When we were elected, our government made a commitment to support the province’s regional manufacturing economies, and in 2019 we delivered by launching a $100-million Regional Development Program.

To date, we’ve attracted $716 million in investments and 1,300 jobs in southwestern, southeastern and rural Ontario through that program. We were there with the member in Essex recently at MC3 Manufacturing and at another company, Idol Core. These two companies are investing $11 million in creating 29 well-paying manufacturing jobs with a total investment of $1 million from the province.

Speaker, this is how we’re supporting economic growth and those skilled workers in communities like Essex, because these companies are showing the world that Ontario is open for business.

In fact, costs have been lowered by $7 billion every year. This is attracting record numbers of investments and entrepreneurs to southwestern Ontario.

In Essex, our automotive program attracted over $500,000 in investments from Industrial Fastener, B&B Tool and Mould, and Windsor Industrial Services.

And with a further $631,000 invested in the Small Business Enterprise Centre there, their entrepreneurs have all the tools they need to start and grow their own businesses—and another $182,500 for their Summer Company. That helps students and young entrepreneurs start their businesses because, Speaker, this is how our government is driving growth in Essex.

Ma question s’adresse au premier ministre.

Debbie Premo, une gardienne à la retraite, a appelé mon bureau hier. Son époux, Bill, travaille comme concierge pour le conseil scolaire du district d’Algoma. À plus de 60 ans, Debbie m’a dit que maintenant, à sa retraite, elle envisageait de retourner au travail parce qu’elle n’était pas certaine qu’ils pouvaient garder leur maison avec le seul salaire de son mari en tant que concierge.

Elle me dit : « Mon mari travaille toujours et pourrait prendre sa retraite, mais en raison des salaires, il travaillera toujours, jusqu’à ce qu’il ne puisse plus. »

Tout ce que Debbie et son mari veulent est qu’il puisse prendre sa retraite confortablement après plus de 35 ans de travail.

Pourquoi le premier ministre pense-t-il que Debbie et Bill ne méritent pas une qualité de vie respectable?

Through you, Speaker, to the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development: The skilled trades are vital for the communities in my riding of Sarnia–Lambton and across Ontario. Right now, we have a shortage of skilled tradespeople across this province. We need their highly valued and specialized skills to continue to build this province—and my community, of course. Every unfilled job in the skilled trades represents unmet economic potential. Our government needs to take further action now to address the skilled trades shortage.

What is our government doing in response to the skilled trades shortage in Ontario?

While our government is making gains to help prepare young people for in-demand careers, there’s still more we can do. Many local employers have job vacancies and work opportunities that must be filled.

As part of the skilled trades shortage, there’s still a prevailing stereotype that these jobs are only for men.

My question is once again to the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development: How is our government showing leadership to increase female participation in the skilled trades?

My question is to the Premier. I have been hearing from Scarborough Southwest constituents—and constituents across Scarborough, actually—who have, non-stop, for the past two days, called and emailed us with stories. And I can assure this Premier and this government that it was not just education workers or union bosses, as they would like to claim or point fingers at to blame.

In fact, it’s parents like Cristina, who is livid with this government’s blatant disregard to protect workers and ensure that her child has the quality support that the child needs in the classroom. It’s parents like Rachel, who is a parent, a volunteer and an educational assistant. It’s parents like Judy, who is a grandma to a kindergarten student and who volunteers at a food bank; she herself has seen education workers who come to those food banks because they do not make enough.

My question is simple: Why is this government and why is this minister ignoring the voices of these parents and so many others across this province?

Supplementary?

Mr. Bourgouin was escorted from the chamber.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Mrs. Stevens was escorted from the chamber.

It’s wrong; it’s shameful.

Ontario has wielded the “notwithstanding” clause only three times in history but all by this government. In 2018, the Conservative government changed Toronto city council districts right in the middle of an election. In 2021, this Conservative government overrode a judge who said that their own witness admitted there was no reason for extending the restriction period for third-party political ads. And now, this Conservative government is cutting inflation-adjusted, real wages for education sector workers struggling with the cost of living. This is a sorry pattern. It’s an abuse. Section 33 of our charter, the “notwithstanding” clause, is being wielded as a sledgehammer to take care of their problems.

To the Premier, through you, Mr. Speaker: Is Bill 28 just the start? Are you planning to trample rights to dispose of other tough issues?

Many of these education workers are the ones most struggling with cost of living, given today’s inflation. Will the Premier accept that it’s wrong to smash our charter rights instead of using arbitration to settle a wage dispute with the people who keep our schools open, and will he withdraw Bill 28?

We’ve been abundantly clear: We would have preferred a voluntary option. It was our government that got a voluntary agreement with every education union just two and a half years ago.

Mr. Speaker, when the union on Sunday announces unilaterally that they will strike on Friday, what are the options before a government other than introducing legislation to avert a strike and deliver stability for children? If the Liberals’ and New Democrats’ position is to hope for the best with a deal, and if the union does not withdraw a strike, then we’re putting kids in a perilous position. Clearly, this union is going to strike; it was their intention all along.

We have an obligation to stand up for children, to keep them in school and to provide some stability for their families, for their working parents and for the kids of this province.

We are committed to investing more in public education—680 million more dollars this year, compared to last year. What we’re also committed to is standing up and keeping kids in the classroom.

I want to thank the member from Sarnia–Lambton for being such a champion in his community for people in the skilled trades. Our government is on a mission to get more young people into these careers.

Right now, in our province, nearly 400,000 jobs are going unfilled. By 2025, one in five new job openings will be in the skilled trades.

Our skilled trades system was neglected under the previous Liberal government. In fact, that’s why today the average age of an apprentice in our province is 29. But we’re changing that.

That is why, this fall, we’re hosting skilled trades career fairs for the first time in history, to encourage more students in grades 7 to 12 to enter the trades.

Mr. Speaker, as the Premier often says, when you have a job in the trades, you have a job for life. We agree.

Our Skills Development Fund is supporting nearly 400 projects that are helping nearly 400,000 people get the training they need to start rewarding careers close to home. One example is our $3-million investment in the Aecon Women in Trades program, which is training 350 women for jobs in construction, as welders, boilermakers, insulators and labourers.

We’re giving women a hand up to purpose-driven careers in the trades because it’s true that we need all hands on deck to build a stronger Ontario.

Ma question est pour le premier ministre.

We are joined today by members of OSSTF and OPSEU, including medical lab technologists, teachers, social workers, educational assistants, early childhood educators and many other essential workers. They are calling for immediate action to respect all of those public workers.

Premier, will you listen to those professionals and other unionized public sector workers and withdraw Bill 28 and go back to the bargaining table with CUPE?

Minister of Education.

Interjections.

Ms. Bell was escorted from the chamber.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Mr. Glover was escorted from the chamber.

This government had the worst record in the country and across the world when it came to dealing with COVID in our school system, in education. For 27 weeks our schools were closed. They did not have proper instructions for health care. That’s what happened under this ministry and this government, and they have the audacity to talk about bringing back students to classrooms.

Do we have anybody on strike right now? No, we don’t. You are pre-emptively introducing legislation that tramples on the rights of workers across this province. And this legislation, make no mistake—everyone knows this, including unions that have supported you. They know this because they’re on the side of workers today. You know why? Because this kind of legislation makes a precedent for the future, for all workers.

I stand in solidarity with the teacher who taught for 30 years. I stand with all these parents. I stand with the students who suffered and right now are suffering through so many mental health issues. They need educational workers—

We are listening to the priorities and voices of parents who demand their children are in school. That is why we are here today, reacting to a union’s decision to strike on Friday, a strike which I would hope none of us would support.

The fact is, Speaker, they are proceeding with a strike on Friday, against the interests of two million children, even after the government urged them to withdraw the strike, to bring forth a reasonable offer and to negotiate a deal that we can all live with. But here we are, Speaker, two days before a strike that will impact so many of the kids of this province, many of whom are vulnerable and should be in our schools.

We are bringing forth legislation before this House that will provide stability for parents, realizing that the preference of the government is a voluntary option. When unions continue to discuss a path to a strike, we will move forward on a path to provide stability for kids.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker, let us be clear: We didn’t want to be here. We would have preferred a voluntary option. We gave the union a path to avert a strike that they themselves put the province on.

In response to their action of striking on Friday, with millions of kids in the crosshairs, we brought forth the bill as a last resort to ensure children remain in school. I would have hoped those members, their leadership and the people of Ontario would understand: We are committed to their work, but we’re also committed to keeping kids in school.

Good morning. Reports about new homebuyers being victimized by unethical developers have gone on for far too long. Questionable and concerning practices where developers have cancelled contracts only to resell the same property at grossly inflated prices have left new homebuyers scrambling and helpless.

The previous Liberal government refused to act by providing protection and recourse for honest, hard-working people just looking to buy property. My office has received emails from constituents of Simcoe–Grey who experienced this unscrupulous practice first-hand.

Can the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery please explain how our government better protects new homebuyers against these unethical practices?

Could the minister please explain what measures our government will implement to punish and deter unethical builders and vendors who try to victimize our hard-working citizens?

I thank the member for Simcoe–Grey for the question. Hard-working Ontarians deserve to be treated fairly when making one of the biggest purchases of their lives, a new home. The Premier has said this type of appalling behaviour is unacceptable, and our government has a zero-tolerance approach to it. That’s why Minister Steve Clark and I announced that we are doubling the maximum fine for unethical builders who unfairly cancel contracts, and, for the first time ever anywhere in Canada, money from these penalties will go back to the victims.

On this side of the aisle we are taking action to stop this appalling behaviour and getting it done for new homebuyers.

We are making life easier for the many honest Ontarian builders that fulfill their contracts honestly and will no longer have to compete with unethical competition.

Member for Nickel Belt, supplementary.

The House recessed from 1149 to 1300.

Afternoon meeting reported in volume B.

Thank you very much, Speaker. I also want to show solidarity. I’m wearing purple, and I know many of my colleagues are. I just heard a 13-year-old boy was asked to change his T-shirt because he was doing it in solidarity with workers across the province. Unfortunately, he could not, but to those of you who tried and who are trying to, thank you very much. It comes from here and we are standing in solidarity.

Thank you very much, Speaker. Today, across Canada, people are showing their 4-H colours by wearing green, and I would like to thank everybody in this chamber today for wearing green and supporting 4-H members across Ontario.

My question is to the Minister of Energy. With Russia’s unprovoked and illegal attack on Ukrainians and growing international economic instability due to rising inflation rates, the cost of living and energy affordability are significant concerns for many individuals. With winter approaching, people are thinking more about how to heat their homes affordably.

For those in rural, remote and northern communities, our government’s natural gas expansion has ensured this option for many. Yesterday, the Liberal member for Kingston and the Islands introduced legislation that proposes limiting natural gas access across the province. Can the minister please share with us what his reaction is to this proposed legislation?

Under the watch of former Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne, Ontario’s families faced the highest energy rates in North America. Because of their destructive and ideologically driven policy, many individuals had to choose between heating and eating during the Liberal times in government.

Mr. Speaker, can the minister assure my constituents and this Legislature that our government will not support failed Liberal energy policies limiting consumer energy and home heating choice?