The same P3 contractors and private consultants responsible for the Ottawa LRT are also responsible for the Eglinton Crosstown P3. The Auditor General warned of deficient designs and missed deadlines. There are already signs that the problems experienced with the Ottawa LRT could happen with the Eglinton Crosstown P3. Metrolinx keeps announcing more delays and keeps paying more money to the P3 contractor. They recently announced yet another one-year delay, which both the minister and Metrolinx have refused to explain.

Clearly, something has once again gone wrong with the Eglinton Crosstown P3.

What is the ministry and Metrolinx hiding?

Yes, Speaker. Thank you. This bill, the Right to Timely Mental Health and Addiction Care for Children and Youth Act, requires the minister to ensure that a person who is less than 26 years old, resides in Ontario and has been deemed to require a mental health or addiction service receives access to the required mental health or addiction service within 30 days of being deemed to require the service.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas ... social assistance rates are well below Canada’s official Market Basket Measure poverty line and far from adequate to cover the rising costs of food and rent: $733 for individuals on OW and soon $1,227 for ODSP;

“Whereas an open letter to the Premier and two cabinet ministers, signed by over 230 organizations, recommends that social assistance rates be doubled for both Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP);

“Whereas the recent small budget increase of 5% for ODSP still leaves these citizens well below the poverty line, both they and those receiving the frozen OW rates are struggling to live in this time of alarming inflation;

“Whereas the government of Canada recognized in its CERB program that a basic income of $2,000 per month was the standard support required by individuals who lost their employment during the pandemic;

“We, the undersigned citizens of Ontario, petition the Legislative Assembly to double social assistance rates for OW and ODSP.”

I fully support this petition and will affix my signature to it.

“Whereas Bill 23 is the ... government’s latest attempt to remove protected land from the greenbelt, allowing developers to bulldoze and pave over 7,000 acres of farmland in the greenbelt;

“Whereas Ontario is already losing 319.6 acres of farmland and green space daily to development;

“Whereas the government’s Housing Affordability Task Force found there are plenty of places to build homes without destroying the greenbelt;

“Whereas” the Premier’s “repeated moves to tear up farmland and bulldoze wetlands have never been about housing, but are about making the rich richer;

“Whereas green spaces and farmland are what we rely on to grow our food, support natural habitats and prevent flooding;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately amend Bill 23, stop all plans to further remove protected land from the greenbelt and protect existing farmland in the province by passing the NDP’s Protecting Agricultural Land Act.”

I support this petition and will affix my signature to it.

I’d like to thank Leadnow for this petition. It reads, “For Meaningful Climate Action Withdraw Bill 23.

“Whereas our planet is undergoing significant warming with adverse consequences for health, for agriculture, for infrastructure and our children’s future;

“Whereas the costs of inaction are severe, such as extreme weather events causing flooding and drought;

“Whereas Canada has signed the Paris accord which commits us to acting to keep temperature rise under 1.5 degrees” centigrade;

“We, the undersigned, call upon the government of Ontario to withdraw Bill 23 and to create a new bill to meet our housing needs that is compatible with protecting the greenbelt, creating affordable housing in the current urban boundaries, and meeting our climate targets.”

I fully support this petition and will affix my signature to it.

“Whereas about 200,000 to 300,000 people in Ontario are injured on the job every year;

“Whereas over a century ago, workers in Ontario who were injured on the job gave up the right to sue their employers, in exchange for a system that would provide them with just compensation;

“Whereas decades of cost-cutting have pushed injured workers into poverty and onto publicly funded social assistance programs, and have gradually curtailed the rights of injured workers;

“Whereas injured workers have the right to quality and timely medical care, compensation for lost wages and protection from discrimination;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to change the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act to accomplish the following for injured workers in Ontario:

“Eliminate the practice of ‘deeming’ or ‘determining,’ which bases compensation on phantom jobs that injured workers do not actually have;

“Ensure that the WSIB prioritizes and respects the medical opinions of the health care providers who treat the injured worker directly;

“Prevent compensation from being reduced or denied based on ‘pre-existing conditions’ that never affected the worker’s ability to function prior to the work injury.”

I fully support this petition and will affix my signature to it.

“Whereas reports show that the Ontario” government’s new laws “allow landlords to evict tenants faster and use private bailiffs to enforce eviction orders;

“Whereas there is an affordable housing and rental crisis in Ontario;

“Whereas many tenants who have lived in their units for years are being pushed out of their homes through renovictions and other loopholes, allowing their” rent to be doubled or tripled;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario ... to: Reject any proposed changes that give” more “power to evict” honest “tenants more quickly; close all loopholes that give landlords incentive to drive people out of their units so they can rent at new, much higher rents, including action in above-guideline rent increases and renovictions; and commit to immediate action to increase access to affordable housing in Ontario by building more affordable housing, social housing, supportive housing and increasing rent supplements, etc.”

I support this petition and I will affix my signature to it.

Resuming the debate adjourned on December 1, 2022, on the motion for third reading of the following bill:

Bill 26, An Act to amend various Acts in respect of post-secondary education / Projet de loi 26, Loi modifiant diverses lois en ce qui concerne l’éducation postsecondaire.

I’d like to thank my colleague from Kiiwetinoong for his powerful presentation. His words, “reconciliation requires more than words,” is something that is always resonating with me, and I’ve always tried to think about how I can use my place in this House to further action on reconciliation. As the critic for child care for the official opposition, I’ve tabled a motion for the provincial government to develop culturally appropriate early childhood education programs for Indigenous families, which is the Truth and Reconciliation Call to Action number 12.

But going back to this legislation, I’d like to ask the member—I mean, what is in this legislation is a start, but there is so much more that we can do. There are specific steps that can go into this legislation to make it stronger, specifically for Indigenous and First Nations communities. So I’d like to ask his thoughts on what can be strengthened in this legislation.

I’d like to thank my colleague the member from Spadina–Fort York for his presentation. He is approaching this bill with a lot of experience, both as a graduate student and as a professor in a university.

He talked a bit about the committee hearings, and I’m interested to know more about the stakeholder reactions—if he could share with this House, particularly what students have said need to go into the bill. What were some of the recommendations that came out of the report from Western University that could be added to this bill?