I just want to take this opportunity to correct the member. This government, when it consolidated its three homelessness programs into the Homelessness Prevention Program, not only took those dollars but added an additional $25 million, which was distributed to our 47 service managers. We also made a significant investment to our Indigenous program administrators by adding additional supportive housing in the Indigenous Supportive Housing Program. What the member is talking about simply is not true. The dollars show that this government continues to increase spending—

Interjection.

I wish to thank the President of the Treasury Board, the member for Brampton South, for that kind introduction and for speaking first on the Supply Act.

It is my distinct honour to rise today to further detail the financial situation of the province of Ontario and the expenditures that the government is making through our plan to build Ontario.

I would also like to thank my colleague for detailing the spending in the crucial areas of health care and education.

Speaker, I must echo the minister’s words and sentiments when it comes to health care and education spending. It is fair to say that those expenditures will likely shape the future of the province of Ontario. However, to make those investments, the province has to be in the financial position to do so.

The top-line details of the 2022 budget might be considered dry by some, but it is necessary for members of this House to get an idea of the province’s current financial situation. Only with the latest information can we accurately paint a picture of the province’s financial circumstances. Ontario’s third-quarter finances, which were released last month, give us that information.

My colleague previously mentioned some of the challenges that must be considered when looking at any current economic data, but they do bear repeating. In the face of high inflation, rising interest rates, global geopolitical intrigue and ongoing supply chain disruptions, Ontario’s economy has remained resilient. And it is to the credit of the people of Ontario that the province’s real gross domestic product, the GDP, is estimated to have increased by 3.7% in the last year. Seen in its proper context, this number is impressive.

Speaker, as we are now three months into 2023, we know that Ontario’s economy is not immune to an expected global economic slowdown this year. It is true that reputable forecasters are bracing for an even more challenging year than was faced in 2022. That is why the government is maintaining a reasonable and realistic fiscal plan. Now is the time to double down on fiscal responsibility—that means ensuring fiscal policy that works with a strict and thoughtful monetary policy. Against this backdrop, the government has remained transparent and accountable—and releasing the 2022-23 third-quarter finances is in the service of doing just that.

It should be noted that the next economic and fiscal update, as part of the 2023 budget, will be this Thursday, March 23, 2023.

I’m happy to now get into some of the projections from the third-quarter finances, as it gives us context in terms of where we are financially today as a province.

Ontario’s 2022-23 deficit is projected to be $6.5 billion. While that is significant, it should be noted that it is $13.3 billion lower than the outlook published in the 2022 budget—and that is $6.4 billion lower than the 2022 Ontario economic outlook and fiscal review.

On the other side of the ledger, revenues in 2022-23 were projected to be $196.4 billion. That is $16.6 billion higher than the forecast in the 2022 budget and $9.6 billion higher than projected in the 2022 Ontario economic outlook and fiscal review.

Of course, it is reasonable to ask why revenues were higher than expected. The revenue forecast reflects stronger-than-expected taxation revenues, which were a direct result of higher net tax assessments for 2021 and prior years.

The people of this province should know how much money is being spent on their behalf on the government programs designed to make their lives better.

Overall program expense in 2022-23—those expenses were projected to be $188.6 billion, and that number is $3.4 billion higher than the forecast in both the 2022 budget and the 2022 Ontario economic outlook and fiscal review. These increases are due to spending related to reopening of colleges and resulting additional on-campus activity, the government commitment to support the city of Toronto to address a portion of its 2022 operating deficit, and additional funding for prevention and containment of COVID-19 at long-term-care homes. The government feels that these expenses were necessary and appropriate. As well, these expenses have been partially offset by additional third-party revenues from colleges; ministry underspending, particularly underspending for infrastructure projects; and through the drawing down of existing contingencies within the fiscal plan.

Speaker, before I discuss some of the investments associated with Ontario’s Plan to Build, I would like to put a little bow on some of these top-line budget numbers.

Interest on the province’s debt is projected to be $13.4 billion, slightly lower than the $13.5 billion forecast in last year’s budget.

Because of the lower deficit, the net debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to be 38.3% in 2022-23, 3.1% lower than the 41.4% forecast in the 2022 budget.

There is one additional point I would like to make about the overall budget within my allotted time. It is important to remember that the 2022 budget included a $1-billion reserve in 2022-2023. This was to protect the fiscal outlook against any unforeseen changes in the province’s revenue and expense forecasts. This demonstrates this government’s prudent fiscal approach. The reserve was designed to insulate the province from unforeseen expenses of any kind. It also provides additional prudence in the government’s fiscal framework. It should be noted that, if that money is not needed, the reserve is eliminated at year-end as part of the final projection for 2022-23, published in the 2023 budget.

With that context in mind, I’d like to move on to Ontario’s Plan to Build.

The first pillar of this comprehensive plan is rebuilding Ontario’s economy. It is sad but true that Ontario lost 300,000 manufacturing jobs between 2004 and 2018. That was quite a hole to dig out of, but that is what we were up against, and we remain up against that sorry legacy. To deal with this, the government has a plan to help create the environment for jobs and to build prosperity everywhere for everyone. The key to doing this will be leveraging what we already have. An example of this is seizing Ontario’s critical minerals. Our province is rich in the critical minerals that will be key to making sure that the next generation of automobiles are built right here in Ontario. The government’s plan includes up to $1 billion for legacy infrastructure such as all-season roads to the Ring of Fire, building the corridor to prosperity. Over the next three years, the government is investing nearly $107 million to help the province compete with jurisdictions in a global race to develop and own these technologies that will likely define the future of transportation.

The second pillar of Ontario’s Plan to Build is working for workers. This pillar included raising the minimum wage to $15.50 per hour as of October 2022. The government is proud to be able to institute this important increase, largely helping the most vulnerable across our province. Under this crucial pillar, the government also plans to invest $1 billion every single year in employment and training programs. These programs are to help workers all throughout Ontario to retrain and upgrade their skills. The world moves fast, and the skills one may have today might not be the ones needed for the jobs of tomorrow. That is exactly why retraining and upgrading is so important for our skilled workers. Our workforce must be agile and flexible—and the billions of dollars earmarked for this type of training is designed to do just that.

The third pillar of the plan is where the billions of dollars invested in infrastructure can be found. So many people in this province are wasting time, day after day, sitting in traffic or waiting for a train or subway. Bumper-to-bumper traffic, gridlock and transit delays are not only a nuisance, but they also cost this province billions of dollars. This must change, and this will change. We can talk about traffic until we are blue in the face, but nothing will solve the problem until we get shovels in the ground to build highways, transit and other infrastructure projects to fight gridlock, boost the economy and create jobs. To do this, the government is planning one of the most ambitious capital plans in the history of Ontario. Over the next decade, these infrastructure projects will total $159.3 billion, including $20 billion in 2022-23 alone. The government is investing $25.1 billion over the next 10 years to support highway projects across the province, including building Highway 413, building the Bradford Bypass, and enabling the widening of Highway 401 through eastern Ontario. There are many highway infrastructure projects and, frankly, there’s not enough time to mention them all today. But that is the investment we are making to get Ontario moving again. The government is also investing $61.6 billion over 10 years for public transit, including the Ontario Line here in Toronto and GO rail across the greater Golden Horseshoe and into southwestern Ontario.

The fourth pillar is something that any fiscally minded person can appreciate: keeping costs down. The government has a plan to help keep costs down by increasing housing supply, by making it less expensive to drive or take transit, and by providing direct relief on everything from child care to taxes. The government has committed to making it less expensive to drive by eliminating and refunding licence plate renewal fees for passenger vehicles, light-duty trucks, motorcycles and mopeds. The government made transit more affordable across the greater Golden Horseshoe by eliminating double fares for most local transit when using GO Transit services. The government is also working on lowering child care fees for parents by signing a $13.2-billion agreement with the federal government. I know it has been mentioned many times, but it should be noted that the government remains committed to securing an average of $10-a-day child care by September 2025. By putting more money back into the pockets of the parents of Ontario, the government is working toward a more financially secure future for all of Ontario’s families.

The last pillar of Ontario’s plan to build is a plan to stay open. It’s true that Ontario fared better than many jurisdictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that is owing to the resilience of the people of Ontario. It is now the government’s duty to make sure that Ontario is prepared to face any future challenges. The government is doing this by making historic investments in our hospitals, with an additional $3.3 billion in investments in 2022-23. Over the next three years, the government is also investing $3.5 billion to support the continuation of over 3,000 hospital beds put into place during the pandemic. As well, the government is investing $1.1 billion over three years to support the continuation of hundreds of new adult, pediatric and neonatal critical care beds added during COVID-19.

Speaker, the people of Ontario deserve a government that has a real plan to build. Furthermore, the people of Ontario deserve to know for sure that the money that is being spent in their names is being spent in a transparent and accountable way.

The government is proud of Ontario’s plan to build and proud of its five pillars detailed today. The plan demonstrates how we are continuing to make essential investments to support the people and the businesses of this great province.

It should be noted that this supply bill, if passed, would formalize the investments I have outlined today. And at the risk of repeating myself, it is also important to note that the Supply Act, if passed, is not about approving new spending; the Supply Act is instead about providing legislative approval for the spending to which the government has already committed.

The review of the province’s fiscal position as of the third-quarter finances and the detailed rundown of the government’s Ontario’s Plan to Build hopefully served as a reminder to all members of this House of the transparency and accountability that informs all government spending.

With that said, Speaker, I encourage all members to support this important piece of legislation.

I’m very pleased to rise this afternoon, in my role as parliamentary assistant to the President of the Treasury Board, to expand on what the minister and my colleague the PA from Durham just said. It is an honour to be able to join this debate on the Supply Act for the 2022-23 fiscal year. It is an opportunity that I do not take for granted.

Speaker, the minister has already explained the mechanics of the Supply Act, and PA McCarthy has explained our Q3 results and Ontario’s Plan to Build.

As I said last year at this time, I believe it is critical that all members understand every detail of the procedures of the fiscal cycle. That’s what the people of Ontario expect from their elected officials, and that’s what they deserve, especially now, during challenging economic times. Inflation and interest rates are rising, and the global supply chain has not completely recovered from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is only in this context that we can truly understand and appreciate the fiscal decision-making that has guided this year’s expenses.

Speaker, I know that this has already been said, but I want to reiterate: Every dollar spent by this government comes out of the pockets of the hard-working taxpayers of this province. That’s why the people of Ontario demand accountability and transparency for all of the fiscal decisions made by their government. The families, the workers, the students and the most vulnerable among us, and especially our children and our future grandchildren, deserve this from their government.

As PA McCarthy said earlier, the government is not announcing any new spending today. The investments that the minister and the PA spoke about earlier have already been made, but we’re required to pass the Supply Act at the end of every fiscal year to provide final approval of all spending by the provincial government.

With that said, I would like to go into more detail about some of the major investments that the government has made, and I will also take the opportunity to outline why these investments have been made and how they will benefit the people of this great province.

As the minister said, the health and well-being of the people of Ontario has always been and always will be the top priority of this government. This is more than just talk; it’s illustrated in many concrete actions.

For example, the government continues to make investments to improve health care in every corner of this province. In the 2022 budget, the government committed over $40 billion over the next 10 years to build hospital infrastructure right across Ontario. That includes about $27 billion in capital grants—grants that will get shovels in the ground to build the health care infrastructure that this province needs. That’s about $10 billion more for hospitals and other health care infrastructure than what was committed in the 2021 budget in the previous year. That’s $10 billion more that will go directly to increase capacity in hospitals and community health centres, to build new hospitals, and to renew our existing health care facilities.

This includes funding to support the complete reconstruction of the Mississauga Hospital in Mississauga–Lakeshore, which first opened in 1958. A few years later, I was born there. And my two sons were born there. My sister worked there, in medical records. My niece was a volunteer there. As Mayor Bonnie Crombie said, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the need for major upgrades at the current hospital—in many cases, long overdue. Demand for hospital services in Mississauga is also expected to grow seven times more than the average Ontario hospital over the next 20 years. The truth is, we needed a new hospital 15 years ago, but the former Liberal government kept saying no. Now, because of this government’s historic multi-billion dollar investment, the new Mississauga Hospital will be almost triple the size: 24 storeys and three million square feet, with 1,000 beds, 80% in private rooms. This will be the largest and most advanced hospital in the history of Canada. The minister and I had the opportunity to tour the construction site recently, where work is under way for a new eight-storey parking structure with spaces for almost 1,500 vehicles. This is an important first step in the project. And just last week, Trillium Health Partners and Infrastructure Ontario signed an agreement with EllisDon and PCL Healthcare Partners to deliver this project using a progressive, P3 approach.

Just across the Etobicoke Creek, the government is expanding the Queensway Health Centre, with a new nine-storey, 600,000-square-foot patient tower with over 350 new hospital beds, in a modern centre for complex care.

In the north end of Peel region, in Brampton, the government is working together with the William Osler Health System to transform Peel Memorial Hospital into a 24/7 in-patient hospital and urgent care centre. This urgently needed upgrade will pave the way for a new emergency department to meet the health care needs of one of Ontario’s fastest-growing communities.

There are hospital expansion projects planned or under way in communities right across Ontario.

For example, the government’s investments will also support the redevelopment of the Ottawa Hospital’s Civic campus. This means an expansion of access to programs and services, finally meeting Ottawa’s bed capacity needs.

The government has also committed to support a new state-of-the-art, acute-care hospital in Windsor-Essex county to add more hospital beds and expand services in the region.

In Huntsville and Bracebridge, the government has provided funding for the redevelopment of their acute-care hospitals. These investments will improve community programs and services and expand access to diagnostic imaging, including MRIs and CT scans.

Speaker, we should also consider the Grand River Hospital and the St. Mary’s General Hospital joint redevelopment project. The government’s investments will expand these existing facilities and support the construction of another new acute-care facility. These investments will directly benefit the entire Kitchener-Waterloo region.

Northern Ontario will also benefit from the government’s increase in health spending. To help address surgical wait times, the government is supporting the expansion of the cardiovascular surgery program at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre. This expansion will help to improve access to life-saving care in Thunder Bay.

Speaker, I realize that this list is long, but it’s worth mentioning a few more items to show how this government has made health funding its top priority.

The government is committed to the construction of a new, modern hospital on the existing Uxbridge site of Oak Valley Health. This investment is necessary to replace another rapidly aging facility and to support the expansion of services and a new community health hub with long-term-care services.

It’s important to remember that when the government plans these investments, we must always consider future population growth. It is critical that taxpayers’ money is spent in the most prudent and responsible way to get the most out of each and every dollar.

That’s the case with the government’s support for the Stevenson Memorial Hospital. This investment will modernize facilities, support service delivery, and respond to the population growth that is expected in Simcoe county.

Speaker, during the pandemic, my team in Mississauga–Lakeshore prepared and delivered hundreds of meals to health care workers at the Scarborough Health Network’s Birchmount site. I was pleased to see that the government’s investment included an expansion of that site, including an in-patient tower and expanding the emergency department to reduce wait times and upgrade aging infrastructure.

There are many more projects that I could list. These investments, both to upgrade current facilities and to build new state-of-the-art ones, will help to ensure that the people of Ontario will have access to the best possible health care today and tomorrow.

Madam Speaker, as I’ve said, the health and well-being of the people of Ontario is the government’s highest priority, and the capital spending that I just outlined shows this very clearly.

Along with health care, another important priority of this government is transportation. As my colleague PA McCarthy said earlier, highways, roads and public transit are the economic lifelines of this province.

At this point, I think it is important to point out how large Ontario is. Ontario spans over one million square kilometres, which is over 266 million acres. That makes this province larger than France and Spain combined. Ontario is over three times the size of Germany. And we have almost 7,000 kilometres of road—that’s the second most in all of Canada.

It is easy to forget how extensive our province’s road system is and how much time, effort and money it takes to maintain and upgrade.

That’s why, as PA McCarthy mentioned, the government is investing over $25 billion over 10 years to support highway expansion, maintenance and repair projects right across the province.

I would like to take an opportunity to speak in more detail about some of the most important highway projects that are included in this investment.

There is the development of Highway 413, a new 400-series highway. As I said here last September, this project is critical to the economic well-being of both Peel region and the entire province. It will serve as a transportation corridor across Peel, Halton and York regions to support the movement of people and goods across the western GTA. This is already the single-most congested corridor in North America, and the greater Golden Horseshoe is adding at least 200,000 new residents each year. This necessary new highway will save drivers up to 30 minutes on their commute each way. That’s five hours per week and 260 hours each year. That’s 11 days every year. Highway 413 will finally bring relief to an area that so clearly needs it.

The government has also committed to the Bradford Bypass. This will be a new four-lane freeway, connecting Highway 400 in Simcoe county to Highway 404 in York region. Everyone who has sat in gridlock on Highway 400 can appreciate that this new freeway is expected to save commuters over 35 minutes per trip, compared to the existing route along other local roads. That’s almost six hours per week, or over 300 hours each year.

I’d like to move on to the QEW Garden City Skyway project. This will include a new twin bridge over the Welland Canal, connecting St. Catharines to Niagara-on-the-Lake. This new bridge will keep traffic moving across this important trading corridor that links our international border crossing with the Golden Horseshoe.

The government is also committed to the next phase of construction for the new Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph. Again, this project will provide relief to commuters stuck in gridlock on Highway 401 and will connect the fast-growing urban centres of Kitchener, Waterloo and Guelph.

Also, there is an investment to rebuild over 21 kilometres of Highway 101, known as the Timmins connecting link. This is one of the largest connecting links in Ontario, used by 25,000 vehicles every single day.

Of course, transportation doesn’t just mean highways. The government has also made investments that will support public transit well into the next generation. In the 2022 budget, the government committed almost $62 billion over 10 years for public transit. This includes breaking ground on the Ontario Line here in Toronto. This line will provide rapid transit between Exhibition, Ontario Place and the Ontario Science Centre, and connect to over 40 other transit routes, including the GO train line, TTC subways and streetcar lines and the Eglinton Crosstown LRT.

Outside Toronto, the Bowmanville GO train expansion will expand rail service from Oshawa to Bowmanville on the Lakeshore East corridor to help reduce gridlock in my colleague PA McCarthy’s community.

Moving west, the government has invested in expanding GO Transit rail to eventually offer weekend trips between London and Union Station in Toronto. This is part of our plan to transform the GO train network into a modern, reliable and fully connected rapid transit network. The goal is to cut down commute times across the province by increasing service, with faster trains, more stations and better transit connections.

As I said earlier this month in our debate on Bill 71, northern Ontario will play a critical role in the economic future of this province. But to help unlock its potential, we need better transportation opportunities in the north. That’s why the government has committed $75 million to bring passenger rail service back to northeastern Ontario. This will finally restore a key transportation option between Timmins and Toronto to help to connect northern Ontario to the financial centres in the south. This will be an important link for northern Ontario as the government continues to invest in unlocking the full economic potential of northern industries and natural resources, building new, made-in-Ontario supply chains to connect critical minerals from the north, including the Ring of Fire, to manufacturing in the south.

In closing, I would like to thank all the members for listening during this Supply Act debate, as we have highlighted spending on some key projects, particularly in the areas of health and transportation. These are two critical areas where every dollar spent will benefit the people of Ontario.

In the face of hard economic times, Ontario has demonstrated its incredible resilience and strength, and it is our government’s job as guardians of the public purse to support the families, workers and businesses of this province. To do this, we must also build a strong foundation for future growth and prosperity. It’s a heavy responsibility to be trusted with the hard-earned tax dollars of the people of this province. It is not to be taken lightly. The pandemic has only highlighted this point. The government made a promise to be responsible and transparent about the province’s economic and fiscal situation. And I believe, during this final process of the fiscal cycle, that is exactly what we’re doing.

Again, I would like to thank the minister and PA McCarthy for their remarks earlier today.

Together with my colleagues, I urge all members to support the Supply Act, so that spending on these critical public services can be authorized for the current fiscal year.

What a pleasure it is to be in the House today to address the Supply Act motion. I have to say, I actually have so much material to work with. I feel like a mosquito at a nudist resort, Madam Speaker. Literally, I don’t even know where to start.

The President of the Treasury Board, my friend, talked a lot about transparency. I think that we agree on a few things, and one is that transparency is very much connected to trust. But this government has a serious, serious trust issue. The people of this province have been promised a set of goods. They were promised a budget in 2022, which had some detailed expenditures—and I’m going to go through some of them, because that matters. When you actually follow the money and you follow where the expenditures actually occurred, then you can see sometimes what the real priorities are. But the trust piece—this government, I will admit, is very, very, very good at announcements, and sometimes really doubling down on some of those announcements with re-announcements about expenditures.

We are very fortunate, in the province of Ontario, to have the Financial Accountability Officer. This position, this independent officer of the Legislature, came to be as part of the negotiations in a minority government. Minority governments can be very effective. We wanted greater transparency with the former Liberal government. You can’t blame us, given some of the decisions that they made and some of the funding decisions that they made. I will also admit that we are still feeling the repercussions from some of those decisions, particularly on the energy file, for sure. The FAO has an expenditure monitor. Every quarter, he tracks where the money has gone, based on the government’s own numbers. So the government says, “We are going to allocate this particular amount of money to health care,” and then they make announcements and announcements and announcements. And then the FAO says, “Did that money actually go to health care?” Fortunately, we have the exposure of, really, what is happening.

We actually just got the Q3 expenditure monitor from earlier in this month, March 1, and lo and behold, combined over the first three quarters, the province was expected to spend $129.2 billion but actually spent only $122.8 billion—a $6.4-billion difference, 5% less than expected. Now, the question comes. If government has said health care, education, justice and energy—these are justifiable expenditures. You have the same formula that I think the FAO has. And then the FAO says, “Where did that money go?”—or in this case, and more importantly perhaps for this discussion, “Where did it not go?”

We’re not talking about new money today. We, as the official opposition, one of only two parties in this House, have said that you made a promise to the people of this province. You said you were going to invest in autism. You said you were going to invest in community services. You said you were going to invest in housing. And that money did not flow.

Just to break it down—because in order to be transparent on the lack of transparency, I want to be sure that the government understands why we have taken such issue with the budgeting of this government. Breaking it down around actual spending versus planned spending, the programs with the largest lower-than-expected spending include Metrolinx and municipal infrastructure projects.

This government talks a lot about capital infrastructure. They talk a lot about building hospitals. We heard this at the finance committee; my colleague and I travelled around the province. You can talk about beds all you want, but you are actually funding furniture if you don’t have a nurse, if you don’t have a PSW, if you don’t have a doctor. It’s just the facts.

The other underspending happened in the Ministry of Infrastructure capital program—$644 million less; public health, $605 million less.

What have we learned? We went through a global pandemic. It is not over. We are still feeling the effects of the various strains of COVID and long COVID. Nobody in the Ministry of Health is talking about long COVID at all. A responsible government would plan, do research, have an evidence-based policy around long COVID; not this government.

Certainly, underspending by $605 million, over half a billion dollars, in public health to prevent people from getting sick—early intervention and prevention is the smart investment in public health.

Social assistance programs—this kind of surprised me—got $453 million less; elementary and secondary education programs, $432 million less; child care programs, $396 million less than planned.

What is the problem? Where is the barrier to actually—you’ve acknowledged that there this is need in these areas, and you’ve set aside the funding, but the money doesn’t flow. But we do have lots of announcements, and we do have lots of photo ops.

Just as an aside: I came in last night on the UP Express—and let me tell you, it was not express. When I look at this lack of $462 million in the Metrolinx and municipal transit operating funding and I think about all the people who rely so heavily on public transit in this city, to not get that money out the door, to not invest that money, to not create those jobs, to not create those opportunities, is an economic non-starter. That train last night—it’s a diesel train; you know this. To get on a diesel train that chugalug-a-lugged me for 45 minutes from the airport to Union Station—it was a bit embarrassing. There were some Europeans on there, and they said to me, “Is this thing going to go fast?” And I had to say, “We’re not quite in the 20th century on public transit in Ontario yet.”

The expenditure monitor notes that the FAO provided all members of the Legislature—this office is open to everyone, and it is truly non-partisan.

On health care, the $1.25 billion that didn’t get spent, that did not get “invested”—that’s actually the better word. It was not invested in a time when we saw the Children’s Health Coalition for the province of Ontario—CHEO is a big part of that coalition—asking for $371 million to alleviate that 12,000-child wait-list. Some 12,000 children are long-haulers, so they’ve missed the opportune moment to receive surgery. The government has been silent on this request of $371 million. I really hope that my friend the President of the Treasury Board is able to talk to the Minister of Finance and say—not only does it look bad to keep children waiting, languishing on a wait-list and not opening up those operating rooms so that children can reach their potential, and so that their surgery is not more complex and more expensive—as one parent said to me, “Does the minister not understand that I as a parent, when I go to work, am not at my full productivity if I know that my child is in pain?” Surely, we can all understand this concept.

Going down the sector breakdown, the education piece, the actual versus expected is less $844 million in this last quarter as of December 31, 2022. The government has said, “We understand there’s a gap in learning.” The pandemic interrupted those learning patterns, especially for younger children and younger students. That money didn’t get out the door.

Children and social services: almost half a billion dollars, $458 million.

And I have to say—in the total, though, because there’s another program which captures $3.5 billion that didn’t get invested.

I can go through the other programs. These are important issues, but they’ve been encapsulated in the report, under a large umbrella, if you will.

The unallocated funds—let me just finish: You plan to spend $6.4 billion in very important ministries. I know that the communities were expecting that funding. That funding didn’t get out the door. I wish sometimes that we could get answers in this place, because I really want to know, why did you not get the job done? The people of this province, in the interest of transparency, which the government has said that they care about, want to know, because without that transparency, there is no trust.

There’s a tale of two Ontarios here, and when you factor in the Indigenous communities, it’s actually three, because there are very different levels. But here at the Pink Palace, as we heard this morning during question period, when we had people from across this province who were lobbying the government for better services for the most vulnerable people in Ontario, including Sarah and her daughter, Mia, who is homeless—so a mother and a child are homeless, and what do we hear from this government? “We’re going to create some jobs in another jurisdiction.” Sarah needs a roof. Sarah needs a place to call home. She needs to be safe. And you can talk about jobs—jobs and housing are connected. I don’t see why this government cannot draw that connection.

We also heard very clearly that housing is health care. We heard this from doctors in Ottawa. We heard this in Kenora. We heard this in Toronto very, very clearly. People who are precariously housed, who are couch-surfing, the 130 people living in tents in Waterloo region—these people are barely holding on. It was quite something, actually, to hear this morning from our leader about how many deaths happened every week over the winter. The fact that three people a week died in one of the richest provinces in Canada is really something that should keep us up at night.

The politicization of the housing file has reached a whole new extreme—because the not-for-profit sector is ready and willing to come to the table. In fact, they have applications. The minister, with the strike of a pen, could include in this budget direct partnerships with not-for-profits, and every single community in this province would have some form of supportive housing, some form of new accommodations. They’re ready and they are willing to come to the table—

Interjections.