I’m happy to welcome the President of the Thornhill African Caribbean Canadian Association, Mr. Vernon Hendrickson, and his colleague Lacelle Campbelle.

I just want to welcome one of my constituency assistants who is here to spend their day with me, Camila Budylowski. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to welcome Beth and Maddy Vanstone. They’re here for Rare Disease Day. Maddy has CF and is now a young lady starting photography.

I’d like to welcome Miguel Avila-Velarde, a resident from Regent Park and advocate and strong community member from the Toronto Community Housing community.

I’d like to welcome the Canadian Organization for Rare Disorders, or CORD, which was here for breakfast this morning; the Canadian Forum for Rare Disease Innovators; Life Sciences Ontario; and all of the families with rare diseases.

I’d like to extend a very warm welcome to two very proud parents, Paul and Keri Sharpe, who are parents of page Wyatt Sharpe from my constituency of Northumberland–Peterborough South. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It’s a great pleasure to introduce Jim and Norma Poel, grandparents of page Harry Langford. The Poels live in Thames Centre. Page Harry lives in Oxford county. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to welcome my constituent Ivan Tamminga to Queen’s Park this morning. Mr. Tamminga is here to see and support his niece Charlotte in action as a page here in the House.

I am seeking unanimous consent of the House that, notwithstanding standing order 100(a)(iv), five minutes be allotted to the independent members as a group to speak on second reading of private member’s bill, Bill 50.

I would like to wish a very warm welcome to the Council of Canadian Innovators, who happen to be up in the top row there—hi, folks. I met with them this morning and had a very insightful discussion. I appreciate the great working relationship. Thank you for being here, and I look forward to not only many more conversations amongst ourselves but with the whole team. So thank you for being here.

I think the Premier has responded to that, as has the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

But what we’re doing with the greenbelt—in fact, what we’re doing across the province of Ontario—is ensuring that we have more than enough housing so that people can have their very first home, in many instances.

Look, Mr. Speaker, there are 350,000 people—think of that: 350,000 people—who are coming to Ontario each and every year. That’s a city the size of Markham. Do you know why they’re coming to Ontario? Because we’re bringing back economic prosperity to the province of Ontario; we’re creating thousands of jobs.

In order to ensure that they also can have the same dream as generations of others who have come and helped build this province, Mr. Speaker, we have to ensure that they have homes, that they have the best schools, that they have good hospitals. We are building a bigger, better, stronger province of Ontario, and that includes utilizing resources that this province has so that everybody can participate in the dream that is the province of Ontario under this government.

Good morning, Speaker. It was 18 years ago today that the greenbelt was established in law. The Greenbelt Act protected two million acres of remarkably productive farmland and environmentally sensitive areas, and it was a hard-fought victory—something that all Ontarians are very proud of.

But today’s anniversary is a solemn one, because, as we know now, this Premier is in the process of carving up our greenbelt. What we don’t know is who knew about the plan in advance and how select insiders came to benefit from these land deals.

Will the Premier reverse his decision to bulldoze the greenbelt and release the details of his dealings with the developers involved?

Speaker, we do know that the greenbelt matters to everyone, no matter where they live in this province. I can tell you that because I’ve been travelling around this province. And let me tell you, it doesn’t take long to hear that people are struggling—people are struggling to pay rent, to find a doctor, to get their kids the support they need in school. People are looking for help and a government that’s willing to give it, but what they’re getting is one that refuses to spend the billions earmarked for health and education.

How can Ontarians trust this Premier’s upcoming budget will deliver for their communities when last year’s budget hasn’t even reached them?

Today is Rare Disease Day, and I have the huge honour of introducing one of my constituents, Preston Botelho. Preston is here with his mom and dad, David and Lisa, and his friend Olivia. He’s a grade 12 student about to start post-secondary school thanks to the treatment that he received just down the road at SickKids. Thank you so much for coming, Preston.

I feel compelled to once again remind members that members’ statements are to be 90 seconds in duration.

Good morning. I’d like to welcome the representatives of the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science to Queen’s Park today. These laboratory specialists are a critical part of Ontario’s health care system and were vital to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. Lab specialists from the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science are a trusted partner of the Ontario government and our work together is directly benefiting Ontarians. They will be meeting with MPPs throughout the day to discuss their policy recommendations, and will be hosting a reception in the legislative dining room from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. this evening. Welcome.

My question’s to the Minister of Finance. I spent much of this winter travelling across the province, listening to Ontarians tell us what should be in the budget to create a stronger, more care province.

The Canadian Cancer Society told us about the need to expand access to take-home cancer drugs since that’s what over half of the new oncology medications are actually developed for. Currently, OHIP doesn’t cover these medications, which are costly and difficult to access without private insurance or employment benefits. Increasing access to take-home cancer drugs frees up valuable hospital resources and makes life a little bit easier for everyone who is battling cancer, no matter their income.

Will the government do the right thing in this budget, do the compassionate thing and do the fiscally responsible thing and provide OHIP coverage for these life-saving medications in this year’s budget?

Thank you to the member opposite for the question. Our government is always listening to good ideas from all of our health care stakeholders, and we certainly will look at all of the ideas being brought forward.

As I said yesterday, Ontario is actually leading the country in access to family health providers and primary care practitioners, with 90% of people having access. But we know we must do more, and we will do more. That is why we are taking the steps we can, including currently adding 720 positions in 2022-23 for doctors in those family health organizations and another 480 in 2023-24. We’re taking the steps necessary to make ensure that we have family health primary health care for all Ontarians.

That’s why we’ve invested, amongst other things, over $41 million in Indigenous organizations and communities to support culturally safe mental health and wellness services for children, youth, families and communities in Ontario. Our government has made it clear that we will do everything we can to protect our most vulnerable, which includes Ontario’s Indigenous populations.

I’m happy to address the question from the Leader of the Opposition. When I think about why I got into government: For 15 years, we saw a record amount of spending, supported for three years by the NDP, I submit—from 2011 to 2014—as I have mentioned many times, in the history of Confederation up to 2003, $130 billion of debt; the next 15 years, almost $200 billion in debt.

Did those spending dollars go into health care? Did they go into building highways so people could move goods and people to market? Did the spending go into building more subways to connect the hundreds of thousands of people that move to Ontario every single year? Where are those people going to live? Where are they going to live? They have to live in housing. That’s what this government is accelerating to make sure we get it done.

That being said, let me also think about almost a year ago, when we tabled our budget for the people of Ontario and we took that budget to the people of Ontario. It included gas tax relief, because the cost of gas and the cost of everything was going up. It included a doubling of the low-income individuals and families tax credit so that the lowest-income workers in this province got a break. It helped seniors with the seniors’ home affordability tax credit.

But did we stop there? No. In the fall economic statement, what did we do? We increased ODSP funding by 5%. We indexed it to inflation for the first time ever. And we didn’t stop there. We increased the earnings exemption. We provided the GAINS, the doubling of support for seniors and the guaranteed annual income. Also, we continued the gas tax relief for another year.

To reply, the Minister of Finance.