The member opposite wants to shut down gas plants now. That would result in brownouts in our province—completely unacceptable. The Independent Electricity System Operator has also told us that it would increase electricity bills by $100 a month. That is unacceptable to our government, and it’s unacceptable to the people of the province of Ontario.

We saw a glimpse of their energy policy a couple of weeks ago, when the member from Ottawa Centre ran extension cords across the bridge from Ottawa to Gatineau. That’s a look at what we could expect—God forbid—if an NDP government was ever in charge of our energy supply. We simply can’t have that unpredictability. We have to have a reliable and affordable system.

Every single day, I’m working to ensure that our system is clean and safe, that it offers choice, and that it is reliable and affordable, so we can see the growth we need in our province.

My question is for the Premier.

In 2018, the Premier was caught on video telling a room full of developers, “We will open up the greenbelt, a big chunk of it.” Then in May of that year, he swore to all Ontarians that he unequivocally wouldn’t touch the greenbelt. And in April 2021, he said, “We’re not going to touch the greenbelt.”

So here we are, December 2022. It’s Christmas, and the Premier is proud to say “promise made, promise kept” to his rich developer friends. The problem is, he broke his promise to the people of Ontario. He is giving away the people’s greenbelt—huge chunks of it; it’s not his to give.

Speaker, through you to the Premier: Can the Premier stand here today and tell us why anyone would believe anything that he says?

Interjections.

There is a clear pattern of people gaining inside knowledge. Why would someone take out a $100-million loan at 21% interest to buy land that you could literally do nothing on—and weeks later, magically, you could.

It took more than a day for this government to say “no” when they were asked whether developers got a heads-up—a whole day.

It’s not the developers’ greenbelt. It’s not the government’s greenbelt. It’s not the Premier’s greenbelt to give away. It’s the people’s greenbelt.

Speaker, through you: Will the Premier stand in this House and tell the people of Ontario that his rich developer friends did not get a heads-up?

I could say the same thing about the honourable member. He stood here in this House and, as a member of the governing Liberal Party, carved up the greenbelt 17 times—no apology, no answers for the people of Ontario.

We were open. We were clear. We were transparent. We’re in the middle of a housing crisis, and we posted on the environmental registry a plan that would provide a minimum of 50,000 homes.

Many of these sites have received municipal support. The one in Pickering, Mayor Ashe—I have a letter that I’ll read in the supplemental, clearly indicating that they wanted this property in the DRAP to be available for home construction.

All of these sites are adjacent to existing urban areas. They’re all able to be serviced.

At the end of the day, our plan, unlike the Liberals’, will add over 2,000 acres to the greenbelt.

I’m going to read a letter from the mayor of Pickering, His Worship Mayor Kevin Ashe. The first paragraph says it all: “You recently received a letter from Mayor Ryan requesting the repeal of the Duffins Rouge Agricultural Preserve Act, 2005, in the city of Pickering. As the newly elected mayor of the city, I would like to support this request. As noted by Mayor Ryan, these lands were part of the regional and municipal growth plans for settlement area expansion prior to the greenbelt—20 years ago.”

We’re moving forward on this request from municipalities, other requests from municipalities.

At the end of the day, the plan proposed will have a minimum of 50,000 homes provided for us and over—

Supplementary.

I heard what the member for Ottawa South said. I will remind all members that you can’t impute motive in the House. I’m going to ask the member to withdraw and then conclude his question.

Interjections.

The next question.

Speaker, through you to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing: I’ve asked the minister numerous times whether the government tipped off developers about plans to open the greenbelt for development. The minister has had multiple different answers to our questions. First, the answer was that the government talks to anyone who builds homes. Yesterday, the minister said “no,” without any further elaboration. Every day, it seems we get a new answer from the minister.

So, today, I’ll ask again: Did the minister or any other government or PC Party official share with any landowner, developer or lobbyist information about the government’s plan for developing the greenbelt before it became public on November 4?

Despite a one-year cooling-off period required of former government officials who become lobbyists, Mr. Bucci seems to be lobbying the government on development issues. He recently spoke at the heritage committee in support of Bill 23, where he interacted with the minister’s parliamentary assistant. He appeared, this morning, to speak in favour of Bill 39. The cooling-off period exists to prevent lobbyists from putting their former employers in a real or potential conflict of interest.

Why is the minister allowing his office to be lobbied by his former chief of staff?

The supplementary question.

Interjections.

Speaker, I answered yesterday that no, I did not, and that I will assist the Integrity Commissioner in the investigation.

Such disappointment, colleagues, from across the way as I got up; I’m somewhat hurt by that.

Here’s the reality, Speaker: They can couch it any way they like—because they have been doing it for not only just the last two weeks, really; they’ve been doing it for the entire time the NDP has existed. That is the committee of no. They don’t want people to have homes. They don’t want people to have homes in the GTA. They’re happy where we’re at—but we’ve said no right from the beginning; right, colleagues?

We were elected on a mission to make Ontario better than it was when we took over.

So what have we done? We’ve done better on health care. We’ve done better on education. We’re doing better to put more money into the pockets of the people of the province of Ontario.

While they want people to live in their parents’ basements forever, I know a lot of parents here who want their kids out of the basement and in a brand new home somewhere in the province of Ontario. That’s what I know. It’s the dream of everybody.

I know that when my parents came to this country—do you know what my parents did? They wanted to have a better tomorrow for their kids. And that is what we’re all about.

So you can continue to say no, hold people down. We’ll move forward and give hope and prosperity to everybody.

I unabashed identify as a pet parent. Unfortunately, I’ve spent far more time in veterinary clinics than any parent would want to.

We have a significant shortage of veterinarians in my area in Ontario and across the province. I know from first-hand experience, and from my friends, that it’s causing significant wait times, problems with emergency clinics, and burnout in our veterinarians. It’s also having an impact on our farmers, who can’t find people to take care of their livestock. I would ask if our Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs could please highlight what our government is doing in order to address this issue.

I’ve spent a lot of time with a lot of our registered veterinary technicians across this province, and I know—again, from experience I wish I hadn’t had—just how valuable they are and how extensive their learning experience is, and what they could do to help veterinary services.

I’d ask if the minister could talk a little bit more about how modernizing the Veterinarians Act could allow our amazing registered veterinary technicians to provide more services and help fill this gap.

My question is to the Premier.

Front-line mental health and addictions workers have been clear that we are in an acute crisis, with record numbers of opioid deaths in Ontario. This crisis is particularly acute in Thunder Bay, where we have four times the provincial average of deaths.

Will the province increase community-based addiction services, including harm reduction and supportive housing, and increase capacity in publicly funded, publicly run treatment centres in our communities?

I very much appreciate your devotion and the question as well. This is something that people across Ontario are talking about—not just pet owners, but Ontario livestock farmers as well.

I want to be perfectly clear that in terms of access to veterinarian services—this is an issue that’s across the nation, but here in Ontario, we’re taking action.

This past spring, we met with stakeholders from the veterinarian sector, and they identified very clearly that we needed to modernize. The fact of the matter is, the Veterinarians Act in Ontario hasn’t been looked at for over 30 years, but it’s our government that is taking action. We are working with our stakeholders to identify how we need to modernize, given the fact that there are new technologies and the scope of practice for both veterinarians and vet technicians has evolved. We need to get with the times and modernize our legislation in this province as well. It’s part of our Grow Ontario Strategy that we’re going to be moving forward with. I’ll speak more about it in my supplementary.

The member from Elgin–Middlesex–London will be leading these consultations across this province as he goes on tour. We want to hear, first and foremost, how the sector has evolved, how we need to modernize, and how we need to develop legislation in 2022 that creates less red tape and builds a stronger Ontario—because that’s what Bill 46 is all about.

As we look to grow Ontario, we want to make sure that people have their voices heard. We’re looking very much forward to an expansive consultation process that will identify the new scopes of practice that have evolved for vet techs as well as our veterinarians. First and foremost, the important aspect here is that we are engaging everyone in the veterinarian sector to make sure we get it right.

My question is to the Premier.

Last week, the Minister of Health said that primary care physicians should treat more children so they do not have to go to emergency rooms. However, the reality is that 1.8 million Ontarians don’t have a regular family physician to even go to in these situations. OHIP-covered virtual care has been one of the last resorts that parents and their sick children have had to find immediate medical help, which this government is gutting, leaving parents with a cost of about $29 a month.

Our government is allowing for private ventures like KixCare to charge for virtual pediatric visits.

Dr. Aviva Lowe, a pediatrician who consulted on KixCare, is urging the provincial government to maintain access to virtual care. She said, “Pediatricians ... will no longer be able to offer virtual visits for patients”—and she went on to talk about how it’s unequal for people who don’t have family doctors.

My question is, at a time when there is a crisis, why is our government gutting essential services like OHIP-covered virtual care?

Lionel, a parent in Scarborough Southwest, reached out to our office about his recent experience. After getting sick, the only way his family was able to get medical advice and a prescription was through virtual service.

Our government is allowing for profit to be made from essential services like health care and fundamentally taking away the right of Ontarians to publicly funded primary care.

In a CBC article, Leah Littlepage, another Ontarian, talked about her 16-month-old daughter, who stayed out of the emergency room four times in the past year because of virtual care.

The system that you have come up with for virtual care is not working.

My question is, at a time when pediatric hospitals are overrun, especially for infants and babies, and we need to have virtual care service that actually covers these people, like these parents, why is this government taking away options that are available—that are available to save kids—

I thank the great member for Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry for the great work he is doing for the people of his riding.

Speaker, since our government introduced Ontario’s first-ever Cyber Security Strategy in 2019, we have rolled up our sleeves and gotten to work. As many of us know very well, a key pillar of this strategy was the creation of our cyber security expert panel, appointed to help evaluate the state of cyber security across the OPS and BPS. After two years of hard work and collaboration, our government publicly released their final report this October and committed to implementing the recommendations. This report is a major milestone on our path to improving our cyber resilience. Perhaps most importantly, it helps us create even more secure online services for Ontarians.

Speaker, the work ahead to implement these recommendations will not always be easy, and it will certainly not be immediate. But I can pledge to you today that I will work tirelessly with my colleagues to usher in the changes needed to bolster our cyber security across all of government. The expert panel’s recommendations are forming the foundation of our cyber security policies and help develop the best practices that we will share across all sectors.

Our ongoing digital transformation has already delivered significant benefits to the public and businesses, and we must continue to protect them from cyber threats so we can deliver on our government’s plan to make life easier and build a stronger Ontario.

Thank you for that great question.

When you stop and think about the amount of supports and services that we need in the province of Ontario—we all know, or we should know, that that treatment should be in the communities. It should be delivered in a way that is measured, so that we know that the outcomes we are getting are the ones that are the best for the people of the province of Ontario. We also know that we need to do more to ensure we have low-barrier access points, to be able to get them into a system to get the supports that are necessary.

When you talk about mobile crisis intervention teams—I support them, and we support them, as a government. We have expanded them throughout the province and will continue to do so, because we know that it’s a way to get individuals the help they need. That’s the key point here.

We have to get people to treatment, which is why those 400 beds were created and why we have 7,000 additional treatment spots.

And yes, we will deliver services at the same standard and level across the province of Ontario—because that’s what every Ontarian deserves to have in their community.

Thank you for mentioning supportive housing. I appreciate that and look forward to seeing more of that in our region.

In Thunder Bay, there are a multitude of for-profit methadone clinics in the business of keeping people hooked on methadone. As for-profit medical practices, it is in their financial interest to keep people on methadone indefinitely. In contrast, not-for-profit clinics work with clients to gradually reduce dosages until the person is drug-free.

Will the government investigate these exploitative businesses and commit to supporting community-based, not-for-profit mental health and addictions treatment that includes mobile crisis response teams and the building of supportive housing—which I’m glad you intend to do.

Thank you. The supplementary question.

Thank you very much for the question.

We just want to take a moment to acknowledge the great work done by all of our doctors across Ontario, and we thank them for all of their efforts.

As members may recall, during the pandemic, we started to cover virtual care.

Before the last election, a three-year physician services agreement was ratified by the Ontario Medical Association and its members. It was a true milestone, because it was the first time in 10 years or so that a deal had been reached without an arbitrator. But it also realized another milestone: That agreement made virtual care a permanent feature of our health care system and our health care offering for the first time ever for patients. We’re very proud of that. Under the new framework, things have been changing and the way it’s compensated has been changing—but that is what the OMA ratified and what the members of the OMA agreed to.

As I was saying, under the new virtual care agreement, all medically necessary virtual care services, including patient visits by telephone, will continue to be insured under OHIP, but we’re implementing a new pricing structure for virtual care—and that’s what we’re really talking about here: a pricing issue—that ensures patients are receiving services through the avenue that best reflects a patient-physician relationship. Patients will continue to have access to virtual care where clinically appropriate—in settings, for example, like rural and remote mental health services.

Our government has been clear with virtual care—because this is what we heard from patients. It’s intended as a complement to in-person care—not a replacement. So we are making a requirement that a physician has to actually meet a patient once within a 24-month period. We don’t think that’s too much to ask. That provides for better patient care, which is what we want in Ontario.

My question is to the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery.

As our lives become increasingly dependent on digital technology, we need to be more knowledgeable about the ever-present cyber threats we now face.

Recently, we saw the negative impacts that cyber security attacks can have, with a school board reporting that it was affected by a cyber incident.

As a province, we must ensure that we are equipped with the necessary tools to stay safe as we access services digitally.

Can the minister please explain what our government is doing to prioritize the safety and security of all the people of Ontario in our increasingly digital world?

Cyber attacks have become more sophisticated and frequent, targeting vital services. As our government continues our ambitious agenda to utilize digital capabilities for programs and services, we are responsible for protecting the public from harmful cyber security threats. The public expects the data they share with their government to be secure and safely managed.

Could the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery please elaborate on the next steps our government is taking to better protect cyber security for all the people of Ontario?

This petition is entitled, “Petition to Raise Social Assistance Rates.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontario’s social assistance rates are well below Canada’s official Market Basket Measure poverty line and woefully inadequate to cover the basic costs of food and rent;

“Whereas individuals on the Ontario Works program receive just $733 per month and individuals on the Ontario Disability Support Program receive just $1,169 per month, only 41% and 65% of the poverty line;

“Whereas the Ontario government has not increased social assistance rates since 2018, and Canada’s inflation rate in January 2022 was 5.1%, the highest rate in 30 years;

“Whereas the government of Canada recognized through the 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 increase social assistance rates to a base of $2,000 per month for those on Ontario Works, and to increase other programs accordingly.”

I fully support this petition and will pass it to page Scarlett to take to the table.