Thank you, Madam Speaker. It’s always nice to see you in the chair.

We’ve talked about building and what our government has done—we’re building hospitals, we’re building long-term-care beds, we’re building the much-needed transit here for the people of Toronto. But I just wanted to ask the parliamentary assistants, what are we doing to help support our seniors? Some of our seniors are living on a fixed income. During this time of rising costs of living and economic uncertainty, can you tell us how they fit into this plan?

I thank the member for her great question. It’s so important, how we’re supporting seniors, and this government is doing that in a number of different ways. One of the things we’re doing immediately is to help vulnerable seniors by proposing to double the Guaranteed Annual Income System payment, GAINS—that’s right, double those payments—starting next month in January 2023. It would support about 200,000 of Ontario’s lowest-income seniors. This is such an important measure, and it’s going to those that need it. This is what this government has done with these targeted measures in the fall economic statement to benefit those most in need.

I wanted to ask the member if he would expand on some of the things that you felt could have been addressed in Bill 36 that were not. You did mention mental health, and I would agree with you that at a time when we see the need of young people in our schools requiring much, much more mental health supports—I know the $90 million that the government has put in works out to $45 dollars a student, and I’m not sure that that’s going to go very far when you look at the needs across our school system, in the rising anxiety in young people and just the stress of not having been in in-class learning consistently for two years.

I just wondered if you could expand on what else you felt the government could have invested in and how to expand more mental health services.

I want to start off by saying that doubling GAINS for some of our lowest-income, often vulnerable, seniors is important. It’s important that, in the face of rising inflation, we see a change in their income levels. I would say that that is a good change that was made. But Madam Speaker, this is coming at a time when people across this province are really struggling. They’re struggling to climb out of a pandemic, while at the same time being hit with other illnesses like the flu virus, RSV, affecting so many children in this province and putting them at risk and severe danger. We also see soaring inflation rates, and people are struggling. They’re struggling to cope with everyday needs. We can see that our health system, for instance, is just really feeling the effects of that. It’s buckling. The government’s fiscal update does not seem to respond to those needs that we see in our society and for the people across this province.

We were very hopeful and encouraged the government to use it as an opportunity to get rid of Bill 124. It was this finance minister who introduced that and has not made any correction, despite what we’re seeing there in terms of the pressures in our health system. We can’t keep nurses because they are burnt-out from the pandemic and don’t feel very appreciated for their services. We call them heroes, but what are we doing to recognize them with this very oppressive Bill 124? And let’s be clear, Madam Speaker: The Ontario Superior Court judge has just struck down Doug Ford’s Bill 124 and its wage cap legislation. This is a major blow to this government. I hope that, rather than appealing, they listen to the advice that is coming through loud and clear: that this legislation is damaging; it is exacerbating the staffing shortages that we are seeing and that is overwhelming our health care system.

When you see that hospitals in Ontario have to call in emergency humanitarian assistance from the Red Cross just to attend to the needs of children at CHEO—

Interjection.