Government House leader.

Mr. Speaker, again, the commissioner has responded, as well as the Premier.

Yes, we are making decisions that will put more of the valuable resources of the province of Ontario available for families and for young Canadians who want to be able to buy that first home, but we didn’t just start last week. We started from 2018, Mr. Speaker, and at every step of the way the opposition has been opposed to that.

When we brought on transit-oriented communities to build housing around the transit infrastructure—which, by the way, Mr. Speaker, is the largest investment in transit in the history of this province, if not the country—we brought in rules to build transit-oriented communities, they voted against it, so it is no surprise that they are against building more homes for people.

It is that hope and optimism that we have been fighting for since we were elected, since the Progressive Conservative government was even formed. We knew that the people of this province wanted a prosperous province, but they also wanted the hope and dignity of having their first home. We are going to do everything in our power to make sure that that is affordable for everybody.

But, Mr. Speaker, we are moving forward and we are looking ahead. We are building an economy that is stronger coming out of COVID than it was before. That is what we are continuing to focus on, whether it’s the thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in investments that the Premier and Minister of Economic Development have brought to this province or whether it is the groundbreaking transit system that the Minister of Transportation is bringing in. The Minister of Infrastructure, who is bringing, for the first time, broadband services to the entire province: Do you know what that means, Mr. Speaker? That means that every part of the province—north, south, east and west—can participate in the economic advantage that Ontario used to have, that was lost under the Liberals but that we are rebuilding. That’s what we’re doing, Mr. Speaker.

But we are moving forward, Mr. Speaker. We are moving beyond COVID to build an Ontario economy that is stronger than it was going into COVID. We have not stopped on that. As I just said, billions of dollars in economic activity and thousands of jobs are being created in the province of Ontario. We’re cutting taxes for the lowest-income Ontarians so that they can participate. We’re putting billions of dollars in investments into northern Ontario, because for far too long the north was ignored.

Now, the opposition can continue to look backward. They can continue to forget about the economy. They can continue to vote against these investments that we’re making, but we are looking forward because that’s what the people of Ontario want. They want a stronger economy and that’s what we’re doing every day, building a stronger, more prosperous Ontario.

At the same time, the Minister of Labour has been working very hard with our partners in labour to ensure that all of these thousands of jobs that remain unfilled can be filled by the people of the province of Ontario, that they have the skills that they need to help us continue to build a more prosperous, stronger Ontario, a better Ontario than we inherited and a stronger one than we had going into COVID.

Ma question est pour le premier ministre. In the last 12 months, Ontario emergency rooms have closed at least 158 times. This is the equivalent of 184 days when the urgent medical needs of Ontarians were not being met in their communities. These closures are unacceptable. They put people’s health and lives at risk. Why hasn’t the Premier acted to address the crisis in our emergency rooms?

When will the government finally prioritize the health of Ontarians, respect our health care workers and keep our ERs open?

My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. For over a decade, the Liberals chased hundreds of thousands of auto and manufacturing jobs out of the province, including in my riding of Newmarket–Aurora. They simply left the people of Ontario unprepared for the EV future. That’s why we have taken action to rebuild the province’s auto sector, all while growing the economy and creating good jobs.

In a sector that employs hundreds of thousands of workers, will the minister explain how the government is attracting new investments and ensuring that Ontario is open for business?

Speaker, with Magna’s historic investment and expansion plans in the province, can the minister please elaborate on how this project will help create jobs in my great riding of Newmarket–Aurora, as well as across the province?

My question is for the Premier. This morning, the Ontario Federation of Labour, the Ontario Nurses’ Association and many other representatives of Ontario’s workers put the Conservative government on notice that they’re fed up with being ignored. They’re saying, “Enough is enough.” ONA nurses and Ontario health care workers are demanding the Conservative government finally show the respect that nurses and other front-line health care workers deserve.

My question is: When will the Premier finally listen to Ontario’s demands for more public funding for public health care, for an end to the staffing crisis, for the full repeal of Bill 124 and for decent wages and working conditions for all workers in our health care system?

This Thursday, there will be thousands of public health care workers and supporters joining in solidarity to echo and amplify Ontario’s nurses’ demands for better staffing, for better care and for better wages. Nurses in Ontario are saying, “Enough is enough,” and so are New Democrats.

My question is: Will the Premier and Minister of Health be visiting those demonstrations with New Democrats on Thursday, or are they too afraid of what they will hear from Ontario’s front-line health care workers?

The Premier.

The next question?

My question is for the Minister of Energy. As Ontario’s population continues to grow, we must address our future energy infrastructure needs today. The previous government, supported by the opposition, created a mess in our energy system. This mess led to the people of Ontario facing some of the highest bills in North America. For our economy to grow and our province to continue to prosper, we need to support innovative and bold solutions that meet our ongoing energy needs.

Speaker, what is our government doing to provide affordable and clean energy solutions for the people of my riding, both now and into the future?

Ontario has again become the top auto jurisdiction. To build on this, our government is transforming Ontario’s automotive supply chain to build the cars of the future. We’re doing this because we lowered the cost of doing business by $7 billion annually and, as a result, we have attracted $17 billion in transformative auto investments in two years. Last week, Magna International announced a historic investment of almost half a billion dollars into six of their Ontario plants. With $23.6 million coming from the province of Ontario, Magna is creating more than 1,000 well-paying jobs here in Ontario.

This is how we’re bringing new life to our auto sector, Speaker. There are now 600,000 new jobs created since we first took office.

Thank you for that question. Mr. Speaker, we know, after 15 years of neglect, how we had hallway health care. We’re fixing health care and you’re blocking health care every step of the way. The opposition wants to have endless debates about our health care system, but the people of Ontario just want to make sure they see action happening, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. We have 203,000 backlogged surgeries, and we have a plan to make sure we lower that.

We have a plan by making sure we give pharmacists—now able to treat more patients with common illnesses: just in the month of January, just in one month, 40,000 assessments being completed with 65% of pharmacies across the province providing their services. That is 40,000 people who aren’t going to the primary care doctors, 40,000 people not going to the emergency room.

Paramedics are now able to make sure that they take care of the people—

With the greatest of respect, a $14-billion increase in health care spending since 2018 suggests quite the opposite: that we have in fact invested in our health care professionals. We are investing in our primary care beds. We are investing in our home care and our hospitals. We are doing that because we understand and appreciate that the status quo is no longer an option.

We will continue to make those investments, and while the negotiations happen with the Ontario Hospital Association and ONA, we will continue to invest, because that is what a government does when they understand the people of Ontario deserve a publicly funded health care system, and they will get that under Premier Ford.

To the member opposite: When the incident was brought to my attention, I made it clear that it was not acceptable and not direction that I support. Why not? Because it’s actually not consistent with the way Metrolinx has engaged with communities and consulted with people on its transit projects since the beginning. The member opposite himself has had 17 total engagements with Metrolinx, 11 engagements specifically on the joint corridor in the past year, in 2022, 37 email correspondences with his office regarding questions about the Ontario Line in his ward.

Building large public transit infrastructure projects in the country’s most densely populated city is disruptive, and that is why we believed so firmly, from the beginning, in the need to make sure that we were working closely with our partners, including our municipal partners, on how we get transit built in the city. That is why we sought the support of Toronto council, which we received.

The reality is, failure to move forward with this transit is not what the city needs. What the city needs is to make sure we build the—

To date, the member opposite has participated in over 30 engagements with Metrolinx in the last two years, at least eight of which were specific to the work at Moss Park. Since 2020, there have been 17 meetings between Metrolinx and the law society, and over 100 engagements with the city of Toronto, that Metrolinx continues to meet with on an ongoing basis.

Mr. Speaker, it’s no secret that the member opposite voted against our current plan for new transit in the city of Toronto when the member was a city councillor. The member is against building generational transit for the people of Ontario. Every time the NDP say no to the Ontario Line, they’re saying no to taking 28,000 cars off the road each day. The opposition can continue to try to disrupt and delay our plans, but we are moving ahead with the hard work of making sure that Toronto gets the transit that it needs and deserves.

Thank you.

The supplementary question.

The supplementary question: The member for Toronto Centre.

As I mentioned earlier, the report highlights, of course, the incredible work that was being done by the Ontario Provincial Police in providing information to the Ottawa Police Service. As I said, if there are lessons to be learned in how we coordinate with the Parliamentary Protective Service, the OPP, the RCMP and the Ottawa Police Service or other forces, we will take a look at that.

We are continuing to make enormous investments across this province because what we want to do, coming out of COVID, is to build an Ontario economy that is stronger than the one that went into it. We are hearing the results of all of this hard work—and that includes the people of Ottawa. We are seeing thousands of jobs being created across the province of Ontario, whether it is in the automotive sector, which is being rejuvenated in this province, in all parts—and to be clear, when we succeed in the auto sector, it is not only good for the GTA; it’s good for all of Ontario, it’s good for all of Canada.

We have the backs of the people of this province, because we are building a stronger, safer, more prosperous Ontario.

I’d remind the member as well that the province of Ontario, and this Legislature, of course, had a select committee which was reviewing the state of emergency here in the province of Ontario throughout the time that the convoy was in Ottawa. That also included the independent members.

But we are looking forward to building a better economy. The world economy has suffered because of COVID, but we know that there are opportunities. That’s why we’re building not only just transit corridors, but we are building roads and highways across the province of Ontario, because as the Minister of Economic Developments brings more jobs and economic opportunity to Ontario, that means we’ve got to get our product to market faster. That’s why we’re building roads, Mr. Speaker. And all the people of the province of Ontario want to participate in a better, stronger, more prosperous Ontario, and we will continue to be focused on doing that as we move forward and—

Thanks to the towering member from Brantford–Brant.

Our population is growing. As we heard from the Minister of Economic Development earlier, our economy is continuing to grow, with huge investments in our province. That means our demand for clean, reliable and affordable electricity is continuing to grow too. When the Oneida battery storage project goes online in 2025, it’s going to more than double the amount of energy storage that is currently on Ontario’s grid, from 225 megawatts to 475 megawatts.

The announcement is another milestone in our plan to build and strengthen our electricity grid. We’re going to continue to support innovative and bold technologies like the small modular nuclear reactor program, where construction has started over the holidays, as well. This also includes Canada’s largest procurement of clean energy storage that is in the field right now and of course Canada’s largest energy storage project, the Oneida project, which we announced a couple of weeks ago with the Premier in this member’s region. We’re making our grid more efficient. I must say, when it comes to energy, Ontario is leading the way.

My question is to the Premier. Mr. Speaker, it has been a year since the freedom convoy descended on Ottawa to protest—a protest that turned into an occupation that lasted three long weeks, during which the residents of Ottawa lost their right to live peacefully and without fear. Truly, it was nothing but a nightmare.

People turned to their governments, asking for help, because clearly the local police were overwhelmed by the massive trucks and growing number of protesters encouraged by the lack of law enforcement. The Rouleau report, just released following the federal inquiry, clearly indicates that it didn’t have to be this way. If the provincial government had put the same energy into coming to the rescue of the people in Ottawa as it did defending economic interests when the Ambassador Bridge was blocked, the peace could have been restored much sooner.

How can the government justify its inaction, turning its back on the people of Ottawa? I’m asking about people—people who can’t trust this government anymore that they have their back.

However, there was one political entity missing in action, and that was our provincial government. Our government was missing in action during the occupation, despite numerous calls from myself and several colleagues here on this side of the House. And our government remained missing in action during the inquiry, refusing to appear to provide useful evidence in order to avoid another disaster of the sort. Our government invoked parliamentary privilege to shield itself from transparency. But Ontarians and the people in Ottawa deserve a response.

Why did the government refuse to participate in the inquiry? How are the people supposed to trust a government that is hiding from its duty and responsibilities?

To the Minister of Transportation: Two winters ago, this government sent bulldozers into Toronto Centre to try and tear down the foundry buildings. Thankfully, my community organized and we fought to save them. Now, my colleague and I are being intentionally left off notification lists regarding transit projects right in our community.

The minister has an obligation to explain why Metrolinx was instructed to hide that information and what else is being hidden from our communities or members of this House. Will she apologize for this omission, and when will we expect that? When can we get that?

To the Minister of Transportation: Recently, the Toronto Star revealed that the minister’s office overruled Metrolinx in their effort to inform the member for Toronto Centre and myself about tree removals in our ridings. Even though we were blocked on instructions from her office, local MPs and city councillors were informed. Why does the minister think it’s legitimate to block MPPs from carrying out their duties as elected officials?

Back to the Minister of Energy: The Oneida Energy Storage Project is a milestone for Ontario’s energy storage sector. It will make our province’s electricity grid more efficient, stable and reliable. This project will help to generate employment opportunities and significant revenue for the people of my riding and our First Nations partner at Six Nations. Battery storage projects like these are instrumental for our economy, our environment and helping to promote reconciliation with Indigenous communities.

Can the minister please elaborate on how this project will help advance plans for improving the entire electricity grid system?

Dedicated parents in my riding of Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry are working harder and longer to keep up with the rising cost of living. One cost in particular that has risen over many years in this province is the cost of child care. The previous Liberal government did nothing for nearly 15 years as child care fees, on average, rose over 400% across Ontario—that’s inexcusable. Affordable and accessible child care is needed to support families and maintain consistent economic growth. Nearly a year ago, our province signed an agreement with the federal government to bring urgently needed financial relief.

Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Education: Are parents in my riding and across Ontario achieving actual cost savings that will make a difference in their lives?

Speaker, back to the Minister of Education: What is our government’s plan to increase access to affordable child care for parents in Ontario?