Niagara’s families deserve world-class health care, and that’s exactly what I’m working on delivering with Premier Ford. It’s why I was so heartened to see Infrastructure Ontario’s market update last week, which confirms how our government is making record investments in health care, long-term care, transportation, education and other critical infrastructure.

In Niagara, this infrastructure includes up to $1 billion for the Garden City Skyway twinning in St. Catharines, another $1 billion for a new South Niagara Hospital in Niagara Falls and hundreds of millions of dollars for a new West Lincoln Memorial Hospital in Grimsby.

In addition to the Infrastructure Ontario update on projects in the region, I recently had the privilege of announcing over $2 million in community provincial supports for critical infrastructure upgrades and repairs at our local hospitals. This funding is part of the government’s new investment of over $182 million provided through the Health Infrastructure Renewal Fund and the Community Infrastructure Renewal Fund to 131 hospitals and 65 community health service providers across this province.

Niagara Health will be receiving over $1 million while the Hotel Dieu Shaver Health and Rehabilitation Centre in St. Catharines will receive over $600,000 in provincial support this year through this Health Infrastructure Renewal Fund. Additionally, the Oak Centre in Welland is going to be receiving $41,000, Arid Recovery Homes in Fort Erie will receive $27,000 and Wayside House of St. Catharines will receive $29,000 through the Community Infrastructure Renewal Fund. In addition to the provincial funding supports for these important investments, the Haldimand War Memorial Hospital is also receiving over $200,000.

These critical investments demonstrate our commitment to building capacity and ending hallway health care, implementing the most ambitious plan for hospital expansion in Ontario’s history.

My question is to the Premier. We understand the urgency of getting affordable housing built in Ontario. Families are struggling to pay their rent and find an affordable home. However, folks in Niagara and across this province are perplexed by this government’s move to address this crisis by allowing the Premier to hand-pick and install regional chairs, whenever he pleases, to do his bidding.

In Niagara, Regional Councillor Wayne Redekop recently said, “This is the second election in a row that this government interfered with the election of the chair.... In 2018,” they “revoked the right of the residents of Niagara to elect the chair directly. Now in 2022,” they are “revoking the right of the elected representatives of the residents to select the chair.”

Why won’t this government work collaboratively to address the affordable housing crisis and stop this ham-fisted and insulting power grab?

Churchill once said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all others. Why do the Premier and John Tory prefer the other ones?

Speaker, that’s exactly why we want to have some consistency and work with a great chair like Jim Bradley in Niagara to ensure that the extension of strong-mayor powers is smoothly done at the regional level and, as well, that we ensure that all of those regional governments that we’ll be dealing with have the opportunity to meet our provincial priorities and get shovels in the ground. At the end of the day, this is all about building 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years and having that consistency at the regional level while we’re working through the strong-mayor powers is so very important.

Again, Speaker, it’s a bit rich from this member who served municipally to be calling into question our motive in ensuring that Jim Bradley works with us. Shame on you.

We need to ensure that we give those mayors the tools they need to be able to ensure that our provincial priorities are met. We’ve had great conversations with Mayor Tory. Unlike the NDP, we support our great mayor here in the city of Toronto, Mayor Tory. We want to work with him, and we’re glad that he wants to help meet those provincial priorities for building more housing.

The member for Niagara West.

My question is for the member from Niagara West. I want to thank him, Minister Gill and Minister Thompson for their presentations on this particular legislation. When you take it together—I think it’s going to allow people to thrive and businesses to prosper. I’d like the member from Niagara West, because his riding is so diverse—a mixture of rural and downtowns and small businesses, our job creators—to speak about what he sees to be the effects within his riding.