Holding a power of majority government? You should be a lawyer—you say you’re a lawyer; you should know this.

The thing is, they were a majority, and you were the official opposition, so you voted, percentage-wise—and you can verify it; it’s on record—the same as us, if not a little bit less than us.

My question is to the minister. For the bait zoning, I’d like to hear from you where we are with—where your government is, because—

When your Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre met President Biden, he was clear that opposition was an act of loyalty. So I want to make sure—His Majesty’s loyal opposition—that’s what we’re doing, our job here, holding you to account, just like your Conservative leader has said.

My question is very specific. You talk about not wanting duplication or red tape. You’ve taken out the Auditor General’s ability to audit the Office of the Children’s Lawyer. The Attorney General said, “We don’t want to hire more people. We don’t want to spend taxpayers’ dollars.” So explain to me why, then, you are requiring audits, for example, in the city of Toronto. The city of Toronto has auditors. They audit their books. They do all of that work. They have a chief financial officer. But you’re requiring an external audit to see how they can recoup all of those development charges that are leaving a hole in their revenue. How do you explain that duplication?

Ça m’étonne toujours d’entendre le gouvernement dire que le NPD a « propté » les libéraux quand ils étaient au pouvoir. Hier, on entendait le député de Kitchener–Conestoga dire, comment can you prop up a government when they’re a majority?

The Conservatives should think about this, because they were in power—the last time, the Liberals were in power for two majorities, but you were the official opposition.

Vous étiez officiellement—

Interjection.

Further questions?

Pursuant to standing order 50(c), I am now required to interrupt the proceedings and announce that there have been six and a half hours of debate on the motion for second reading of this bill. This debate will therefore be deemed adjourned, unless the government House leader directs the debate to continue.

I recognize the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry.

Thank you for letting me give my inaugural speech today.

The word “hooyo,” which means “mother” in Somali, is derived from the root word “hooy,” which translates directly into the word “home.” My mother provided me within her own physical body my first home and birthed me into a world that wasn’t built for me. She gave me the tools I needed to survive in this world, as a child with cerebral palsy who was deemed a vegetable at birth and a future burden to the state.

Under the leadership and wisdom of my mother, I learned the beauty of unconditional love and compassion. I also learned what it meant to advocate fiercely for those you love through watching her navigate impossible circumstances in order to raise me and my siblings. She single-handedly pushed back against discriminatory pressures from school boards when I was told in grade school that I didn’t belong in integrated classrooms. My mother pushed to make sure that I had the best health care access and supports in place when navigating systems steeped in misogynoir and ableism. She taught me to speak up for myself at times when no one would listen. If not for her, I wouldn’t be here today, so I’m beginning this off by thanking her.

I also want to thank everyone in Hamilton Centre who has shown me, through their constant commitment to organizing, what radical love and care can look like. Thank you to Sahra, Sabreina, Amr, Koubra, Ahona, Vic, Kojo, Rain, Matthew, and so many others for believing in me and pushing me as your comrade to run for office. Thank you to Daniela for being the backbone of my campaign, and to Sara, Shirven, Robbie, Anika, Davin, Daunte and so many others—alongside the Ontario NDP caucus—for the countless hours that you spent over your lives that you committed toward sending me to Queen’s Park.

Of course, thank you to everyone in Hamilton Centre who voted to support my candidacy.

My name is Sarah Jama. I am 28 years old, and I’m the newest addition to the Ontario NDP caucus. I represent the riding of Hamilton Centre—a riding within a working-class city with strong labour roots, filled with caring community members who support one another when times get tough. Throughout the years, my friends and I have organized to make sure that care has been felt in this riding. To us, over the last decade, care has looked like a number of us delegating at council, asking for investments into our public transit system; it has looked like a number of us organizing to feed thousands of disabled residents, at the onset of the pandemic, through a makeshift, community-led, community-funded food delivery service.

This care in our community has looked like non-profits banding together to push for vaccine prioritization for COVID-19 for Black and racialized people in Hamilton, and community-run vaccine clinics. In fact, Hamilton was the first city to prioritize Black, racialized and disabled people for vaccines—and it was part of that work.

This care also looks like hundreds of Muslims who gathered at Bayfront Park last year to pray together in public, in solidarity with hate crime victims in London, Ontario.

This care has looked like many of us working together as organizers to successfully get police out of schools in the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board.

This care has looked like many of us standing out in the rain, watching police officers shove the tents and belongings of homeless people, some of whom were pregnant, into the garbage, and doing all we could to replace those lost belongings.

Care in Hamilton Centre has looked like a number of us, at 20-something years old—and I’m including myself in that—starting non-profit organizations like the Disability Justice Network of Ontario or the Hamilton Encampment Support Network, trying over and over again to fill gaps created by cruel and harmful bylaws and legislation which work in tandem to continuously criminalize disabled people without homes for trying to survive.

This care has looked like a number of us in Hamilton Centre who made the decision to camp outside in the freezing cold for two weeks in Hamilton, in solidarity with houseless folks who died in part due to no housing or shelter options being available.

This care in Hamilton Centre has looked like a number of us getting arrested because we were trying to stop the eviction of Black and Indigenous people from a park in the aftermath of a traumatic fire, where their belongings were lost.

This care in Hamilton Centre has looked like a number of us continuing to try to improve the material conditions of those around us, with very little resources, over and over and over again, while some of us experienced housing precarity ourselves or were deeply unwell.

This care has looked like organizing multiple funerals for our friends, who shouldn’t have died a year ago—almost to the day.

This care has looked like organizing peaceful demonstrations to call attention to the ways police have harmed our communities.

This care has looked like my friends and I running for office at different levels and being successful in Hamilton Centre, succeeding in those elections, fuelled by the desire to improve the material conditions of people who are struggling. I’m shouting out my fellow organizer Sabreina Dahab, who is now a trustee, and Cameron Kroetsch, who is a councillor in ward 2—

This care has looked like, in Hamilton Centre, us organizing peaceful demonstrations to call attention to the ways police have caused harm in our communities.

This care has looked like my friends and I running for office at different levels of government in Hamilton Centre, succeeding in those multiple elections within the last few years, fuelled by the desire to improve the material conditions of people who are struggling in this riding.

Mr. Speaker, I want this House to be very clear that I am not here as an elected official today because I believe wholly that the system is fixable solely by electing good-faith actors. Last night, I was speaking with Mariame Kaba at a Police Free Schools meeting, She is an accomplished author, organizer and abolitionist. She reminded me that I am here to keep my foot in the door to keep the rupture that was successfully caused by my successful election open. And I agree with her. I am here today because of what has been and continues to be at stake under the leadership of the Ford government and to draw attention to it. But nobody in this House seems capable of absolutely fixing what this government continues to intentionally break.

Disabled people who are homeless continue to get stuck in this shelter-to-park-to-prison-to-park cycle because there is nowhere else to go. Shelters demand that you change how your body functions, including suddenly stopping the use of drugs, in order to access supports—a completely ableist framework, that you must change how your body needs to function in that moment in order to access care and love. Jails like the Barton Jail in my riding routinely withhold psychiatric medications from people who have been arrested, contributing to that prison-to-park-to-shelter pipeline.

Disabled people on the Ontario Disability Support Program or Ontario Works are living under legislated poverty, unable to afford food or rent. This government is well aware of that.

Many people are choosing and have chosen medical assistance in dying because of no other options being made available. It can take up to two years to access a pain clinic in this province.

In fact, someone I know in Hamilton successfully used MAID because she was vomiting cyclically due to her disabilities, and while on ODSP, she couldn’t afford the food she needed in order to live the life that she wanted. She has passed away.

We have seen so much death in Hamilton Centre, and that’s the only catalyst that pushed us to run to access a bit of power.

Disabled people have been warehoused in crumbling long-term-care systems under this government, without real choice, and the privatization of our health care system is a direct attack on the sickest members of our communities. People deserve the right to age in place at home, instead of sitting in their feces and urine for days on end, like Chris Gladders did, before he chose to die through MAID because he was in at LTC and was not being provided supports.

I would argue that together, these legislative decisions and underfunded social assistance, while continuing to warehouse disabled people and fund the disproportionate criminalization of disabled people in poverty, work together to paint the picture of modern-day eugenics.

This government has been so preoccupied with being tough on crime and sending people back to work, when the truth is, people have multiple jobs and still can’t afford to live in this province; when the truth is, criminalization is disabling, rips people away from stability and is not rehabilitative; when the truth is, some disabled people can’t work and are punished for it through underfunded social assistance rates.

Today, I am thinking of all the racialized disabled people I know who have died after being forced to interact with the so-called justice system: Soliman Faqiri, a Muslim man with schizophrenia who was beaten to death by prison guards; DeAndre Campbell, who was 25—he was younger than me—and routinely called police for help when he was in crisis, but he was killed by a rookie cop on the job who thought he was a threat; Ejaz Chowdhury, a Muslim man who was killed on a mental health call; and so many others I could name, who were not only racialized but disabled too and needed supports.

None of this is normal. It’s not normal that people can’t afford their medications. It is not normal that disabled people are warehoused into long-term care or are overrepresented in our prison systems. It is not normal that people can’t afford places to live and then get into trouble for having nowhere to live. It is not normal that sending kids to school these days with a smile is nearly impossible for parents of disabled students. It is not normal that teachers are taken to court. It is not normal that the people in this House with the most legislative power to do good are causing so much harm.

There have been a lot of questions leading up to me taking this seat in the House about who I am, what motivates me and what issues I care about. There has also been a lot of fearmongering about me as the “defund” caucus member.

Let me be really clear: My goal as an elected official is to take care of the people in my riding by improving their material conditions as best as I can, because I truly believe we don’t have any other options left. I am not here to get lost in the theatrics of this colonial place. I am here to bring light to the issues impacting working-class people and to support my caucus in forming government in 2026, under the leadership of Marit Stiles, because we do not have any other options left. People are dying because of the choices made by people across this aisle.

I’m here to collaborate with my comrades Trustee Dahab, Councillor Krotesch, Councillor Nann, and MP Green in Hamilton Centre to also make sure we are building a riding in Hamilton Centre that continues to take care of those who need support the most.

Mostly, I am here and participating in this system as an elected official to hold this government accountable for the harms caused.

My question is to the member for Durham, and the question is very simple. If you look at the title, it says, “Less Red Tape, Stronger Ontario.” What is the correlation between the two?

When it comes to innovation and delivery and getting it done, the people of this province and, I can tell you, the people in the hamlets in my riding who have not had that Internet access—they don’t care how it’s delivered, as long as it’s fair, reasonable, and the government has an ability to have oversight and to keep costs down. That’s what we’re doing. That’s what we’re committed to. The kind of question that is raised here results in the kind of dithering that doesn’t get it done. The people in my riding in those hamlets have been waiting a long time, and we’re going to get it done for them. Promises made, promises kept.

Less red tape means a stronger Ontario; a stronger Ontario means building Ontario; building Ontario means tens of thousands of more jobs; more jobs means that we have productivity, growth and prosperity for all and the ability to fund the core public services that all Ontarians rely upon.

Ontario is stronger when we have less red tape, and we have growth because we have less red tape and regulatory burden. That is what this bill, as part of a series, is all about.

Please continue the debate.

I congratulate the newly elected member from Hamilton Centre on her election on March 16 and joining us in this 43rd Parliament—although the newest member of the provincial Parliament, we will all be in the picture for the 43rd Parliament, with our names on the wall, after this Parliament is complete.

I just want to ask—I get teased about this: I ran a couple of times to try to get here, before I got here. It looks like the member successfully ran and won the first time. Going way, way back, I was in student politics, student government at the University of Toronto, right next door. How many elections has the member run in, compared to me—student included?

I thank the speaker for her passionate remarks this morning. I could hear that passion across the aisle. All of us choose to seek elected office in their own timing and pace, and for some it happens later in life, even those with grey hair like mine. I wonder if the member could explain to the House when her decision first arose and when that passion first started for her.

It is now time for questions.

Thank you for the question.

I’ve been pretty involved in politics for some time because I see it as a form of harm reduction. I don’t believe in removing ourselves from the space. I co-managed the successful campaign of Councillor Nrinder Nann. I’ve been involved in the provincial and the federal levels of the NDP for some time.

I made the decision to run when my predecessor announced that she would step down. My friends and I worked together to sign up over 600 people to the party, to show that people want to re-engage in politics. People have been disengaged for a long time, in general. Voter turnout is abysmal, in general. I think in deciding to run, it was a statement of, it’s not just me taking this seat, but it’s a lot of us who care about wanting to be involved.

I listened intently to my new colleague from Hamilton Centre.

I would just like her to describe a feeling that we have all felt the first time that we were in this Legislature as an elected official.

I think it’s safe to say that few, if any, of us have faced the challenges that you have getting here—and if you could just describe what it was like coming into the Legislature, as an elected MPP, for the first time.

I’m very pleased to ask my colleague a question after her inaugural speech.

I came to this place as an educator, and I know how important it is to inspire youth, to have youth engaged in our process in this House.

What do you think it would mean to the girls in grade 5 who are learning about government for the first time, to the grade 10 students who are learning about civics, when they see you here? What might that mean for them?

To the new member for Hamilton Centre: I’m very glad to see you here today. You spoke with such passion. Your commitment to the causes that you spoke to was overwhelming. It was literally one of, if not the best, inaugural speeches I’ve heard, going back to our first class in 2018.

You mentioned misogynoir; I know that a lot of people, if not everyone in this building, doesn’t know what you’re talking about. I’m wondering if you could explain what misogynoir is and also how that impacted you as you were running, how you feel it may impact you in this House, and what tools, what practices or what communities you will lean on to be supported. This House, as you said, was not built for you and I, but we are here, and we are doing as good as we can for the people of Ontario. I’m wondering how and what your support system looks like whenever you bump up against misogynoir or other systems of oppression.

I want to thank the member from Hamilton Centre for being here. Congratulations on your victory.

I ran in my riding in 2017 for the nomination. My family has been in that riding since 1950. I was told by people that I wasn’t good enough for that community, as the son of an Italian immigrant. I ended up winning the nomination, and I defeated probably the toughest Liberal opponent—the finance minister—in that riding.

What was your toughest challenge getting here?

Thank you to the member for that passionate story you told for this House.

I came as a political refugee, and I never thought that one day I was going to be in this House.

Thank you for sharing your stories.

I left a war-torn country—same as you and your native land. You left your war-torn country in East Africa. I know you brought a different perspective as a woman, diverse—and you’re going to put in so much value and so many ideas to this House.

I would ask the member, what made you choose to come to this position? What voice do you want to bring to this House? I’d like to hear that from you.

Further questions?

I hope it means that they’ll consider running one day.

These spaces were not built for a lot of us. They were built for a very small number of people who understand how these colonial processes work. Every day I come in here, I’m still very confused about why you all are clapping or banging your desks. I’m figuring it out.

What it means is that this process becomes more accessible and that everyday people can decide that they will choose to run one day.

When I talk about policing, it’s because I know people who have died.

When I talk about Palestinian human rights, it’s because, literally, I know Palestinians who have been affected.

The media and people in this House have taken my stances and vilified the person instead of talking about actual issues, so I found that really, really difficult to navigate, because it erased my humanity and the humanity of the very people I was talking about during the entire course of the campaign.