I’d like to introduce my EA, Navita Sukhdeo, and her daughter Elliana Ali. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

If I can take a second before we begin the last question period of 2022, I’d like to wish members on both sides of the House and all Ontarians a safe and happy holiday season with those they hold dear.

On behalf of the official opposition, I’d like to also extend my thanks and best wishes to the wonderful staff of the Legislative Assembly for their incredible work on behalf of the people of this province.

To the amazing cohort of pages, I thank you for your service these past few weeks. I really hope you enjoyed the experience.

A special farewell to our outgoing Sergeant-at-Arms, Jackie. Thank you for your service and your commitment to MPPs and the legislative staff. May the next chapter bring you the best that life has to offer.

And last but not least, although a number have already said this, it remains to be said: a huge thank you from the NDP caucus to Kevin Modeste. Kevin has served our caucus in many capacities over many years. His service to us and to the Legislature as a whole has been outstanding. We’ll miss him greatly, but we’re delighted he’ll be able to spend more time with his wife and two daughters. That’s exactly how it should be. Thank you, Kevin.

Speaker, thank you for your indulgence.

My question is to the Premier.

Yesterday, the Premier said the government is throwing everything they can at the health care system, but it’s clear that whatever the Premier is doing is not working. Hospitals are overcrowded, staff are burnt out, and patients are waiting longer than they ever have in our ERs.

To the Premier: Why didn’t this government do more to prevent the current crisis in our health care system?

Today, not only has hallway medicine officially returned to Ontario, but somehow this government has made the situation worse than it has ever been.

Has the Premier forgotten his promise to Ontarians?

But our health care system is in crisis, and this minister and this Premier are sitting on their hands.

Families can’t find a hospital to deliver their baby, local ERs are closing, staff are having their wages suppressed, and for what? For this government to save a few dollars? You know that is shameful.

The government is sitting on billions of dollars of unallocated funds that could be spent on meaningful investments in health care right now. Will this government commit to doing that today?

I just want to give a shout-out to the volunteers who are stuffing Christmas cards in my office right now.

Adrienne, thank you for all your volunteer work.

I would like to take the opportunity to welcome President Mohamed Lachemi of Toronto Metropolitan University, from my riding of Mississauga–Erin Mills, and my dear friend Badar Shamim. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

And I’m taking the opportunity today to say to everyone, from my family to your family, merry Christmas and happy holidays.

Speaker, through you to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing: The minister has failed to show any objective criteria or evidence to explain how he chose which properties to remove from the greenbelt. We’ve looked at each of the 15 areas proposed for removal from the greenbelt, trying to understand what criteria the minister may have used. In every single one, we found a strong political or donor tie to the PC Party. Can the minister explain this disturbing pattern?

Why is the minister favouring these particular landowners and developers over others?

Thank you for the member opposite’s question, because it allows us to once again highlight all of the investments that we have been making.

You talk about the challenges that are happening in our hospitals and emergency rooms today. Imagine if we had continued on the path that the Liberals had started us on. Imagine if we hadn’t actually invested and ensured that more physicians, more nurses, more PSWs were trained, hired and actually working in our system.

As recently as this morning, we were able to highlight another addition that will ensure that more people are protected—by allowing pharmacists to actually not only dispense but give Paxlovid. It means that those individuals who are at a higher risk of having symptoms that lead to an emergency department or a hospital now can get that prescription dealt with and filled in a pharmacy.

These are the things we are doing that are making a difference and ensuring that our emergency departments and our hospitals are protected.

But imagine if we didn’t have 49 different communities with 911 models of care that allow community paramedicine and paramedics to divert people who choose to willingly go to pathways other than an emergency room. Imagine if we didn’t have Ornge ambulance, having virtual medical doctor trials in northern hospitals.

We have made lots of investments that have made a difference in communities. We will continue to make those investments because we understand that as our population increases, they not only need homes; they need hospitals, and they need health care workers. We are doing that work.

We’ve seen, in one program alone, the Emergency Department Locum Program—temporary summer locum program has been extended, and, as a result, has provided funding for over 230,000 hours of emergency department coverage in 2022.

We have, for the first time in decades, ensured that we’re going to have two medical schools, one in Brampton and one in Scarborough.

We have ensured that residency programs are increased so that individuals who want to practise in the province of Ontario have that opportunity, because we embrace them here in Ontario.

The Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.

Mr. Speaker, I think the minister has actually been very clear on that. The lands chosen, of course, are lands that are either serviced or close to areas that are serviced, and in areas that require housing.

It is no surprise to anybody in the chamber that the NDP are against this. They are against people who build homes because they’re against people owning homes. As the associate minister pointed out, the NDP will never say the words “home ownership.” It’s just not something that they can grasp. This is the same group of people who voted against building long-term care in communities—60,000 new long-term-care beds for 60,000 seniors to get new homes. They voted against it. They voted against the policies that have brought to Ontario the highest number of purpose-built rentals in over 30 years—the highest number. Because of the policies of this Premier, they voted against it. Now, not surprisingly, they are voting against the absolute dream that everybody has when they come to this country or grow up in this country: home ownership. They’re against it.

Back to the minister: I started off this session by telling the heartbreaking story of Kaitlyn Roth, who died by suicide. She was a bright, successful, beautiful young woman. Her transition from child to adult in the mental health system went tragically wrong.

I’ve been in contact with the Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. I’m grateful that he has met with the family, and I believe that he listened to their pain.

Quite simply, Mike and Fiona Roth don’t want any other parent to experience this tragedy, because it was preventable.

Can the minister please share what the government is doing to ensure that mental health care is there when someone has the courage to ask for help and that that care and support is appropriate?

The final supplementary.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Start the clock.

The next question.

Ontario cities are the most competitive places to invest and grow. One reason for their success is our government lowering the cost of doing business by $7 billion annually. That has resulted in record investments being made.

TS Manufacturing in Lindsay invested $5 million and added 25 jobs and upskilled jobs. We invested $750,000 to help support this local company by supplying cutting-edge sawmill and mining equipment.

Colonial Log and Timber in Lindsay invested $1.3 million to double their log and timber framing manufacturing, with the help of $195,000 from our government. They’re creating jobs and gaining a competitive edge accessing new global markets.

All of this is because Ontario is open for business.

The Kawartha Lakes small business centre received $400,000, in addition to the almost $80,000 for their Summer Company and their Starter Company Plus programs for young entrepreneurs.

And close to 30 area businesses received $72,000 in Digital Transformation Grants to put their businesses online.

Our government eliminated the red tape, unaffordable hydro rates and taxes that the Liberals and NDP piled onto small businesses.

This is exactly what small businesses needed to ignite their entrepreneurial flames.

My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.

Many entrepreneurs and workers choose to plant their roots in my riding of Haliburton–Kawartha Lakes–Brock for many reasons. With a high quality of life and ample opportunities, there’s no shortage of reasons why it’s one of the best places to operate and grow a business.

With the billions of dollars in investments that the government has been attracting across the province, my constituents want to know that they are also getting a fair deal and that the government is there to help their businesses stay competitive.

Can the minister explain what our government is doing to support businesses—namely, manufacturers—in my riding?

It’s great to hear that the people in Haliburton–Kawartha Lakes–Brock have not been forgotten by the government.

It’s also great to see that after years of Liberal and NDP governments making business costly and expensive in Ontario, investments and small business start-ups have roared back to life under this government.

Speaker, to keep this momentum going, we need to ensure that entrepreneurs have everything they need to be successful and to remain competitive on the world stage.

I want to ask the minister to elaborate on what our government is doing to support entrepreneurs who are looking to start and grow their businesses.

Thank you for that question. But I don’t know where the member has been for the last three years.

There is the Roadmap to Wellness, which is a plan that was developed by this government, backed by a $3.8-billion investment—$525 million in annualized funding—to deal specifically with mental health in the province of Ontario. So we have a plan, and we have been standing behind the plan and developing, over the lifespan, supports for children and youth, for adults, for people with addictions; building treatment and recovery strategies and continuums of care to ensure that anyone gets the support where and when they need it. Not only have we done it in southern Ontario but, recently, a $90-million investment brought us—56% of which is invested in northern Ontario, which is 400 new treatment beds and 7,000 new treatment spots.

So I don’t know where the member has been, but we’ve been active in ensuring that we build a system for all Ontarians—

We’ve had discussions about the needs of our children and youth—ensuring that we build systems that give youth the supports where and when they need them. We’ve invested heavily, as a government, in developing, at this point, 12 plus eight—there will be 22 in total, with an additional eight being slated to be developed—youth wellness hubs that are providing care, both primary care to children and youth, providing them the opportunity to get supports for eating disorders.

Under the previous government, we spent more money shipping kids to the United States for help rather than investing in our province to ensure that every child has those opportunities for help when it comes to things like suicide and other issues that affect our youth.

It’s a tragedy when we lose even one child. But we are making the investments to ensure that the supports are there that are age-appropriate and that ensure the kids get the supports where they need them, whether it be in Indigenous communities, rural communities or in our urban centres. We are making that difference, as a government, because our Premier and our government believe in—

Speaker, in her 2021 report on land use planning, the Ontario Auditor General noted how the minister favoured certain developers over others when deciding who should or should not get a minister’s zoning order. Seven developers received multiple MZOs; the two who received the most were Flato Developments and TACC Construction—the same developers that the minister has favoured with multiple removals from the greenbelt. The Auditor General warned, “Such a pattern opens up the MZO process to criticisms of conflict of interest.”

Given the minister’s pattern of preferential treatment for Flato and the De Gasperis family, why shouldn’t the public suspect a conflict of interest with his greenbelt decisions?

Again, I thank my colleague for the question.

We’ve been very clear: Unlike the previous government, supported by the NDP along the way, we’re not in the business of pitting people against one another. We’re in the business of working in collaboration with everyone to make sure we build homes. Housing is a priority for us.

Mr. Speaker, you don’t have to take my word for it. I’ll read a quote from an accredited economist. Dr. Gillezeau, who, by the way, is the policy adviser to the future leader of the NDP, had this to say in response to comments on Bill 23: “It’s disappointing but not surprising to see municipalities come out so hard against one of the most effective pieces to lower prices in Ontario’s housing legislation.” He said that the changes introduced to development charges under Bill 23 are excellent policy and should have meaningful price effects.

We agree with experts. We need more housing built—

My question is to the Premier.

Encampments are growing across Ontario, mental health for Ontarians is worsening, and this government has no plan.

In June of this year, the Big City Mayors’ Caucus called on the Premier to personally host an emergency meeting to address the homelessness, mental health and addictions crisis facing cities across Ontario. That was six months ago.

Why has the Premier not personally set up a date for the emergency meeting with the Big City Mayors’ Caucus to come up with an immediate and funded plan to address the mental health and addictions crisis in Ontario?

My question is for the Premier.

Mental health care is not getting any better in our communities. Just last week, it was announced that Hamilton city council had to cut staffing for mental health and addictions programming because this government froze those budgets. The wait-lists for treatment in Hamilton are staggering, ranging from six months to multiple years, and this move will only worsen this.

I did not realize that cutting program capacity was a part of the government’s Roadmap to Wellness.

So I’m asking, will the Premier commit to re-funding programs so people in my community can get the services they need when they need them?

Speaker, through you: Clearly, the associate minister and this government are standing behind a plan that is coming up short.

The CMHA indicates that a quarter of Ontarians are seeking mental health support; that’s one in four.

Jordan Thomas of the London Centre for Trauma Therapy said, “We’ve seen ... a lot of depression, a lot of hopelessness, a lack of vitality, a loss of ... optimism about the future.”

Will this government increase funding and expand OHIP coverage so Ontarians get the mental health care that they need?

My question is for the Minister of Transportation. Winter storms have a significant impact on the people and the economy of the north. We’re just at the start of this winter season, and we’ve already seen the impact a major snowfall can have on our roads. Road safety is an important concern for northern and Indigenous communities, especially during the winter months.

A few weeks ago, I was pleased to have my motion passed in this House, calling for improved standards for clearing snow on Highways 11 and 17. Can the Minister of Transportation please explain what our government is doing to act on that motion to make roads in northern Ontario safer during the winter months?

Speaker, can the Minister of Transportation please tell us what further actions our government is undertaking to help prevent northern highway closures during winter months?