This is a great opportunity for me to once again highlight the plans that we have in place. Of course, we’ve already done a lot of things in terms of short-, medium- and long-term goals. First of all, we have 3,500 hospital beds that are operating in the province of Ontario that were not as short as three years ago. We have 10,900 new health care professionals working in the province of Ontario today.

We will continue to work with our hospital partners to make sure that when short-term emergency department closures happen, whether that is for an hour, four hours, a shift or a weekend—we ensure, with Ontario Health, that, when possible, locums come in. We make sure that those partners and the people in those communities have appropriate health care as quickly as we can.

I highlight 400 physicians in the province of Ontario who are practising and supporting workers in northern and rural Ontario, like the member opposite’s own communities. We’re working with the college of physicians and surgeons and we’re working with the college of nurses to make sure that those internationally educated graduates are able to practise in Ontario now, in our communities.

Supplementary question.

The member for Davenport has the right to place her question. I’d ask the government side to allow me to hear it.

Interjections.

Start the clock. The member for Davenport.

My question is for the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services. This summer, over 230 community and social service organizations wrote to the government calling for them to double the social assistance rates. Rates for Ontario Works and ODSP have been frozen for four years, and inflation is at a 40-year high. The government’s 5% increase to ODSP and nothing for Ontario Works recipients won’t even be close enough to cover the cost of rising basic needs.

Will the government recognize that more needs to be done to support social assistance recipients and double the rates for ODSP and Ontario Works today?

In fact, what Bill 7 seeks to do is improve the quality of care for our seniors who are in hospital. It is very, very clear that—

Interjection.

What the bill actually does is provide a better quality of care—the right care in the right place at the right time. I think we would all agree that, for our seniors, they deserve the best quality of care possible. That is why, in particular when he talks about the north, we have made so many investments in long-term care in the north, because we want to ensure that the discrepancies that existed for far too long between north and south, urban and rural, are no longer part of the fabric of the Ontario health care system. That is why we’ve also partnered with First Nations to ensure that there are bed allocations specifically for First Nation communities, and we will continue to do it.

Bill 7 is a positive step in helping us reform our health care system once and for all, and we’re on our way.

What we are doing with Bill 7 is ensuring that our seniors who are waiting for long-term care have access to that quality of care while they wait for their preferred home of choice.

I will let the opposition continue to fantasize about what we are doing in Bill 7, but what we are finally doing is putting our health care system, and ALC in particular, on the right path. It’s because of the investments that we’ve made; we’re improving health care and we’re getting it done for seniors in the north and the—

Since the Premier thinks his historic increase is so great, I invite him to try living on it. Today, my colleagues and I are beginning a two-week advocacy effort, living on an approximate social assistance grocery budget of $95.21. We are undertaking this effort in solidarity with the thousands of social assistance recipients and community organizations that have been imploring this government for years to raise the rates.

Will the Premier and the Minister of Community and Social Services join us in this solidarity effort with social assistance recipients?

Remarks in Oji-Cree. Good morning, Speaker. My question is to the Premier.

Bill 7 is not an appropriate solution for northern Ontario. Elders like Garnet Angeconeb, who is directly impacted, have reached out to my office. Garnet is an Indian residential school survivor who is now at the end of his life and he is being institutionalized again by Bill 7. This is not right.

My question is: How is moving elders away from their families a human solution?

What is this government doing to ensure Bill 7 has real accountability so that rural and northern health care equity is not forgotten?

I want to thank the opposition for the question. We’ll always be there for the most vulnerable, always have been. The previous government ignored ODSP for 15 years. One of the first things we did when we took office: We increased ODSP. And now we’re doing it again. We’re increasing it by 5%. This is the largest increase in over a decade. As the NDP and Liberals stood there and starved these people, we increased it by 5%—the largest in a full decade.

We’ll always fight for the people that need our help. That’s the reason we lowered the taxes for 1.7 million lower-income people. They aren’t going to have the burden of the tax that the previous government put on. We lowered the gas tax by 5.7 cents, on top of the 4.3 cents and—

Thank you to the member opposite for the question. Our government is continuing to support those who need it most, whether it’s people who need job re-skilling and retraining or people who are unable to work. That’s exactly why we increased the ODSP rate to a historic 5% and aligned it with inflation: because we know that high inflationary times are troublesome and make it that much more difficult for people.

We’ve also got the discretionary benefit. We’ve created the LIFT and the CARE tax credits. We increased the rates at the very beginning. If you look at our track record throughout the years that we’ve been here, we started with an increase that the Liberals never did, and then we created the social services relief fund of a billion dollars for people during a very difficult time. All the while, we created programs to help people: the micro-credentialing, the energy and property tax relief, the Ontario Trillium fund. The list goes on. We are continuing to work on this. We know that people need support, and we’re continuing to do just that.

Yesterday was Labour Day, a day set out to recognize the sacrifice and dedication of this province’s hard-working women and men. Unfortunately, many have come to view it only as a day off that marks the unofficial end of summer.

The economic strength of this province is built upon the sacrifice of our carpenters, electricians, plumbers and the full array of blue-collar skilled trades workers. Our economic success has only been made possible by the hard-working men and women of this province helping to build and maintain the infrastructure that keeps us safe and secure each and every day. Because of that sacrifice of those on the front line, our province was able to emerge out of the worst of the COVID pandemic.

Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development: What is our government doing to support all workers of this province? What are we going to do to recognize and thank them?

Once again, my question is for the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. What is our government doing to support and partner with our workers as they help us to become a powerhouse once again?

I want to thank the member from Sarnia–Lambton for that question, but more importantly, I want to thank him for his leadership on the ground in Sarnia. The MPP from Sarnia–Lambton really is why we’re doing a lot of the work we’re doing. He was a union member, and also on the management side. So to the member: Thank you for everything that you’ve done.

Our government stands with working people right across Ontario. They are our everyday heroes. On Monday, members of our government and myself had the great honour of marching shoulder to shoulder with union leaders and workers at Labour Day celebrations across Ontario. Together, we are working for workers. We’re leading the way in Canada and right across North America with common-sense measures that support hard-working people and their families. And, Mr. Speaker, we’re just getting started. Our government is on a mission to make Ontario the greatest place in the world to live, work and raise a family.

Mr. Speaker, we’re rolling up our sleeves and getting things done for the workers of Ontario.

My question is to the Premier. Every day we hear more stories of a broken long-term-care system, more proof that Bill 7 will make a broken system worse. CTV News reported the story of Mona Chasin, an 80-year-old woman who had to go to the hospital after a stroke, and now she has been told she will lose her bed in a long-term-care facility.

Seniors should be treated with dignity and respect. Why is this woman being evicted from her home because of a hospital stay?

Mona’s family wants her to return to her home. Her home is where her husband lives and where she is comfortable. Her family fears that Bill 7 will force her into a new facility. Her niece told reporters: “It’s devastating.... I don’t think our elderly are being properly cared for.... I don’t know where she is going to end up.”

Why is the government forcing seniors like Mona into homes away from their loved ones and their families?

I do want to thank the member from Sault Ste. Marie for being an exceptional member, a proud father and someone who, like our government, believes in public education. When we saw these students return to school this morning—and more will return tomorrow—it underscores what we’re here to do in the first place, which is ensure children learn the necessary skills to help them succeed in life.

This year, children will be returning to a modernized curriculum that is actually in line with the labour markets, that when they graduate, they can get a good-paying job: a new science curriculum and a new math curriculum that focus on the transferrable skill sets that are going to help them get from the classroom to the boardroom to the shop floor.

The full experience of learning that we envision for kids starts with them staying in school, and we’re going to fight to ensure kids stay in uninterrupted, in-person learning right to June.

Speaker, the problem though, in working with the member from Kitchener–Conestoga, the Minister of Transportation and others, is that we know there are literally hundreds and hundreds of drivers a day blowing past a school bus that is stopped, violating the law. It puts so many children at risk, and we’ve seen this in all of our communities. So the province of Ontario has moved forward with the Safer School Buses Act, which ensures that all school buses in the province now have the new eight-lamp amber-red warning system, designed to create more awareness, more caution and ultimately more safety for our kids and for the drivers themselves.

This is positive progress. It builds on a $1.1-billion investment through transportation that is with the aim of getting kids to school, so that they can stay in school right to June.

Next question.

I just want to get this straight: So the member now is advocating in favour of the bill that we just passed, while at the same time advocating against it, all in one question?

That is what Bill 7 is all about: It is about improving care for our seniors, because nobody thinks that a senior who is in a hospital waiting for long-term care should be sitting in a hospital. Nobody believes that, because they don’t have access to the physical exercise that they need. They don’t have social opportunities. That is why we passed Bill 7, to ensure that our seniors who are waiting for long-term care can get into long-term care faster. That’s the whole point of it.

Only the NDP are suggesting that a hospital room is a better place for a senior waiting to be in long-term care. We disagree with that, and that is why Bill 7 allows us to get our seniors who are waiting in a hospital into long-term care.

My question is for our excellent Minister of Education. Millions of students across all of Ontario are returning to school today and tomorrow. Mr. Speaker, I want to note that three of my own kids are starting today in grades 3, 4 and 5. All of these students are so excited with the promise of a normal school year for the first time in nearly two years. Parents, like my wife and I, know how difficult it has been, and we know that COVID-19 has caused so many disruptions for our students and made it very difficult for a normal school year for them.

Studies have shown that in every jurisdiction, students’ math scores have declined sharply. Schools have also played an important role in their social lives as well—something that our children have been missing. There is no substitute for in-person learning and a disruption-free learning environment for our students.

Speaker, can the Minister of Education please outline our government’s plan to ensure that our kids can catch up, and outline the supports that are in place for Ontario students to ensure that they can succeed?

With nearly 840,000 students riding school buses every day, many experts say that our students are most at risk when they are travelling to and from school. Studies show that improvements to school bus lighting systems will greatly improve visibility and safety for our students when they are entering and exiting school buses. That is why our government has been calling for the improved eight-lamp, amber-red warning systems to be installed on all of our Ontario school buses. This will help drivers know further in advance of when school buses are slowing down and stopping, which is a crucial factor in increasing school bus safety for our students.

Speaker, can the minister please update this House on the status of the implementation of the eight-lamp, amber-red warning systems on our Ontario school buses here in Ontario to keep our kids safe?

My question is to the Premier. It has been a particularly violent weekend in our country, and, on behalf of this Assembly, I extend condolences to the people of rural Saskatchewan on an unimaginable situation that has occurred.

When these types of mass incidents happen, it is seared in the minds of the community and those that are impacted. In my community, in Scarborough, we had the Danzig shooting 10 years ago. At that time we lost Shyanne Charles and Joshua Yasay, two young people. And I can tell you that after 10 years, those wounds have not healed.

I spoke to Tyrone Charles, Shyanne’s grandfather, about how he and his family—in particular, his daughter, Afifa—are doing 10 years on. And I can tell you, Speaker, that with this tragic loss, those wounds have not healed. He said to me they have gained an angel, yet the pain is still overwhelming for Shyanne’s mother and the entire family.

My question today to the Premier: You have an opportunity to provide support to those individuals by supporting Bill 9, which would provide the help that families need right now. Will you support that bill tomorrow?

I will remind the member opposite that Anthony Dale, the CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association, said: “Ontario’s hospitals are rapidly becoming the health care provider of last resort for thousands of people who actually need access to home care, long-term care and other services.”

Specifically regarding the example you raised, it is essential that all partners continue to work collaboratively together in a Team Ontario approach to seeking to overcome the underlying issues facing the health care system and ensure that patients are receiving access to the right kind of care in the right setting. I have faith in the hospital, in the long-term care, in the Ontario health team in that community to do the right thing for that family, for that husband and wife to be able to remain together. But, member, you need to understand that the system works together—with long-term care, with home care, with hospitals—to make sure that, in the example raised, that individual gets the most appropriate care in their community.

My question is to the Premier. Whether workers are returning to the workplace or have worked there all along, this government has made one thing clear: “Don’t count on us to help keep workers safe.” Not only did they scrap COVID isolation requirements, they also scrapped the independent science advisory table before its members could advise against this dangerous move. Ontario workers are now more vulnerable than ever, especially if they don’t have access to paid sick days.

Speaker, instead of spreading illness in the workplace, will this government help prevent illness? Will they bring in 10 permanent paid sick days for all Ontario workers?

Thank you for that question. When we talk about incidents like what occurred in Saskatchewan, what we’ve seen in the province of Ontario, we know that we need to do more, and our government has and will continue to do more. The investments that have been made, the $3.8 billion that will be invested over 10 years to build on the Roadmap to Wellness, are the types of investments that will focus and assist, whether it be the mobile intervention crisis teams that are out working each and every day to defuse situations and to provide support to individuals; whether it be the $194 million that was invested during the pandemic to provide emergency funding to help reduce wait-lists and improve capacity for individuals in need of help; whether it be the $31 million that was invested for a 5% across-the-board increase in government-funded youth and children mental health supports. We are continuing to do this work, and including youth wellness hubs that are also providing supports to families and individuals throughout the province. We will continue to do that work.

Mr. Speaker, I’ve attended some of those vigils that take place with moms who have lost their children. I’ve seen the pain that’s caused by the trauma that’s induced as a result of these violent crimes.

Our government is making the investments to build the continuums of care with community-based supports. It is making the investments to ensure that the supports are there for the families as well as for the individuals. We know that many of these investments should be made early on to support children and youth, because by doing that, we provide them hope and we provide them opportunities.

So once again, our government continues to make investments to help the people of the province of Ontario where and when that help—