Like the rest of the province, Niagara is in a housing crisis and our government is taking bold action to fix this. We’re considering every possible option to get more homes built faster so that young families and newcomers in Niagara can find a home that meets their needs and their budget.

Last year, the people of Ontario re-elected a PC government under the leadership of Premier Doug Ford with a mandate to get 1.5 million homes built over the next 10 years. As hundreds of thousands of newcomers a year arrive in our province, we need to take action to ensure that there are homes being built for them and for all Ontarians.

Bill 23 addresses Ontario’s housing supply crisis. Those who say no to Bill 23 and building the new homes needed in our province must recognize the harmful cost of their opposition. The social harm of abandoning the future generations and millions of new Canadians to a housing crisis which has already impacted the social determinants of health, like poverty, stability and mental health, is something that we cannot accept.

Bill 23 takes transformational action to solve the housing crisis. It gives young families and new Canadians the hope to achieve the dream of home ownership. It helps local charities and community organizations build affordable and not-for-profit housing by reducing development charges for these crucial builds.

Our government is going to continue standing up for every young family in Ontario and in Niagara hoping to get into the housing market. We’re building more homes, creating more housing opportunities and ensuring every newcomer and young family in Ontario and Niagara can realize the dream of home ownership.

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?

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.

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’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.

In St. Catharines, when I look out my window, when I walk through my streets, when I talk to my neighbours, I hear and see the pain and the weight of the mental health crisis. Homelessness, addictions, anxiety, and all the other forms of mental health strife are fixtures not only in my community but across the Ontario community—it’s shared with all of us.

Speaker, it would be easy for me to point out the funding gaps and missed opportunities that Ontario has seen with mental health. It would be easy to highlight what the cost has meant for my community and all the mental health agencies, patients and their families. This is because the problem of mental health, right now, looms so large.

You may have heard that the Niagara region has declared a mental health and homelessness and addictions crisis—a state of emergency.

Speaker, there is no way around it: The solution to fixing mental health in Ontario is all about funding. It means no more freezing of the base budget increases for mental health.

This is why the NDP has put forward an opposition motion being debated this afternoon for an 8% emergency stabilization investment in community mental health care.

Over the last few months, I’ve made an effort to reach out to as many service providers as I can in Niagara. Let’s make sure we give the service providers the resources they need. We cannot issue funding at the same level as the last decade, given what inflation is at now. That amounts to virtually a cut. This is because all of my non-profits and service providers—who are the real heroes of the mental health battle right now—cannot leave their staff at frozen wages.

It is clear at this point that if we want to make a dent in mental health, it requires an increase in funding, not another freeze.

I hope this government does what is right for Ontarians by supporting our motion for greater investments in mental health supports.

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.

The member from Niagara West.

I want to thank the member from Niagara West and our Minister of Red Tape Reduction for two excellent presentations.

One aspect of this legislation has to do with modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario—particularly the agri-food sector. My colleague the MPP for Oshawa would agree that the agri-food sector is a big part of our economic recovery in the region of Durham.

I’d like the member from Niagara West to talk a little bit more about the modernization of that act and what the effect will be not only for the region of Durham, where we have close to a million people, but other upper-tier areas, like Niagara.