My question is for the Premier.

In today’s Ottawa Citizen: “Children’s Health Crisis: Seven Kids Resuscitated at CHEO”—and today’s Hamilton Spectator says that McMaster Children’s Hospital is running out of cribs and infusion pumps for medication, and it is only expected to get worse.

We know that children’s surgeries are being cancelled across the province and that emergency rooms and ICUs are more than overwhelmed.

The Chief Medical Officer of Health said that if surgeries are being cancelled and hospitals are in crisis, he would consider mandating masks. Anyone who reads a newspaper or watches TV knows we’re already there.

So, through you, Speaker, will the Premier require universal masking in our schools and on public transit, or at the very least, do what he’s asking others to do, which is to wear a mask whenever possible?

Interjections.

I can tell you, there is nothing more frightening than watching your child struggle to breathe. There is nothing more powerless than that feeling. Right now in Ontario, there are hundreds, thousands of parents in hospitals and at home feeling exactly the same thing.

The people who are caring for them, the people at CHEO, are asking us to do something very simple: to wear a mask. That’s all they’re asking us to do. They need other help, but that’s a simple thing we can all do right now.

Speaker, will the Premier do the right thing and require masking in schools and on public transit, and wear a mask himself?

Thank you. The next question.

Minister of Health.

I think the member opposite is making the case exactly for Bill 23.

We’ve talked to our municipal partners, and we realized that it takes too long to get housing in the ground. We also know that municipal fees are adding an average of $116,900 to the end cost of a home in the GTA. So we know that costs are too high, we know that fees are too high, and we know that it takes too long to get shovels in the ground.

Exactly what we’re proposing under Bill 23 moves forward on those baseline costs. It allows development charges to be waived for affordable housing, for sustainable housing, for inclusionary zoning—all of the things that New Democrats talk a good game on, but then when it comes to actually voting for it, they always vote against. This is, again, a challenge with Ontario’s New Democrats. They say one thing and then do something completely different.

Interjection.

Thanks again to the member for the question.

There’s a lot happening. I talked about what’s happening in North America. There’s a lot happening in Europe. The world really is watching what’s happening as this first grid-scale modular reactor is being built at Darlington. A company out of Poland has already signed an MOU with an Ontario company, BWXT out of Cambridge, to purchase a billion dollars’ worth of key components—that’s good jobs that will be in our supply chain here in Ontario, but there’s the opportunity for so much more.

Just last month, I was in Europe, visiting with officials in Poland and the Czech Republic, along with members from OPG and Laurentis energy, their international arm, where they signed two SMR collaboration agreements with Czech and Polish companies. Estonia is also very interested, and many others in Baltic countries and in eastern and central Europe are interested.

Our technology that we’re building right here in Ontario—technology that’s going to result in more economic activity, cleaner air for the people of Ontario, great-paying jobs—

Supplementary question?

The Minister of Colleges and Universities to reply.

Every day, Ontario’s police officers put their lives on the line. They go above and beyond to serve and protect our communities. Thank you.

Front-line police officers are leaders in our communities. Our government should be determined to continue providing them with the support, resources and tools they need to do their jobs effectively.

Unfortunately, studies reveal that during a police officer’s career, they will be exposed to nearly 1,000 traumatic events, ranging from fatal car crashes to homicide scenes.

Speaker, could the Solicitor General inform the House about what our government is doing to support the brave men and women who serve in our police services?

I want to take this opportunity to thank the police officers from my riding of Chatham-Kent–Leamington and all across this province for everything they do, every day, in the line of service.

However, the reality is that due to the nature of their jobs, these officers face traumatic situations and are more likely to suffer from PTSD. Our government must ensure that these brave individuals have the resources and treatment they need to heal, return to work safely, and return to their family safely.

Speaker, could the Solicitor General please explain what our government is doing to help our officers with work-related PTSD?

Thanks to the member from Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound for that important question.

Preserving Ontario’s tremendous biodiversity is a key responsibility for my ministry—a responsibility that includes protecting our lands and waters from invasive species. We’re making investments to prevent, detect and respond to the threat of invasive species in Ontario. Our investments are aimed at offsetting the significant social, economic and ecological damage done by invasive species—impacts estimated at more than $3.5 billion each year.

We’ve made significant progress in preventing invasive wild pigs from establishing themselves in Ontario. Wild pigs are now regulated under the Invasive Species Act, and my ministry completed our wild pig strategy in 2021.

We also have the valuable resources and support provided by the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. I want to thank the minister for their work on this file as we continue to work together to tackle this important issue.

By investing now to prevent and manage invasive species, we’re protecting our natural resources, mitigating damage to our economy, and preventing future costs.

We work collaboratively with organizations and experts dedicated to protecting our province from harmful invaders. By sharing our knowledge and resources, we can strengthen our mutual efforts in the fight to safeguard Ontario from this threat.

A perfect illustration of the teamwork needed to control invasive species is our efforts to manage phragmites in Ontario. The fight against phragmites, which we all know well, has involved participation from all levels of government, academia, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service, and more than 25 conservation organizations. We’re working with the Green Shovels Collaborative to plan for broader management of phragmites in Ontario. The work undertaken by the collaborative will help guide our control activities for this damaging species.

And since invasive species don’t recognize international or provincial borders, my ministry does continue to work closely with our Canadian and US federal, provincial, territorial and state counterparts to address these threats to our shared waters and natural environment.

Thank you to the member for that question.

In fact, when this government came into power in 2018, tuition in Ontario was the highest in Canada. To help students, we decreased tuition by 10% and froze that tuition since then. What we are doing is there to support students, to make education accessible for all learners in Ontario, so we can access the world-class education that’s happening here, at colleges, universities and private career colleges in this province.

It’s this government that is standing up for students by decreasing tuition and freezing tuition, and, in fact, making OSAP eligibility for micro-credentials, for Indigenous institutes—to allow more and more learners to access the education opportunities in this province.

We will continue to work for—

Interjection.

My question is to the Minister of Agriculture.

Every day in Ontario, we lose 320 acres of farmland—farmland that is paved over and will never again grow food.

In 2020, the government was actually looking at things to perhaps stem this flow. They were talking about agricultural impact assessments. But now they’re even talking about paving over farmland that was formerly protected in the greenbelt. Speaker, the nine billion people soon in the world are going to need that farmland, and so are Ontarians.

Do you think housing is expensive? Do you think food is expensive now? Just wait.

Why is the Minister of Agriculture so silent on the preservation of our precious farmland?

Speaker, I thank the minister for that answer.

We know invasive species do not respect borders and the strategies to prevent invasive species differ significantly across jurisdictions. Invasive species cause biodiversity loss and negative impacts on forestry, tourism, recreation and agriculture. The cost and consequences of delay and inaction are immeasurable and far-reaching. We must ensure that our government’s actions are both reactive and proactive when addressing this issue head-on.

Speaker, what is our government doing to partner with other jurisdictions and agencies in order to protect Ontario’s agriculture and the environment from invasive species?

To the Premier: A constituent in my riding has a student debt of $66,000 from her undergraduate degree. Over the past 18 months, your government has doubled the interest on her student debt, from 3.5% to 7%.

Instead of gouging Ontario students with these high interest rates, will your government do what the NDP government in British Columbia did and eliminate interest on student debt?

Ontario students continue to have the highest student debt rate in this country and the lowest per-student funding in the country. One in six bankruptcies in Ontario is tied to student debt. And 46% of Ontario university students have anxiety and depression because of student debt.

The NDP has successfully pushed the federal government to eliminate interest on federal student debt. Instead of supporting the NDP fight to eliminate interest on student debt, your government has allowed the interest rates on student debt to double.

Will your government follow the NDP’s lead and eliminate interest on student debts?

Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is, when we met with stakeholders just last week—the Premier and our parliamentary assistants—we heard loud and clear from our agricultural stakeholders that the number one issue in Ontario right now is labour. You can grow all the crops that you want in this province, but if we don’t have processors with the proper labour force, then it’s all for naught.

Our number one priority is making sure—

Interjection.

Again, we have a housing crisis in this province of Ontario—and our processors and our stakeholders are asking for more homes to support that labour.

It was a real pleasure for me to meet with the nurse practitioners yesterday and hear directly about how an innovation that, frankly, wasn’t in existence in previous years has been such an integral part of our medicine and health care system.

I often talk about how it is critical that we have regional health teams that work together, that coordinate that care no matter—from diagnosis through to treatment and, ultimately, palliative, if that is necessary.

It is heartening to hear the member opposite acknowledge that innovations, like nurse practitioner-led clinics, are an important part of how we can assist patients in the province of Ontario.

We will absolutely, as I said yesterday, continue to expand that model because we see it working very valuably.

The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

I thank the honourable member for the question.

The consultation that the government has engaged in is for a very important purpose: We have a crisis in housing in our province.

We are proposing to remove 15 areas from the greenbelt, and in exchange, we’re going to be adding over 2,000 acres. Many of those thousands of acres will be prime agricultural land that we’ll add in as part of the Paris Galt moraine and the urban river valleys. The government is taking a balanced approach.

Again, when you look at the fact that last year was our best year in over 30 years—we only had 100,000 starts. The proposal that we put forward to Ontarians to consider will allow, as a minimum, 50,000 homes to be built. In addition, we will add significant opportunities for protected land that will go back into the greenbelt. The net gain is thousands of acres.

Speaker, there are already now thousands of acres that are zoned for housing development. Housing development isn’t being hindered by the land specifically in the greenbelt.

We are going to need agricultural land. Despite the great job that farmers have done increasing productivity—I’m a farmer; I know—you need the base land.

Again, why is the Minister of Agriculture so silent on the need to protect one of the greatest gifts that God has ever given us, the farmland in Ontario?

My question is for the Minister of Long-Term Care.

As Ontarians grow older, their health care needs often become more complex. Data shows that Ontario has an aging population. In 2011, just over 14% of our population was age 65-plus, but over the last decade, the number has grown significantly and will only increase further.

But our seniors are not statistics. They are individuals who deserve quality care. Those with unique care needs like dementia greatly benefit from specialized care while avoiding unnecessary hospitalization.

Speaker, what is our government doing to ensure our seniors with complex needs receive the quality care they deserve?

Sadly, the reality is that while our senior population grew over the last decade, the health care system did not.

From 2009 to 2018, the Liberal government failed to plan for seniors’ services and programs needed. The Liberals’ lack of attention on health care services for our seniors created a rise in hallway health care and a long-term care wait-list that ballooned to an appalling 40,000 people.

Our health care system is deeply interconnected, and more seniors on long-term-care wait-lists means more pressure spread across the system.

Could the minister please explain how these new behavioural specialized units will address these pressures, especially for the residents in Scarborough–Rouge Park?

Thank you to the member from Scarborough–Rouge Park for the question.

As the member noted, some Ontarians, such as those living with dementia, have complex care needs—needs which cannot be adequately met in their current care setting. For these reasons, behavioural specialized units can provide enhanced care in the form of increased staffing, a tailored environment and focused behavioural assessment. Behavioural specialized units offer support to the growing number of Ontarians with dementia and other complex care needs.

As part of our plan to support aging Ontarians, our government is investing in new behavioural support units, ensuring everyone, including those with complex care needs, receives the support they deserve.

Behavioural specialized units ease hospital capacity pressures in two ways: first, by ensuring alternate-level-of-care patients receive specialized assistance in a more appropriate care setting—this has the added benefit of freeing up much-needed hospital beds. Behavioural specialized units are available to members of the community with complex needs, and by providing this enhanced level of care, we can prevent unnecessary hospitalizations.

Our government is investing $3.7 million to create behavioural specialized units at two long-term-care homes in Scarborough—15 beds at Bendale Acres and 32 beds at Extendicare Rouge Valley. These investments contribute to our larger plan to fix long-term care, making up for years of Liberal inaction, and ensuring our elders get the care they deserve.

Ma question est pour la ministre de la Santé.

The nurse practitioners’ association is at Queen’s Park today. They have a very simple ask to the government: Lift the cap on the number of nurse practitioner-led clinics. The 25 existing nurse practitioner-led clinics are all success stories. Everywhere in Ontario, they provide access to top-quality, interdisciplinary primary care to over 100,000 Ontarians who used to go to our overcrowded emergency rooms for care.

Will the minister lift the cap on the number of nurse practitioner-led clinics so unattached patients in communities across Ontario, including in Coniston in my riding, can gain access to primary care?

In Capreol, the nurse practitioner-led clinic is the only show in town. They have thousands of people who want access to primary care. They have nurse practitioners who are available to fill those roles, but the nurse practitioner clinic in Capreol has no funding to hire them. Their request for funding continues to go unanswered.

Minister, why is this affordable, effective, immediate solution to our health care crisis being ignored? Why don’t you fund more nurse practitioners in the existing clinics?