Speaker, yesterday marked the start of Living Wage Week, an important reminder to all of us to recognize the need for a livable wage in Ontario.

The Ontario Living Wage Network released their yearly living wage rates for the province for 2022. The stark reality is that there isn’t a single one of the 51 communities analyzed where the livable wage has been identified under $18 an hour, far above the current minimum wage.

Many people in Ontario are finding themselves fully employed yet unable to afford the cost of living as inflation rates continue to soar. The cost of groceries, housing, utility bills and transportation have all increased, while wages have remained stagnant. We know that those making the lowest wages in this province are the most impacted when the cost of living increases.

In my community of Windsor, a livable wage has been identified as $18.15. That’s the lowest hourly wage someone needs to make to be able to put a roof over their head and food on the table. The minimum wage is currently set at $15.50—a $2.65-an-hour difference, equalling $5,500 per year that people are coming up short, yet the Conservatives were just bragging about their minimum wage. That doesn’t account for the employees who are forced into precarious part-time positions where hours are not guaranteed.

Many Ontarians are working two or three jobs just to make ends meet. Ontarians deserve to be able to afford the basic costs of living.

It’s time for big corporations, which made record profits this year, to step up and pay a fair wage.

We must support Ontarians and raise the minimum wage.

The Conservative government’s empty slogan, “Working for workers,” doesn’t cut it. If they genuinely supported workers, they’d ensure they get paid a living wage. Poverty is this government’s policy choice.

I am deeply honoured and proud of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 258, a vital institution within the Highland Creek community. The Highland Creek branch was founded back in 1934 and has advocated for veterans and their families ever since. They have always led a successful poppy campaign, and this year was no different.

They have actively supported local causes by sponsoring local cadets as well as hockey and baseball teams, and they have contributed to many charities because they believe strongly in Canada and its values. More than that, the Legion has always served as a place for long-time friends and neighbours to gather and have a drink and a good laugh.

Four years ago, when I was a newly elected MPP, they welcomed me with open arms, and for that I will always be grateful. Ever since, we have made it a tradition that I come every Canada Day with a freshly baked cake. In many ways, it is one of my favourite events of the year.

This year the old Legion hall was closed and Branch 258 has moved to its brand new location at 305 Morrish Road. I know this a bittersweet moment for many of us, but I’m confident that we will share many good times in the years ahead.

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.

Question?

Second reading debate deemed adjourned.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the member for the question. The people of Ontario work hard, and our government understands that taxpayers are under pressure, whether it’s Russia’s war in Ukraine, tension in Asia, and inflation that we’ve not seen for four decades. We recognize the impact that inflation’s having on families, and our government is here for them. Our government is committing to putting and keeping more money in the pockets of the people of Ontario. We have a plan to keep costs down.

We’re moving forward with one of the most ambitious plans in Ontario’s history, including plans to build highways, hospitals, broadband and public transit. It’s outlined in the 2022 budget, Ontario’s Plan to Build. We’ve dedicated $158.8 billion—I’ll repeat, $158.8 billion—over the next decade, including $20 billion in 2022-23, to support our projects such as transit, highways, schools and hospitals.

Mr. Speaker and honourable member, this government is there for the people of Ontario.

I’m hearing from many constituents in my riding of Don Valley North who are extremely concerned about a dramatic increase in instances of vehicle theft and carjackings in our area. According to an article in the Toronto Star, 70 vehicles were stolen in North York during the week of October 13 to 19. The previous week, the number of stolen cars in the area was 54. There is one vehicle stolen every six minutes in Canada, and the proceeds from stolen vehicles are often used to fund global organized crime and terrorism.

This issue is being addressed by the police in our community and through public safety initiatives in our province. But without proper registration and procedures to hold accountable those who alter vehicle identification and to prevent stolen vehicles from exiting Canada, we are far from solving this serious public safety issue.

I hereby call out to the federal government to tighten border controls and stop stolen vehicles from being exported overseas.

Speaker, London West parents are worried. One mother wrote to me: “Parents are looking for guidance from our leadership right now and we are getting nothing. As a parent to a three-year-old son, I am terrified when I see the news about pediatric ICU beds.” Another said, “The state of our health care system, particularly pediatrics, is horrifying. As the mom of a toddler who has been sick with COVID, hand foot and mouth, and pink eye in the past six weeks, I am terrified.... While we have been lucky to not have to go to the ER yet, I am fearful of what we will experience when we arrive.” What she will experience at London’s Children’s Hospital is a stressful hours-long wait in a crowded emergency room that was built to handle about 100 visits per day but is being overwhelmed by 200 or more sick children—double the usual volume.

Parents of teens admitted to ICU now face the prospect of admission to an adult ICU bed, which has ICU nurses concerned about taking on teen ICU patients without specialized pediatric training.

Children’s Hospital emergency room director Dr. Rod Lim warned, “It may get worse before it gets better. I think November and December are going to be tough.”

Speaker, London parents are asking me, “What is this government doing about this crisis?” From the budget that was tabled yesterday, my answer is, clearly, “Not enough.”

On Friday last week, the President of the Treasury Board joined me in Mississauga–Lakeshore for a tour of the construction site at Mississauga Hospital, where work is well under way on a new eight-storey parking structure with spaces for almost 1,500 vehicles. This is an important first step towards the complete reconstruction of the entire hospital. The new 24-storey facility will be almost triple the size, with almost three million square feet of space and almost 1,000 hospital beds, over 80% of which will be in private rooms. It will add over 20 new, state-of-the-art operation rooms. This will be the largest and most advanced hospital in the history of Canada. The fall economic statement yesterday reported that the RFP has closed, and it has confirmed our government is committed to this historic project.

So I want to thank the Minister of Finance for his statement yesterday—and this Minister of Finance cares about Mississauga–Lakeshore. Again, I want to thank him and the President of the Treasury Board for their support for this important project. We have been looking forward to a new, modern hospital in Mississauga for many years, and it is very exciting to see shovels in the ground.

Mr. Speaker, I stand before you with a grim realization: Our children are being let down by this government.

It has been said that “the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.” All of us bore witness to this government’s failure of our elders in long-term-care homes during the pandemic. Most recently, this government took aim at our lowest-paid education workers by trying to trample on their charter rights. And now it is our children who our government is failing, and they don’t have a voice to advocate for themselves.

We’re grappling with over-capacity pediatric ICUs, ERs and critical care that are overwhelmed, kids in adult ICUs, and surgeries being delayed. This summer, when this government was nowhere to be found, I called for the government to take measures to prepare for the upcoming respiratory season. And yet the fall vaccination campaign was non-existent and the plan to stay open has not eased the emergency care crisis in the slightest.

I would be remiss if I did not address the current state of the Ontario Autism Program. Under this government, the OAP’s wait-list for core services has more than doubled, skyrocketing from 28,000 in 2018 to 57,000 in 2022. That is enough children to fill the Rogers Centre and then some. This government needs to be transparent with families. How many children are registered? How many are wait-listed? And how many are receiving core services? I eagerly wait for those answers.

I recently had the opportunity to attend a fundraising dinner for the Medical Equipment Modernization Opportunity, or MEMO for short, in Thunder Bay.

Since 2004, MEMO has shipped 100 containers to Cuba, El Salvador, Liberia, Nicaragua and Zimbabwe, totalling millions of dollars in equipment and saving countless lives along the way. Every container holds 10 tonnes of medical equipment and supplies that are redundant according to Canadian health standards but remain useful and continue to save lives in developing countries. The organization is completely run by volunteers so that every dollar donated goes entirely to support the work.

I want to recognize Dr. and Mrs. Jerome Harvey, whose dream began 18 years ago while looking outside their kitchen window at the soon-to-be-closed 250-bed Port Arthur General Hospital. He wondered what was going to happen to all the medical equipment left behind in this hospital, as well as the other old hospital to be closed, the 375-bed McKellar hospital.

He discovered that because of Thunder Bay’s isolation, the cost of removing and shipping made the contents of the two old hospitals valueless. Reluctantly, the hospital administration admitted that most of the equipment would be sold to a scrap dealer for $180 a tonne. This led to a meeting with a Cuban doctor and Cuban ministry of health officials that assured him that anything MEMO could send would be helpful, as Cuba had an adequate supply of well-trained doctors but was woefully inadequate in medical equipment and supplies. Thus, MEMO was formed under the auspices of the Evangelical Free Church of Canada.

I commend Dr. Harvey for his initiative and leadership in this venture that is making a difference in the lives of residents in developing countries.

This morning it is a great honour, as the member for St. Catharines, to recognize former MPP Jim Bradley, regional chair for the Niagara region. Thank you, Jim, for your 42 years of service to St. Catharines. Welcome back to your House, and thank you for coming this morning.

Also, I would like to welcome Ethan Gardnere, Anthony Coulter and Callum Robertson. And a special shout-out to Brock University in St. Catharines: Go, BUSU! Go, Badgers! Andrea LePage from Brock University—she’s a hometown student attending Brock. Thank you for coming. Welcome to your House, and thank you for your meeting yesterday.

I had the honour to meet the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance this morning. I’d like to present Stephanie Ye-Mowe, Lara Weisenberg, Simranjeet Singh et, en particulier, une petite fille que j’ai vue grandir, une jeune demoiselle de chez nous, de Kapuskasing, Anaik Tremblay. Bienvenue à l’Assemblée législative.

As Minister of Colleges and Universities, the best part of my job is representing students. So I am pleased to welcome the student leaders from the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance who have joined us today. They are hosting their annual student advocacy conference and will be meeting with several members of the Legislature throughout the week, so please join us for breakfast tomorrow morning. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I am pleased to welcome today chair of Ontario Pork, John de Bruyn, as well as GM Ken Ovington. They will be hosting a reception in room 228, the Gathering Place, immediately following question period today.

I’d like to join the minister in welcoming members of OUSA. From Sudbury, we have Avery Morin, the president of Laurentian University Students’ General Association, and her vice-president, Ana Tremblay. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Good morning to everyone. I’d like to welcome the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, OCUFA. They are here in a very large contingent. They will be meeting a number of MPPs today. They hosted a wonderful breakfast for us. I wanted to specifically name Jenny Ahn, the executive director, as well as Nig Narain.

I have to say hello to my good friend Floyd Laughren, who is part of the reason why Nickel Belt has been represented by the NDP for 55 years—because of your hard work, Floyd. Thank you.

My riding of Hamilton East–Stoney Creek is well represented today, and I’m proud to say so. I’d like to welcome John Hands and Kaitlin Guarasci from Bay Area Health Trust, a Hamilton-based organization that plays a critical role in Ontario’s health care system. And I’d like to welcome Dylan Atack and his dad, Ritch, to Queen’s Park today. I’d also like to echo: Go, Badgers! Welcome.

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.