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.

My question is for the Associate Minister of Transportation.

Many individuals and families in Scarborough count on the GO train so they can get to work and attend appointments in the downtown core or travel outside of the city.

The previous Liberal government left the public transit sector in a mess and ignored the urgent needs for necessary improvements.

Union Station is a major transit hub in the city of Toronto. Under the leadership of the Premier and the ministry, we know that work is already under way at Union Station.

Can the associate minister please provide an update about the Union Station enhancement project?

The Union Station improvements are great news for my constituents and for all who take the GO train in and out of Union Station.

However, it will take more than station upgrades to significantly improve fast and reliable transit service. Our government must continue to invest in building transit infrastructure projects that will benefit our communities now and for future generations.

Can the associate minister please explain how our government is further expanding transit service in our province?

My question is to the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.

Speaker, the budget tabled on Thursday is over 200 pages, and it did not even mention the Ontario Autism Program. I have stood in this House time after time, sounding the alarms for the OAP, because it is not working for families—and we hear in all of our offices that it is not working for children. This government continues to use the same talking points and does nothing to address it.

Through you, Speaker, to the new minister: How are you going to set a new tone for your ministry and support families looking to access the OAP if there is no extra money in the budget?

Interjections.

Interjections.

Interjections.

The minister talks about doubling the budget. You also doubled the wait-list for children’s services. You talk about 40,000 children actually getting services. They’re not getting core services—what these families need and deserve.

I think the minister needs to really look at his speaking notes again and fight his government to ensure that there are real dollars available to families to actually do something to clear the wait-list.

Will this minister actually work hard within his own government to ensure that there’s money in the budget to support families in need?

Interjections.

Order.

Restart the clock.

The next question.

The Minister of Children, Community and Social Services to reply.

I’d ask the member to take her seat.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Restart the clock.

The member for Hamilton Mountain has the floor.

Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.

I thank my honourable colleague for the question.

Here’s what I’ll tell my colleague across: I’m asking you for your help and support. Come by and actually support us so that we can help the people of this province, instead of continuously objecting and opposing—

Interjections.

I thank the honourable member and ask her once again to come help me, to work with us to make sure that we support every single youth and child in this province—

Mr. Speaker, here’s the difference. Once again, I’ll go back and I’ll just remind the members that the NDP had the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives. The NDP had the balance of power. They failed the people. They weren’t able to deliver. When the previous government didn’t do enough, they continuously supported them. It’s not going to continue that way.

As I said before, we not only doubled the funding; we made sure that more people are receiving support—better support. This is a program that was developed by the community for the community.

When it comes to this side of the House and the majority middle over there, we will continue to fight for every single child, youth—every single person in this province—with or without the help of the opposition.

When our government took office, it is important to note that we saw that adults with developmental disabilities and service providers across the province were continuing to face many of the same challenges that they were facing 10 to 15 years ago. We’re changing that.

We’re ensuring people with developmental disabilities can fully participate in their communities, and we’re doing that with our 10-year developmental services reform strategy, Journey to Belonging.

Thank you to the member from Scarborough Centre for his question and his non-stop work on behalf of everyone in his constituency.

Speaker, last week the Minister of Transportation and I toured Union Station to see the fantastic improvements that our government is delivering. Some of the terrific enhancements to Union Station include creating two new, wider GO train platforms with canopies; building two new south tracks; and establishing a new south passenger concourse spanning between Bay Street and York Street, so that when the Raptors win the championship or the Leafs win the cup, you can get in and out of the arena a lot easier. In short, these improvements will make travel easier, safer and faster for thousands of riders who rely on the GO Transit network through Union Station each and every single day.

Unlike the NDP, who supported the Liberals when they did nothing to build transit, this government is getting it done for commuters.

Whether you’re coming from Barrie or Hamilton, Bowmanville or from my fine friend from York Mills Collegiate—go Titans—you should be able to get from point A to point B seamlessly.

We have a transit gap that was left by the opposition after decades of building zero transit. This government is filling that gap.

The Ontario Line alone will have trains picking up passengers every 90 seconds.

The Scarborough subway extension will make 34,000 jobs accessible within a 10-minute walk from transit.

The Eglinton West extension, which will finally connect us to Pearson International, will reduce travel times from Yonge and Eglinton to Square One by nearly 15 minutes.

What’s more, Union Station improvements will enable two-way, all-day rail service every 15 minutes or better along the GO rail network.

Unlike the opposition, we believe in building the biggest transit expansion in Canadian history. This government is going to get it done.

Seven years ago, the Ontario Ombudsman published a disturbing report entitled Nowhere to Turn. His report highlighted systemic issues faced by hundreds of adults with developmental disabilities, including many in hospital because no other placements were available.

Yesterday, the Ombudsman announced a new investigation because so many adults with developmental disabilities are still being forced to live in hospitals because there’s no appropriate housing for them in the community.

The government can ensure adults with developmental disabilities have the quality of life they deserve and can free up much-needed hospital space by investing in assisted living.

Can the minister explain why they didn’t include any new funding in the budget?

Last week, Uganda passed a deadly law criminalizing LGBTQ+ people. On Sunday, at an emergency meeting with 150 people, I heard first-hand about the homophobic violence.

Until March 31, Ontarians without status have access to health care because of the province’s Physician and Hospital Services for Uninsured Persons program.

Will the Premier please listen to the Ontario Medical Association and reinstate health care for undocumented people, set to expire in three days?

I thank my honourable colleague for the question again.

I wanted to mention that we’re also backing that strategy up with real investments, with funding over $2.9 billion in developmental services, including more than $1.8 billion for residential supports.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the great work of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and thanks to the Minister of Finance, you saw that, in the budget, $2.2 million will be invested for supportive housing. The minister has said many, many, many times that we are in a housing supply crisis in the province of Ontario—one that affects every single person, one that we’re trying to address, one that the opposition continuously votes against, doesn’t seem to understand. So in order to get housing right for everybody, we need to address the supply crisis that we’re in, and I thank the minister for his leadership on that.

The supplementary.

Minister of Health.

The minister should know how disrespectful her answer was to the people I represent, who live four hours away from the nearest community health centre.

Yesterday I and the minister and received thousands of emails calling on the provincial government to ensure continued access to medically necessary services for people living in Ontario. These people are Ontarians like you and I, Speaker. They are not able to get an OHIP card because of systemic barriers.

How is a homeless person supposed to go to ServiceOntario with a proof of address? They are homeless, but they deserve care.

What is the minister going to do in the next three days to ensure that she removes barriers so that every Ontarian who qualifies for a health card gets one?

Interjections.

My question is for the Premier.

The financial cost of sprawl is huge. One study determined that it costs 2.5 times more to service sprawl than to service a new built home in existing developed areas. Another study showed that when you factor in both tax revenue and servicing costs, homes constructed in built-up areas pay for themselves, while sprawl represents an ongoing cost for property taxpayers.

Speaker, people are struggling with a cost-of-living crisis and a housing affordability crisis.

So why is the Premier pursuing a sprawl agenda, that paves over the greenbelt and makes housing and life less affordable for people and communities?

I remind the minister and the government that they have been in power for five years, and nothing has been done to remediate the situation.

One family has been waiting nine years to place their son in a group home. Like the other families caring for their developmentally disabled adult children, they’re terrified of what will happen to their children as they themselves become too old to look after them.

Speaker, things are far worse than they were seven years ago, distressingly, and yet there’s no additional funding for assisted living services in the new budget. The government tabled a bill that doesn’t seem to recognize the urgency of this situation.

When will they start prioritizing people with developmental disabilities by making meaningful investments in assisted living?