Je remercie la députée de Newmarket–Aurora pour sa question.

En effet, l’accès à des services en français de qualité est au coeur de mes décisions. Plus de 80 % des francophones vivent dans l’une des régions désignées en vertu de la Loi sur les services en français. Grâce au leadership du Centre communautaire francophone de Sarnia-Lambton, Sarnia est en processus de devenir la 27^e région désignée de la province. D’ailleurs, un comité a été formé pour veiller à la mise en oeuvre par novembre 2024.

Monsieur le Président, nous reconnaissons à quel point il est important pour les francophones d’avoir accès à des services en français de qualité afin de contribuer à l’essor social, culturel et économique de l’Ontario.

Afin de réduire le fardeau administratif et de faciliter les nouvelles demandes de désignation, nous avons transitionné d’un processus papier à une plateforme numérique. En plus de simplifier le processus pour les demandeurs, la plateforme permet aussi aux agences et ministère de suivre l’état des demandes en cours. On améliore ainsi, monsieur le Président, le temps de traitement tout en maintenant la rigueur qui assure des services en français de qualité.

Les services en français sont une priorité pour notre gouvernement, et on s’outille pour assurer la vitalité et le bien-être de nos communautés francophones.

Thank you again to the member from Brampton North for the question.

Speaker, drivers are paying the price every day for Liberal inaction. Successive Liberal governments refused to build, and the NDP supported this inaction year after year. All of us in this House can relate to the frustrations of sitting in idling traffic on our major highways, and that’s when you just want to get home or to work faster.

I want to reassure everyone in this House that under our PC government, led by this Premier, things are different. The days of endless studies and debates are over.

I am so proud that our government is answering the calls of countless Ontarians and is moving ahead with infrastructure projects like Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass.

Thank you to the member for the question.

I am aware of the labour disruption at Durham College. The Unifor activity outside of campus transitioned from a demonstration to traditional picketing on Monday, August 29. Ontario Tech was advised of this over the weekend and on Sunday sent out a campus-wide announcement reminding everyone about picketing protocols and best practices.

The agreement between GDI and their Unifor employees does allow for replacement workers, so GDI has had a full complement of people fulfilling the cleaning services on campus since the beginning of the strike.

The university is open, and all academic activities will continue as scheduled.

I’m happy to report that this situation does not impact student learning, which is a priority for myself, as the minister. The university is open, and all activities will remain and continue as scheduled. Ontario Tech is encouraging both GDI and the Unifor group to be at the table, getting this figured out as quickly as possible, and Ontario Tech expects to receive another update soon as to how talks are progressing between the two parties. But this is not affecting student learning at this time.

My question is to the Premier.

I was glad to stand with workers on Labour Day, but I was even more glad to stand alongside workers on strike yesterday who are having a pretty tough go right now in their workplaces in Durham region. These Unifor 222 workers are cleaners at the college who work for GDI Services, a private, contracted company. This appears to be anything but a clean fight. When the pandemic hit, these workers rose to the challenge and went to work to protect the safety of everyone on campus. Now that these workers are in bargaining for fair wages, fair workloads and appropriate staffing levels, so they can actually do their jobs properly, GDI Services has rewarded their honest work by bringing in scab labour to take their jobs.

I’ve heard the Minister of Labour say that workers should be respected.

Does the Premier believe that scab labour is an appropriate way for this company to respect its workers?

Cleaners on the picket line told me that the scabs have to use Google Translate to communicate, don’t have their WHMIS training, and don’t have the proper supplies or protections. Does this sound like a good idea or a safe idea for anyone involved?

When the NDP were in government, they brought in anti-scab legislation. The Harris regime got rid of that real quick.

So my question to the Premier is this: Will the Ford PCs support workers and support anti-scab legislation?

Monsieur le Président, ma question s’adresse à la ministre des Affaires francophones.

Il est important que les francophones aient accès à des services de qualité dans la langue de leur choix. Est-ce que la ministre peut expliquer comment notre gouvernement progresse en matière de désignation des régions?

Monsieur le Président, autre que la désignation des régions, il y a aussi la désignation des organismes. Les organismes sont parfois confrontés à d’importants fardeaux administratifs. Est-ce que la ministre des Affaires francophones peut expliquer comment le gouvernement améliore les outils et le processus pour la désignation des organismes?

Thank you to the minister for the answer to that question. It’s a relief for me.

I drove in from Brampton this morning. It took me about an hour and a half. I was going left and right dodging trucks. We need to get this traffic under control.

Speaker, we know the opposition parties are against building new highways. When the Liberals were in power, they even convened a committee to cancel Highway 413. The demand for more transport infrastructure is already here, and gridlock will only worsen if governments don’t act. Instead of solutions from members on the other side, all we continue to hear is “no.”

Back to the Minister of Transportation: Can she please tell the House what our government is doing to right the wrongs of the previous Liberal and NDP governments and build Highway 413?

Supplementary question?

Thanks, Speaker. Through you to the honourable member: We made a promise to Ontarians that we would protect existing tenants with rent control. The vast majority of renters, some 1.4 million, fall under the Residential Tenancies Act—and provide that.

During the pandemic, we were very clear. We looked at the formula for 2023, with inflation. We invoked the cap—it would have been 5.3%. We invoked the cap of 2.5%. We followed up with rolling back what could have been a 1.5% increase in the middle of the pandemic in 2021, and we froze rents, which was unprecedented in many of the provinces and territories.

We want to build upon our success. My response to the member for Eglinton–Lawrence talked about the fact that, over the last term of this government, we’ve seen an unprecedented amount of increase in rental construction. We want to build upon that, but at the same time—

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker; I would. This bill amends the Residents’ Bill of Rights, set out in section 3 of the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021, by adding the right of residents not to be separated from their spouse upon admission but to have accommodation made available for both spouses so that they may continue to live together.

I introduce this bill in honour of Jim and Joan MacLeod, who’ve been separated for four and a half years. The third time’s the charm.

Madame Collard moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 22, An Act to amend the Poet Laureate of Ontario Act (In Memory of Gord Downie), 2019 with respect to the establishment of a French-language Poet Laureate / Projet de loi 22, Loi modifiant la Loi de 2019 sur le poète officiel de l’Ontario (à la mémoire de Gord Downie) concernant la création de la charge de poète officiel de langue française.

I bring a question to the floor of the House from Donna Behnke, and the question is to the Premier.

Donna is frustrated with this government, and she’s frustrated with me, as her MPP, as well. She’s frustrated with this government for not helping her.

Donna is on ODSP. Donna felt like it was a slap in her face when she was notified that she would be receiving $58 per month extra on her ODSP payment. That was an absolute insult to her. Donna expressed her frustration to me with passion and anger, because Donna was speaking to me on behalf of many individuals across northern Ontario. She is trying to voice her views and their views.

My question is, will the Premier commit to doubling the ODSP rates?

Here’s a statement from Donna: “If any of them had a single ethical bone in their body or even the slightest hint of common decency, they would do what is right. Does” the Premier “not realize some people on ODSP are fighting mental illness? People with cancer, people that had strokes, people that had multiple sclerosis—the list goes on and on. He needs to stop painting everyone with the same paintbrush. The Premier and prior governments always target the poor. You can’t make healthy people by destroying them. They will never be fit to hold a job. But what it will do is push more people to seek out MAID.”

My question is, do you agree with Donna?

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas our government was elected with a plan to stay open by investing in hospitals, long-term-care homes and home care and Ontario’s health care workforce; and

“Whereas to accomplish this our government is:

“—investing $40 billion in capital over 10 years for hospitals and other health infrastructure to meet the challenges that may lie ahead;

“—spending $764 million over two years to provide nurses with up to $5,000 retention bonuses;

“—investing $42.5 million over two years, beginning in 2023-24, to support the expansion of 160 undergraduate and 295 post-graduate positions, including at the new medical schools in Brampton and Scarborough;

“—investing an additional $1 billion in home care over three years;

“—shoring up domestic production of critical supplies and ensuring Ontario is prepared for future emergencies by committing, as of April 2022, more than $77 million of the Ontario Together Fund to leverage almost $230 million in investments to support manufacturing of Ontario-made personal protective equipment;

“—investing $3.5 billion over three years to support the continuation of over 3,000 hospital beds put in place during the pandemic, and $1.1 billion over three years to support the continuation of hundreds of new adult, pediatric and neonatal critical care beds added during COVID-19;

“—a new refundable Ontario Seniors Care at Home Tax Credit to help seniors aged 70 and older with eligible home care medical expenses to help people stay in their homes longer; and

“—a province-wide expansion to the community paramedicine program, enabling community paramedics to provide key non-emergent health care services within homes for eligible seniors;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly”—and I’m happy to affix my signature to this.

I’m reading in more petitions. I think this has over 3,000 signatures now. I want to thank Marlene and Bernie from Merry Dairy ice cream for helping coordinate these. The petition reads:

“I Support Small Ice Cream Shops in Ontario.

“Whereas small ice cream shops offer customers a delicious treat, dairy producers valuable clients, and offer staff jobs;

“Whereas the Milk Act prevents small ice cream shops from local wholesaling, even if the source of their dairy ingredients comes from a certified dairy plant. In fact, the Milk Act currently restricts the wholesale of any products made with dairy ingredients, not just ice cream;

“Whereas small ice cream shops that wholesale without their own certified dairy plants are subject to thousands of dollars in fines...;

“Whereas consumers have the right to choose from a variety of safe dairy products, and not just those made by large suppliers;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to allow small ice cream shops access to local markets for wholesaling, provided all ingredients are fully traceable, and all dairy ingredients come from certified dairy plants in Ontario.”

Once again, I’m happy to sign this petition and send it with page Apollo to the Clerks’ table.

The member from Perth–Wellington is absolutely right: Our farmers across Ontario are the very best responsible stewards of the land. I’m sure that our friends from Beef Farmers of Ontario would also agree—and they confirmed this during their visits with all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle today.

Over the decades, Ontario farmers have been embracing best practices. They have environmental farm plans. They have nutrient management plans. They’re embracing the 4R principle for fertilizer use, using the right fertilizer source—the proper source, and they’re using it at the right rate, and they’re using it at the right time, and in the right place. The former practices of broad application aren’t employed any longer.

Our government has also invested $21 million to assist farmers in completing over 2,000 cost-shared programs and an additional $2.5 million to ensure that the Lake Erie Agriculture Demonstrating Sustainability program succeeds.

Earlier this spring, I hosted a food summit, and again, we listened and valued the input from hundreds of participants. As a result, we are now working on a food security and stable supply chain strategy, in addition to an innovation strategy to propel our entire sector forward. We also have a soil action group that is working on a made-in-Ontario soil strategy.

Over and above that, Speaker, I have to share with you that I’m very proud to say that in the very near future, we will be supporting timely and thoughtful initiatives that will be geared towards fertilizer use and solutions.

Our government is working with farmers like never before and—

Thank you to the member opposite for the question.

Our government has been committed to making sure that people who are experiencing vulnerabilities in their lives are getting the supports they need, whether it’s people who have lost their job and need to be reskilled and retrained, or whether it’s people who cannot work. That’s exactly why we began, when we came into government, with an increase in ODSP, after the previous government failed to do so until right before an election that they knew they would lose.

We also created a historic increase in ODSP—and the numbers do not speak to the entire whole-of-government effort. What we have done is to create an across-government approach, looking at the LIFT credit, the CARE credit, the jobs training credit, the energy and property tax credit, making sure that we provide the supports to people that they need, across government. And we’ve been working across levels of government—

I understand the situation that Donna is in. As a family physician, I was very aware of the difficulties people experienced.

I’m very proud of this government’s track record: increasing ODSP at the beginning; then supporting people during COVID with the social services relief fund of $1 billion; then a historic increase in the ODSP rates aligned to inflation; and all of my colleagues working continuously, across the board, to create programs that help people—the LIFT, the CARE, the Ontario Jobs Training Tax Credit, the Ontario Energy and Property Tax Credit, the Roadmap to Wellness, the micro-credentialing strategy, the child care programs, the Ontario Child Benefit, the dental care programs, the minimum wage. This is an across-government approach.

We’ll continue to support those who need it, despite the opposition voting no to every measure we put forward.

Point of order.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m seeking unanimous consent that, notwithstanding standing order 100(a)(iv), the independent members be permitted to share the five minutes allotted to a single member for the debate on ballot item number 2, standing in the name of the member for Scarborough–Guildwood.

La Loi de 2000 favorisant le choix et l’excellence au niveau postsecondaire est modifiée pour exiger que les personnes qui attribuent des grades en sciences infirmières en vertu de cette loi offrent gratuitement une formation d’infirmières.

Ça amende aussi la Loi sur les hôpitaux publics pour exiger que les hôpitaux aient en tout temps au moins 10 trousses médico-légales en cas d’agression sexuelle à la disposition des patients.

Ms. Fife moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 21, An Act to amend the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 to provide spouses with the right to live together in a home / Projet de loi 21, Loi modifiant la Loi de 2021 sur le redressement des soins de longue durée afin d’accorder aux conjoints le droit de vivre ensemble dans un foyer.

La loi est également modifiée pour exiger qu’au moins deux des membres du comité de sélection d’un poète officiel de l’Ontario de langue française soient en mesure d’évaluer les oeuvres originales en français des candidats à la charge.

While many think of fall as harvest season, it’s also the time of year when our farm families look ahead and plan for the next growing season. I’m hearing from farmers in my riding looking at their crop inputs, like fertilizer, for next year. While our province depends on them for our food security, these farmers depend on inputs to help them produce the food and crops that we are so blessed to have here in Ontario.

Farmers in Perth–Wellington are responsible stewards of the land, implementing best practices like sustainable crop rotations. Governments must partner with them, rather than impose targets that could impact crop yields.

To the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: Can she please explain how our government is working with farmers in my riding and across Ontario who are adopting the best management practices and supporting sustainable growth for our agriculture sector?

I know that farmers in Perth–Wellington are concerned about the negative impacts of the federal government’s approach to reducing emissions through imposed targets. According to the Parliamentary Budget Officer, farmers are already facing complex challenges, including a federal carbon tax that will cost farmers $25 million this year alone and, by 2030, $108 million per year.

The Wellington Federation of Agriculture president has said that producers have already cut back on fertilizer use because of costs and better application strategies.

When food security and stable supply chains are top of mind, we need to support our farm families so they can be competitive in the global market, rather than imposing punitive targets that could impact our food production.

Again, to the minister: What is our government doing to support our farmers through these challenging times?

The bill is quite simple. It amends the Auditor General Act to provide that the duty to furnish information applies to documents and information that are otherwise confidential, subject to certain privileges; and subsection 10(2) of the act is also re-enacted to provide that the Auditor General’s right to access information applies despite other rights of privacy, confidentiality and privilege.

This is an act that exists in Nova Scotia, and most provinces are moving ahead with amendments to the Auditor General Act because of what happened at Laurentian University.

Madame Collard moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 20, An Act to amend two Acts with respect to sexual assault evidence kits at hospitals and education about sexual assault in nursing programs / Projet de loi 20, Loi modifiant deux lois en ce qui concerne les trousses médico-légales en cas d’agression sexuelle dans les hôpitaux et la formation sur les agressions sexuelles dans les programmes en sciences infirmières.

Thank you. The Associate Minister of Housing.

The Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

Also, pursuant to standing 36(a), the member for Beaches–East York has given notice of her dissatisfaction to the answer given to her question by the Associate Minister of Housing concerning Bill 3, the Strong Mayors, Building Homes Act. This matter will also be debated today, following private members’ private business.

Call in the members. This is a five-minute bell.

The division bells rang from 1144 to 1149.

All those in favour will please rise and remain standing until recognized by the Clerk.

Motion agreed to.

The House recessed from 1153 to 1500.

Madame Gélinas moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 19, An Act to amend the Auditor General Act / Projet de loi 19, Loi modifiant la Loi sur le vérificateur général.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.