Yes or no? Are you going to support the tax? Is it a good thing or a bad thing?

Thank you to the member opposite for your discussion and debate of the budget bill. I’m glad to hear that you comparison shop between the dollar store and Shoppers; that’s great. I always support people who comparison shop. That’s what makes competition healthy—glad to hear that.

I did want to touch on something that’s coming down the pipe on April 1: The increase in the carbon tax. That’s 14 cents a litre on gas. That is going to cost every consumer in this entire province. Every individual, regardless of income, it’s going to cost them more to heat their home, put gas in their car, making life more unaffordable for the people of Ontario, and it’s inflationary, which is not something we want. I think we all agree we need to get inflation down right now.

Will you support us in going against this carbon tax which penalizes hard-working Ontarians?

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.

Questions?

Order, please.

The member for Niagara.

As we know, youth leaving the child welfare system are at high risk of being trafficked, experiencing homelessness and developing mental health issues, and have lower high school graduation rates than their peers. As part of the child welfare redesign, this government is investing $170 million over three years to support a new program aimed at improving long-term outcomes for youth. We’re investing proactively to make sure that our youth in the child welfare system have the skills they need to achieve financial independence through life skills development, supports to pursue secondary education, training and pathways to employment.

My question is to the member opposite is, does he support this initiative?

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.

The member from Niagara likes to speak about long-term care, so I have a question regarding long-term care. This budget supports over 60,000 new and reconditioned long-term-care beds. Some of those:

—Crescent manor: 28 new, 68 redeveloped;

—Gilmore Lodge: 160 redeveloped;

—Niagara Long-Term Care Residence: 100 new and 124 redeveloped;

—Radiant Care Pleasant Manor: 119 new and 41 redeveloped because of this government.

This government: 60,000 new and reconditioned beds. I’d like to ask the member from Niagara how many beds he supported before 2018 in his position as MPP?

I want to congratulate my colleague the member for Niagara Falls on his remarks. One of the things he didn’t mention that is in the budget is the end of the government’s flawed paid sick leave scheme. It’s almost as if this government thinks that COVID is over in this province, that Ontario workers will no longer need to stay home if they develop COVID symptoms or test positive.

I wondered if the member wanted to comment on whether that is sound fiscal policy, whether that is a sound public policy of this government to abandon paid sick days instead of fixing paid sick days and ensuring they’re available to all Ontario workers in this province.

It’s an honour to rise in this august chamber, and specifically as the member for Don Valley West glares at me. I’m very pleased that I’ll be sharing and splitting my time with her over the next, roughly, 12 minutes.

I also want to thank the member from Don Valley West for the outstanding work she does for the members of her riding and specifically for her outstanding leadership on analyzing and guiding us through this budget, which I sadly must admit is thoroughly underwhelming.

As has been articulated before, this is a budget, sadly, that very clearly tells Ontarians that they’re on their own, that this government does not have their backs, and that for the things which matter most to all of us, the things that matter most to Ontarians, they should just figure it out themselves. Unfortunately, this does not come as any surprise. As a young child, I was taught in my family to do what you say. If you promise something, then you have to deliver on it, and this is something, sadly, that this government struggles with.

For example, this government said all fall that they would accelerate the credentialing of foreign-trained family doctors, and we’re still waiting. I have no confidence whatsoever that this bill will or can deliver on the unambitious promises that it makes. You have to do what you say.

The recent reports from the Financial Accountability Office do nothing to reassure me that this government will do otherwise. In successive quarters, we have seen consistent underspending across all of the major ministries: $1.3 billion less in health than promised, $844 million less in education, $175 million less in post-secondary education and $458 million less in children and social services—the funding that goes to deliver services to those who need our help the most. Do what you say. This budget simply inspires no confidence, because the members haven’t even delivered on their last budget.

But there’s more to it than that, Madam Speaker. You don’t just have to do what you say; you have to say what you do. This government has consistently committed to doing one thing, only to actually do another. For example, this government is funding a housing plan, but they promised in the process that they wouldn’t touch the greenbelt, and now they’re carving it up. They promised that they would protect our public health care system, and are now funding a plan that is so poorly conceived that it will lead to the corporatization and profitization of our health care. And so, as much as I am underwhelmed by this bill, I’m also concerned about just how much it is not talking about.

In health care, for example, the budget mentions nothing about eliminating hospital surge funding for COVID, even though it is getting eliminated tomorrow. It mentions nothing about access to hospital care for our most vulnerable and marginalized uninsured patients in Ontario, even though that also is getting eliminated tomorrow. Say what you’re going to do.

The government has also made a profoundly short-sighted decision in eliminating paid sick days, which will actually hurt our businesses and economy when sick people are forced to come to work and infect entire workplaces.

Most upsetting of all, there is no attention whatsoever to health care worker retention, even as this remains one of the biggest challenges that we face in health care right now. Say what you do. Not only is there no mention of health care worker retention, outside of this chamber this government is pursuing avenues to fight courts that have told this government that Bill 124 is unconstitutional legislation that infringes on charter and worker rights.

On Indigenous issues, I am most disturbed at the growing chorus of Indigenous people and communities who say they have not been adequately consulted on so many of the proposed changes in the budget. I have heard from Indigenous stakeholders, for example, that the government’s plan for integrated community health services centres is being implemented without their input. And we all witnessed yesterday how Indigenous people share their concerns about the Ring of Fire. We must listen to Indigenous people, particularly the ones who are most at stake.

I have more I could say, but in the spirit of respecting the time of my colleague, I will simply mention that on the challenge of education, this government has dropped the ball, focusing upon things like infrastructure, like buildings, instead of supporting teachers by making sure that they are adequately funded. On this issue, along with so many more, the bill is very clear: People in Ontario are on their own. They don’t matter, and this government does not have their backs.

With that, I turn it to the member for Don Valley West.

The member from Don Valley West.

Thank you to my colleague from Don Valley East for his great work and support.

Speaker, I’m here today to talk about this motion 11, about Ontario’s budget—not the federal budget, which the Conservative government seems to find more interesting today, maybe because they’re coming to the same conclusion I am: that this budget is more of the same. It’s uninspiring. It’s uninspiring in terms of addressing our homelessness crisis, in terms of driving economic productivity across all sectors and in terms of making sufficient investments in post-secondary education which help drive our economy.

Actions speak louder than words, and while this government talks and talks and talks about record investments, the people of Ontario want more than the Conservative government’s catchphrase when it comes to action. Let’s talk about how this budget leaves people behind. While I welcome the talk of a $202-million increase in funding for supportive housing and homelessness programs, this government now has to put its money where its mouth is.

This government seems unwilling to say how many chronically homeless people there are in our province, and we know that when it comes to addressing homelessness, in at least one case they’ve done quite the opposite. The people of Toronto remember when the Associate Minister of Transportation lobbied against a supportive housing facility in his riding of Willowdale. They remember how then Mayor Tory and the city councillor pleaded with the associate minister to ensure the project proceeded, because it would save lives; that the modular housing units were ready to deploy and just needed provincial go-ahead. And they remember how the associate minister and the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing refused to work with the city of Toronto, accusing the city of not sufficiently consulting the community, at the same time they were, ironically, passing legislation that guts the consultation process.

This is a government led by a Premier who broke his word when he said he would not build in the greenbelt. So while this government breaks its word and now says yes to building in the greenbelt, they have a history of saying no to helping the homeless when it’s in their backyard.

We were just in Kenora in January as part of SCOFEA and heard about their homelessness problem, like many other northern and rural towns. According to the Kenora District Services Board, there are 400 homeless people there, a town of only 15,000. The most vulnerable people on our streets have been left behind by this government. While we hear estimates of a $400-million parking lot that’s being built to replace Ontario Place, our housing and homelessness funding gets an increase of only $202 million. Here, again, their actions speak for themselves.

Now let’s talk about productivity. Investing in manufacturing jobs is good—we need good jobs in this sector—but we also need to make meaningful investments in other sectors to see Ontario’s economy be the hub of productivity. In their pre-budget submission, the Council of Canadian Innovators called on this government for increased investment to support innovation, digitization and technology in Ontario, to develop a semiconductor strategy, to future-proof our economy so that Ontario tech companies can also be roaring engines for economic growth.

Post-secondary education is also a key driver of our economy and productivity, and that leads to better quality of life. A couple of years ago, it came to light that Laurentian University was mismanaged financially. Regretfully, the provincial government abdicated their responsibility to ensure a sustained quality education in the north, and this government presided over massive cuts there that have greatly impacted northern students with program cuts.

We heard in the pre-budget consultations from l’Université de Sudbury. They implored the province to fund the university, because northern students deserve a French education in the north. They spoke about how when young people leave the north for post-secondary schooling, they often do not return. That has real consequences. Those bright kids are a lost asset to the north. What does this government say to them? “You’re on your own.”

This government strives for a path to balance, but people and families are not feeling the balance. The people of Ontario have been feeling the pinch of inflation in housing costs, grocery stores, rising property taxes because of Bill 23, at our hospitals and in service cuts to transit. The people of Ontario want the government to take some of that $25 billion spent on highways and spend a bit more of it on affordable and attainable housing; to spend less on luxury spas, which will not be accessible to all Ontarians, and more on health care and mental health.

We were just at the Canadian Cancer Society reception and heard from Rebecca, who suffered through high costs and administrative burden to get the home cancer drugs she needed. In 2022, all parties committed to tackling inequities faced by cancer patients by bringing together an advisory table; in their 2022 budget, this government said it would do just that. Speaker, as of today, the government has yet to take action.

As a member of the opposition, which I know many members opposite will remember from their years on this side of the House, it is my job to give the government constructive feedback on what they could be doing to make legislation better, how to do better for the people of this province.

While this budget is uninspiring for us here in opposition, what the government needs to know is that this mediocrity translates to real life consequences for people in this province, who just need a little bit more and not more of the same.

Thank you to the members opposite for their comments. A question to the member from Don Valley West: I was listening to her remarks, and I think I heard “uninspiring” and “mediocre” in describing the budget. I just wanted to run a few numbers by her, Madam Speaker, through you: infrastructure investments of $184.4 billion, including $70 billion for transit, the biggest in the history of the province; health care infrastructure, $56 billion; highways, $28 billion; education, $22 billion; economic development, $17 billion of investment in electric vehicle and battery plants; $8 billion of cost reductions for businesses which, by the way, will enhance productivity, which I know is an important issue for the member.

I don’t know about you, but those numbers, to me, actually seem very inspiring. Would the member not agree and support us in this budget?

I want to pose a question to either of the independent members who just spoke. I know in my riding of Essex people are very, very concerned about the carbon tax. I speak to my greenhouse growers and it’s driving up the cost of vegetables; I speak to my grain farmers and it’s driving up the cost of grain. I’ve spoken to the Minister of Agriculture and she’s shared the same concerns with me about the carbon tax driving up the cost of food every day.

My question to the independent members is this: Since you have influence with the federal Liberal Party, which is imposing the carbon tax, will you meet with your colleagues at the federal level and ask them to pause the carbon tax?

Thank you to the member from Don Valley East for your presentation. I know you are a doctor and you understand the health care system very well and the dynamics of the hospital system. You’re asking why we are not hiring foreign-trained doctors in the system.

Actually, we are hiring 50 more foreign-trained doctors into the system, and we allocated a huge chunk of money in this budget. Also, our plan to both build the new hospital and expand the existing one—it’s a plan to build a brand new hospital serving Mississauga and Brampton, a plan to redevelop St. Mary’s General and Grand River Hospital in Kitchener-Waterloo, plan to build a new hospital in Uxbridge and one in Windsor.

We are doing huge investments through this budget. I will ask the member, don’t you think these are huge investments in the health care system?

I’m sure we all have these families in our riding. For two decades I’ve had a family come to me, since I’ve been elected. They’re on a wait-list for assisted living, the Rodgers family. Their son is Patrick. They’re in their late sixties now.

Recently, I had another family and their daughter. The parents are in their eighties and their nineties and Christy can’t find assisted living.

Currently, I had a constituent just last week talk about her son—he’s 26 years old—Fernando. He has autism and he needs assisted living.

The government has a line in their budget of $202 million for homelessness. Where in the budget is there a line for assisted living for families that need so much help in our province?

Speaker, point of order: We are debating motion 11 today.

If the member would like to talk about what we need to do to cut carbon tax and cut our greenhouse gas emissions, I think we could have some meaningful dialogues about that, if the government would talk about what they’re doing to invest in green energy. I think this budget falls far short of that. We know there’s a lot to do. We know that the government cancelled wind projects. They cancelled solar projects. Those things would have helped us get to a place where we have fewer carbon emissions. We can talk more about what the government needs to do on reducing our carbon emissions, and I’m happy to do that sometime, Speaker.

Thank you very much for that question. The message very clearly is universal in this budget: Ontarians are simply on their own. The services that they need, that have been underfunded in the last quarter, as per the Financial Accountability Office—they’re not there. They weren’t there before; they’re not here in this budget; they’re not going to be there in the future.

We as legislators and parliamentarians have an obligation to look out for the little guy, or the little gal. We need to have compassion, integrity. To respond to the member across, we have to collaborate with each other—with other levels of government but with each other right here in the room. Let’s have a conversation, talk about the issues that actually matter to Ontarians. Affordable housing is inaccessible. There are over 62,000 people that cannot get access to autism services. What we’re looking for, and what is entirely absent in this budget, is a government that has compassion for people who need help the most.

Interjections.

To exactly the point that I made: There is no plan for the retention of health care workers.

As we continue to see mass attrition and a mass exodus of health care workers across multiple professions—physicians, nurses, PSWs and all of the amazing health care workers who work at the front lines and behind the front lines—this budget does not have a solution to the empty hospitals that this government is proposing and hoping to build.

We need staffed hospitals, not empty ones.

My comments were intended to highlight the fact that there may be some investments here that are intended to look at addressing that crumbling infrastructure. But in this budget, it is to the exclusion of the people who are essential to enable our education system to thrive. So thank you for allowing me to clarify that comment. I don’t think that we disagree on this.

My question is to the member from Don Valley East. In his remarks, when he was talking about education funding, he talked about how this government is not investing enough in the supports that are needed in our schools and for our students, but also mentioned that the government was instead—I believe the word he used was “instead”—investing in infrastructure.

I believe that we need to invest both in infrastructure and in supports. As you know, the school repair backlog is at over $16 billion; under the Liberals, it was at $15 billion.

I’d like to ask the member if he could clarify his comments, and also if he believes that we should be investing in addressing the repair backlog.