Earlier this fall, I had the opportunity to attend the Stratford Optimism Place women’s shelter 40th anniversary celebrations. Optimism Place provides an integral service to our community. They offer shelter, counselling and protection for women and children in abusive or precarious situations.

At their anniversary celebrations, they also marked the official ground-breaking ceremony of their 7,000-square-foot, 18-bed expansion project. This expansion project will add 10 new bedrooms, seven new washrooms, three laundry rooms, a new playground, two counselling offices, a multi-purpose meeting space and a kitchenette. Through private donors, government and in-kind support, they’ve already raised 80% of their $5-million capital budget.

I’m pleased to announce they also received over $100,000 through the Ontario Trillium Foundation Resilient Communities Fund. They plan to use this funding to support additional staff, programming and the development of an Optimism social enterprise initiative. This physical expansion and the new social enterprise initiative will allow Optimism Place to help more women and children in our communities.

Congratulations, again, to Jasmine and the entire team. Thank you for everything you do in our community.

Minister, we need to build more housing supply and more rental stock but not—

Interjections.

Interjections.

My question is back to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

This government wants to reduce and exempt development fees for some homes. These fees pay for transit, for daycares, for parks, and for the services that residents need. They also help build new affordable housing. Toronto is already experiencing a funding shortfall of more than $800 million.

What is this government’s plan to help municipalities make up for this massive loss in funding?

After decades of underfunding, it is this government that has made unprecedented investments in our health care system. As I said yesterday, health care funding has increased a record 6.2% year over year—the largest increase on record, including an over $5-billion increase in base funding, which is an 8.9% increase. A lot of these investments are because we’ve just gone through a very difficult time for the health care system. As everybody knows, the pandemic has been happening for two years.

That is why we passed our plan to stay open—because you want to stay open. The pandemic had shut everybody down for a while, and we want to make sure we stay open. That plan has five important initiatives to, once fully implemented, help our health care system get back on track. We’ve added up to 6,000 more health care workers after that plan is instituted—but you know we’ve already added 11,700 health care workers since the pandemic began. Our plan also frees up over 2,500 new hospital beds and expands models of care.

We’re going to continue working for the people of Ontario in finding solutions to make our health care system better.

All of these efforts are to make sure that Ontarians get the care that they deserve, and we are going to keep working on these things, because we have long said the status quo is not working. That’s why we’re making changes, and we ask the members opposite to stop opposing all of the solutions we’re putting forward. Help us to fix the health care system for generations.

Thank you to the member from Hastings–Lennox and Addington for that important question. This government understands that investments in college and university hospital research not only strengthens Ontario’s existing innovation and commercialization capacity, but also grows our province’s professional and skilled workforce and positions us as a global leader. Our government is supporting research and innovation that lead to the discoveries and advancements that make a real impact in people’s lives.

Ontario will be supporting innovation with an investment of more than $198 million in research projects at colleges, universities and research hospitals across the province. This funding will support 241 research projects across this province, and these projects will be integral in building, renovating and equipping research facilities with upgraded technology and supporting research to attract new research talent. We will continue our commitment and efforts in strengthening Ontario’s college and university hospital research initiatives, which provide college and university hospitals with the ability to adopt advanced technologies to remain competitive and move Ontario forward.

My question is to the Premier. Street Outreach Services, known as SOS, provides a critical service for vulnerable people in Thunder Bay. For those experiencing homelessness, the SOS van provides a warm space, meals, transportation to shelters, and has literally saved lives these last two winters. Unfortunately, Thunder Bay’s Shelter House has announced that it must permanently close its SOS service because it hasn’t been able to secure funding.

Will this government step forward and supply the funding needed to keep people alive this winter in Thunder Bay?

Anna Betty Achneepineskum, a Deputy Grand Chief with the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, notes that with Thunder Bay being the hub for many individuals—not only First Nations but other individuals who come here for services—the lack of street outreach threatens lives. With winter quickly approaching, will the Premier move further to do what is necessary and provide the funding needed to keep these important street outreach services open in Thunder Bay?