Obviously, the member didn’t actually listen to everything I said, because I did talk about all the things that we were doing to support everyone in Ontario.

The reduction in cost for electricity of $6.5 billion affects every single person, whether they are on Ontario Works, ODSP, or whether they are working someplace, whether they are retired. It makes no difference; it affects every single person in this province in a positive way.

We’ve increased funding to ODSP by 5% and tied it now to inflation so that they’ll never find themselves in a position where they’re falling further behind. This is the first time any government in Ontario has done this—tied it to inflation to make sure that they do not fall behind.

Madam Speaker, this is a fantastic budget, and the opposition needs to stand up and vote in favour of it, because it helps everyone in this province.

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?

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.

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.

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?

Mr. Speaker, we are deeply concerned about the rise of violence in communities across this country, and part of our response was to increase base funding in education in the most recent budget by an additional $1.3 billion. We have added and expanded mental health funding by 400%, compared to the former Liberals—$10 million more this year; $20 million in student nutrition programs; an expansion of after-school programs. We created the Black graduation coach program and expanded the Indigenous programs to help those kids reach their full potential.

We have increased support and staffing by a quantum of 7,000 more front-line workers to help reduce the risk and keep children safe and focused on learning in the classroom.

The member opposite speaks about getting to the root cause of crime, and therefore, I would ask members opposite to stand with this government and every provincial Premier to urge the federal government to end the revolving door of justice and get tough on violent criminals who put too many of our kids at risk. That’s the way we do it. The other way we do it is if we’re prepared to stand with law enforcement against violent crime that’s impacting too many children in our schools, in our communities and across our country.

We’re going to increase investments. We’re going to support our kids and, more importantly, ensure they are safe when they’re in their school premises.

I’m very proud to rise in this House to present this petition on behalf of Churchill Public School, as well as the Elementary Teachers of Toronto.

“Petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from the Elementary Teachers of Toronto to Stop the Cuts and Invest in the Schools our Students Deserve.

“Whereas the Ford government cut funding to our schools by $800 per student during the pandemic period, and plans to cut an additional $6 billion to our schools over the next six years;

“Whereas these massive cuts have resulted in larger class sizes, reduced special education and mental health supports and resources for our students, and neglected and unsafe buildings;

“Whereas the Financial Accountability Office reported a $2.1-billion surplus in 2021-22, and surpluses growing to $8.5 billion in 2027-28, demonstrating there is more than enough money to fund a robust public education system;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly ... to:

“—immediately reverse the cuts to our schools;

“—fix the inadequate education funding formula;

“—provide schools the funding to ensure the supports necessary to address the impacts of the pandemic on our students;

“—make the needed investments to provide smaller class sizes, increased levels of staffing to support our students’ special education, mental health, English language learner and wraparound supports needs, and safe and healthy buildings and classrooms.”

I will proudly affix my signature to this petition and send it with page Skyler back to the centre table.

Thank you to the members opposite for their debate. The member for Perth–Wellington had talked about mental health supports, and it’s always great to hear about funding for mental health supports. What makes me nervous, though, is that on September 10, 2020, the Premier and a couple of ministers were at NISA, the Northern Initiative for Social Action, in Sudbury, announcing $14.75 million for mental health supports. Just two months ago, I was at NISA asking them how the money has been helping them. They said they’ve never received any of the money. That was two years, six months, 18 days ago.

During the announcement, the Premier said, “We know mental health is just as important as physical health. Everyone, including our heroic frontline workers, can sometimes experience burnout, depression or anxiety. Even though you may feel alone or helpless, we want you to know that we have your back. If you need someone to talk to, please reach out to one of these amazing mental health and addictions organizations. They are caring, compassionate and knowledgeable people who can help.”

How much money will NISA get out of this funding announcement?

Thank you for your presentation. You spoke about the Northlander and the funding, of course. The railcars are on order, as you well know, but my question would be: In 2012, when the Liberal government gutted the Northlander from northern Ontario—our home—why did your government physically sit on their hands and support the gutting of the Northlander from our very homes?