Thank you very much. We’re now at questions and comments.

Further debate?

Let me begin by saying that it is truly an honour to stand here with my colleagues in this House. I want to extend my deep-hearted thanks to the people of my riding for their trust and support in electing me as Thornhill’s member of provincial Parliament. I also want to congratulate my colleagues on both sides of the floor. It is important to respect all opinions, as their position demonstrates democracy and fair order in our province.

My journey into politics, and my role, was truly a group effort. I want to take this opportunity to extend my very deep appreciation to my campaign team, who tirelessly worked on my behalf, especially my campaign manager, Nikita Drakokhrust, and the co-chairs of the campaign, Eleanor Millar and Rick Ekstein. I have said this once and I will say it again: Rick Ekstein is the reason why Thornhill is blue and I am proud to be his friend.

I would also be remiss if I did not recognize members of my team: Justin Mihaly, Andrew Hall, Brandon Crandall, Shir Barzilay, Tay Rubman and a very dear friend of mine, Cynthianna Mills. These people selflessly gave up so much of their time to see me in the position I am today, and I am forever grateful for their dedication, skill set and their determination.

With respect to my colleagues: I’ve grown to truly appreciate the dynamics and the commonality of each one of us.

Like many, I began my journey into politics via volunteerism within my community, this vital work that contributes to the fibre of our neighbourhoods, schools and sporting organizations at the grassroots level. I think most of us in this chamber, on all sides, can completely relate to this. Like many of my colleagues, I believe that public office is another form of community service, and, like many, sometimes this work is done at the expense of my time with my friends and family.

To this end, I want to thank my family for their support, specifically my husband Larry, who was my rock throughout my campaign journey and presently in my new role as the elected member. He’s behind there.

My previous day job centred within the child protection act. That work ensured that adopted or newly placed children within our community had a legal right to a continued relationship with their biological family members and the culture they were born into. This includes First Nations, Métis and a plethora of others that enrich and provide a touchstone to our diverse spectrum of peoples, not only within Ontario but throughout Canada. This meaningful work strengthened the value of community and the ties that keep us linked as a society.

Like most of my colleagues, I have a deep affinity for my riding and province. Many of you have expressed the awe of entering the Legislature for the first time, and although I share that feeling, I was truly introduced to this building many years ago through another source.

My father loved architecture. Modern, gothic, neoclassical—the list is literally endless. This love also includes that of Toronto-based architect Edward Lennox, who designed several of the city’s most notable landmarks, including Casa Loma, Old City Hall and the west section of this very legislature. I recall my father advising on the caricature stone carvings on the west entrance. Those wood ones in this very room are very similar and were rumoured to be mimicked after politicians and possibly the people constructing that area of the Legislature. I find it quite comforting that I presently park my car just steps away from that entrance, and I think of the little girl that stood at that very place so many years ago every time I walk up the stairs.

My father, like so many, arrived in Canada in the 1950s, a member of the British air force who was looking for a new life. He arrived at the east coast of Canada and made passage to Toronto via train. Travel documents provided information that he was planning to continue further west, but after arriving at Union Station, my father watched as a streetcar cleaner stopped to light a cigar. At that time, my father only knew of regal, wealthy statesmen types—the types of Winston Churchill—to be smoking a cigar, and he decided this was the place he was going to stop and plant his roots. And that’s why I’m here today. He was a newcomer to Canada and decided that Ontario would be his home, knowing that it was full of opportunity and a fresh start.

At that time, my father had already been through quite a bit in his then-young life. A few years earlier, my father had ever so slightly exaggerated his age so that he could serve his country and become part of the clean-up crew serving with the British air force following the Second World War. They, by the way, had me at a very late stage, and I don’t want to add any more numbers to my age. Nobody do any quick math, please. He was then a young man with several missions and tours under his belt. He was weathered but still so very excited to come to this country.

When freshly in Ontario, he took whatever jobs were available. He would set pins at local bowling alleys. This is a time before they had machinery in place to set the fallen pins. How my father would laugh as he spoke of the patrons who sometimes, if he did not move quickly enough, would aim for his ankles instead of the pins.

My father, after taking some technical training, went on to become a photographer, and then an architectural commercial photographer. Because my father was truly born fearless, much of his work was done hundreds of feet in the air. He was a fly boy and very comfortable in the front seat of a small aircraft, with the passenger door of the airplane strategically removed. And yes, I’m saying that we removed the door of the small aircraft. He would lean out onto the wing, holding his strap, to get just the perfect shot. He was fearless, or as my mother would say, not smart enough to recognize fear.

My father photographed Ontario from top to bottom, and I mean this absolutely literally. He worked alongside city planners, architects and engineers during the construction of some of Toronto’s subway lines, and he also became the chief architectural photographer for the CN Tower. I spent many an afternoon strapped to the back of a small Cessna aircraft—that’s the aircraft that had no doors, Mr. Speaker—in the back seat as my father insisted the pilot circle around one last time so he could get just that right shot. The evenings following one of my father’s shoots always made for interesting dinner conversation.

My father loved taking pictures of this province, and Ontario provided that safe haven and a chance to start over. He then, like so many, created a life, a career, and a family—a newcomer to this province who created something from nothing, which is the story of so many people in my riding of Thornhill.

This is the thing: When I knocked on local doors, I was constantly meeting those who arrived from another country, built a business from nothing—countless origin stories.

Thornhill is home to the largest Jewish community in Canada. Historically, Jewish people were limited in the jobs they could take, many creating their own businesses because it was simply the only viable option they had. People who arrived here with very little, who came with so few resources, they started a business. They were able to employ, expand and so on.

Thornhill is presently a multi-ethic riding, and I am proud to represent constituents with origins identifying as East Asian, Persian, Chinese, Korean, Italian, Filipino, Spanish, Russian and countless others, but the story remains the same: They too created something from nothing.

Thornhill ingenuity lives and prospers. Our hard-working residents have created businesses and employed countless people. Our businesses include historically significant places of trade like the York Farmers Market, located in the heart of historic Thornhill. York Farmers Market first opened in the spring of 1953. The market provided a central location for local farmers to sell their produce grown on farms all around York region and to showcase homemade baked goods, preserves, crafts and a wonderful assortment of fresh, natural delights. I have fond memories of walking into this market with my uncle and my grandmother as a child. I loved coming to the market because I knew the visit would result in baked good treats like a butter tart or a freshly baked sweet sticky bun. I have never stopped going to this iconic market. I still purchase my fresh eggs and produce within this historic location, and I am happy to report that you can get some pretty good sushi there too.

The farmers’ market is just steps away from historic Thornhill Village, dating back to 1796. The name Thornhill did not come into existence until 1829, when Benjamin Thorne, a local merchant, was successful in having a post office established. By then, it was the largest milling centre north of York, now known as the area of Toronto. This area is the origin story of our humble beginnings, and if you ever have the opportunity, I strongly encourage you to visit Colborne Street. Almost perfectly preserved in time, it’s actually used as a movie set quite often. To that end, we have an outstanding historical society that provides walking tours and promotes the history of our cherished past.

Thornhill is also the home to Normac Kitchens, Toromont Cat, TACC Developments and countless tile and other businesses that support the construction industry that employs thousands of people.

And then we have businesses that, despite the odds in opening in the midst of a pandemic, have flourished. Yosef Mokir Shabbos is a new food takeout business that is owned by a newcomer to Thornhill, who, like so many, came here with nothing and created a livelihood for his family and many others, as well as creating strong ties to the community.

We are also the home to FCAV, also known as the Filipino Canadian Association of Vaughan. This organization is led by a tireless, dedicated leader, Erlinda Insigne. FCAV provides a welcoming sense of community as well as a safe haven for newly landed immigrants.

Thornhill is also the home of DANI. DANI is a not-for-profit organization that was created to support people with disabilities, founded 15 years ago by two parents of adults with disabilities in the GTA. Their programs include seven social enterprise businesses, two locations, and an online learning academy.

Then there is Reena, an inclusive, not-for-profit organization that promotes dignity, individuality, independence and personal growth for people with developmental disabilities. Since 1973, Reena has provided residential support, respite programs, employment, community participation programs, and advocacy for individuals with diverse abilities.

Then there’s Kayla’s Children Centre, an organization that uses cutting-edge educational, therapeutic and recreational programs for infants, children and teens with special needs, and to assist their families by offering support and respite. The centre embraces children of all abilities and needs.

Then we have Beit Halochem Canada, which provides aid to disabled veterans of Israel. Their organization is committed to rehabilitating, rebuilding and enhancing the lives of over 50,000 Israelis disabled in the line of duty or through acts of terror. A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting some of the children of these veterans through a program called Kids of Courage. In this unique program, children of the disabled veterans came to Thornhill and also attended a summer camp in the Muskokas, during which Israeli and Canadian campers bonded, providing an invaluable experience for all. Peaceful yet vibrant, the camp environment allowed the Israeli children to relax, away from the pressures of their lives at home.

We are also the home of the new Niagara University. I had the pleasure of meeting many of their educators and students, both newly graduated and freshly accepted. This new university has a multitude of programs that are feeding the framework of Ontario’s future—these include areas in science and education. Niagara University is providing the much-needed training for our future educators. I was so pleased to have met the students and professors. It was inspirational to listen to their passion and dedication.

We thrive and support our businesses and not-for-profits because they support us and provide a future for our children. We choose progress not only for our generation, but for many to come.

As a mother of two, like any, I worry about the future of my children regarding housing and employment.

Gridlock is a constant issue. We value time with our families.

Thornhill looks forward to the new Yonge Street subway extension that will link our community with the much-needed homes, employment and infrastructure that are so desperately required to sustain and build for the future. Getting shovels in the ground on these projects is key for not only ourselves but for our children, our children’s children and the newcomers to Ontario. This new subway system will extend beyond Finch for the first time since 1973—1973. A plan to build will help get people where they have to go in a timely fashion, provide an estimated 1,600 jobs just in that area alone, reduce gridlock and set a course forward for new homes and businesses.

Although the dynamics of my community are diverse, one theme seems to be prevalent: We are a group of self-starters who navigate through obstacles and do not accept no as an answer. We are constantly setting a course forward—in so many circumstances, just like my father, arriving and building from nothing.

Sadly, these businesses and my community have been victims of unfair attacks of anti-Semitism. Last month, the owner of a store, Taste of Israel, fell victim, along with the other owners of businesses at a local strip mall. This closed down traffic on their busiest day and right before Sabbath. As Ontarians, we have to be vigilant in opposing these acts. The owner of this business’s only crime was that he carried the name “Israel” in his store’s name.

We must continue to help our businesses thrive, Mr. Speaker, and continue so that they can expand and plan for the future.

We must continue to cut red tape and continue to build on key infrastructure like the Yonge Street north extension, creating homes and jobs while eliminating gridlock and reducing the need for so many buses. We are building for the future.

My father, who deeply treasured our historic architecture, was also a cog in the wheel of progress and infrastructure. He worked alongside engineers, architects and construction workers, building for the future.

My father always said that you had to understand the past, with a plan to build for the future. He respected vision and courage, working alongside those architects and engineers, working in unity to build for the next generation. He believed in the necessity of infrastructure.

Simply put, there would not be food on the table of our household if new builds and infrastructure did not happen. Progress depends upon it.

Mr. Speaker, on June 2, the people of Thornhill, along with the rest of this province, sent a clear message to Queen’s Park. We are saying yes to building homes. We are saying yes to building hospitals. We are saying yes to building long-term-care facilities and beds. We are saying yes to educating and hiring health care workers and the Learn and Stay program. We are saying yes to cutting the red tape and barriers that stifle our business growth. We are saying yes to cutting costs and putting dollars back into the hard-working men and women of our province. We are saying yes to investing in our children with the new STEM programs in education. We are saying yes to investing in the future of our environment by reinstating Ontario as the flagship province in the auto sector and in the building of e-vehicles.

I will leave you with this one final thought: I love this province, and the pride I hold for my community is unwavering. I am still that same little girl who stood on the west side of that entrance admiring the carvings in stone embedded in the entrance of our historic building.

I am my father’s daughter. I was fortunate to receive and inherit this gift of passion for my province. My father, that same man who arrived at Union Station, just a 20-minute walk down the street, who arrived so many years ago, who went on to become the CN Tower’s chief architectural photographer during its construction, along with his colleagues, on a bitter, cold March day in 1975, ran out on the tarmac to sign my name and my brother’s on the 335-foot antenna before it was lifted by the giant Sikorsky S-64E helicopter, known as Olga, high into the sky and attached to the tallest level of the CN Tower. My name is on the top of the largest piece of infrastructure in Canada. I think about him every day, especially as I look at the skyline. I recall him singing in his thick British accent, “This is a place to stand, a place to grow.” I wrote those words before hearing our Lieutenant Governor, the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, speak the same words. My family and I—this is a fun story—would actually sing that song into a tape recorder and we would send those cassettes to our cousin in England, because we thought the song was so fantastic. He loved Ontario because it offered so many opportunities.

And I stand before you as a faithful servant of Ontario with the best of intentions: to build for the future, to serve my community and keep that vision alive.

Thank you for this opportunity to share my story.

I want to thank the member for his great remarks. I almost heard an endorsement of both managing the economy and the environment, something this government has done, steadfast, all along, whether it’s investing in our critical minerals strategy, whether it’s building electric vehicles.

But also, about affordability, we have the Minister of Energy here, who helped stabilize our electricity rates here in Ontario. As we know, when the previous government was here, they signed a terrible deal for electricity rates for all Ontarians. This member must be quite aware of it, because he must hear it from his constituents.

I want him to speak to how we can really manage our great, clean electricity grid; it’s the cleanest in North America. But in addition to that, it’s about affordability, which is exactly what our throne speech outlined. If we can produce more electric vehicles here, we can create high-paying jobs. And do you know what high-paying jobs give to people? An affordable living.

I’m asking the member opposite if he does support our great strategy that’s going to create high-paying jobs and really lift people up in this province.

Thank you to my colleague from Thornhill. I haven’t had a chance to meet her in person, so it was great to hear her inaugural speech. It’s probably my favourite debate—inaugural speeches—because you get to learn so much about people. She really did speak about her father a lot, and I want to thank her dad for his service in the air force.

My grandparents were in the air force as well, and so was my father, who, I often joke, jumped out of perfectly good airplanes for some reason.

Something I have found is that from your parents, you get great advice. You talked about volunteers working on your campaign. Is there anything that you learned from your dad that you would pass along to young volunteers—something that stuck with you that you thought was very valuable, that you could share with volunteers?

That’s a very good question.

I think in my family, it was literally, you learn by seeing, and action is far louder than words. I think everything that I am today has quite a bit to do with that. I would see my father doing things; I wouldn’t necessarily see him talk about things. He would instigate things in the community and he would do those things. Everybody in this room thinks their father is Superman—and my father was that individual who would do all of these fantastic things. So that gave me, I think, a touchstone to my community.

When my children came along, there was literally no choice; I had to be that person who probably embarrassed my children more than I should have by being a part of everything there was, involved in the community.

I hope that answers your question.

Questions or comments? The member from Sudbury.

I thank the member from Thornhill for her wonderful inaugural speech. I listened attentively.

I’d like to thank your father for his service in the air force. My great-grandfathers were both in the Canadian air force, actually. My father was in the navy, and my son now serves in the Canadian navy as well. I’m sure that your pride comes right through when you speak about your father, how proud—and how he made you very strong, and how your journey became of you coming to Queen’s Park and being able to sit in this wonderful Legislature.

I’ve taught my granddaughter as well, “Give us a place to stand, and a place to grow, and I call this land, Ontari-ari-ari-o”—but I tell her that she’s visiting Ontari-ari-ari-o, so enjoy it.

I’ve never had the chance to visit Thornhill. What would you recommend to the residents of Ontario, if they were to come to your riding—what would you call the number one bragging point of Thornhill?

I’m happy to be here to speak about the throne speech.

First, let me congratulate everyone who is here on their re-election, or their election if it’s the first time. It’s not easy to do. I haven’t had the opportunity to speak with a lot of you yet this year. It’s always good, in the hallway, when we do the congratulations and the quick, little handshakes and stuff. We’re on different sides of the House, but we’re all doing the best we can for our ridings. I’m very thankful for that.

I’m also thankful for everyone who volunteered, especially those who weren’t successful. I’ve worked on some campaigns where you put your heart and soul into it and you don’t win. I remember taking down signs in the rain after not winning an election, after volunteering in it. It’s hard—not just in my riding, but in all ridings. That’s how democracy works. Only one person gets to win. It’s great that all these people put the effort in.

The first time I heard a throne speech as an MPP, I wasn’t sure what to expect from it. I didn’t really understand the format of it. But it’s the idea of sort of explaining what’s happening—there’s hope on the horizon; there’s relief coming; there’s a direction to follow. I really took that to heart, and this time I was listening for that hope and opportunity.

I’ve always been a glass-half-full guy—my mom generally is, as well. One day she was in a bad mood, and I said, “Mom, you’re kind of glass-half-empty.” She said, “What’s that supposed to mean?” I said, “You know that expression: The glass is half full or the glass is half empty.” And she said, “It doesn’t matter if it’s full or empty. Sooner or later, that glass will be broken.”

I feel like the glass is about to break. There is a lot of stress and a lot of frustration in the province, and you can feel it. As we all went to the doors and we spoke to people—man, there was a sense of frustration. There was tension out there, primarily in my riding. I ventured into everyone else’s riding as well. It had to do with just—things were so unaffordable. People I talked to who are more affluent were talking about feeling the squeeze—but really worried about their neighbours and wondering how their neighbours, who made a lot less money than them, were going to make ends meet and how difficult it was.

People are very stressed out because of health care. Not just because the pandemic has really—during the election, the sun was out and we were taking our masks off and there was a bit of hope. The idea of Bill 124, it’s slowly, slowly crushing our health care workers; it’s grinding them down. There’s a lot of stress out there. I’ll go on about health care. Earlier, I was listening to my colleague talking about emergency room closures. It really got to the point where, if you heard in the news that an emergency room was closed, it didn’t feel like news anymore. I remember the first time I heard it, I was shocked. I think the number she said was 25. When you get to 25 emergency rooms closing, it’s no longer news, right? It just becomes the normal.

I remember in 2018, when I was running, hallway medicine was normal—that we were talking about hallway medicine. It’s underfunding, it’s showing up every year with the same size cheque and ignoring the cost of living, and so our hospital wasn’t provided with enough money to make ends meet. In the beginning of the election, we talked about hallway medicine; it was a major story, and people were in shower rooms. And near the end of the election, we went to talk about it and the press wouldn’t show up because they said, “That is normal now.” I feel like, right now, hospital emergency room closures have become normal for people. They’re angry about it, and they want it fixed, but it doesn’t seem odd anymore, and that’s a dangerous thing to have.

The other thing that is becoming more and more normalized is the privatization. I cannot understand—and I can’t get anyone to explain it to me—why it’s okay that we can pay a private agency more money than we can pay public sector nurses. It just boggles the mind. I had met with a long-term-care facility who needed PSWs and wanted to hire PSWs, and the way their budget was set up, was they had a max budget for employees and they had an overflow budget they could get into for a private contractor. They wanted to hire these people from the private contracting place, which they weren’t allowed to do because of the contract that excludes them from doing that, which is a whole other matter we should take apart one day. But they wanted to hire somebody because they were hiring contractors on a regular basis. Imagine every day you show up somewhere, but you don’t work for the store like the name on the front—you work for a third party. But every single day you’re there and you want to work there and you’re getting to know the residents, but you’re making more while the agency is making more than the people you work with. And the place that is hiring the contractor? They can’t hire you because their budget excludes it. That’s a broken system. That isn’t a system—when we’re talking about financial responsibility, having public organizations say, “It’s okay to spend extra money as long as some of it slides over to a private contractor” doesn’t make sense. That’s not the most fiscally responsible thing that we can do.

The other thing when it comes to health care, Speaker—and this is near and dear to my heart; I’ve talked about this a lot over the last four years—is the opioid epidemic, the pandemic within the pandemic. We are losing a generation of people on a regular basis. And I know in Sudbury, we’re getting hit extra hard. I read recently that I think Thunder Bay may be overtaking us, but that’s nothing to brag about either way. People are dying from overdoses. People are struggling with addiction with no hope out there, and this is something we really need to tackle. I know that COVID sucked all the air out of the room and we had to focus there, but we really have to do something with the opioid epidemic. It is ravaging all of our communities.

The Minister of Labour is here and he’s aware of this. Sometimes when you mention someone, it sounds like you’re going to make a jab, but it’s not. It’s something when it comes to skilled trades that we need to help people, because often in the skilled trades, you get sore from doing work, you end up on painkillers, you want to go back to work and you could end up addicted on opioids. And it’s easy to hide when you have a decent income. It’s easy to go into the washroom or your car or truck or go home, but the risk of overdose is there. We really need to supplement and bring up the number of skilled trade workers that we have, and we need to provide the resources for people to get help to get away from addictions. I don’t believe I heard anything about that in the throne speech.

Bill 124 I mentioned before. I’ve actually mentioned Bill 124 a lot, and I think on this side of the House, we mentioned it a lot. We’ve talked about Bill 124. This is not a good bill; it’s not at all. We’ve gone over how it’s unconstitutional. We have the blueprint for it. Bill 115 that the Liberals tabled was basically the same bill but just aimed at education workers only. This one was all public sector workers. At the end of the day, you know what the courts are going to do. If I was a betting person, I would say they’re going to rule it as unconstitutional. It cost the Liberal government—it cost us; the Liberal government took the fall for it, but it cost us $100 million in penalties. We could do a lot of stuff with $100 million. We could four-lane Highway 69 with that kind of money. Why do this?

The other thing too is, as politicians, the leaders of our communities, we stand up all the time—everyone in our community, really; it doesn’t have to be a leader—and talk about health care workers and that they’re our heroes, and we’re sincere, all of us, on both sides of the House, that they are heroes. They are giving their all. If you think back to the beginning of the pandemic when we weren’t quite sure how it was spreading or how it was happening, they were really going above and beyond. To tell these people, “You only deserve 1% at the max, if you can negotiate the 1%,” what a slap in the face that is. It really, really is. It’s a dangerous precedent. We talk about nurses a lot, but these education workers, snow plow drivers, these are all public sector workers. When you tell people you’re not worth that much—it’s not just the financial model; you’re literally telling them, “You’re not worth that much to us.”

I talked last week about education workers. A lot of people think of teachers, but education workers also includes the faculty that clean the building, support staff, EAs, the people in the offices. I talked last week about Charity who works full time and goes to the food bank to feed her children. We’re from different parties, but I think we can all agree that if someone works full time, they shouldn’t go to a food bank. We have to address that, and Bill 124 prevents that from happening. You need much more than 1%, especially with our cost of living going up 8.5%. We really need to do that.

We’re seeing that result because as the government makes inroads to attract more PSWs, to attract more health care workers, more nurses, what we’re seeing at the same time is that they’re exiting. What we’re doing, as much as possible, is turning on the taps to the bathtub, but we left the plug out of the drain. So they’re leaving maybe even quicker than we can fill them. We have 5,400 fewer health care and social service workers today than one year ago. We’re just burning money trying to attract people but not understanding why they’re leaving. And I don’t mean casually leaving; they’re running for the door. We have to be realistic about this. If you want to keep nurses, if you want to support things, a major thing you can do is just repeal Bill 124. We’ve been calling for it for a long time. Maybe there was a reason in the past; I would disagree that there was, but maybe there was. But it’s time to re-look at it and repeal it. If you want to come in on the weekend or the evening or any time to repeal Bill 124, we’ll come in to do it. We’ll pass it with no objection. You’ve got to get rid of this bill. It is bad for everybody. It is bad for those workers it’s affecting; it’s bad for all of Ontario.

I know that Bill 7 wasn’t part of the throne speech, but I want to talk about Bill 7. My colleague from Mushkegowuk–James Bay brought this up. He’s our francophone critic, Speaker. He was talking about what happens with Bill 7. It’s about making room in health care. The idea, basically, is that there are people who need to go into long-term care, who are better served in long-term care, but there are no beds. And so the idea is, we’ll make up room in the hospitals by putting people into long-term care that maybe they don’t want to go to. In northern ridings, that’s up to 300 kilometres away. That’s a three-hour drive. My colleague, the francophone critic, said: What happens if the only language you speak is French and you’re put into a long-term-care facility where they don’t speak French? What happens if you’ve got dementia and you don’t understand what’s going on, and when they explain it to you in a language you don’t speak, you still don’t understand what’s going on?

Let’s be honest about long-term care—and I want to say this without blame because this did not start four years ago; this started a long time ago. Nobody in Ontario is excited to go to long-term care. We need to all put the moose head on the table and just be honest about the elephant in the room. It is not a good system. There are some good providers out there, but by and large, nobody is waiting for their kids to have the conversation with them about going to long-term care and thinking, “Yes.” Right? It needs a lot of work. It’s broken.

I’d venture that if you’re sending someone to a long-term-care facility that doesn’t have a waiting list, that has open beds, it may not be the cream of the crop long-term-care facility. It might be the one that you would see on 60 Minutes. We are going to take people, our seniors, our grandparents—I know it’s not just seniors, but by and large it is—the people who built the country, who supported their children and grandchildren, and we are going to repay them by pulling them out of their community and parking them somewhere they don’t want to be. And let’s be honest, it’s probably not the best facility out there.

The other part as well, while we’re talking about it being broken, is that we all know, in this room, that long-term care is broken to the point where the family supplements and fills in those gaps. I remember running as a candidate. I was in North Bay listening to a consultation about long-term care, and there was a lady there talking about having to go every day to get her mom ready in the morning and to give her breakfast, that she’d brush her mom’s hair and she’d feed her mom—all these things. And she was proud of that, because her mom took care of her for a long time. But the part that she found frustrating was that she has to go, that if she’s sick or on Christmas morning, if she doesn’t go, they don’t have the resources. The PSWs are stretched so thin that her mom might not eat. Her mom might not get dressed. Her hair might not get brushed.

So that system that, let’s be honest, governments over the years—different parties—have been looking the other way about, we all know it exists, but we haven’t really acknowledged it out loud. We haven’t said that we need to fix this. As a group, we haven’t taken that step forward. We are going to pull that away from these people. And we know, from COVID-19, when family was prevented from visiting, that the seniors that were in long-term care did a lot worse. In some cases, they died. And I don’t mean from COVID-19; they just deteriorated really quickly because they didn’t have family around. If you have to travel three hours, you’re not going on a weekday. You’re just not. And you’re not going in the winter because, in the north, the roads kind of suck in the winter.

So we really need to think more beyond “we need to free up some beds.” We need to understand how this is going forward. And frankly, this bill, there’s no consultation on this. There’s no committee on this. It’s being rammed through, and that’s probably a hint that it’s not the best thing to do, that it’s not a popular thing to do. Sometimes when you’re in a leadership role you have to do stuff that’s not popular, because it’s the right thing to do, but I would argue that this is not one of those times. This isn’t one of those times where you’re doing something unpopular for the right reasons. This is something that’s going to come back and not turn out very well.

The other thing was, talking about the budget and cost—time flies when you’re speaking—the number one thing that I heard talking to people is that they were saying that the cost of living is just too high. At the time it was gas. Gas was two-something. And people were telling me how they were skipping meals; they weren’t having lunch because they were home-care workers, and “I can’t get out to all the different homes if I have lunch, because I can’t put gas in my car.” But the cost of food has gone through the roof. The cost of everything has climbed so much, and wages haven’t kept up with it at all, not even close.

I think that there’s discussion about the budget, and the budget is important, but really, Speaker, the budget is a bit of a brag. What’s important is what you actually spend, because a lot of times in the budget, there are all these really high numbers, and then at the end of the year they review and those numbers weren’t spent. And we’ve got to start looking at what we’re actually putting into the expenses.

You know, I talked earlier about mental health and addictions. Very minimal investments have come to mental health and addictions, and we need to invest that money. When inflation is over 8% and people are worried about buying food, there is something very, very wrong. When full-time workers—this is a startling fact, and some of the newer members are going to realize this when they meet with food banks in Canada: In the last 10 years we’ve gone from generally the largest users of food banks being single men, and we have gone now to the largest users being workers who work 40 hours or more a week, and then it’s families. That is a broken system that we—I and all of us—need to come together to solve. We cannot have people working full-time and not making enough money to buy food. I think we can all agree on that. People need to be able to put food in their mouths.

The price of gas, I talked about. I was reading on Hansard—I want to thank our interim leader for bringing this forward. He was saying, “ExxonMobil earned US$18 billion in the second quarter of this year.” Chevron made $15 billion. Shell made $22 billion. BP oil just saw its “biggest profits in 14 years.” All of those companies “more than tripled their profit from a year ago.”

Good for them, but do you have a sense we’re being gouged? Let’s be honest, right? Sudbury always has been. In Sudbury, you drive less than an hour away, it’s always 10 cents less. I don’t know how expensive this is in transportation. I don’t know how expensive it is to drive less than an hour. But it’s always 10 cents less. But we’re really feeling like these prices are spiking us.

I think it’s great that people are going to electric vehicles, but that isn’t an option for everybody in the north. And also, the government ripped out a bunch of charging stations, so there are not a lot of places to charge your car. I know they have changed that stance and they’re building some more, but there’s a time before we get to electric vehicles and until we get there, we have to make sure that the consumer isn’t getting gouged. I didn’t hear anything about this.

I didn’t hear anything about helping consumers make ends meet, or putting more money in their pockets, or ensuring they’re being effective or ensuring that grocery stores aren’t raising prices simply because they can. Because in the shareholder meetings, they’re saying, “We raised a lot of money because we could.” And we as government—all of us together, opposition and party—we’ve got to hold them to account on this.

I’ve got about a minute. I want to talk about ODSP. They raised ODSP—they’re going to raise ODSP by $50. So for a month, someone on ODSP is going to have $1,227. That’s poverty. All of these things that we’re talking about, all of these struggles to make ends meet, if you are in legislated poverty when the government is saying, “You don’t deserve enough money to pay your bills”—that has to change. That has to change immediately.

We can’t have people in legislated poverty. We can’t because of the mental health, the stress it causes, the reality that you just cannot get back on your feet and you feel the world closing in on you. Poverty is crushing for people.

I wish I could go on. I only have about eight seconds, so I’ll stop there, Speaker.

Congratulations to the member from Thornhill on her wonderful, fine inaugural speech and her resounding election victory.

I was actually listening very intently when you were speaking about your passion for the Yonge North subway extension. Of course, certainly, being able to build those extra eight kilometres and five stations is so critical.

I’m very curious with respect to trip generation and where people will start their journeys to the subway station. Some people may have the opportunity to take a bus or perhaps a carpool.

Will those subway stations connect to those very fine bagel establishments? You’re guarding that secret, but I’m just curious to know: Can we get off at one of those five subway stations and get access to those bagels?

Member from St. Catharines.

Further debate?

I loved your story.

I’ve gotten to know the member here a little bit over the last little, while being seatmates.

As everyone has said, it’s great to hear everybody’s story and the journey you made to get here.

Farmers’ markets: We have a great farmers’ market in London, a fantastic farmers’ market in St. Thomas—and throughout my own riding.

Your particular farmers’ market, the York Farmers Market—as you said, from 1953—is a very famous market. As the city grew around it, it still kept its iconic brand.

I know it’s a very important part of our community and many communities throughout this province. It’s part of our culture.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the York Farmers Market?

Yes, I will. The one thing that I love about the farmers’ market is the way it has evolved. The fact of the matter is, it has become something completely different, very much like our community. It began as a local farmers’ market, and it still remains a farmers’ market, but all of the flavours and the tastes of our neighbourhood are also there. You can go there and pick up sushi. You can go there and pick up pasta. You can go there and literally absorb a multitude of different ethnicities, and I really enjoy that.

I think that bringing our kids to these places allows them to really understand where food comes from. That’s why I appreciate everything that you’ve done over the course of 20-odd—how many years have you been involved in this? Countless years—

Thank you for the question.

The one thing I told my campaign manager when he arrived in Thornhill, who advised that he lived on Twizzlers and beef jerky, was that he was going to eat very well when he came to Thornhill.

So it has to do with food—it’s actually all about food. If you sit at a dinner table in Thornhill, there might be some discussions on the day about politics, but it will very quickly move to food, and that’s an assumed fact.

I would say the best bagel in Thornhill is a huge argument, and that is iconic—and I will not get into that argument because that would be very troublesome.

Interjection.

I personally prefer Montreal chewy bagels; my husband prefers a more doughy kind. We’ll leave it at that. He’s in the chamber.

I think the commonality is something that I touched upon. It’s building something from nothing, and we do a lot of that in Thornhill.

Aside from that issue, I think I’d have to talk about the welcoming nature of our people. I know everyone has wonderful ridings and everything is fantastic in everyone’s riding—and I feel no different. The truth of the matter is, when I first started my role in politics I was welcomed by so many people. One example of that is FCAV, the Vaughan Filipino association. Erlinda, who runs that association, opened her heart to me very warmly. I walked into her gym to give a speech, and they still had a Zumba class going. I immediately pulled off my shoes, my high heels, and I went into the Zumba class, because that’s what you do—because it’s a welcoming, inviting environment. Just the friendliness of it is kind of plastered across Thornhill, not just in that one location. So that’s probably the best example of what I could set out.

Thank you for the question.

Everything is within walking distance of a bagel place. I think it’s very safe to say that whether it’s Royal Orchard or Steeles, you will always have an opportunity to find a pretty decent bagel place; if not, it will be there. They will build it, and they will come.

Sometimes what happens in a budget is the government will cherry-pick certain lines about it and say, “Hey, you don’t support the whole budget. How come you don’t support this one part?” And that is fruitless.

The reality, though, is that when you’re living in poverty, when you’re living on OW or ODSP, and you tell somebody, “You are going to get a tax credit,” you’re ignoring the fact that most people who live in poverty don’t file their taxes. They don’t. And so, most people, they use their taxes as a bank account, as a savings account—sorry, through the Speaker. So what they do is they don’t file because they wait for their fridge to break down, because every penny you have, you spend. So telling somebody that, “You’re going to live in poverty for 12 months out of the year, but three months after that, you’re going to get tax relief,” is not hope for them.

What they need is food on the table today, money in their pockets today. They need to make ends meet today. So it’s not that it’s a bad idea, but it’s a “yes and” conversation. Let’s give them the tax relief and let’s put money in their pockets today.

Thank you very much for your remarks. I couldn’t help but really feel that as you were talking about your constituents, they really could have been my constituents. Food bank usage in Toronto Centre for new users has gone up by 60%. We’re seeing students now living in youth shelters because there’s no adequate housing.

With respect to what’s happening within the throne speech and what’s contained in the throne speech: Clearly, there isn’t enough to meet the needs of Ontarians today, but what is actually missing in there? You’ve identified some things. But what are the solutions, and how can we get there with the support of this government? Do you think they would be able to allow us to make those amendments and work collaboratively so we can end the lineups at the food banks, so we can put an end to poverty, so we can put an end to homelessness once and for all?

Questions?

I thank the member for his statement. I know, certainly, it was mentioned about the rising costs and feeling the pinch. Rising costs have certainly hit lower-income families and workers in my riding the hardest. Could the member explain why there’s opposition to the proposal to enhance and expand the low-income individuals and families tax credit, which provides $300 in additional tax relief, on average, to 1.1 million workers?

My thanks to the member for Sudbury for his contributions this afternoon to debate. I do appreciate the member’s unique perspective, coming from northern Ontario.

Of course, we recognize that one of the things we hear about a lot from our colleagues in the north is the importance of investing in our infrastructure, including road infrastructure. We hear about the importance of broadening highways and ensuring there’s adequate shoulders. We hear about the importance of investing in good road surfaces in the north. I completely agree with all these investments. I understand the importance of building new highways and building good roads in northern Ontario. And yet, the member opposite and so many of his colleagues seem completely opposed to building any new roads in the south.

I’m wondering why the member opposite and all of his colleagues from the north, on the one hand, rightly advocate for more and better roads in the north and yet refuse to support investments in building up more roads here in southern Ontario?

I’m pleased to ask the member who serves very, very well as the critic for labour—and I want to ask the member from Sudbury about the staffing shortage in the hospitals and what we’ve been talking about a lot in this room, but certainly talking about it in our communities, about nurses leaving good union jobs that used to be well-paying, that have benefits and protections, full-time hours. They are leaving those jobs in droves to go to private, sometimes fly-by-night agencies. I guess I don’t understand that, because obviously the protections in good union jobs—that’s something people aspire to. Can you talk to me maybe about the working conditions, or what the conditions are that would make them consider that or maybe even make them feel forced to do that?

I hail from the riding of Kitchener South–Hespeler, which is, as they will all agree, a somewhat uneasy political union of the south part of Kitchener and Hespeler. Kitchener South contains a variety of residential neighbourhoods as well as a wonderful museum and gallery and the village of Doon. Hespeler, if you ask Hespeler, contains the entire world, and it more or less ends there. I know anybody watching from home from Hespeler will agree with me that they are certainly not part of Kitchener South, nor are they part of Cambridge, and frankly, I love them for that attitude.

The people of Kitchener South–Hespeler are the first ones I have to thank because they are the ones who put me here. Without all of you voting for me—I know I do have some of you watching from home, thank you, including my arborist, who just messaged me to say he’s in a tree; I hope he is. We won’t tell the Minister of Labour. The people of Kitchener South–Hespeler are the ones who voted for me. They are the ones who put me here. Without all of them, I would not have the ability to be saying anything that I’m saying; I wouldn’t have the ability to do anything for these people. I will never take lightly the trust that they put in me. I am eternally grateful to the people of Kitchener South–Hespeler.

I also have to say thank you to Amy Fee. Amy Fee was the MPP for Kitchener South–Hespeler before me, and she is a thoroughly lovely person. Amy has four kids and three service dogs, and two of her children are on the autism spectrum. She has been and always will be an absolute champion for the autism cause. While I was campaigning, she was never more than a phone call away. I could always be assured of a response from her—“Jess, you’ve got this.”

A parliamentarian’s inaugural speech—of course, I did look it up; I looked in the legislative library—is an opportunity to say thank you, to introduce yourself etc. I thought a lot about how best to structure this speech. I thought about what I wanted to say and who I wanted to thank. I thought about which section should go where. Ultimately, I thought so much about my speech that I never really quite got around to writing it and it’s mostly just notes. So if I ramble, my apologies in advance.

Standing here at the moment, I’ve decided to start with what I think is the most important part and introduce two of the best people in the world—two people who are, quite literally, the only reason I’m here; two people who have supported me through everything; and, coincidentally, two people who, just yesterday, marked their 40th anniversary together: my parents, Ruth Dixon and Eric Dyke.

There’s a Jann Arden song—it’s actually not one of my favourites, but it’s one that Mom always talks about. It’s called Good Mother, and it has the lines in it, “I like the colour of my hair / I’ve got a friend who loves me / Got a house, I’ve got a car”—but it says “I’ve got a good mother” and “I’ve got a good father.” That is absolutely what I have. I’m an only child, so I was blessed to never have to share them with absolutely anybody else, which I love.

My mom, Ruth, was born in Deep River. She was one of six kids. Her mom, my granny, was a nurse in labour and delivery, and an Irish immigrant. She certainly carried on the nursing tradition because, out of all of her kids, we have four nurses. My mom was an orthopedic and operating room nurse. My auntie Deb is a cardiac nurse. My auntie Moe is an RNFA, a registered nurse first assistant. My auntie Sheila, who we’ve lost, was a geriatric nurse. My auntie Fif did not become a nurse, but she became a registered massage therapist and a practitioner of eastern medicine. My uncle Dave was the black sheep and went off and became an engineer or something like that.

Dad was born in Vancouver, one of three brothers. Both of his brothers became skilled mechanics. My dad also was the black sheep and went off and became an engineer or something like that.

My parents met when my dad was a summer student at Chalk River. Admittedly, I get a little bit confused about the chronology after that, because they met at Chalk River, and then there was a period when mom was on a kibbutz and she was an au pair in Paris. My dad ended up on a sheep farm, either in New Zealand or Australia, and has the kangaroo whip to prove it. But somehow or other, they did get back together—luckily for me, or I wouldn’t be here.

I’m known for having a stubborn streak a mile wide and being very into DIY, and I came by that honestly. Barely a month before I was born, my parents bought a lovely arts and crafts bungalow in Victoria, BC—which came very cheap because it was scheduled for imminent demolition—which they cut in half and put on two giant flatbed moving trucks and took through downtown Victoria, just in time to welcome me home to a massive construction site, in a laundry basket with a sheepskin in it. We more or less put the final stitch in that house before picking up everything and moving to Ontario, due to the death of the manufacturing sector in Victoria.

My dad got a job at Babcock, now known as BWXT, and Mom started to work at McMaster hospital. My dad went on to Aecon, becoming the project manager for their N-Stamp project, which is attaining safety certification to produce nuclear components—which I never thought would be relevant, because I never thought I’d be a politician, and I never thought I would be the parliamentary assistant for energy, but here we are.

Mom went back to school and became a manager at Cambridge Memorial Hospital—same-day surgery, the OR, the ER, the fracture clinic etc. She retired and then came out of retirement to be a coordinator for CCAC. She retired again, and then she came out of retirement again when COVID hit, and she brought her nursing skills back to Ontario.

Why did I get involved in politics? I never wanted to be a politician. It never occurred to me that I’d be here. If you had told me two or three years ago that I would be here, I’d be very startled. It begins with a house and a job, as well as a day at work that was both good and bad, and, surprisingly, a bag of milk.

I’ll just begin: I’m a crown attorney. I’ve been a crown attorney both federally and provincially. My mom has a report card from preschool where my preschool teacher wrote, “Jess has a very clearly defined sense of right and wrong”—and that seems to have stuck with me. I articled with the crown attorney in Ottawa, and I loved my job as a crown ever since I first walked into the halls.

In 2015, in Cambridge, I bought a foreclosure that I’m still working on at a rate that appalls my project manager father, because the projects that get done are the only ones that seem interesting at the time. At any rate, in the course of working on that house, I met my neighbour.

My house is in an area that has a large swath of geared-to-income single-family housing in it. As I would be working on my house, I would notice my neighbour Laura walking by. She was a single mom with, at the time, a 13-year-old and a one-year-old. We eventually got to chatting. Basically, she’s somebody who doesn’t have a lot, and she was just loving living vicariously through me making this very, very ugly house, day by day, a little bit more attractive. We started to talk more, and her older daughter, Lauryn, would come over. One day Lauryn was helping me in the garden, and we started talking about school, and I realized that Lauryn, even though she had just graduated grade eight in Ontario—she was born in Ontario—had no conception that college or university was something that applied to her. I went to a private school; I didn’t know about the applied versus academic streaming. Lauryn had been put into applied, and I was absolutely appalled that somebody would make that decision for her and limit her in that fashion. I ended up marching into her school, tailing Laura behind me, and having her moved into academic and into a different school entirely. I’m proud to say that she has just finished her first year of occupational therapy at Georgian College.

As the little one, Caprea, Laura’s other daughter, got older, she—again, Laura is not somebody who has a lot. She is somebody who should have been on ODSP but wasn’t. I ended up helping her with that application and going through the Byzantine process—particularly for somebody who deals with brain injury, when you have an invisible disability. As Caprea, the little one, got older, I started realizing her language development skills were falling behind a little bit, but I always knew that she was a really smart little girl. At school, they seem to have just written her off. The idea seemed to be that if she acted up in class, they would just take her to a different room. Frankly, she’s smart as a whip. She figured out very quickly that if she acted up, she didn’t have to do the work, and she immediately left the room. So I ended up putting Caprea into Kumon, into math and English tutoring, and, ultimately, into swimming and into karate. She is a very smart little girl. She’s doing wonderfully in Kumon; she has been in it for probably three years now. This is a little girl who is never going to fall through the cracks. She has been given a start that she wouldn’t have had otherwise.

When I was a crown, I would talk to a lot of accused people. When you’re a crown, you’re supposed to want to be up in the glamorous courts, the Superior Court. I always loved being in the workhorse courts where you’re dealing one on one with accused people. As time went on, I started pursuing more and more of my own alternative justice measures. I would have some pretty good successes. I have a lot of different stories. One of the ones that always comes to mind was when I was in St. Thomas, and I ended up talking to a man, a boy—I’ll change his name; I think he's 20—named Matthew. At the time, he was living in his car. He had been charged with two counts of driving without insurance because he was sleeping in his uninsured car. His family had kicked him out because he had a cocaine addiction. He had managed to finish high school, but that was about it. So he was facing a drug charge; he was facing a property crime charge; he was facing two counts of driving without insurance, which is a $10,000 minimum fine. This is somebody who was on the precipice of a downward spiral.

I talked to him and I said, “Look, I’m the prosecutor, you don’t have to talk to me, but I’m interested in hearing how you got here.” He talked to me and he told me about some of his struggles from home. This is all happening over the phone; it’s still COVID. And so I said, “Okay, you’ve got yourself in a lot of trouble here, but I am most interested in seeing about how we can make it that you never come back here again.”

I told him to go off and to start seeing—I was like, “Okay, the first thing is, let’s see if you can get back in with your parents.” So I set him up with some counselling options, which I had to look around to find. Over the months that I adjourned his case, he moved back in with his parents. He met a girl. Because he’d finished high school, I’d started talking to him—technically I knew I was probably going to run, but I still wasn’t thinking about it that much—and I told him a lot about the trades. By the end of my time with him—a lot of the time, being a crown is sort of being somebody’s cheerleader and their mom at the same time. And by the end, he had moved into his own apartment with his girlfriend, and he was officially signed up as an apprentice at Fanshawe.

I told him at the end, “I’m withdrawing your charges, because you’ve done what I wanted you to do to never be back here,” and he sobbed on the phone to me and said that I was the only person that had ever really believed in him or taken the time to speak to him—

Interjections.