Speaker, Canada is facing an enormous labour shortage. In fact, recent data from Statistics Canada shows that the “unemployment to job vacancy” ratio in Canada is at a historically low level.

Here in Ontario, our health care sector is a prime example of where we are seeing extreme labour shortages, which has added to the health care crisis, especially as we try to tackle the challenges of overcapacity in our emergency rooms and insufferably long wait times for treatment.

According to the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, more than 60% of their businesses and workplaces are facing difficulty with hiring, whether it’s in health care, retail, construction, just to name a few. Our province simply does not have the human resources to fill this gap.

The Minister of Labour himself said that there are over 370,000 jobs across the province but not enough people to meet the demand. This demand is continuing to rise with a continuing increase in retirement and a slowdown of immigration, especially during COVID-19, owing to the massive immigration backlog on the federal level, and we are seeing thousands of jobs go unfilled.

Immigrants contribute greatly to every sector of our province, be it academic, scientific, cultural, manufacturing, food and agriculture, health care, and many more.

I am calling on the Premier and the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development to work collaboratively with the federal government to improve Ontario’s immigration process and address the massive immigration backlogs so that those who want to contribute to this province are able to do so and have the opportunity to build their life in this great province.

I am pleased to introduce Mr. Emamul Kabir, a renowned Bangladeshi veteran guitarist, who is here today. A recipient of numerous prestigious awards, he has published over 22 musical notations and released over 50 music albums. He is known for playing Bangladeshi liberation music, even when he was forbidden to do so. He’s here with his daughter, Nahid Kabir, another talented musician in Scarborough, and his granddaughter, Angkita Sarwar. Please welcome them.

I want to thank the community members who have reached out and signed this petition. It is entitled “Protect the Greenbelt.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Bill 23 is the Ford government’s latest attempt to remove protected land from the greenbelt, allowing developers to bulldoze and pave over 7,000 acres of farmland in the greenbelt;

“Whereas Ontario is already losing 319.6 acres of farmland and green space daily to development;

“Whereas the government’s Housing Affordability Task Force found there are plenty of places to build homes without destroying the greenbelt;

“Whereas Ford’s repeated moves to tear up farmland and bulldoze wetlands have never been about housing, but are about making the rich richer;

“Whereas green spaces and farmland are what we rely on to grow our food, support natural habitats and prevent flooding;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately amend Bill 23, stop all plans to further remove protected land from the greenbelt and protect existing farmland in the province by passing the NDP’s Protecting Agricultural Land Act.”

Speaker, I fully support this petition, will affix my signature to it and give it to page Serena.

I want to thank the member from Waterloo for her very informative speech. It didn’t even feel like an hour, because you were so good at explaining exactly what’s happening. You mentioned the troubling trend this government has with all their budgets, really, in terms of really underestimating their revenue and overestimating its deficits.

Would you be able to explain a little bit more in terms of the damage that it does, especially when we look at health care spending, education spending and some of the more dire needs that we have in our province, especially right now?

I have a very simple question for the member: Why does your government’s fiscal update not include any new money in the health care budget?