I would also like to welcome trial lawyers who I will be meeting with this afternoon. Mike Santilli, Karen Hulan and Jeffrey Shinehoft, welcome to Queen’s Park.

I would like to welcome four students from my riding of Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry for the model Parliament: Isabelle Gillard, Alexis Grenkie-Brooks, Leah Shirley and Jacob Pilon, who I’m also lucky enough to have work at my restaurant as well. Welcome.

From the great riding of Huron–Bruce, I would like to welcome Curtis Metcalfe, who is also participating in model Parliament today.

Today is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day. As such, I am pleased to recognize Kelly Tallon Franklin, a human trafficking survivor, along with her team of 30 delegates in the members’ gallery and in the public gallery. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Courage for Freedom, and their Project Maple Leaf, represents 500 allies. These community leaders are doing the heavy lifting in all sectors in society as collaborators to bring awareness to end human trafficking, with key support systems here in Ontario and across Canada. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I would like to welcome two students from my riding of Scarborough–Rouge Park who are here for the model Parliament: Tia Seepersad and Neha Devineni. Thank you and welcome to the Ontario Legislature.

I just want to welcome, from Humber River–Black Creek, Mutahar Anwary, who is participating in the model Parliament here today. Welcome.

I would also like to welcome the students from Brampton West participating in the model Parliament. Parneet Kaur, Noah Charles, Navya Mahajan, Kushi Iyer, Aditri Janapatla and Kevin Gill, welcome to Queen’s Park.

It is my absolute pleasure to introduce the proud family of our page captain Riya Azaredo today. We have with us Riya’s mother, Anna Esmatyar; father, Colin Azaredo; sister, Sophia Azaredo; uncle, Ajmal Esmatyar; and aunt, Fausia Esmatyar.

I also have the privilege of introducing three wonderful young women in the gallery today from the University of Western Ontario, from the Women In House program—a non-partisan program which takes young women, including women from diverse backgrounds, to have the opportunity to be involved in politics. Please welcome Chanel Parikh, Tiffany Lin and Shreya Menon to the House. Welcome to the House.

Good morning, Speaker. It is an honour to rise today to pay tribute to the remarkable life of Mayor Hazel McCallion. Everyone in this House knows of the no-nonsense Hurricane Hazel, who served as the mayor of Mississauga for 36 years, ushering the city into a new era. Indeed, under her tenure, Mississauga transformed into Canada’s sixth-largest city.

For 101—just short of 102—years, she lived a dynamic and colourful life. Born in Port Daniel, Quebec, Hazel McCallion moved to Montreal as a child. In the early 1940s, she played professional hockey, one of the first women ever to do so, and that spirit stayed with her. Into her eighties, she carried a hockey stick in her car trunk on the off chance she came across a game. Hazel’s passion for hockey led her to do great work with the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association, advocating to grow women’s hockey as a sport.

Hazel also supported politicians of all different stripes with her singular goal of bringing prosperity to the city she loved. She once joked that she never considered running provincially or federally, because she’d wear out the carpet crossing the floor—not a problem I have, Speaker, but it speaks to her ability to work with everyone, regardless of political stripe.

Her straightforward approach led her to being a sympathetic ear to Prime Ministers, Premiers and mayors alike, and no matter her age, Hazel burst with energy. She rarely missed a local event, and even in political retirement she was an adviser to the Ontario government, first chancellor of the Hazel McCallion Campus of Sheridan College, and oversaw the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.

While we in this House may not agree on everything, we can all agree that Hazel left behind an extraordinary legacy. She was a trailblazer, an innovator, and she inspired many women to enter politics. She was small in stature, but she was a giant.

On behalf of Ontario’s official opposition, we are profoundly grateful to her family for the sacrifices they made to share her with the people of Mississauga and with all of us. Mayor McCallion will never be forgotten.

The member for Guelph.

It is truly an honour to rise today and pay tribute to Her Worship, Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion. Hurricane Hazel served as Mississauga’s mayor from 1978 to 2014. She was one of the longest-serving mayors in Canadian history, and a symbol of strength and inspiration to a great many through her decades of service.

A business person, an athlete, a politician and a force of nature in all that she did, very few people have or will ever come close to what Hazel McCallion achieved in her lifetime, and she lived to be 101 years old, passing away just a couple of days shy of her 102nd birthday, which is February 14, Hazel McCallion Day. Her accomplishments are reflected in the honours that she received, which include the Order of Canada, the Order of Ontario, the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee and Diamond Jubilee Medals, and an honorary doctorate of law degree from the University of Toronto and Ryerson University.

Hazel’s story is closely connected to the village of Streetsville, where she put down roots and settled with her husband, Sam McCallion, in 1951 to raise their three children, Peter, Linda and Paul. This was also where her remarkable political career began to take shape.

Beginning in 1964, she served the community on the Streetsville Planning Board and was later elected as mayor of Streetsville in 1970. Hazel was a true public servant and a mayor of the people, who dedicated her life to tirelessly and selflessly serving her community and her city.

Her first act of courage, in 1979, was to evacuate safely the residents of Mississauga with the Mississauga train derailment. Over 200,000 residents were saved from this explosion.

Throughout a period that spanned 36 years, she oversaw a process of amalgamation and growth, and not only put Mississauga on the map, but transformed the place from a small city just west of Toronto to Canada’s seventh-largest city.

I want to say a few words now about the significance of what Hazel McCallion meant to generations of women, and so many are in the gallery today for this tribute. To say that she was a mentor or an exemplar would be a considerable understatement. I got to meet Hurricane Hazel very early in my career in business while at Bell Canada, and she left an impression. Hazel had a rare drive that could be seen early on in her passion for hockey, which she played from the time when she was a young girl. This was a space where she challenged the status quo of male dominance, and for that, she will always be remembered as a trailblazer in the world of Canadian women’s hockey. Unwavering in her belief that having more women in leadership roles would make an important difference in our communities, she went on to become a force that helped propel women all across Canada into politics. She was a champion of the people, a true inspiration and a catalyst for change.

As anyone who spent any significant time around her knows, you never had to guess what Hazel was thinking. She spoke her mind. She did her homework, and it became well known that she expected everyone she worked with to do theirs. Hazel McCallion was a voice that demanded to be heard, and she made sure that she was heard. But far beyond that, she also earned the respect that won the admiration of political leaders from all levels of Canadian politics. She left an enduring mark on her community and the city of Mississauga, and she will be greatly missed by all who had the privilege of knowing her.

My deepest condolences to Hazel’s family, especially her children Peter, Linda and Paul, and her granddaughter Erika. Her legacy will remain with us and be an inspiration to all for many generations to come.

Speaker, it is an honour to rise today to pay tribute to Her Worship the late mayor of Mississauga, Hazel McCallion. The word that keeps coming to mind when people remember Hurricane Hazel is “one-of-a-kind.” It is well earned. There has never been a public figure quite like the long-serving mayor of Mississauga, and I doubt there ever will be.

She was a trailblazer, feisty and fearless, beloved by her constituents, respected and feared in equal measure by those she crossed swords with. No Premier had to bestow strong-mayor powers on Hazel McCallion; she simply assumed them through sheer force of will, and for 12 consecutive terms—36 years, into her 94th year—she used them to change the face of her city.

I last spoke with Mayor McCallion in November when our paths crossed at duelling events, and she was very clear about what she thought about my position on the greenbelt. Speaker, there is no doubt I took it squarely on the chin, but despite that, I join my fellow MPPs and countless others in Ontario and across Canada in paying tribute to a remarkable woman and the remarkable life she lived. May we all aspire to Hazel McCallion’s unparalleled commitment to public service and to her community.

She will be missed, but she will never be forgotten, the one-of-a-kind mayor of Mississauga. May she rest in peace.

I rise today to pay tribute to my dear friend Hazel McCallion. My deepest condolences go to her children, Peter, Linda and Paul, and her granddaughter Erika, and everyone who had the pleasure of knowing the one and only Hazel McCallion.

I’ll tell you what Hazel meant to me. Hazel was a mentor, she was an adviser, but most importantly, she was a dear friend.

Hazel was a giant. She was a true leader, in charge of every discussion—even when we had breakfast in the morning, she would take charge—every debate in rooms she entered. There isn’t a single person who met Hazel who didn’t leave in awe of her force of personality throughout her life. Whether on the ice, in the boardroom or on the floor of the council chamber, she was a force to be reckoned with.

She always said what was on her mind, and she was always, always right, because she never lost sight of why she entered public service: to serve the people. No politician in the country understood grassroots better than Hazel did. She was in the malls, she was in the stores and she was on the streets meeting the people and listening to what they need.

She was a champion for the underdog because she believed in them, she saw their potential, and because at one time she was one herself. She grew up in a time when women, like her, were told no, but she didn’t accept that, and she proved the naysayers wrong. That’s what made Hazel such a trailblazer.

She was an icon, a legend. She was Hurricane Hazel, and today we honour her. As I said last week, we honour her 36 years as mayor of Mississauga—the longest-serving mayor in the history of Mississauga. She dedicated her life to building and serving the city she loved so much.

Mr. Speaker, I’ll tell you a story. I had her over and we went out for breakfast, and she sat down and she talked to me about how when she took the chair of mayor in 1978, the population of Mississauga was 281,000 people. Today—and it’s growing—it’s over 716,000 people, the sixth-largest city in the country. That’s a growth of 435,000 people. Just think of that: 435,000 people. She told me in the conversation—as the leader of the Green Party said—about the greenbelt and developing and so on and so forth. She told me that there were cow pastures all throughout Mississauga, and now there are hospitals; there are homes; there are community centres; there are long-term-care centres; there are roads; there are transit systems. She said, “Doug, don’t listen to the naysayers. Don’t listen to no. We have a growing population. Move forward and be the visionary that this province needs to fulfill the needs of the 300,000 people coming to this province.” I think she said that publicly, as well, numerous times.

So I’m going to listen to Hazel McCallion, one of the true leaders in this country. We’re going to make sure that the 300,000 people who come here will have a place to call home; a place that they can put the key in the door, walk through the door, have a family, start a business.

Mississauga, because of her being a visionary, is a better city. Ontario is a better province and Canada is a better country because of the vision that Hazel McCallion had.

I’m so lucky to consider Hazel my dear friend. She was a gift. She was a mentor. May God bless Hazel McCallion.

Applause.

We give thanks for the life and public service of Hazel McCallion.

Thank you for the question from the Leader of the Opposition.

I’ll tell you, when we took office in 2018, the health care system was an absolute disaster. There was hallway health care. It was just a total, total mess. Since 2018, we’ve hired 60,000—I repeat, 60,000—new nurses, 8,000 new doctors. We’ve put a medical school together that’s going to graduate more doctors. Just last year alone, Mr. Speaker, we hired over 12,000 nurses that came on board. We’ve spent $14 billion more—a record in Canada when it came to health care. We’re building 50 new sites across every single region, community and city, spending over $40 billion making sure they have the infrastructure they need.

I’ll finish on question number 2, there. Thank you.

Just think: You have an elderly mother or an elderly father that’s been in pain for a year because they can’t get a hip replacement. They’re going to be able to get that hip replacement and change their lives every single day.

When it comes to the nurses, there’s 30,000 nurses studying in colleges and universities that are going to join the Ontario health care team.

We will continue building health care to make sure we have the best health care system in the entire world, Mr. Speaker.

My question is to the Premier.

There’s no question that Ontario’s health care system is in crisis, but make no mistake, this crisis is by design. This government has underfunded our hospitals, held down the wages of our health care workers, and now, after years and years of neglect, the government has tabled a new bill that uses this crisis as an excuse to expand for-profit health care in Ontario.

Hospitals and long-term-care homes are already desperately fighting to retain nurses and doctors in what is really a staffing crisis across the system, and they’re now going to face competition from new two-tier investor-driven clinics. Nothing in this bill prevents that from happening.

Can the Premier guarantee today that these for-profit clinics will not poach staff from our publicly funded hospitals and long-term-care homes?

I want to go back to the Premier again: This bill also includes no actual oversight mechanism to ensure patient safety. The Minister of Health yesterday couldn’t even say which body would be overseeing these clinics to ensure that procedures are done safely—couldn’t even say that.

What concrete guarantees can the Premier make today regarding people’s safety in these for-profit clinics?

And the fact is, Speaker, the government is asking Ontarians to just trust them. But the minister said yesterday that they wouldn’t be able to share some details because of the—and I want to quote her—“business-model nature” of these new clinics. The minister says there are guardrails, but beyond saying people can complain to the Ombudsman, the bill doesn’t guarantee oversight for public funds or public safety.

So again: How will this government ensure that the interest of patients takes precedence over people who just want to make a buck?

The member opposite will continue to protect a small group of individuals who don’t want to change, who don’t want to see change. What we are protecting, what we are advocating for, are patients—patients who are waiting far too long for cataract surgeries, for knee surgeries, for hip replacement. We want those individuals to be able to be back with their families, back in their communities, back in their jobs. We’re doing that by making the investments that we have with your health care Ontario act. I am very, very proud of the work that our stakeholders have done—clinicians, hospital leaders, individuals who are working in the system, who understand that innovation is not a bad word.

We’re making those investments. We’ve ensured, through our investments, like the medical school in the city of Brampton, that we’ll have new graduates and new students starting next September who will be able to have those opportunities here in Ontario in our publicly funded system.

We’re very concerned with some of the things we’re hearing from the mayor and council in Waterloo. Obviously, we’ve had a very good dialogue recently with the big city mayors. I attended their last meeting, and I look forward to continuing the conversation around development charges as we develop the rules around those DC incentives.

We do not believe as a government that non-profits and affordable housing providers should be charged huge, unsustainable fees from municipalities. We believe the best way to incentivize those costs is to directly eliminate or reduce development charges. That’s the policy of the government. We look forward to working with our municipal partners, but we’re very concerned with some of the things that are being discussed around Waterloo regional council.

This government has shown, over and over again, that their interest is in a few people getting very rich, not in Ontarians and their suffering. There is a cloud hanging over this government.

I want to go back to the Premier: Yesterday, the Premier dodged questions about the curious nature of his cozy relationships with developers. We know that developers just happened to receive some oddly specific ministerial zoning orders and access to protected greenbelt land just months after attending a fundraiser for the Premier’s family.

In the interest of transparency, I’m going to ask again: Did anyone in the Premier’s office, past or present, or any other government staff have a role in making the invitation list for his family’s fundraiser?

The Premier has said that his family events have an open-door policy. Why, then, are there reports that some people felt they were being strong-armed into paying to attend? Again to the Premier: Did anyone from his office help create the invitation list for this event? Yes or no?

Let’s review the timeline, shall we? The stag-and-doe was in August, the wedding in September. Just two months later, this government broke its promise to the people of Ontario and started carving up the greenbelt. Now we find out that some of the very people who attended the Premier’s family festivities suddenly had their land value skyrocket due to this government’s decisions—curious.

But the Premier—or the government House leader, even—can clear this up right now: Did the Premier share this intentions to open up the greenbelt with developer guests who contributed to this family fundraiser?

My question is for the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Two weeks ago, Waterloo councillors voted to defer a $68-million reconstruction project that would have created 800 new homes. Why? Because they’re not getting answers from the government about how to fund the needed infrastructure to support the new housing. Council’s decision came after city staff found that Bill 23 is estimated to cost the city between $23 million and $31 million over the next few years. They paused work on a development charges study to allow for more time to fully understand the financial implications of this bill. Meanwhile, the housing crisis continues to get worse in Waterloo and Ontario. Bill 23 is already having a cooling effect on new housing starts.

Will the minister go back to the drawing board and truly consult with municipalities to actually incentivize new housing in the province of Ontario?

It’s not just home construction that is now being delayed; it’s actually vital infrastructure like pumping stations, roads, storm sewers, water mains. This is infrastructure that would help drive new housing projects across Waterloo and Ontario.

The government promised to make municipalities “whole” financially, but Waterloo Councillor Freeman said council “doesn’t see the tools to actually secure the development charges to pay for that growth.” Construction on this project won’t move ahead now until 2024 because of the financial uncertainty this government has caused with Bill 23.

When will the government repeal Bill 23, which is jeopardizing the progress of Waterloo and other cities across Ontario by eliminating those development fees that municipalities rely on to help pay for the necessary infrastructure? Go back to the drawing board; let’s get it right.