Thank you to the member opposite.

It does not meet the current needs that people have. It actually doesn’t come close to meeting the inflation cost and pressures. Someone in my community said to me, “Milk is so expensive right now, and babies need milk.” People on ODSP need the government to recognize that. It does not meet the current need of the affordability crisis that people are facing in this province, and it’s actually forcing them into food bank lines.

In my riding, there has been an over 25% increase in food bank use. When you look at the faces of those individuals, it’s really changing.

There’s a real, desperate need there. If you talk to people who are part of the ODSP coalition, you’ll hear that it needs much more than that.

We, the Ontario Liberals, say 20% immediately, with a review of the basic income pilot so that we can provide adequacy for people who are most vulnerable in this province.

So I do believe that all Ontarians should be able to have a choice in how they live in our society, and our society should accommodate that.

What is very distressing in this situation is that the government creates so many hurdles for people who are on ODSP, even just to access support. During the pandemic, there was a $200 amount that they had access to, but they had to go through their caseworker. So many people contacted my office because those offices were closed, or people were working from home and they were inaccessible. So why would the government put an extra burden on people on ODSP, rather than just distributing the funds to the cases that they know they have on record and have on file?

Absolutely, there is more that can be done to support people with disabilities in this province.

CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions represents 55,000 education workers. These are the early childhood educators, the administrative workers, the bus drivers, the custodians, the maintenance workers. Despite being the backbone of the education system, their pay is so low that many of these full-time workers have to work part-time jobs just to make ends meet. This is shameful.

My question is to the Premier. The OSBCU contract expires on August 31. I’m wondering, will the Conservative government ensure these workers can keep up with the rising cost of affordability by providing them with a pay increase that keeps pace with this rising cost of living?

I thank the member for the question. I’ve heard from many of the food banks and service agencies that are located in my riding of Ottawa West–Nepean that they’ve seen an incredible increase in demand over the past few months. I’ve heard the same from Meals on Wheels and other organizations that are serving seniors. I’ve met with the community health centre, that says they’re seeing a real increase in need for their programs and services. I’ve met with tenants who are living on Ontario Works or ODSP who are terrified that they’re about to be squeezed out of the only housing that they’ve been able to afford. I’ve spoken with people who have their kids living with them at home because they can’t afford to move out. There are incredibly desperate needs across Ottawa West–Nepean for a government and a budget that actually takes the affordability crisis, that actually takes poverty seriously and I know that my constituents would only want me to vote in favour of a budget that actually addressed the challenges that they are facing.

I also had the opportunity to meet with the nurses of Local 83 in Ottawa last week from the Ottawa Hospital, and they explained to me in clear terms there’s only a set number of health care workers and nurses and doctors in Ontario. We can’t magically expand it with a wave of a wand because we’ve created a private system. So now that same number of workers has to spread out over a private system and a public system—a private system which can refuse to take those patients who have the highest care needs, who have the greatest complexities, who actually need doctors and nurses the most. Those private care companies can focus only on those with the easiest problems to address and solve. So now those patients are ahead of the line and the lineup for care at our public hospitals and at our public clinics is even greater. This is a solution that will only make the crisis much, much worse.

The need is absolutely great. Not a single constituent that I spoke to in Ottawa West–Nepean over the course of a year said, “Please privatize our health care system.” What they said was, “Please fix our system. Please support our hard-working health care heroes so we can actually get the health care we need, when we need it.”

I’ve heard from Meals on Wheels and Jewish Family Services, which provides Kosher Meals on Wheels, that there’s an increased demand for these services, but unfortunately the government’s funding for these services has been frozen and isn’t keeping pace with the need. So they’re afraid they’re going to have to raise prices, which means that some of these seniors are going to go hungry rather than actually getting the food services they need.

I think the refusal to address the challenge with dental care for seniors because of the rise in CPP is an example of being penny-wise, pound foolish because we know that these seniors will now go without dental care, but we also know that when dental problems aren’t addressed, they result in other health care problems, including heart problems, which means that some of these seniors are going to end up in our emergency rooms when the problem could have been addressed early on if they could have simply afforded to see a dentist.