Speaker, I am very proud to say thank you for watching question period today to my absolute favourite friend from Nova Scotia, Pat Roscoe. Happy birthday. This is my wife’s mom. It’s great you’re watching, Pat.

Thank you to the member opposite. I’ll tell you, we as a government are so excited today. Today is budget day. It’s a big day in the province of Ontario. And while we can’t get into the specifics of the budget—we’ll be announcing that at 4 o’clock—what I can tell you is that we are going to continue to move ahead in this province with investments in hospitals, with investments in infrastructure, with investments in public transit, with investments in highways to get people to and from home quicker and safer.

I will also add that, with respect to the underspend question that you mentioned, the member opposite is a member of public accounts. Take a look at the public accounts numbers. Those are the actual facts as to what we spend every single year. You’ll see that we are spending more than any government in the history of Ontario on the investments you just touched on.

My question is to the Premier. The lack of transparency in the finances of this province are becoming increasingly concerning. Fortunately, we have the FAO, who tracks actual spending against government announcements. The FAO has said, “Ontario’s Conservative government is not being transparent about how it plans to spend money over the next several years.

“The government’s current spending plan contains $40 billion in program funding shortfalls over six years, though it also contains $44 billion in unallocated contingency funds.

“The contingencies could be used to address those shortfalls but it is an unusual way of budgeting,” he said. He also points out, “What we haven’t seen is this level of shortfall, but we haven’t seen this size of the contingency fund before.”

Speaker, this budgeting practice is irresponsible when there are such pressing issues in this province on health care, on education, on housing. Will budget 2023 actually focus on the real priorities of Ontario?

In fact, this is what the AMO president said: “In 125 years, it’s the biggest affront to Ontario’s municipalities that I’ve ever seen.” You are clearly not very respectful of our municipal partners.

Will budget 2023 make municipalities whole, as the minister has promised, so that they can address the homelessness crisis that this government won’t even acknowledge exists?

There are encampments in Greater Sudbury, in Waterloo region and in Peterborough, among other communities. Ontario spends $2,000 less per person on services and programs than the average province across Canada. AMO has said that Bill 23 is “undermining the financial capacity of municipalities to support growth.”

The simple question is, will budget 2023 reverse the damage you’ve done to municipalities? Will it assist municipalities with water, sewage, transit, parks, electricity and waste infrastructure costs, which those development charges pay for, so that housing can actually be built in the province of Ontario?

I, too, would like to welcome a dear friend of mine, Jay Aspin, the former Nipissing MP, the long-time member of the Near North District School Board and former chair of that board as well and current Ontario Health board member.

I appreciate the honourable member’s question. Of course, we’re always in a position to work with communities. I know the chief personally and I’m well aware of the positions that they take, particularly with respect to traplines. We’ll ensure that we make an appropriate follow-up with Chief Donny Morris and try to understand better moving forward what kinds of opportunities he sees to make sure that his community and the quality of life of those members is realized.

I realize that there are ongoing challenges and issues, but we’re going up there to experience on behalf of another one of my ministerial counterparts, the historical opportunity for KI, and I look forward to talking about a host of other opportunities, staying positive and moving forward on opportunities for Indigenous communities in our Far North.

The one thing that we’ve learned this week in the House is that New Democrats stand shoulder to shoulder with taxing affordable housing, with making sure that housing is out of reach for too many Ontarians.

Our government will always stand with young families, with new Canadians, with people who want to realize the dream of home ownership. I believe that all three levels of government have a responsibility, not just the province of Ontario.

Firstly, thank you to the member from Elgin–Middlesex–London for the integral role he played in landing Volkswagen into his riding in St. Thomas.

And the member is correct. We landed an historic investment from Europe’s largest automaker and it’s making headlines around the world: the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and, overseas, the Financial Times—all positive stories about Ontario’s skilled workforce, clean energy, our EV ecosystem, critical minerals, all the things we wrote in our Driving Prosperity plan when we began this monumental turnaround of our auto sector and our move to lead the EV revolution.

Speaker, the auto world now knows what Volkswagen saw, that Ontario has everything a company needs to be part of the EV future.

My question is to the Premier. We’re facing some extremely challenging times for the people of this province. Today’s budget is an opportunity to address these challenges and provide the support Ontarians need.

My question is very simple, Speaker: Will this government take this opportunity that the budget provides and chart a new, hopeful course, one where the needs of everybody in this province—every single person—are met?

Speaker, budgets are about priorities. Time and time again, this government has shown that it doesn’t share the priorities of folks who aren’t the insider friends of this government. A recent FAO report found that the Premier’s plan for health care falls $21.3 billion short of the funding needed for hospitals, home care and long-term care. We have seen underinvestment in social services, education and infrastructure.

My question is, will budget 2023 reverse course and make up for the shortfalls this government has manufactured?

Groceries, gas and rent are through the roof. The people of this province deserve better. They deserve a government they can trust to follow through with their actual funding commitments. So this time my question is, will this government actually invest the money that they budget for in 2023?

Thank you to the member opposite. Listen, we’re excited by the budget today. We’re excited that Minister Bethlenfalvy is going to announce, at 4 o’clock, what initiatives this government is going to undertake.

What I can tell you is in the past—that will give you a sense as to what our direction is going forward—what we’ve done is put the right critical investments in place to support those in need, whether it’s those on ODSP or low-income seniors with GAINS support or the low-income tax credit, which was the largest tax credit in the history of Ontario for low-income families. More importantly, we need workers to work. We’re going make the right investments and create the right environment for business to flourish.

We had an announcement just in this past week. The Minister of Economic Development was down in London with the largest investment in Canadian history in electric vehicle manufacturing. This is the beginning of a manufacturing renaissance in Ontario, and we’re going to continue on that path.

Remarks in Anishininiimowin. Good morning. My question is to the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry. Last month, Chief Donny Morris of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug wrote a letter to the minister about the ongoing historical trauma of his people due to the enforcement of provincial laws and policies on KI members. This includes the desecration of graves and the interference to our ways of life, such as confiscation of fishing nets and disturbing traplines.

Simple question: Has the minister responded to the chief’s letter?

Speaker, will the minister visit Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug to start addressing Ontario’s historical harm to the people of KI?

My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. When our government was elected in 2018, Ontario was in no position to build the cars of the future. Jobs were fleeing the province to go south of the border. And in just a few short years, we’ve used all the tools in our tool box to rebuild our auto sector and establish a best-in-class auto and EV ecosystem.

Last week’s announcement of Volkswagen’s historic—and I would add generational—investment in my riding of Elgin–Middlesex–London reaffirms that our efforts have indeed paid off, which is why it’s no surprise that this announcement has been celebrated far and wide.

Speaker, will the minister please share an overview of the reception and feedback our government has received over the last 10 days?

In 2019, Reuters revealed that car companies planned to spend $300 billion globally, but none of that money was planned for Canada or Ontario. So we put our Driving Prosperity plan in place. It started with lowering the cost of doing business by $7 billion each and every year. We met worldwide with companies looking to be part of the EV revolution and told them about Ontario’s skilled workforce, our clean energy, our EV ecosystem, our critical minerals. Within 24 months, we attracted $17 billion in EV auto investments in Ontario, and that’s before the Volkswagen announcement.

This year, Bloomberg ranked Canada as second in their annual global battery supply chain, first in North America, ahead of the US. We went from zero investments to the global leader.

My question is to the Premier. Speaker, we now know that this government’s flawed paid sick days program will end on March 31 with nothing to replace it. Instead of fixing the flaws in the program, instead of increasing the days from three to 10, instead of making them annual and permanent and employer-paid, instead of making them available for all illnesses, not just COVID, this government is abandoning sick workers.

Why does this government believe that workers without paid sick days should be forced to give up their pay if they have to stay home when they are sick?

Speaker, BC understands this; 15 US states with paid sick days understand this. Why doesn’t this government?

I’m proud that our government was the first in the country to bring in paid sick days during the pandemic. I’m also proud of the fact that we’ve been able to help 558,000 workers across the province. Many provinces, as the member opposite knows, didn’t bring in paid sick days.

But the other thing we should all be proud of is that we have one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, and that’s because of our paid sick day program during COVID that supported workers to allow them to go out, take time off work and to get vaccinated.

Mr. Speaker, I’m now looking forward to being the first in all of North America, under the leadership of Premier Ford, to start working on our plan to bring in portable benefits, health and dental benefits, for millions of workers who don’t have those benefits today.

Mr. Speaker, we’ve taken a balanced approach to help 558,000 workers get through COVID, to have those paid sick days in place. We’ve increased the minimum wage; there’s another increase coming soon. We’re going to be the first place in all of North America to have portable benefits for millions of workers that don’t have them today. We’ll continue everyday working for the workers of this province, helping them get better jobs and bigger paycheques.

Speaker, since day one, our government has taken action to address the years of neglect by previous governments. Under the leadership of Premier Ford, we’re on a mission to help people who are unemployed or on social assistance find long-term, meaningful work in their own communities.

Our new customer service approach is helping more people find the dignity of a purpose-driven career. With the changes we’ve made so far, we have helped over 63,000 people find gainful employment, including more than 23,000 people that were on social assistance.

Speaker, my message is clear to anyone on social assistance: If you’re able to work, we need you, and we’re here to help.

Speaker, earlier this month I was pleased to announce that our new one-window approach is coming to Durham region, and by the end of 2023, we’ll have this new framework province-wide.

Our new employment services are opening doors. We’re providing free training, support for rent and child care while you learn, basics like work boots, tools, uniforms, bus passes to help people get to their first shift and help with interviews and resumé-writing. For anyone looking for work, I encourage them to visit ontario.ca/employment.

Speaker, our government is supporting job seekers, and how we will continue to help people find better jobs and earn bigger paycheques is through this new approach.

My question is to the Premier. On Monday, March 26, Toronto transit services will be cut across the city, and transit riders will be left waiting longer for the bus, streetcar and subway. This is unsafe, will cause more crowding and will make trips on transit take even longer. It doesn’t make sense to cut transit services at a time when more and more people are returning to the TTC. Cutting services will only drive people away from the TTC and increase traffic and congestion.

Toronto cannot thrive without proper TTC services. Will the Premier commit to play his part and fund the economic engine that moves our city?

The supplementary question.

Thank you to the minister for his answer. It has indeed been an exciting week in my riding with the news that Volkswagen is coming to Elgin county. We’ve heard from lots of constituents, and this investment will have long-lasting benefits for generations—I repeat, generations—to come, with lots of new, good-paying, sustainable jobs to replace the hundreds of thousands of auto and manufacturing jobs that were chased out of this province by the previous government.

Speaker, will the minister please elaborate on how the turnaround of the auto sector occurred in Ontario?

I thank the member opposite for her question.

During the pandemic, our government recognized how essential public transit is for Ontarians across the province, and so we were there to support municipal transit agencies to the tune of over $2 billion, and the Toronto Transit Commission was the largest beneficiary of that.

We are committed to supporting public transit. We know that the city of Toronto has been underserved by public transit for so long, and that’s why our government put forward the largest transit expansion plan in Canadian history—anywhere in North America.

But if the member opposite thinks that public transit is so essential, what she should have done is voted in favour of our subway plan instead of voting against, as did her entire party.

My question is for the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. For 15 years, under the previous NDP-supported Liberal governments, Ontario’s employment services failed people across our province. The Auditor General’s report revealed that only 1% of people on social assistance were leaving for a job every month. While this has been enough for the Liberals and the NDP, it’s proof that the status quo is letting down those who need our help the most. Most people who are unemployed or receiving social assistance want to work. What they need and want is practical help to secure a fulfilling career to support themselves and their families.

Speaker, can the minister please explain what changes our government is making to employment services to support Ontarians in securing gainful work?

Speaker, can the minister please explain how our government is expanding and improving employment services in Ontario?