I want to thank the member from Essex for being such a strong voice for better jobs and bigger paycheques for the people of Essex.

Speaker, unlike those in other parties who want to “phase out” well-paying and in-demand careers, our government knows that our skilled trades workers are heroes and we need more of them. That is why we are leading the way with a historic investment of more than a billion dollars over the next three years. With this unprecedented funding increase, we’re working with employers and our labour partners to reduce the stigma around these meaningful careers and expand training opportunities.

Mr. Speaker, when you have a job in the trades, you really do have a job for life, and you can be damn proud of what you built.

Our government is working every day to spread opportunity more widely and fairly to every corner of this province.

Pre-apprenticeships, like the member mentioned, really do lift people up and help them move off of social assistance and into a meaningful career—people like Nattisha, a single mom who got to buy the tools she needed and try different trades in the construction industry through the Hammer Heads program. She’s now making $44.08 an hour, with a defined pension and benefits. It’s truly a life-changing career for Nattisha. She has been able to buy a car. I remember talking to her, and she told me that for the first time in her life, her two daughters look up to her.

Mr. Speaker, we need more life-changing stories like Nattisha’s. That’s why we’re working every day. We’re on a mission to get more people into these amazing careers.

Ma question est pour la ministre des Affaires francophones.

Monsieur le Président, la pandémie a eu des répercussions importantes sur les petites entreprises de toute la province, dont plusieurs dans les communautés francophones. Pour beaucoup, ils sont encore confrontés aujourd’hui à des défis dans le cadre des problèmes de chaîne d’approvisionnement économique mondiale. J’ai entendu des histoires d’électeurs de ma circonscription de Windsor–Tecumseh et de nombreuses entreprises et groupes communautaires francophones qui ont eu du mal à joindre les deux bouts pendant cette période et comptaient sur le soutien de notre gouvernement pour rester à flot. Nous devons nous assurer de donner des outils aux Ontariens, y compris les Franco-Ontariens, qui souhaitent contribuer à l’économie de notre province.

La ministre des Affaires francophones peut-elle expliquer ce que fait notre gouvernement pour soutenir les entreprises francophones alors que nous sortons de cette période d’incertitude économique?

En plus de la création du fonds de secours COVID-19, qui a soutenu les organismes francophones sans but lucratif pendant la pandémie, notre gouvernement a aussi bonifié le Programme d’appui à la francophonie ontarienne, le PAFO, en le doublant. Nous avons aussi mis sur pied la Stratégie de développement économique francophone, avec maintenant 38 programmes permettant de mieux appuyer les entrepreneurs francophones.

Le Programme d’appui à la francophonie ontarienne vise à soutenir le développement à long terme des communautés francophones de l’Ontario. Monsieur le Président, grâce à une enveloppe budgétaire maintenant de deux millions de dollars, ce programme appuie le dynamisme des communautés francophones au niveau local et au niveau régional.

De plus, l’accès à une main-d’oeuvre bilingue qualifiée est un défi réel pour nos entreprises, et c’est pour cette raison que notre gouvernement demande au gouvernement fédéral plus de contrôle sur l’immigration, pour qu’on puisse appuyer leur opération et leur croissance.

Mr. Speaker, since the 1990s, the involvement of women in the skilled trades has been less than 5% of the total workforce. A recent news article detailed the challenges many women in the trades face. Poor retention was identified as a contributing factor for the low number of women in the field. That’s why we must increase female representation in the skilled trades.

Ontario has a massive skilled jobs crisis, and we need all hands on deck to help us build a stronger province.

Through you, Mr. Speaker, can the Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity please inform the House of the progress made by our government in encouraging young women to enter the skilled trades?

Speaker, a career in skilled trades has countless benefits. Jobs in this field are in high demand, pay well, and will comprise 20% of jobs by 2025.

I recall travelling in Ottawa with the Minister of Labour in the previous legislative session. It was very inspiring to see so many young women in the trades when we visited IBEW as well as when I visited the steelworkers.

Mr. Speaker, can the minister please share details on the programs put in place by our government to raise awareness and encourage young women to consider a career in the skilled trades?

Thank you to the member from Carleton for the question.

Mr. Speaker, I recently spoke to a young woman named Sophie, who shared with me a time when she had left her partner and was left with no job, no home and no financial stability. When she was in a shelter, she was able to access their back-to-work program, which enabled her to enter the carpentry trade. Now she is a successful journeyperson and is on the job site. Her credo has been, “If you can see me, you can be me,” and she is inspiring other young women to enter the trades so that they can experience the same rewards and financial stability that she has.

Women like Sophie show us the progress that our investments and programs are making. And they need us to accelerate their efforts so that more women can follow in their footsteps and see further progress in changing the landscape of the trades.

I’ve said it before on this floor: Women belong in all places, in all spaces, and at every table. That includes a construction site.

Mr. Speaker, our government invested record amounts into the skilled trades strategy: $288 million in the 2021 budget; and $90 million in the 2021 fall economic statement; and not only that, but we have proposed an additional $114 million over the next three years through the 2022 budget. Within that, we’ve invested $22 million this year to enhance the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program. These investments will help women and girls to explore the skilled trades and set them on a path towards financial stability. As part of this funding, school boards can request additional funding to promote 14 trades in which women have been historically under-represented. That is why it is imperative that all members support the 2022 budget and help deliver the resources they need to not just get by in our economy but to get ahead in our economy.

Supplementary question?

Again, the member’s question gives me an opportunity to highlight the five-point plan that we have put in place and are driving towards efficiencies in innovation within our health care system—things like easing pressure on emergency departments by actually investing and launching new provincial emergency department peer-to-peer programs, investing over $300 million as part of the province’s surgical recovery.

We are encouraging innovation in our health care sector. Those ideas are coming forward for review and assessment, and we are making the investments to ensure people get the health care they need, when they need it, where they want it, which is in their community.

We have, through our actions, invested to ensure that today, right now, in the province of Ontario, there are 400 doctors practising in rural and northern Ontario who weren’t there three years ago.

We’ve invested to make sure that when internationally educated health care professionals want to practise in the province of Ontario and have submitted their application to the College of Nurses or the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario—we are acting to make sure that those are being assessed and given appropriate review quickly so that they can practise.

We know that there are people across Ontario who want to practise in health care in Ontario, and we’re expediting that process to ensure that we have those people in place where we need them.

My question is to the Premier.

Speaker, many of my constituents have reached out, horrified about creeping privatization and the overt destruction of our treasured public health care system under the Ford government.

Ryan wrote to me about how the care he received for his aortic stenosis would have cost at least $250,000. Without it, he would not be alive. He remains deeply thankful, but he worries about the deteriorating quality of health care and this government’s obvious movement towards profit-making in health care.

Will this government continue to destroy health care with their privatization agenda or finally fund health care and health care workers properly?

Underfunding health care by $1.8 billion last year was a destructive act, and so is Bill 124, and now the government claims the system they’ve been strangling is barely breathing. This government manufactured this crisis in order to promote privatization.

Heather wrote to me about her stepfather being pushed out of hospital into a for-profit long-term-care home, where they would then squeeze an additional $4,000 per month for his care.

Is this government morally and ethically comfortable padding the pockets of the private long-term-care industry and private, for-profit hospitals rather than fixing our public system and paying health care heroes what they deserve?

I have a petition entitled “Stop Ford’s Health Care Privatization Plan.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontarians should get health care based on need—not the size of your wallet;

“Whereas Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones say they’re planning to privatize parts of health care;

“Whereas privatization will bleed nurses, doctors and PSWs out of our public hospitals, making the health care crisis worse;

“Whereas privatization always ends with patients getting a bill;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately stop all plans to further privatize Ontario’s health care system, and fix the crisis in health care by:

“—repealing Bill 124 and recruiting, retaining and respecting doctors, nurses and PSWs with better pay and better working conditions;

“—licensing tens of thousands of internationally educated nurses and other health care professionals already in Ontario, who wait years and pay thousands to have their credentials certified;

“—making education and training free or low-cost for nurses, doctors and other health care professionals;

“—incentivizing doctors and nurses to choose to live and work in northern Ontario;

“—funding hospitals to have enough nurses on every shift, on every ward.”

I fully support this petition and will add my name to my constituents who understand there is a crisis in health care in Ontario, and I will pass it to Evan to go to the table.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas our government was elected on commitment on keeping costs down and putting more money back in Ontarians’ pockets by increasing housing supply, making it less expensive to drive or take transit, and by providing relief on everything from child care to taxes; and

“Whereas the government is delivering on that commitment by:

“—reducing 5.7 cents per litre on the gas tax for six months starting July 1;

“—$120 each year in savings in southern Ontario and $60 per year savings in northern Ontario by eliminating licence plate renewal fees for passenger and light commercial vehicles;

“—$300 in additional tax relief in 2022, on average, for 1.1 million lower-income workers through the proposed low-income individuals and families tax credit enhancement;

“—scrapping tolls on Highways 412 and 418;

“—cutting child care costs by 50% on average by December of this year; and

“Whereas the government is reducing the cost of housing by:

“—increasing the non-resident speculation tax rate from 15% to 20% and expanding the tax beyond the greater Golden Horseshoe region to apply province-wide and closing loopholes to fight tax avoidance;

“—implementing reforms that reduce red tape associated with new housing builds, making it easier to build community housing, and speeding up the approval process; and

“Whereas this plan is working—last year, over 100,000 new homes began construction, the highest in more than 30 years in the province of Ontario;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To urge all members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to support the housing action plan of the Ontario PC government.”

I fully endorse this petition, will sign my name to it and give it to page Quaid.

“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” the next “10 years for hospitals and other health” care “infrastructure to meet the challenges that ... 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 of Ontario as follows:

“To urge all members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to continue to make strategic investments in support of A Plan to Stay Open.”

I thoroughly endorse this petition, will sign my name to it and give it to page Juliet.

I beg leave to present a report from the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy and move its adoption.

Merci, madame la Ministre.

La population francophone de l’Ontario est une composante essentielle de notre composition culturelle. C’est pourquoi nous devons promouvoir la francophonie ontarienne comme un atout économique important dans la croissance de l’économie de la province. Ce faisant, nous pouvons nous assurer que nous améliorons le réseautage entre les entreprises, les entrepreneurs et les organisations essentielles pour augmenter les opportunités commerciales et les alliances stratégiques.

Monsieur le Président, la ministre pourrait-elle nous parler des avantages économiques du premier réseau provincial d’affaires franco-ontarien?

En 2020-2021, par le biais d’un investissement initial de 500 000 $, nous avons soutenu la création de la Fédération des gens d’affaires francophones de l’Ontario, de ses services de conciergerie et de sa plateforme de marketing en ligne, Quartier d’affaires, qui soutient la promotion des biens et des services des entreprises franco-ontariennes.

Depuis, grâce à un investissement de 1,5 million de dollars sur trois ans, l’Ontario élargit la gamme de services de soutien aux entreprises et aux entrepreneurs francophones. Monsieur le Président, ces initiatives visent à aider les entreprises francophones de l’Ontario à saisir les occasions d’affaires ici et dans les marchés francophones à l’extérieur de l’Ontario et à faire rayonner la francophonie dans nos communautés et aussi au-delà de l’Ontario.

An Act to amend the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 with respect to patients requiring an alternate level of care and other matters and to make a consequential amendment to the Health Care Consent Act, 1996 / Loi modifiant la Loi de 2021 sur le redressement des soins de longue durée en ce qui concerne les patients ayant besoin d’un niveau de soins différent et d’autres questions et apportant une modification corrélative à la Loi de 1996 sur le consentement aux soins de santé.

Bill 3, An Act to amend various statutes with respect to special powers and duties of heads of council / Projet de loi 3, Loi modifiant diverses lois en ce qui concerne les pouvoirs et fonctions spéciaux des présidents du conseil.

I’m very excited to welcome some wonderful guests from Scarborough here today. Please welcome Md. Hossain Soman, Tawfiq Ahmed, Fuad Hasan, Mahin Md. Shahriar, Azmol Miah, Md. Ilias Khan, Arif Imtiaz and Mohammad Zilani. Please welcome my brothers from Scarborough to the House today.

This petition is called “Housing Crisis: Safe and Affordable Housing Now.”

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Toronto’s residential rental vacancy rate is 1.1%; and

“Whereas the average rent for a 1-bedroom apartment in Toronto is over $2,000/month...; and

“Whereas the wait-list for social housing in Ontario is nearing 200,000 households; and

“Whereas the Ford government eliminated rent control protections on new rental housing; ...

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“—Reverse the recent elimination of rent control protections for new rental units;

“—End vacancy decontrol” which allows landlords to increase the rent to whatever they want once a tenant leaves;

“—End above-the-guideline increases...;

“—Strengthen the Residential Tenancies Act to protect tenants from renovictions and illegal evictions.”

I support this petition. I’ll be affixing my signature to it and giving it to page Evan.

My question is to the Premier.

Today, on August 31, we recognize International Overdose Awareness Day, an annual campaign to end overdose, to remember those lives we have lost to addictions, and to acknowledge the grief of the family and friends left behind.

More than 2,400 Ontarians died from opioid-related causes in 2020. During the first year of the pandemic, there was a 96% increase in apparent opioid toxicity deaths compared to the year before. Since then, deaths have remained high. An increasingly toxic drug supply; increased feelings of isolation, stress and anxiety; and changes in the availability or accessibility of services for people who use drugs have led to a worsening of the opioid crisis.

In my community, the Windsor-Essex Community Opioid and Substance Strategy group has released five alerts already this year due to a high number of opioid-related emergency department visits and overdoses.

In 2021, 66 people in Windsor–Essex lost their lives to overdoses.

My question is this: How many lives must be lost before this government takes action to address this crisis?

Yes, today is International Overdose Awareness Day. I want to begin by reflecting and thinking about the families who have lost loved ones and the pain and the suffering that they are experiencing as a result of those losses.

I also want to reflect and think on the things that we have done as a government and continue to do—and that’s the investments we make through the Addictions Recovery Fund, the $90 million that went into ensuring that there are supports and services. We’ve invested in 400 beds and 7,000 treatment spots. These are all investments that are being made by the government because it recognizes the importance of providing the supports for mental health and for addictions in the province of Ontario.

I’m also reflecting on the fact that it’s this government that is making these significant investments—not former governments, which left the province of Ontario in shambles, and not providing supports and services that are needed.

It’s important that we continue thinking about people that overdose and making sure that we provide supports and services where and when they need them, no matter where they live in the province of Ontario.

Deferred vote on the motion for third reading of the following bill:

Bill 7, An Act to amend the Fixing Long-Term Care Act, 2021 with respect to patients requiring an alternate level of care and other matters and to make a consequential amendment to the Health Care Consent Act, 1996 / Projet de loi 7, Loi modifiant la Loi de 2021 sur le redressement des soins de longue durée en ce qui concerne les patients ayant besoin d’un niveau de soins différent et d’autres questions et apportant une modification corrélative à la Loi de 1996 sur le consentement aux soins de santé.

Thank you. Petitions?

What a petition. Wow.

This petition is to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas from electric and hybrid vehicles to barbecues, the government is supporting the development of homegrown supply chains, creating the next generation of products and returning Ontario to its rightful place as the workshop of Canada; and

“Whereas low-carbon steel production has become critical for jurisdictions to compete for manufacturing investments as businesses look to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their supply chain. These investments support the creation of new jobs and economic growth as steel producers, automakers and other industries transform their operations; and

“Whereas critical minerals in the north will drive electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing in the south, where Ontario’s automotive sector is poised for resurgence as the industry continues its large-scale transformation; and

“Whereas the government’s plan will help Ontario become a North American leader in building the vehicles of the future and will build the next generation of vehicles in Ontario by securing auto production mandates to build electric and hybrid vehicles; and

“Whereas Ontario invested $1.5 million through the Regional Development Program to support an $18.5-million investment by auto parts manufacturer Ventra Group to create the Flex-Ion Battery Innovation Centre in Windsor and invested $250,000 to support the development of two new battery production lines at the Electra Battery Materials Corp.’s future Battery Materials Park near Cobalt;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To urge all members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to continue to invest in the manufacturing sector that will contribute to the economic success of the province.”

This petition comes from Rolando, and I will affix my signature to it, grateful that this petition came forward, given its—

I have a petition here to raise social assistance rates.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontario’s social assistance rates are well below Canada’s official Market Basket Measure poverty line and woefully inadequate to cover the basic costs of food and rent;

“Whereas individuals on the Ontario Works program receive just $733 per month and individuals on the Ontario Disability Support Program receive just $1,169 per month, only 41% and 65% of the poverty line;

“Whereas the Ontario government has not increased social assistance rates since 2018, and Canada’s inflation rate in January 2022 was 5.1%, the highest rate in 30 years;

“Whereas the government of Canada recognized through the CERB program that a ‘basic income’ of $2,000 per month was the standard support required by individuals who lost their employment during the pandemic;

“We, the undersigned citizens of Ontario, petition the Legislative Assembly to increase social assistance rates to a base of $2,000 per month for those on Ontario Works, and to increase other programs accordingly.”

Speaker, I fully support this petition. I will affix my signature to it and give it to page Juliet to take to the table.