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.

My question is for the Minister of Finance. The people of my riding, Markham–Thornhill, and across our province of Ontario are experiencing pressure due to the increased cost of living. Worldwide political instability, supply chain disruptions and rising inflation costs are all making life more expensive for the people of Ontario. This means higher costs for essential items such as food and gas. The cost of food has risen by 11%, and the cost of gas has risen by 3% compared to a year ago. This is very concerning for many individuals and families.

With so many economic challenges that the people of Ontario are facing, what is our government doing to keep our province fiscally sound?

While our government has shown continued leadership with strong measures like cutting the gas tax and making investments in critical programs, further action is needed. Speaker, what is the next step our government will implement to keep Ontario on an economic path to strength and stability?