I really do feel for the community of Renfrew and their families and friends who were impacted by the loss of those three souls. In particular, the member from Renfrew has been actively working with the community to ensure that things are progressing.

I do want to thank the members who participated in the inquest. It was not an easy inquest to participate in, but they persevered and provided our government with some valuable recommendations, which we are reviewing. On February 10 we provided part 1 of our response to the recommendations, and that response was quite comprehensive. It gave a full overview of what the government has been doing so far.

Mr. Speaker, I have been working across different levels of government to make sure we’re implementing programs to keep women safe. For example, we had the opportunity to announce the pilot project in the Peel region with the Solicitor General that pairs police officers with social workers to respond to intimate partner violence calls and de-escalate the situation and connect individuals to resources and supports.

There are many things we’re doing and we’re going to keep pushing forward to ensure women are safe in Ontario.

So we need to build more homes in Ontario. If we’re really going to put women’s safety and make it a priority, we need to support the initiatives that the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the Associate Minister of Housing, our Premier, our government is making to build more homes faster. Will they support Bill 23 so we can get this done to get women into safe houses?

My question is for the Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Northern Development. There is so much to enjoy and discover in our communities across all of northern Ontario, Speaker. Unfortunately, the previous government, propped up by the NDP, failed to recognize the north for the importance of its vast resources as well as the ways in which northern communities contribute to our economic and cultural well-being here in Ontario. In short, they ignored opportunities to build infrastructure, to create jobs and to show the north the respect that it deserved.

This week, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada held their annual conference here in Toronto. This mineral exploration and mining convention draws large attendance from across the sector for the purposes of information-sharing and networking. Speaker, can the minister please provide information about how our government is partnering with and supporting northern Ontario businesses as part of this conference and all the opportunities that will stem from that?

While mineral exploration and mining are a key focus when it comes to opportunities in northern Ontario, our government must continue to ensure that our communities remain strong. Our northern communities deserve support in order to build the capacity that is needed to deal with the growth that comes from new and emerging mineral extractions. Speaker, can the minister please explain how the prospectors and developers association convention was an opportunity to better showcase the central role and importance of northern Ontario?

My question is to the Premier. Speaker, the London Coordinating Committee to End Woman Abuse released a snapshot yesterday showing that there were more than 10,000 domestic and sexual violence crisis calls in the London area in 2022, an increase of 54% from the year before. The vast majority of those calls were from women. Over the same period, women were turned away 2,166 times from Anova’s women’s shelter because of a shortage of beds, a 62% increase from 2021. Anova is also seeing more severe cases of gender-based violence than ever before.

Speaker, will this year’s budget include the increased and stable funding that organizations like Anova, Atlohsa and London Abused Women’s Centre need to keep women and children safe?

Ma question est pour le premier ministre. You will remember, in 1994, the NDP brought midwifery to Ontario. We gave Ontario families access to midwives for free and we paid the midwives respectfully. After 16 years of Conservative and Liberal governments, midwives faced a $100,000 pay equity gap. No matter the analysis that the midwives presented, the Liberal and the Conservative governments refused to listen to these women. So the midwives launched multiple appeals in the courts and in the Human Rights Tribunal. And you know what, Speaker? They won each and every one of those appeals. The tribunal sided with the midwives and ordered the government to pay.

Yet we are now in 2023. It is International Women’s Day. Will this Conservative government do the right thing, respect the tribunal, respect midwives and give them pay equity?

Interjections.

My question is for the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks—

Interjection: Great minister.

Everyone can play a role in protecting our environment, which is why it’s so especially inspiring to see elementary students in my riding take action in cleaning up their community. Recently, the minister visited St. Anthony Catholic Elementary School, a wonderful school in my riding of Thornhill. While there, the minister, in partnership with Call2Recycle and the Earth Rangers, helped launch Ontario’s Battery Blitz collection contest. The Battery Blitz collection project represents a major initiative in educating consumers in Ontario and is part of a larger plan to drive battery recycling. I know because I brought them a batch of batteries myself.

Can the minister please elaborate on the initiatives that are under way across our province to help keep Ontario clean and protect the environment?

The previous Liberal government talked a good game about the importance of recycling programs, but their words were not backed up by a realistic plan and tangible actions. In fact, under the previous Liberal government, only 30% of waste was diverted from landfills. Our government must continue to deliver on our commitment to protect the environment. Can the minister please explain the specific actions that our government is taking to enhance recycling programs across our province?

Back to the Premier: Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region provides life-saving, safe and compassionate shelter and transitional housing to women and children experiencing domestic violence. In their pre-budget submission, they detailed the desperate need for core operational funding. Provincially, that number is $60 million, noting the rise in domestic violence across the province.

A key ask involves transitional housing, which is foundational for survivors to move out of a shelter while they’re maintaining support and safety before living independently. It is crucial to addressing the bottleneck on housing wait-lists and emergency shelters.

Will the government commit to providing organizations like Women’s Crisis Services with operational funding for VAW transitional housing programs in the 2023 budget? Because I hope that we can all agree that we should not have to fundraise in the province of Ontario to keep women and children safe.

Thank you for the question. I was honoured to visit Thornhill with our incredible member from Thornhill and the amazing students at St. Anthony to launch the Battery Blitz. This is a challenge, first of its kind, across the province of Ontario where students are recycling batteries in this province. Thanks to the leadership of this Premier, this government, we’re recycling more in the province of Ontario. You know the saying “recycle, reuse, reduce”? It’s inspiring to look in the faces of our next generation, for them to go home to talk about all the things that they use batteries for and recycling—

Interjection.

Speaker, I don’t want to clip this. I just want kids to recycle. Thanks to Premier Ford and this government, we’re recycling more.

Again, thanks to Premier Ford’s leadership, we’re recycling more in the province of Ontario. We’ve launched among the highest targets in Ontario to recycle, with extended producer responsibility, in the blue box.

We’re finding new and innovative ways to recycle more. We’re recycling hazardous waste, including recycling plants that create fertilizer from end-of-life batteries, an innovation that would not be possible if it wasn’t for our government’s leadership in promoting and investing in recycling alternatives. We’re standardizing what goes into the blue box and expanding its services to more communities across Ontario than ever before. Partner municipalities have been asking for this for years. We’re saving them hundreds of millions of dollars. I’m proud to see our next generation getting so active in recycling across—

All women deserve security and safety, and particularly that is in our thoughts on International Women’s Day. Our government is constantly working to ensure that women, children and all Ontarians can live free from fear of threats, exploitation and violence, and we’re working to prevent and address violence against women in all forms. We’ve made investments, we’ve launched programs and we’ve passed legislation aimed at ending violence against women in its many forms, and we’ll continue to do that important work: standing up against gender-based violence and supporting those affected by these crimes.

Our investment is helping survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking find and maintain housing, and it’s helping them transition to independence. It also connects them to socially and culturally responsive wraparound community supports like safety planning, counselling, health and wellness, education, legal and immigration services, financial resources and child care services.

Our investments also include holistic, culturally responsible services for Indigenous women. We will continue this important work, and I thank the member for—

Je voudrais présenter l’Association franco-ontarienne des conseils scolaires catholiques. Bienvenue à Yves Lévesque, Melinda Chartrand, Suzanne Salituri et Émilie Tomory. Bienvenue à votre maison. Merci.

Interjections.

I beg leave to present the first interim report on the study of the rehabilitation and restoration of the legislative precinct from the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs and move the adoption of its recommendations.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank committee members for their work to date. The committee extends its appreciation to the Deputy Clerk, the director of precinct properties branch, and House of Commons officials for appearing as witnesses.

The committee thanks Queen’s Park precinct properties branch staff and House of Commons staff in Ottawa for providing the committee with guided tours of their respective precincts and openly sharing their knowledge and expertise.

The committee also thanks its federal counterparts for the meeting that they hosted in Ottawa during the committee’s travel last month.

Finally, the committee acknowledges the assistance provided during the hearings and report-writing deliberations by the Clerk of the Committee and staff from both legislative research branch and table research office.

I would also like to note that the interim report that is tabled today is the first of a yet-to-be-determined number of reports. This is the English version, and the French version will follow shortly once translation has been completed.

With that, I move adjournment of the debate.

I am pleased to stand in the House today to recognize International Women’s Day. On this day, Ontario joins communities around the globe in celebrating women for their contributions to making the world a better place.

As Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity, I am proud of the achievements our province has made. This includes women rising to the top in their fields and gaining recognition, like Nabeela Ixtabalan, chief operations officer of Walmart Canada; Rupi Kaur, Brampton native, New York Times bestselling author and poet; and Hayley Wickenheiser, four-time Olympic gold medallist and assistant general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs; as well as the many women whose contributions are lesser known but who work hard each and every day to support their families and communities. From academia, sports and business leaders to carpenters, caregivers and farmers, women are at the heart of our province.

The UN’s theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is about the great potential technology has to foster a new era of women in the workplace and society.

According to a recent UN report, women’s exclusion from the digital economy in developing countries has cut $1 trillion in GDP over the last decade.

We are at a crucial point where we can use technology to bring more women into the digital economy and achieve greater gender equity, boost innovation, and strengthen our economy. But there is still more work to be done to help us get there. Women still face barriers to hiring, retention and achievement in traditionally male-dominated occupations. These barriers include things like gender bias, inequitable workplace practices, pay gaps, lack of mentors and role models, and work environments where women do not feel safe.

Our government’s vision for the future is for women across the province to thrive everywhere—at home, at work, and in their communities.

Helping women participate in the workforce and achieve financial security is the foundation to their prosperity and independence. We know that when women do well, their whole family does well.

Women are equally critical to helping Ontario address many of the pressing labour shortages that our economy faces.

For example, women currently make up only a fraction of the skilled trades workforce. Over the next decade, Ontario will need 100,000 workers in the construction sector alone. These careers are exciting, diverse and in demand, with good pay and benefits. As our Premier likes to say, when you’ve got a trade, you’ve got a job for life. That’s why I am on a mission to get more women into the trades.

Our government continues to encourage young women and girls to enter the skilled trades and break down the workplace barriers they face. We have made a historic investment of more than $1 billion over four years into the skilled trades strategy. Many of the initiatives in this strategy will support women and girls in exploring the skilled trades.

Whether as tradespeople, executives, small business owners, or in other vital sectors, women contribute to our province at every level.

We are also modernizing our school science and technology curriculum to place an emphasis on critical life and job skills and better prepare students for jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics—including young women.

Under our Premier, we have invested in empowering women, supporting them to enter and re-enter the workforce. The results speak for themselves. We are getting more women into jobs than ever before. Overall employment in January was up 346,000 jobs, 4.6% higher than the pre-pandemic high in February 2020. Women account for many of these gains.

The number of women not in the labour force has dropped considerably, and the participation rate for core-working-age women is steadily climbing, from the pre-pandemic high of 81.5% to 84.5% in January.

Economic empowerment isn’t only about jobs; it’s also about creating the conditions for entrepreneurs to thrive in this province. Our plan is to make Ontario the best province to do business in, and women are an integral part of that as well. One of the ways we are doing this is by supporting economic empowerment programs for women in communities across the province.

For example, over the next three years, my ministry is investing $25 million in two important programs: Women’s Economic Security and Investing in Women’s Futures. These programs help women facing socio-economic barriers to build the in-demand skills they need to gain and secure employment. These programs have a proven track record of success.

In 2021, the Investing in Women’s Futures Program served more than 5,400 women and helped more than 1,300 women secure employment, start their own businesses, or pursue further training and education.

We have found that women are eager to enter new fields like the trades, but some are discouraged because of stigma or, in some cases, lack of safety at work—and I’m not referring to PPE, but women’s physical and mental safety.

I’m thinking of a woman I recently met at Building Up in Etobicoke, who shared her experiences with me. I will call her Sandra for her confidentiality and privacy. Sandra has been in the trades since she was 16, but when she arrived in Canada, her caseworker discouraged her from pursuing her dreams in the trades. While she was on the work site, she also experienced severe harassment. But things changed for her when she found an organization that was willing to train her and provide a safe space for her and other women like her. She told me, “They made us feel comfortable. This has been our door to life.”

Mr. Speaker, there are many stories like Sandra’s. That’s why it’s important for us to continue to find ways to listen to women and support and encourage them, so that all jobs and opportunities are equally available to all the women of Ontario.

There are, of course, other supporting factors that contribute to women’s economic empowerment, and our government is making progress in those areas, as well.

For instance, women need to be safe to achieve economic independence and prosperity. That’s why our government is preventing and addressing violence against women in all forms. It is so important that women who are affected by violence and exploitation receive the support they need, while offenders are held accountable through our justice system. In 2021, we invested nearly $200 million in services and supports, as well as $11 million in violence prevention initiatives. This is in addition to the more than $300 million we are investing over five years in our anti-human trafficking strategy.

We also continue to implement Pathways to Safety, which is Ontario’s plan to respond to the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls and address the root causes of violence against Indigenous women. Ontario’s government-wide strategy was developed in close partnership with Indigenous communities and organizations and the Indigenous Women’s Advisory Council.

Another key area we are addressing is child care. This is a crucial piece to removing barriers for women to enter the workforce—trust me, I know; I’ve had five children. It has always been a barrier. We recognize that under the former Liberals, for over 15 years, child care became totally inaccessible and unattainable—it increased by 400% for an average family in the province of Ontario. We knew that when we came to power, under our Premier’s leadership, we had to act to make life more affordable for working parents. That is why we signed a deal—a better deal—with the federal government, the Canada-wide early learning and child care system. This historic agreement will support Ontario to achieve child care fees of $10 per day for children under the age of six by 2025. In fact, as of January 1 of this year, child care fees have been reduced by 50%, on average, saving anywhere between $6,000 to $12,000 a year per child. It’s significant. This is a massive step forward to the affordability program and agenda our government has undertaken for the upcoming year.

A second important factor is access to a safe, stable and affordable place to call home. When I speak to Transitional and Housing Support Program staff, they all say they can’t get women out of their shelters because there are no homes for women to move into—if they can find a home, it is not in their community. That’s why our government passed Bill 23, the More Homes Built Faster Act, which eliminated development charges for affordable, non-profit and select attainable housing. These changes will get more affordable and attainable housing built faster all across our province so that women can have a safe place to move to.

Women also need mental health and addictions supports, which is why in 2020 we launched the Roadmap to Wellness, our provincial strategy that takes a whole-of-government approach to address long-standing mental health and addictions needs. This is a historic investment of $3.8 billion over the next 10 years.

As we celebrate this International Women’s Day today, Ontario can be proud of the steps we are taking to advance the status of women and to better empower them. I know we still have a long way to go, and we still have ways that we need to communicate—to put partisanship aside and focus on partnership, to address these issues. We also need to continue to reflect on what more needs to be done so that women and girls in Ontario can reach their full potential, pursue their dreams, and achieve the success that they fully deserve, because—I’ve said it in this House—when women succeed, Ontario succeeds.

I’ll add something more: When women prosper, we all prosper.

Members will please take their seats.

To reply, government House leader and Minister of Long-Term Care.

The supplementary question: the member for Windsor West.

Restart the clock. Member for Windsor West has the floor.

That concludes our question period for this morning.

The Minister of the Environment has a point of order.

The division bells rang from 1146 to 1151.

MPP Bell has moved private member’s notice of motion number 27. All those in favour, please rise and remain standing until recognized by the Clerk.

Motion negatived.

There being no further business, this House stands in recess until 1 p.m.

The House recessed from 1155 to 1300.

Does the member wish to make a brief statement?

Debate adjourned.

Speaker, as you know, today is International Women’s Day, and I just listened to the Minister of the Environment tell one of my women colleagues to “pipe down” when she was standing up for the environment—

Interjections.

Interjections.

Interjection.

Interjections.

With Bill 28, the lowest-paid education workers were attacked by the Conservatives using the “notwithstanding” clause to take away their right to free and fair collective bargaining. Bill 124, which was deemed unconstitutional by the courts, has done the same to workers in health care, developmental services and education—again, largely women-led professions.

Speaker, will the Premier commit today on International Women’s Day to stop his government’s appeal of Bill 124, pay the women workers the wages they deserve and respect their collective bargaining rights?

On a point of order, when I was introducing people I missed two very important people of our team: Marcus Battaglia and David Uveges. Thank you very much for all you do, and welcome to the Legislature.

Of course, we’ll allow the process to continue on. I think that’s very important. We can’t, on the one hand, ask for the government to stay out of the lives of people and, on the other hand, legislate. So we’ll wait and see how that process unfolds.

But at the same time, Mr. Speaker, I think what you’re seeing across the province of Ontario—look, I was in Blyth and Goderich just last week and I was doing a ground-breaking for another 160 long-term-care beds in that community, and it was just a wonderful opportunity in that community to see more health care coming to different parts of Ontario that have never had it before, Mr. Speaker, and that builds on top of the things that we’re doing in health care.

When you talk about midwives, when you talk about building Ontario health teams, it’s about building a blanket of care, so regardless of whether you need a midwife, whether you need a long-term-care home, whether you need a primary care doctor, whatever other services—home care—you will be covered in the province of Ontario through these new Ontario health teams—

But it goes beyond that. The Minister of Labour has been working hard since the beginning, and they voted against it every single time. They voted against those opportunities that we put in place to have more women in the trades. They voted against it. When we have brought measures in front of this Parliament to have thousands more people participate in the health care system, they voted against it. When we brought in $3 more for our PSWs, they voted against it. When we brought hope and opportunity to families with better daycare, they voted against it.

It’s not just on International Women’s Day. It’s every day. Try doing it once in a while—

The ayes are 34; the nays are 67.

It’s children recycling. Relax.

I am so happy to introduce my good friend and great community leader and also a Gandhian leader—he’s always teaching me the Gandhian principles in Markham—Mr. Indrakant Patel, and Mrs. Daxaben Patel. Thank you for being here.

Mr. Speaker, they took a picture with you. They are so excited to be here. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Responses?