Thank you again, Minister, for that wonderful response. It is welcome news to hear that our government is focused on supporting the north and investing in communities like mine, in Sault St. Marie.

Mr. Speaker, let me say, through you to this House: Our government has been so incredibly committed to communities like mine across the north. Just in my own community—I can say the minister has been in my riding I can’t even count how many times; the Premier has been to the riding I can’t even count how many times. It’s such a welcome thing for our community to see these investments and the real attention that this government is putting in our community and throughout northern Ontario—unlike the previous Liberal government—because our government is optimistic and it does recognize that funding is very, very critical to contributing to building our local and regional economies.

Can the minister please explain how investments by our government will continue to help businesses in my riding to prosper?

We signed a deal with the federal government that is now delivering a 50% reduction in fees for families in this province—$8,000 to $12,000 per child for every child they have in a child care centre. That is a huge achievement and step forward. We also committed to build 86,000 spaces in the province to meet the growing needs of child care. Mr. Speaker, 46,000 spaces have been created to date. We also agree that we need more staff as we grow demand and reduce fees and increase access to an affordable child care system for working parents in this province. It’s why we increased wages each and every year of this agreement by $1 per hour, with a floor now imposed in the sector.

We know there’s more to do. It’s why the government launched a workforce consultation with those stakeholders and many others.

I will note the irony of New Democrats, who advocate for affordability but who would have excluded 70,000 for-profit families who depend on access in this province. We’ll stand up for all of them.

We’re going to continue to step up to support the workers, but most especially the families who now can afford child care—a 50% reduction, an $8,000 to $12,000 reduction per child. That’s going to make a big difference as we save families money in this tough economy.

I want to thank the member from Sault St. Marie. He does a fantastic job in that city, making sure that industry in Sault St. Marie is on the cutting edge—that’s exactly what these kinds of announcements are focused on.

The computer numerical control lathe is like no other. Its accuracy and timing consumption factor—it sounds kind of technical, but basically it allows them to do more work on larger-scale projects, including building much-needed locomotive trains, putting northern Ontario into a sector more actively than it has ever been. This is the kind of technology that isn’t just protecting jobs; it’s creating new, high-tech jobs in the manufacturing sector in northern Ontario—that walked out the door under the previous government.

We’re back. We’ve got a great member from Sault St. Marie who is protecting and creating jobs in his city, and we couldn’t be more pleased to support him.

We also supported a company called Apex Cranes. Apex Cranes was able to leverage our investment to purchase an Alliance 38M concrete pumper truck. This will provide new vertical and horizontal reach for larger-scale construction projects. That’s twice I’ve said that about Sault St. Marie—larger-scale construction projects.

As it repositions itself to be a world-class steel manufacturer and centre of mining processing, we’re making sure Sault St. Marie is in the best position possible to realize its optimal value.

My question is for the Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity.

Over the next six years, Ontario’s construction sector will need to hire 72,000 additional workers due to retirements and expected job growth. However, the reality is that women remain under-represented in this growing sector. Unfortunately, as in so many areas, barriers are preventing women from achieving their full potential in the skilled trades. Some of these obstacles include PPE and other equipment that is not tailored to women. For women to safely and effectively perform their jobs, they must be properly outfitted in uniforms, boots and safety harnesses.

Can the associate minister please explain how our government is making workplaces safer for women?

In Ontario, there are 500,000 construction workers; just a small percentage of those are women. Unfortunately, for women who work in the skilled trades, they’re frequently exposed to a lack of or poorly maintained washroom facilities at their work sites. This is unacceptable, and it is a deterrent for women wanting to take up careers in the skilled trades. It’s very important that women are provided with the supports they need to work safely and comfortably. In this instance, it’s ensuring that washrooms for female workers on job sites are adhering to equitable workplace health and safety standards.

Can the associate minister please elaborate on what measures our government is implementing that will ensure safety and equity for female workers?

My question is to the Minister of Mines.

Ontario is incredibly fortunate to be home to tremendous mineral wealth. The mining industry in Ontario generates more than $10 billion in annual mineral production and supports 75,000 direct and indirect jobs in our province. We know how vital this industry is and how much more important it will become as the world transitions to electric vehicles and other clean technologies.

However, in order to maintain and increase our competitive advantage in all phases of the mining processes, regulatory requirements must keep pace with industry needs in order to secure minerals safely and effectively.

Can the minister please explain what our government is doing to secure Ontario’s position as a global leader of responsibly sourced critical minerals?

Under the leadership of our Premier and this minister, the mining sector is strong and innovative. In large part, this success is due to our government’s ability to collaborate with industry and local partners to promote economic development opportunities.

During the second reading debate of this bill, we heard the opposition raise questions about the overall effectiveness of these amendments and how these would be received by the mining industry and its leaders.

Can the minister please provide information about how the mining industry is responding to the proposed amendments in our Building More Mines Act?

Thank you again to the member from Ajax for the question.

I’ve travelled across Ontario listening to women’s stories, and I have learned of women’s washrooms being inaccessible for female staff. This is unacceptable, especially because only one in 10 construction workers in Ontario are women. If we want to attract more women to these well-paying and rewarding careers, we need to make sure our job sites are safer and equipped with appropriate resources.

Ontario is proposing to require women-only washrooms on construction sites. We’re also improving washrooms by requiring them to be completely enclosed, and to have adequate lighting, and to have hand sanitizer where running water is not accessible or possible. And we’re doubling the number of toilets on job sites to reduce the distance between washroom facilities.

These proposed regulatory amendments will meet labour demands and bring better jobs and bigger paycheques for women on these job sites in Ontario.

When women succeed, Ontario succeeds.

I thank my honourable colleague for the very important question.

What we did is, we brought three older legacy programs and combined them into a new program, the Homelessness Prevention Program, to streamline the process so that service managers spend less time on paperwork and more on helping the people of Ontario who need support. We also increased the funding of this program by $25 million annually across the province.

Mr. Speaker, on our side, we’ve been very clear: We’ve said that we are in a housing supply crisis in our province and it hurts our most vulnerable. It hurts everyone across the board. We’re working towards solutions to make sure that we increase the supply across the province.

It’s only the opposition that continuously opposes housing in this province—well, it depends on what time at question period. They’re for housing at some points during question period and—

Thank you for the question from my colleague who works non-stop for his riding.

Mr. Speaker, we are building a supply chain from critical minerals to manufacturing electric vehicles that will create jobs and economic opportunities across the province, but it all starts with mining. We launched the Critical Minerals Strategy that attacks challenges in our sector through investing and cutting red tape. Our strategic investments in exploration and innovation help the brilliant people in our workforce find the mines of the future and solve mining challenges.

We won’t stop there. That’s why I introduced the Building More Mines Act that, if passed, would reduce regulatory burdens to save companies time and money. This would create business certainty and draw in more investment to the sector. We were happy to see the opposition support this bill at second reading, and we encourage them to continue to do so, to do what is right for this province by continuing—

I recently visited Glencore’s world-class Kidd Creek Mine with my colleague the Associate Minister of Transportation. This critical minerals mine is a world-class operation. It is over 10,000 feet deep and is the closest you can get to the earth’s core anywhere in the world, right in Timmins. I spoke to management at Glencore, and they told us how much they appreciated having a government that solves problems to keep this sector competitive.

Listen to what Peter Xavier, a vice-president at Glencore, had to say about our bill: “The improvement of processes within the Ministry of Mines will strengthen our Ontario operations and facilitate their expansion.” That means more jobs in ridings across the north, including those being represented by the members opposite.

We encourage all members of this House to support our bill, because it cannot take 15 years to build a mine if we are going to secure the supply chain for critical minerals.

My question is to the Premier.

In the last year, 50,000 more people left Ontario than have arrived, which is out-migration at a level we have never seen before in this province. Most are young adults aged 25 to 35 who can’t afford to save for a home on the salaries they are making—and that includes demoralized, disrespected London West nurses Nicole Forster and Lindsay Smale.

Instead of standing by as nurses like Nicole and Lindsay leave Ontario for good, will the Premier stop fighting nurses in court over the unconstitutional Bill 124 wage cap and start actually fixing the housing affordability crisis?

Thank you, Speaker. Through you to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing: AMO, representing Ontario’s 444 municipalities, recently released an op-ed that stated: “The homelessness crisis in Ontario is not just an unfortunate situation. It is the outcome of decades of policy decisions and poor choices made by successive Ontario governments....

“The homelessness crisis is a made-in-Ontario crisis that calls out for intelligent and coordinated action on the part of the province.”

This Ontario government ranks dead last of all provinces in per capita spending on services.

Will this government change course, acknowledge Ontario’s homelessness crisis, and accept AMO’s offer to work with the province and municipal governments to end homelessness?

There’s a lot in that question.

On the housing side, we have a housing supply action plan which we brought in, starting in 2018, and the opposition is, of course, not in favour of that. We’ve spent weeks talking about how we want to build more homes across the province of Ontario, and then the NDP asks one question at the beginning of question period to suggest we should stop building homes, and then towards the end of question period asks another one if we can build more homes. So I’m not sure what it is that they actually want at this point.

Here’s the thing that we are doing: We are going to build more homes for all of the people of the province of Ontario.

The second part of the question was with respect to health care and health care resources. I can tell you that, because of the extraordinary work of the Minister of Colleges and Universities, we have more people entering the health care field than at any time in our province’s history, and it’s so needed because of the massive amount of investments that we’re making in health care. In long-term care, I need 27,000 additional health care workers. And thanks to the Minister of Colleges and Universities, we’re getting it done.

To reply, the government House leader.

Interjection.

The next question.

The ayes are 103; the nays are 0.

« À l’Assemblée législative de l’Ontario :

« Alors que les Ontariennes et les Ontariens devraient obtenir des soins de santé en fonction de leurs besoins—et non de la taille de leur portefeuille;

« Alors que le premier ministre, Doug Ford, et la ministre de la Santé, Sylvia Jones, ont déclaré qu’ils prévoyaient privatiser certaines parties des soins de santé;

« Alors que la privatisation poussera les infirmières, les médecins et les PSSP hors de nos hôpitaux publics, aggravant ainsi la crise des soins de santé;

« Alors que la privatisation se termine toujours avec une facture pour les patients;

« Par conséquent, nous, soussignés, demandons à l’Assemblée législative de l’Ontario d’arrêter immédiatement tous les plans visant à privatiser davantage le système de soins de santé de l’Ontario et de résoudre la crise des soins de santé en :

« —abrogeant la loi 124 et recrutant, retenant et respectant les médecins, les infirmières et les PSSP avec de meilleurs salaires et conditions de travail;

« —certifiant les titres de compétences de dizaines de milliers d’infirmières et d’autres professionnels de la santé formés à l’étranger déjà en Ontario, qui attendent des années et paient des milliers de dollars pour être autorisés à travailler;

« —rendant l’éducation et la formation gratuites ou peu coûteuses pour les infirmières, les médecins et les autres professionnels de la santé;

« —incitant les médecins et les infirmières à choisir de vivre et travailler dans le nord de l’Ontario;

« —finançant les hôpitaux pour qu’ils aient suffisamment d’infirmières à chaque quart de travail, dans chaque département. »

Je supporte cette pétition. Je vais la signer et la remettre à Mikaeel pour l’amener au bureau des greffiers.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas in the First and Second World Wars, over 7,000 First Nation members, as well as an unknown number of Métis, Inuit and other Indigenous recruits, voluntarily served in the Canadian Armed Forces; and

“Whereas countless Indigenous peoples bravely and selflessly served Canada at a time of great challenges for Canada; and

“Whereas this spirit of volunteerism and community marked the life of the late Murray Whetung, who volunteered to serve in the Second World War; and

“Whereas many First Nations individuals lost their status after serving in the wars off-reserve for a period of time; and

“Whereas despite this injustice, many continued to recognize the value in continuously giving back to their community; and

“Whereas the values of volunteerism and community are instilled in the army, air, and sea cadets across Ontario; and

“Whereas the Murray Whetung Community Service Award Act establishes an award for the cadets and tells the story of Indigenous veterans’ sacrifice and mistreatment;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To urge all members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to support the passage of the Murray Whetung Community Service Award Act, 2022.”

I proudly affix my signature, and I will give this to page Mia.

My question is for the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery.

In my great riding of Thunder Bay–Atikokan, as in many communities across the north, travelling to ServiceOntario centres can be challenging and inconvenient. Dealerships are negatively impacted by long wait times, travel and overly complicated vehicle registration forms. All of these problems lead to loss of productivity, delays and backlogs for users.

It is important that our government takes action to be proactive in finding innovative solutions that will cut red tape for businesses and make access to services faster and more efficient.

Can the minister please explain how our government is expanding vehicle registration transactions?

This question is to the Premier.

Renters are spending 30%, 50% or more of their income on rent. Many of them, in St. Paul’s, are juggling multiple jobs to scrape together $2,500 a month or more for a one-bedroom. Some cannot work and are relying on ODSP—or ODS-Poverty I should say; that more accurately describes what this government has done to many folks on ODSP.

In my community, seniors, low-income and young family renters, like most at 55 Brownlow Avenue, in the Yonge and Eglinton area—a rent-controlled building targeted to be demolished—are terrified of being priced out of our St. Paul’s neighbourhood, especially if or when Bill 23’s threats to municipal rental-replacement bylaws come to light.

My question to the Premier: Will you commit today to protect tenants with real rent control and guaranteed rental replacement?

Some $2,500 a month for rent is unaffordable for vulnerable communities. They are one demoviction notice away from being unhoused. Just ask the folks, again, at 55 Brownlow—121 units—afraid that they’ll be homeless in a matter of time. Ask the folks at 170 Roehampton Avenue, 1233 Yonge Street, 147 to 153 Vaughan Road—and at least a dozen more and counting. Hundreds of rental-purpose units are being lost, government, with no guarantee they will be replaced, thanks to the threats in Bill 23.

My question is back to the Premier: Will you guarantee that demovicted renters have the first right of return with guaranteed rent control on all buildings, for goodness’ sake?

Interjections.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the arts and culture sector contributes $28.7 billion to Ontario’s GDP and creates over 300,000 jobs;

“Whereas the Ontario Arts Council budget has not been increased at Ontario’s rate of inflation, exacerbating the income precarity of artists and cultural workers, some of whom are earning less than $25,000 per year, and still less for those from equity-deserving groups;

“Whereas the income precarity was worsened during the pandemic through issues of regulatory unfairness in the arts and culture sector, disproportionately impacting the performing arts sector and OAC-determined priority groups, including BIPOC, Indigenous, women, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA2S+ artists and cultural workers;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to sustain the Ontario Arts Council budget of $65 million” minimum “in the 2023 provincial budget and adequately invest in the arts and culture sector, including supports for equity-deserving groups, small, medium and grassroots collectives in our communities, and individual artists to ensure their personal and economic survival.”

I couldn’t agree more. I’ve affixed my signature and will hand this to Felicity for tabling.

Point of order, Speaker.

“Extend Access to Post-Adoption Birth Information.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas current legislation does not provide access to post-adoption birth information (identifying information) to next of kin if an adult adopted person or a natural/birth parent is deceased;

“Whereas this barrier to accessing post-adoption birth information separates immediate family members and prohibits the children of deceased adopted people from gaining knowledge of their identity and possible Indigenous heritage;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to extend access to post-adoption birth information ... to next of kin, and/or extended next of kin, if an adult adopted person or a natural/birth parent is deceased.”

I support this petition, will affix my name to it and give it to page Mia to bring to the Clerk.

World Water Day is today so it gives me a great honour to present a petition entitled “Protect the Greenbelt.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Bill 23 is the Ford government’s latest attempt to remove protected land from the greenbelt, allowing developers to bulldoze and pave over 7,000 acres of farmland in the greenbelt;

“Whereas Ontario is already losing 319.6 acres of farmland and green space daily to development;

“Whereas the government’s Housing Affordability Task Force found there are plenty of places to build homes without destroying the greenbelt;

“Whereas Ford’s repeated moves to tear up farmland and bulldoze wetlands have never been about housing, but are about making the rich richer;

“Whereas green spaces and farmland are what we rely on to grow our food, support natural habitats and prevent flooding;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately amend Bill 23, stop all plans to further remove protected land from the greenbelt and protect existing farmland in the province by passing the NDP’s Protecting Agricultural Land Act.”

I fully agree with this petition. I’m going to sign it and give it to Savannah to take to the table.

I am really proud to present this petition that was signed by—we are at 1,500 names. The last name we have is Colette Riess from Noëlville. It reads as follows:

“Keep the Noëlville OPP Detachment Open....

“Whereas insufficient communications and consultations have taken place with communities and relevant stakeholders concerning the OPP Noëlville detachment’s continuing operations; and

“Whereas the residents and visitors in the municipalities of French River, Markstay-Warren, St.-Charles, Killarney and Britt-Byng Inlet as well as the First Nations of Dokis and Henvey Inlet deserve equitable access to a reliable, timely and efficient police response;”

They “petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario” as follows: “to direct the Ministry of the Solicitor General and the Ontario Provincial Police to continue having Ontario Provincial Police officers reporting to an operational detachment location in Noëlville.”

I fully support this petition, Speaker, will affix my name to it and send it to the Clerk with a good page.

The Standing Committee on Social Policy, please.