I rise today to appreciate the rich diversity of our Richmond Hill community. From celebrating the winter carnival to observing Nowruz and Ramadan, our community comes together to honour our inclusiveness.

I want to acknowledge the Richmond Hill Winter Carnival that took place on February 4. Despite the frigid weather, our residents came together to celebrate this winter tradition and have fun. This is the tradition that residents in Richmond Hill have been celebrating for 54 years.

Last week, I joined the Iranian community for various celebrations. I was happy to join Minster Parsa, Mayor Tom Mrakas and guests to celebrate the second anniversary of Bill 271 to recognize Persian Heritage Month. I also attended the ICTC Youth Foundation Nowruz event.

Today marks the beginning of Ramadan. May I wish the Muslim communities in Richmond Hill and across Ontario the very best during this time of spiritual strength and personal reflection.

Let us continue to embrace our diversity and work towards a brighter Ontario.

Giving back to the community and charity work is something that’s truly close to my heart.

Throughout the week of March break, my Brampton West Youth Council held a food drive.

As we all know, food is a basic necessity of life, and yet there are so many people in our community who struggle to put food on the table every day.

Fortunately, we have the power to make a difference. By donating non-perishable food items and volunteering our time, we can ensure that everyone in our community has access to healthy and nutritious meals. By coming together as a community, we can make a real difference in the lives of our neighbours.

Mr. Speaker, I’m so proud to have such wonderful volunteers as part of our team. Their willingness to help and their unwavering support has been instrumental in making this food drive a success.

I would like to take a moment to express my heartfelt gratitude for your incredible efforts during our Brampton West food drive, and all of those who helped out either by donating or volunteering. Thank you for making such an impactful change in the community through your kind actions.

Thank you very much.

I had the honour and privilege of welcoming the people from the JIAS Toronto LINC school of York region. They will be in the chamber very shortly, but I wanted to make sure that they knew that they were welcome. They’re an amazing organization that has been working very hard for the people of not only York region but Toronto as well. Welcome to them.

I do, Mr. Speaker, and I thank you for your attention and your indulgence.

I am seeking the unanimous consent of the House that, notwithstanding standing order 100(a)(iv), the independent members be permitted to share the five minutes allotted to a single member for the debate on private member’s notice of motion number 34, standing in the name of the member for London–Fanshawe.

I would like to welcome Travis McDougall, from Truckers for Safer Highways, who is joining us today.

Welcome to your House, Travis.

There’s a person who sits here almost every day in the members’ gallery, and his name is Michau van Speyk. It is his 28th birthday today. I want to wish him a happy birthday.

There is growing public opposition to this land grab, there’s an ongoing ethics inquiry, and there are new federal interventions.

So will the Premier finally stop his attack on our greenbelt?

Back to the Premier: Parks Canada said the government’s greenbelt carve-up is going to cause irreversible harm to wildlife. The federal government says the risks are real. This government muzzled the Greenbelt Council. It’s becoming increasingly clear that consultation did not happen—not at all.

So my question to the Premier is, beyond the guests at his family function, who did he consult on the impacts of his greenbelt carve-up?

Ontarians know that this government’s greenbelt grab has nothing at all to do with housing. They are not convinced by any of this. It has everything to do with a handful of very well-connected insiders making a lot of money.

Speaker, the reality is, this government’s plan won’t build a single new unit of affordable housing.

If this government truly cared about making sure that Ontarians had good places to call home, they’d be ending exclusionary zoning and investing to build non-profit, co-op and supportive housing.

My question to the Premier is, instead of bulldozing the greenbelt, will you invest in truly affordable housing on the land we already have?

Interjections.

I recognize the Minister of Energy.

Order.

Interjections.

Start the clock.

Final supplementary.

To reply, the government House leader.

Thank you, Speaker. I recognize you too. It’s good to see you this morning.

I would like to welcome a couple of dear friends of mine from Riverview, New Brunswick, my hometown. Believe it or not, I was the best man at their wedding a long, long time ago, when I was a younger, slimmer, more handsome man than I am today, if you can imagine that. I’d really like to welcome Peter and Heidi Foster.

I can say this: The provincial government, this government, is steadfast in its commitment to continue to build houses for the people of the province of Ontario. The federal government can either assist us in this motion or they can simply get out of the way. We have made it very clear since 2018 that we needed to build more houses in the province of Ontario. It has also been very clear that the opposition is against this.

What we’re seeing in Ontario is hope and optimism returning to this province for the first time in a long time, Mr. Speaker. Do you know why? Because we’re bringing more jobs back to the province of Ontario. We have more jobs than people to fill those jobs, and we’re asking for over 300,000 people to come to Ontario to help us build a more prosperous Ontario. And do you know what they need? They want to have a home. So we will continue to do that. And I can’t say it more clearly: The federal government and the opposition can either work with us or they can get out of the way so that we can continue to build a better Ontario.

So I say very clearly to the leader of His Majesty’s opposition: Either work with us to build new housing or get out of the way.

Interjections.

Thanks to the member opposite for this important question.

Mr. Speaker, “Nothing without us”—our accessibility community wants their voice heard. This is why people with disabilities are involved in the design and evolution of program and service delivery in Ontario. Their voice matters.

We welcome the feedback from Rich Donovan to improve accessibility across Ontario.

Under the leadership of this Premier, we are the first provincial government to have a ministry and cabinet position dedicated to advancing accessibility in Ontario. We are building a more accessible Ontario together.

When David Onley gave me his report on the AODA, he told me, “Raymond, the number one thing you can do to create a more accessible Ontario is to help people with disabilities get meaningful jobs.”

I want to thank my good friend the Minister of Labour for the investment into the Skills Development Fund. We are making sure that people with disabilities have the right programs, services and training to find meaningful jobs.

When it comes to leadership here, there is no better advocate for accessibility than this Premier.

Listen to the question of the Leader of the Opposition. She just stated that she wants to get in the way of having new homes for the people of the province of Ontario. There are the next generation of Ontarians who just want the same thing that all of us have. They want to have the opportunity to have their first home. That is why people have come to this province for so many generations. But the NDP want to stand in the way of that. They want to stand in the way of the incredible work that the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade has done to bring thousands of jobs back to the province of Ontario.

So what are we doing? We are building a bigger, better, stronger province of Ontario, and we are doing it by working together across government to make sure that that happens for the people of the province of Ontario. And they’re seeing the results, Mr. Speaker. Paycheques are getting better. It is getting easier to do business in the province of Ontario. Do you know who else is seeing the results? The billions of dollars of companies that are flocking to the province of Ontario to join with us in building a better, stronger—

What are we doing in health care? We are spending billions of dollars in every part of this province to build a bigger, better, stronger health care system. We’re building massive amounts of investment in Niagara—and not only in new hospitals. We looked at their small hospitals and we decided that we have to do a better job of funding their small and medium hospitals. So we’re doing that—the largest investment in hospitals in Ottawa. We’re doing that in long-term care. We work with the Minister of Colleges and Universities to make sure that we have the staff to support all of this massive investment.

And hey, go figure, we want to do things differently so that the people of the province can have a better health care system going forward. But do you know who’s standing in the way of that? It’s the Leader of the Opposition, because they’re stuck in the 1940s. I thought Dr. Horwath was bad enough, but now we have Dr. Stiles, who knows everything. But despite it, we’ll get the job done—

Interjections.

Do you know how we get it done in the province of Ontario? First, what we do is, we make sure we put policies forward, and the people of the province of Ontario elect a Progressive Conservative government to get the job done. And then we look and we say, “How can we improve Ontario?” We say the first thing we’ve got to do is get rid of the red tape regulation that was killing this province. We did.

Then we said we have to stabilize our energy sector. We did it.

We have to reinvest in infrastructure. We are doing it.

We have to reinvest in our health care system to build better communities. We’re doing it.

Do you know who votes against it all the time? It’s the Leader of the Opposition and that party.

Imagine a Leader of the Opposition, an NDP party, trying to suggest that they hold the high bar in ethics. I wonder how Kevin Yarde feels about that high bar on ethics—who was drummed out of the party because of that. This is a party that elected a leader because nobody else wanted to get into the race—but now we’re finding out that there was never going to be a race because the decks were cleared.

Government House leader.

Government House leader.

I’ll remind the members to refer to each other by their riding names or their ministerial title, as applicable.

Start the clock.

The final supplementary.

The government House leader.

The Minister for Seniors and Accessibility.

Twenty-one days ago, the government received a report on the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. The report states: “The Premier of Ontario, and his cabinet, have yet to meet even the basic needs of people with disabilities.” Adding insult to injury, the AODA Alliance, a group concerned with implementing the act, has met with every Premier since the AODA was passed in 2005, but not this Premier.

Speaker, through you: Will the Premier commit to meeting with the alliance and immediately work to fully implement the AODA?

Each five-year review has expressed grave concerns about the lack of progress implementing the AODA. The third review in 2019 by the late Honourable David Onley called the experience of Ontarians with disabilities “soul-crushing.” And the current review says, “Due to 17 years of inaction, any excuse to delay is laughable and wildly insulting.”

Speaker, will the Premier tell the three million Ontarians with a disability what he’s doing to ensure Ontario is fully accessible by the target year of 2025?

Interjections.

I think it’s fair to say that this government and this Premier have been under a cloud of suspicion—lucrative patronage appointments doled out to Conservative donors, cozy relationships with developers who stand to gain from carving up the greenbelt, a revolving door of lobbyists from ministers’ offices. And while ordinary Ontarians are struggling to keep a roof over their heads and put food on the table or get the health care they deserve, this government is doling out gifts to everyone that they know.

My question is to the Premier: Are the interests of regular people in this province taking a back seat to the interests of their friends and donors?

Again, to the Premier—I’d appreciate a real answer: Doesn’t the government realize how this looks? How do you explain it?

To the Premier: Ontarians want to know, is this a return to cash for access in Ontario? Is this how we get it done in Ontario again, under the Conservative government?

Thank you to the member for that important question on World Water Day.

Speaker, our government is proud of our record in keeping Ontario’s drinking water safe for all Ontarians. We have comprehensive legislation and a regulatory framework, including the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, the Health Protection and Promotion Act. We know water on reserves does not fall under that; it falls under federal legislation. Having said that, that’s not good enough. We’re working with the federal government and with Indigenous communities.

It was this government that, for the first time ever, in the mandate of Walkerton and the Ontario Clean Water Agency, included a mandate to engage with Indigenous communities. I’m pleased to say members of the Ontario Clean Water Agency and Walkerton have been in a number of Indigenous communities on a 24/7 basis, working with Indigenous water operators and the federal government, because it’s not good enough—as previous governments, supported by the NDP—to just pass the buck.

We’re leaning in, working with Indigenous communities.

The member asked what we’re doing.

If we’re going to be intellectually honest with ourselves on the challenge—a lot of it stems from lack of training for water operation.

We know the federal government—this was Indigenous communities that said to the federal government, “Pay us a fair wage.” We supported them.

What has Ontario done? Well, as of June 2022, 168 operators and 116 managers or supervisors have been trained at no cost to Indigenous communities. This was never done by the previous Liberal government. Our government is standing up, working at no cost to these Indigenous communities, and we’re going to work together with them. If the member opposite has any specific communities he feels are not benefiting from that training, let me know and we’ll make sure we have water operators there to work with them.

I want to ask the government House leader a question after that clinic he put on this morning, but my constituents want me to ask a question of the Minister of Finance.

Speaker, as global events, high interest rates and ongoing supply chain issues contribute to worldwide economic uncertainty, we’re experiencing the effects here in Ontario. While Canada’s inflation rate is easing, it’s still stubbornly high, and we know that people are struggling. We remain in a time of elevated inflation that is straining household budgets by driving up prices on everyday goods and services.

People across Ontario are looking to our government to put forward measures that will provide them with direct help and support.

Can the minister please explain how our government is working on behalf of Ontarians during these uncertain economic times?

It’s reassuring that our government is focusing on actions and investments that will support individuals, families, seniors and businesses.

Because of the reckless policies of the previous Liberal government, supported by the NDP, Ontario’s fiscal position was severely weakened.

That’s why it is necessary for our government to continue with forward-looking and solution-oriented approaches to successfully navigate our province through this period of economic uncertainty.

With Ontario’s growing population, diverse workforce and an abundance of natural resources, we are well positioned in many areas for continued economic growth and prosperity.

Can the parliamentary assistant please explain the priorities of our government’s economic vision for Ontarians?

The member for Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound, the parliamentary assistant.

I want to thank the MPP from Mississauga–Erin Mills for this really important question.

Speaker, our government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, is standing with our military reservists and their families. On Monday, I introduced our third Working for Workers Act. This bill creates a new job-protected leave for military heroes who need time to recover from physical injuries or mental trauma. Anyone who is willing to drop everything to help their neighbours should be rewarded and not punished. They deserve the peace of mind that their civilian jobs will be waiting for them when they are ready to come back to them. I’m proud that our reservist leave will be the most flexible and comprehensive in the country.

Our government is going to continue working for the workers of Ontario.

I look forward to answering more in the supplementary.