Thank you to the member opposite. I have spent decades as a physician assisting people on ODSP, assisting people to get the services that they need, so I probably have a better understanding than most of what people are going through.

I am very proud of our government’s efforts to make sure that our vulnerable are served. That’s including the historic investment in ODSP that has never been done before in the history of this program, making sure it’s aligned with inflation, working across governments to make sure that we have programs that are available to people when they need it. That’s including working with the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development to get people back into the workforce when they’re able, and looking to support people when they’re not through the many programs we offer that I listed yesterday, as the member would know and would be aware of.

We are working on the transformation with our municipal partners, to put more services into the front, where people can benefit from that when they need expertise in their local communities. This is on top of the historic investment that we’re making in ODSP, and this is an all-of-government approach. This is requiring the labour pool to be addressed, getting people back in the workforce as quickly as possible, understanding the mechanisms that we have to allow people to live in dignity and with respect, purposeful and with meaning.

This is something where we’re working with the Minister of Finance, the Treasury Board and the Ministers of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, Education and Health. This is across the board. It’s something that the previous government never did, that was—

Mr. Speaker, we’re in a rush to procure enough electricity to replace the Pickering nuclear plant closing in 2025. How do we know it’s a rush? Well, this government has an expedited procurement for power starting in 2027, with a big bonus for starting earlier. For example, if you produce electricity on business days between May and August 2025, they’ll pay you 50% more.

In July 2018, this government cancelled renewable energy projects, letting hundreds of millions of dollars of investments go down the drain and losing four precious years. The Premier said then that he was “so proud” to have done that. Now we realize that we need that clean electricity.

You have to dig a little, but the list of qualified applicants for the next round of long-term procurement is full of renewable energy. Can we just admit that this government is quietly getting back into renewable energy, something it should never have abandoned?

La clôture de la centrale Pickering constitue une menace—peu de temps; contraintes liées au changement climatique. On ne peut pas attendre jusqu’à la prochaine élection. Et alors je voudrais influencer le programme du gouvernement maintenant.

I would like the government to think about the following question for the good of Ontario: We’ll need to produce lots of renewable energy quickly. Developers are already approaching landowners quietly in anticipation. Could the energy and the municipal affairs ministers talk and then start now to help municipalities prepare for deciding how they will or will not be part of this critical project? For example, could they help municipalities decide whether or not to zone areas for wind and solar projects now, so that developers could know beforehand where they could build clean energy projects with the speed we need?

Back to the minister: Minister, 900,000 people in Ontario are living on social assistance, and they’re living in poverty. Their biggest expense is housing. Upwards of 60% of a person’s social assistance income is going to housing. You cannot afford to live on $733 a month if you’re on Ontario Works or $1,227 a month if you’re on disability payments.

Minister, I am asking you to join us on this social-assistance diet to have a better understanding of what it is like to be on social assistance, and I am calling on this government to double social assistance rates to help people get out of poverty. Can you do that?

The Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.

The Minister of Children, Community and Social Services may reply.

The next question.

Order. The House will come to order so we can resume question period.

Start the clock. The member for Ajax.

My question is to the Premier. For two weeks, along with several of my colleagues, I am living on a social-assistance grocery budget of $47.60 a week. Many people who have to rely on social assistance have contacted us since this action went public to tell us that the meagre amount we have allowed ourselves for food is almost double what a single person living on social assistance has available for food after paying rent.

Indeed, it is abundantly clear that the government needs to double the rates of ODSP and Ontario Works. Will the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services join us for this two-week advocacy effort so that she might better understand, even briefly, the hardship that ODSP and OW recipients have to endure in their daily lives?

We know that even before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a shortage of doctors in Ontario. Many Ontarians have had challenges accessing a family doctor for years, which has significantly impacted their health and well-being. The rapid growth in areas like my riding of Ajax and other areas in the GTA has only increased this problem of doctor retention and recruitment. The previous Liberal government did not take the necessary leadership and make the critical health care investments when they had the opportunity.

Can the Minister of Colleges and Universities please inform the House what our government is doing to address the doctor shortages across Ontario?

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Solicitor General. My constituents in the riding of Carleton are concerned by the increasing gun and gang violence faced by the people of Ottawa. Just last week, there was another shooting in Ottawa’s ByWard Market. This brings the total number of shootings this year in Ottawa to 41. The people of my riding don’t deserve to live in fear because of the actions of criminals. The city of Ottawa is home to a culturally diverse population, good neighbours and friendly people. It’s not a home for gangs engaging in criminal activity.

Speaker, through you, could the Solicitor General please explain to this House our government’s approach to dealing with this troubling issue faced by the good people of Ottawa?

Speaker, through you to the member for St. Catharines: I’d like to know more information about this eviction issue. Obviously, we have a process in place. We have a rental housing enforcement unit as part of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and in addition there are means with the Landlord and Tenant Board. I’m very concerned about the case that the member opposite has placed on the floor. Rest assured that we will get the Rental Housing Enforcement Unit involved in this case and do further investigation.

The urgency for training new doctors in our province is critical. The people of my riding in Ajax, especially our seniors, experienced first-hand the devastating and negative impacts that medical education cuts by the previous Liberal government had on the quality of their health care. If the previous government had made the badly needed investments in human health resources and medical residency years ago, my constituents and all Ontarians would not be in the position we currently face.

I was really shocked to hear that no other government had invested in creating a new medical school in Ontario, in the GTA, in Canada, for over a hundred years. Speaker, can the Minister of Colleges and Universities please tell the House what our government’s plan is for training more doctors, so that Ontarians can have access to the health resources that they need?

My question is to the Premier. I bring to the floor the heartbreaking experience of ODSP recipients being faced with housing questions and suspect evictions. Too often, I hear about the suspect trend of ODSP recipient evictions because the landlord is moving in family members—by the way, a claim that is nearly impossible to prove wrong until after the fact.

I spoke with St. Catharines resident Brenda LaCrew, who experienced this eviction. She was thrown into a housing market where she now has to borrow money from her friends to pay her new rent rate. Brenda spends 125% of her income on rent right now, forget the food and forget the other costs. That’s the reality for ODSP recipients.

My question is, when will the Premier commit to doubling ODSP rates and support the most vulnerable people in Ontario?

However, we have heard all week about this government’s talking point that the increase to ODSP at 5% is historic. The only thing historic about the increase is how long it took to make any increase. Freezing the rates for as long as you did throughout the pandemic is something we have not seen in decades. So, sorry, Premier, 5% is not historic; it’s actually a slap in the face.

But don’t take it from me; take it from members in my community of St. Catharines and Niagara. Tabitha Thomas is also facing a “family moving in” eviction and has called your increase “proof Ford doesn’t care about vulnerable people.”

Brenda LaCrew said, “Millionaires like Ford don’t care about regular people like me.”

Premier, will you change course and double ODSP rates in the face of your historic freeze to those rates from last term?

I’d like to thank my colleague for her question. Our hearts go out to the victims of senseless violence.

Community safety remains a top priority for this government. Since the member was elected in 2018, our government has invested over $57 million in the Ottawa Police Service.

I recently met with Chief Bell in Ottawa, and I know that we both share a strong commit to keeping our communities safe. But we know that illegal guns continue to cross our international borders and into communities like Ottawa. And that’s why, in my conversations with my federal counterpart, Minister Mendicino, I have stressed that the federal government needs to tighten up enforcement at the border. This is something that we will work on.

Notre gouvernement prend la sécurité de notre province très au sérieux et fera toujours de notre sécurité une priorité absolue.

I very much appreciate the opportunity to clarify. Our government immediately began its mandate in 2018 by increasing the ODSP rate by 1.5%. We then went into a pandemic, and we had the $1-billion social services relief funding. We have now a historic, unprecedented level of spending, an increased investment in ODSP.

But this does not exist alone. We are aligning this to inflation—never been done before. We are creating the micro-credential strategy to make sure people can get back into the labour force; the Roadmap to Wellness, a cross-ministry effort; the $1 billion in child care spaces; the Ontario Child Benefit; the dental care for low-income seniors; the CARE tax credit; the LIFT tax credit; the Ontario Jobs Training Tax Credit; the Ontario Energy and Property Tax Credit; the minimum wage increase. We are making the largest investment in ODSP rates in the history of this province. We’re aligning them with inflation, and we will continue to do this very important work that the opposition never did.

The supplementary question?

I realize the member was using quotes, but it would be better if we refer to each other, generally speaking, with respect to our riding boundaries as well as our ministerial title, as applicable.

Start the clock.

The response? The Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.

Ma question est pour le premier ministre. Selon le recensement de Statistique Canada de 2021, la province affiche son pire taux sur les cinq derniers recensements quant à la langue française. Le dernier rapport de l’ombudsman démontre un volume élevé de plaintes de manque de services en français.

Ma question : qu’est-ce que votre gouvernement va faire pour arrêter l’hémorragie du déclin du français en Ontario?

Of course, Mr. Speaker, I’ve been saying that right from the beginning—that the whole point of this was to ensure that those seniors who are in a hospital, who are imminently to be discharged, have a better quality of care than sitting in a hospital bed, where, everybody would acknowledge, medical professionals completely acknowledge, they are susceptible to various forms of different diseases which are not good for them. They don’t get the social activity that they require. They don’t get the physical activity that they require. They don’t get the mental stimulation that is required. A hospital bed is the absolute worst place for somebody to be.

If the member had read the bill, he would understand that not only are we doing this—making sure that our seniors have the right care in the right place at the right time—but we’re also putting money behind that to make sure that when a senior is leaving hospital for a long-term-care home, the long-term-care home has the services that are required, whether it’s kidney dialysis, whether it is behavioural support services. We are upgrading those services, as well, to match the patient leaving the hospital, becoming a resident at a home.

What the bill does—he read the bill, but yet he continues to say, “Oh, people are going to be charged $1,800 a day. They’re going to be sent a thousand miles from their home.” All incorrect—but he memorized the bill, colleagues. This is the same member who said we’re going to reopen three- and four-bed wardrooms. It was actually this Premier and that minister who closed those three- and four-bed wardrooms. It is that Premier and that minister who brought 58,000 new and upgraded beds—

My question is to the Premier.

Speaker, this government has established a pattern of leaving Ontarians in the dark about their plans. This time, they’ve left us in the dark about the grave implications of Bill 7. Ontarians were rightly horrified by how quickly and undemocratically Bill 7 was passed, but the minister tried to pacify us by saying that our concerns about how far people will be separated from their families against their will would be addressed through regulations.

Well, there has been no word about these regulations, but we’re already hearing stories about hospitals putting pressure on patients.

We don’t need to create obstacles for elderly and disabled people to see their loved ones and their valued caregivers.

Will the minister confirm that people will have regular and equitable access to their caregivers and their loved ones?

Speaker, this government refuses to commit to accountability and transparency. They passed Bill 7 without so much as a meeting with unions and front-line workers. They won’t listen to advocates, patients or their families. They’re only concerned about what works for hospital CEOs. The minister denied Ontarians a chance to advocate for themselves and their loved ones through public hearings.

My question is pretty easy: Will the minister deny Ontarians their rightful opportunity to comment on regulations during the public comment period before the regulations are implemented?

I want to thank the member for her question.

Recently, I was in Lambton county on the St. Clair River with our MPP for Sarnia–Lambton, and I was at the exact location where the drone carrying 11 handguns was found in a tree back in May. I saw for myself how close we are to the US border and how easily guns and contraband can get smuggled in our country. It’s no secret where the guns are coming from.

We’ve made enhancements to the OPP-led Provincial Weapons Enforcement Unit to combat guns entering Canada and in Ontario. And to keep Ontario safe, our government has invested over $200 million to combat gun and gang violence fuelled by smuggled guns.

Mr. Speaker, we will work hand in hand with local law enforcement to tackle gun and gang violence in Ontario. But this is not enough. We cannot do it alone. We need our federal government to step up now and take measures to improve border security and inspections.

Thank you to the Solicitor General for that response.

Mr. Speaker, the Solicitor General spoke about the issue of smuggled guns coming across our borders. Recently, the National Post published an article titled “A Polite Reminder That Canadian Handgun Crime Is Mostly America’s Fault.” The article notes that 72% of the guns seized from crime by Toronto police this year alone had likely origins in the United States.

Speaker, once again, through you to the Solicitor General, what is Ontario doing to address the issue of smuggled guns?

I want to thank the member for Scarborough–Rouge Park for that excellent question. The simple fact is that as Ontario’s population grows, our housing supply needs to grow with it, and what we’re doing under our proposed Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act is providing the mayors in our two largest cities with the tools that they need to get shovels in the ground faster.

We said to Ontarians during the last provincial election that we were going to present a plan to make sure that we have 1.5 million homes built over the next decade. We have to ensure that the mayors in Ontario’s two largest cities—where we know that over the next decade a third of Ontario’s growth will take place, in those two municipalities—we have to ensure that after the municipal election on October 24 those tools are in place for mayors in Toronto and Ottawa. That’s what we’re doing. We need to make sure they have the tools to get it done.