The Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.

I guess I need to point out to the House that you can’t ask questions of the official opposition. You need to address your question to the government.

Start the clock.

Supplementary question.

I want to thank my colleague—Brampton’s finest—from Brampton North for that great question and his tireless advocacy on behalf of the people of Brampton and across this province.

He’s absolutely right: There’s nothing more important than the safety and well-being of our families and loved ones, and Ontarians across this province are counting on our government to get emergency planning right. That is why, earlier this month, our government released Ontario’s first ever Provincial Emergency Management Strategy and Action Plan. We are the first province in the entire country to put forward a plan.

Our new plan establishes a framework for emergency management in Ontario. This sets out a one-window approach to coordinate emergency response across this province. It’s a proactive planning and monitoring tool to keep Ontarians informed, and we set out practised and prepared emergency response with training and education across this province. We will—

We are also taking a role of collaborating with our emergency management partners across this province. With an increase in wildfires, floods and other potential emergencies that threaten Ontarian’s safety and communities, it is critical that we have a plan in place to respond to these crises quickly.

That is why, as a government, we have worked across this province with partners, including municipalities and First Nations partners to develop a plan that highlights the actions that our government is taking to keep Ontarians safe and in a constant state of readiness and preparedness across this province. Our commitment to communities across this province is to ensure we are emergency-ready.

Mr. Speaker, this is a member who is encouraging and actually participating in protests in front of community surgical units. I will not take lessons from a member who doesn’t understand that there are people who are waiting for surgeries who want to have access.

Clinical surgeries in community have existed in the province of Ontario for decades, and, I might also remind the member opposite, approved by Progressive Conservative governments, by Liberal governments and, yes, by NDP governments, because they understand the value of ensuring that people have access to publicly funded services where and when they need them.

I am happy that we finally are formalizing a process that patients have asked for for a long time, which is that we need timely access to diagnostic and surgery options in communities. We have, through Bill 60, a process that will ensure those applications will be assessed and reviewed based on needs, based on backlog, based on waiting lists, and they will be placed in appropriate communities that have those challenges. We will do that with oversight that ensures, through a licensing process and a renewal process, that oversight is there for the clinics, but most importantly for the patients.

Order.

Supplementary question?

The next question.

Speaker, through you to the Premier: Seniors and young families are being pressed to the limit as your government has allowed Enbridge to pass along increases in gas prices that are making life very hard for Ontarians.

The Ontario Electricity Support Program provides immediate on-bill relief for families who struggle to pay their electricity bills, but there is no similar program for families struggling to pay natural gas bills or other heating bills. Will this government establish such a program in its upcoming budget so every family who struggles to heat their home can get support?

Back to the minister: Last week, Niagara had another large ice storm. People have to heat their homes and there is no way around it. Prices to heat your home are going up and up. People are in desperate trouble.

Charles Christenson, a 67-year-old retired manufacturing worker from St. Catharines, showed me his bill: an increase of $100 from six months ago. This is a senior on a fixed income, making only $1,500 a month. We owe it to our seniors that built our province and to all Ontarians to have a solution, especially when it already exists for electricity.

Speaker, to the Premier: Does the Premier, or anyone else on that side of the aisle, believe that it’s okay to stand by and do nothing as gas rates double in the middle of the winter and continue to push seniors and young families right to the brink?

I want to ask the Minister of Health about her plan to use for-profit clinics to deal with the backlog of surgeries. It seems to me, looking at Bill 60, that a crucial linchpin is the director, who checks licence applications, does inspections and revokes licences for those who break the rules. But whereas in the existing legislation, the director has to be a public servant, an employee of the ministry, under this government’s new Bill 60, the director could be anybody or any “entity.” It looks like Bill 60 is setting up to have this government delegate oversight of this industry to some unspecified entity.

As it happens, the current Independent Health Facilities Program is run out of my riding of Kingston and the Islands. My constituents deserve to know how many experienced and qualified staff will lose their jobs to some as yet undisclosed entity?

My goal, as the Minister of Energy, is to ensure that we have a reliable and affordable and clean energy system in the province of Ontario. We’re doing that under the mess that was left for us by the previous Liberal government. We have brought electricity prices under control and we’re doing the same thing with natural gas prices, Mr. Speaker. There are programs in place through Enbridge that the member should be passing along to her constituents to be aware of.

But it is interesting to get this kind of a question from the NDP, a party that believes in the highest carbon tax not just in Canada, but in the world. This party is supportive of the federal carbon tax, which on this Enbridge bill that I have here right now is $50, Mr. Speaker, on a—

It’s pretty rich, though, for the NDP to talk about affordability when it comes to energy prices. This is a party that wants us to get rid of natural gas. It thinks that natural gas is a bad thing, when more than 76% of homeowners out there are heating their homes with natural gas. This is a party that also supported the previous Liberal government every step of the way in their Green Energy Act, something that was driving up electricity prices by 10%, 11% year over year. We brought that to an end.

It’s also a party that doesn’t believe in nuclear, Mr. Speaker. It’s a party that believes that the source of energy in our province providing 60% of our electricity every day should be phased out.

We’re not going to take any lessons—

Thank you very much. This is a really important question that the member for Don Valley North has asked this morning. The member has hit the nail on the head: Clean bathrooms are essential to respecting the hard-working men and women who are building the homes, schools, hospitals and transit that our communities and families rely on. Everywhere I go, I hear from workers about the state of bathrooms on some job sites, in factories and in retail. In 2022 alone, my ministry visited worksites more than 23,000 times to inspect bathrooms and issued nearly 2,000 orders for bathrooms in poor condition.

Speaker, my message to workers is clear: Our government has your backs. We stand with you, the workers who are out there building Ontario and all of our communities every single day.

Interjections.

I’m pleased to report that my ministry is currently conducting a workplace bathroom blitz to ensure that those out there building Ontario have access to clean bathrooms. In February of this year, as part of the ongoing blitz that’s going to be run until March 31, ministry inspectors issued about 130 orders related to construction worksite washrooms, ensuring that the workers who are building our province have access to facilities they deserve.

Speaker, we’ll continue working for workers and make sure that everyone going to work has a healthy and safe workplace.

As per the Toronto Region Board of Trade report, gridlock is a fact of life in the GTA, and if we do not address it, it is going to cost us over $15 billion by 2031 in lost productivity.

Efficient and convenient transit is essential to support economic and community growth in Ontario. For too long, people in my riding of Mississauga–Malton have not had the public transit they need and deserve. Well, Mr. Speaker, we would not have been in this position if the previous Liberal government had not ignored the transit needs of individuals and families across our province. With 300,000 new Canadians coming to Ontario, the situation is going to be even worse.

Thankfully, we have a government with an ambitious plan for transportation improvement, and we must continue to make strategic investments. Mr. Speaker, my question to the government is: Can you provide an update on the progress of the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension, which will better connect Mississauga to Toronto?

It is exciting to learn about the exceptional progress we have achieved. This speaks volumes to the strong leadership of the Premier and the Minister of Transportation and the Associate Minister of Transportation in delivering on major transit infrastructure in our province.

The area around Renforth Drive and Pearson international airport is the second-largest employment hub in the country.

Rapid, reliable and seamless transit is essential in supporting workers, as well as reducing gridlock and emissions.

Mr. Speaker, the Eglinton Crosstown West extension will effectively provide connections to other transit options. Residents of Mississauga–Malton expect that this project must remain a priority for this government and must be delivered successfully.

Can the government please explain how this transit extension will benefit not only Mississauga–Malton but all Ontarians?

Thank you to the member. This is a boring story that is exciting for me, because the Eglinton Crosstown West extension is more than halfway dug, and it’s ahead of schedule by four weeks. Speaker, this is going to create 31,000 jobs—

Interjections.

This government believes—and we will remain undeterred from the goal of building transit, connecting the grid and getting it done for commuters in Ontario.

The member opposite is missing two very important pieces when he talks about the expansion of surgical and diagnostic in community, and that is, of course, that for-profit and hospital partnerships are a critical part of the application process. As we find the innovation—that is happening in Ottawa right now, as an example—we can see where hospitals working in community, with community partners, are actually providing a higher and faster level of service.

I’m proud of the work of Bill 60 that is going to ensure that oversight piece, and I look forward to the member’s insights and input during committee.

Interjections.

We want to see those expansions happening in community, because we have seen that they are successful. They mean that patients can get back to their families. They mean that patients can get back to their communities and the workforce quickly.

We want to eliminate the wait-lists. On that, the member opposite and I can agree—I hope.

This Conservative government claims its privatization of health care bill, Bill 60, will give Ontarians more access to health care they need when they need it. The reality is, only those who can afford to pay to play will get the care they need in private clinics and private hospitals. Bill 60 leaves vulnerable patients without deep pockets in dangerous situations where diseases will go undiagnosed and surgeries will be delayed, all while they live in chronic pain and depression as their illnesses get worse.

Speaker, my question is to the Premier. Why does this Premier believe that access to health care should depend on one’s ability to pay?

Karen Bender is a 73-year-old senior in my community, and she needs eye surgery. She has been told that she’ll be waiting eight months to a year and that her vision will get worse, if not completely untreatable, the longer she waits. Karen knows of other seniors who were upsold in private clinics, and she’s also aware that the Premier and the Minister of Health admitted that their profitization of health care bill has nothing in it to protect patients like her from extra charges.

So my question is back to the Premier: What advice would this Conservative Premier give Karen and others without deep pockets waiting and desperate for surgery, while they’ve left our publicly funded surgical operating rooms empty and unstaffed in our province?

I appreciate the question from the honourable member. Under the leadership of former Mayor McCallion, Mississauga really saw such explosive growth, both in terms of people who wanted to live there, economic prosperity. Unfortunately, the transit and transportation system in the region did not keep pace with the growth that happened there and continues to happen because of the hard work of the members of the Progressive Conservative caucus from Mississauga.

He is quite right: The previous government certainly let down the people of Mississauga. But I am very happy to report that the Eglinton Crosstown is doing very, very well, and actually reached a landmark just last week, with about half of the tunnelling done on the Eglinton Crosstown West Extension at Renforth.

Now, look: The people of Mississauga have every reason to be very excited by this. I know how hard the members of provincial Parliament in the Progressive Conservative caucus have worked to expand transit and transportation, because it is an important part of continuing the economic growth and prosperity for the people of Mississauga.

The supplementary question.

Interjections.

The Minister of Health.

The Minister of Health has the floor.

Mr. Speaker, clearly this government hasn’t figured out to whom or to what entity it will delegate the management and oversight of the for-profit surgery industry. That’s a red flag for me.

How do we know that this government isn’t going to set things up so that people too close to industry are the ones in charge of licenses and inspections? This is a danger in so many industries. There’s a term for it: regulatory capture. It’s a lot easier to separate the regulator and the industry in the current situation, where the regulators are ministry employees—not anymore with Bill 60.

How can the minister ensure that there won’t be people going back and forth between the industry and the directorate in charge of licensing and inspecting for-profit surgical clinics?

It’s too easy in Ontario to oppose housing. We know that. Costs are too high. There are parents and grandparents who are worried that their children and their grandchildren are going to never afford a home that meets their needs within their budget.

The government knows, through the Housing Affordability Task Force, other reports by CMHC, and many others know that we need to get shovels in the ground faster. We posted 15 sites that have the potential of having, as a minimum, 50,000 homes to build upon our More Homes, More Choice plan. The Housing Affordability Task Force gave us a fantastic road map. We took it to the people in June, and we’re going to implement it. We’re going to implement a housing supply action plan each and every year of a re-elected government under the leadership of Premier Ford.

We need to have more housing. We need to provide that opportunity for that—

We’re going to continue to work not just with Durham region but with all 444 municipalities. Almost every day, there’s a municipality that’s passing a resolution supporting our housing pledge. We’re building upon the success of the Housing Affordability Task Force. We’re making sure that all municipalities have the tools that they need to get shovels in the ground faster, including looking at those six high-growth regions and ensuring that strong mayor powers are set up for those mayors moving forward.

We’ve got a lot of work to do, but we’re going to be working collaboratively with all 444 municipalities. Under the leadership of Premier Ford, we’re going—

My question is for the Associate Minister of Housing. For too many Ontarians, finding the right home is all too challenging. Housing affordability is out of reach for many individuals and families. They’re struggling to find attainable homes that meet their needs. In January, the Ontario Real Estate Association reported that the average price of a home was just under $800,000. This price point is out of reach for many Ontarians. Speaker, can the associate minister please share what our government is doing to give back the dream of home ownership to my constituents?

Ma question s’adresse à la ministre des Affaires francophones.

De nombreux organismes francophones de l’Ontario ont souffert financièrement pendant la pandémie. Nous savons qu’il est essentiel de maintenir de solides réseaux commerciaux internes alors que nous continuons à soutenir les efforts de reprise économique.

Hier, notre gouvernement a lancé l’édition 2023-2024 du programme de financement sous l’Accord de coopération et d’échanges entre le gouvernement du Québec et le gouvernement de l’Ontario en matière de francophonie. Monsieur le Président, la ministre peut-elle nous dire comment cette entente interprovinciale entre l’Ontario et le Québec contribuera au développement économique de la francophonie ontarienne?

Notre gouvernement continue d’investir dans de nombreuses initiatives qui visent à renforcer le dynamisme de la communauté francophone de l’Ontario et promouvoir son rayonnement et sa vitalité. C’est dans le cadre du Mois de la Francophonie que nous lançons l’édition 2023-2024 du programme de financement sous l’Accord de coopération et d’échanges entre le gouvernement du Québec et le gouvernement de l’Ontario en matière de francophonie.

En vertu de cette entente interprovinciale, les deux provinces collaborent pour soutenir des projets conjoints qui encouragent le développement de la culture francophone; tirent parti des possibilités de partenariats économiques; et renforcent la compréhension réciproque entre les deux populations. À travers cette entente interprovinciale, les deux gouvernements investissent ensemble jusqu’à 500 000 $ par an pour soutenir des projets communs.

Opposition, come to order.

The next question.