I’m wondering if one of the parliamentary assistants could elaborate on some of the critical investments that have been made in the city of Ottawa. I know, having had a meeting with a lot of women on women’s economic empowerment on Friday and, of course, later in the afternoon, talking about critical investments into our nation’s capital—what other investments outside of the $3 million that were delivered to Invest Ottawa could we discuss today and talk about, in the second-largest city of the province of Ontario?

Questions?

Thank you to the member from Scarborough Centre. I appreciate your comments.

This government recognizes that there are vulnerable populations in the province of Ontario, and this government increased ODSP by the largest increase ever, by 5%, most recently, and we’ve also indexed it to inflation—which, to my understanding, we are one of the first, if not the first province in the country to be able to do that.

But it’s not just about ODSP; it’s also about energy rebates. It’s a multi-faceted program. It’s also about the low-income tax credit, which is the largest tax credit savings for low-income families in the province of Ontario. It’s also about the GAINS program, which is helping low-income seniors.

So as much as we want to create wealth and prosperity for our province, we do recognize that there are those who are more vulnerable, and we want to be able to help them.

You know, budgets are about choices. The member from Oakville and the member from Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound travelled around the province with us hearing from Ontarians. What we heard was that cost-of-living pressures are top of mind for people; people are in crisis across this province. High rents—we have record evictions, but the government still has not done anything about rent control, and so people are being evicted—more and more senior women. Minimum wage—one fellow said to us, “I can’t survive. I’m losing hope.” They were looking for medical assistance in dying because there was no dignity in their lives. And the nurses—Bill 124, still on the books—told us how demoralizing it is.

So my question for either member: Did you even try to get these issues in this agenda, in this budget? Because the finance minister and the President of the Treasury Board clearly did not hear these voices, but you did.

I thank the member for the question. Yes, I certainly enjoyed our visits to various parts of Ontario, be it Kenora on January 9 or Sault Ste. Marie or Sudbury or Peterborough, Windsor, Kingston.

The member talked about choices. Well, I’ll tell you the choices that our government is making. Infrastructure spending—a record of $184.4 billion over 10 years. That’s a choice that will matter not only to this generation but to the next. Record spending in health care—has gone up from $74.9 billion to $81 billion over the next three years, spending $15.3 billion.

Those are the choices that our government made, and I’m very proud to be a part of those choices. And I hope this House supports the bill.

Seniors are a priority for this government in so many ways. You just saw the increase in the GAINS program, which is so successful—another 100,000 low-income seniors will be on that program this year. That is back to supporting seniors. And we’re increasing our health care spending overall, as I mentioned before and I’ll keep mentioning over and over and over again—record health care spending for our seniors. We care about them, their families, and we’ll keep caring about them, because we want to make sure we have the best health care system on the planet, which we will continue to invest in—so those are the supports for seniors that I’m very proud to be a part of this government and support.

I also travelled across the province of Ontario and listened to many concerns around ODSP.

Our government announced last year that it would increase the ODSP rate by 5%. Now, in the budget of 2023, we have confirmed that ODSP will be indexed to inflation. Could the member highlight why this is an important move to help Ontario’s most vulnerable?

Last week, I was proud to attend Community Living Mississauga’s 36th annual tribute dinner at the Mississauga Convention Centre, which honoured my friend Frank Giannone, a visionary Italian Canadian community builder who was among the first to recognize the great potential of building complete communities along transit lines.

Frank has served as the president of the Ontario Home Builders’ Association, which recognize him with a lifetime achievement award. But he’s not finished yet. He’s working to transform the old Texaco refinery land in Port Credit into the Brightwater, a modern, vibrant and new waterfront village. Frank also founded the Port Credit Community Foundation and helped to organize many local events, including the Southside Shuffle, Paint the Town Red, the Mississauga Waterfront Festival and many more.

Speaker, on Thursday, over 900 people attended and over $300,000 were raised to support Community Living Mississauga. With this funding, over 200 children with intellectual disabilities will be able to attend recreational programs this summer. I want to thank everyone who made this night possible, including the chair of the planning committee, Jack Prazeres, and the sponsors, including LIUNA Local 183. And most of all, thank you to Frank Giannone for everything he is doing to help build a better Mississauga and a stronger Ontario.

I find it ironic these questions pertaining to public transit are coming from the opposition, because the opposition seems to have a problem with commuters in this province. They have a problem with people in my riding that want to take the highway. They have a problem with people in my riding that want to take the GO train. They have a problem with people in Toronto that are taking the subway. They don’t want to expand the subway lines, the Ontario Line.

Look, our population is growing at an exponential pace in this province, and that’s good news. But we need the transit infrastructure to be able to accommodate these people getting from A to B quickly and safely. Whether it’s subways, electrification of the GO line or building highways, roads and bridges, we are making more investments than any government in the history of Ontario. I would encourage you to support us in that objective.

Thank you so much to the member for that question. Madam Speaker, I am so grateful to talk about the investments in health care that I’m seeing and our community is seeing in Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound first-hand, beginning with the new Markdale hospital. In the fall of 2023, this hospital will open. It’s part of the Grey Bruce Health Services network of six hospitals—a brand new hospital on time, on budget, in Markdale. It will be great for our community and the whole region. But it’s beyond that.

Long-term-care centres: People Care just announced an opening of the long-term-care centre in Meaford—beautiful building. I was there to see it open first-hand.

Also in Owen Sound—a beautifully refurbished, Southbridge-operated long-term-care facility. It just opened, and I was there to see the residents were almost in tears at the beauty of their new home.

There are great health care services all over. I am so grateful to the health care workers in our community that are supporting these, but this is a government that has a long-term vision, opening these facilities for the future of our community.

Second reading debate deemed adjourned.

Could the member from Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound share with the Legislature the effects of the health care investments, particularly in his riding and the hospital that’s situated there?

They didn’t call them the Brampton Thunder for nothing. Being one of the original teams in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, the Thunder were consistently a top contender throughout the league’s history, winning two Clarkson Cup Championships in 2014 and 2016, as well as making the finals in half of all of the championship finals in the league’s 12-year history.

Brampton is a city with a strong history when it comes to ice hockey, especially women’s hockey.

Cassie Campbell, former captain of the Canadian Olympic team, grew up in and played for Brampton. She has a community centre in Brampton named in her honour and continues a successful broadcasting career.

Jayna Hefford, another Canadian hockey legend, was also raised in and played for Brampton. She played for Canada’s national team for over 17 years, winning four Olympic gold medals and seven world championships. She is also one of the all-time leading scorers in women’s international hockey.

Continuing our proud tradition, it’s my privilege to invite members of this House to come on down to Brampton between April 5 and April 16 where we will be hosting the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship at the CAA Centre.

Today, fans from coast to coast to coast look forward to seeing the likes of Sarah Nurse, Jocelyne Larocque and Marie-Philip Poulin next month, as they wow the world on the international stage.

Speaker, Brampton is a hockey town. I want to wish Team Canada all the best in April. I know they’ll make us proud.

Last week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a very sobering report, warning governments to act now as the window is closing very quickly to prevent catastrophic levels of global warming. This is a final warning before it becomes too late to stop a 1.5-degree Celsius increase in temperatures.

The report identifies an increase in extreme weather events around the globe that are having a devastating impact on humanity. We are already seeing this in Ottawa West–Nepean, Speaker, where in the past six years, we have experienced two once-in-a-century floods, a tornado and an incredibly destructive derecho. All of these events destroyed homes and displaced residents. Just this winter, for the first time, we saw our beloved Rideau Canal fail to open, hurting many local businesses, and disappointing locals and tourists alike.

But the report also offered hope, Speaker. We can still address climate change, prevent the worst outcomes and secure a safer future for all of us if we act now. We have the tools and the knowledge of what needs to be done. What we need is the political willpower.

As UN Secretary-General António Guterres said, the report is a “clarion call to massively fast-track climate efforts by every country and every sector and on every time frame ... our world needs climate action on all fronts—everything, everywhere, all at once.”

We need this government to take that call seriously, Speaker. The solutions are there to reduce emissions, boost our economy, keep people safe and hand a better world to our children. Will they heed that call?

Question?

Speaker, I’ll be introducing a bill today on the issue of next of kin accessing adoption records, and I will be reading two statements.

Statement 1: “My name is Catherine King and I am an Ontario adoptee of the Sixties Scoop. My father was born at the Andrew Mercer Reformatory in 1951 and was adopted. My children’s aid society file contained no mention of my true heritage. Thankfully, my biological father was alive to pass on this hidden information to me. Not everyone is as fortunate in finding a living relative. Therefore it is time for Ontario to extend access to post-adoption birth information. Roseneath, Ontario.”

Statement 2: “Current legislation provides identifying information to the birth parent, and the person adopted only. Although this legislation has been very well received by the community, and has allowed for many affirming family connections, it does not allow for the next of kin of a deceased adopted person to obtain access to their full identity and possible Indigenous heritage. As well, the next of kin of a deceased birth parent are prevented from connecting with family.”

Today we ask you to take the legislation a step further to ensure that the next of kin are able to explore their full identity and Indigenous heritage, restore severed family relationships and research deceased adopted ancestors.

On behalf of Lynn Mayhew, families of incarcerated women and girls; Colleen Cardinal, Sixties Scoop Network; Valerie Andrews, Origins Canada; Wendy Rowney, Adoption Support Kinship; and Monica Byrne, Parent Finders.

Each year, my region welcomes over 16,000 international agri-food workers from Mexico, Guatemala and the Caribbean to work alongside our farmers and greenhouse growers to produce the fresh food that has earned a reputation for being among the most trusted in the world. I’ve been so fortunate to have met, learned from and worked with many of these workers over the years. What was first small groups of young men who would travel to the area for short durations to support their families abroad is now people of all ages and genders who stay longer to support Ontario’s critical food supply chain year-round.

Our government is encouraging more people from around the world with in-demand skills and experience to choose to call Ontario home so they can support their families and continue to contribute and prosper as permanent residents and citizens.

My community has benefited from this diversity and investment, as bustling small businesses and a vibrant food scene has emerged in Leamington, inspired by Mexican, Latin American and Caribbean culture and cuisine.

Later this spring, Leamington’s Migrant Worker Community Program, led by my good friend Martin Varela, will host its second annual Greenhouse Cup soccer tournament, where international players from area farms will come together to showcase their skills and compete in the universal language of sport. I want to thank all international agri-food workers for their valuable contributions to our culture, our economy and for all the good things grown in Ontario.

Last Thursday our government, under the leadership of the Premier and the Minister of Finance, tabled the 2023 budget, Building a Stronger Ontario. It’s a serious budget for serious times, a plan that navigates ongoing global economic uncertainty with a responsible, targeted approach to help people and businesses today while laying a strong fiscal foundation for future generations. It’s a plan for building a strong province as well as a stronger Niagara, a plan that is working.

Highlights for the Niagara region include:

—expanding GO rail service to Niagara by increasing current service levels and building four new and improved stations, as well as supporting local transit-oriented communities to build more attainable housing;

—twinning the Garden City Skyway over the Welland Canal in St. Catharines; and

—supporting the redevelopment of the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital as well as the new South Niagara Hospital.

Speaker, I could go on. The bottom line is this: Our government and our government alone is building a strong Ontario, whether it’s more mental health funding, more new schools, more new local roads and bridges, more supportive housing, more jobs for auto workers, more nurses for our hospitals or more support for our rural economic development.

A strong Ontario means a strong Niagara, and this plan is a plan that supports the people of Niagara and our province, today and into the future. Together, let’s work to support and pass Bill 85 as soon as possible so that we can get to work and continue building a stronger Ontario.

This time last Monday, the Sault College Cougars women’s hockey team was in Boston preparing to play in the final game of the playoff tournament for the American Collegiate Hockey Association Women’s Division 2 national championship. The team was set to face off against Northeastern University. After the heartbreaking 2021-22 season finish losing at the ACHA nationals, the team was hungry to bring the championship home. Going into the tournament, the team was undefeated—a perfect 30 and 0. No pressure at all.

In the game, Emily Moore scored twice, while Emma Lee, Alyssa Turcotte, Brooke Brazeau and Stephanie Pagnotta added singles for the Soo. Emily Hansen got the start in goal.

I am pleased to say that the Sault College Cougars completed the season with a 6-1 win over the Northeastern team, bringing home the trophy for the ACHA Women’s Division 2 national championship game. The Cougars finished the season with a perfect 31-0-0-0 record. The club started and finished the season on a win streak—the final number coming in at 31 consecutive wins. The closest games came when the Cougars ended up on the right side of a four-goal game, two of them coming in overtime. They scored 229 goals and allowed only 22 goals, with multiple players at the top of many statistical categories.

Congratulations to the Sault College Cougars women’s hockey team for an amazing year. Go Cougars!

Last week, the Art Battle Toronto All-Stars competition took place in The Great Hall in my beautiful riding of Spadina–Fort York. The New York Post describes Art Battle as Iron Chef, but with paint. The whole evening is a blast. Music is pumping everyone up. The bar is open. The host, Tanya, stokes the crowd. Meanwhile, six artists are arrayed on stage in the middle of the room with a canvas and acrylic paints. When the battle starts artists have 20 minutes to complete a canvas while the audience walks in a mass circle and watches the progress.

Meanwhile, the event is being live-streamed while colour-commentators Morgan and Tyson provide the play-by-play and people vote online and bid on the pieces as they are being created. Kudos to the artists who, in this incredible pressure cooker, created phenomenal canvases. Kudos to the winner of the evening, Julie Amlin, and even more kudos to Simon Plashkes and Chris Pemberton, who held the first Art Battle tournament in Toronto 14 years ago and are now exporting it to Reno, Minnesota, Pawtucket, Pocatello, Mexico City, London, New York, Chicago and 50 other cities.

We’re all looking forward to the next Art Battle, coming on March 30 to Ottawa and then returning to The Great Hall in Toronto on April 25. Support local artists and have a blast. Come out to the Art Battle.

Two weeks ago I tabled a motion aimed at improving the safety of our youngest citizens. The motion reads: That, in the opinion of this House, day cares and child care facilities should be required to report absent children to parents, guardians and caregivers, similar to the safe arrival program in our public schools.

The idea behind this motion came from a discussion with a person in my riding named Sandra Camara. Devastated by the death last summer of a young boy who died after he was forgotten in a family vehicle, Camara reached out to my office. Camara, a day care provider herself for more than 15 years, described being shaken to the core by the little boy’s death.

In a letter, she wrote, “It should be mandatory that a day care centre, licensed and unlicensed home day care providers be required to contact both parents if the child is more than 30 minutes late. If they are unable to reach the parents or have not heard back from them in five minutes, the parents’ place of employment should be contacted, followed by a listed emergency contact. This process would follow the regular school board processes where a parent is contacted if a child is absent or late and it has not been reported to school.”

Mr. Speaker, it is often these meaningful talks that we have with people in our riding that lead us to positive changes for Ontarians. I believe my conversation with Ms. Camara was one of these conversations.