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. 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.

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 have a “Petition to Protect Ontarians from Catastrophic Floods.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the government’s More Homes Built Faster Act ... continues to erode the powers of Ontario’s conservation authorities; and

“Whereas the government’s recently tabled housing legislation will repeal no fewer than 36 regulations that give conservation authorities oversight over development in order to protect Ontarians from catastrophic floods; and

“Whereas the work of conservation authorities reduces the risk of flooding, which is only getting worse due to climate change;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To instruct the Ontario government to please amend your housing bill and repeal all the changes you have introduced since coming to office that limit the important role of conservation of authorities.”

I support this petition, will sign it and ask page Hussain to bring it to the table.

Je remercie le député pour sa question.

Our government is very proud to be nation-leading in our standards for highway clearing across the province, but especially in northern Ontario.

Speaker, our government just recently announced a new standard for clearing highways in northern Ontario—a new Highways 11 and 17 standard called the Ontario trans-Canada standard. We will see our northern highways cleared in 12 hours. That is four hours faster than ever before. It represents the massive investments that we have made in clearing our roads in the north—1,100 pieces of new equipment, changes to our contractors’ model, and new weather information stations.

Mr. Speaker, we have been working very closely with our contractors to make sure that we meet those standards and continue to improve road cleaning in northern Ontario.

Bill 36, An Act to implement Budget measures and to enact and amend various statutes / Projet de loi 36, Loi visant à mettre en oeuvre les mesures budgétaires et à édicter et à modifier diverses lois.

My question is for the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry.

We all know the issue of deforestation is a major concern. Trees absorb and store carbon dioxide. Restoring degraded forests is a significant avenue for carbon absorption and storage and one of the strategies for addressing global warming. Since 66% of Ontario is forested and almost 90% of those forests are public, this ministry contributes significantly to our role in helping to protect Ontario in our fight against climate change.

Can the minister explain how our province contributes to sustainable forest development while ensuring the protection of our environment?

In April 2021, the ministry created a Forest Sector Strategy Advisory Committee compromised of municipal, Indigenous and industry representatives to continue improving the sector.

While many innovative companies in our province utilize our forestry products, companies located in rural, remote and northern communities have challenges that other businesses wouldn’t have to face. Higher costs, access and difficulties attracting and retaining talent are significant economic development challenges in northern and rural regions.

Can the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry address how our government will support investments and innovation in Ontario’s forestry sector going forward?

Yes, Mr. Speaker. I’m just rising in accordance with standing order 59 to outline our work for next week.

On Monday, December 5, in the morning, we will be dealing with Bill 51, the Legislative Assembly Amendment Act. In the afternoon, we will be on Bill 36, which is the Progress on the Plan to Build Act.

On Tuesday, December 6, in the morning, we will continue with Bill 36. In the afternoon routine, there will be two statements by ministers: the first by Minister Fullerton on the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, and a statement by Minister Mulroney on the modernization of the French-language act. In the afternoon, on Tuesday, December 6, we will go to Bill 51 again, which is the Legislative Assembly Amendment Act. And in the evening, we will go to a private member’s bill standing in the name of the member for Kingston and the Islands, the Think Twice Before You Choose Natural Gas Act.

On Wednesday, December 7: Bill 39, the Better Municipal Governance Act, and in the afternoon, Bill 39, the Better Municipal Governance Act. In the evening, we will do the PMB from the member for Mushkegowuk–James Bay, Bill 43.

And on Thursday, December 8, there will be a tribute to a former member of provincial Parliament, Mr. David Rotenberg, and then the afternoon is yet to be determined.

Thank you to the member from Thunder Bay–Atikokan. He is doing a tremendous job for the people in his riding in Ontario.

Responsible stewardship and sustainable development of Ontario forests are at the heart of what my ministry does. Healthy forests are essential to environmental well-being and provide important recreational and tourism opportunities for residents here at home and for people around the world.

The forest industry in Ontario generated $18 billion in revenue from manufactured goods and services in 2020 and supported more than 148,000 direct and indirect jobs in 2021.

Forestry operations are a vital source of good jobs, particularly in rural and northern communities where they may be one of the main sources of employment.

Sustainable Growth: Ontario’s Forest Sector Strategy is our government’s 10-year timeline to unlock the full potential of our forest sector, and our plan will continue Ontario’s history of sustainable development and position the province as a world leader in making and selling forest products from renewable, sustainable—

Forest biomass is an incredible opportunity for Ontario, and it includes trees that aren’t used in conventional forest products, as well as sawmill by-products like bark, sawdust and wood shavings. It can be used in medicines and pharmaceuticals, plastics and polymers, textiles, 3D printing, battery energy storage and green hydrogen. It can even be used as a component in jet fuel. Using forest biomass can support both the province’s forest management and environmental objectives, helping us to use more mill residues, reduce waste and landfilling, and provide clean energy. As we realize our plan for future uses of forest biomass, these facilities will make important contributions to the forestry sector and regional economies.

Our government is ensuring families, communities and industry can depend on a healthy and vibrant forest sector—

Thank you. Supplementary?

Deferred vote on the motion that the question now be put on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

Bill 46, An Act to enact one Act and amend various other Acts / Projet de loi 46, Loi visant à édicter une loi et à modifier diverses autres lois.

The division bells rang 1139 to 1144.

On November 28, 2022, Mr. Gill moved second reading of Bill 46, An Act to enact one Act and amend various other Acts.

On November 30, 2022, Mr. Yakabuski moved that the question be now put.

All those in favour of Mr. Yakabuski’s motion will please rise one at a time and be recognized by the Clerk.

Mr. Gill has moved second reading of Bill 46, An Act to enact one Act and amend various other Acts. Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry?

All those in favour of the motion will please say “aye.”

All those opposed will please say “nay.”

In my opinion, the ayes have it.

Call in the members. This is a five-minute bell.

Interjections.

Second reading agreed to.

The House recessed from 1149 to 1300.

Report adopted.

Report deemed adopted.

Ms. Karpoche moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 53, An Act to enact the Right to Timely Mental Health and Addiction Care for Children and Youth Act, 2022 / Projet de loi 53, Loi édictant la Loi de 2022 sur le droit des enfants et des jeunes à des soins de santé mentale et au traitement de toxicomanies en temps opportun.

First reading agreed to.

Mr. Speaker, the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs.