Supplementary question.

The Minister of Finance can respond.

The House recessed from 1142 to 1300.

Report deemed adopted.

Ms. Dunlop moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 26, An Act to amend various Acts in respect of post-secondary education / Projet de loi 26, Loi modifiant diverses lois en ce qui concerne l’éducation postsecondaire.

First reading agreed to.

First reading agreed to.

My question is to the Premier. Ontario prides itself on its natural resources, which are protected by conservation officers, who are trained and equipped to handle poachers, high-risk arrests, search and seizures, and much more. These officers often find themselves in remote areas alone with little to no backup readily available.

For decades they have been requesting reclassification and higher pay in line with comparable positions like OPP officers. Why has the government not taken steps to rectify the issue and ensure that Ontario has the resources it needs to protect and grow the province’s natural resources?

These officers play a vital role in the continued protection of Ontario’s natural beauty and ensuring the safety of individuals who are enjoying Ontario’s vast resources. Attracting and retaining the best qualified conservation officers is a challenge with the ongoing wage discrepancy.

Does the government have a plan to recruit and retain conservation officers?

My question is to the Minister of Finance. Today the Financial Accountability Office released a very interesting report, their fall Economic and Budget Outlook. It details projected funding shortfalls of $40 billion across all sectors over the next six years: a $23-billion shortfall in health; $6 billion in education; $4 billion in children, community and social services—if you want to keep children safe, I would invest in them—$2.6 billion in post-secondary; and a $2.3-billion shortfall in justice. Meanwhile, the government will be sitting on $44 billion in unallocated contingency funds.

Will the government be transparent with the people of this province and allocate these contingencies to ensure that there are no painful program funding shortfalls? Answer to the people.

The FAO report confirmed that Ontario has the funding to invest in this province. Ontario is projected to run $25.3 billion in surpluses over the next six years. Despite this, the government thinks it’s acceptable to cry poor and hold wage increases for our lowest-paid education workers at 1.25%, or continue to enforce their destructive Bill 124, all while food bank usage hits an all-time high for children and for seniors in Ontario. These policy choices are unconscionable. They are irresponsible.

Will the government commit today to paying education workers a fair wage, repeal Bill 124—you can do it; you can pay those people what they deserve—and double the ODSP rates? This is about choices. This government is making the wrong choices for the people of this province. Do your job.

The supplementary question?

Supplementary question.

Will the Premier take his seat. The Premier must withdraw the unparliamentary comment.

Interjection: I think he’s done.

Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services. Every year in October, children’s aid societies lead the Dress Purple Day campaign across the province to raise awareness about the role we must all play in supporting vulnerable children, youth and families in our province. Dress Purple Day is an opportunity to raise awareness for all of us, including among children and youth, about their right to safety and well-being in all spaces.

My question to the minister is this: How is the government helping to raise awareness for Dress Purple Day?

Speaker, my question to the minister is this: What concrete actions is the government taking not only to protect vulnerable children but also to ensure that they feel supported?

I just want to say that conservation officers in Ontario play such an important role. They have done so for generations; they will continue to do so for generations. We thank them for that every single day. They have over 200,000 interactions a year with members of the public, making sure that they’re educated, making sure that they are following the rules.

It’s a big province, Mr. Speaker. When they needed more, this government provided more: 25 new conservation officers in Ontario, bringing the number to over 200.

This government supports our conservation officers. I look forward to meeting with them this afternoon and discussing their concerns. My door is always open to the great conservation officers here in Ontario.

I’ll just remind this House again: 25 new conservation officers doing incredible work throughout Ontario. We thank them every single day.

I’m grateful to the member from Don Valley North for his important question.

Recent attacks against police officers are completely unacceptable. Especially at this time, we remember the sacrifice made by Constables Hong and Northrup and Russell. We can’t thank our police officers enough for their heroic work that they do to keep Ontario safe.

Monsieur le Président, je suis fier de soutenir nos policiers, qui assurent la sécurité de l’Ontario tous les jours.

Our policing partners put their lives on the line every day, and we recognize that police officers deserve our support and respect. We will provide the police with the tools and resources they need to keep us safe. Most importantly, we will have their backs each and every day.

Since our government came into office, we’ve invested over $300 million in grants for policing in the city of Toronto alone. More than $28 million of those monies were allocated through our anti-gun and gang strategy.

Retirer les armes à feu illégales est notre priorité absolue.

We’re optimistic that the federal government will continue to invest in Ontario’s anti-gun and gangs program and to take important action to stop the illegal firearms that are coming into our province at international borders. I urge our federal counterpart, Minister Mendicino, to go to the border, make an announcement and step up the inspections at the border so that Ontario can keep itself safe.

I would like to thank the member from Essex for the question and for his good work.

Keeping children and youth safe is a responsibility that our government takes very seriously, and it’s taken very seriously by our partners in children’s aid societies across Ontario. In fact, everyone across Ontario has a role to play in the well-being of children, youth and families.

Today, people across the province will wear purple to show support and remind Ontario’s children and youth that the help and support they need is available. There are 50 children’s aid societies in Ontario, including 13 Indigenous societies. Help and support is a phone call away, no matter where you live.

On Dress Purple Day, we celebrate communities and families and remind ourselves that every child and youth has the right to be safe and supported, and no one is alone.

To the Premier: The Public Order Emergency Commission’s lawyers have been clear with this government that if the Premier and Minister Jones don’t testify, there will be “important gaps” in their record. For an instant last week it seemed like just maybe the government recognized the value of testifying, only declining the commission’s invitation “for a moment.”

According to the Premier, the buck stops with him, but apparently not when he’s being forced to answer very difficult questions about the impact of his decisions.

How did the Premier’s mind change between last week and this Monday?

On October 17, the Premier told reporters that he had not been asked to appear before the commission in Ottawa, but lawyers for the commission revealed that both the Premier and Minister Jones had been asked multiple times to appear voluntarily, with government lawyers being told as early as October 11 that there was the possibility of a summons. So this government knew that the Premier and the minister might be compelled to testify before the Premier said he had never been asked by the commission to appear—very curious.

Can the Premier explain why he said that he was not asked to appear?