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.

My question is to the Premier.

We have corrections officers visiting us today who’ve been put on the front lines of Ontario’s mental health crisis. That’s because when people can’t get the health care and the services they need in the community, they end up in Ontario’s overcrowded and understaffed jails. Ontario’s chief coroner has found that this broken system is killing people—almost twice as many deaths in custody in 2021 than just two years earlier.

Speaker, will the Premier listen to corrections officers here today and ensure they have the staff, the resources and the training they need to deliver on people’s basic human rights while in custody?

Speaker, my question is to the Premier. Community Addiction Services of Niagara, or CASON, is a vital social services agency in Niagara for those dealing with mental health and addiction issues. Unfortunately, those important services for my community are getting harder and harder to deliver. CASON has not seen an increase to their base funding since 2020 and expect only a 2% increase this year. They have a wait-list and, in many cases, can’t meet the support and resource levels necessary to help their clients.

Will the Premier commit to working with CASON and providing the necessary funding they need to address the mental health and addiction crisis we have in Niagara so they don’t have to lay off employees?

I’d like to thank the member from Brampton West for the question and for his leadership in his community.

Let me say this absolutely straight: Car theft is absolutely unacceptable. Everyone deserves to feel safe in their homes, communities, and in their own vehicles.

We’re proud of our record investments and are working hand in hand with law enforcement to tackle automobile thefts across Ontario.

Our government is investing over $61 million in new technology for the police that will allow them to identify stolen vehicles much faster, such as the automated licence plate reader. We’re also investing $267 million through the Community Safety and Policing Grant program.

We are always listening to police on methods, tools and support that they can use to keep their communities safe.

Mr. Speaker, everyone deserves to live safely in their community, and our government will not stop until absolutely everyone is safe.

Just a few weeks ago, Halton police seized 35 vehicles that were stolen from across the Toronto area on their way to Dubai. The estimated value of these cars was over $2 million. I’d like to thank Halton police, their regional auto theft task force, and especially Chief Steve Tanner for carrying out this operation—it is due to the tireless efforts of people like Chief Tanner and his police officers that keep Ontario safe.

I want to say one more thing: We are imploring the federal government to increase border protections. And as I have said in every conversation with Minister Mendicino, meet me at the border and see for yourself.

I want to say that our government is acting in spending and investing over $500 million to modernize our correctional facilities. Our government is acting in hiring over 1,400 new correctional officers, some of which just graduated last week. And our government is acting again, Mr. Speaker, understanding that employee wellness is important, and we are providing resiliency training for front-line staff and improving managerial awareness of mental health issues through mandatory training.

We will always appreciate and acknowledge the hard work done every day by everyone that keeps Ontario safe.

The Leader of the Opposition has moved opposition day number 2.

I’ll recognize the Leader of the Opposition to lead off the debate.

This petition is titled “To Raise Social Assistance Rates.”

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontario’s social assistance rates are well below Canada’s official Market Basket Measure poverty line and far from adequate to cover the rising costs of food and rent: $733 for individuals on OW and $1,227 for ODSP;

“Whereas an open letter to the Premier and two cabinet ministers, signed by over 230 organizations, recommends that social assistance rates be doubled for both Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP);

“Whereas the recent small increase of 5% for ODSP still leaves these citizens below the poverty line, both they and those receiving the frozen OW rates are struggling to survive at this time of alarming inflation;

“Whereas the government of Canada recognized in its CERB program that a ‘basic income’ of $2,000 per month was the standard support required by individuals who lost their employment during the pandemic;

“We, the undersigned citizens of Ontario, petition the Legislative Assembly to double social assistance rates for OW and ODSP.”

I full-heartedly support this petition. I’ll be signing it and sending it down with Charlotte.

I move the following motion:

Whereas there is a mental health crisis in Ontario; and

Whereas demand for services provided by the Canadian Mental Health Association has significantly increased, including demand for Assertive Community Treatment teams, court diversion services, and behavioural support services for seniors; and

Whereas base funding for the Canadian Mental Health Association has fallen significantly behind the rate of inflation since 2014; and

Whereas the Canadian Mental Health Association is experiencing high staff turnover and staff vacancy rates due to uncompetitive salaries, staff burnout, and wage suppression under Bill 124, Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, 2019;

Therefore the Legislative Assembly calls on the government to increase the base funding for each branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association by 8% as an immediate emergency stabilization investment.

It’s long overdue that we recognize mental health care as part of health care, that we make it part of medicare. Right now, anyone seeking mental health supports is met with few affordable options, long wait times, underfunded community health organizations, and underpaid, burnt-out staff. The reality is even more stark in northern Ontario, in Indigenous and rural communities. Stagnant operational funding over the last decade prevented community mental health and addictions organizations from keeping up with demand for those services.

We’ve all seen in our families and in our communities the impact of the pandemic on mental health, on kids and youth particularly, but we also know that BIPOC folks were deeply and differently impacted.

CAMH, in a 2022 survey, found that more than half of young Ontarians reported feeling depressed about the future. Some 39% said the pandemic had made their mental health worse. And 18% reported they were seriously contemplating suicide in the past year. That’s one in five young people saying that. Let that sink in for a moment. That’s difficult to hear.

As a result of all of this, more and more Ontarians are seeking out those mental health supports—in fact, one in four Ontarians today. Requests for mental health support have increased over 50% for adults and over 100% for children since the pandemic began.

Years of underfunding have decimated the mental health sector. They are struggling to meet the growing demand for services and supports, and they are losing staff to exhaustion and burnout. Everything that we hear about this government’s wage-suppression legislation for pay and about working conditions pushing health care staff away is also true about the mental health sector. In fact, over the last two years, those Bill 124 salary-based issues resulted in 66% of resignations at CMHA Ontario, resulting in nearly 250 community mental health and addictions jobs left unfilled.

Staffing issues have devastated the community mental health care sector. I heard first-hand about this just a couple of days ago, when I was in London–Fanshawe, from nurses working on the front line in community mental health. And I’ve heard it in Sault St. Marie and in Timmins and in Hamilton and in Toronto and in Welland and in Ottawa—in every part of this province.

We know that addressing the staffing crisis is absolutely key to providing adequate patient care and community support, and that people seeking support for mental health don’t want to be shuffled between staff members, which means often reliving trauma or repeating their personal stories to new people multiple times. We know that permanent, full-time staff can offer continuity and improve overall quality of care.

We know that mental health care is life-changing, but it’s also costly. So I want to mention this to this government, because it’s a concern of theirs: I want them to remember that mental health care in our community—community supports free up hospital beds. They mean less 911 calls. And, ultimately, it saves lives.

People in Ontario can’t wait any longer. The impact of this crisis on our families and our communities is devastating.

This government needs to wake up and open their eyes to the suffering that’s happening around them. They’re sitting on, again, $6.4 billion in unspent funding—unspent dollars that were supposed to go to education, health care, mental health, and all kinds of things that public money was supposed to be spent on. Instead, they’re squirrelling it away. Our motion calls for something very, very small and simple, to be honest, and that is an investment that would come to only $24 million for the Canadian Mental Health Association. That’s just 0.375% of that unspent funding—just to give you a sense of that. It would dramatically improve Ontarians’ access to mental health care now.

Again, I want to call on the Premier and the government to support this motion, to increase funding for community mental health and addictions organizations, to make up for the decades and decades of underfunding for mental health, to provide better pay and working conditions for staff, and to give people the services they so desperately need.

Honestly, Speaker, how can we expect Ontario to thrive and progress if this government continues to abandon a growing group of people who are suffering from poor mental health?

“Petition to Raise Social Assistance Rates.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontario’s social assistance rates are well below Canada’s official Market Basket Measure poverty line and far from adequate to cover the rising costs of food and rent: $733 for individuals on OW and (soon) $1,227 for ODSP;

“Whereas an open letter to the Premier and two cabinet ministers, signed by over 230 organizations, recommends that social assistance rates be doubled for both Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP);

“Whereas the recent small budget increase of 5% for ODSP still leaves these citizens below the poverty line, both they and those receiving the frozen OW rates continue struggling to live during a period of alarming inflation;

“Whereas the government of Canada recognized in its CERB program that a ‘basic income’ of $2,000 per month was the standard support required by individuals who lost their employment during the pandemic;

“We, the undersigned citizens of Ontario, petition the Legislative Assembly to double social assistance rates for OW and ODSP.”

I fully support this petition and will pass it to page Bianca to take to the table.

J’ai l’honneur de me lever pour présenter une pétition qui s’intitule « Soutenez le système d’éducation francophone en Ontario.

« À l’Assemblée législative de l’Ontario :

« Alors que les enfants francophones ont un droit constitutionnel à une éducation de haute qualité, financée par les fonds publics, dans leur propre langue;

« Alors que l’augmentation des inscriptions dans le système d’éducation en langue française signifie que plus de 1 000 nouveaux enseignants et enseignantes de langue française sont nécessaires chaque année pour les cinq prochaines années;

« Alors que les changements apportés au modèle de financement du gouvernement provincial pour la formation des enseignantes et enseignants de langue française signifient que l’Ontario n’en forme que 500 par an;

« Alors que le nombre de personnes qui enseignent sans certification complète dans le système d’éducation en langue française a augmenté de plus de 450 % au cours de la dernière décennie;

« Par conséquent, nous, soussignées, demandons à l’Assemblée législative de l’Ontario de fournir immédiatement le financement demandé par le rapport du groupe de travail sur la pénurie des enseignantes et des enseignants dans le système d’éducation en langue française de l’Ontario et de travailler avec des partenaires pour mettre pleinement en oeuvre les recommandations. »

J’appuie totalement cette pétition. Je vais y ajouter ma signature et l’envoyer à la table des greffiers avec Yonglin.

I’ve got to say something here. Mental health doesn’t just pick out parties—people with mental health isn’t just the NDP, it isn’t the Liberals, it isn’t the Greens; it’s also the Conservatives. And I believe, from the bottom of my heart, that every one of you over there who have chosen not to speak yet have been affected by mental health and what it does to families, what it does to individuals. So I’m saying to you, support this motion. We have to do more. We have to do more for our kids, for our grandkids. Quite frankly, you have to do more for your own colleagues. I want you to understand that.

I’m just going to give you some examples, and I think it’s fair and reasonable to do this. Niagara continues to see a crisis in addictions. In 2022, there were 657 suspected opioid overdoses responded to by an understaffed EMS. Nearly 70%—70%—of those calls were people between 25 and 44, which in a lot of cases would be our kids and our grandkids. Just from January to February of this year, 2023, Niagara had 88 suspected overdoses responded to by the EMS. And, heartbreaking as this is, approximately 11 of them per month are dying.

Most mental health and addiction groups have had their budgets frozen for years, and they’re struggling to keep up.

Wait-lists are growing, food banks are increasing, house and care costs are going through the roof, rent costs are going through the—and this is causing even more increase in mental health.

So I’m going to say one more time, as my time is up, to the Conservatives: Every one of you guys have been touched with mental health. We need more funding. They need more help in every community right across the province of Ontario. And your colleagues need support—just like my colleagues need support, the Liberals need support, the Greens, and the independents. We can do better. We have to do better.

I want to give a shout-out to the compassionate, skilled and exhausted mental health workers from CMHA Thames Valley Addiction and Mental Health Services, who have been working tirelessly on the front lines of the pandemic in the face of an unprecedented mental health crisis that shows no signs of improving.

Here’s the reality in my community, Speaker: since 2020, a 137% increase in children’s mental health crisis calls and a 72% increase in mental health support calls; since 2021, a 171% increase in crisis response team interactions. Many of the 75,000 people who have used the crisis lines or participated in programs are first-time users of mental health services. Many are also former or current clients whose crises are worsening. Almost all are presenting with more complexity than ever before—serious mental illness, addiction, poverty, trauma, and homelessness.

You can imagine the moral distress and vicarious trauma experienced by staff as they watch their clients suffer and even die, despite their best efforts, as they’re forced year after year to do more with less and provide care in a chronically underfunded system. Who can blame them if they decide to move to a hospital or school, where salaries are as much as 33% higher, or leave the sector altogether?

The Thames Valley CMHA is looking at a $3-million shortfall if all vacant positions were filled. Without an increase to their base budget, as we call for in this motion, they face some tough choices: Do they leave 35 positions vacant and put even more pressure on current staff? Do they ignore staff burnout and put their own staff’s mental health at risk? Do they deny or delay service for those in desperate need of mental health support, forcing them to go to the ER to access services?

Speaker, our community needs the vital programs delivered by CMHA.

I call on this government to support our motion today and invest in the 8% base funding increase. Lives are at stake.

Thank you, Speaker. I wasn’t expecting to be up speaking so soon. I thought maybe the Conservatives would want to have something to say on this motion.

I want to applaud my leader, the leader of the NDP official opposition, for bringing this very pertinent and timely motion forward.

We are seeing a drastic and very dramatic increase in the need for mental health supports for people in this province. I don’t think there is one member in this House who could honestly say that they haven’t had constituents reach out to them, telling them that their family is desperate to get their child or another loved one in their family the supports and services they need. They’re terrified, and rightfully so, because we are losing children to suicide in this province at alarming rates. We are losing people in this province to overdoses at alarming rates. And what we are seeing—based on data—is that this Conservative government is not investing the funds and resources into the front-line agencies and workers that actually provide supports and services.

CMHA is asking for an 8% increase to their budget, because their budget has largely been frozen for many years now. What that means is that they can’t get a base funding increase. That means they’re going to lose staff. That means fewer supports in every community around this province. That means more crisis. That means more hospital visits. It means more people being turned back out on the streets because the hospitals cannot support them the way that they want to or should be able to, and that means that more people will die due to inaction by this government.

Speaker, I want to share a story with you—and this is someone I’ve become good friends with. It’s a story that I think many people in this chamber are going to nod their heads at and say, “We’ve heard something similar in our communities.” Frankly, I wish that there were never these stories, ever again. This was from a mom:

“After a few admissions to hospitals for her mental health, our oldest daughter died by suicide at the age of 19. She left behind two younger sisters and a large, close-knit family.

“The health system was not adequately funded or equipped and ultimately failed our daughter. Since then, we have watched another family member struggle and fight to receive mental health services for a loved one.

“Several times, upon arrival at the ER in a suicidal state, this individual has been turned away, or discharged within hours of being admitted to the psychiatric floor because there are no beds available.

“When discharged, the resources provided as an option for follow-up are booked for months in advance. When in a time of crisis, there are no resources available to people experiencing ... mental illness or a mental health crisis. Until our government puts aside bipartisan differences and places the same emphasis and funding for a publicly funded mental health as there currently is on our physical health system, suicide will continue to be an epidemic that plagues our society. After years of talk, isn’t it time for this government to step up and provide adequate funding for mental health services for everyone” in this province?

I want to point out that this family lost their daughter. They waited eight months—eight months. Their small children, their two other daughters, and themselves waited eight months just for intake into the mental health system.

This is not something I talk about personally, usually—my time is running out—but I’m going to do it today. It’s hard to talk about. I lost a brother to an overdose.

Nobody in this province grows up and says, “I want to struggle with mental health.” Nobody in this province says, “I want to struggle with addiction.”

What I can tell you, Speaker, is, if this government doesn’t step up and put more funding into mental health and addictions, more families like mine will lose people they care very, very deeply about.

Do what’s right. Invest in the system.

Further debate? Further debate? The member for Windsor West.

In all of our ridings, we are experiencing a dramatic increase in demand for mental health services.

In Hamilton, despite this state of emergency, we have seen the planned closure of at least two mental health service providers. We’re losing Catholic Family Services of Hamilton, who operated for more than 70 years, and Hamilton Mental Health Outreach, who supported people in Hamilton with severe and persistent mental illness for over 30 years. Both organizations have cited an inability to meet the increase in demand because of underfunding and struggles to recruit staff with frozen wages because of Bill 124.

Hamilton Mental Health Outreach offered important services that will be noticeably missed. One of their services was a street outreach program for people living rough or unhoused on our streets, connecting people in crisis to help.

These services were critical in preventing people from falling through the cracks. We now have fewer places for people to call when they need help or for family members to call for their loved ones. I hear from many people in distress, from desperate parents who don’t know where to turn when they need help. Imagine your loved one or your child during a mental health crisis and you are helpless because you simply do not know where to take them. Emergency rooms are not the answer. Preventing people from falling through the cracks is critical.

In Hamilton, we have just experienced the heartbreaking death of a local icon, Teenage Head guitarist Gord Lewis, and the not-criminally-responsible verdict for his son Jonathan. By all accounts, this was a tragedy that could have been avoided with a system of adequately funded mental health care for individuals and families in crisis. Gord’s family shared with me that Jonathan sought help at 10 emergency wards in the 36 hours before Gord was killed.

This bill is a small step in the right direction. We need an immediate emergency stabilization investment of 8% to begin to address this crisis and prevent any more tragic outcomes, death or suicides.

In closing, I want to acknowledge the many families, like the Lewises, who work as advocates for their relatives and for others in our community.

To the dedicated mental health workers and organizations on the front line: We recognize your tireless work in a system that is letting you down—not just you, but the people and the families you work so hard to protect and to serve.

As my colleague from St. Catharines mentioned, last week the Niagara regional government declared a state of emergency for homelessness, mental health and opioid addiction, in an effort to send a clear message to this provincial government that without significant action, these crises will continue to worsen. I want to thank my constituent Steven Soos, as well as Haley Bateman and Pat Chiocchio, two regional councillors from my riding, for their advocacy, as well as the other regional councillors and mayors who supported the motion to declare an emergency.

Many people in Ontario are struggling and are frequently unable to access treatment when they need it. Niagara continues to be particularly hard hit, with hundreds of people on wait-lists that continue to grow. The wait-list for Niagara Regional Housing is up to 20 years. Statistics provided to local media from Niagara region indicate there are now as many as 277 beds in shelters across Niagara and the need is growing. The 2021 annual point-in-time count identified 660 people in our community facing homelessness—an increase from 2018, and the number has again increased since then. That same year, Niagara EMS reported over 1,000 suspected opioid overdoses.

Pathstone Mental Health, where my wife works, indicates there are over 800 children on the wait-list for treatment, and that list did not exist prior to the pandemic.

Chief Bryan MacCulloch indicates that Niagara Regional Police Service has 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, but it’s clear that the current situation is untenable.

I’m calling on the province to step up and make a commitment to deliver funding and support for agencies and people dealing with these fundamental issues affecting our community.

Local leaders are sending this government a message: This is an emergency, and Niagara needs more funding now.

I asked the minister this morning whether he would deliver more funding—yes or no—and he droned on about mobile health units that already exist. That’s not an answer. We need more money to front lines now, not deflection and excuses.

Further debate?