, Madam Speaker. I want to talk about the crisis in our communities. I gave you an example of going to the Leafs game last night right here in Ontario.

I want to talk about what seniors are facing when it comes to home heating costs, because this is a big part of the cost-of-living crisis we have in Niagara and across the province. Natural gas prices have doubled for some families and seniors. That’s not an exaggeration. The Toronto Star reported that some people’s Enbridge bills have gone up from $89 a month to $196 a month. That’s an increase of 120%.

This is affecting everyone. Families are struggling. But in particular, it’s affecting families who are on low income and affecting seniors. Most seniors are on fixed income from their pensions or from Old Age Security. This is somewhere where the Conservative government could actually do something to help seniors and families who are struggling. But there’s nothing in the budget around natural gas heating bills.

Madam Speaker, it isn’t just home heating we see increasing. Gas is largely unaffordable. The province moved to deal with gas prices, but the budgets were limited, and the government then fearmongered during the 2018 campaign about increasing gas prices. They sat back and watched it happen.

When you fill up your tank, maybe you’re happy it’s not costing you $2. But, definitely, you’re seeing $1.40, $1.45, $1.50 at the pump. And we know it’s going to go up. Oil prices are up again today. You know what the price increase is going to look like from day to day or even within that day? In the morning, it could be $1.39; in the afternoon it’s $1.50.

This government has the opportunity to regulate gas companies and bring transparency to the industry to help consumers, but they refused a number of times.

It may be tough to always predict what this government is going to do, but if they have an opportunity to side with the corporations, they’re going to do that every time. We know that the oil companies have had record profits.

Talking about corporations, I don’t think we can discuss this budget without talking about the lack of action on surging grocery prices. I’m sure you feel the same way, Madam Speaker. Do you know they’re up somewhere between 13% and 17%, grocery prices? We all have to eat. Some people, in particular seniors, are having one meal a day, sometimes two meals a day. They’re skipping meals. Families are doing the same thing.

The Premier, who said he would take on any corporation that was gouging Ontarians, can’t seem to find the courage to take on the Weston family gouging Ontarians. I think they might be too close of friends for him to step in and say, “Hey, your company is taking advantage of an inflation crisis at the expense of hard-working people.”

I always like to give examples. I do a lot of shopping up here if I go and buy my groceries. One of my favourite stores is the dollar store. I eat 14-grain bread, do it all the time. At the dollar store, it’s $3. I live where Rabba is, so I go down there sometimes if the dollar store is not open and I’ll buy bread. It’s $3.49. And if I can’t get to those two places, I go to Shoppers. Do you know what it is at Shoppers? It’s $4.49.

Can somebody tell me—and the dollar store is exactly half a block away from the Shoppers—how it’s $3 at the dollar store and $4.49 at Shoppers? How does that happen? That’s price gouging, my friends. And this is one example. I can give you more about Kraft Dinner and all that kind of stuff that I eat, but that one’s pretty clear. Some of these companies have a history of price-fixing. They’ve actually been caught doing it. So when you go to Loblaws and you see a pack of chicken that costs more than a ticket to a Sabres game, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that they are purposely gouging people. This government could have taken action in this budget and provided relief for families, but they didn’t. They could have stood up to these corporations and addressed their clear gouging, but they didn’t do that either. It was a missed opportunity for the people of the province who are paying for it.

Madam Speaker, I wanted to talk about rents. I don’t know how many people here pay rent. I think somebody from the Conservatives yesterday said he was paying $2,700 for rent in his apartment in Toronto. We know renters are really struggling right now. Across the country, asking rents have increased by 10% over the past year. Think about this, Madam Speaker: In Niagara, we have communities where the price of a two-bedroom rental has jumped over 20% since last year. As we know, in 2018, it was the government that passed a rule that allowed for unlimited rent increases in buildings and units that were created after November 2018, and again, in this budget, there’s been no action on rent control. That’s a mistake.

So what do you see in front of us? We are a province with an affordability crisis and a government unwilling to address it in any meaningful way. And now, we’ve seen them start to cut back on health care services as we move towards a private model. Madam Speaker, I would like to first talk about what this government has done to seniors, because this is really devastating. This government, under Premier Doug Ford, has reduced the OHIP-covered eye check up for seniors aged 65 and older down from once a year to 18 months. What do you think about this?

We know seniors are struggling with the cost of living. Everything I have talked about previously—rent, price of gas, price of groceries, natural gas—it’s been affecting all our seniors. So they are already struggling with making ends meet, managing their budgets on a fixed income. And what else do we know? We know that preventative care is extremely important for everyone, but particularly for seniors, and I can say that because I’m a senior. I’m proud to say that. By the way, I’m wearing glasses and I get my eyes checked once a year. Now I’m being told I’ve got to wait 18 months.

What else do we know? We know that preventative care is extremely important for everyone, particularly seniors. And we know that when seniors go longer without proper eye care, there can be long-term problems. It’s not acceptable in one of the richest provinces in the country that we need to cut back on simple health care services like eye care.

Let’s not forget the one that I haven’t mentioned yet—I don’t think I have. Let’s not forget what we did to our seniors in long-term care. It’s up to 5,500, I believe, right now, that died in long-term care.

It’s hard not to look at the inadequacy in investment in health care from this budget. Long before we saw the contents of their privatization bill, we knew the plan. In early 2022, we rang the alarm bells that health care privatization was coming. How did we know that? Because we witnessed them starve the system, disrespect health care workers and turn the pandemic into a long-term health care crisis. This is standard practice for conservative governments across the world—and I say conservative with a small “c” because that includes some past Liberal governments in this province.

I don’t know how many speakers—NDP speakers, Liberal speakers, independent speakers, the Green speaker—have talked about Bill 124. You know who hasn’t spoken about Bill 124? The majority government. But you’re working for workers? You’re capping their wages at 1%. And that doesn’t just include wages; that includes wages and benefits at 1% when inflation is running at 6.5% and 7.5%. And then you have the nerve to stand up and call them heroes. They’re tired. They’re exhausted. They’re unappreciated by this government. Yet you guys continue to run into courts and fight Bill 124. You should be ashamed of yourselves, quite frankly.

They manufacture a crisis in a public service and then they turn around and tell us that the only solution is privatization, that a for-profit company is going to save the day. They call it innovation. It’s not innovation. Private companies have been working to take over public services and funnel public dollars to their shareholders for many years.

In the health care sector, we’re not talking a few million dollars. You know what we’re talking? Billions. It’s the same thing that they did in long-term care. I’ve said this at committee, and I was very clear on it, and I say it here: Take a look at what they did to long-term care and the end result there, where shareholders got billions and billions of dollars. Their CEOs were making hundreds of thousands of dollars sitting on boards where they might meet a couple times a year.

The ultimate thing that happened with the privatization: It wasn’t about care. It wasn’t about our parents, it wasn’t about our grandparents, it wasn’t about our brothers and our sisters, our aunts and uncles. What was it about? Yell it out. Conservatives, yell it out: It was about profit. It was never about care. That’s why we had 5,500 people die in long-term care; 3,800 of those died in private, for-profit homes. Because it wasn’t about care, it was about making money.

It’s hard to discuss a budget without discussing the impact it will have on workers in this province. I think it’s easy for some of us in this Legislature to forget that workers move this province forward. Without them, the province doesn’t function. They are our greatest asset. The government has done a lot of work to reshape their image in the eyes of workers. The 1990s under Mike Harris is hard to erase from the minds of workers, but they are trying. A few photo ops, a couple of empty bills—reassuring words to their friends in the skilled trades, all in hopes of mending that relationship. When it comes to the big things, like the budget, they revert back to their old style. They want to privatize our health care system.

I’ve only got a minute left, but I’m going to read at least one quote from J.P.: “Privatization makes wait times worse, not better. Our health care system is in crisis, and it’s clear that privatization is not the solution. Putting private profits over people won’t fix wait times or solve the recoupment and retention crisis, which is causing staff to burn out and leave their jobs. This government has manufactured a crisis in order to clear the path to privatization—Bill 60 is proof.”

I’ll try and read the OFL: “Bill 60 opens the door to two-tiered care—where those who can afford to pay more receive faster service. Meanwhile, underfunded public hospitals reach capacity and underpaid, overworked health care workers face critical levels of burnout.”

I’ve only got four seconds left so I can’t read any more, but we’ve got to stop agency employees charging $150 for a nurse as well.

First of all, I think you missed my point when I talked about going around and seeing the price of bread. My point was about price-gouging. That’s what it was about. It has been going on—

Interjections.

You done?

Interjection.

Interjection.

The reason why I did that is because I’ve been arguing about price-gouging. Because where I live, in my riding—Niagara-on-the-Lake, Niagara Falls and Fort Erie—we have the highest number of seniors in the entire province of Ontario, and they’re coming into my office, sir, and they’re crying because they can’t afford to buy their food; they can’t afford to heat their home; they can’t afford to pay for their medication. That’s what’s going on in the province of Ontario. And you know what? I lose sleep over it, because these are people that have given their entire life to this beautiful province, to their family, to their grandkids, and they’re breaking down in my office—

As far as the human resources, I can’t say it enough here; I say it almost every day: Bill 124. You’re fighting it in the courts. Nurses, PSWs are leaving in record numbers because of Bill 124. If you want to at least show respect at all to our heroes—because you guys call them heroes; we call them heroes as well—repeal Bill 124, and the crisis in health care in retention will go away.

But to your point: To stand up and have never once—your government has never once, including yourself, sir, who I sat at committee with—apologized for what happened to our seniors, to the 5,500 that died, the 3,800 who died in for-profit care. And the reason why they died there—ask the military. You brought the military in. And what did they tell you? They didn’t die because they were old and they had COVID. They died from dehydration, sir. You’re trying to tell me if we had the proper staffing in these homes, they wouldn’t have been taken care of? They found seniors that laid in their beds for 24 hours—24 hours after they died, because they had no staff. This is in the report. This isn’t coming from me.

I will always fight for seniors. I always have, matter of fact, for my entire 40 years that I’ve been involved in the labour movement and the 10 years I’ve been here. Thank you for the question.

I talk to a lot of employers. I go around and talk to them all the time, and you know what? Even small businesses that I talk to don’t want their employees coming to work sick. They also don’t want that they can’t afford to buy their groceries at the end of the week if they have to take a day off or a couple of days off because they’ve got the flu—not necessarily COVID. There’s a lot of other things that you get sick and you have to take three or four days off.

There should be sick days in the province of Ontario, without a doubt. The one thing we all have to admit is that we live in one of the richest provinces in all of Canada. Are you trying to tell me we can’t afford to provide sick days for workers? Are you trying to tell us that? Come on, think about it.

But do you know what happened to that program, sir? Do you know? I’m going to help you—you can look it up when you go home tonight. I don’t think the Leafs are playing tonight; the Jays played this afternoon.

Do you know what happened to that program? It was cancelled in the schools by the Harris government. Now that we want to bring it back, I think it’s great. I think we should do that because it gives a hand up to people who, like myself, are maybe less fortunate. I’m agreeing with you on your comment. How we get there, we may differ, but I think the programs going back into schools is a great idea for skilled trades.

This is from OPSEU and JP Hornick, the president: “Privatization Makes Wait Times Worse, Not Better.” That’s for the member from Kingston. “Our health care system is in crisis, and it’s clear that privatization is not the solution. Putting private profits over people won’t fix wait times or solve the recruitment or retention crisis, which is causing staff to burn out and leave their jobs.

“This government has manufactured a crisis....”

My question to you: Can you tell me how many of the people from Niagara that you listed died in their homes that are owned by ConMed during COVID?