It’s an honour to rise today to speak to the fall economic statement bill. It’s clear that everywhere you look in Ontario, there seems to be a crisis—our emergency rooms, our pediatric ICUs, the level of homelessness we’re seeing along our main streets in our downtowns, the affordability challenges that so many people are facing, the loss of the farmland that feeds us. Yet, if you read the fall economic statement, you would get the sense that there’s no crisis in Ontario; none of these issues are really pressing. I would beg to differ.

I don’t understand how you can put forward a fall economic statement without substantial increases in funding to our health care system to shore up our pediatric ICUs, to address the labour shortages, to withdraw Bill 124, which has driven away so many nurses and other front-line health care providers. Nothing in the bill says, “We recognize there’s a crisis, and we’re going to invest in shoring up the system that so many people in this province depend on.”

Speaker, when you look at the fall economic statement, you wouldn’t know that we’re facing an affordability crisis that is disproportionally hitting the most vulnerable in this province.

I’ve been asking, demanding, pushing this government to double ODSP rates for well over a year now. The situation for people living on Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program only gets worse and worse, especially with the inflation and cost-of-living crisis that we’re facing. How can anyone survive on $1,200 a month in this province, or $731 a month? It’s impossible, especially when the average rents in many places, like my home city of Guelph—$1,800 a month; more than that in places like Toronto. It’s wrong that we’re forcing people to live in legislated poverty, especially when we know poverty costs the province $33 billion and investments would help us actually save money in the long term.

There’s nothing in this bill about addressing food inflation and the excess profits we’re seeing in the concentrated retail markets.

There’s nothing in the bill talking about how we make the province climate-ready. There’s a lot in the bill about how we’ll pave over the farmland that feeds us, the wetlands that protect us, the green space that’s so vital to our quality of life, but there’s nothing in the bill that says, “How do we get this province climate-ready? How do we get this province ready to succeed in the new climate economy?”

Speaker, I believe this bill fails to meet the moment.

I know budgets are about priorities. Right now, I believe the priority is shoring up our health care system.

With all due respect, to the comments around ODSP—I agree with the member that raising the earnings threshold from $200 to $1,000 is a good thing, something I’ve been calling for for a long time now. So we’ll agree on that. But to only raise ODSP rates from $1,100 to $1,200 a month and forcing people to live in legislated poverty, forcing them to live at about 40% of the poverty line—

I’m going to focus on food, because the biggest source of inflation right now is rising food prices. There are some things that I believe the government could do to address that, and I want to give two of them.

I’m a farm kid. I spent my whole life working in the food and farming sector.

Eighty-five per cent of food retail is controlled by three corporations in this province. All three of them are earning excess profits. All three of them have demonstrated, in the past, issues around collusion. We need more competition in our food retail sector.

At the very least, the province could be looking at an excess-profits tax and a grocery code of conduct that would not only protect consumers but would also protect local farmers and food processors.

The bottom line is, one of the biggest drivers of inflation around food is international global events, which, to me, highlights why we need to protect our local food supply. That is exactly why we have to put a stop to losing 319 acres of farmland each and every day in this province. This bill will make that worse.

I want to thank the member from Niagara.

It’s about priorities. I started my speech this morning exactly on where their priorities are—and this being an opportunity for this government to tell Ontarians, in their fall economic statement, that this is their priority. Right now, from where I sit—and the member just hit it right on the head of the nail—this government’s priorities are a lot of window dressing. They’re saying the right things to have the bare minimum of impact on individuals, just enough to hit the headlines in the media, but no substance that is going to trickle down to those who are most in need—enough pixie dust to put on a little bit of shine, but really, no substance, no meat to put on the table.

When you look at what’s happening in the greenbelt, we see where the priorities of this government are—it’s for their friends, for the developers. Those are the individuals who are going to benefit from this fall economic statement. Very little do I see that is meeting the needs and the priorities of those—

I want to talk real quick about what’s not in the bill. There’s nothing in the bill to repeal Bill 124. There’s nothing in this bill to protect the greenbelt. There’s nothing in this bill that’s going to double ODSP and OW. There’s no plan to reach four hours of care per day for residents in long-term care. There is no apology from this government that 5,000 seniors have died in long-term care—our parents, our grandparents, our brothers, our sisters. There is nothing to stop the gouging by oil companies that my colleague just talked about, nothing to stop the gouging with the cost of food at grocery stores by families who are billionaires.

My question to you is, why do you think none of these important issues for the province of Ontario are in the fall economic statement?

There’s nothing in this bill that talks about the gouging at the grocery stores. There’s nothing in it talking about the gouging by the oil companies. Our food banks are at record levels, as you already said. There’s nothing in here to repeal Bill 124, an attack against workers, mostly women. ODSP and OW are poverty rates, without a doubt.

But I think the main question that I think we all should be concerned about is about our food supply, our water, our air.

Why do you think there is nothing in here to protect the greenbelt?

I want to thank my honourable colleague on the other side for that important question and for recognizing the fact that there are wonderful supports in this piece of legislation that will go to help individuals who need the help the most.

I would encourage all of my colleagues in this Legislature to really go through this fall economic statement and read the bill through. There are so many different supports that are available for every single individual, whether you’re a small business, whether you are a family member, whether you’re a senior, whether you’re on ODSP, whether you’re a child care worker, whether you’re a nurse—on and on and on. Obviously, it’s hard for me to highlight all of them, but there’s a whole suite of different initiatives worth billions and billions of dollars.

In my remarks, I mentioned the importance of making decent investments, especially when it comes to education. In my community of Milton, which is one of the fastest-growing communities, the number of new schools that I’ve had the opportunity to announce over the last four and half years—nine new schools, five expansions worth $250 million, over 7,000 new student spaces, and that’s just in my riding of Milton. We’ve been doing that right across this great province—spending billions and billions of dollars, not just building new schools, but also investing in education, making sure that our kids have the necessary resources to succeed in life.

As a proud parent of three, I understand first-hand the importance of making investments in education, in health care and every single sector. I’m proud to be part of this government that has been laser-focused on doing all of those things.

I want to go back to the member from Carleton. I really like what she just finished off with. I want to ask her a question on behalf of Donna Behnke from Elliot Lake.

You’re planning to raise the annual income for people on ODSP from $200 to $1,000—when will that take effect? Also, it’s great that you’re doing that for some, and you’re also providing additional funding for parents with children. However, there are some single individuals out there who just cannot work. What are you doing for them? What is in this fall economic statement that is available for them? When are you planning on helping those individuals, who need help as well?

Also, the second part of that question that I asked is, what are you going to do for those individuals who don’t have the ability to work? They also need support, and that is not in this fall economic statement. Try not to go off and say there’s pixie dust where there’s not. Those individuals need help, too.