Thank you very much, Speaker—and good morning to my colleagues, from across the floor. I want to preface my comments by saying I’ll be sharing my time with the member from Timiskaming–Cochrane this morning.

The budget was released a week ago. I think it’s safe to say that as the information contained within that budget, or not contained within that budget, is hitting our communities, as you peel back the layers on budget 2023, we’re learning all sorts of things that weren’t in the speech that was given last Thursday by the finance minister as he went on his road show across the province of Ontario—his virtual road show, if you will.

One of those things really just came to our attention yesterday morning—and I am going to start off my comments by giving this a bit of a theme. For us, this is a budget that’s “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” Unfortunately, sometimes, in these circumstances, even when you’re trying to do something good, you’re so stubbornly attached to the bad that it turns very ugly for the people of the province that we serve.

Yesterday morning, we found out that doctors across Waterloo region were receiving notices from public health informing them that it was now their responsibility—these are family doctors in Niagara, in Hamilton, in London, in Timiskaming–Cochrane who were told that it is now their responsibility to arrange the courier and the transfer of vaccines from public health to doctors’ offices. Yesterday was March 29. For some reason, this became the news of the day yesterday for medical doctors.

The doctors who came to us through the Ontario Medical Association, during finance committee, were so frustrated, and they did make some proposals around streamlining their work, reducing the administrative burden that they face on a day-to-day basis, in the interest of ensuring that they could see more patients. This was actually in Windsor—when the Ontario Medical Association came to speak and proposed a solution around ensuring that the administrative overhead could be lightened for doctors so that they could see more patients. This is actually in the interest of all Ontarians. They came to that table in good faith, I think.

There are 2.1 million people in this province who do not have a family doctor, and the family doctor is still the gateway into the health care system—you need those referrals to see specialists, for instance. Family doctors ensure continuity of care. Family doctors are trusted people in their communities.

And this is not just COVID vaccines—I want to make sure people know this; this is childhood vaccines, MMR, influenza, shingles, for those of us who are in our fifties.

Usually, what has happened in the past is that because vaccines needed to be carefully transported, they needed to be refrigerated. There’s an audit on those vaccines. Someone is keeping track, one hopes, of the dates and expiry dates on those vaccines, and you need a central place to take care of that information. Usually, a courier would deliver through cold chain transfer from public health into doctors’ offices, where people who need vaccines would happily go and get their vaccines.

This trickle-down downloading of health care costs on to family physicians makes zero sense. We should have learned during this pandemic that people need access to vaccines. We should be reducing all barriers to vaccines. I hope that this is a non-partisan issue people are facing.

This particular doctor let me know that the burnout level for family doctors is already at a breaking point. This is also something that the finance minister heard during his separate consultation processes, and that we heard as a committee, loud and clear—that doctors want to do more, they can’t do more, and you shouldn’t be asking them to do any more. And now they have to arrange for vaccines to be couriered and managed from public health down to the local office. He said, “I think what this government should be afraid of ... as a physician base we are already frayed and barely holding on. So more and more physicians will be leaving the profession. The frustrating part is lack of consultation, which is a pattern”—with this government. This came out of nowhere. It caught people by surprise. It makes zero sense. The cost savings for the government are nominal at best. He said, “How does this make sense?” It doesn’t.

One of the other issues that came to the fore, and we’ve been questioning the health minister this week on it, is those people in this province who do not have insurance for health care. That health care piece is really determined by having identification, having an address, having a health card.

With so many people in this province—now a growing number of evictions, a growing number of homeless people. We have encampments in Peterborough. We have encampments in Sudbury. We have encampments here in Toronto. In Waterloo region, in downtown Kitchener, there is a tent city. It is Canada. People in this province, in the winter, should not be living in tents.

It was really interesting to hear the Minister of Health talk about this because she said, “This was a plan that the Liberals put in, and we are going to go back to that Liberal plan,” essentially. That Liberal plan, which does not fund the full health care package for those who are homeless or who don’t have identification, was the status quo prior to the pandemic. Because of the pandemic, some dollars came in, and people realized that if we don’t take care of those who are homeless, who need those extra wraparound supports in their community, there actually is an extra cost down the line. Also, it’s the compassionate thing to do, one would say, maybe; the humane thing to do. What we heard is the health minister say, “No, we’re not cancelling it. We’re just going back to what the Liberals had brought in.” Well, what the Liberals had brought in wasn’t good enough then, and it’s not good enough now for those who are uninsured.

I sense some defensiveness on behalf of the government members.

Yesterday, a member got up and did a statement on the virtual health care resources for those who are uninsured and homeless. Well, let me tell you: You don’t get very good WiFi in a tent in an encampment.

This is something that has frustrated me now, going into five years—that there is a level of privilege that determines how policy and legislation is made in this place. It’s a disconnect between this Pink Palace, this fortress of so-called democracy, when the transparency in our dollars is seriously undermined through the budgeting process. That dissonance was actually really well captured in the Toronto Star editorial about the budget. This is a direct quote from the editorial: “Overall, there was clanging dissonance between the budget’s palpable self-satisfaction and the economic anxiety, rising interest rates, soaring prices, health care concerns that have hit Ontario residents hard.”

This is why my comments on budget day a week ago were, “I’ve never seen a government so gleefully celebrating mediocrity.” When you have the funding, when the funding is there in an unallocated contingency fund; when you have higher, increased revenue coming into this place—sure, you didn’t plan for the high revenue, but that high revenue is generated through high inflationary costs of services, and that is generated by the people of this province. The least that this government could do in budget 2023 is alleviate some of those cost-of-living pressures that Ontarians are facing around housing, around food and—as you’ll hear later on—around health care costs that are going up, private health care costs.

While I’m on the editorial, I think it warrants a second round. This is what the editorial said:

“Thursday was a complacent mishmash.

“But if it was uninspired and unimaginative, it was also largely unmemorable....

“The Premier—who often empathizes with the many serious problems facing Ontarians—seems to have been sufficiently comfy with things as they are that he and Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy proposed to do nothing particularly dramatic” to address them.

At finance committee, we heard from people who are at the breaking point. They have hit that tipping point. We heard about people saying they just can’t do it anymore. We heard it from doctors. We heard it from nurses. We heard it from educators. We heard it from child care folks, who are saying, “Come on, how are you ever going to achieve $10-a-day child care if you don’t have the people to actually take care of the children?”

Bill 124, the unconstitutional piece of legislation that this government brought forward, which caps workers’ raise of pay at 1% per year, is driving very good people out of this province. Out-migration is a huge issue for the province of Ontario. It doesn’t seem to be on the government’s radar. They sometimes talk about getting people back and getting those nurses back into our health care system, while Bill 124 is still being fought in the courts. The courts have deemed it unconstitutional. They have said it’s a violation of charter rights. It should never have come to the floor of this Legislature. This was, I think, the 15th court case that this government has had to be dealing with, and yet the government is still fighting Bill 124 in the courts.

If this was House of Cards, people would say, “No, even this is too much.” Maybe another show, like—anyway, I’m not going to go there, because I’m trying to be polite today.

Obviously, our leader and our team feel that this budget does not meet the moment. It doesn’t recognize the urgency, the need to address the cost of living. It doesn’t address the cost pressures that folks are experiencing. It doesn’t even address the number one issue—other than housing—that we heard during finance committee, which is health care. You’ve created this parallel health care program that is for-profit, which will actually further undermine the public health system that we care about and that we think is worth fighting for.

This editorial from the Toronto Star went on to say, “With ... plenty of runway until his next appointment with voters,” the Premier “might have been expected to use this window for bold initiatives.” We agree.

“But there was no such sense of urgency that the crunch facing Ontarians was more than they should be expected to bear.”

And then this is the good quote: “If this budget were a Christmas present, it would be a three-pack of white socks. Not entirely useless. But an exercise in going through the motions.” I know my colleague from finance committee was defending the white socks. Socks are very usable. Everybody needs them. But if there’s a flood outside, socks are not helpful. I would invest in some rubber boots, if I had to make a comparison.

Clearly, for many regular Ontarians, this budget fell flat, and also for seniors, I would say. Aside from picking fights with the nurses, the PSWs, the ECEs across the province—I suspect you’ll have the doctors discussing this whole downloading of vaccine transfer very soon. We’re putting out a call to the OMA to find out how widespread this is.

This is actually a lesson in how not to design a budget and how having a press release and having various media announcements—as we saw through some other pieces of legislation, around the presumptive coverage for firefighters for instance. That’s not in one of the—what bill? Bill 79?

Interjection.

I’m going to be sharing my time with the member for Richmond Hill, and I will simply be mindful of the fact that I will begin my remarks now, conclude at 10:15, and continue this afternoon.

In that context, it is my pleasure to join the debate in this House with regard to the Building a Strong Ontario Act, our budget bill. This budget confirms our government’s commitment to invest in Ontario’s future and enhance our competitiveness within a global economy, with a responsible, targeted approach to help people and businesses.

The budget speech that was presented last week to this House by the Minister of Finance outlines this government’s priorities for building a strong economic foundation to provide Ontario’s growing population with highly skilled, well-paying jobs, while at the same time attracting global investments in manufacturing and research. We are exercising fiscal prudence by keeping Ontario’s finances in check as we make the necessary investments in health care, education, infrastructure and transit, while being on track to balance Ontario’s books with a $200-million surplus by 2024-25. This is what Ontarians asked for. This is what Ontarians expect. And we are delivering both on growth and fiscal responsibility. This is our duty. This is our pledge. We are getting it done.

Speaker, this budget is all about people. This budget is about investing in workers, in families and everyday Ontarians who have asked this government to live within its means while investing in the programs that workers and families desperately need to purchase a home, raise a family and save for the future. This government is a citizens’ government that reflects the will and the expectations of the people.

Because of the failed tax-and-spend policies of the previous Liberal government, Ontario lost over 300,000 manufacturing jobs between 2004 and 2018. The previous Liberal government, which was propped up by the NDP for three years, thought they could spend their way to prosperity, and look where that left Ontario—higher debt, lost jobs, and a downgrade of Ontario’s credit rating.

As evidence that nothing has changed, the federal Liberal government, also propped up by the NDP, delivered a budget this past Tuesday which included record spending, tax increases, and zero investments in municipalities, business, or assistance for everyday Canadians.

Speaker, there is no better place to live than in Ontario. It’s one of the reasons I came here from Newfoundland so many years ago and why I chose to stay to raise a family here.

Ontario has always held great promise and great opportunity. But there’s a really growing sense out there that things aren’t quite right. People are struggling to pay rent and keep food on the table. Some are being forced to leave their communities or even the province just to be able to find an affordable place to live.

Speaker, my question is to the Premier. Why did his budget contain virtually no measures to help make life more affordable in this province?

In just a couple of days, rent is going to come due again for millions of people in this province. Thanks to this government’s massive loopholes in rent control, people are seeing a steep and sudden increase in their rent.

Back to the Premier: With people feeling so squeezed by the costs that are out of control, why didn’t he use the budget to bring back real rent control and give Ontarians some relief?

I’d really encourage the Premier and all his ministers to get out of the backrooms and start listening to real people, because people are really struggling, and I hear it everywhere I go.

It’s not just rent that’s through the roof; it’s more expensive than ever before to buy a home. This government’s plan to build luxury homes on protected land is not going to solve that problem.

Speaker, my question to the Premier is, will he act to end greedy land speculation and make sure the dream of truly affordable home ownership is no longer out of reach?

My question is for the Premier.

The affordability crisis is hitting Ontario families hard. The price of everything has gone up—groceries have gone up, rents have gone up, interest rates have gone up. The price of hydro, folks, is higher than it has ever been.

Families work hard every day, and they feel like they’re falling further and further behind. They’re looking for something to make their lives just a little bit easier. And when they see this budget, they can’t find anything to make their lives just a little bit easier—in fact, there are things that the government isn’t doing in our schools and in health care that’s actually making life harder for them.

Instead of making people’s lives just a little bit easier, this government is actually making life harder. Just why is that?

If you own lots of land in the greenbelt, guess what, folks? The Premier’s got your back.

Speaker, through you: Why is this government abandoning Ontario’s families in an affordability crisis?

Thank you to the fantastic member from Niagara West.

This gives me an opportunity to speak about the investments that we’re making in our new budget and how we’re going to help those who are doing the heavy lifting in the province in the fight against opioid overdoses.

With an additional investment of $425 million over three years, we’re providing the community mental health and addictions sector its first base funding increase in 10 years. By providing a 5% increase in funding across the board for community mental health and addictions organizations, we’re stabilizing the sector, ensuring staff can be retained, and making it clear to the people of Ontario that we’re treating these issues with the seriousness they deserve.

I want to end the response with a quote from the CEO from CMHA, who said that the budget is “an overwhelmingly positive sign that the government understands the strain our sector is facing as we support Ontarians living with”—

Thank you to the member from Durham for eloquently talking about the federal budget and federal numbers. It’s scary. Staggering numbers are coming out in the federal budget. The debt alone—he was talking about $1.22 trillion and the interest on the debt they have to pay every year—Canadians, not they have to pay; Canadian taxpayers had to pay $43 billion. The numbers are staggering. We are mortgaging our country to generations to come, Madam Speaker. Could you elaborate on that number, that very staggering number?

I’m happy to join the member from Durham to support the budget motion. This budget is all about building the future of a strong Ontario. Like the rest of the world, Ontario continues to face economic challenges. However, despite this uncertainty, our economy remains resilient. The budget is a responsible, targeted approach to help people and businesses today while laying a strong fiscal foundation for future generations.

Last Friday, when I was back in my riding of Richmond Hill, I received many phone calls giving me their thumbs up to our plan. One of my constituents, Amy, shared her excitement: “This is really a long-term plan. I see the future of Ontario and a bright future for our next generation.” I am so encouraged by her comments, and she is totally right.

Due to the government’s thoughtful, transparent planning, we have a path to balance the budget while still investing in health care, supporting seniors and building more homes. The budget continues heavy investments in infrastructure, with more than $20 billion in highways, hospitals and transit projects. We are also providing boosts to home care and the health care workforce.

Speaker, our government is building a strong Ontario by attracting and protecting investments and jobs. We are investing in hospitals, schools, transit, highways and other infrastructure projects. We are working to manage today’s challenges, train workers and provide connected and convenient health care and better public services. We have the right plan that is building an Ontario that we can all be proud of, not only today but in the future—an Ontario that continues to have a resilient economy, an Ontario that is strong.

Even though we are making investments into more health care, more housing, more highways, more transit, more skilled trades, more new manufacturing, more development in the north, we are still able to shrink the deficit of the 2022-23 fiscal year to $2.2 billion. We will further reduce the deficit to $1.3 billion in 2023-24, with a modest surplus of $200 million in the following year. My member just now has already covered all these things, but I still want to share this excitement.

All these are made possible because we worked hard in developing our economy. We successfully attracted over $16 billion in investments from the global automakers, from Ford to Toyota, GM to Volkswagen. Ontario is the global leader in electronic vehicle and battery manufacturing now.

Madam Speaker, our government is building Ontario for today and tomorrow by driving economic growth, lowering the cost of doing business, attracting new investments and getting key infrastructure built faster. The budget is proposing a tax credit that would lower the cost of investing in Ontario for the local manufacturers who are looking to grow and expand.

We are also unlocking the potential of northern Ontario by committing $1 billion to build the road to the Ring of Fire and other crucial infrastructure that will connect the rich mineral deposits in the north with Ontario’s world-class manufacturing sector.

Ontario is investing an additional $3 million this year and $3 million next year into a program that helps junior mining companies finance mineral exploration and development. The investments build on the government’s minerals strategy which aims to grow the sector and make Ontario a leading producer of critical minerals, including those in the Ring of Fire in the province’s north. Critical minerals are essential for products Ontarians rely on, like cell phones, electric vehicles and semiconductors in goods.

Madam Speaker, to build a stronger Ontario that works for everyone, we need to welcome more economic immigrants with the skills we need, especially in the skilled trades and health care. Ontario is facing a labour shortage with nearly 300,000 jobs unfilled, and it is critical to ensure that we have the resources to select and welcome those best placed to succeed, building stronger communities for everyone.

As part of the 2023 budget, our government is investing an additional $25 million over three years in our Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program. This investment will speed up processing and ensure those coming to Ontario can start working in their professions quickly. In the meantime, our government is investing $224 million to expand training centres, including union training halls and leverage private sector union expertise to train more workers in the skilled trades. Ontario needs more skilled workers.

Our government is also doing a lot to the lower the cost of living. The member has just covered a lot of what we are doing to lower the cost of living. All I can say is we have a strong outlook for Ontario. I share the finance minister’s quote, “Our government is now bringing the cars of tomorrow, the jobs of tomorrow and the investments of tomorrow.”

Thank you very much. I’m so looking forward to support from everybody in this House. Let’s build a strong Ontario together.

Thank you to the member opposite for the question. This is a budget that balances the competing concerns we face. This is a budget that is thoughtful, transparent and forward-thinking.

Fundamentally, what His Majesty’s loyal opposition fails to understand—both at the federal level, supporting the federal Liberal government, and in opposing this budget—is that when we tax and spend, we drive jobs out. The answer is to reduce taxes, create the environment for prosperity for businesses, particularly small businesses, to invest in people, so that when we have prosperity, we have the funding for the public services we—

Thank you to the member, who I understand plans to support this budget, wisely. The federal budget—the federal debt and deficit are out of control. Not only is it $1.22 trillion, a record debt, most of which was piled on just in the last few years—interestingly enough, the former federal finance minister, Bill Morneau, clearly objected to what direction that Liberal government was going in, supported by the NDP. He has written about it in his book. He left because he didn’t agree with that being the pathway forward, and that is now leading, as I said, to $49.3 billion in annual interest payments that the Canadian people will be saddled with.

We are going in a different direction. We have a path to balance, and that is where we are headed, while making sure we have investments to create a prosperous Ontario, which in turn funds the public services that we all rely upon. That is the Progressive Conservative way.

But homes don’t get built by the government. They don’t get built by themselves. They get built when a government such as ours creates the environment where it happens, where we unleash the potential to address the issue, and that is what we’re doing.

Then, with investments that create the pathway for Highway 413, that has a ripple effect across the province. With investments in transit, that has a ripple effect across the province. It’s all about targeted investments in strategic areas across the province, but it’s also about general investments.

In the area of health care, we’re making it possible so that we have more nurses—thousands more nurses in well-paid positions, more PSWs, more doctors, because you can’t just build hospitals; you’ve got to have the people, and we’re investing in people.

I want to thank the member for his discourse, and I want to say that the citizens of the riding of Essex are very excited, because this budget makes another reference to the regional hospital that’s being constructed that’s going to serve my citizens in the riding of Essex. Also, my colleague from Windsor–Tecumseh here is very excited, along with the citizens in Windsor–Tecumseh, because this budget continues the commitment to build the regional hospital in Windsor–Tecumseh that’s going to serve our whole region.

And so my question to the member is, in addition to this fantastic investment for Essex and Windsor–Tecumseh, what else is in this budget in regard to health care that is going to serve the citizens of the province of Ontario?

I’m glad the member is talking about having people in communities and cities for building hospitals, building services.

As of January 12, 2003, the Kerr report has said that London was Ontario’s third-fastest growing community after Kitchener-Cambridge-Waterloo and Barrie. So, I looked through the budget. Transit is a huge topic in our city and as you know, Via is no longer operating from London to Toronto. Your government started running a pilot project in October 2021 to expand GO train services to London, and I’d like to ask the member why there’s nothing in the budget with respect to expanding the GO train services in London. Why did his government abandon this pilot project?

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.

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?

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?

This afternoon, I’m addressing the motion on the budget. I’ll be sharing my time with the member from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston, whom I’ve had the opportunity to meet during this session of the Legislature and who is a fine member serving his constituency well, and probably the most calm and serene individual in this chamber.

Other members before me have observed that this budget is a very big document; it’s over 200 pages long. I think that every member has now had an opportunity to read all that and digest it so that they could make their comments in the chamber. I suppose I could talk about a lot of things in this budget. I’ve already talked about the hospital commitment that’s been made to Essex county and Windsor–Tecumseh. I’m excited about that. My citizens are excited about that in Essex. My colleague from Windsor–Tecumseh is excited about that, and the citizens of Windsor–Tecumseh are excited about it as well.

But I’m not going to go through the entire 200 pages of the budget and speak about every topic. I have a very particular concern, and I’m going to focus on that one concern. That appears in this budget at page 100. So, if you got halfway through the budget, you arrived at it and you know exactly what I’m talking about: It’s the $13.4 million in this budget that is committed to continuing the strategy against illegal guns, gangs and violence.

That was a strategy that was introduced by this government. It’s a wide-ranging strategy. It has several aspects to it. One of those aspects is to continue funding the strategy; that’s very important. One of the aspects of that strategy is to train officers in the particular skills needed to go after these very serious crimes, and one of the aspects of that strategy is to form a special unit that is specifically engaged with going after illegal guns and gang crime. Those are different aspects of the strategy, so it’s not all about money. It’s also about training: for example, training people who work in our correctional institutions in having the skills and knowledge that they need to recognize the trafficking of contraband—that’s a skill.

Madame la Présidente, nous sommes fiers que nous ayons un programme qui vise spécifiquement des armes à feu illégales, les bandes criminalisées et la violence. Nous voulons que tout le monde en Ontario puisse vivre dans une communauté sans violence et sans la crainte d’être violé par les bandes criminalisées. C’est pour ça que nous avons cette stratégie, qui s’appelle la Stratégie de lutte contre les bandes criminalisées, les armes à feu et la violence.

Notre stratégie comprend des programmes de financement provincial. La stratégie comprend aussi la création d’une unité provinciale de soutien parce que tout le monde sait que les forces de police locales ont besoin de soutien. Nous savons que nos officiers dans les instituts correctionnels ont besoin de bonnes formations pour lutter contre les problèmes qui sont spécifiques à ces instituts, comme le trafic de contrebande.

I know that there are several members of the PC caucus who took a look at this specific strategy and are very, very glad it’s in there and continues to be funded, for $13.4 million.

Now, your everyday beat cop might not have all of the training and skills necessary to do the very challenging job of fighting gang violence and illegal guns. That’s one of the reasons why we need this very specialized program. And to be absolutely clear, we have the support even of law-abiding firearms owners, who know that the ownership of a firearm is very important and ought to be treated with the most seriousness and safeness—and they are legal firearms owners, as compared to the illegal gun acquisition, which is happening through the border between Canada and the United States. That is a very important distinction to make.

What happens after these illegal guns sneak into Canada? Well, they get into the hands of gangs. The illegal guns get into the hands of gangs, and the gangs use those guns to go after some of the most vulnerable people in our society. That’s why I’m very proud to support this program. I think the PC caucus is proud as well. I think the PC caucus is going to vote in favour of the budget because they know how important it is to continue a program which fights against illegal guns, gangs and the violence that those engender.

But we know that not everybody in this assembly feels the way we feel. We know that’s not the case. In fact, we know that there are several members of this assembly who are very strongly opposed to what we stand for. We know that there are several members of this assembly who have been quite vocal about not wanting to fund police forces and not wanting to fight the fight that we want. They’ve even campaigned on it. They’ve been very vocal about it. They want to defund the police. Their position is entirely opposite of the PC position: Whereas we want to fund police forces, they want to defund police forces.

But it’s not just a few individuals—no, it is not. In fact, the NDP have actually completed an entire policy document, which they’ve entitled, “an Ontario NDP Commitment to Action.” Now, I would characterize it as a commitment to inaction, because the entire policy document is all about defunding the police, and I think defunding the police is a very bad idea. But apparently, among the NDP caucus, they’ve committed an entire written policy document committed to defunding the police.

I have taken the trouble to read the policy document, and it’s very clear as to what it wants to do: The NDP want to defund the police. That’s what they want to do. Well, I want to make my position very clear: I don’t agree with that policy document. I think it’s a very bad policy document. I think that we should be funding our police forces. These are the people who work every day to protect you and me and our families. As I said before in my previous comments, these are specialized forces, some of them very specialized, who work specifically against illegal guns, who work specifically against gangs, who prey specifically on some of the most vulnerable populations in our province.

I’m very, very happy to see that in this budget 2023, the Minister of Finance has committed—and the PC Party, I believe, will commit when we vote on this budget—to continuing the financing of $13.4 million to continue funding the police. I’m committed to that. I want to thank the Minister of Finance for recognizing the importance of funding our police forces properly, and I want to thank the Solicitor General for having a strategy that’s going to deal with illegal guns, that’s going to deal with gangs, that deals with the violence they create here in the province of Ontario against some of the most vulnerable people in our society.

When it comes to a vote, I’m going to be voting for funding the police. I’m going to be voting for assisting the police officers who go out there and put their lives on the line to make it possible for me and my family to sleep well at night. And so, Madam Speaker, I will be voting in favour of this motion and in favour of properly funding our police forces.

Thank you to the member from Essex for your thoughtful comments. I’ll try to stay calm.

I believe this is a great budget. It’s appropriate for the times that we are in, that we find ourselves in now. The budget continues the course and the focus on building the economy with a path to balancing the budget. A strong economy means good jobs. Employment: one of our social determinants of health.

A focus on education: This budget includes historical investments in education: new schools, a new curriculum for today’s jobs and Ontario’s needs. Education: another social determinant of health.

Investments in hospitals, schools, transit, housing and the infrastructure make it all work together.

A wise farmer lived on the adjacent farm to us—I guess they’re all wise farmers or they wouldn’t be farming. He used to say, “It’s not just what you make, it’s how smart you spend it.” And this government isn’t spending; they are investing. That’s smart. Investing in people, in our education system, building schools, not closing them; in our health care system, record contributions, commitments and funding to our health care system; in infrastructure, transit and roads. We need infrastructure, as I said, so that the whole machine can run in harmony.

A good analogy for this budget is a plane. It took off in 2018, and it’s still climbing to get to its desired altitude. This budget is holding the course and getting it done. We will continue to invest in Ontario for the people of Ontario. This budget builds on success.

Back to my neighbour: spending smart. Having our health care workers work to their full scope of practice, reducing the unnecessary pressures on our physicians, our emergency rooms and our hospitals—smart.

Additional funding in home care, community paramedics, mental health and addictions, getting people care where they need it, when they need it. Community paramedicine—what a great service. I worked in the Renfrew-Lanark area when the community paramedicine program first started in Renfrew—an immediate impact on people’s ability to stay and remain in their homes—a great program. We heard the member from Renfrew announce the other day base funding for the community paramedicine program.

Helping our youth: $170 million to improve outcomes for youth leaving the child welfare system so they can be healthy, happy adults, to help them meet their full potential, and $200 million for the Homelessness Prevention Program. Something is in this budget for everybody.

I’ll turn now to long-term care. Our government knows that fixing Ontario’s long-term-care system in the modern day requires modern solutions. We are enhancing the health care experience in our 2023 budget, Building a Strong Ontario. As part of our plan for Ontarians to receive the right care in the right place, the government is also investing $5.5 million in 2023-24 to build the new behavioural specialized units in long-term-care homes, including approximately 70 new specialized beds. These units specialize in care for those with complex behaviours by providing increased staffing, a tailored environment, focused behavioural assessments and enhanced care planning. This results in timely and appropriate care for residents with complex needs and avoids unnecessary hospitalizations—smart budget.

Ontario made a historic $6.4-billion commitment to build more than 31,000 new and over 28,000 upgraded beds across the province by 2028. I’ve had the pleasure of visiting some of these new homes. When you think in my community there used to be one or two what we called “preferred homes,” now there are three more new homes. We want all homes to be preferred homes. Since July 2018, 19 projects have been completed, adding over 2,300 new and upgraded beds across our province, with more on the way.

Working for you: We believe that Ontarians deserve connected and convenient care so they can stay in their homes for longer as they age or are able to receive care closer to home, freeing up space in hospitals and long-term-care homes. As we continue to modernize long-term care in the province, it is important that we continue to develop innovative approaches to deliver quality health care to our loved ones, while partnering with local municipalities.

One such program is the Community Paramedicine for Long-Term Care Program. The program leverages the skills of paramedicine practitioners to reduce hallway health care, improve the quality of life of seniors, and provide appropriate and timely care for seniors in the comfort of their own homes. This approach is proactive, community-centred and patient-focused. This initiative is already offered province-wide and has connected more than 30,000 people to 24/7 non-emergency support at home. The plane continues to climb. I am proud that our budget recognizes the importance of this program by investing more than $174 million over two years to continue the Community Paramedicine for Long-Term Care Program. Now every community across the province has access to this service.

I’m also pleased to share that the government will be providing up to $1.25 billion to long-term-care homes in 2023-24 to hire and retain long-term-care staff across Ontario. This is part of our historic $4.9-billion commitment across four years to hire and retain more than 27,000 registered nurses, registered practical nurses and personal support workers over this period to help achieve our target of residents receiving four hours of direct care per day by March 31, 2025. That’s building on the 12,000 registered nurses that were registered last year in Ontario, and with the recertification process for internationally trained, there have been 6,727 come in already. We’re continuing holding the course.

We are making investments to build a strong Ontario so that we have the right infrastructure and supports in place to ensure our seniors experience the best quality of care and quality of life. From increasing nutritional support to increasing the level of care funding and beyond, we’re working so that Ontarians are supported in every aspect.

I thank the Minister of Finance for all of his work, and his team and the Premier for holding the course so that we continue the good work that we’re doing in long-term care.

Other aspects in this budget are directed towards those most vulnerable in our communities:

—adjusting core allowances under the Ontario Disability Support Program to inflation annually and increasing the monthly earnings exemption for persons with disabilities;

—investing an additional $202 million each year in the homelessness prevention program and Indigenous Supportive Housing Program to help those experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

—temporarily doubling the Guaranteed Annual Income System, the GAINS program, for 2023 for our seniors.

Like I said before, there’s something in this budget for everyone. Proposing changes to expand this program will see another 100,000 additional seniors be eligible for the GAINS program.

I thank the ministers for their work, and their PAs for their work putting this budget together, and I fully support it.

My question is to the member from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston. He spoke eloquently about the supports in this budget proposed for seniors and other vulnerable sectors of our population.

Specifically, my question regards our Roadmap to Wellness: A Plan to Build Ontario’s Mental Health and Addictions System. We’ve known, over the past few years with the pandemic, that there has been a general decline in overall mental health across the province, and particularly those that face challenges in terms of food security and housing security. This program has a historic investment of about $3.8 billion over 10 years. We’re increasing that base funding by 5% to $425 million annually. I’m wondering if the member could please speak about the benefits that program will have for our residents.

I listened to both of the members speak about the budget, and my question is to the member from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston because he spoke specifically about the investments that the government is making and how proud he is.

One of the things that took place last night was the TDSB board meeting, and they made some really difficult decisions. They made a lot of difficult decisions which will really show the cumulative cuts over the last 20 years and the impact of that to our students and their learning.

So I want to ask the member, why has the government underspent, specifically, $47 million in your previous budget, and now, while projecting for the education funding—and seeing the amount of violence and need for learning within our schools, why isn’t your government spending more on education than before?

We’ve had two outstanding presentations from outstanding members.

I want to direct my question to the member for Essex, who talked about page 100 in the budget, and frankly, it’s one of my favourite pages. I’ve earmarked it and whatnot. You really outlined the power of the $13.4-million investment, the Guns, Gangs and Violence Reduction Strategy. I wonder if you can—and you did in your remarks, but I’m not a law enforcement officer. Certainly, we have some in the House. But you’ve got great experience here and understand specifically what’s coming from this strategy. I wondered if you could remind us of those specific benefits of this important investment.

It’s always an honour to rise on behalf of the residents of Parkdale–High Park to speak in this House, and today I speak to the 2023-24 budget motion that is before this House. This budget has failed to meet the needs of Ontarians and to address the current problems that the people of Ontario face. This budget has failed to meet the moment, and it is our duty as legislators, as elected officials, to stand up and fight for the needs of our people.

Speaker, don’t take it from me; take it from the Toronto Star editorial that was written last week. The title is, “An Ontario Budget without Vision.” That’s the title, and there is a quote in that editorial that says, “If this budget were a Christmas present, it would be a three-pack of white socks. Not entirely useless. But an exercise in going through the motions.” This is the feedback from people across the province, that this budget has failed to meet the moment. There’s so much more we could do, that this government could do, but did not in this budget.

This is the biggest budget ever, at $204.7 billion. There’s so much we could do, particularly to help Ontarians who are struggling. Conservatives want Ontarians to think that this is the new normal, that this is as good as it gets, but things are not normal in Ontario right now. People are struggling to find an affordable place to live. They’re being forced to go to work sick just to put food on the table. Cancer patients are waiting months for treatment. They’re showing up at emergency rooms with a sick child, only to find it closed. In fact, in Ontario, more than any other province at any other point in history, we have had more emergency room closures than ever. The Ford government promised to deliver on these issues, but once again, with this budget they have failed to do so.

The NDP has a vision of an Ontario with more opportunity and prosperity, not just for the well-connected, but for everybody, for the everyday Ontarian. People are feeling squeezed with the rising cost of living, and this government is doing nothing meaningful to offer relief to everyday Ontarians. In fact, it’s going to cost Ontarians more.

The Ford government is diverting public money into private health care facilities. What does that mean for Ontarians? Longer wait times, more ER closures, more nurses being driven out of our health care sector. They’re shortchanging municipalities through massive cuts, meaning families will pay higher property taxes for poorer services. It also means that Ontarians who are going to work using transit will be waiting longer for the bus, and that it is going to be even harder to find an affordable place to live.

This budget shows that the province is moving in the wrong direction on housing. They’re dismantling the greenbelt, and even that isn’t delivering on what they’re promising. This budget predicts fewer housing starts next year than this year, and they are nowhere near on track to meet the stated goal of 1.5 million homes in 10 years.

We in the Ontario NDP will fight to make sure we’re investing in strong and caring communities that will attract workers, that will attract new businesses to our province and keep them here. We want to see communities with excellent health care, mental health supports, education workers who are able to help our children learn and work in safe spaces, more affordable places to live that have reliable public transit.

Speaking of public transit, I want to take a moment to say that on behalf of the leader of the official opposition and our entire NDP caucus, our hearts go out to Gabriel Magalhaes’s family, friends and community members. Gabriel is the 16-year-old who died just last week from a stabbing attack at Keele station, which is located in my riding. Only a few months ago, there was another knife attack on two people at the adjacent High Park station, and another constituent, Vanessa Kurpiewska, passed away from that attack.

Gabriel attended Keele Street Public School. His classmates will be hosting a community candlelight vigil this evening, starting at 8 p.m. from the High Park gates and ending at Keele station. I will be joining alongside my colleagues from the ATU—transit workers who are also ringing the alarm bells in terms of not just public transit, but the increase of violence that we’re seeing.

Speaker, I want to take a moment here, because Gabriel’s mom, Andrea, has demonstrated incredible courage and grace and has been shining a light on the issue, on the struggles that people are facing. I’m going to quote her directly. This is what she said: “We need more social services. We need more investment into physical and mental health. We need more support for housing. I feel like if things keep going the way they are going right now, so many people are going to be suffering the horrible pain that I’m going through right now.”

Speaker, as a mom of two little kids, I can’t imagine the pain, and so it is incumbent on all of us to address the root causes of violence—as Andrea herself has said—to address the social determinants of health. We have a choice as legislators. The budget is that choice. The investments we choose to make or not make are reflected in the budget, and this budget is not delivering. It’s not delivering on mental health supports that are needed. It’s not delivering on the housing that is needed. It’s not delivering on the homelessness crisis that municipalities across the province are experiencing.

It’s very important that we not only express our condolences, but that we take action. With this budget, again, this Conservative government is choosing to benefit a select few at the expense of everybody else. This budget is a failure of leadership. True leaders meet the moment. This one is out of touch with reality and out of touch with the experiences of people.

There’s obviously a lot to cover in a budget, so I will only have time to go over a few key problems with this budget. I want to touch on housing first. It is getting increasingly unaffordable. In my riding of Parkdale–High Park, almost 60% of residents are tenants, and rents in this city are out of control—absolutely out of control.

Earlier this week, I joined tenants from 55 High Park and 58 Quebec Avenue in delivering a letter to Great West Life Realty Advisors asking for the dramatic increases to their rents to be stopped. These are buildings that are not covered under the Rent Control Act, and so their rents can increase by whatever amount the company decides. Even though it’s a new building, there are no major repairs. There are no new services or anything like that; it’s simply increasing because it’s not illegal, but just because it’s not illegal doesn’t mean it’s right. We know that tenants are suffering.

As well, with this budget, the government talks about creating a supply of housing. Yes, we need to increase the supply of housing—the official opposition agrees with that—but we also need to ensure that it is (1) affordable and (2) that the government follow through on the recommendations of their own housing task force and build within existing boundaries. Report after report is showing that there is absolutely no need to build on the greenbelt.

Speaker, the government passed Bill 23 and that is hurting municipalities a lot—municipalities like the city of Toronto, who are already with a $1-billion shortfall. This government promised that they would make municipalities whole because Bill 23 cut development charges, and development charges are very important for municipalities. It is through development charges that the city is actually able to invest in the infrastructure that the people who are going to be living in these new homes are going to receive, infrastructure like green spaces, parks, child care. We can’t just live in homes; we have to live in communities. We have to be able to access all of the services and we want to be able to do that. But if development charges are going to be cut, if the government is going to prevent the city of Toronto from collecting development charges, and if the government is not going to make any investments to replace that loss of revenue, then the city’s services that we rely on are not going to be there. And cities need these services to function.

I don’t have too much time, so I want to go over very quickly and touch a little bit on education. Earlier this week, again, I asked the government if they would repay the TDSB the pandemic costs because the TDSB was forced to tap into their reserves during the pandemic in order to meet the direction that was set by this government and by public health. They wanted to make sure that the health and safety needs of students, teachers and all education workers, everybody in the school community, were met and that they continued to provide academic excellence and supports during the pandemic.

Speaker, what I find particularly troubling is that the Financial Accountability Office has repeatedly come out with reports showing that this government is underspending. There is money that is being allocated to education, to health and to different areas, but that allocated funding is not being spent. And that’s the same for education. While this government was underspending on education, they were forcing the TDSB to tap into reserves, and the TDSB has now reached a point where there are no more reserves. So for the upcoming school budget year, the board will be forced to make support staff layoffs, will be forced to cut programs, and we’re already seeing that. Through a school newsletter at Humberside, parents and students were informed that their math drop-in program was going to be discontinued. In fact, it’s going to be discontinued as of today.

At a time when the needs of students are still very high, at a time when we need more caring adults in our schools, when violence is up in not just high schools but in elementary as well, we cannot afford to lose any more staff. We cannot afford to lose programs in our schools.

Speaker, as I mentioned, budgets are about choices, and I want to let the government members know that we can choose to invest in strong and caring communities. We can choose to have excellent public health care, mental health supports and invest in education workers. One of the things that increasingly I’m hearing about from my constituents is that it’s no longer low- to middle-income families who are struggling. Most people are feeling the pinch. Not only are rents up, mortgages are up; the cost of buying a home is up. The dream of being able to have your own home, especially for young families, is feeling like it’s slipping. It’s further and further away—to the point, in fact, that people have to make very, very hard decisions about where the money goes, because wages are not increasing at the same rate as costs are going up. This is impacting people in a very deep way.

And I think about, particularly, the front-line health care workers. I think about public sector workers. Speaker. For them, not only are costs increasing, but this government, through legislation, Bill 124, is keeping their wages low. Inflation is through the roof, but public sector worker wages cannot increase more than the 1%. The court decision was that this bill, Bill 124, was unconstitutional. And instead of repealing Bill 124, instead of giving cost-of-living increases to public sector workers, particularly to our front-line health care workers, what is this government doing? Spending more public dollars in appealing this decision.

Speaker, we cannot have a great health care system without health care staff, and we cannot have enough health care staff—we are not able to recruit and retain the health care staff—if we’re not paying decent wages, if we’re not ensuring that every worker—including health care workers; many health care workers don’t have paid sick days. With this budget, the government is bringing an end to the paid-sick days program. Paid sick days are good for the economy, because when workers are sick and they stay at home to take care of themselves or their child or their family member—perhaps a parent or a grandparent—it stops the spread. They won’t be infecting and spreading the virus or the illness to their co-workers. Paid sick days are good and sound economic policy.

Speaking of workplaces, one of the other things that I’m also hearing increasingly is from our small businesses, through our BIAs, who are saying that one of the top priorities for the small businesses is actually greater mental health supports, because they are increasingly interacting with people who are struggling. That’s making it hard for them to feel safe themselves, but also to make sure that the clients are safe, that the community spaces are safe. And so they really want to see greater mental health supports as a policy to support small businesses, Speaker.

In the last minute that I have, I just want to conclude by saying, again, this budget is a failure of the leadership. It’s a failure on the part of this government because it fails to prioritize the needs of Ontarians and to invest in a better future for our province. Speaker, we don’t have to accept this as the new normal. We can choose a different path, one that puts people first, one that creates a brighter future for all of us. Unfortunately, once again, the Conservatives have failed.