Is the leader of the Liberal Party kidding me?

Let’s take a look. Under the leadership or the lack thereof of the Liberals, we lost 300,000 jobs, and they wanted to transition to a service economy. In fact, Fiat Chrysler said this was the worst jurisdiction in the world in which to do business, under the Liberals—the highest amount of red tape under the Liberals, inability to get transit and transportation under the Liberals, our hospitals crumbling under the Liberals.

He talks about energy prices. Are you kidding me? Under the Liberals, people could not afford—they had to make the decision between heating and eating. And this member has the nerve to get up and—

Interjections.

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.

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.