At the risk of being repetitive here, on behalf of the government, I would like to welcome the Ontario Road Builders’ Association and the Ontario Asphalt Pavement Council. I value their work with the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

And a special shout-out to my good friend Michael McSweeney—thank you for being here.

It’s my pleasure to welcome Fanshawe College today. They’re going to be hosting us in room 228, so please make your way there after question period.

I’m delighted to welcome a group of political science students from the University of Toronto today. They are our future, and I’m delighted that they’re here to witness democracy in action.

I, too, would like to welcome representatives from the Ontario Road Builders’ Association and the Ontario Asphalt Pavement Council; specifically, Mark Mallett, Doubra Ambaiowei, Steve Manolis, Matt Powell and Alfredo Maggio, who I’ll be meeting with later today. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Speaker, I wish a warm welcome to David Colle of Green Infrastructure Partners, Peter Hamstra of Dufferin Construction, Andrew Hurd of the Ontario Road Builders’ Association, Rick Tamburro of Miller Group, and Steve Smith of Roto-Mill. Thank you so much for being here with us today.

I’d like to welcome representatives from the Ontario Road Builders’ Association and the Ontario Asphalt Pavement Council from across this province to Queen’s Park today. We’re looking forward to meeting with them.

With us we have Brianna Puigmarti, Ivan Levac from R.W. Tomlinson, Lisa Laronde from Powell Contracting Ltd., Mac Carmichael from Green Infrastructure Partners Inc. and, perhaps, one of my most favourite constituents, Michael McSweeney.

I would like to welcome to the House Francis Lindayen, CEO for ITS Electronics, a leading global supplier of advanced microwave amplifiers, frequency converters and intelligent wireless sub systems for commercial, government and defence customers.

Welcome, Francis Lindayen.

I’d like to welcome representatives from the Ontario Road Builders’ Association and the Ontario Asphalt Pavement Council who are in the chamber today, and especially the board chair, Mario Villeneuve, who’s from my riding.

Bienvenue, Mario. Thank you for the important work you do throughout the province. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to welcome Ben de Haan, the father of page Ryan de Haan, who’s here from my riding of Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry.

I’d like to welcome to the House Canadian Olympian and champion marathoner Krista DuChene and her family: Donald, Aimee, Aidan, Genvieve, Martin and Leah.

I know the member just mentioned the TTN is going to be here for their reception tonight, but he left out the best part, Mr. Speaker. While everybody is going to the ORBA reception—TTN has brought in some star power tonight for their reception: Doug Gilmour, Shayne Corson and Ric Nattress. A bunch of Toronto Maple Leafs all-stars are going to be there. So come on down and get your picture taken.

Yesterday I was happy to applaud the efforts of the Ontario Association of Optometrists and the Ministry of Health in finally getting an agreement after 12 years. In the province of Ontario, we have not had an agreement with the Ontario Association of Optometrists since 2011.

It is very historic that we have been able to settle on something that is going to improve services for our seniors, for individuals on OW and ODSP, and for individuals who have glaucoma—making sure that individuals who actually have eye issues are getting in front of their optometrists and getting the services they need.

So, yes, I am incredibly proud of the agreement that we have settled on.

I’d like to extend a warm welcome to page Paul Hu, who I think is page captain today, as well as his mother, Jennifer Hu, and his grandmother Wendy Nichols, as well as Glen Hung from my riding. Glen is a first-year political science student at U of T. He was president of his model UN club at York Mills Collegiate, and he also had an honourable mention from the UN club from Princeton University. Welcome.

Today I’m going to shine a light on a tremendous citizen from Minister Rickford’s riding, in Kenora.

This past weekend, northwestern Ontario’s very own Jeff Gustafson brought home an international fishing championship after competing in the Bassmaster Classic in Knoxville, Tennessee. The first Canadian and second non-American to ever win the top prize, Jeff honed his craft on Lake of the Woods, winning tournament after tournament from the young age of 10. Gustafson was able to secure his win with 13 ounces over second place, catching two fish that weighed six pounds combined during Sunday’s final round. He described the event as one of the hardest days of his life. Nevertheless, Jeff showed tremendous grit and determination in his triumphant victory down south.

When he’s not winning fishing championships, Jeff spends his days as a full-time outdoors guide, and he has written for countless outdoor publications and is even the feature of his own television show.

I’d like to congratulate Jeff Gustafson on behalf of myself and Minister Rickford.

You’re an inspiration to many, and we all wish you luck in your next Elite Series event, coming up this April.

I would like to welcome the Taykwa Tagamou First Nation to the House today; specifically, Chief Bruce Archibald and Deputy Chief Derek Archibald. I invite you all to their reception happening this evening.

I’d also like to welcome Doubra Ambaiowei, Mark Mallett, Steve Manolis, Matt Powell and Alfredo Maggio from the Ontario Road Builders’ Association. I’m looking forward to meeting them this afternoon.

Speaker, it’s not just seniors that they’re serving up. Yesterday, we learned that adults aged 20 to 64 with lazy eye will lose OHIP coverage for eye exams and will now be forced to pay out of pocket. Adults 20 to 64 with strabismus will lose their coverage and must now pay out of pocket, unless it just developed suddenly.

And we found out that people with cataracts are losing their eye exam coverage unless they’re referred for surgery or have “clinically significant decreased vision.”

Back to the Minister of Health again: How is reducing access to preventive eye care going to help anyone?

This program cost an average of just $5 million a year. I’ve got to tell you, Minister, that’s the salary of just four OPG executives right there, under this government. But the point is that this program helped more than 400,000 uninsured people since it was implemented, not just four. Quick math—that’s $37.50 a person, and it helped save lives.

So my question to the minister is, will she reverse this callous decision and help save lives?

We all know that this government refuses to make their mandate letters public. They’ve even gone so far as to waste public money by going to the Supreme Court to keep them secret.

But I want to ask the new minister: After years of mismanagement, what direction have you been given for this critical role?

The latest report from the Financial Accountability Office found that this government had budgeted but failed to spend nearly $500 million on social services by the third quarter of the last fiscal. That’s half a billion dollars that this government planned to invest in Ontarians and then just didn’t. That’s $500 million withheld from the critical services that people rely on, at a time when Ontarians, when people in this province, are really struggling.

My question to the minister, again, is, are you going to stand up to this Premier and fight for the people who need your help?

I really wonder about these figures that I’m hearing from the members opposite. This government has no problem finding $650 million hidden between seat cushions so they can pave over a public park and then hand it over to some Austrian corporate conglomerate to build a private spa. But they can’t find a measly 5% increase—that’s all they can find, is 5% for people on ODSP or OW, well below the cost of inflation, not nearly enough to help people put food on the table.

My question is to the minister. Will you commit to ending this legislated poverty by immediately doubling ODSP and OW?

If the member opposite actually understood the clinical reasoning behind the changes that we made, she would understand, as an example, that lazy eye in adults is something that is a stable condition that does not change once you’re in adulthood. We have listened to the experts, listened to the clinicians, listened to people who actually understand how these improvements are going to make a difference to the people who have emerging eye issues. And for those individuals who are stable and have the opportunity to access through their primary care, or, yes, their optometrist—that will continue.

As I said, I am incredibly proud of the work that the Ontario Association of Optometrists did with the Ministry of Health.

There is not an individual in the province of Ontario who would ever be turned away at an emergency department in our hospitals.

Those programs—

The supplementary.

The next question. The Leader of the Opposition.

Members will take their seats.

Interjections.

I thank the honourable leader of the official opposition for the question.

Mr. Speaker, I am truly humbled and honoured to be entrusted with this position by the Premier, and I thank him for the opportunity.

I also want to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Merrilee Fullerton for all the great work and her leadership on the file.

As an individual who immigrated here to Canada for a better opportunity for my family and friends, I will make this very clear to the House and to my honourable colleagues, to every single person here: We live in the best province in the greatest country in the world—one that can only remain that way if we leave no one behind. I will promise to every single member here and everyone in this province that I will work night and day to make sure every individual, every child, every youth in this province is cared for, is looked after. I’ll give you my promise.

It’s, in fact, under the leadership of this Premier that we have brought in supports for the people of this province like never before, and we’re not going to stop there.

Again, I’ll reassure this House and every single member of this House that I will give everything I’ve got every single day, and I will come back the next day and try even harder for the people this province—that means the record investments that we have made.

If you look at the programs under the previous government, we’ve doubled funding under the autism program thanks to—before, there were only 8,500 children and youth receiving support, but now there are more than 40,000 children and youth receiving support.

One of the things that we are doing as a government, and that I will continue to do, is making sure that the well-being of every single individual is a top priority for our government. That’s why I thank the Minister of Health for the great work they’re doing, I thank the member from Brampton Centre for her leadership when it comes to—

This was the largest increase to ODSP support in decades. It doesn’t end there. It’s also tied to inflation. Beginning this July, it will continue to increase. But it will go beyond that. Those who can, are willing—we have the jobs in this province for those who are able to. Thanks to the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, there are 300,000-plus jobs that are going unfilled.

This is going to be my question to the leader of the official opposition and all my honourable colleagues across—I want them to come with us, to work with me to make sure that we help people in this province so that we don’t leave anyone behind—

Interjections.