Mr. Speaker, welcome back. I’d like to introduce the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation’s president, Karen Littlewood, and OSSTF legislative observer Paul Kossta, who are here with us today.

Also, I’d like to welcome Matthew Sawaya, Leo Lacroix, Frida Evans and Lourdes David—volunteers from my campaign. Thanks so much for being here. Welcome to Queen’s Park, everyone.

Applause.

I am pleased to welcome from Durham today: Trevor Hume; Greg Rowden; Larry Reynolds; Glenn Baswick; Cearra Howey; Scott Howey; Randy Farmer; Cris Douglas; Karey Anne Large; and my wife of 35 years, Kathy McCarthy.

Applause.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. You pre-empted me a little bit on one of the visitors we have here today, but I also want to welcome my family: my wife, Kim; and my five kids: Jaxon, Maverick, Emeric, Gemma—she just ducked down; she’s hiding—and Ryder. We don’t usually get to see them all here at once.

Interjections.

Applause.

Speaker, congratulations on your election. On the first day of the Legislature, the Ontario Nurses’ Association is here. I would like introduce their president, Cathryn Hoy, as well as Nour Alideeb and Angela Preocanin. Welcome to Queen’s Park, ladies.

Applause.

Thank you. The supplementary question.

Through you, Mr. Speaker: First of all, I want to welcome everyone back. It’s going to be an exciting session over the next little while. Also, again, I want to acknowledge the former Premier—what a great Premier, Premier Harris was.

Mr. Speaker, I will tell you what we’re doing to fix the situation we’re facing in health care. We’re fast-tracking more health care workers by directing the College of Physicians and Surgeons, along with the College of Nurses, to quickly approve the credentials of internationally trained health care workers. This builds on the 760 internationally trained nurses already deployed. In four years, as the Liberals were firing nurses—to be exact, 1,600 nurses—we’re actually hiring and we have hired 14,579 net new nurses. On top of that, we have hired over 10,500 health care workers through the COVID emergency staffing programs. We’ve also—

I’ll give you one example. We introduced the learn and stay grant for graduating nurses, so we will be taking care of their tuition and any cost if they serve in an underserved area. We’re going to focus on that. As I mentioned, we’re also investing another $342 million to add 5,000 more nurses to the system. If there were 5,000 nurses that could fly from the sky, we would be hiring them tomorrow. We’re coming up with solutions. We launched the largest medical school expansion in over 10 years—160 undergraduates along with 295 postgraduates. This is what we’re doing to make sure that we take care of the health care system.

We’re always going to make sure we’re there for our nurses. They do a spectacular job. We’ll always have their backs. But I understand they need to have more support, and that’s what we’re going to give them. We’re going to give them another 5,000 more colleagues. We’re going to pour money into the health care system, as we have. We’ve added billions and billions of dollars compared to the health care system four years ago that the NDP and the Liberals absolutely destroyed.

Again to the Premier: Families in each of these communities saw their ERs and urgent care centres close because they didn’t have enough nurses, PSWs or health care workers to treat patients. It’s clear to me and most Ontarians that we are in a crisis. But just a few days ago, the Minister of Health said it’s not a crisis.

How bad does it have to be before the minister and the Premier take action on the solutions that nurses and health care workers are proposing, take action to make sure we can deal with the crisis in our health care system?

It’s an honour to be able to rise today and talk about this very important issue. In our throne speech yesterday, we mentioned that we will build a health system that better cares for patients and keeps our province open. We are doing that with all of the partners, which is why I have met with the Ontario nurses’ union and I have met with the College of Nurses to say we need to expedite internationally trained nurses who are in the province of Ontario here today and waiting for those licences. We will continue to do that. We will work with all partners, including hospital CEOs, to make sure that when they need support to get the health care workers in emergency departments, they will be there and their government has their back.

It’s our health care workers who are putting forward solutions, and it’s the government that’s refusing to implement any of the solutions that they’re asking for.

This past weekend, Montfort and Carleton Place hospitals needed to close their emergency departments due to lack of staff. The Queensway Carleton Hospital, which has only been able to keep their ER open because of some creative staffing arrangements, has patients waiting up to 12 hours to be seen.

These wait times and closures are unacceptable in Ottawa and across the province. What is the government’s plan to ensure that Ottawa-area hospitals have the resources they need to keep ERs open and to provide patients with care in a reasonable amount of time?

Let me just thank the honourable member for the question, because it is obviously a very important one for the workers who are here with us today. It probably doesn’t matter to them or their family, but I know that for all of us on both sides of the House, our sympathies go out to the worker. I know we are very unified, all of us, in that.

I know at the same time that all of us, regardless of what side of the House we’re on, know how important it is to keep our workplaces safe, and that has been the priority of this Minister of Labour. But, Mr. Speaker, let me just say that it has not really mattered who has been serving in government; I would think that all parties, all the time, have put worker safety first.

I know that in this particular instance, an investigation was under way. There have been 75 visits. There are 78 orders with respect to National Steel Car. I know that the ministry has set up meetings with representatives of the company, as well as the union, and there are actions in front of the court with respect to occupational health and safety.

Thank you, Speaker, and congratulations on your re-election as Speaker.

For 42 years, under a Progressive Conservative government, Ontario became a manufacturing powerhouse, able to compete with any jurisdiction. Yet, under the previous Liberal government, jobs began to leave when high taxes, red tape and out-of-control electricity prices made Ontario one of the least competitive jurisdictions in North America. The result: 300,000 people lost their jobs when Liberal policies forced manufacturers right out of Ontario.

Now, Mr. Speaker, my question is a simple one: Can the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade assure my constituents, workers, their families and the communities that rely on manufacturing jobs that they will not be abandoned? And, specifically, will he highlight the measures he is taking to protect and grow the sector in Ontario?

Speaker, this past June, Statistics Canada provided an advance estimate of manufacturing sector sales reports. These reports indicate that manufacturing sales actually fell 1% in June, with the largest decreases in the aerospace product and parts industry.

The throne speech highlighted the need to grow the economy. It talked about risks to the economy. For my constituents, that means lost jobs. It means missed mortgage payments. What is the minister doing to protect families who rely on good jobs, local jobs, with manufacturers who are so important to communities right across Ontario?

We talk about preparing for, and we have done that. Ottawa is about to see the largest hospital expansion in the history of Ontario. We have made that commitment. We are working towards those solutions because we’ve worked with the organizations, the OMA.

We want to make sure that when people want to see their family doc, the family doc is available to see them, so we have expanded a program that allows them and funds them to see patients in the evening and on the weekends. Those types of quantitative, real solutions are going to make a difference. We are seeing people get the health care they need, where they want it, when they need it.

There is no doubt that when a hospital has to shut an emergency for four hours, for a shift, it is very challenging for the community. But we work with partners to make sure it is as seamless as possible and patients’ lives are protected.

Specifically related to your question, I think that you have already written me on that. We will look into it to make sure that due diligence has happened in that particular situation. But I want to reassure the people of Ontario and the people in the House that we are making those investments in Ottawa, in Windsor, in Niagara, in Brampton, to make sure that we have a health care system that is robust and prepared to protect the people of Ontario.

To reply, the Minister of Health.

Our government can assure Ontario families of our strong support for advanced manufacturers. We also understand the need to invest in the talent and equipment that they need to be our global leaders. Specifically, our advanced manufacturing and innovation competitiveness fund, or AMIC, does exactly that.

AMIC is our two-year, $40-million program that supports Ontario’s advanced manufacturing sector. Ontario companies are investing millions in equipment, advanced technologies and the skilled workforces they need to be competitive. Every week, you will hear about AMIC and our other investments in automotive, aerospace, life sciences, IT, chemicals, steel. These sectors each employ tens of thousands of workers and are the cornerstones of our economy, and each one is proof that Ontario is open for business.

Here’s an example of success from the member’s own riding: Cyclone Manufacturing is a leading global supplier of aerospace components. They just announced a $21.4-million expansion at their plants in Ontario to invest in new technologies, including advanced robotics. On Monday, we were at Cyclone to detail our government’s $1.5-million AMIC investment. This investment will bring back—it will reshore—60 jobs back to Ontario to do things that have been done outside of the country, and will provide upskilling for another 100 employees at Cyclone’s four plants in Mississauga and Milton.

The Liberals drove jobs away, and this is another example of our government bringing jobs back.

My question is to the Premier. Today in this House, we are joined by members of the United Steelworkers. Those members are grieving, because in June of this year they lost a brother to a workplace death at National Steel Car. His death was the third death in two years at the same workplace; a worker is dying at National Steel Car every seven months. That’s three workers whose families will never see them again, whose children will never see them again and whose communities are devastated and grieving their loss.

Mr. Speaker, it could not be more clear that this is an unsafe workplace. Workers do not go to work to die, not at National Steel Car or anywhere. When will the Premier and the minister take this seriously, meet with the United Steelworkers and make National Steel Car a safe place to work?

Every worker in our province deserves to survive their shift and return home healthy and safe. The United Steelworkers, who represent these workers, have demanded a meeting with the Minister of Labour to hold National Steel Car to account, to protect their members and to ensure people are safe at work.

Do you know what the minister has done with that request? He ignored it.

Just this week, two more workers have been killed at work in Ajax. Under the Westray law, government is supposed to provide training to law enforcement officers to make them aware of their responsibility to investigate workplace fatalities.

Speaker, will the Premier direct his Solicitor General to do this today and ask his Minister of Labour to stop hiding from the United Steelworkers? Above all, will he take any action at all to make workplaces in Ontario safe so workers can go to work to perform a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay and go home to their families?

I would invite the minister to have that conversation with my constituents, who are waiting 12 hours for care.

With health care in Ottawa already teetering on the brink, the Pinecrest-Queensway Community Health Centre in my riding of Ottawa West–Nepean is laying off health care workers with years of experience and good performance reviews. This is a tumultuous situation in which one-third of staff have been laid off or have left over the past three years. Community health centres serve some of our most vulnerable members. Now these patients are contacting my office to say they have nowhere to turn.

Will the Minister of Health launch an immediate investigation into the Pinecrest-Queensway Community Health Centre to ensure that funding and staffing decisions are being made in the best interests of patients?

I certainly appreciate the passion that the member brings to it. I can’t think of any situation that would be more horrific than for a family to receive a visit when a loved one is at work and to be told that their loved one will not be coming home—somebody who has worked day in and day out. I can’t think of something even more horrific than that.

Again, I say to those in attendance, all of us: our sympathies, directly to the families—not only in this incident, but of all workers who have died in the line of duty.

But at the same time, a lot of work has been done here. I know the member wants more, and there will be more because that’s what the Minister of Labour has been doing since the day he took the job.

As I highlighted earlier, there have been 75 visits to this facility. There are 73 orders required for National Steel Car and there is action in front of the courts with respect to health and safety contraventions by National Steel Car.

My question is to the Minister of Health. After spending weeks in hiding, avoiding accountability, the government is downplaying what Ontario Health is calling an unprecedented hospital staffing shortage. Grand River Hospital in Waterloo region was recently forced to close an operating room and postpone elective surgeries because 120 staff members were off with COVID-19. According to Health Quality Ontario, as of April, half of the hospitals whose average ER wait times top the provincial average were in Waterloo region. That average is over 19 hours waiting in an emergency room.

When will this government stop normalizing this grave position our health care system is in and start listening to health care professionals’ calls to action? Everything is not okay.

If this government was actually concerned about the urgency of what is happening in our health care system, they would listen to the ONA; they would listen to the RNAO and other groups of health care professionals and you would repeal Bill 124. Instead, the Minister of Health says repealing Bill 124 “is a conversation for another day.” That is a direct quote. Well, we think that day is right now. That day is today. Why is this government actively preventing nurses and other health care workers from being fairly compensated in our system?

Mr. Speaker, through you, to the member from Ajax: Thank you for the questions.

Because of our government’s commitment, we are getting it done for the people of northern Ontario. In April, chiefs of Marten Falls First Nation and Webequie First Nation announced that they have completed the terms of reference for the proposed northern road link environmental assessment.

The northern road link project is an Indigenous-led environmental assessment which integrates Indigenous principles with the provincial process. The northern road link will connect two proposed roads—the 200-kilometre Marten Falls to Aroland Community Access Road at the south end, and the proposed 110-kilometre Webequie Supply Road to the Ring of Fire at the northern end.

Our government remains committed to the success of this project, with nearly $1 billion in funding to support critical legacy infrastructure such as the planning and construction of an all-season road network and investments in high-speed Internet, road upgrades and other community projects.

It was a privilege to visit Webequie First Nation, and I look forward to continuing our important work with both communities.