I listened to the remarks of the member from Parkdale–High Park. I know that, from time to time, members of the NDP caucus have been concerned about violence and gang activity. And so my question with regard to this particular budget, which contains $13.4 million to continue the fight against illegal guns, gang violence—

I will split my time today with my colleague from Oakville North–Burlington.

Madam Speaker, I am very delighted to stand today to support the new budget, of 2023. There are many aspects we can talk about this budget. My colleague beside me focused on one point; I will speak generally about, actually, two points: what this budget gives towards Mississauga, my city, and, as well, the health side of this budget.

Talking about Mississauga, we are getting close—more funding for the LRT, the Hazel McCallion Line, which is huge spending in transit and covered in this budget, and we all know how that will help Mississauga’s growth.

Also, in my riding, we got funding for a community centre, South Common Community Centre, and there is more spending in the city when it comes to festivities and all kinds of spending in this budget still covered here, in multiple government agencies like Trillium funding, which, again, helps Mississauga to be a vibrant city.

Also, the Mississauga hospital, Trillium Health Partners, which is going to be the biggest hospital in Canadian history, the biggest emergency room in Canada: It is a state-of-the-art hospital, which Mississauga is in bad need of. I can say that. Since I immigrated to Canada, we had two hospitals, and in 23 years, Mississauga has grown from maybe—I don’t know—200,000 to almost more than a million now. Again, we have to expect, with this kind of growth, the health care system having issues. That should not be the case if proper planning was done, if the government which was at the time responsible for that did their job in projecting the growth and making this ready. Now, the hospital might take seven years to get done, but at least we are getting shovels in the ground, we’re getting things started and working, and we hope that we can see that coming to life very soon.

Another aspect of health care which my colleague the independent from the other side touched base on is, where is the medical staff? Where in the budget is medical staff? Again, I will speak about that, because as a person who lived that dilemma—my wife was an international medical graduate. We had a challenge for her to get into the system with all the challenges there, which caused her to have to be in the province for seven years to get her licence in Ontario. That’s another discussion; I’m not going to get into it. But I promised her at the time that we would work hard to change that, to make things different. Thanks to this government, who worked very hard in Working for Workers 1 and Working for Workers 2 and even Working for Workers 3, which is currently debated—today, in the morning, we were continuing debating on that. I was honoured to be speaking about that bill and standing to support it, because I gave a promise 21 years ago that this would change, to myself and to my family and to my wife, and it took me 21 years, but when this bill passed, I said we maybe spent two, three, four, six hours debating something, but that’s going to impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of new immigrants coming to this country who will benefit from the change. On the day we were debating that bill, I said it’s a promise made, promise kept, and I still support that because I see that budget is doing exactly that.

We are expanding medical workers. We added two more medical schools, one in Scarborough and one in Brampton. We added more seats for medical graduates. The IMG program—at the time my wife was doing the exam, for the whole country there were 24 spots. So all the IMG doctors, coming from anywhere in the world, were fighting for 24 spots. Maybe in five years with all the meetings we did with the Minister of Health at the time, they expand it to 75.

Today, the announcement—and I thank Premier Doug Ford for that. Today, he announced that for 2023 projected, we are adding 100 spots for undergrad and 124 postgrad. Today, he announced that we’re expanding that, so there will be 295 spots for postgrads. This is the biggest investment in getting our health care force expanded to cover the shortage in doctors and family doctors, as my colleague said: 295 this year. I’m saying 24 spots across the country to 295 spots for Ontario. This is the kind of change this government is doing.

If we look into hospitals, we are adding a hospital in Windsor. We are adding a hospital at Oak Valley in Uxbridge, a state-of-the-art acute care hospital in Windsor, Ottawa Hospital Civic Campus, Runnymede Healthcare for first responder wellness and rehabilitation and, of course, the Mississauga hospital. There is huge spending in health care infrastructure. For this budget, it’s $48 billion over the next 10 years to build up our health care hospitals, as well as our medical staff.

Adding nurses: We added 6,000 new nurses, thanks to Minister Monte. He sponsored a program to help nurses to study. We are getting more nurses graduated in-home here in Ontario to be able to match the shortage. We are changing the working conditions for PSWs, personal support workers. We made the conditions of their work better. We added more to the hourly rate to make sure we can retain those. We are expanding into this. There are many colleges now offering training—very short training. I think it’s a year’s training or two semesters, and we are getting more PSWs to add to the force to support the need.

Adding long-term care: This is the first government—30,000 long-term-care beds since 2019. We approved more than 30,000 long-term-care beds. In seven years of the previous government, they added 640 beds for the whole of Ontario.

I’m very proud with my colleagues from Mississauga, the six MPPs from Mississauga. We managed to get for Mississauga 1,128 beds—just in Mississauga. I just want to compare the numbers: 1,128 beds in Mississauga versus 640 beds in seven years in the whole of Ontario.

Do you see the comparison? This is the amount of spending we are doing. It’s all major projects: transit projects, highways, hospitals. This is infrastructure that’s needed for Ontario to be ready to welcome 500,000 newcomers every year. It’s going to be coming in the next few years for every year—500,000. They need housing. They need hospitals. They need highways. They need jobs. I’m very, very proud of this government for that budget which I see as unheard of.

I’d like to join in the debate of Bill 85, Building a Strong Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2023, in support of our government and the Minister of Finance.

Speaker, our budget plan is a strategic and targeted plan that aims to support both individuals, families and businesses, amidst the backdrop of ongoing global instability and uncertainty. We are focused on building a resilient economy that can weather any storm by laying a robust fiscal foundation that will benefit future generations. And thanks to careful planning and a balanced approach, we’ve developed a clear path forward to balance the budget while still delivering on our plan.

We are providing increased supports for employers and investing in skilled workers. We are committed to strengthening the health care system, and we are investing in infrastructure such as roads, highways, transit and broadband networks across the province. Our vision also includes investing in the critical minerals sector in the north. But the work doesn’t end with extraction of these rich mineral deposits. Our plan will integrate the critical minerals in the north with Ontario’s manufacturing powerhouse in the south, ensuring Ontario takes its rightful place in the global supply chain for the economy of the future.

Our objective is to make life more affordable for the people of Ontario by keeping taxes low, cutting the gas and fuel tax last year and extending it to the end of 2023, reducing electricity costs, cutting red tape for small business and entrepreneurs, removing double fares for GO Transit and local transit. It was just last week that I joined the Premier, the finance minister and the economic development minister in Oakville as they announced plans for a new Ontario Made Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit. This tax credit, if passed, would provide a 10% refundable corporate income tax credit, helping local manufacturers lower their costs, invest and expand, creating good-paying jobs and helping rebuild the economy, giving Ontario-based manufacturers another reason to invest in homegrown, Ontario-made innovation and expanding operations.

Over the last two and a half years, Ontario has attracted $17 billion in investments from global automakers and suppliers of electric vehicle batteries and $3 billion in investments from global life-sciences companies.

With some of my time today, I would like to highlight how this budget will improve the lives of the most vulnerable of our citizens. With some of my time, I think it’s important, because when you look closely at what our budget is all about, it really is focused on people: the people of Ontario. Our government is focused on the economic and healthy recovery of Ontarians post-pandemic. As a result, we are investing an additional $15.3 billion over three years in the health sector: 50 new hospital projects, 3,000 new hospital beds over the next 10 years.

Our government is acutely aware of the devastating impact COVID had on the mental health of hard-working people in our province. This budget addresses this pressing issue through a historic investment of $425 million over three years for mental health and addictions, including a 5% increase in the base funding of community-based mental health and addiction service providers.

This $425 million investment will directly impact mental health and addictions services across the province that are easy to access and there when needed; children and youth, by providing access to mental health and addictions services, primary care and social and community supports; children and youth suffering from eating disorders. It will also maintain supportive housing and services for people living with mental health and addictions challenges as they transition from hospital to the community.

In my community of Oakville North–Burlington, CMHA Halton CEO Rashaad Vahed stated, “This funding increase is a historic boost to community-based mental health services to continue to deliver supports by stabilizing what we provide and helping to retain qualified staff as operating costs continue to rise.

“Most of all, it will help our friends and neighbours in Halton get care when, where and how they need it to improve their health and wellness.”

We are committed to assist the most at-risk individuals in society. If the focus of this budget is building a strong Ontario, we must first build strong Ontarians. By investing in mental health supports for the more vulnerable citizens, we are investing in Ontario.

As a former parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Long-Term Care, I’m pleased to see our government’s further investments for older adults with complex health needs. The government plans to invest $5.5 million for new behavioural specialized units in long-term-care homes, adding about 70 specialized beds for individuals with complex needs. This is in addition to the historic $6.4 billion since 2019 to build modern, safe and comfortable long-term-care homes for residents. This investment will result in over 31,000 new and 28,000 upgraded beds across the province by 2028. Every older adult wants to age with dignity, and these investments will ensure high-quality and compassionate care for those seniors most in need of care.

We know that older adults prefer to remain in their homes as long as they’re able to do so, with some supports. Last year, the government announced a historic $1 billion to improve home and community care. In this budget, we are accelerating $565 million to stabilize the services seniors are receiving.

While we’re on the topic of caring for seniors, I also want to mention the Guaranteed Annual Income System program, GAINS. It proposes changes that would expand the eligibility of GAINS starting in July 2024, which will see about a 100,000 more low-income seniors receive payments. This represents a 50% increase in the number of recipients.

At the same time, to continue to put more money in the pocket of eligible seniors, for the first time, the government will be indexing the benefit annually to inflation, providing even more financial support to low-income seniors.

Let us not forget seniors built this province. They worked hard to create a better future for all of us. We owe them our respect and support.

We’ve also increased Ontario Disability Support Program income rates by 5% and adjusted annually to inflation, and invested an additional $202 million each year for supportive housing programs to help people at risk of being homeless.

Today some of my colleagues have touched on the initiatives our government is implementing to ensure the safety of our communities. Given the recent tragic events, it is vital to highlight them. Our government is actively tackling crime and working to ensure we have safe streets and communities for law-abiding citizens. To combat gun and gang-related offences, Ontario is investing $13.4 million in the fiscal year 2023-24, building upon the accomplishments of the Guns, Gangs and Violence Reduction Strategy. This additional funding will continue to support effective gang prevention and intervention strategies that have already proven successful. All Ontarians should be able to live free from fear or intimidation.

Now, the lingering effects of the pandemic, Russia’s aggression towards Ukraine, China’s economic resurgence, the ongoing energy transition and the global trade impacts of policies such as the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act have presented challenges. As a result, more and more global trading partners are turning inward, leading to disrupted and strained supply chains.

The post-pandemic environment has resulted in elevated inflation, putting a financial strain on families and businesses, making it increasingly challenging to afford basic necessities like housing, groceries and household goods. In response to these challenges, the Ontario government has introduced this budget to serve as our blueprint for building a strong province and to provide families, workers, businesses and individuals with certainty: the right plan to not just get through these challenges but emerge as a strong Ontario.

A vote in favour of the Building a Strong Ontario Act is a vote in favour of the people of Ontario, a vote for the future generations of Ontario. Speaker, I ask members to vote with the government and to pass this bill.

My question is to the member for Oakville North–Burlington. Last week, we had food banks from across the province gathered here at Queen’s Park to call on the government to make those fundamental public policy changes that would address the root causes of food insecurity in this province.

Food banks told us that they are seeing huge spikes in first-time users. They are seeing dramatic declines in donations because of the affordability pressures that people are facing in this province. We need to see a doubling of ODSP and Ontario Works rates. We need to see rent control in order to lift people out of poverty. Why are those measures not included in the 2023 budget?

I want to thank my colleague and my seatmate, the great member from Mississauga–Erin Mills, who’s a great seatmate and doing a great job representing his riding. Also, I really, really admire his wonderful commitment to promoting the Coptic community in our province—what a wonderful commitment.

We’re excited about this budget in Essex county because of the health care investments it makes, and I want to know what this budget is going to do for his riding and his people in Mississauga–Erin Mills.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak to the 2023 Ontario budget motion on behalf of my constituents of St. Paul’s. I understand that this is the biggest budget in Ontario’s history as well. This budget comes at a time when Ontarians need to see investments in them more than ever. Things aren’t okay, and too many folks are struggling. People in Ontario are facing unprecedented struggles. Young people are stressed out about their futures. The past year has been marked by the highest inflation seen in decades. The very basics of food and shelter have shot up in cost while, of course, wages have not.

Given the scale of what’s facing our province in 2023, this government should be doing more, not less, especially a government that withheld more than $6 billion in Ontario contingency funds, saving it for a rainy day. Well, guess what? It’s pouring in Ontario. People need infrastructure and transit they can rely on, housing they can afford, not tenants forced to spend 50%, 60% or more of their salaries for rent, not mounting the school repair backlog and fast-tracking us towards the worst climate change.

This budget hasn’t read the room. It’s not responding to the pressing items concerning folks in St. Paul’s and the rest of the province. For our community in St. Paul’s, we’re often hearing about housing concerns from everyone: lower-income earners and middle-income earners are still having to make strategic choices at the grocery checkout; artists, teachers and education workers; folks working in social services; cashiers; people on ODSP and OW; students and seniors on fixed incomes. I’ve even had some conversations with folks who work for the Ontario government about their affordability concerns. It’s not an easy time for most.

In St. Paul’s, our community is made up of more than 60% tenants. Where are they in this budget at a time when the average one-bedroom in the GTA is costing more than $2,500 a month?

Last night, I joined some tenants at 55 Brownlow, who are fighting to stay housed, for their sign-making party. Yes, rather than resting after a long day’s work, there they were, having some juice and chips and whatnot, making signs to remind this government that housing is a human right, that you cannot put profits of greedy developers—this government’s friends, it appears—over people. They’re being demovicted. One tenant has lived there for over 40 years. She’s a senior, and she doesn’t know where she will go.

These tenants want to be guaranteed first right to return. They want guaranteed rent control and a guaranteed rental replacement. They, like I, do not want to see their fully functioning and safe building torn down to make space for expensive condos few can afford. Will this Conservative government hear their demands? Will you repeal Bill 23, your Conservative housing bill that does not guarantee real rent control and that threatens municipal rental replacement bylaws?

To afford a one-bedroom rental in this current market, an individual or a household has to bring in roughly $100,000 a year—more than that. This is simply not sustainable or obtainable for many of the young families, single-dwellers and also the newcomers struggling to make St. Paul’s home. If some of the highest-income earners in the city can’t afford it, what about those on ODS-Poverty and OW? It’s important to note this government does not double ODSP or OW—not even close. Let’s be honest. Even with a doubled ODSP and OW rate, good luck to someone in Toronto, in St. Paul’s, anywhere really, to be able to afford a home.

We need real affordable housing. MAID, medical assistance in dying, should never be where unhoused or precariously housed people on disability have to turn. Government should never make it easier for people to find death than to find a home. MAID has its purpose, mind you, but this should never be it.

And this Conservative government pats its wealthy selves on the back about a 5% increase. Ask my community member Shaun on Winona—the 5% is pennies. Recipients aren’t even allowed to use the 5% where it’s most useful for them in their budget. Even the 5% comes with strings attached.

The ODSP/OW rates simply are not enough. The Liberals froze the rates for years, legislating poverty, and then offered people a 3% increase as an election promise in 2018— that’s what I’d call a little too late. Then this Conservative government slashed the 3% in half, giving people just 1.5%. Tell me, were people on ODSP/OW not worth the investment?

And let’s not pretend this issue started in 2018, or even with the Liberals. Former Premier Mike Harris’s Conservatives cut rates by 20%. That was unconscionable. But hey, he’s living high off the hog now, cashing in on the for-profit long-term-care home cash cow, where roughly 5,400 elders perished due to this Conservative government’s chronic underfunding and understaffing. I still live with the stories I heard of people’s elders dying in their own feces, covered in urine, rodents, bugs. This Conservative government should never have let that happen.

Our Ontario NDP official opposition is calling for an immediate doubling, at least, of ODSP/OW. The program must be revamped and matched to inflation so people aren’t constantly being plunged further into poverty. We would redevelop the system by co-designing it alongside people with disabilities.

We are in an indisputable housing crisis of an unprecedented magnitude. Meanwhile, this budget is actually cutting the overall funding to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing by $124.4 million. As this government talks about their plans to build, I wish to remind them that Ontarians don’t need help in 10 years or whenever this government’s supposed 1.5 million homes are being built—a number they aren’t even on track to meet, with their housing starts projected to be even lower next year.

Where are your solutions for today, for this moment? This budget has missed this moment. And similar to this Conservative government’s terrible track record with costly, over-budgeted and chronically late P3 contracts that have made transit projects like the long overdue, over-budget Eglinton LRT construction in my community—you can’t keep making promises that will come years from now, conveniently outside of your term as government. Promises years down the line aren’t promises people can depend on today.

Conservatives slashed real rent control. That means more unhoused. It means more people, including survivors of gender-based and intimate partner violence, living in unsafe and undignified housing because they’ve got no other options. Instead of helping, the government is propping up housing profiteers looking to push tenants out of their rent-controlled units so they can profit from vacancy decontrol with new unsuspecting victims. It’s why this government must pass our “rent control for all” legislation, as well as our rent stabilization bill demanding rent control on all buildings and rent transparency, where the new tenants pay what the last tenant paid.

Through the dead of winter, the tenants at 64 St. Clair West went without heat for a whole week under the property management of Briarlane Corp. Electrical shutdowns, water shutoffs, removed laundry access, constant construction noise, noise pollution—this contravenes tenants’ rights as per the Residential Tenancies Act.

This government’s lack of real affordable housing is also fiscally irresponsible. Preventing homelessness is a fraction of the cost of reacting to it. Studies show that investments in social housing end up being about one fifteenth of the cost of institutional responses to homelessness, like prisons and hospitals, and about one seventh of the cost of emergency shelters.

A recent Star article showed that last year, nearly 5,000 unhoused people came through the doors of St. Michael’s Hospital’s trauma centre, and 15% of those were simply because they had no other place to go. Without any real strategy in place, hospital staff were giving out backpacks with gift cards to 24-hour food services just so that unhoused people could stay warm and fed overnight. Those are the figures out of just one hospital of many in this city and more across the province—hospitals in Ontario where ER doors were often closed; surgical suites left dark; nurses leaving in mass exodus because of, again, the chronic underfunding of our public health care system, a plan put in place by this Conservative government to create a health care crisis so they could sweep in with their grand plan of privatization of health care.

Health care costs will continue to surge if the homelessness crisis isn’t addressed. There must be a housing-first approach across this province that recognizes housing as the social determinant of health and the human right that it is. Conservatives cannot continue to attempt to balance budgets on the backs of the most vulnerable in society. We need real investment in a comprehensive housing strategy that includes social, supportive transition housing, more assisted living housing and co-op housing, all of which have been proven to make housing affordable for all Ontarians and to ensure their dignity remains intact. This budget includes no new funding, it appears, to build new social housing or even protect what is existing.

For co-op housing, the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada has called this budget “a missed opportunity to create affordable co-op homes” as a way to meet the housing needs of low- and moderate-income households.

I see the benefits of co-op housing in my community when I think of the fine folks on Melita, for instance, where co-op housing has offered folks affordable and dignified places to live, including seniors, intergenerational families, young families and people on fixed incomes, who have said they would otherwise be forced to leave their communities without it. In our home, we have nine co-op buildings and about 596 units of co-op housing, and we’d be open to welcoming more.

The market on its own will not solve the housing crisis. This government cannot keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again and expect a new outcome.

Similar to housing, schools are in crisis. School boards are in crisis. According to the TDSB, rates of violence and lockdowns are at new heights as a direct result of the mental health crisis our children and youth are facing. Meanwhile, less than 10% of schools across the province have adequate mental health professionals to support their students, courtesy of this government. Instead of ensuring every Ontario school has all the mental health supports they need, the government refuses to reimburse school boards’ COVID-related expenses, expenses that were prescribed by their own government and Toronto Public Health to keep our kids safe.

The government has got to do better. When school boards drain their reserves, it prevents them from hiring the very mental health professionals we need to keep our schools safe. It’s why I got petitions from ETFO, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, signed by hundreds of my school community members from our ward 8, begging this government to “stop the cuts and invest in the schools our students deserve.”

Is this government suggesting that my community members are liars, or making up the concerns and challenges they have about the government spending?

The 2023 budget means school boards will be forced to cut hundreds of staff to overcome deficits, at a time when we should be adding more supports—more social workers, more psychologists, more teachers and more education workers—to lower ballooned class sizes.

Clearing the deficit of the TDSB—one they incurred, again, for pandemic-related costs—is not optional. It should be mandatory. This would cost $64 million. That is less than one tenth the cost of the gifts this Conservative government has given to its wealthy corporate buddies through corporate tax cuts.

Teachers and education staff are doing too much with too little to get students where they need to be. With this budget, the next school year will only get worse without any commitments to increase the number of teachers, education workers and school staff.

I also want to say that investing in education is an investment in our economy. Research shows that for every $1 invested into public education, we see $1.30 return back to our economy. This also works in the opposite direction, too. The same study, by Aimee McArthur-Gupta, completed for the OSSTF, shows that just a 3% drop in high school graduation, as a result of this government’s underspending, adds $3.8 billion in costs to our budget over the next 20 years.

Access to excellent education is a social determinant of health, and health is top of mind for many in St. Paul’s. The health budget is $300 million less than expected. This is likely only going to get worse as this government continues to say no to 10 permanent paid sick days and is cancelling their lousy temporary program at the end of the month.

Speaker, paid sick days are a proven, effective strategy to ease pressure on our health care system by preventing the spread of COVID and other infectious diseases, I might add. This government has said no to workers and no to Ontarians almost 30 times, if I’m not mistaken, when it comes to asking for paid sick days.

This budget’s failure to answer to social determinants of health, like stable housing, meaningful poverty reduction and adequate investment in education and preventative health care, will only widen the gap between the haves and the have-nots. We’ve got to keep our health care system a publicly funded health care system. Government cannot line the pockets of shareholders and support the upselling of unnecessary goods to vulnerable seniors while also reducing OHIP-covered eye checkups for seniors 65 and older, from once every 12 months to, I believe, now once every 18 months.

All Ontarians need assurance that when they need health care, they’ll get it, with no hidden fees or added charges, with no pay-to-play schemes that mean they’re left waiting as those who can afford it jump the line. People in Ontario, regardless of their status, need assurance that their health care remains their human right. It is why this government must keep coverage in place for all uninsured people in Ontario.

I stand firmly with the Healthcare4All Coalition and some of my constituents who were just outside on the lawn of Queen’s Park today, demanding that the government not cut the program that is scheduled to be cut tomorrow. Rather than giving gifts to “independent health facilities,” the government must do all it can to support our publicly funded system, so folks can get fast, excellent service without financial barriers.

As I mentioned earlier this month, this budget removes the $5 million in COVID recovery grants for arts and artists. This is while it only maintains the $60-million Ontario Arts Council budget, another drop in the bucket for this government, as mentioned in an article from the Globe and Mail. Realize that even if the government had maintained it at $65 million, due to inflation, that still would have been a cut.

The pandemic had a disproportionate impact on the arts and culture sector. This is especially true for small-to-medium grassroots organizations and independent artists, who were subject to regulatory unfairness by this government, unfairness that kept their work on hold through pandemic restrictions while, frankly, larger organizations that were able to have the minister’s ear were allowed to carry on.

I addressed this last year in a letter to the Minister of Health—oh sorry, the Minister of Labour; I wrote letters to the Minister of Health as well—to the Minister of Labour, as well as to the former Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries and the Minister of Health, to which I never heard back from the ministers on, by the way.

Research has suggested that the full recovery of the arts and culture sector will take between four to six years, yet this government is already cutting their recovery fund. Speaker, the arts and culture sector is an economic powerhouse, contributing some nearly $3 billion to our GDP and over 300,000 jobs. That’s not even accounting for its positive impact across sectors, including on mental health and tourism, easing pressure on an overrun system—art as a tool in education. Its creation of beyond culture industries: to boost tourism, hospitality, tech and trade work. The contribution of local artists and culture, however, is not a given; it requires investment for it to work.

In response to a petition I made and circulated demanding no cuts to OAC funding, we received thousands of signatures in a matter of days from many artists and cultural workers—some new to the industry, some decades deep—who are fearful of their ability to stay in their creative industry. This government talks endlessly about attracting investment and creating jobs. Right now there are close to 400,000 jobs in this province that are unfilled. How do we make it work? How do we attract folks to stay in Ontario? We invest in the arts.

The past year has seen rates of people moving away from our province to another at a 50-year high. Folks, and especially artists and cultural workers, are exhausted from moving contract to contract through gig work, and they’re facing the highest cost of housing they’ve seen. We don’t need them going to Quebec. We don’t need them going to BC. We need our artists and cultural workers to stay right here in Ontario.

But I’ll tell you, some of these other provinces recognize the value of arts. In Quebec, for instance, they’ve increased the arts funding by 60% to $200 million. I assure you, Ontario artists deserve to also be looked at and acknowledged, and it cannot only end with film and TV. It has to include everyone.

I fear this budget has not addressed the moment. Budgets are value statements. They are decisions, and this government has to ask themselves who and what matters to them, and who and what doesn’t matter to them, based on the decisions they’ve made in this budget. Take a moment and listen to the rallies. See the disenfranchised faces of people here in Queen’s Park, day in and day out, in the gallery and on the front lawn, protesting for fair wages and safe working conditions, health care, education, housing, clean drinking water, clean air, fair elections, democracy, climate justice—you name it—ending poverty, ending racial discrimination.

You might not have to listen to me. Who cares? I’m just one person. You might not choose to listen to the Ontario NDP official opposition. But the hundreds of thousands of people—the hundreds of thousands of people—who have shown up on the lawns, who have signed the petitions begging this government to do better since 2018, they can’t be wrong. They can’t be all wrong.

Thank you, member. It’s interesting hearing the government opposite talk about our concerns with investment. We are very much in support of investing in Ontario businesses, small businesses, ensuring government money goes to support Ontario businesses.

I have a question for the minister—not yet—for the member for Toronto–St. Paul’s: When you look at the budget, what did you see that’s going to help the renters in your riding? I know 60% of people in your riding rent. What’s in this budget for them?

I want to thank the member for St. Paul’s for your passion for those in your riding; I know I certainly have many in mine as well. Last Saturday, I was speaking with the CEO of Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, Bill Marra, and he actually had some kind comments about the budget. He said, “The proposed investments in children’s mental health, adult mental health and addictions and supportive housing opportunity is noteworthy. By focusing on early intervention and prevention, the Ontario government’s leadership is demonstrating a commitment to improving health care outcomes for all Ontarians.”

Given the contrast in comments between what you shared and what I’m hearing in my community, I’m wondering if you could elaborate a little bit as to the kinds of investments that you would prefer to see in the budget.

Thank you for the presentation from the member of the opposition. But this budget is not only about spending; this budget is about building Ontario’s economy today and tomorrow. So it is a budget to also attract investment.

GM: They have more than a $2-billion investment to protect thousands of jobs. Tesla is manufacturing the equipment to help the batteries for the future. Honda is investing $1.4 billion to make hybrid vehicles. Ford is making a $1.8-billion investment to produce EVs. Toyota has invested $1.4 billion to make vehicles, including hybrids. GM is building Canada’s first-ever full-scale EV manufacturing plant. And Volkswagen in St. Thomas is also building their first-ever overseas battery cell plant here in Ontario.

So I want to ask the member from the opposition why her presentation is only about spending, but not attracting any investment into our province?

I’d like to ask the member opposite: When our government took power in June of 2018, I think we all know in the House that the previous Liberal government had spent recklessly for a decade and a half, and we were the most indebted sub-sovereign government in the entire world. That’s a fact. We had an enormous debt in the province, and our government has responsibly moved back to lowering the deficit year after year, and we’re now actually projecting next year to be in a slight surplus and a surplus thereafter.

I understand you may not agree with us on some of the content of the budget, but in general, does the NDP and yourself, the member opposite, support the economic path in terms of balancing the budget for the people of Ontario?

First of all, I’ll be sharing my time with the great member from Barrie–Innisfil.

I’m sure most believe I’m going to speak about help for businesses, specifically our manufacturing tax credit, but there are four main points I really want to speak about. Being a small-business owner, I really do want to speak about the business side of things, but there are so many good things in this bill that I want to chat about four main points.

Last week, our government released the 2023 Ontario budget, Building a Strong Ontario. It is a plan that navigates ongoing global economic uncertainty, while laying a strong fiscal foundation for future generations, including my own children. It is our government that is building to ensure this province is the leader not only in Canada, but across the world.

Our government’s plan is taking significant actions to drive growth by building Ontario’s economy, such as building highways, transit and infrastructure projects, as well as training workers, keeping costs down for those who need it the most and providing better services to make life easier for people.

One area of the budget that I believe needs to be highlighted is our government’s commitment and investment of $68 million this year in a new program that connects youth in the child welfare system with additional services and supports they need to prepare for and succeed after leaving care. The Ready, Set, Go program launches April 1 and will provide youth transitioning out of care with the life skills and supports they need to pursue post-secondary education, skilled trades training and employment opportunities.

Under the new program, children’s aid societies will begin focusing on helping children plan for their future at an earlier age. Starting at age 13, they will begin learning practical life skills and planned educational goals. At age 15, the emphasis will expand to financial literacy and preparing for the workforce, including managing personal finances, setting up a bank account, grocery shopping, resumé-building, and how to access social services and other supports.

The Ready, Set, Go program will also allow youth to remain in care until the age of 23, up from the age of 21. Monthly financial support will also increase to provide youth a better quality of life and safer housing opportunities, so they can focus on their studies or working. Youth who will remain in care at the age of 21 will now receive $1,000 per month. Youth will also be able to work up to 40 hours per week at Ontario’s minimum wage without affecting their financial supports. Those pursuing a post-secondary program or training in skilled trades and apprenticeships will receive an additional $500 a month starting at the age of 20.

The Ready, Set, Go program was developed with input and advice from former youth in care and child welfare advocate partners, and is informed by research. Our government listens. These changes were part of Ontario’s plan to transform the child welfare system and help children’s aid societies better prepare youth leaving care.

Speaker, this investment will transform lives. Hearing the testimonies of people such as Ingrid Palmer, chair of the Child Welfare Political Action Committee Canada and former youth in care, “By implementing the Ready, Set Go framework, the Ontario government is beginning to break down the complex barriers faced by youth from care who experience disproportionate risks and challenges throughout their lifetime. The Child Welfare PAC fully endorses this approach, which incorporates a data-driven system and a better-resourced, graduated introduction to adulthood. With multiple pathways to brighter futures and improved outcomes, this framework will help us support our most vulnerable youth and provide them with the tools they need to succeed.”

Or Carina Chan, lawyer and former youth in care, who also states, “As a family/child protection lawyer and former youth in care, I understand how challenging it can be for a young person to abruptly transition out of the child welfare system. The Ready, Set, Go program gives youth a longer runway and key resources to help them thrive and reach their full potential as young adults. In addition to making it easier for youth in care to access educational employment opportunities, this framework will also allow policymakers and service providers to measure the impact of the program and to develop further initiatives that address the needs of youth in care.”

Speaker, those are two people who have lived through youth care, and they are highly on board with our new system that we’ve set up.

As part of the 2023 budget—this one excites me more than most—Building a Strong Ontario, our government has invested $3.1 million for the Ronald McDonald House Charities in Ottawa, which will enable them to officially break ground this year and get started on a much-needed expansion of 22 more bedrooms. As Christine Hardy, CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities Ottawa, said, “Receiving this incredible $3.1-million grant from the government of Ontario will enable our Ronald McDonald House in Ottawa to officially break ground this year and get started on a much-needed expansion of 22 more bedrooms. We have been operating since 1984 with just 14 bedrooms. We are always at full capacity and desperately need to grow to reflect the diverse needs of our communities we serve and to reduce our wait-list. When families stay at the house, it is because their child is receiving urgent critical medical care far from home, often for months, and in some cases years at a time. It is my honour to speak on behalf of all Ronald McDonald House Ottawa region families with sick children when I say thank you. Having this kind of recognition from the government of Ontario is truly helping us make room for all families.”

The fact that they’ve had 14 bedrooms since 1984—Madam Speaker, I was one year old at that time, so this is a long-needed expansion of the Ronald McDonald House. I’ve had friends who have had to use their services, and they cannot speak highly enough about them and the pressure it takes off them when their children are sick. This is positive news, not only for my residents of Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry but also for residents in the north who utilize CHEO for exceptional care.

Our government is hard at work, and this 2023 budget has highlighted just how we are committed to tackling the staffing shortages in health care. I’m a numbers guy, so I’ll share—and probably bore the members with—the stats. We are investing $200 million this fiscal year to expand supports to address immediate health care staffing shortages, as well as to grow the workforce in years to come.

We are supporting up to 3,150 internationally educated nurses to become accredited nurses in Ontario through the Supervised Practice Experience Partnership program. More than 2,000 internationally educated nurses have already enrolled in this program and 1,300 of them are already fully registered and practising in Ontario.

We’re offering up to 6,000 health care students training opportunities to work in hospitals providing care and gaining practical experience as they continue their education through the Enhanced Extern Program. This program has offered these opportunities to over 5,000 health care students already.

Ontario is continuing to hire more health care workers, to ensure everyone can see a trained professional when they need to. Key new investments this fiscal year to build the health care workforce include: $4.3 million to help 50 internationally trained physicians get licensed here in Ontario; $22 million to hire up to 200 hospital preceptors to provide mentorship to newly graduated nurses; and $15 million to help 100 mid-to-late-career nurses continue to be in the workforce.

Speaker, as part of our government’s plan to connect people to care closer to home, the province is expanding the Ontario Learn and Stay Grant to add more health care professionals in underserved and growing communities like my own riding of Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry. In addition to nursing programs, the grant will now include paramedic and medical laboratory technologist programs in priority communities like my own.

As the province makes it a priority to increase access to doctors and expand undergraduate and postgraduate medical training seats across the province, our government is doubling the previous investment of $42.5 million over two years, with an additional $100.8 million over the next three years to expand and accelerate the rollout of undergraduate and postgraduate seats. This will result in an additional 160 undergraduate positions and 295 postgraduate positions by 2028.

Once again, Speaker, we understand just how important the growing need for mental health and addictions services and programs is in this province. Therefore, Ontario launched the Roadmap to Wellness: A Plan to Build Ontario’s Mental Health and Addictions Systems, to better connect people to mental health services that are convenient for them. Building on this historical investment of $3.8 million over 10 years, the government is providing an additional $425 million over three years, a 5% increase in base funding, mainly to:

—support mental health and addictions services across the province that are easy to access where and when they are needed;

—support children and youth by providing access to mental health and addictions services, primary care and social and community supports;

—maintain supportive housing and services for people living with mental health and addictions challenges as they transition from hospital to the community;

—support children and youth suffering from eating disorders; and

—work with Indigenous partners and communities to support Indigenous people’s access to high-quality, culturally appropriate care.

This investment will provide community-based mental health and addictions service providers funds that are funded by the Ministry of Health.

Camille Quenneville, CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association of Ontario, said, “The vital structural base funding commitment announced today is the largest by any government for community mental health and addictions care in a decade. It will significantly help community-based mental health and addictions agencies provide high-quality care, retain dedicated and committed staff, and address rising operating costs. The budget is an overwhelmingly positive sign that the government understands the strain our sector is facing as we support Ontarians living with mental health and addictions challenges. It also demonstrates their desire to help the most vulnerable in society.”

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Report continues in volume B.