Our post-secondary institutions and research institutions are important sources of job creation, skills training, research, innovation, commercialization and obviously great athletes as well, making them leading contributors to our overall economic growth.

I am thrilled to stand up today to talk about what our government is doing to support the sector and our students, including launching our new blue-ribbon panel. Announced last week, the blue-ribbon panel will provide advice and recommendations for keeping the post-secondary education sector financially stable and focused on providing the best student experience possible. Led by Dr. Alan Harrison and an incredible group of panel members, this team will support my ministry in keeping Ontario’s post-secondary institutions on stable footing, now and into the future. As we all know, Ontario’s institutions—like St. Clair College in the member’s region—support the province’s economy in a number of ways, including by preparing people for the labour market, engaging in research and supporting the prosperity of local communities.

Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. I first want to thank all of my firefighter colleagues across our province for protecting our communities. These everyday heroes work tirelessly to protect our province, and in return, they deserve care and support.

The nature of a firefighter’s work is dangerous and unpredictable. The challenges they encounter can cause lasting impacts on their health and well-being. Tragically, cancer is the leading cause of death among firefighters, accounting for more than 74% of line-of-duty deaths in 2022. On average, 50 to 60 firefighters die of cancer yearly in Canada, half of whom are in Ontario.

Speaker, can the minister please explain our government’s actions to increase protections for our firefighters?

Recently, the World Health Organization reclassified firefighting to its highest level of health and safety occupational risk for cancer. Too many firefighters have suffered with, or lost their lives to, cancer.

Our government must demonstrate leadership to implement preventative measures, early detection and support for these first responders who serve the people of my riding and all Ontarians. Can the minister please elaborate on how our government is implementing changes to better protect and support our firefighters?

We believe that every single child in this province has a right to be in school, to learn in school, free from intimidation, from bullying and from violence. Every single child, irrespective of their faith or heritage or orientation, colour of skin, place of birth—every child. They need to hear that their government stands with them, recognizing that they face disproportionately high rates of mental health and suicide ideation. We know this is real, and it’s why the government continues to make the case that our school system must be inclusive and must be respectful and welcoming for all of these kids, that they know that they are loved in our school system unconditionally by the staff and the communities that work with them.

We have increased funding in mental health. We’ve actually worked with Egale Canada and leverage them every single year through the priorities fund of the Ministry of Education to support those children most at risk within our schools.

My question is for the Minister of Colleges and Universities. In my riding of Chatham-Kent–Leamington, St. Clair College is a vital education leader, with a long history of exceptional athletics and academics. In fact, this past weekend, they captured the OCAA Men’s Basketball Championship.

Like all post-secondary institutions in Ontario, St. Clair College serves a critical function to prepare our students for today’s jobs and the economy of the future. Unfortunately, worldwide economic challenges and rising inflation costs are now impacting the financial stability of post-secondary institutions. My constituents want to ensure that fine institutions like St. Clair can continue providing high-quality education for future generations. Our government must take bold action now to ensure stability in this sector.

Speaker, can the Minister of Colleges and Universities please explain what actions our government is taking to help maintain the financial stability of Ontario’s post-secondary education sector?

Students who attend institutions like St. Clair in my riding are curious about what they can expect from this panel. My constituents want to know further details about how this new panel will work to make a real difference in the post-secondary education sector.

Speaker, could the minister please elaborate on the structure and function of our government’s blue-ribbon panel?

I want to thank the member for Brantford–Brant for that question. But most importantly, to the member, thank you for your service to your community as a volunteer firefighter. Thank you on behalf of Ontario.

Mr. Speaker, our Premier is a tireless advocate for emergency responders who keep our communities safe, and his passion for supporting them is well known. Our firefighters are heroes who put their lives on the line every single day. When others run out of burning buildings, they’re running into them.

On Friday, I was proud to join our Solicitor General and our friend Greg Horton, the president of the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association, who proudly represent more than 12,000 firefighters in communities right across our province. Together, we announced that our government is expanding coverage for firefighters who get pancreatic and thyroid cancer. This change will make it faster and easier for these heroes and their families to access the compensation and supports they deserve.

Furthermore, the coverage expansion we announced is retroactive to January 1, 1960, allowing those who have suffered from these cancers in the past, and their loved ones, to get the supports that they deserve.

Speaker, our government will always stand up for those firefighters who put their lives on the line every day for all of us.

Supplementary question?

Supplementary question, the member for Toronto Centre.

My question is for the Premier. On average, four children a week end up in a Hamilton emergency room for self-harm. There has been a significant uptake of children engaging in self-harming behaviours, yet the wait-list for treatment continues to grow. The health and well-being of our children is critical, but they are not getting the help they need.

I wrote to the minister back in January about this issue and I have yet to receive a response, so I’m asking once again: Will this government support our children and commit to investing in Hamilton’s youth mental health programming and to build human resource capacity?

When we deal with issues of mental health and addictions, we do look specifically at different regions. To assist in the Niagara region, one of the things we did was open two mobile health units so that the units would be able to provide supports, especially in the rural areas, where it’s difficult for people, because of transportation, to be able to access the services.

Children and youth mental health supports are being placed throughout the province of Ontario, including through our youth wellness hubs. The youth wellness hubs are providing low-barrier supports to individuals. They allow children between the ages of 12 and 24 to be able to attend a place where they can get wraparound supports for everything from primary care to mental health care supports.

We’ve worked with and will continue working with the stakeholders in the Niagara region to provide the supports necessary to assist the children in that region, the way we’re working with all other regions to provide supports.

Again, after neglect over 15 years by the previous government, it’s very difficult to put all of these in place and ensure that they’re all working together. But we are filling gaps. We are working with communities, stakeholders—

I will certainly take you up on that offer and have an opportunity to meet with them and discuss what other needs are there and how we can continue supporting all the regions in the province of Ontario including Niagara.

My question is to the Premier. In the face of an unprecedented health and homelessness crisis, Londoners have rallied behind a transformational whole-of-community response to help those struggling with homelessness, mental health and addictions. With leadership from local agencies, hospitals, emergency services, police, businesses, developers and city council, our community is united in making system-level change, and a generous donor family has galvanized $35 million in direct community funding. But London can’t do it alone.

Will the Premier commit today to funding the hubs and supportive housing units that are core to this first-of-its-kind local strategy?

Speaker, through you to the Premier: Last week, the Niagara regional government declared a state of emergency for mental health, homelessness and addiction. Niagara continues to be hard hit, with hundreds of people on wait-lists that continue to grow. There are over 800 children on the wait-list at Pathstone Mental Health. Regional police have seen an increase of 238% in calls involving persons in crisis in the last five years.

The Niagara region and local agencies continue to do great work in a system with inadequate funding from this government.

Will the Premier acknowledge our state of emergency and commit to deliver more funding and support for mental health services in Niagara right now, yes or no?

Thank you to the member for being a great advocate for St. Clair College. Over the coming months, the blue-ribbon panel will conduct research and consultations with key stakeholders about the actions Ontario can take to improve the financial sustainability of the post-secondary sector to support colleges and universities in developing a skilled workforce and to promote economic growth and innovation. Specifically, the panel members will work to provide advice on how we can enhance the student experience and increase access to education, reward excellence within the sector, improve labour market alignment and find ways to keep education affordable for students and their families. This will help support the quality, accessibility and sustainability of the post-secondary education sector now and into the future so learners can continue to get the skills and education needed to get good jobs and meet labour market needs.

Again, I’d like to congratulate the men’s basketball team from St. Clair College on their recent gold medal win.

The Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions.

The division bells rang from 1153 to 1158.

On March 1, 2023, Ms. Surma moved second reading of Bill 69, An Act to amend various Acts with respect to infrastructure.

All those in favour of the motion will please rise one at a time and be recognized by the Clerk.

Second reading agreed to.

Minister of Infrastructure?

Call in the members. This is another five-minute bell.

The division bells rang from 1203 to 1204.

All those in favour, please rise and remain standing until recognized by the Clerk.

Motion negatived.

The House recessed from 1207 to 1300.

Mr. Sarrazin moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 73, An Act to amend various Acts with respect to the publication of notices in newspapers / Projet de loi 73, Loi modifiant diverses lois en ce qui concerne la publication d’avis dans les journaux.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.

Government House leader.

That when such orders are called they shall be considered concurrently in a single debate.

Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

Motion agreed to.

The government House leader again.

That the House shall continue to meet in the spring meeting period until Thursday, June 8, 2023.

Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

Motion agreed to.

My question is for the Solicitor General.

The people of my riding are greatly concerned about the ongoing problem of car thefts. Many Ontarians rely on their family car to commute to work and take their kids to school. Unfortunately, reports of criminal activity targeting cars are becoming a regular occurrence.

In Brampton, recently released data indicates that since 2019 car thefts have risen 97% in Peel region. I want to echo the words of Brampton mayor Patrick Brown, who stated, “We can’t accept auto theft as a way of life in Canada’s big cities.” The city of Brampton is home to a culturally diverse population, good neighbours and friendly people. It’s not a home for criminal activity.

Can the Solicitor General please explain what actions our government is taking to address this ongoing issue?

Auto theft is not minor criminal activity; this is organized crime. National and international criminal networks don’t just resell stolen cars to generate money. The money they collect is used for further crimes, such as drug trafficking, arms dealing and human smuggling.

Criminal activity and fraud are among the factors that impact overall claims costs for Ontario’s auto insurance consumers. Car theft claims have increased by 31% in Ontario since 2020. Unfortunately, every auto insurance customer is now bearing the cost of these criminal activities.

Can the Solicitor General please elaborate on how our government’s investments will support our local police partners in addressing this ongoing issue?

Speaker, if you seek it, I believe you will find unanimous consent to put forward a motion without notice for the arrangement of proceedings for debate on concurrence in supply.

That when such orders are called they shall be considered concurrently in a single debate.

That the House shall continue to meet in the spring meeting period until Thursday, June 8, 2023.

The bill amends the City of Toronto Act, 2006, the Development Charges Act, 1997, the Environmental Assessment Act, the Municipal Act, 2001, the Ontario Heritage Act and the Planning Act where the act or the regulations made under it require that notices be published in a newspaper having general circulation in a municipality. The amendments allow the publication to be done in a newspaper that is published at regular intervals of a month or less, rather than published at regular intervals of a week or less, as is currently the case.

Miss Taylor moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 74, An Act to amend the Missing Persons Act, 2018 / Projet de loi 74, Loi modifiant la Loi de 2018 sur les personnes disparues.

Can I please refer it to the committee on heritage, infrastructure and cultural policy?

Speaker, I just noticed that Ian DeWaard is up in the members’ gallery. I just wanted to welcome him from CLAC here today.

Deferred vote on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

Bill 69, An Act to amend various Acts with respect to infrastructure / Projet de loi 69, Loi modifiant diverses lois sur les infrastructures.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the probation recidivism rate for high-risk offenders is 40% and very high-risk offenders is 57%; and

“Whereas Ontario probation and parole services has the highest number of offenders under community supervision in Canada, and Ontario probation and parole officers have the highest case counts in the country; and

“Whereas Ontario probation and parole officers’ caseloads and workload demands are so high that it is extremely challenging to ensure offender compliance with probation and parole conditions; and

“Whereas the Ministry of the Solicitor General requires probation and parole officers to take on additional initiatives without providing additional resources, adding to chronic and systemic understaffing and under-resourcing; and

“Whereas Ontario’s probation and parole officers issue more than 4,500 warrants each year on offenders who have breached their supervision conditions, and our criminal justice system does not actively seek their whereabouts, posing a significant threat to public safety;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“That the Ontario government hire an additional 200 front-line case-carrying probation and parole officers, hire an additional 50 probation support staff and implement a plan to actively seek and enforce the more than 4,500 outstanding breach warrants issued each year by probation and parole services for absconding offenders in order to reduce Ontario’s high rate of probation and parole recidivism, provide more effective client services, ensure the health and well-being of correctional staff and better protect public safety.”

I’ll join the 2,000 other people who have signed this. I’ll add my signature and give it to page Kiera.

The ayes are 78; the nays are 27.