When our government got elected, we vowed to provide entrepreneurs with all they need to succeed. This meant eliminating mountains of the Liberals’ red tape. It meant fixing the Liberals’ unaffordable hydro and lowering taxes. Now, Speaker, entrepreneurship in Ontario is alive and well.

We support a network of Regional Innovation Centres, small business centres and Futurpreneur Canada.

In Cornwall, we fund the small business centre with almost $500,000 annually. We provide $85,000 for their Summer Company and their Starter Company Plus programs, and that helps students and young entrepreneurs turn ideas into businesses. And we provide almost $33,000 in Digital Transformation Grants; it went to local businesses to help them get their businesses online.

Speaker, this is just the start that entrepreneurs in Cornwall need to succeed.

Thanks for the question. I’m going to start with the first part of her question, which was her meeting regarding the More Homes Built Faster Act.

That bill, which is making its way through the Legislature, if it passed, contains about 50 actions that the government has put forward to tackle our housing supply crisis, right from requiring an opportunity for gentle densification within urban and rural communities moving on to something that I think is very exciting, and that’s our attainable housing program that I’m working with the Minister of Infrastructure on.

The modifications are part of our commitment to Ontarians. We looked Ontarians in the face in the June election and said, “If you re-elect us, under the leadership of Premier Ford, we are going to move the Housing Supply Action Plan—in terms of policies, procedures, legislation—every year of a four-year term.” We’re acting on that.

As well, the member opposite knows that that Housing Affordability Task Force is our long-term road map that will help guide us with the other changes we’re going to make. It’s a very simple yet very transformative exercise—

I want to correct her record, Speaker. She talked about the greenbelt—and the proposal that we’re consulting with Ontarians right now would, in effect, add 2,000 acres to the greenbelt and would provide an opportunity to build a minimum of 50,000 homes. Why is that number appropriate? Well, it goes back to an answer that I gave earlier in question period. The best year in this province’s history—in over 30—was last year, when we had 100,000 starts; that is even higher than the 69,000 homes that were built, on average, per year for the last 30 years. So 50,000, at a minimum, is very important. The proposal that we’re consulting on provides that opportunity but also an opportunity to grow the greenbelt by over 2,000 acres. It’s good public policy.

I want to thank the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington for his leader-ship in southwestern Ontario promoting the skilled trades.

Speaker, our government has an ambitious plan to build, working together with Ontario’s leading construction unions and builders.

Last week, I joined leaders representing 14 private sector unions from across our province, including Marc Arsenault, business manager for the Provincial Building and Construction Trades Council of Ontario, who represents over 150,000 hard-working tradespeople who are building our future. Alongside our Minister of Finance and the Solicitor General, we announced an additional $40 million for our Skills Development Fund. We’re expanding the fund to include training for high school students for the first time in Ontario history. We’re on a mission to get more young people into our skilled trades.

I’ll have more to share in our supplementary.

Our Skills Development Fund is investing $3.5 million to support four building trades province-wide training initiatives. These programs will help nearly 2,000 young people launch rewarding careers in the skilled trades and put them on a path to union-sponsored apprenticeships. Training like this is how we’re preparing the next generation for six-figure salaries, delivering our ambitious infrastructure plans, including building 1.5 million homes by 2031. Within two years, we funded 388 training projects and trained nearly 400,000 workers for in-demand jobs across every sector.

Mr. Speaker, to build an Ontario that leaves no one behind, labour, government and business must work together. We need all hands on deck, and we’re not slowing down.

Speaker, a recent 3M Canada survey shows that although 96% of Canadians believe that the country’s workforce needs more skilled trades workers, 76% also said they would never pursue a career in the skilled trades. This is worrisome news for Ontario. Skilled trades are vital for our economy.

Current projections show that by 2025 one in five new jobs in Ontario will be in the skilled trades. Our government must continue to act by addressing the ongoing labour shortage in the skilled trades.

Can the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development tell the House what our government is doing to get more people working in the trades?

I am pleased that our government is making the necessary investments in our skilled trades system. That said, we must make sure that these good, meaningful jobs are within reach of everyone. Unfortunately, the apprenticeship process has lacked diversity, as demonstrated by the low percentage of apprentices from under-represented groups. A diverse workforce is an important asset for Ontario’s economy. Ensuring diversity is essential for many reasons, including promoting individuals’ different strengths and skills, which leads to better outcomes and problem-solving on the job site.

Can the minister please explain how the Skills Development Fund will provide opportunities for those wishing to pursue a career in the trades?

Mr. Speaker, what an odd question for the member opposite [inaudible] party to pave over and to evict farmers from the greenbelt was the Liberal Party of Ontario. And they did it in my riding, Mr. Speaker. A family that had been farming for over 200 years was evicted so that they could create a park—a park that never opened. That is the legacy of the Liberal Party.

Now, he gets up in this House and talks about increasing costs of food. Well, how about those farmers who have a carbon tax that you support each and every day in this place? That is what is causing the price of food to go up. That is what is costing our farmers. We said it the day we got elected, didn’t we, colleagues? We said, “A carbon tax would cost the people of Ontario in everything they did.” We took the federal government to court. We asked them, “Join us to stop a carbon tax that will hurt our farmers, that will hurt people of the province of Ontario.” They laughed at it and instead supported their federal—

My question is for the Premier. The government has chosen and the Premier has chosen to flip-flop on their promise to allow over 7,000 hectares of the greenbelt to be developed, much of it high-quality farmland.

Now, Ontario is blessed with some of the best and most productive farmland in the world. In 2018, when this government was elected, the average weighted price of corn in Ontario was just about $197. This year, Mr. Speaker, it’s over $331; it’s a 67% increase. Soy has gone from $472 to $745—57%; barley from $244 to $390, a 63% increase. When you pave under farms, crop prices go up. That means higher prices at the grocery store—

Interjections.

Now, Mr. Speaker, Fordflation—

Interjections.

The minister, after delaying for more than a year, has decided to add 50% more land to the boundary. He’s adding—

Interjections.

After delaying for a year, after driving up housing prices in Ottawa for a year, why does this minister feel that the residents of Findlay Creek and Greely and Stittsville should have to endure higher property taxes while sitting in gridlock because of the lack of infrastructure?

Interjections.

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Start the clock. The government House leader to reply.

The supplementary question.

Start the clock. Minister of Municipal Affairs to reply.

My office has been overwhelmed with phone calls and emails from organizations and residents of Thunder Bay–Superior North expressing their deep concern at the environmental damage that Bill 23 will bring. I will read an excerpt from one of those constituents:

“By far the greatest and most significant threat facing Ontario today is the threat of climate change and loss of biodiversity. Sacrificing wetlands to provide more housing start locations is a very short-sighted solution to an immediate housing issue but will result in much more significant long-term impacts on the future of the Earth for us and for my children and my grandchildren.”

Will the Premier remove the parts of Bill 23 that undermine regional conservation authorities’ ability to protect wetlands needed for everyone’s survival in the face of climate change?

Bill 23 is a direct attack on the well-being of all communities for the short-term benefit of those who will profit from building where they should not build. I can tell you, the builders will be long gone when the consequences of these bad decisions come knocking.

Again, I ask: Will the Premier restore the ability of conservation authorities to fulfill their mandate to protect the integrity of local watersheds?

Mr. Speaker, let me just start off with the recognition that students are in class this morning, which is exactly where they belong. I want to express gratitude to all the parties for working together to ensure stability for children. I want to thank our workers, who provide critical support for the children of this province. I want to thank parents for their incredible patience.

I will note that what guided the government in our negotiation was keeping kids in the classroom. That is what matters most to our Premier and our government, and we’ve delivered that in partnership with both the union and the trustees of the province. We did so by presenting a fair deal for all parties, and the greatest beneficiary of this outcome is our kids, who have stability, finally, for the coming school year.

With respect to investment, I will note to the member that the funding has been increased this school year to the highest levels ever recorded. This September, there’s a $650-million increase for children in the province. We’ve increased staffing by 7,000, and we’re going to continue to do more to ensure that children have a quality education and that they learn, right to June.

In addition to increasing funding in publicly funded schools, we are also providing direct support to parents because we know they are best positioned to invest, support and care for their kids.

Ontario has one of the cleanest electricity systems in the world, with over 90% of our power generation creating zero emissions. Nuclear power and hydroelectricity are the foundation of our energy system strength, as they provide low-cost, reliable and emissions-free electricity. We know that Ontario’s energy advantage is good for our environment and is the envy of jurisdictions in Canada and around the world. That said, Ontarians want to know how our clean energy production can benefit our economy.

Can the Minister of Energy please tell the people of my riding how Ontario’s clean electric grid system benefits our economy?

Widespread electrification of our transportation network and industries is undeniably a good thing. In his response, the minister mentioned the comprehensive electricity plan, which has assisted in returning manufacturing jobs back to our province. Ontarians are, however, concerned about the cost of this program. Can the minister please elaborate on this plan and why it’s necessary?

My question is to the Premier. A parent in my riding got in touch with our office after an email circulated asking parents for donations to pay for paper towels and soap for the classroom. This is while the recent FAO report forecasts a historic $6-billion spending shortfall within the public education sector alone over the next six years. That’s money that could be used today by this government to fix and save our schools during today’s crisis.

How is it acceptable that families, many of whom are already facing the worst affordability crisis in this province’s history over the last 40 years, are being asked to pick up the bill for public education because this government refuses to?

The fact that our education sector is reliant on bake sales, philanthropy and volunteerism is a system failure, not a solution. What about schools and parents who cannot afford to raise hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars? This is inequity in action. This is, frankly, stacking the deck against our students.

The question is back to the Premier: Will this government commit to increasing education spending to ensure students have everything they need, including hygiene—health and safety basics during a pandemic—to thrive in the classroom, without turning to struggling families to cover the government’s shortcomings?

I want to thank the honourable member for his question. I’m always disappointed in him for not supporting our government’s community housing renewal, social services relief fund and all of our housing supply action plans. Pretty well every one, universally, he’s either voted against or spoken against. He has never supported our call to ask the federal government for the $480 million that we’re owed, even though some federal Greens have indicated support for that.

At the end of the day, our consultation with Ontarians is going to do two things: It’s going to grow the greenbelt by over 2,000 acres, which I think is a very positive opportunity—including the Paris-Galt moraine that this member had a private member’s bill in respect to—but at the same time, it will provide an opportunity with 50,000 homes at a minimum on land that’s existing, that’s serviced, that’s adjacent to an urban area. These locations were selected for a purpose, and the purpose is to get shovels in the ground faster.

The supplementary question?

My question is for the Premier. People love the greenbelt. They want the Premier to keep his many promises, not to pave over the places they love, the farmland that feeds us, the nature that protects us, especially when we already have enough land slated for development to address the housing crisis—land in places where people want to live, close to where they work, their family and transit; not in unaffordable places with long, expensive commutes.

We know that developing the greenbelt will help a few land speculators turn millions into billions.

Why is the Premier breaking his many promises not to pave over the greenbelt when his own housing task force clearly stated that we do not need to open the greenbelt for development to address the housing crisis?

Thanks very much to the member opposite from Brampton for the great question this morning.

Our government knows that a reliable and affordable electricity grid isn’t just good for the economy; it’s also great for the environment.

We’ve stabilized electricity prices since the harmful days of the previous Liberal government, through programs like the comprehensive electricity plan, which has stabilized rates. It has allowed manufacturing jobs and new investment to come back to our province, like the $3.6-billion investment at Stellantis in the member opposite’s riding and down in the Windsor region as well—but it’s more than just that. Stabilizing our electricity rates also means that companies can now invest in electrifying their industrial businesses, like we’re seeing with the green steelmaking processes coming soon to Hamilton and Sault Ste. Marie.

It’s because of a stable, reliable, affordable electricity grid that we will see reduced emissions in other parts of our economy, while at the same time watching our economy in this province grow.

The comprehensive electricity plan is reducing electricity costs for more than 50,000 industrial and commercial customers by 15% to 17%. To the member’s question: Why is that program necessary? Well, I can tell you, it’s necessary because of a decade of Liberals mucking up the energy policy in our province. They signed contracts under the Green Energy Act, locked in for 20 years, many at 80 cents a kilowatt hour, when our clean, reliable, affordable nuclear power was available for eight cents a kilowatt hour and our hydroelectric was available for four cents a kilowatt hour. The Liberals kept signing these contracts that were driving up the price of electricity and were going to continue to drive up the price of electricity by 6%, 7%, 8% year over year, through the end of the decade. The comprehensive energy plan is meant to fix the problems that were created by the Liberal government.

We are bringing back a stable electricity system to our province so that our economy can thrive.

I thank the great member for Sarnia–Lambton for his question. We are improving our services to make life easier for all Ontarians, especially those with accessibility needs. I’m happy to say that Ontarians are able to apply for, renew and replace lost or stolen accessible parking permits online from the comfort of their home.

I had the opportunity to visit ErinoakKids, a leader in medical and support services for youth with physical and developmental disabilities in Mississauga, and witness first-hand how bringing more accessible parking permit services online will help families, caregivers and organizations supporting those with disability needs.

Under Premier Ford’s leadership, our government is working with individual organizations and communities to identify, prevent and remove barriers for all persons with disabilities.

These online options are saving people precious time and letting them focus on what matters most in their lives. I encourage everyone to take advantage of these services at ontario.ca/renew.

The supplementary question.

The House recessed from 1144 to 1500.

Report adopted.

Mr. Bourgouin moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 43, An Act to amend the Public Transportation and Highway Improvement Act to make northern Ontario highways safer / Projet de loi 43, Loi modifiant la Loi sur l’aménagement des voies publiques et des transports en commun pour accroître la sécurité des voies publiques dans le nord de l’Ontario.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for letting me rise on this special day to wish my grandson Greyson James Walter Uhryn a very happy fourth birthday.

Happy birthday, Greyson. I hope you have a wonderful day. Grammie and G, Mini and Rodger love you to the moon and back.

I’m pleased to be here to reintroduce my private member’s bill, which is intended to make it safer for northern Ontarians to travel our highways during the winter months.

The bill seeks to reduce the number of winter closures on Highways 11 and 17 that are oftentimes caused by poor road conditions and maintenance standards that are not on par with those on southern Ontario highways.

The bill amends the Public Transportation and Highway Improvement Act in relation to standards for road maintenance in winter. New section 100 sets out a classification system for Ontario highways consisting of five classes of highways. The section classifies all 400-series highways, the QEW highway and Highways 11 and 17 as class 1 highways. The section also sets out the time within which snow must be removed from each class of highway after each snowfall. Class 1 highways have the strictest requirements for snow removal, requiring that the pavement be bare of snow within eight hours of the end of a snowfall.

Mr. Schreiner moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 44, An Act to amend the Planning Act with respect to residential unit policies in official plans / Projet de loi 44, Loi modifiant la Loi sur l’aménagement du territoire en ce qui concerne les politiques relatives aux unités d’habitation contenues dans les plans officiels.