From the beautiful riding of Essex and the lovely town of Kingsville, one of our newest pages: Ms. Kalila I’Anson. Please welcome her to the Legislature.

Look, the member will know full well that this government has been taking leadership right from the beginning of the pandemic, even in instances where the members opposite refused to work with the government to ensure that Ontarians’ health and safety was put first. Every single time that we put a measure in place to improve health care in the province of Ontario, they have voted against it. Bringing on new nurses: They voted against it. When we brought on significant funding for our small and medium-sized hospitals, they voted against it. The most rapid buildout of long-term care in the history of this province, if not the entire country: They have voted against it, Mr. Speaker. We have brought forward incredible vaccinations in this province. We have led North America in terms of vaccinations. We have led the entire North America in terms of our battling of COVID, and in every single instance, they have voted against it.

We will continue to work hard, working with the Chief Medical Officer of Health to ensure the health and safety of all the people in the province of Ontario, regardless of whether the Leader of the Opposition wants to work with us or not.

It is now my distinct pleasure to invite the pages to assemble for their introduction.

From the riding of Eglinton–Lawrence, Nicholas Baryliuk; from the riding of University–Rosedale, Joel Bozikovic; from the riding of Peterborough–Kawartha, Isabelle Casselman; from Timiskaming–Cochrane, Kennedy Dabner; from Glengarry–Prescott–Russell, Mabel Follis; from the riding of Essex, Kalila I’Anson; from Brampton East, Serena Joseph; from Sudbury, Ema MacAulay; from Niagara West, Camilla Moscato; from Mississauga–Malton, Yusuf Muinuddin; from the riding of Toronto–Danforth, Aiden Perritt; from Willowdale, Oriana Sethi; from the riding of Markham–Thornhill, Eric Sung; from the riding of Mississauga–Erin Mills, Hussain Umar; from the riding of Algoma–Manitoulin, Havana Rose Thibideau Bello; from the riding of Northumberland–Peterborough South, Alexandra Vanden Bosch; from the riding of Pickering–Uxbridge, Max Weatherhead; from Elgin–Middlesex–London, Scarlett Wilson; and from Sault Ste. Marie, Grace Curran.

Welcome to the Legislative Assembly.

Applause.

The final supplementary.

The next question.

My question is to the Premier. Our children’s hospitals are overwhelmed. Parents are worried. They’re anxious about their sick children. Yesterday, the Chief Medical Officer of Health strongly advised all adults to wear masks indoors to protect our children. The Premier said he will take the advice of the medical officer of health. Why is the Premier not taking leadership and wearing a mask to protect our children?

What is it going to take for the Premier to show leadership and actually act on the recommendations of the medical officer of health?

My question is to the Minister of Health. Children’s hospitals are in crisis. At SickKids, care departments are running at 127% to 145% above capacity. And it’s not just SickKids; across Ontario, pediatric hospitals and care units have reached maximum capacity. What is this government’s plan to help children’s hospitals meet the increased demand for care?

Since the beginning of this pandemic, there is nothing that the Premier hasn’t done to protect our children and our most vulnerable. From the very beginning, when we had no vaccines in the province of Ontario or worldwide, we made sure that the initiatives that we did, the programs that we put in place protected our most vulnerable, protected our most senior, protected our children. We will continue to do that as a government because we understand that when you make investments in people, you make investments in community. We’ve done that from the start.

As the House leader mentioned, the investments that we have made in health care in the province of Ontario are truly historic, and yet when we asked members of the opposition to stand with us and work with us, they refused and they voted against our initiatives.

We’ll make the investments. We’ll continue to do what the Chief Medical Officer of Health recommends, because we know it’s the right thing—

When we make the investments, when we make sure that vaccines are available, we see results, and we have. We have seen the numbers of people who stepped up and said, “I want to protect my elderly,” “I want to go visit my senior in a long-term-care home,” “I want to be part of the solution.” Part of the solution, frankly, is making sure that your vaccines are up to date. We’ve done that, we’ve made those investments, and results prove that they have made a difference.

As I said, we will continue to make those investments to ensure that the people of Ontario have vaccines, have boosters, have flu shots when they need them. We’ll do that work. I’m not going to take any lessons from the member opposite, who refuses to support—

Our early efforts—of course, we anticipated a surge in pediatric and took early steps to support the challenging fall virus season. We’ve already done early operational guidance. We’ve provided support fall and winter surge preparedness in pediatric capacity. We saw that in CHEO. We see now SickKids nurses who are doing education to ensure that nurses in other community hospitals know, anticipate and are prepared for an uptake that we have anticipated and we are working towards.

Thank you, Speaker. I want to thank you for the opportunity to rise in the Legislature today to address a really crucial topic. Unfortunately, there have been reports about steady increases in racist incidents within our education system, including a spike in anti-Semitism and racism within our school settings. I know I can speak for everyone in this Legislature in saying that any form of hate should be removed from our classrooms.

There are new findings by Western University and Liberation75 that find that, when it comes to Holocaust education and awareness, there’s a worrisome 42% of students that were surveyed that have unequivocally witnessed an anti-Semitic act or event in their school.

Speaker, can the Minister of Education tell us what else we can do to combat anti-Semitism and stomp out this hate decisively?

I want to thank the member from Barrie–Innisfil for her exceptional leadership in this space of countering hate in all forms.

Mr. Speaker, democracies and free people around the world have declared, “Never again.” And yet, in this country, according to the study cited by the member from Barrie–Innisfil, one in three students in Canada believe the Holocaust was fabricated or exaggerated, and 42% of students have explicitly seen an anti-Semitic incident in their schools. Mr. Speaker, these are startling data points for any government, and we are absolutely committed to confronting this hate through education, to improve the lives of all citizens and to make sure these kids are in schools where they are respected for their inherent dignity, not because of their difference.

And so I am proud, for the first time in Ontario’s elementary schools, to be mandating mandatory elementary learning on the Holocaust to embed in our schools, to ensure students learn from it and to truly keep every child safe in Ontario.

Minister, SickKids and hospitals don’t just want to imagine; they want the investments so that they can deal with the very serious issues they’re facing right now.

Yesterday, SickKids began cancelling surgeries to cope with surging demand in its ICUs in its emergency department. SickKids already has a surgery wait-list of more than 3,400 children waiting beyond the clinically acceptable time frame. What is this government’s plan to help children get the surgeries they’re waiting for?

The supplementary question.

Start the clock. The next question, the member for Barrie–Innisfil.

Mr. Speaker, I had the pleasure and opportunity to table the fall economic statement here yesterday, and our opposition said, “Where’s all the new money for health care?” If they were here in August when I tabled the budget, which was voted on yes by this side and no on that side, they would recognize that there was $5.6 billion of new investments for health care.

It was this government that recognizes that we’re investing in the surgical backlog, we’re investing in home care, we’re investing in community care—in acute care, more beds. We have a plan to stay open. We came back in the Legislature in August to get the job done for the people of Ontario, and we will not rest until the investments that were neglected by the previous government—

Interjections.

Speaker, through you to the Premier: Despite promising the people of this province not to “touch the greenbelt,” this government has put forward a plan to remove 7,400 acres of land from the greenbelt, claiming they need more land to build housing, yet the province’s Housing Affordability Task Force reported that a lack of land was not the problem. We have already have all the land we need for housing. The greenbelt was created to preserve valuable farmland and connect the forest and wetland ecosystems. Every expert is saying that removing parts of it threatens all of it.

Will the Premier tell the people of Ontario the true nature of his motives in putting their farmland, food security and conservation lands in jeopardy when his own experts are saying that we have plenty of land available for development?

Some of the owners of the protected land the government is opening up to development purchased the land just a few months ago. One parcel of land was bought by the Rice Group back in September and was described as a prime opportunity for “land banking.” What interesting timing, Speaker.

Developers like the Rice Group’s CEO, Michael Rice, and TACC Development’s CEO, Silvio De Gasperis, have donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Ontario PC Party. Four companies controlled by members of the De Gasperis family own 20 properties on the land this government is opening up for development.

Speaker, the greenbelt is vital to keeping Ontario’s watershed systems and environment healthy and working. Without it, we increase the risks of flooding, droughts and food security. After promising not to touch the greenbelt, why is the Premier carving it up and serving pieces of it to his hungry friends like one of his homemade cheesecakes?

Speaker, I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: We planned for this expected surge. We have worked with our clinicians, with our hospital leaders, to make sure that they have the resources to properly assess where children and adults need to be in our health care system when they need that care.

That work is ongoing. Those investments in emergency departments, in over 11,900 new health human resources—these are people who are working in our systems today in the province of Ontario who did not have a job in health care before the pandemic. We’ve made sure that those investments translate into ensuring that when we see surges, whether they are for RSV, flu or other COVID-related pandemic issues, we have the capacity and will continue to serve those parents and children.

My question is for the Premier. My constituent Lindsay’s youngest son, who is three years old, recently had to be admitted to an ICU for respiratory distress, requiring high-level BiPAP support. A few days after her son was discharged, Lindsay had to take him back to the hospital again for assistance with his breathing. In both instances, she was told by the overworked health care staff that they would like to keep him for observation, but there were no beds. They were sent home and told to come back if it got worse.

Mr. Speaker, this is a nightmare for parents. One ER doctor has asked this Minister of Health, “Did you know that we’re resuscitating three to four kids at a time now?” We are seeing a wave of respiratory illness in young children, with limited capacity to properly treat patients, and yet there is no new funding for health care in the fall economic statement.

How can the government justify this, after everything that children and parents have endured during this pandemic? Why will you not acknowledge that six months past their first budget, additional funding is needed to address this crisis, because the crisis is real?

Adding more pediatric ICU beds means investing in training and retaining—this is the missing part from your fall economic statement—and paying health care workers a fair wage. When will you repeal Bill 124, which is a wage-suppression piece of legislation? It is driving people out of this province. At the very least, Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Health needs to address the repealing of Bill 124. It should have been in the fall economic statement.

I want to thank the member from Thunder Bay, who is doing a great job representing his community here at Queen’s Park. Just last week, I had the pleasure of visiting Thunder Bay with the member to announce that our government is investing $1.5 million in Thunder Bay training projects with the Carpenters Union Local 1669 and Confederation College.

Our government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, is on a mission to give people in every corner of Ontario a hand up to life-changing careers in the skilled trades. These crucial investments will make it easier for people across northern Ontario to start rewarding careers that provide meaningful work, good pay with defined pensions and benefits. For anyone anywhere in Ontario who wants a hand up, our government is here to help. We’re building a stronger Ontario that leaves no one behind.

For the first time in Ontario’s history, students in grades 7 to 12 can learn about the 144 different trades available in Ontario from union leaders, employers and tradespeople all under one roof. One of the best kept secrets in Ontario is the fact that many people in the trades are earning more than those with PhDs. To build a stronger Ontario, we need more hard-working people in the skilled trades.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak about this vital issue that deserves further attention. Students and families in my riding have been negatively impacted by anti-Semitic hatred and discrimination, whether in our schools or public settings. All students deserve the opportunity to learn free from hate and discrimination, especially the students from my riding. To take meaningful action in combatting what’s happening today, we must ensure that young people in this province are aware of the past. This includes Jewish history, culture, perspectives and contributions to Canada.

Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Education: Why was it only our government that recognized the urgency in taking immediate action by expanding Holocaust education in the curriculum?

The supplementary question? The member for Thornhill.

The Minister of Health to reply.

Supplementary question.

Let’s look at the facts. Since our government has made these historic investments, an over $6.2-billion year-over-year dollar increase in health care spending—that is the largest increase in health care spending on record for this province, and, I might add, the members opposite voted against each one of those dollars being added to our health care system.

Over 11,700 new health care workers since March 2020: Every single one of those workers, the members opposite voted against. When we put forward $342 million to support retraining and upskilling our registered nurses and RPNs, the members opposite voted against that. When we put forward a measure to increase pay for PSWs and DSWs, the members opposite voted against. Every measure that we have put forward as a government to support health care, to invest in health care, the members opposite have voted against. We will continue to do what we can to support health care in this province.

In my riding of Thunder Bay–Atikokan and across northern Ontario, I am hearing from many businesses, notably in the mining and forestry sectors, that unfortunately cannot find the workers they need. Businesses in my community want to hire more skilled tradespeople, but face a critical shortage of workers to fill all job vacancies. Over 21,000 jobs are currently unfilled in northern Ontario, many of which are in the skilled trades.

Speaker, I want to thank the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development for his visit to Thunder Bay last week, and ask him to share with the House what our government is doing to address the skilled-trades shortage in northern Ontario.

Can the minister please share how our government is helping more young people learn about the opportunities available to them in the skilled trades, especially in the communities in northern Ontario?