Thank you, Speaker. If you seek it, you will find that there is unanimous consent for me to say a few words as we remember the victims of the Montreal massacre today.

Speaker, before I put my question, I want to welcome our next leader, Marit Stiles. Marit, we’re all confident that you’ll do great things as the next leader of the Ontario NDP. Congratulations.

Applause.

I’m going to quote the chief nursing executive at CHEO, who said, “It has been all hands on deck at CHEO this viral season as we have responded to unprecedented volumes due to RSV, the flu and COVID.”

It is not lost on our government that, in the last month alone, CHEO has essentially doubled their pediatric ICU unit. It is an incredible amount of work that they’ve been able to do very quickly. We have now permanently made the investment to ensure that those pediatric beds will stay at CHEO, because we know that that hospital, in particular, because of its large catchment area, has many, many community hospitals that they are serving.

They are doing that with a minimum amount of help from the Red Cross. They are partnering with the Red Cross to return the staff who have been redeployed, and working in those pediatric ICU units to make sure that they can go back to doing their important work.

I’d like to welcome, from my constituency office, a proud member of Tuscarora Nation, Samuel Anderson, and also Julie Barnard, my constituency assistants.

I’d also like to introduce my staff. It’s their first time at Queen’s Park: Camila Budylowski and Nabeel Ranmall. Welcome to Queen’s Park. Enjoy your day.

I’d like to welcome my staff: Sam McDonell, Josee Seguin and John Cameron. Sam is the nephew of Jim McDonell. He’s working in my office. We’re lucky to have you here.

My question is to the Premier. Today, we honour the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women, exactly 33 years to the day since 14 women were murdered at the hands of violent misogyny in Montreal. This was not an isolated event. Since 1990, over 980—Speaker, likely far more—have been lost to femicide in Ontario alone.

This year, the Renfrew county inquest recommendations were published, following a years-long investigation into the violent, hate-fuelled murder of three women in 2015: Anastasia Kuzyk, Nathalie Warmerdam and Carol Culleton. From the government, Speaker, it’s been a lot of crickets.

My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier explain to these women’s families why the government hasn’t yet acted on any of these recommendations?

I guess Santa came early this year.

As the member knows and as the AG has stated, we’re reviewing the decision and we intend to appeal it.

But we will speak to the investments that we have made in the health care system. Over the past year alone, we’ve increased base spending in health care by over $5.2 billion. That is the largest year-over-year increase in the history of this province. When we look at health human resources across this province, we have put in place the investments to support the hiring of over 14,500 net new nurses. That is unprecedented in the history of this province.

We will continue to make those investments, as we have with two new medical schools that we are announcing in this province, in Brampton and Scarborough, making sure we have new medical staff, more doctors in the north through that.

The members opposite have voted against each of those measures, have voted against every single increase to health care spending. On this side of the House and with our members opposite, we will continue to make sure we make those investments—

I think the minister has answered that on a number of occasions. I think, again, what it comes down to, time and time again, is that the NDP just refuse—with the help of the Liberals, quite frankly—to see the challenges that we have in the province of Ontario, the challenges that we are fixing.

Of course, there is a housing crisis in the province of Ontario, ostensibly because of the policies that were brought on by the Liberals, supported by the NDP. Colleagues will remember all of those years that the NDP propped up the Liberals to ensure that the dream of home ownership that so many of us have fought for our entire lives, our parents fought for. Under both the Liberals and the NDP, that is a dream that has vanished in the province of Ontario, but because of this Premier, because of this Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Conservatives on both sides of the House, you know what? We’re bringing back that dream. We’re making sure that we’re putting in place policies that will allow people to prosper in the province of Ontario, like generations before us, and we only wish that they would get on board.

I love that the member brought up Stouffville. Stouffville is my hometown, Mr. Speaker. Of course, it is a vibrant, beautiful community. Those who were in Stouffville on the weekend would have had the benefit of one of the most beautiful Santa Claus parades that we have had in the province of Ontario.

As the people lined the streets on both sides of Stouffville, they shouted encouragement to make sure we continued on. Do you know what they said, Mr. Speaker? “Bring more people to Stouffville.” That’s what they wanted because they all had what we all fight for: the dream of home ownership. We talked about this just yesterday.

I challenge any one of them to get up in their place and say it—say it with me: home ownership. Home ownership is not a bad word. It’s something that generations of Ontarians and Canadians have fought for. You’re against it. We want it, and we will fight to make sure that all Ontarians share in that dream—

Interjections.

Again, I’m glad he keeps talking about Stouffville. He keeps talking about Markham and Stouffville. I guess the member of Parliament must be doing something right in Markham–Stouffville, so I thank you for continuously bringing that up for me.

Listen, there is a number of homebuilders who are working throughout southern Ontario to bring the dream of home ownership to the people of the province of Ontario. As I said yesterday, when my parents came to this country, all of them were living in one home in the member for Scarborough Southwest’s riding, on Dentonia Park just off the Danforth—six of them. And do you know what they wanted? They wanted a home: the dream of home ownership. The oldest left, then the second-oldest left and, within 10 years, each and every one of those brothers and one sister had their own home. It is why they left Italy: to make a better life for all of the kids they had after that.

And that’s all the people of this province want. They want the opportunity to succeed like their parents before them. The only time we lost that is when the Liberals, propped up by the NDP, took that dream away from the people of the province of Ontario. This Premier has brought that back, and we’re on the move again.

What I will say to the people of Ontario is that we are fixing a health care system that was woefully ignored by the previous Liberal government. The former Premier, Kathleen Wynne, admitted publicly that she should not have cut those 50 doctor spaces as they did to assist in their health care crisis.

We are making the investments. Already we’re seeing additional health human resources in our communities—over 12,000 new health human resources who are working out in our communities, in our hospitals, in our long-term-care homes. We’re continuing to do that work by increasing residency spots, by increasing access, ensuring that young people who want to choose a career in health care have those options. In many cases, nurses and PSWs in particular are getting that opportunity with assistance financially from our government.

We’ll make the investments. We’ll continue to do the work. But frankly, we were left with a system that had been ignored for far too long.

Supplementary question.

Interjections.

Restart the clock. The member for Niagara Centre, final supplementary.

Speaker, through you to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing: In May 2021, one month after the Premier promised the people of Ontario, “I’m not touching the greenbelt,” a company controlled by Silvio De Gasperis took out a $100-million loan at 21% interest to buy 106 acres of greenbelt farmland in Vaughan. This was an unusually risky loan for an undevelopable property, but less risky if Mr. De Gasperis had reason to believe the land would soon be made available for development.

Did the minister or any other government official discuss proposals to develop these greenbelt lands with Mr. De Gasperis or any of his associates or lobbyists prior to November 4? Yes or no?

Did the minister, or any other government official, discuss proposals to develop these greenbelt lands with any representatives of Orca Equity or their development partners prior to November 4? Yes or no?

The minister also seems to have a curious interest in these particular properties. On November 4, he added them inside Markham’s urban boundaries when he amended York region’s official plan. Did the minister, or any other government official, discuss proposals to develop these lands with any representative or associate of Wyview or Flato prior to November 4? Yes or no?

My question is to the Premier. Crystal Quartz, a drag platformer living in Guelph, has seen a spike in violent threats against drag artists. She’s being threatened by a hate group who has promised to disrupt her performance and give her audience “a show they’ll never forget.” Crystal is now forced to call the local police and hire private security for private events at restaurants such as Boston Pizza and Kelseys.

Will this government take on bigots who threaten drag performers and their audiences with hate and threats of violence?

“Kids’ eyes light up.... I’m this big pretty princess. Parents tell me that the whole week afterwards, it’s all their kids talk about.

“I go into ... communities that don’t have safe paces to create them.”

Crystal’s upcoming performance this Sunday is a brunch performance. It has already faced additional and escalating threats. What exactly is the Premier doing to protect Ontario’s drag community, their audience as well as the businesses that host these events?

Speaker, there’s no new funding in the fall economic statement on gender-based violence.

Back to the Premier: Femicide is both a predictable and preventable crime. But this doesn’t happen through words; it happens through action. We are seeing a massive uptick in gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence, all while the gap between the need for resources and resources available grows wider and wider each year.

The urgency to act is grave. We cannot wait for another massacre like what happened in Montreal or Renfrew, or anywhere else for that matter, to realize what we should have done.

My question is to the Premier. The government has the opportunity to do what’s right. Will the Premier finally respond to the Renfrew recommendations with a meaningful plan of action and budget to implement them now?

The Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.

First, I want to acknowledge the loss of all the women who have been murdered or killed across this province. There will be an opportunity this afternoon at 3 o’clock for each group to be able to say—several minutes on this topic, and I think this is an extremely important topic.

All women deserve safety and security, and our government is continuously, constantly working to make the lives of women safer and to provide that security, and for all Ontarians to live free of violence and fear.

We’re working to prevent and address violence against women in all forms, and we’ve made the investments to back this up. Words alone, as the member across the way has stated, aren’t enough. That’s exactly why we’re making the investments that are necessary to change this.

We’ve launched programs. We’ve passed legislation aimed at ending violence, and we will continue to do this important work because it matters to all of us. It should matter to society. It should matter to every Ontarian, and we’ll continue to do this.

Speaker, Canada recently hosted its first International Swimming Federation World Cup event in more than 20 years in my riding of Scarborough–Rouge Park. We welcomed more than 450 athletes from 40 countries as they competed at the Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre.

I know I can speak on behalf of our entire province in extending our support, admiration and well wishes for this successful event; however, some of our most talented athletes might not have the opportunity to compete internationally in events like this due to financial constraints.

Ontario is a global leader in athletic performance and we must continue supporting our competitors as they represent our province and country.

Speaker, can the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport please share with the House what assistance our government is offering to help our athletes as they represent us on the world stage?

Can the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport please elaborate on what our government is doing to support national and international sports events that take place in Ontario?

This is a very serious topic, and it’s important that we address hate in all of its forms. We’re seeing the rise of hate as it relates to religion, gender—all sorts of different ways of describing it. It’s something this government takes very seriously. It’s something that we’re investing in to make sure that we have the supports for those who are the victims and it’s something that we’re making sure goes to the front of everything that we do to make sure that we have people in safe communities and the kind of communities that they want to live in.

Resources are available. If people are not feeling comfortable, then they can reach out. And I note, in particular, we can chat offline or after question period, if you wish, about the resources that are available, because it is important, Mr. Speaker. We’re talking about our friends and our families and our children and our parents. We want to make sure that everybody is comfortable in Ontario.