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.

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

I think the Premier has answered that on a number of occasions. Equally important, the integrity commissioner has also reviewed that.

What this is obviously about is the inability of the opposition to see what is happening in the province of Ontario—the progress, the prosperity that is happening across our province. We want to build new homes for people. We want the over 300,000 people who are coming to Ontario each and every year to fill the thousands of jobs that are available because of the incredible investments that have been made by this minister, by this Premier, to bring jobs back to Ontario.

And do you know what they want? They want what everybody wants—what my parents wanted, what everybody wants when they come to this country: They want to have the ability to buy their first home. They want to have a community to live in that is prosperous. They want to be able to raise a family, have good schools and safe streets. That is what we’re doing: building a stronger, more prosperous, safer Ontario. They’ll do everything in their power to avoid that happening.

Interjections.

And what are we doing? We’re building back this province, stronger than it was before. We’re cutting taxes for people. We’re building roads. We’re building highways. We’re building transit systems. We’re building 60,000 new long-term-care beds across the province of Ontario. Our Minister of Agriculture is doing everything that she can to make one of the most important industries in our province prosperous, despite punishing carbon taxes from the federal government. We’re going to continue to get the job done despite the Leader of the Opposition.

Interjection.

But look, the people of the province of Ontario made a very important decision in June. What they decided to do was reduce the opposition and elect more Progressive Conservatives to this chamber to get their priorities done. They had had enough of the negativity that was coming from the opposition. This is a party who couldn’t even muster enough energy up to have a leadership race; they had to appoint their leader. It’s a party that has been so diminished by the people of the province of Ontario that their newly elected, selected leader won’t even sit in the seat of the opposition leader, but wants to sit over. But that’s not important.

What is important is building better for the people of the province of Ontario, building more homes so that the next generation can have every bit of optimism that they can afford to have a home, that people can have jobs and opportunity, like millions of other Ontarians have had. The people of Ontario know that only this side and the members of the Conservative caucus on that side will get it—

Interjections.

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.

To respond, the government House leader.

Start the clock. The Leader of the Opposition.

The final supplementary.

Start the clock. The next question.

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?

Yesterday, we made another investment to ensure that publicly funded health care, a system that in Ontario people believe in and want to be there appropriately in their communities, is going to be for generations to come.

Our government, as the Premier mentioned—since 2018, $14 billion of new investment in health care in Ontario. What has that investment given us? It has given us two new medical schools in the works. It has given us an opportunity to actually ensure that people who are practising medicine in other parts of Canada can do that the next day when they come to Ontario.

We have, through Your Health Act, ensured, for generations to come, that a growing population and an aging population will be protected under a publicly funded health care system.

I am incredibly proud of the work that our stakeholders, our clinicians, our hospitals, our physicians have done—and are supporting Your Health Act today.

We have funded three additional expansions to cataract in Windsor, in Kitchener-Waterloo, in Ottawa. We’ve done that, and those clinically funded programs are already in place and already serving more patients in the province of Ontario.

We’ll continue to make those expansions because I do not believe, at my core, that it is appropriate to have people waiting for medically necessary procedures in their community.

It is unfathomable to me that the member opposite doesn’t understand, by expanding what is already in place in the province of Ontario, with over 800 community clinics—that we do not see an opportunity here to serve the patient better.

Ma question est pour la ministre de la Santé.

Yesterday, the minister took a huge step towards the destruction of medicare. The Auditor General, Canadian Doctors for Medicare, the Ontario Health Coalition, Health Quality Ontario, the Canadian Medical Association and Ontarians are all saying the same thing: The minister’s bill will allow corporations to make big profits off the backs of sick people. Yet there is no oversight to protect patients in her bill. Why not?

Why is the minister destroying medicare?

My question is to the Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Northern Development.

Because of the policies of the previous Liberal government, supported strongly by the NDP, jobs were driven out of our province, holding back our full economic potential. Ontario’s northern, remote and Indigenous communities experienced these losses and setbacks most severely.

That is why it’s vital that our government partner with and promote economic development in Indigenous communities to create more opportunities for businesses and jobs throughout the province. Supporting Indigenous economic development furthers reconciliation and creates opportunities to strengthen relationships with Indigenous partners.

Speaker, can the minister please inform the Legislature on how our government plans to increase economic prosperity for Indigenous communities in Ontario?

Stop the clock. I need to remind all members to please make their comments through the Chair, not directly to the public galleries.

Restart the clock. The next question.

We want municipal partners to work with us. For example, I want to applaud the city of London that just recently passed a motion approving the housing pledge that we’ve asked of all the big city mayors. I want to speak to the difference between what we’re hearing from New Democrats and the government. I want to speak specifically to the young people who are in our audience today. Unsustainable fees like we see in the GTA are adding $116,900 to the average cost of—what it means to you is it means another $800 a month on a mortgage over 20 years. What are we seeing? We’re seeing millennials having to save 20 years to be able to put a down payment on a home. That’s unacceptable to our government. We want all three levels of government to be working together. We’ve heard from many municipalities who want to work with us.

Again, I’m very concerned with what I’m hearing from Waterloo. Folks, I want you to know something: We hear you. We want you to realize the dream of home ownership.

Interjections.

The skilled trades are a vital part of our province’s economy, but unfortunately, after 15 years of neglect under the previous NDP-supported Liberal government, we are experiencing critical labour shortages in this sector.

In Barrie–Innisfil, thousands of jobs are being unfilled in the trades sector. These jobs represent opportunities for people, many of them paying good paycheques, with benefits and potential pensions. These are jobs that are valued. They’re important and they’re urgently needed for our province to overcome the housing shortage we are facing and to rebuild vital infrastructure.

Can the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development tell us what our government is doing to address the skills shortage that is currently holding back Ontario from its economic potential?

Thank you to the member from Barrie–Innisfil, who does a great job advocating for the skilled trades in her region of the province.

From day one, our government has known the skilled trades needed more attention and investments. I’m pleased to share with all members the success of our first-ever skilled trades career fairs for students. Over the course of 10 days, more than 13,000 students in five regions had the opportunity to try the skilled trades and learn first-hand about the trades from over 90 exhibitors, including unions, employers and colleges. Later this year, we’ll be bringing these fairs back and expanding them to even more locations right across the province.

Speaker, by giving more students a chance to see for themselves how rewarding and exciting the trades are, we’re setting them up for success. As Premier Ford always says, when you have a career in the skilled trades, you have a career for life.

Furthermore, we also passed legislation that eliminates the requirement for Canadian work experience to work in the skilled trades here in Ontario. We’re welcoming the skilled immigrants we need and breaking down the barriers that newcomers face when arriving here in Ontario.

Speaker, we need all hands on deck to build back a stronger province and a stronger country.

The supplementary question.

There is no doubt that we want to make sure that our most challenged and youngest patients have health care where they need it and when they need it.

I will never, ever talk down SickKids. They are a world-renowned hospital that has been providing exceptional care, including, I might suggest, when we saw a surge in RSV. In fact, it was actually SickKids clinicians, nurses, doctors who stepped up and assisted community hospitals to make sure that they had the same level of knowledge and appreciation of how to deal with children coming into their emergency departments with RSV. When we saw those surges in our sick kids’ hospitals across Ontario, we made immediate investments that have now turned into permanent investments, including pediatric ICUs.

The hospitals themselves—the clinicians, the staff—have stepped up, and we, as a government, will continue to support their work to make sure that our most vulnerable are protected.

As I said, in the fall, when we saw the RSV hitting our pediatric hospitals, in particular, most dramatically, we did a number of things, including making additional investments in ICU beds that have now become permanent. We have more pediatric ICU beds in the province of Ontario today than we did as recently as six months ago. We will continue to make those investments. Premier Ford has made it clear we will not leave our hospital partners behind.

Now, would I have liked to see those investments happen 10 years ago? Absolutely, but we’re getting it done now. We’re fixing a system that frankly was ignored for far too long under previous governments.

My question is for the Premier. Yesterday, this government presented a plan for health care that inspired zero confidence that it would protect patients or ensure fair, equitable, timely access in our province. It avoided the root causes of our crisis and made a series of promises that we have no reason to believe will be acted upon.

I mean, why should we? This government promised they wouldn’t touch the greenbelt, and then they carved it up. They promised they would sign up 8,000 children to the Ontario Autism Program this year, and instead they just let the wait-list balloon and stopped reporting data. They told us there wasn’t a crisis in health care, even as at least 158 emergency departments closed across our province.

And now, the government is presenting a superficial plan for health care that makes vague promises about guardrails for some of the very same problems they have been consistently ignoring since they came into power. Mr. Speaker, why should anyone trust anything this Premier and government have to say?

We have already seen the poisonous effects of profits in long-term care, in which seniors died in droves. This government did nothing except introduce legislation to protect the most negligent operators and then award them more contracts. Now this government is enabling for-profit operators to siphon health care workers out of our public health care system. As Bill 124 pushes them out, temporary nursing agencies are pulling them out.

Many of these agencies engage in unscrupulous recruiting practices, like hiring out of parking lots, or they institute harmful contractual obligations that stop nurses from working in the location of their choice. Others engage in rampant price gouging, allowing hospitals to be charged three or four times the normal rates.

Will this government explain why they have not fulfilled their promise to take action on temporary, for-profit nursing agencies?

My question is to the Minister of Health. While the government is proceeding with its for-profit surgery plan, there are operating rooms in Toronto that are empty. SickKids hospital is not able to open two of their operating rooms because of staffing shortages, at a time when 3,400 children are waiting for necessary surgery.

Minister, why are you proceeding with for-profit surgery delivery when we have operating rooms sitting idle in public hospitals?

I want to go back to the Minister of Health. This isn’t just an issue with SickKids. The University Health Network told me their ability to meet overwhelming surgery demand is not because of a lack of operating rooms; it’s due to a staffing shortage. UHN is cancelling scheduled surgeries because they don’t have the staff. Allowing for-profit surgeries is not going to alleviate the staffing shortage. It’s just not.

Minister, my question to you is this: What is your plan to solve the staffing crisis in public hospitals in order to increase operating room capacity in public hospitals?

Thank you to the minister for his response. Businesses are only part of a vibrant economy, and there are additional ways to amplify prosperity and build up all of Ontario. Indigenous communities and organizations are providing leadership in developing infrastructure and growth plans to build businesses and create employment opportunities. Investments with First Nations partners will ensure long-term economic growth for Indigenous communities and for all of Ontario. Let’s continue investing in Indigenous communities and creating more opportunities for everyone.

Can the minister please explain to the Legislature what our government is doing today to support prosperity in Indigenous communities?