Thank you to the member for that question.

We are already seeing the impact of this. We did a look at the projected property tax increases for municipalities all across the GTHA, and they’re seeing an increase of upwards of 7%, 8% in property tax increases at the same time as we’re seeing service cuts and infrastructure cuts.

AMO estimates that, overall, municipalities will lose about $5 billion in infrastructure revenue over the next nine years because of Bill 23, and it’s already impacting housing development and housing starts. Waterloo has a development that they have had to delay because they don’t have the funding to provide the necessary infrastructure to hook that subdivision up to the broader community. So it’s affecting your own goals.

The biggest expense that people have today is housing. When I look at the cost of housing in Ontario, when I look at the cost of rent, the legacy of this government is, it has made it extremely difficult for people to get by. Over the last five years, housing prices have gone up, the price of a mortgage has gone up, the cost of rent has gone up, and that is exactly what is making it difficult for people to find a home, live a good life, pay the bills, raise their children. That legacy is on you.

The government’s response to addressing the housing crisis has been abysmal.

In order to address the housing affordability and housing supply crisis that we have, we certainly need to build 1.5 million new homes in areas zoned for development.

We need to end exclusionary zoning—so going further than the government went in Bill 23.

We need to stabilize rent prices, because 30% of Ontarians’ rent—and they’re paying more on average now, in some cities, than people are paying in a mortgage. They can’t save up enough money for a down payment because rent is so expensive.

We need to clamp down on investor-led speculation—so we build homes for people who intend to live in them.

And we need to establish a public builder to construct affordable housing on public land at cost.

We have long called for a public builder to construct affordable housing on public land at cost. When you look at—

Interjection.

Interjection.

That is a very different approach than what this government is doing, where they’re selling off land in secret contracts to for-profit builders to build luxury condos. That is not the—

I just want to talk a little bit about transit, as the member mentioned that in his debate as well.

In southwestern Ontario—in London, specifically—our Via Rail service was cut tremendously. Greyhound, the bus line, has stopped running. The government did have a pilot project for GO Transit in London, but it’s just not adequate enough.

I looked through the budget, and there are so many infrastructure and transit projects here.

I want to ask the member why London was left out of the transit projects that need to happen so that the southwestern corridor is part of the economic hub that you’re trying to build.

Thank you to the member for his speech.

We do understand that we are in uncertain economic times right now, and the people who are being hit the hardest are our most vulnerable.

The member from London North Centre made a comment about the stresses on seniors right now.

So I have to ask the question: Will the opposition support our proposed expansion of the Guaranteed Annual Income System program, starting July 2024, so that another 100,000 seniors will be eligible to receive monthly payments?

Although this budget is doing truly wonderful things for the entire province, I want to highlight the amazing initiatives that are outlined for the residents of York region.

For far too long, residents of Newmarket–Aurora have complained about the gridlock on our roads and highways, with a public transit system that left riders longing for a transit system that is more accessible, easy to use and, most importantly, more convenient to use.

Earlier this week, I was reading an email from a constituent of mine. He voiced his concerns to me about how our transit system is not convenient if you are planning a trip downtown. This constituent was trying to get to the Scotiabank Arena to watch a Leafs game. He wanted to know, what is our government doing to improve transit?

Madam Speaker, this is part of our Building a Strong Ontario Act. We are investing $70.5 billion over the next 10 years for transit, including the electrification of our GO Transit system and building a second track so that the residents of my riding can expect 15-minute, two-way GO trains from Aurora to Union Station and back again. This means that Steve, my constituent, can get to that Leafs game conveniently.

By the way, Steve, you’re going to be able to pay for getting on the GO train with your credit card. Just tap and go.

Building a strong Ontario means that we will eliminate double fares for most local transit services when commuters use GO Transit.

Our government is also working on the largest subway expansion in Canadian history by building the Ontario Line, the Scarborough subway extension, the Yonge North subway extension and the Eglinton Crosstown West extension.

We will make the necessary improvements required to finally create an easy-to-use and connected public transit system which will serve generations to come.

We have also designated $27.9 billion to support the planning and construction of highway expansion and rehabilitation. Part of this money will go toward constructing a bridge crossing over the future Bradford Bypass, which will allow Yonge Street, between 8th Line and 9th Line, to cross over the future Bradford Bypass. The project will also widen County Road 4, from two to four lanes. For my constituents—both businesses and residents—they will have faster access and lesser commute times.

I recall speaking with a constituent last May who is a driver for one of the big courier services and, oh, what praises he sung to me about how he will be able to deliver packages faster, instead of sitting in heavily congested traffic, and he’ll be able to do his work much more efficiently.

Our plan to continue helping to grow the economy by getting shovels in the ground to build key infrastructure projects will provide jobs for years to come.

Ontario is helping workers, job seekers and apprentices get the skills they need to take on new opportunities and advance their careers with an additional $75 million over the next three years to enhance the Skills Development Fund. In my riding of Newmarket–Aurora, there are many great benefits for my constituents that extend to all of York region and even Peel region.

Construct, a Blue Door enterprise, is a non-profit that has been a recipient of the Skills Development Fund grant program. They have people in their program who come from Ontario Works and other social programs—people who are looking to learn a trade, gain a pathway to a good-paying job. The results speak for themselves: Over 240 people have graduated from their program in less than two years and are now working in good-paying construction jobs with benefits and a pension. This program is helping people go from minimum wage jobs, where they found they had no purpose, to a job that is allowing them to realize their dreams.

By creating jobs and helping Ontarians gain the skills they need to obtain good-paying jobs, our government is helping Ontarians build themselves a prosperous life while also building the province together.

As I shift into the health portion of my remarks, I would like to express my appreciation to all of Ontario’s health care professionals for your work, your dedication and your commitment to delivering exceptional care to the people of Ontario during the pandemic, and continuing today.

I am proud to say that our government is making health care more connected and convenient for the people of Ontario. Since the fall economic statement was released, the government has increased health sector investments by an additional $15.3 billion over three years.

It is my privilege to stand in this House today and detail how our government is investing in care for Ontarians that is more easily accessible and connected.

Our health care system has been under great pressure; specifically, during the pandemic. However, in the decade-plus leading up to the pandemic, we were dealing with an abundance of hallway health care. This is not good enough for Ontarians. We have a world-class health system but one that needs our help to improve quality of care.

We are helping the system to succeed in serving Ontarians by reducing surgical wait times and increasing diagnostic imaging accessibility. The sooner patients are diagnosed, the better the outcome.

We knew we needed to be innovative and creative to solve hallway health care.

I am proud to announce that the government is reducing wait times for people across the province by investing an additional $72 million over the 2023-24 fiscal year to make more surgeries available at community, surgical and diagnostic centres, to connect people to care faster. This investment will allow hospitals to focus their time and efforts on more complex and high-risk surgeries, will ease the pressure on emergency departments, and will reduce surgical wait-lists.

Speaker, I want to focus specifically on what we are doing to help young Ontarians access care. We have committed more than $200 million—

I want to thank the honourable member for his question and welcome members from the isolated northern communities.

From the outset, our government has been focused on consensus and relationship-building when it comes to resource projects and legacy infrastructure—in fact, it started a couple of years ago.

I know that Alvin Fiddler is in the galleries here today.

I think back to when the member from Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke was the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry and we revamped that piece of legislation to reflect consensus. I appreciated that then—the ability for us to sit at a table, build partnerships, friendships, relationships that reflect the need to build out our northern infrastructure and resource projects around consensus.

Many, if not most, of the communities that are represented here today, I’ve had a special opportunity to live in or work in and/or work for, Mr. Speaker, and I can tell you that they all want better infrastructure. They all, for the most part, want road access to improve the health, social and economic opportunities for their communities.

That’s what a provincial government does. We create the platforms for these kinds of resource activities to advance responsibly and safely, at the same time creating new opportunities, real opportunities, for isolated communities, that their members are asking me for every single day—

I would tell the Premier and the minister, if she will respond to the second question I have here, that you can’t have financial disclosure in the dark.

This is what we know: We know the southern portion of the Ontario Line, as the government has currently proposed, is going to cost nearly a billion dollars per kilometre—nearly a billion dollars. But the Spadina subway extension that was completed in 2017 cost $384 million per kilometre. So what has happened? We can’t simply blame the pandemic, because an April 2020 report reported that subway costs had doubled under this government.

What I see, sadly, at Metrolinx and Infrastructure Ontario are a lot of public-private partnership consultants—former staff members of this government who seem to be enriching themselves at the expense of the Ontario public.

So I ask the Premier, are you going to rein in these private consultants, these P3 financiers, and get our subway costs under control?

My question is for the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.

Across the province and particularly in my riding of Windsor–Tecumseh, it is evident that our government is working hard to build Ontario for the next generation. Many construction projects are under way across the region, both residentially and as business ventures. The pile-driving we’re hearing across the riding says it all. Local investments are driving a number of initiatives. With the investments made by our government for employers and for infrastructure projects, there’s a lot of activity taking place that will help our neighbourhoods of Windsor–Tecumseh succeed. However, in order to see these projects through to completion, we need to make sure we have the people to do the work.

Can the minister please explain what actions our government is taking to attract more workers to the construction sector?

We are building Ontario. We are indeed building Ontario, because we have a duty to our children. I think of the member from Kitchener–Conestoga: five children who are younger than mine. We have a duty to those youth to leave things better than we found them, and that’s why it gives me great pleasure to speak about the budget today.

We have five simple pillars. We need to build Ontario’s economy for today and for tomorrow. We have to build our highways. We have to build transit. We have to build infrastructure.

The first lesson that I learned on county council was that there’s good debt and there’s bad debt. When you’re spending money on operations, when you’re loaning money for operations, you’re in trouble. You’re in trouble in your household; you’re in trouble as a province of Ontario. But when you’re spending money for the future, for subways, for highways, for hospitals, for courthouses, you’re building for the future. That investment will always come back to you, and that’s good debt. That’s why I’m proud that we’re doing that.

We are working for workers. We’re working for workers so hard that we have over 300,000 unfilled jobs in the province of Ontario right now. Our call-out to the world: If you want to make Ontario your home, if you want to work hard, you are welcome here. We want you. We need you. Please come here.

We are keeping costs down. We are doing our bit. We are calling on the federal government to do their bit too, but we are saving people money on gas. I think, if I remember the numbers right, we’re saving businesses over a half billion dollars a year in red tape costs to be able to do their work more efficiently. These are all things that we are doing in the budget.

Probably the most exciting piece for me, Madam Speaker, is that I can’t hear anything negative from the opposition, other than they say, “Just do a little more.” Well, we will, because we’re going to have another fall economic statement this fall. We’re going to have another budget next year. We will continue to build a strong Ontario.

With that, Madam Speaker, I move that the question now be put.