It gives me great pleasure to welcome Graham Henderson, the CEO of the London Chamber of Commerce, who is here for the Ontario Chamber of Commerce’s Queen’s Park advocacy day. They will be hosting a reception at 5:30 in room 228. I hope all MPPs can join them.

Today, I would like to welcome my son Joey Cuzzetto and the students from the Queens University mining engineering department, who are here for the PDAC convention. These are the engineers of the future who will unleash the power of our mining industry here in Ontario. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

You can’t have political statements in introductions.

Member for Cambridge.

The Minister of Colleges and Universities.

I’d like to welcome Téah U-Ming from the Ontario Legislature Internship Program, who is starting with me today.

I’d also like to welcome, because I see them there, from my riding, Newmarket–Aurora, from the Aurora Chamber of Commerce, president Sandra Ferri and board chair, Al Wilson. Welcome to the chamber.

I’m just joining the chorus of massive thanks to all the autism advocates who are in the gallery. I’m not going to name you all, but you’re all beautiful. Thank you for the work you do for our children.

I would like to welcome, from the beautiful riding of Dufferin–Caledon, two friends who are here in the chamber today: Diana Morris, the executive director of the Dufferin Board of Trade, and good friend Doug Harkness, who I think is the current president.

I, too, would like to welcome a good friend of mine, all the way from my hometown of North Bay, Ontario, the Speaker of the House of Commons and the member of Parliament for Nipissing–Timiskaming, Anthony Rota. Welcome.

Mr. Speaker, I am seeking unanimous consent that, notwithstanding standing order 45(b)(iv), the time for debate on opposition day motion number 2 be allocated as follows: 54 minutes to each of the recognized parties and 12 minutes to the independent members as a group.

I’d like to welcome the president and CEO of the Richmond Hill Board of Trade as well as Rocco Rossi, the president of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. Thank you for all your support for non-profit appreciation week.

I wanted to welcome Norah Fountain and Viktoria Hamma from the Muskoka Lakes Chamber of Commerce to Queen’s Park. Thank you.

Just the fact that we have doubled the funding, that we have five times more children receiving services than at any time under the previous Liberal government—and let’s be clear, when we came to office, we understood that the old program under the Liberal government had little prospect for delivering services to 75% of the children who were waiting. That’s why we have doubled the funding. That’s why we have created a comprehensive program that is created by the autism community for the autism community. It’s why we’ve expanded beyond the ABA services. It’s why we have added in—and we heard people: They wanted speech-language pathology; they wanted occupational therapy; they wanted mental health services. We have done that. We have launched foundational family services, the Entry to School Program, caregiver-mediated early years programs, and core clinical services as well. That’s why we built AccessOAP to support families through every step of the journey with care coordinators.

We’re already seeing results: Over 40,000 children are receiving supports today, almost five times more—

We listened. People wanted mental health services. They wanted speech therapy. They wanted occupational therapy. We listened, and we put that into the program. We created AccessOAP so that it would be an independent intake organization that would help families navigate with care coordinators. This is a needs-based program based on domains of need. It allows families to have their own unique needs addressed. This is a program that is world-leading, that has never been done before that we understand or researched. It is based on research and clinical evidence, and we’ll continue to implement this important program.

The member for Ottawa–Vanier has a point of order.

To reply for the government, the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.

The supplementary question.

The response?

Thank you for that question. Our government takes mental health in the province of Ontario very seriously. I’m the first minister appointed to look after mental health and addictions issues in the province. We came up with a Roadmap to Wellness, which is a basic plan, a foundational document that looks after lifespans. It looks after investments required for children and youth, for adults, for seniors, for people with addictions and concurrent disorders. We backed it with a $525-million-a-year plan, $3.8 billion over 10 years. Seeing the crisis, another $90 million in February of last year was invested to create 400 treatment beds, which is the equivalent of 7,000 treatment spots throughout the province of Ontario—not just in southern Ontario, everywhere in the province of Ontario.

Mr. Speaker, the investments continue. When we speak about the investments that have been made with respect to mobile crisis intervention teams, over $40 million has been put in place to create low-barrier access for individuals needing supports. So yes, investment—

Good morning, Speaker. This question is for the Premier. Today, the public galleries are full of people who have come here to advocate for core services for autistic kids. They have come here to remind the government that right now, there are over 60,000 autistic children on the growing wait-list. They have come to hold the government to its promise to clear the backlog.

Speaker, my question is to the Premier. Will this government finally provide the funding needed to get these kids off the wait-list and into the services they need?

Interjections.

Back to the Premier: You promised to fix the autism program. Will you make good on your promise and clear the wait-list?

You want to know the real story? Here’s the real story: By last August, this government had registered fewer than 900 kids for support. At this rate, it’s going to take 66 years just to clear the existing backlog. None of us are going to be here in 66 years. The families here today have come to Queen’s Park from across the province to tell their stories, to be heard, to demand change after this government’s shocking failure to support autistic children. They deserve real accountability. But only one Conservative MPP has agreed to meet with them. Thank you, Speaker.

My question is to the Premier and to his government. Will you meet with these families?

Under this government’s watch, the mental health crisis facing Ontario has also only gotten worse. We’ve proposed a solution that would make a real difference in people’s lives: reduce the wait-list for children’s mental health care, invest in improved crisis response, expand therapy access and boost community mental health care. We’ve put forward an opposition motion for debate this afternoon for an 8% emergency stabilization investment in community mental health care.

My question is to the Premier: Will he support our motion?

I would like to welcome Peter McCallion, the son of Hazel McCallion. He was here today. Thank you for joining us today for my member’s statement about Hurricane Hazel.

I would like to welcome the son of late former mayor Hazel McCallion, Peter McCallion, to Queen’s Park. Welcome. Your mother was a champion. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, once again I reiterate: The province of Ontario, this government, is making substantial, unprecedented investments throughout the province of Ontario to assist anyone in need.

For instance, you mentioned Indigenous communities. Indigenous communities are a focus of the work that we’re doing, providing land-based healing opportunities to allow Indigenous communities to look after the needs of the people in their communities.

In rural and remote communities, we’re investing in mobile health units to allow individuals access to care which they may not otherwise get, given the fact that there are large distances to travel. We continue to make investments and work with all service providers in the province of Ontario to ensure that people are getting the supports they need.

I look back at what we inherited as a government, and I’ve got to call out, once again, what the NDP did: They reduced 13% of the mental health beds. They took away 9,645 hospital beds across the province—

We have an opioid crisis. We’re working to ensure that the supports are in place to assist individuals who want to recover from an addiction.

Mr. Speaker, once again, I can’t help but think of what the implications were when the NDP were in power and they cut $53 million of funding to the psychiatric hospitals—the implications that that had, with the fact that we have a shortage in HHR today directly related back to the fact that places were eliminated—

Focusing on addictions and the concurrent disorders that need to be addressed, the 400 treatment beds that have been opened, the 7,000 treatment spots that have been created—these are all increasing capacity to be able to assist individuals. We’re focused on culturally appropriate and sensitive services, creating low-barrier access to individuals in need, ensuring that the supports are there when and where they need them, if they’re ready for them, to recover. But the harm production provisions that we put in place are also assisting individuals.

Mr. Speaker, we are building a system for the province of Ontario after the neglect of the previous government, supported by the NDP.

The Roadmap to Wellness outlines the vision for children and youth: Early interventions keep kids from harmful behaviours and are a great return on investment. We will continue to build a future for our children, to ensure that they have the mental health supports where and when they need them.

Thank you very much.

Supplementary question?

The final supplementary?

The Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions.

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

In every community, paramedics are on the front lines each and every day, saving lives. These everyday heroes work tirelessly to bring us medical care when we need it the most. Paramedics, along with ambulance communication officers, regularly encounter risk and traumatic events that can impact their health and safety. Under the previous Liberal government that was propped up by the NDP, there was no advocacy, no action on behalf of these essential emergency workers to address their industry-specific risks. They had years to act; instead, they chose to ignore the needs of our front-line workers.

Speaker, can the minister please explain how our government is protecting the health and safety of these workers?