Good morning, Mr. Speaker. Today is Colleges Ontario Queen’s Park Day, and we are welcoming our 24 presidents—I’m not going to list them all, but please come to room 228-230 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. tonight to meet with students, faculty and enjoy the culinary innovations.

I’d like to welcome the mother of page Ryan de Haan, Jordan de Haan who’s here watching today, and father, Ben, is at home watching as well.

It is my pleasure to welcome to the House the leadership team from Surrey Place. Surrey Place helps people of all ages with developmental disabilities live happier and healthy lives. We are proud to support the work they’re doing to tackle anti-Black racism in the community. I would like to welcome Joanne, Alicia, Tricia, Esther and Kajany to the House.

I want to take the opportunity to welcome from my riding Peggy Brekveld and Bill Groenheide of the OFA. As well, Bill is the councillor for the township of Gillies, and I am proud to call both of them friends. Welcome.

Holly Yoon is a recent graduate from York University and Sheridan College. She started work recently as a graphic designer at a really cool company. She also has a similar family story as mine: a proud second-generation Korean Canadian. Welcome to the Legislature, Holly.

I would like to welcome my friend Carole Breton, secretary general of Saint Paul University of Ottawa. I also would like to welcome Claire Forcier from my riding of Mississauga–Erin Mills and congratulate her for receiving the Ordre de la Pléiade award today.

Also, I would like to welcome Father Deacon Andrew Bennett from Cardus and also Father Ammonius Guirguis from the Coptic church of east Toronto. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

One more.

Interjection: Two more.

Speaker, I’d like to welcome my good friends Salman Sima and Hannah Fudge to Queen’s Park. They’re here to celebrate Persian Heritage Month as well as Nowruz, the Persian new year. Welcome to Queen’s Park. Thanks for the great work you’re doing every single day.

Interjections.

It is my great pleasure to welcome a delegate from the Cardus organization here. Two of them are from my riding of Scarborough–Agincourt: Father Ammonius Guirguis and Father Zareh Zargarian, in addition to Elder Rich Ternieden, Jaspreet Bal and Reverend Andrew Bennett.

I think the Premier has been very clear on that. He continues to work with the Integrity Commissioner. But let’s get really to what the Leader of the Opposition is saying. The NDP, of course, do not want us to continue to build housing for the people of the province of Ontario. Because for the NDP, what they would rather is that the rich are less rich as long as the poor are poorer. That’s what the NDP is all about.

Let me tell you what new housing means for the people of Stouffville. For the people of Stouffville, the new housing that the minister introduced means that we are building homes in a community that has the infrastructure to do it, a community that has schools, a community that has churches right by it, a community that has two brand-new GO train stations, a community that has a community centre right next to a downtown core that is desperate for people to fill the jobs in our service industries and right close to farms that are so desperate for people to work on the land. That’s why they bring in temporary foreign workers.

It is a growing community that wants new housing, and a group of people are coming to this country who demand it. We need them, and we will be there for them.

Last week, the Integrity Commissioner revealed that his investigation into the removal of lands from the greenbelt had entered a new phase. His office is now “preparing summonses for numerous witnesses to be interviewed.” We all remember how the Premier and the former Solicitor General both refused to appear before the Emergencies Act inquiry. They refused a summons to testify.

Speaker, my question is to the Premier. Will he require all government officials, including ministers, to co-operate in full when they are summoned by the Integrity Commissioner?

Last week, this government appointed a Conservative party donor, Madeleine Bodenstein, to the York Region Police Services Board. This comes a year after the government appointed another Conservative party donor, Mario Cortellucci, to the same board. And not only are they both Conservative party donors, they are also both personal friends of this Premier and even sat at the same table with the Premier at his daughter’s wedding reception last year.

These appointments earn $10,000 a year. So my question is to the Premier: Why is the Premier stacking the York Region Police Services Board with his personal friends and donors?

Good morning, everyone. I’m thrilled to be able to introduce the amazing members of East York Curling Club: Karen Lee Banka, Brian Beamish, Ursula Beamish-Mader, Jason Chang and wee Kaitlyn—the smallest member here today—Theresa Currie, Joanne Davidson, Mary Furlong, Diane Hooper, Leyla Lavenex, Kathryn Bourne, Ada Shang, Christie Stevensen. As curlers say, hurry hard.

I want to introduce some friends in the gallery today: my chief of staff, Heather Potter; my director of policy, Adam Wallace; and my 15 co-workers from team MEDJCT. Welcome, everybody.

Assuming there are no objections, I’d like to continue with introduction of visitors.

The final supplementary.

The next question.

Minister of Health.

What we’re doing is ensuring that the York Region Police Services Board has qualified people who have made an impact on their community to work with the York Regional Police. Now, we have a growing community and that means that as our community grows, we want to make sure that whether it’s the police service board or the other agencies that support the growth that we’re seeing in York region, that they have the highest-quality people to do so. The committee can review all appointments.

But, Mr. Speaker, let’s really talk about what the issue is for the NDP. The issue for the NDP is that they do not want to see an Ontario economy that is continuing to grow. It drives them crazy that we are seeing jobs come back to the province of Ontario. We’ve seen what the NDP want. We’ve seen this show before. They want to kill jobs, they want to kill investments, and they want to overregulate the economy. We saw what happened when they had the opportunity to do so in co-operation with the Liberals. They killed manufacturing; they drove away jobs. What are we doing? We’re bringing thousands of jobs and opportunity back to—

What are we doing for the people of the province of Ontario? We’re cutting taxes. We’re bringing back a climate where jobs are coming back. There are so many jobs in the province of Ontario, we can’t fill them all, so we need people to come and help us build, like countless generations have done before. We’re going to make sure they have housing, transit, transportation and the best schools, despite the fact that they voted—

My question is for the Premier. Speaker, it has come to my attention that cancer patients waiting for surgery right now at the Ottawa Hospital are being bumped by clients of the for-profit clinic that’s been operating on Saturdays at the Riverside Campus of the Ottawa Hospital. This for-profit clinic has been offering nurses double the wages they earn in our public hospital system, and that has had an impact on our public system’s ability to have the staff capacity ready for cancer surgeries for patients in urgent need. This is what I’m being told privately by hospital staff who fear the repercussions for speaking publicly.

Speaker, a very simple question to the Premier: Will they commit today to investigate this matter?

I’m not sure if the member opposite is second-guessing the work of the hospital CEO and the public board at Stevenson Memorial. I can tell you that, as a government, Premier Ford and I have had the opportunity, with the member from Simcoe–Grey’s advocacy, to actually visit Stevenson Memorial. Because of that important facility that serves the people of Alliston and the surrounding area in Simcoe–Grey, we’ve actually announced a redevelopment project for that community hospital.

For the member opposite to suggest that she knows better about what is happening at Stevenson Memorial, more so than the management team, the president and CEO, speaks volumes about what she understands about the public health system.

Again, I will say Stevenson Memorial in particular—incredible hospital doing incredible work with incredible staff. Because of that work, we are doing an investment of a redevelopment project—because of the leadership of Premier Ford, because of the leadership from the member from Simcoe–Grey. We will continue to do that regardless of what the NDP want to do.

Let me tell you what matters to us over here on this side, Speaker: transparency, integrity, accountability. And that’s what matters to the people of this province too. Let me tell you that to earn the trust of the people, a Premier should avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest. Yet this Premier keeps appointing his friends and his donors to public boards. His friends and donors seem to have curiously timed information. It even looks like he’s giving his friends and his donors special treatment at the expense of everyone else.

Speaker, does anyone on that side of the Legislature care how bad this looks to the average Ontarian?

Speaker, why is this government laying off nurses when hallway health care is at an all-time high under their watch?

My question, Speaker, is to the Premier: Will you stop getting in the way between Ontarians and the health care that they need?

Interjections.

Their plan to privatize health care is taking Ontario in the wrong direction. It’s taking us toward a two-tier system where a select number of people with deep pockets or cozy connections to this government can jump to the front of the line, where even routine surgeries are going to cost the system more in private clinic fees, where people are going to be waiting even longer for care—if they can get it at all. In fact, Speaker, it’s already happening.

My question to the Premier again is, when will you reverse course and stop putting private profits ahead of patient care?