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?

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?

One of my constituents—I’ll call her Elle—is 15 and suffers from an eating disorder. Like many in Ontario, she doesn’t have a family doctor, but she has been referred to the eating disorder clinic at CHEO.

However, the clinic is overwhelmed and unable to find her a spot. She doesn’t eat for days, but she’s not sick enough to be admitted to an overcrowded hospital. Her father worries she needs to be dying before anyone will help her.

Elle and her parents are desperate for help. Will this government finally act to ensure that mental and physical health care is available for children like Elle when they need it?

I’m surprised—we are investing $525 million in new annualized funding each and every year in the province of Ontario to provide the supports to everyone across the province of Ontario, including Hamilton.

Mr. Speaker, I’m always surprised when I hear the opposition speaking about the lack of investments by our government. When we came here, we came as a government with all kinds of shortages as a result of previous government decisions, whether it was the Liberals deciding to spend $10 million for 127 people to get eating disorder help in the United States, or the NDP cutting 15% of the mental health beds in the province of Ontario—under their leadership, 9,645 hospital beds shut down. They created a doctor shortage by capping medical school enrolment. They said no to more acute mental health care and cut $53 million from Ontario’s psychiatric hospitals. And they voted no over and over again every time we’ve tried to make investments to improve the situation in the province. So I don’t understand why it is—

This is the first government that actually created a portfolio so that there is someone who has their eye on investments that are made across the government.

Mr. Speaker, our investments are being made in each and every aspect, and when you start with so many issues that have to be addressed—we’re addressing eating disorders. We’re addressing virtual care supports that came up as a result of a two-and-a-half-year pandemic. We’re investing in the Far North and providing land-based healing to Indigenous communities to ensure that they get the appropriate care where and when they need it. We’re investing in withdrawal management, which is something that’s direly needed everywhere across the province. We’ve opened up addiction treatment beds—7,000 treatment spots have been opened under this government, in addition to what is already here.

Mr. Speaker, we have a plan. We have a Roadmap to Wellness that ensures that investments are being made where and when they’re needed so that people get the support—

Interjections.

The $3.8 billion over 10 years is looking at investing in the different periods of time during the lifespan to ensure that the supports are there. Since 2019, $130 million has gone to children and youth mental health services. The road map slates another $170 million to be spent over the next three years.

Of the $194 million that we invested during the pandemic-related emergency funding, additional funds were put into children and youth supports and our Step Up Step Down programs. We’ve invested for youth wellness camps. We’ve invested in One Stop Talk virtual walk-in supports, as well as—

Thank you to the member for Thunder Bay–Atikokan for his great question, and also for introducing his motion, which reminds us that there’s always more we can do to make our roads in the north safer.

It’s no secret that the winter months can be challenging for drivers, especially those in northern Ontario. We heard loud and clear from northern Ontarians and members on both sides of this House about the need to improve northern road safety, and we acted.

Our government is the first to create a new level of service that requires Highways 11 and 17 in the north to be cleared within 12 hours after a winter storm. That is four hours faster than the previous standard. Ontario has a nation-leading standard in place when it comes to winter maintenance and we are ensuring that it stays that way.

In northern Ontario specifically, our government is installing an additional 14 road weather information stations, including eight along Highways 11 and 17, to help our contractors prepare and respond faster to winter weather events.

As part of our five-year plan to improve the rest area network, we have also completed six major rehabilitations of rest stops across the north, including at the Manitoba border. There will always be exceptional circumstances following a winter storm, but our government is taking action to ensure that our northern highways remain open and safe following every winter weather event.

Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions.

The member for Toronto–St. Paul’s and the member for Brampton North will come to order.

The next question.

Supplementary question? The member for Ottawa West–Nepean.

A mother from my community wrote to me recently. Her daughter was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder. In October of last year, they got a referral for SickKids. Over a year later, they are still waiting for that appointment.

They are far from alone. Tens of thousands of kids are on wait-lists for mental health services that can take up to two and a half years.

Speaker, my question is to the Premier. How long will the children of this province have to wait before they can get the health care service that they need?

My question is for the Minister of Colleges and Universities. Ontario’s colleges are critical in helping to provide our students with career-focused education that addresses our province’s labour needs and drives our economic prosperity. Ontario’s colleges produce graduates who go on to create jobs for others, make lasting contributions to their communities and help to attract new investments and opportunities.

The Minister’s Lifetime Achievement Award and Premier’s Awards for college graduates recognize the tremendous contributions that help to make our province successful. Can the Minister of Colleges and Universities speak about the well-deserved recognition of the recent recipients of the lifetime achievement award?

But while it is a positive that our government acknowledges the great work of our college system, we should also take the opportunity to recognize the great people and students who are in our college campuses. Can the Minister of Colleges and Universities elaborate on some of the worthy recipients of this year’s Premier’s Awards for college graduates?

This time, it was me.

Order. Stop the clock. The member for Hamilton Mountain will come to order. The member for Kitchener–Conestoga will come to order.

Restart the clock. The member for Beaches–East York has the floor.

Once again, I’ll ask the member for Kitchener–Conestoga to come to order.

The Premier to respond.

Interjections.

Start the clock. Next question.