Specific to the question with respect to that formula, we understand. It is something that the Minister of Agriculture was immediately alerted to—and contacted Health Canada and federal officials to ensure that there was a stable supply for the people of the province of Ontario.

I think the question in itself, though, highlights some of the other challenges that we’re having. The member highlights that when there is a lack of supply, prices increase and things become unaffordable. It’s at the heart of everything that we’ve been doing since 2018, here in the province of Ontario, because we understand that the way to bring costs down for the people of the province of Ontario is, in part—when it comes to housing, for instance, having more supply will reduce the costs for the people of the province of Ontario. And they have not been in favour of that.

We also understand that when it comes to red tape—by reducing red tape and obstacles, it helps bring the costs down.

At the same time, we brought in things like doubling of the ODSP.

We brought in, of course, the LIFT tax credit. We are there.

The Minister of Education, of course—bringing in a nation-leading child care program which is half the cost for the people of the province of Ontario.

So—

Thank you very much for the question.

I’d certainly be happy to look into this case, if you want to talk to me about it afterwards.

Nothing is more important to all of us than protecting the health and well-being of Ontarians, and especially our children.

We’re working with pediatric hospitals to ramp up their capacity wherever possible, and that means making permanent investments to increase the number of critical care beds at CHEO, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario; McMaster Children’s Hospital; London Health Sciences Centre Children’s Hospital; Hospital for Sick Children; and the Kingston Health Sciences Centre.

This government has invested almost $1 billion in the surgical recovery funding. We will continue to make the investments necessary and spare no expense to make sure that the people of this province, and especially our children, continue to have access to the quality care that they know and expect.

Stop the clock.

Order.

Start the clock.

Supplementary question.

I’d like to thank the incredible member from Thunder Bay–Atikokan for this question. Mr. Speaker, I was recently in Thunder Bay with him and I can tell you how truly impressive the sites are.

The ultimate goal of our correctional infrastructure projects is to create a safer environment for our correctional staff and those in our custody.

Not only have we expanded the current Thunder Bay Correctional Centre, but we’ve added a 50-bed new, modular, state-of-the-art build. We’ve also started breaking ground on the $1.2-billion correctional complex in Thunder Bay.

Mr. Speaker, public safety is the utmost priority for our government.

Monsieur le Président, pour moi, c’est personnel. Grâce au travail des services correctionnels, les Ontariens se sentent en sécurité dans leurs communautés.

I am truly excited by this project because we’re replacing out-of-date infrastructure that goes back to the 19th century. This new, modern facility will provide staff with the tools and technology and a healthy work environment to do their jobs safely and effectively.

And it has been an honour, I might say, to meet many native inmate liaison officers during my visits. These are truly amazing people.

Our new facility in Thunder Bay, due to be completed in about four years, will have a 345-bed capacity to address the pressures, create additional space for programming, and expand supports for inmates with mental health issues.

Monsieur le Président, je suis fier de notre personnel correctionnel tous les jours. Ce sont des gens formidables qui nous protègent au quotidien.

Deondra is a four-year-old child who has severe sleep apnea. A sleep test showed that 85% of Deondra’s airway is blocked by adenoids when sleeping, and she was referred for urgent surgery. Her surgery was scheduled for March at SickKids but was cancelled, and the reason given for the postponement was the COVID surgical backlog. Worse, a new date was not given. SickKids have told the family that they’re trying to get through as fast as they can. We know they have a backlog of 12,000 surgeries.

Speaker, Deondra has had to be resuscitated at least once after nearly suffocating to death while sleeping.

My question is, how long does the Premier think is an appropriate time for Deondra to wait?

My question is for the Premier.

The alarm bells have been ringing for a while now. The cost of living continues to rise astronomically. Grocery stores are raising food prices. Landlords are raising rents. People are falling behind, and they’re now turning to food banks in record numbers.

In Toronto, for example, the number of people relying on food banks has quadrupled over the last three years. At the Daily Bread Food Bank, there were nearly 270,000 visits in March alone—a record. One third of visitors actually have full-time employment, but they cannot make ends meet. For the first time in 25 years, under this government, the number of children using food banks is going up. One in four visitors at the Daily Bread Food Bank is a child.

Ontario is experiencing a crisis of food insecurity.

We’re talking about hard-working people who can no longer keep up with the skyrocketing cost of living.

Why is this government failing so spectacularly at protecting Ontarians from falling victim to food insecurity?

When the level of food insecurity has reached the epic proportions we are seeing now, it is a clear sign of this government’s failures. We are literally talking about parents and children struggling to eat—even parents who have full-time jobs, making more than minimum wage.

We need to adequately address the historic levels of inflation Ontarians are experiencing with proactive financial relief.

The rising costs of things like food and housing have vastly outpaced this government’s half-hearted measures as they pay lip service to the struggles of Ontarians. For a government with $44 billion in contingency funds, $12.5 billion in excess funds over the next three years, and a well-documented underspending habit, you would think they could find some room in their budget to address the most essential needs.

Something isn’t right.

How can this government run a province, let alone an economy, if hard-working families with full-time jobs can’t even afford to feed their children?

My question is for the Solicitor General.

Constituents in my riding of Thunder Bay–Atikokan see that significant work is under way in correctional facilities across the north. Major infrastructure developments are occurring in facilities located in Thunder Bay and Kenora. It is vital that modernization and improvements to these facilities address the safety needs for staff and provide a high standard of care and supervision for those in custody. All workers need to be assured that they have the tools they need to do their jobs safely and well.

Can the Solicitor General please provide information about the progress and implications of these projects?

While our government is taking action to prioritize safety for correctional staff and for those in custody, we must respond to serious concerns about capacity pressures in the correctional system. Overcrowding creates a difficult, unsafe and unhealthy environment for everyone and leads to increased workplace health and safety concerns.

Can the Solicitor General please elaborate on how these infrastructure projects are addressing capacity in Ontario’s corrections system?

Speaker, Deondra’s mother, Chanel, and her grandmother Sylvia are in the gallery today. I invite the member to meet with them after question period.

Both Mom and Grandma don’t sleep. They stay up all night watching Deondra to make sure she doesn’t suffocate to death. They are panicked and exhausted.

This is the experience of so many families across Ontario, and yet this government underspends on health care.

Speaker, every day Deondra waits for surgery is another day she risks losing her life; it’s another day the family is put in stress and anxiety.

Will the Premier ensure that every public operating room in this province stays open and is fully staffed so kids like Deondra can get the surgery they urgently need and not have to wait and roll the dice?

My question is for the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.

Veterans have always held an important and special place in my heart. They defend the rights and freedoms that we often take for granted.

In conversations with members from my Legion, we speak about the responsibilities of the Royal Canadian Legion and Veterans Affairs Canada and the needs of veterans.

Could the minister please share a program that we have put in place by our government that supports our veterans?

When we think of veterans, many of us instinctively think about our older generations, those who served in the world wars and the Korean War.

However, the reality is that there are many young veterans who served Canada in more recent conflicts, such as the Afghanistan war. It is vital that programs and supports adapt to meet their modern supply needs for their families.

Can the minister please elaborate on how the Soldiers’ Aid Commission is responding to younger generations of veterans?

Mr. Speaker, we are very cognizant of the disproportionality impacting racialized and Indigenous students in Ontario. It’s the basis for why we essentially eliminated the ability of principals and educators to suspend children in kindergarten and grades 1, 2 and 3. There’s got to be a better way by which we can ensure these young people are focused and stay in school, integrated in their classrooms, than to suspend them at that young age.

Mr. Speaker, we also saw the data that informed the decision of this government to destream the entire grade 9 curriculum, on the basis that we want to give young people equal opportunity and a pathway to success by removing the barriers that impede their progress.

We know there’s more to do in the context of fighting racism, discrimination and barriers in school. I look forward to working with the community to build further initiatives we can undertake in this province to ensure every young person graduates, achieves and gets a good job in this province.

When the NDP and Liberals had an opportunity to work with the government to eradicate regulation 274, a regressive regulation that denies principals the ability to hire a highly talented racialized educator in a community with many racialized kids, they opposed that effort.

If members opposite wanted to advance the cause of anti-racism, you would have supported the government destreaming the curriculum; you would have supported the government when, for the first time in the history of Canada, we actually overtook and supervised a board on the basis of anti-Black racism.

We have taken action in this area; unfortunately, we’ve done so without the support of the NDP and the Liberals in this province.

Thank you again to the member opposite for the question.

Obviously, this government has pulled out all the stops and is in the midst of the largest health human resources recruitment and training-retention initiative in Ontario’s history. We’ve made record investments, as the Premier noted earlier—60,000 new nurses here in Ontario, and 8,000 new doctors, including 1,800 family physicians. We are going to continue to make those investments. That’s part of the reason we brought forward Bill 60.

We’re also, in our Your Health plan, expanding family health teams. We’ve got a $30-million investment in that.

We’re doing everything we can to make sure that Ontarians get the kind of care that they know and deserve.

My question is for the Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity.

The development of technology in recent years has driven a push for more technical training in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, also known as STEM.

However, the numbers of women employed in technology careers, as well as in trades-related occupations, are well below their male counterparts. This is troubling, especially with the overwhelming labour shortages in many sectors across our province.

It is essential that all students are exposed to technological education, to learn critical skills so they can succeed in a good-paying job.

Can the associate minister please explain how our government is empowering students, especially young women, to prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow?

This question is to the Minister of Education. Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board trustee Sabreina Dahab this week successfully passed a motion to redraft 2022-23 suspension and expulsion data to show desegregated categories such as gender and race by June 2023, because she knows what it will show: that kids in schools who are the most impacted by discretionary suspensions and expulsions are Black, racialized, Indigenous and disabled students.

We have the data to support that suspensions and expulsions don’t work. They perpetuate the school-to-prison pipeline.

In 2020, the minister announced a ban on discretionary suspensions for children in kindergarten to grade 3. Is the minister willing to extend this ban to include all elementary school students?

The data is clear: Discretionary suspensions are a tool that feeds racism, anti-Black racism and ableism in our school system.

Will the Minister of Education answer Trustee Dahab’s question and extend your ban on discretionary suspensions for kids in elementary school to go beyond grade 3?

Supplementary question.

I want to thank the great member from Ajax for the great work that she does in her riding.

Thank you very much for the important question.

I know the debt that we owe to veterans for the sacrifices they have made to our country, and that they continue to make to make sure that we live in a better place.

Mr. Speaker, Ontario is the only province in Canada with a financial assistance program created specifically for veterans. The Soldiers’ Aid Commission provides financial assistance for veterans and their families of up to $2,000 per household for the following items: health-related items like hearing aids, glasses, prescriptions and dental needs; services like home repairs, moving costs or furniture; specialized equipment like assistive devices, wheelchair and prosthetics; personal items; and employment-related supports like work clothes, workboots, short-term courses to improve employment opportunities.

I will have more to say in the supplementary.

Mr. Speaker, we must never forget the bravery and sacrifice of our veterans.

I thank each and every person who serves us in uniform.

Thank you to the member from Newmarket–Aurora, a great member in that community.

I am proud that our government is taking action to ensure that students across the province have the tools and skills they need to build prosperity for their generation in Ontario. Our Minister of Education has worked diligently to ensure that this becomes a reality.

I was honoured to participate in the announcement with the Minister of Education that our government will be revising the grade 9/10 curriculum and implementing the requirement for students to take at least one technological course. This is great for all students, but especially for girls, who will now have even more exposure to the highly rewarding fields in STEM. This is reassuring news for me, as a public servant and a mother—that we are taking the right measures to prepare young women to pursue fulfilling careers in the skilled trades and STEM. This supports the creation of thousands of jobs that are being triggered by—

Young women deserve a life of opportunity and one that will help them become successful leaders in any industry they choose. Part of navigating that success is exposing young women to non-traditional careers early in their education.

Our government’s commitment to equip students with the skills they need in STEM will prepare them for careers for the future.

Young women who traditionally may have been discouraged from entering the trades will now develop skills and knowledge that will help them understand and contribute to the technological advances in the changing workplace and world.

The recent changes in the graduation requirement are another step our government is taking to increase women’s participation in the workforce and empower them to succeed in sectors that are vital to our economy. We have taken these steps because we know that when women succeed, Ontario succeeds.

Thank you to the minister for that response. This is all good news for the people of Ontario.

Since day one, our government, under the leadership of the Premier, has been committed to eliminating barriers to economic success for all Ontarians and acknowledging the unique contributions of diverse communities.

Throughout my home region of Windsor-Essex, we have not only seen a rich history of people of African descent, but we are also seeing many active community organizations and projects dedicated to preserving this vital history and building a bright future ahead. The Black community, as well as other diverse communities and their businesses, are truly crucial to the growth and success of Windsor and the surrounding areas.

Can the minister please elaborate on the supports that are available for diverse communities across Ontario?

Mr. Clark moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 97, An Act to amend various statutes with respect to housing and development / Projet de loi 97, Loi modifiant diverses lois en ce qui concerne le logement et l’aménagement.

Thank you to the associate minister for that response. It is encouraging that all students will have an opportunity to explore options for career pathways in technology and trades-related occupations through hands-on experiences and technical skills learned in the classroom.

Our government must implement solutions now that will help address Ontario’s significant labour shortages.

It is projected that by 2026 approximately one in five job openings in Ontario will be in skilled trades-related fields. With more than 100,000 unfilled skilled trades jobs right now, it is critical that our government does all that we can to attract more young women to pursue fulfilling, good-paying careers in the trades.

Can the minister please elaborate on how technological education will help prepare young women to pursue careers in sectors that are vital to our economy?

The proposed Helping Homebuyers, Protecting Tenants Act would amend the Planning Act, the City of Toronto Act, the Residential Tenancies Act, the Municipal Act and other legislation.

The proposed changes continue to build on the actions we’ve taken to ensure we reach our goal of building 1.5 million homes by 2031.

The bill and proposed regulations would, if passed, encourage more housing by supporting a new provincial policy statement, make life easier for renters and freeze government fees.

In partnership with municipalities, our proposed changes would support Ontarians by helping to increase housing supply across our province.