The supplementary question.

My question is to the Premier.

Speaker, Ontario is in the midst of a health care crisis. Dr. Marc-André Blier, an intensive care and internal medicine physician with LHSC, has observed, “a steady uptick in the number of experienced nurses leaving intensive care,” and explained they are “the lifeblood of a critical care unit.” He told me about multiple cardiac cases being cancelled, and noted many bays with no nurses to staff them. In his letter, he asked the Premier and the Minister of Health to repeal Bill 124.

Will this government finally listen to front-line experts and repeal Bill 124?

Dr. Blier—just listen to the doctor who has seen empty bays while urgent surgeries are being cancelled. Wake up. According to front-line experts like Dr. Blier, the obvious reason is that a 1% raise annually cannot match the inflation rate. “Our health care professionals are worth it.”

My question is simple: Will this government be fair, show front-line nurses that they are worth it, and repeal Bill 124? Yes or no?

This government has an unprecedented record of investing in health care and health human resources across this province. We have added over 10,500 health care workers since March 2020, and every step of the way the members opposite have opposed that. We have added over 3,100 new beds into the system since March 2020—that’s almost the equivalent of five new hospitals—increasing capacity across the province. We’ve also put forward a bold plan to invest over $40 billion to build over 52 capital projects across this province. Mr. Speaker, every single one of those projects have been rejected by the members opposite; they voted no to each and every single one of those.

We will continue to support health care and health human resources across this province by investing in our nurses, investing in our doctors and investing in health human resources across this province.

Thank you to the member for the question.

Our government understands that a high-quality health care system starts with a high-quality post-secondary education system, and our government is working to support students in all health care fields at Ontario’s strong post-secondary institutions.

I was very excited to announce our innovative Learn and Stay program earlier this year. As a first step, the government is investing $81 million to support the expansion of the Community Commitment Program for Nurses, targeting newly graduated registered nurses, registered practical nurses and nurse practitioners. This program shows our commitment to working for workers by helping newly licensed internationally educated nurses and nurses returning to practise. Over the next four years, 3,000 nurse graduates can receive financial support to cover the costs of their tuition, in exchange for committing to practise for two years in an underserved community.

Our government understands that in order to keep Ontario safe and open, we need to ensure we have a high-quality and resilient health care system, and that requires that Ontarians pursuing medical studies have access to world-class post-secondary education right here in the province of Ontario.

So 2022 has been an exciting year for aspiring doctors and both current and future medical school students. Earlier this year, our government outlined our transformative expansions of medical school education as we continue to build a stronger, more resilient health care system, especially in growing and underserved communities. Our government is proudly adding 160 undergraduate seats and 295 postgraduate positions to six medical schools over the next five years. This is the largest expansion of undergraduate and postgraduate education in over a decade, and this is in addition to the expansion which will include a new medical school in Brampton and Scarborough.

I’d love to expand on all of the things that we’re doing for nursing education right here in Ontario. As I mentioned, we have the new Learn and Stay program, which will come into effect in the fall of 2023. This will ensure that we have nursing opportunities across the province in some of our underserved areas. This will ensure that students who will make a commitment for two years in an underserved area will have their tuition and educational costs covered to serve in those communities—something I’m particularly excited about.

We also included access to stand-alone nursing programs at colleges across Ontario—in my own community, at Georgian College; at Lambton College in Sarnia, at Loyalist College. So 14 colleges in Ontario are now able to offer stand-alone nursing programs. This will ensure that we have more nurses added to the system and that we have access to nursing in our underserved communities across Ontario.

The bill enacts the Anti-Money Laundering in Housing Act, 2022. The act requires the minister to develop and implement a landowner transparency plan so that numbered corporations, trusts and partnerships will be required to reveal their true, individual, beneficial owners in a public land registry. The purpose of this act is to clamp down on money laundering, tax evasion and fraud, which is taking place in the real estate sector in Ontario.

Ms. Hunter moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 9, An Act to amend the Health Insurance Act and the Health Protection and Promotion Act in respect of addressing gun violence and its impacts / Projet de loi 9, Loi modifiant la Loi sur l’assurance-santé et la Loi sur la protection et la promotion de la santé en ce qui concerne la violence armée et ses répercussions.

“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...;

“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;

“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.”

I support this petition. Since this petition was given to me, the rate of inflation has gotten worse and the Ontario government has only increased social assistance rates for ODSP by 5%, which means they’re still below the poverty line, so this petition is still relevant. I give this petition to page Lucia to take to the Clerk.

The Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.

The Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.

The division bells rang from 1137 to 1139.

On August 17, 2022, Mr. Harris moved that the question be now put.

All those in favour of Mr. Harris’s motion will please rise one at a time and be recognized by the Clerk.

Mr. Clark has moved second reading of Bill 3, An Act to amend various statutes with respect to special powers and duties of heads of council.

Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? I heard some noes.

All those in favour of the motion will please say “aye.”

All those opposed will please say “nay.”

In my opinion, the ayes have it.

Call in the members. This will be a five-minute bell.

Interjection: Same vote.

Interjection: No.

On August 11, 2022, Mr. Clark moved second reading of Bill 3, An Act to amend various statutes with respect to special powers and duties of heads of council.

All those in favour of the motion will please rise one at a time and be recognized by the Clerk.

Second reading agreed to.

There being no further business at this time, this House stands in recess until 1 p.m.

The House recessed from 1147 to 1300.

Mr. Calandra moved first 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.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas as part of Ontario’s commitment to building a stronger health care workforce, the government is investing $142 million, starting in 2022-23, to recruit and retain health care workers in underserved communities, which will expand the Community Commitment Program for Nurses, up to 1,500 nurse graduates each year to receive full tuition reimbursement in exchange for committing to practise for two years in an underserved community; and

“Whereas starting in spring 2023, the government will launch the new $61-million learn and stay grant and applications will open for up to 2,500 eligible post-secondary students who enroll in priority programs, such as nursing, to work in underserved communities in the region where they studied after graduation. The program will provide up-front funding for tuition, books and other direct educational costs; and

“Whereas the government also proposes to make it easier and quicker for foreign-credentialed health workers to begin practising in Ontario by reducing barriers to registering with and being recognized by health regulatory colleges; and

“Whereas to address the shortage of health care professionals in Ontario, the government is investing $124.2 million over three years starting in 2022-23 to modernize clinical education for nurses, enabling publicly assisted colleges and universities to expand laboratory capacity supports and hands-on learning for students; and

“Whereas Ontario is accelerating its efforts to expand hospital capacity and build up the province’s health care workforce to help patients access the health care they need when they need it;

“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 build on the progress of hiring and recruiting health care workers.”

I agree with this petition, will sign my name to it and give it to page Adele.

I’d like to refer the bill to the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy.

I want to thank the member for the question.

I think it has become very clear why the people of the province of Ontario elected a strong, stable, province-wide, Conservative majority government: It is to continue the good work that was started in 2018.

The Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade has been very, very, very aggressive in helping bring jobs back to the province of Ontario. Of course, we lost those 300,000 manufacturing jobs under the Liberals, supported by the NDP.

We went backwards in health care under the Liberals and the NDP. We didn’t build long-term-care homes. We didn’t build transit and transportation. We talked about—an argument; well, not us—the Ontario Line and subways for years, but this Premier, this caucus and these members on both sides, represented their community and got the province moving back again in the right direction.

We’re creating jobs, opportunities and investment. We are the envy of North America, and we will continue to do all that we can to ensure that—

Interjections.

I saw a lot of members at the AMO conference. It was a wonderful conference. Again, I congratulate the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing for putting together such a wonderful opportunity.

On Monday, August 22—just to note again for colleagues that the House will return at 9 a.m. On both the morning and afternoon, we will be dealing with government motion number 3.

On Tuesday, August 23, in the morning, we will be dealing with government motion number 3, and in the afternoon we’ll be moving over to a government bill that will be introduced later today.

Work on that bill will continue on Wednesday in the morning and afternoon.

On Thursday, August 25, in the morning and afternoon, we will move onto replies to the speech from the throne and continue to hear what have been wonderful maiden speeches from a lot of our new colleagues in the process.

Deferred vote on the motion that the question now be put on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

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 look forward to the opportunity to debate the bill in the coming days.

Ms. Bell moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 8, An Act to enact the Anti-Money Laundering in Housing Act, 2022 / Projet de loi 8, Loi édictant la Loi de 2022 sur la lutte contre le blanchiment d’argent dans le secteur du logement.

Mr. Speaker, we watched as our government went through this last election cycle, and the people of Ontario, on June 2, clearly saw that the policies of our government were getting it done for the people of this province—getting it done so much so that the official opposition was reduced to the tiny caucus that we see before us today.

I’m wondering if the government House leader can please explain to this House and to the people of Ontario his thoughts on why they felt it was so important to elect such a strong majority government for the people of Ontario.

I don’t think the minister actually understands what’s happening with her own program.

There were 6,000 letters sent out, but there have only been 30 children actually enrolled into the program. They have hardly no uptake when it comes to the letters, and they have no idea why. Ask the government; they have no idea why this is happening. When you talk to families—they have zero trust in this family. There are letters that were sent out in the 6,000 that are now seven years old, from the time the program started. Those kids are now—some of them are 17 years old. Of course, there’s no uptake for the program.

The government needs to actually understand what they’re doing.

And if you think that this is a one-time spinoff of your government asking for this $20,000 back, then you really must be completely out of touch. This is obviously a systemic issue within the program.

This minister needs to understand her file, ensure that families are not being clawed back for their government’s failure of providing an OAP program and for a global pandemic that is not the fault of a child. Make sure that the child receives—

I’d like to thank Jacqueline Leduc from Hanmer in my riding for this petition.

“Gas Prices....

“Whereas northern Ontario motorists continue to be subject to wild fluctuations in the price of gasoline; and

“Whereas the province could eliminate opportunistic price gouging and deliver fair, stable and predictable fuel prices; and

“Whereas five provinces and many US states already have some sort of gas price regulation; and

“Whereas jurisdictions with gas price regulation have seen an end to wild price fluctuations, a shrinking of price discrepancies between urban and rural communities and lower annualized gas prices;”

They “petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“Mandate the Ontario Energy Board to monitor the price of gasoline across Ontario in order to reduce price volatility and unfair regional price differences while encouraging competition” and regulating the price of gas.

I support this petition, will affix my name to it and give it to Rhythm to give it to the Clerk.

Thank you, Speaker. On behalf of the people of Scarborough–Guildwood who elected me, I am reintroducing this bill.

Gun violence and its devastating impacts on communities is a deepening public health crisis in the province of Ontario. With the number of firearms incidents increasing each year and the widespread trauma associated with acts of gun violence often going unrecognized, unmentioned and untreated, the Safe and Healthy Communities Act (Addressing Gun Violence), 2022, would amend the Health Insurance Act to ensure that services include prescribed hospital-based and community-based violence intervention programs. Additionally, this bill includes provisions for trauma-informed counselling for survivors and others affected by gun violence.

The Safe and Healthy Communities Act (Addressing Gun Violence), 2022, also amends the Health Protection and Promotion Act to allow boards of public health to have programs and services for reducing gun violence and for increasing the capacity of communities to assist survivors and others affected by gun violence so that they can heal.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas as part of Ontario’s commitment to building a stronger health care workforce, the government is investing $142 million, starting in 2022-23, to recruit and retain health care workers in underserved communities, which will expand the Community Commitment Program ... for two years in an underserved community; and

“Whereas starting in spring 2023, the government will launch the new $61-million learn and stay grant and applications will open for up to 2,500 eligible post-secondary students who enroll in priority programs, such as nursing, to work in underserved communities in the region where they studied after graduation. The program will provide up-front funding for tuition, books and other direct ... costs; and

“Whereas the government also proposes to make it easier and quicker for foreign-credentialed health workers to begin practising in Ontario by reducing barriers to registering with and being recognized by health regulatory colleges; and

“Whereas to address the shortage of health care professionals in Ontario, the government is investing $124.2 million over three years, starting in 2022-23, to modernize clinical education for nurses, enabling publicly assisted colleges and universities to expand laboratory capacity supports and hands-on learning for students; and

“Whereas Ontario is accelerating its efforts to expand hospital capacity and build up the province’s health care workforce to help patients access the health care they need when they need it;

“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 build on the progress of hiring and recruiting health care workers.”

Speaker, I wholeheartedly accept this petition, and I’d like to hand it over to you through page Noella.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontario’s seniors deserve high-quality, patient-centred care and our government is making significant strides toward better meeting the needs of long-term care residents by hearing directly from them; and

“Whereas people, including seniors, should have the option to stay in their homes and receive the care they need, if they choose and if it is possible; and

“Whereas home and community care keeps people healthy at their home, where they want to be, and plays an important role in the lives of more than 700,000 families annually; and

“Whereas a strong home and community care sector is key to the government’s plan to help end hallway health care and build a connected, patient-centred health care system; and

“Whereas home care supports will prevent unnecessary hospital and long-term-care admissions and will shorten hospital stays; and

“Whereas our government plans to invest up to an additional $1 billion over the next three years to expand home care, improve quality of care, keeping the people of Ontario in the homes that they love longer; and

“Whereas the additional funding is intended to support home care providers, address rising costs and support recruitment and training, as well as expand services; and

“Whereas these types of investments and other developments, such as virtual care options, care at home, can become a choice that seniors, recovering patients and their families make instead of only relying on more traditional venues of care;

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

“To urge all members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to build on the progress this government has made on building a patient-centred home and community care system.”

I thoroughly endorse this petition. I will sign it and give it to page Julia.

This petition is entitled “Stop the Bradford Bypass.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the proposed Bradford Bypass is a $2.2-billion, taxpayer-funded, 16.2-km, four-to-six-lane highway through the greenbelt between Highways 400 and the 404;

“Whereas according to a Toronto Star/National Observer investigation, the main beneficiaries of this project are land speculators with political and donor ties to the Premier and the PC Party of Ontario, and together own nearly 3,000 acres of land along the proposed highway corridor;

“Whereas the highway would threaten the Holland Marsh and the Lake Simcoe watershed, cutting through 27 waterways, damaging prime farmland, wetlands, woodlands, and significant wildlife habitat;

“Whereas the most recent EA for the project is nearly 25 years old, and this PC government has exempted it from the Environmental Assessment Act;

“Whereas due to this exemption, the government is now free to ignore impacts on agriculture, fish and fish habitat, property, human health, air quality, greenhouse gas emissions, and other impacts that would have otherwise required an updated assessment under the act;

“Whereas the highway will also destroy one of Canada’s most significant archaeological/historical sites, the Lower Landing;

“Whereas this highway was conceived in the last century, before the Lake Simcoe Protection Plan, the Greenbelt Plan, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the growth plan were enacted, and prior to global agreements to fight climate change;

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

“To cancel the politically driven, wasteful, and destructive plan for the Bradford Bypass, and redirect all funding for the Bradford Bypass into investments that better serve the regional transportation and mobility needs, including evidence-based plans for transit and regional road improvements, and other investments in the public interest.”

I absolutely support this petition. I’ve affixed my signature and will hand it over to page Pania.

I’d like to thank Dr. Sally Palmer for providing me with these petitions. It’s a petition 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.”

I wholeheartedly support this petition. I will affix my name to it and give it to Elya to bring to the Clerk.

That concludes the time we have available for petitions this afternoon.

Resuming the debate adjourned on August 18, 2022, on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

Bill 2, An Act to implement Budget measures and to enact and amend various statutes / Projet de loi 2, Loi visant à mettre en oeuvre les mesures budgétaires et à édicter et à modifier diverses lois.

This is a petition entitled “Paid Sick Days for All Ontarians.

“Petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas paid sick days save lives;

“Whereas all Ontarians should have the right to recover from illness or attend to personal emergencies without the loss of income;

“Whereas the Employment Standards Act does not provide access to permanent paid sick days for the approximate 60% of Ontario workers without them;

“Whereas the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has shown that paid sick days are vital to stopping the spread of contagious illnesses and avoiding economically disruptive lockdowns or business closures;

“Whereas multiple studies have shown the cost benefit for employers to provide an adequate paid sick day program for their employees;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to provide all Ontario workers 10 permanent paid sick days, with an additional 14 during an infectious disease emergency.”

I wholeheartedly support this petition. I’ll affix my signature and will hand it over to Natalie.