Thank you very much to the member for that question.

Not only should we be investing in home care, but we should be expanding it and making sure that we are meeting the needs of Ontarians where they are. The ability to draw up a budget and to meet the needs of Ontarians is all our responsibility, and we do that by listening; we do that by asking questions; we do that by really leaning in with the experts to determine what the solutions are. I believe that the solutions when it comes to health care are really quite evident, whether it’s home care or personal support workers, or an extension of them both. This is an equal system of health care that has to be designed to meet Ontarians where they are, and if that means meeting them at home, then that’s where it should go. But it has to be said that residents are crying out because it is too limited.

So, yes, absolutely, we need to do more, but we need to do it faster. “Scaling up,” “building up,” which I know are very sexy terms that we sometimes like to use—I really want us to put that into practice. If we were to really take a look at what the harm was in Ontario and how we can actually build up that system, this is what I would suggest. Listen to the experts, bring the residents in, and let’s get to work.

I think that the stakes are too high. So I want to see the details of the budget; I think we all deserve to. But, more importantly, Ontarians need to know how you are spending their hard-earned tax dollars and how you are going to be accountable to them when the ERs continue to close and the wait-list continues to grow.

I am actually a big proponent of active transportation. I believe that we need to build infrastructure that meets communities where they are, but I don’t believe that we should do it over the objection of local communities or over the compromising of preservation lands, wetlands, endangered species and any other type of environmentally sensitive areas.

For us to be able to build up Ontario and to build the network of roads and highways that we need, we need to be able to make sure that those growth areas are going to connect to other places. So it can’t be so random that the highway shoots up along a particular route and enriches certain developers who have massive landholdings. That is not necessarily smart development of highways and road networks.

What we do need to do is invest in transit, high-order transit, low-order transit, and make sure that that system of transit, especially for all those areas that are underserved, including rural areas—are going to be better served. Not everyone is going to have the ability to own a car. We need to recognize that, especially in a growing climate crisis.

I think for those who have grown up in poverty, whether it’s inflicted by war, perhaps political dissent, or challenges of not being able to just make ends meet, you will recognize that everything in your whole self is compromised. Not only are your relationships compromised because you can’t necessarily go out with your friends or perhaps are not able to engage in social activities that take money; you can’t send your children to programs they desperately need. Your body starts to break down. You have a lot of mental health—you have a lot of anxiety and stress. Your blood sugars are weakened. You are malnourished. Your teeth and gums start to erode, and everything starts to fall apart. You cannot possibly think well if you are not eating well. If you’re worried about not having a roof over your head, you’re constantly in a state of precarity when it comes to housing. At any given point in time, you could be on the street.

Each and every one of us is fortunate enough to have enough money to actually live in Ontario, but we know that it is expensive, especially for those on social assistance. This is why we can do better in this government, in this hall, to support people on ODSP.

It’s always an honour to rise in the House and today, to participate in the debate on Bill 2, the government’s budget bill.

Speaker, since the budget was first introduced back in April, there have been significant changes in the province of Ontario that are not reflected in the new budget the government has presented. First, we are facing an unprecedented health human resource capacity issue that is not addressed in the re-introduced budget. Second, inflation and housing costs are especially hitting the most vulnerable, especially those on Ontario Works and Ontario disability support, making it impossible for them to pay the bills while living in legislated poverty, and the government has failed to address that. And third, the costs of the climate emergency are escalating. We had a city in Ontario, the city of Ottawa, go without power for weeks because our infrastructure is not ready for the hammer blows of the climate emergency, and the budget fails to make the necessary investments to address that.

I want to start with health care. Speaker, the budget talks about buildings and beds. It doesn’t talk about the people who deliver care. If the government truly wants to address the health care crisis, they need to repeal Bill 124 and allow nurses and other front-line health care workers to negotiate fair wages, fair benefits and better working conditions.

Instead of talking about privatization, let’s actually invest in our public health care system. The bottom line is the province of Ontario spends less per capita on health care than any province in the country. No wonder the system is in crisis, especially when the government underspent their health care budget by $1.8 billion last year.

Speaker, people with disabilities are being forced to live in legislated poverty. Poverty costs this province $33 billion a year, so it’s not only the right and moral thing to do to bring people out of poverty, it’s the right thing to do for the fiscal health of our province. Homelessness and poverty are putting huge pressure on our health care system, which is why so many health care leaders are saying they want to write prescriptions to end poverty and end homelessness. This budget fails to do that.

Finally, instead of spending billions on highways to go to million-dollar homes that people can’t afford, let’s build climate-ready communities that are affordable, livable—where people can people can live, work, play and shop locally.

Over two years ago, the Ontario Greens put forward a retention and recruitment strategy to deal with the health human resource capacity crisis we’re facing. I don’t know why it’s taken the government so long to finally start to act. There are between 15,000 and 20,000 internationally trained health care providers, according to the RNAO. They’ve been pushing the government to fast-track their accreditation. It’s fantastic that there are now 3,967, but if we had started this two years ago, what about the 15,000 to 20,000 who could be working in our emergency rooms right now, taking pressure off of the system? What about paying nurses’ wages so we don’t have to spend millions on private agencies when we could be hiring full-time permanent nurses?

Speaker, there are many solutions, and it starts by supporting publicly funded, publicly delivered health care in this province.

On Highway 413: I don’t understand how any government can call themselves fiscally responsible and spend $10 billion to $12 billion on a highway that all the independent experts say will save 30 to 60 seconds. It will pave over 2,000 acres of prime farmland. And I want to remind the members opposite: The food and farming sector in this province contributes $50 billion to the province’s GDP, employing over 880,000 people in this province. Why would we pave over the asset base of all that prosperity and all of those jobs, especially at a time when global geopolitical events and climate-fuelled droughts are driving up food prices? If we want to keep food prices low in this province, let’s protect farmland and let’s support the local farmers and the local supply chains that feed people in our communities.