This past Friday was the 37th anniversary of the death of Tommy Douglas. In 2004, the CBC did a Canada-wide vote to find the greatest Canadian of all time; 1.2 million people across Canada voted. The winner wasn’t Wayne Gretzky, Shania Twain or even Terry Fox. It was Tommy Douglas.

Tommy was the father of our universal public health care system. As Premier of Saskatchewan, Tommy introduced the first single-payer, publicly funded and publicly delivered health care system in all of North America. Tommy did this as Premier while also running 17—that’s right, 17—balanced budgets in a row, and even achieving surpluses. Keep that in mind when you hear politicians saying we need to cut public services to be fiscally responsible.

Before that, government didn’t help families with health care costs. Health care was expensive and not accessible to most people. Tommy knew it wasn’t right that some people could afford health care and some couldn’t. He spent his life trying to make change for the better.

We need to remember and honour Tommy Douglas and his legacy. People across Ontario and across Canada know that universal, public, not-for-profit health care is part of what it means to be a Canadian. We take care of one another. Ontarians, Canadians don’t want American-style private, for-profit health care where the wealthy get faster and better care and lower-income families go bankrupt trying to get the health care they need, or go without care at all. The Conservatives call this profit-driven, call it innovation. But it’s really the oldest game in the book. Frankly, it’s a cop-out that will hurt Ontarians.

Ferguson Arthur Jenkins, lovingly known as “Fergie,” was born December 13, 1942, in Chatham, Ontario, to Delores Jackson and Ferguson Jenkins Sr. His father was the son of immigrants from Barbados, and his mother descended from American slaves who bravely escaped through the Underground Railroad before settling in southwestern Ontario.

As a young man, Fergie possessed a strong work ethic. He was determined and competitive, excelling in multiple sports including track and field, ice hockey and basketball. It was baseball, however, and more specifically his brilliant ability to throw with unique speed and accuracy, that garnered him attention well before graduating high school. In 1965, at the age of 22, he made his major-league debut as relief pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies. The following year, he was traded to the Chicago Cubs, where he honed his professional pitching career on the iconic Wrigley Field, a ballpark known to favour hitters. Jenkins would go on to earn All-Star recognition and win the Cy Young in 1971.

As exceptional as Jenkins was on the pitcher’s mound, he also played basketball with the Harlem Globetrotters from 1967-69. In 1979, Fergie was named a member of the Order of Canada well before formally retiring in 1983 from his beloved sport. In 1991, Jenkins became the first Canadian ever to be inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

This June 10, please join me in Chatham-Kent as we honour Fergie by revealing his full-size bronze statue, an exact replica of the one that stands proudly in Wrigley Field.

Mr. Speaker, it’s good to see you this morning. It’s good to be back.

It’s my privilege to rise in the House today and speak to not only the largest automotive expo in Canada, but our country’s largest consumer show. Of course, I’m talking about the Canadian International AutoShow, which celebrated their 50th anniversary, running from February 17 and concluding just yesterday. And Speaker, it was a smash hit.

The auto show has an annual attendance of over 330,000, with visitors coming from all over the country. It features more than 650,000 square feet of exhibits, displays and attractions, spanning the north and south buildings of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. I think two of the big draws this year were the North American debut of the life-sized Lego Lamborghini Sián FKP 37 and the Roshel armoured vehicle that is helping to defend the people of Ukraine.

Speaker, I want to give a special shout-out to Frank Notte for all his efforts in ensuring the event is a success. Putting on a show of this magnitude is no easy feat. Him and his team pulled it off with class.

This show is put on by the Trillium Automobile Dealers Association, representing Ontario’s 1,000 new car dealers—which means that at one point they represented a certain member from Brampton North. Speaker, I remember working the auto show in the past when I sold cars for Mazda of Brampton. Believe it or not, I was pretty good at it. I actually sold a car at the auto show back in 2017. It’s a memory I will hold on to forever, and I know the attendees of the show will never forget the memories that they built at the show.

I want to congratulate the team on the 50th anniversary, and all the best for next year.

I rise today to honour the thousands of people who rallied at Queen’s Park on Saturday and in communities across the province to tell the Premier to keep his greenbelt promise to keep his hands off the greenbelt. We simply cannot afford to pave over the farmland that feeds us and the wetlands and green space that clean our drinking water and protect us from flooding. People are demanding that the government put the public good ahead of a handful of wealthy, well-connected land speculators.

The greenbelt provides $9.6 billion of economic benefit to our economy each and every year, and its natural infrastructure provides $3.2 billion worth of benefits to the province, especially flood protection. It’s reckless and fiscally irresponsible for the government to put all of that at risk when the government’s own Housing Affordability Task Force explicitly said we do not need to open the greenbelt to address the housing crisis.

On behalf of Ontarians across the province, I want to remind the government that they work for all the people, not a handful of land speculators, and that paving over the greenbelt and unleashing sprawl on rural Ontario is not the future the people of this province want or can afford.

Mr. Speaker, I’m taking this opportunity to highlight the winners of this year’s Leading Women, Leading Girls, Building Communities Recognition Program. The Ford government cancelled these awards, but nevertheless, we persisted.

Duaa Al-Aghar works tirelessly to establish services for the Muslim community as well as new Canadians.

Paris Cai is instrumental in developing HomeworkHub, a youth-led non-profit organization providing free, accessible educational resources.

Sara Geidlinger is the co-creator of the Bonn Park Podcast, an ongoing living oral history of the Waterloo region.

Michelle Heyer is a nurse who advocates to ensure internationally educated nurses have the support they need to succeed.

Edl Lemlen and Sophie McConnell are grade 6 students who model inclusion by providing friendship to Sebastian, a classmate and a child with autism who is non-verbal.

As associate director of Waterloo Region District School Board, Lila Read has been an integral part of developing and leading the Women in Educational Leadership group that supports BIPOC women in education.

Rebecca Short created the Sharing Experiences program, where community groups come to the amazing Clay and Glass Gallery to do ceramics and share their experiences.

Finally, Jennifer Stager Piatkowski is a key leader responsible for bringing ONA into the Waterloo Regional Labour Council, strengthening the labour and nursing movement in our community.

And finally-finally, Sarah Wilson developed a menstrual equity pilot program for the Waterloo Catholic District School Board called Changing the Flow.

You are all inspirations, each and every one of you. Congratulations on winning this award.

It is an honour and a privilege to rise today as the first Black male of African descent and one of the first three Black members elected to the Ontario Progressive Conservative caucus to recognize Black History Month in the Ontario Legislature.

Throughout this month, I had the opportunity to host and participate in a number of events that celebrated the countless contributions and accomplishments Black Ontarians have made to our city, province and country. These events also remind us of our responsibility to remain steadfast in the fight against racism and discrimination. At these events, I was proud to share what our government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, is doing to support Ontario’s Black communities. Whether it’s through the Anti-Racism and Anti-Hate Grant or the Black youth action plan, our government is committed to combating racism and hate, building a stronger, safer and more inclusive Ontario.

This month, I also had the chance to visit several community organizations working to support better outcomes for the Black community, including the Careers Education Empowerment—CEE—Centre for Young Black Professionals in my riding of Scarborough Centre. The CEE centre is focused on addressing social and economic barriers affecting Black youth ages 14 and over, and helping them achieve financial prosperity, access job placements, and obtaining stronger knowledge of themselves and their potential through youth workforce development, education and advocacy. Keep up the good work.

That concludes the time we have available for 90-second members’ statements. I was lenient on both sides of the House in terms of the timing, but I would ask members, when they’re preparing a prepared statement, to try as much as possible to bring it in at 90 seconds.

I’d like to introduce Kerrie Fulton and Daniel Huether, residents in University–Rosedale. Thanks for coming today.

It is with great pleasure that I welcome my friend and colleague Mr. Chris Ainsworth, city councillor for ward 4 for the city of Vaughan from the mighty riding of Thornhill.

It really gives me great pleasure to welcome into the gallery here in the chamber former MP Peggy Nash and the Toronto Metropolitan University Women in the House program participants. It’s great to see you here.

This visit and this program are organized by former MP Peggy Nash, Dr. Tracey Raney and Zaima Aurony. Thank you so much for being with us here today.

This is already happening in private clinics and the government is working to expand it. What does the Premier have to say to these patients?

I want to introduce Gwyn Chapman and many inspiring young students who are here today attending the 17th annual legislative Black History Month event. Welcome.

I would like to welcome Michau van Speyk from the Ontario Autism Coalition back to Queen’s Park. It’s nice to see you, Michau.

I would like to welcome four of my incredible team members, Deema Affas, Kashaf Paracha, Taha Khawaja and Maya Hameed, to Queen’s Park. Welcome.

Good morning. I’d like to welcome Jerine Jim, Tim Chang, Siya Shen and all the youth that are here today from the Canadian Youth Initiative. They are here to talk about their project Ping4Alzheimer and I invite all members to join us in room 248 after question period to hear about this great initiative of young people helping our seniors.

I’d like to give a very warm welcome to my former MP for Parkdale–High Park, Peggy Nash, and all the women who are part of the TMU’s Women in the House program. Welcome.

Thank you to the member opposite for the question. Obviously, there have been reported cases, and we heard some of them this morning. But if Bill 60 is passed, what was previously called an “independent health facility” will now be called an “integrated community health service centre” under the oversight of Ontario Health, which reflects our intention that these clinics be integrated with our public health care system.

We are expanding oversight by bringing in this new legislation. Integrated health centres will now have to post any uninsured charges both online or in person, and every community surgical and diagnostic centre must have a process for receiving and responding to patient complaints. The new legislation is remedying a problem that has existed in public hospitals as well as clinics, and it is making sure that these things are posted so that people cannot be upcharged.

Today is very inspirational because we’ve got tons of wonderful youth here today. I want to give a shout-out to Gwyn Chapman for coordinating the 17th annual Queen’s Park legislative Black History Month event, Inspiring Youth in Politics, where there will be hundreds of Black youth and other racialized youth and allied youth joining.

I’d also like to thank Canadian Youth Initiative, Tropicana, Black Buildup Canada, and the inspiring Youth Empowerment Network for also supporting with the coordination of today’s event.

I’d like to thank former NDP MP Peggy Nash and all the women who are here today from TMU’s Women in the House. Welcome to your House.

Finally, Speaker, I’d like to welcome Dr. Mr. Winston LaRose, the feature of the Canadian documentary Mr. Jane and Finch, produced by OYA Media Group. He’s also in the House today.

Thank you to the member opposite for the question. I think the question proves why you should vote for Bill 60. Bill 60 is going to make sure that these protections are in place for patients. Honestly, Ontarians will never have to pay under a Doug Ford government for services that are OHIP-insured. That’s what we’ve committed to. Ontarians will have these services and we’ll be continuing to fund one of the largest publicly funded health care systems in the world—$77.5 billion this year alone. That’s an additional $14 billion invested in health care spending since 2018.

We’re working with all of our partners to identify innovative solutions, such as these clinics, to expand access. Because that’s what this is about: making sure that people get timely access to care when they need it.

I’m glad the member opposite brought up long-term care because she will know that just on Friday we introduced the fact that we had hired an additional 200 people for long-term care and doubled the amount of inspectors, as we said that we would do. We said that we would have the highest inspector-to-home ratio in the country and we do. Another opportunity that the NDP had to vote in favour and they voted against it.

We said we would build 58,000 new and upgraded beds across the province of Ontario, in small and large communities all over province. They could have voted for it, but they voted against it. The member voted against long-term care in her own riding.

Now, of course, we’re also saying that we’re going to improve health care in the province of Ontario. We started in 2018 with Ontario health teams in transition. We’re continuing with billions of dollars in new investments, and we’re making health care more open to the people of the province of Ontario, giving them more opportunity to have care closer to home. That’s what we’re doing. We’re building a health care system that will work for Canadians and Ontarians today and well into the future.

Let’s be clear with what the Leader of the Opposition is saying, Mr. Speaker. She is saying that she wants ministers and members to start tabling invitation lists to weddings. This is an opposition that sent somebody to the Premier’s daughter’s wedding to take a picture of the seating plan. I don’t know of any other opposition party that would sink to that level, Mr. Speaker. These are people that the Premier has known for decades. When his father sat with Jim Flaherty over there in 1995, they were friends.

Why doesn’t she just come out and say what it is that she really wants to say, Mr. Speaker—that somehow, if you build in this province of Ontario, you can’t do it ethically. Why doesn’t she just come out and say what she really wants to say instead of hiding behind weasel words in this place?

But it’s more than that, Mr. Speaker. Again, this is a Leader of the Opposition who sunk to the level of sending a photographer to take a picture of a seating plan at a family wedding. This is a Leader of the Opposition who wants to have an invitation list tabled in the House. I know the member from Perth–Wellington is getting married; he must be shaking in his boots. He’s going to have to get the approval of the Leader of the Opposition for who he invites to his wedding.

Why doesn’t she just come out and say what she really means? Because we’ve heard it for decades in this place: “If you’re an Italian and you’re building homes for the people of the province of Ontario, somehow you can’t be doing it ethically.” These are people who came to this country with nothing. They came here to build a better future for their families. The home that she lives in was built by an Italian. The street that she drove on to get here was built by an Italian. The subway, the buses, the steel—

Interjections.