Good morning, Speaker, and everyone. From Anishinabek Nation, we have Deputy Grand Council Chief Travis Boissoneau and Jackie Lombardi. From Sachigo Lake First Nation, we have Dean Beardy and also Robert Barkman. We have Chief Lorraine Crane from Slate Falls First Nation; Chief Lefty Kam from Bearskin Lake First Nation; Councillor Cynthia Fiddler from Sandy Lake First Nation; also, Allen Tate, Freddie Shakakeesic, Mike Loon; Anne Chabot and also Frank McKay from Windigo First Nations Council.

Also, I have some guests visiting all the way from Vienna, Austria: Lucia Huemer and Gerald Wolf. Thank you for being here.

We have with us in the Speaker’s gallery today a delegation of ambassadors and chargés de mission representing the following countries with francophone populations: Belgium, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Rwanda, Senegal, Serbia, Togo and Vietnam. Please join me in warmly welcoming our guests to the Legislature today.

With the fall and winter season upon us, a potential resurgence of COVID-19 and flu season is fast approaching. In addition to the province’s strong vaccine program to help protect Ontarians, it is important to remind the public that practising handwashing and good home hygiene help to provide an additional layer of defence against the risk of contracting COVID-19 and the seasonal flu.

Speaker, I want to thank American Hygienics Corp. for their generous donation of sanitizing wet wipes to help further protect our vulnerable citizens and seniors in the community of Don Valley North. I sincerely thank them for their care and kindness. These wet wipes are being distributed by a team of dedicated volunteers who work diligently to support seniors and marginalized people in our community who don’t always have the resources to access wet wipes.

Speaker, I’m proud to recognize the compassionate members of my community who so often put the needs of others ahead of their own. I am thankful for the constituents of Don Valley North who consistently demonstrate that their priorities are in the right order.

If you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the House to observe a moment of silence in remembrance of Morgan Russell and Devon Northrup of the South Simcoe Police Service, who were tragically killed in the line of duty on October 11.

I will take one second, as a member of the class of 2006, to welcome back the member from Nepean. Welcome back, sister—courage.

Speaker, since the beginning of this year, Ontario’s ERs have been closed more than 100 times. Those closures are happening in rural areas, places like Chesley. Their ER is closed until the end of November because of a shortage of nurses. Just a few weeks ago, most of Chesley’s residents packed into a meeting to fight for their community hospital. This government has left Ontarians with no credible plan of action to address the crisis in our health care system.

For the Premier: Why has the Minister of Health neglected her duty during this difficult period?

There are consequences when health care isn’t there when people need it. Recently, Eleanor wrote to me about the passing of her daughter, Amelia. Amelia was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer, and she was diagnosed late, with her screening pushed from November to February. By then, her cancer was so advanced, the only thing doctors could do was palliative chemotherapy.

Eleanor is a retired nurse. She knew that Amelia’s diagnosis was likely fatal, but with earlier screening and better access to care, Eleanor believes Amelia would have lived more than the five short months from diagnosis.

Speaker, these are real-life impacts of the government’s inaction on health care. Will the Premier and minister commit to meaningfully invest in our health care workers so there are no more stories like Amelia’s?

In September, a four-year-old child with a broken arm was left waiting more than four days for minor surgery at McMaster Children’s Hospital. These types of delays can have dramatic impacts on growing kids.

Speaker, these tragic stories are driven by staffing shortages that are now commonplace. How much worse does the crisis in our health care system have to get before the minister and the Premier give nurses and front-line health care workers the support that they need?

From the beautiful riding of Essex, please welcome Mr. Daniel Allen, who just yesterday was invested with the Order of Ontario, and his wife, Pamela Allen.

After decades of underfunding, this government has made unprecedented investments in our health care system. Health care funding has increased 6.2% year over year, the largest increase on record, including over $5 billion in base funding, which is an 8.9% increase. No previous government has increased base funding by such a high amount year over year.

We have added over 3,500 new hospital beds, and we are adding an additional 3,000. We’re in the process of building and upgrading 58,000 long-term-care beds. And we’ve got a $40-billion investment in 52 new hospitals and additions, and $1 billion for home and community care expansions.

We’re investing in our health care system. We’re going to make sure that Ontarians have the resources they need in hospitals and other health care facilities so Ontarians get the care that they deserve.

Our government has been focused on ensuring that Ontarians have the care that they need, where they need it. Ontario Health—Cancer Care Ontario is the government’s adviser on cancer and the renal system and flows more than $2 billion to hospitals to support direct patient care every year.

We’re working very hard with Ontario Health, which oversees our overall cancer strategy, to make sure that we have the critical programs we need and the services we need to make sure that Ontarians, like Amelia, get the care that they need in a timely way.

Certainly, we’re making significant investments to address the province’s surgical backlog. We’ve also dedicated $6.5 million to pediatric hospitals to support them to ramp up surgeries. We’ve also provided $4.6 million in more funding for hospitals to add additional acute care beds: nine at CHEO—10 acute care beds there as well—and three ICU beds at Sick Children’s Hospital.

I am delighted to welcome Dr. Collin Clarke, who is here today from London West. He is the proud father of today’s page captain, Pearl Clarke. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I want to wish a warm welcome to my nephew Marshall, who is part of our current page contingent. Thank you for being here, Marshall. I also want to acknowledge his mom, Sarah, and brother Bryce, who are watching from the gallery upstairs.

I want to acknowledge that we have a number of members from the Association of Major Power Consumers in Ontario. They are present today for their annual advocacy day. I also want to extend an invitation to join us this evening from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the legislative dining room. Welcome to Queen’s Park, and I look forward to speaking with you soon.

My guests are not here yet but I’m going to introduce them anyways because they are on their way. I want to welcome Chief Mary Duckworth of Caldwell First Nation, Larry Sault and Ian Duckworth and Doug Heil, who are councillors with Caldwell First Nation. When they come, welcome to Queen’s Park.

I think the member opposite would agree that this is certainly a policing matter and not a political matter. This is a federal commission which is looking into the federal government’s invocation of the federal Emergencies Act. We are providing assistance to the commission by submitting key cabinet documents and of course ensuring that witnesses are available to the commission.

Thank you to the member opposite for the question. As I said before, nothing is more important than protecting the health and well-being of all Ontarians, especially our children. That’s why, as part of our significant investment to address the province’s surgical backlog of $880 million, we also dedicated $6.5 million to pediatric hospitals to support them in the ramp-up of surgeries. We’ve also provided $4.6 million more in funding to hospitals to add nine additional acute-care beds at CHEO and 10 acute-care beds, as well as three ICU beds, at Sick Children’s Hospital.

This government will spare no expense to make sure the people of this province, especially our children, continue to have access to the high-quality care that they need and expect.

And I just want to quote from a Toronto Star article by Megan Ogilvie. Dr. Ronald Cohn, the CEO of Sick Children’s Hospital said that the “hospital will always have capacity for the most critically ill children in the province who need the specialized care” that only Sick Children’s Hospital can offer.

So, according to Dr. Cohn, the resources are there. We’re going to make sure the resources are there because we want to make sure that our children in Ontario and all other Ontarians have the support they need.

My question is to the Minister of Health. In August, I asked your government to help SickKids hospital address their staffing shortages, their $45-million funding shortfall and their growing surgery wait-list. SickKids has a surgery wait-list that has over 3,400 children waiting beyond the clinically acceptable time for their necessary surgery, putting their long-term health at risk.

Minister, three months later, the crisis is getting worse. On Thanksgiving weekend, SickKids ICUs were at full capacity. My question is, why is your government failing to help SickKids meet the demand for care?

Minister, this is my question: What is your government going to do—concretely do—to ensure that all departments, including the ER and the ICUs, have the funding to fully staff their departments so that the health care needs of children can be met?

This mission was an opportunity to re-engage with trusted partners in South Korea and Japan. It was great to meet with LG Energy Solution in Korea to personally thank them for their $5-billion investment in Windsor. In fact, we were in Windsor last week and saw the massive site, as their 4.5-million-square-foot building is under way. Thousands are working there during construction, and 2,500 men and women will go to work there for the very first time at that plant.

We also used the opportunity to engage with a number of other Korean suppliers for the historic LG investment in Japan. We met with Toyota and Honda where we personally thanked Honda for their $1.4-billion investment in Alliston.

We’re continuing to build on the $16 billion of Ontario auto investments in the last 20 months, and now even more companies know that if they’re in the EV business, they need to be in Ontario.

To reply, the government House leader.

Government House leader.

Government House leader.

The parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health to reply.

The member for Eglinton–Lawrence to reply.

My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. The minister was recently in Japan and South Korea to meet with international investors in the automotive and EV battery sector. Ontario already has a number of Japanese and Korean manufacturers employing thousands of people across the province. Speaker, two of these manufacturers are in the riding of Simcoe–Grey—Honda and Nippon Sheet Glass—employing hundreds of residents.

Can the minister please provide us with an update on those business meetings?

Can the minister please tell us more about what these Japanese and South Korean companies had to say about investing in Ontario?

My question is for the Premier. Good morning, Premier.

On September 19, the federal Public Order Emergency Commission requested an interview with the Premier and Minister Jones on the use of the federal Emergencies Act this past winter. But the Premier and minister have refused this request, and all subsequent requests, to be interviewed or testify before the commission. Speaker, why did the Premier and minister refuse the commission’s request?

That’s not leadership. We had a crisis in our community, the federal Emergencies Act was declared, and this government is content to shunt this as a policing matter or put forward its senior public officials to testify. The Premier and the minister responsible—then-Solicitor General—are absent.

So, left with no other choice, yesterday the commission issued the Premier and the health minister an official summons to testify. I’m going to quote from the summons: The commission believes that “Premier Ford and Minister Jones would have evidence, particularly within their knowledge, that would be relevant to the commission’s mandate.” That’s the end of the quote, Speaker. But this Premier and that minister are intent instead on refusing to testify before the commission, calling instead for a judicial review of their summons. I have a simple question, through you: What are you trying to hide?

I want to remind this House that this House is responsible, and they need to be aware of what happened to people in our community in Ottawa—

So it is in the public interest for this Premier and that minister to appear before the commission. We have a lot of healing to do as a country to make sure we can prevent anything like this from ever happening again. But accountability starts at the top. Will the Premier and minister stop hiding, come to Ottawa, and testify before the commission?

Interjections.

Here’s what we heard from the EV sector in Japan and South Korea: They told us that in this world filled with turmoil, they view Ontario as a sea of calm—a stable, a reliable, a trusted jurisdiction. They also said Ontario is viewed as a safe place—safe for their employees, safe for their families. They know that Ontario has everything they need for success: a full EV value chain. That includes critical minerals and refining, resources traditionally they rely on from China and Russia; 94% clean energy, very different from making a battery in Kentucky, where there is 6% clean energy. We have skilled trades, 65,000 STEM grads, AI and quantum computing, and public health—end to end, everything an EV company needs to be successful. That’s the reputation Ontario now has around the world.