I would like to welcome to Queen’s Park this week Mark Kaluski. He’s my executive director. He’s also of Ukrainian origin, and I’m grateful for his support this week.

I just want to wish my twins happy birthday. Today is their 11th birthday—the two that threw me over the edge.

I’d like to welcome two wonderful women, Anushka Goswami and Jiya Sahni. They are part of the Women in House program through Western University. It’s always great to have women in the chamber. We need a heck of a lot more of them here.

I’d like to welcome and thank my OLIP intern, Téah U-Ming. Today is her last day, and I want to say a big thank you for all of her work this past term.

I’d also like to welcome Anushka Goswami from the Women in House program here at Queen’s Park. She interned with me, shadowed with me on Tuesday, and we had a great time. Welcome.

J’aimerais dire un gros merci à Thomas Forget, qui a travaillé avec le député Mike Mantha pendant plusieurs années. C’est sa dernière journée aujourd’hui. On apprécie tout ce que tu as fait pour nous, Thomas. Merci.

I beg to inform the House that, pursuant to standing order 9(h), the Clerk has received written notice from the government House leader indicating that a temporary change in the weekly meeting schedule of the House is required. Therefore, the House shall commence at 9 a.m. on Monday, February 27, 2023, for the proceedings of orders of the day.

My question is to the Premier. This morning, I filed a complaint with the Integrity Commissioner requesting an investigation into the Premier’s actions surrounding their family fundraiser and his cozy relationship with developers. Will the Premier fully co-operate with this investigation?

Rather like my friend from Waterloo, I want to thank Sharon Lee, who has been an OLIP intern in our office. She has done really tremendous work. She is here today.

Sharon, I’m going to miss you, we’re going to miss you after this week. Thank you so much for your work. You’ve been terrific.

I, too, would like to welcome some Western University women to the House today. They have a great initiative happening. I’d like to specifically welcome Michelle Wodchis-Johnson as well as Tiffany Lin.

Visiting us from the centre of the universe, Willowdale, is a special young woman: Grace Sun. Grace is the recipient of the 2022 Lieutenant Governor’s Ontario Heritage Award for Youth Achievement, which recognizes her exceptional contributions to heritage, conservation, environmental sustainability, biodiversity, cultural and natural heritage. Watch out for Grace, everyone. She’s going places.

Even in her own letter to the Integrity Commissioner, she ends it by saying, of course, “in my opinion”—in her opinion. No facts, no real evidence; just the member’s opinion.

Here is the opinion of the people of the province of Ontario. In June, they cast their ballot, and the opinion of the people of the province of Ontario was that the PC government was doing the right thing for the people of Ontario. They returned us in larger numbers for the first time in decades and reduced the opposition. So what we’re going to continue to do is focus on the priorities of the people of the province of Ontario.

Just this morning, I received a notice from a constituent of mine who was visibly upset at the fact that her $300 gas bill includes a carbon tax of $47. She said in her email, “How can I continue to afford to pay the cost of living when a $47 tax is added to my bill? What am I supposed to do? I can’t turn off my furnace. I can’t afford to put solar panels on my roof.” She said, “Continue to do what you’ve got to do to fight carbon taxes to make life more affordable for the people of Ontario.” And that’s what we’ll do.

We have real issues in the province of Ontario, not who went to a Ford family wedding. We have constituents paying $50 for a carbon tax and trying to decide whether they can heat their homes. I have a small business person, Daniella Pantallea in Stouffville, who is saying she sees that things are changing and she wants the government to continue to focus on building the economy. That’s what we’re going to do.

I have meetings with constituents on Friday who want to come and talk to me about the ability to buy their first home—some who have been looking for a very, very long time and are getting frustrated and want us to continue on the path. They’ve heard of our plan to build 1.5 million homes, and they are coming to talk to me about how they can participate in the dream, because they want, just like generations—

But at the same time, Speaker, I hope the Leader of the Opposition will think twice about the NDP’s previous lack of support for what we’re doing in health care—billions of dollars of health care investments. I know in Niagara, there’s a $3-billion commitment to building a new hospital in Niagara Falls. There will be more nurses in that hospital. There will be more doctors. There will be more PSWs. But the NDP do not support that. And 60,000 new long-term-care beds across the province of Ontario? The NDP does not support that. A new hospital in Brampton? They don’t support it. Two new medical universities? They don’t support it. Thousands of new nurses who will be brought online because of the hard work of the Minister of Colleges and Universities? They have not supported that.

In addition to paying our nurses and the negotiations that are happening, I hope that they will consider voting in favour of the billions of dollars in—

We have brought in incredible resources to build our health care system. We are investing in hospitals in every part of this province—north, south, east and west. We’re tackling the divide that used to exist between urban and rural medicine. We are balancing the budgets between our small and medium hospitals and the large hospitals. We are educating more nurses in the province of Ontario than has ever happened before. We’re bringing more doctors into the system. We’re building new hospitals in Brampton, Niagara; we’re building new hospitals in Ottawa, in Windsor—all over the province. Do you know why? Because nurses have told us they want to work in new facilities that respect the work they do.

That’s why we’re making those investments. What the Leader of the Opposition could do is vote in favour of any of them.

The Leader of the Opposition has the floor.

Comme vous savez, nous avons fait beaucoup d’investissements dans la santé. Nous avons commencé en 2018 pour investir dans nos hôpitaux, dans la santé de longue durée. Chaque fois que l’opposition avait l’opportunité de voter avec nous pour supporter le système de santé dans cette province, l’opposition a voté non, a voté contre tous ces investissements.

Et maintenant la chef de l’opposition, elle dit : « Nous supportons ces investissements. » Mais on avait l’opportunité plusieurs fois durant ce terme de ce gouvernement—il y a un budget à venir. La chef de l’opposition a l’opportunité de supporter ce gouvernement, de supporter le système de santé, de supporter le système de longue durée.

Je pense que la chef de l’opposition et le NPD vont faire la même chose et voter contre tous ces investissements, mais ce gouvernement va voter pour notre système de santé et va bâtir un nouveau système de santé pour toute cette province et pour tous les citoyens de l’Ontario.

Back to the Premier: Yes, we should be talking about the issues that are facing Ontarians. You’re right. But how are Ontarians—

Interjections.

Are there any other events or parties of this nature that the Premier or his staff have organized recently that may be worth also asking the Integrity Commissioner to investigate?

Just this morning, it was revealed that developers, insiders and government appointees also attended this wedding. One guest is a lobbyist now working for a company pushing to built on greenbelt land. Another received a paid provincial appointment just months later.

Will the Premier commit now to sharing the details of which developers and which government lobbyists were invited to this event, who approached them for funds and what, if any, land deals or appointments were discussed?

Interjections.

Nurses in this province deserve a government that values them.

Health care is a tough but rewarding profession. Health care workers deserve our respect and our admiration, but in Ontario’s health care system today, they are simply not receiving it.

Nurses have felt undervalued for years. In January, they started bargaining a renewal contract with the Ontario Hospital Association. Their main demands are very reasonable: Ensure better staffing and wages so that Ontarians get the care they need when they need it.

Will this Premier finally show that he values nurses and health care professionals by raising their wages and negotiating a fair contract?

Speaker, this government claims that they’re bringing in new health care workers but never talks about a plan to actually keep them in the profession. Thousands of nurses are leaving. Instead, they’ve suppressed nurses’ wages, ignored their concerns. Now they’re set to force more of them out of our public hospitals and into for-profit clinics.

Speaker, it is a sad state of affairs in Ontario when Ontario’s nurses have become one of our most valuable exports.

Will the government act today to address the working conditions and wages of nurses and health care professionals so we can keep them here in Ontario?

Pourquoi le premier ministre n’admet-il pas finalement que la loi 124 était une erreur, et que pour retenir les infirmières, il faut leur payer un salaire juste?

I want to thank the member opposite for the question.

We believe every child has a right to be in school without disruption right to June. I would hope the members opposite will advance that principle as we carry on our negotiations with teachers over the coming months.

For children with special education needs, we actually increased the budget this year by an additional $90 million. The special education budget is now at the highest levels ever recorded in Ontario history.

I appreciate that we have long-standing challenges of staffing. It’s why this Progressive Conservative government has hired 7,000 additional education workers since we came to office in 2018. We know there’s more to do. For mental health, for example, we increased funding by 420%. I appreciate that there are challenges within our school boards. We can expect them to have the staffing in place to support our kids.

To reply, the parliamentary assistant and member for Eglinton–Lawrence.

The opposition’s objective is fighting change. Our objective is improving Ontario’s publicly funded, OHIP-covered services for patients.

As journalist Kelly McParland recently stated, the opposition’s approach “is a big reason health care in Canada has reached a cliff edge. Even as cries for improvement go up, any effort to change a system that clearly isn’t functioning effectively is met by an avalanche of objections from organizations skilled in the art of ... delay and obstruction, convinced only their” initiatives and “remedies are acceptable, and only if implemented as they prefer.

“Alarmism and obstruction got us to where we are now, and if it has its way we’ll stay stuck with a crumbling system for years to come.”

That is not good enough for this government. We are taking action to improve services for patients.

“I want to write to you about my successful surgery. Premier Ford is absolutely correct about getting the private medical clinics and hospitals involved to ease the backlog of surgeries. Had it not been for the private hospital I had my treatment at, I would still be dealing with the pain and suffering of my medical issue. I got the surgery done in two months instead of having to endure the pain and suffering for an additional 18 months. All options should be on the table—options for the benefit of the patient and not the political agenda of the other political parties. In fact, the NDP suggested I go to a private hospital”—that’s the Shouldice hospital in Thornhill. “Full speed ahead with this caring legislation. At least the PCs are concerned with my well-being and others like me.

“Sincerely,

“Jon Swaggart”—

Interjections.

When the Minister of Education promised a normal, stable and enjoyable school year, he forgot to mention the asterisk that said, “kids with accessibility needs not included.” Every day, children with disabilities are being sent home because there is no EA available to support them—kids like Desmond, whose mom has to keep picking him up from Cootes Paradise Elementary School in Hamilton because of an EA shortage.

Why is the Minister of Education refusing to provide the supports children need to be at school?