We have seen the concerning impacts that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on our health human resources system. With an aging population, the issue of more front-line health workers will only increase in the years and decades ahead. Experts also warn that Ontario’s population will increase by as much as two million to six million over the next two decades. An increasing population will mean more individuals needing access to our health care system in the future. Getting more students into the health care profession programs today will help address the health care human resource issues we’ll see tomorrow.

Speaker, can the Minister of Colleges and Universities update this House on what our government has done to help encourage students to pursue a meaningful career in nursing programs?

Speaker, under the watch of the previous Liberal government, the people of my riding saw the lack of vision and understanding about the state of our health care system. We saw how they cut medical residency programs for new students, forcing them to move out of the province. We saw their record of championing freezing health care budgets as their goal was to keep costs down.

Once again, can the minister explain to this House what work the Ministry of Colleges and Universities is doing with other ministries to address the health human resource shortages in Ontario, and what action is our government taking to strengthen the system after the years of Liberal neglect?

We were the first province in the country to bring in job-protected leave when COVID-19 hit the province. When you’re sick, you can stay home, and you can’t be fired for that. Furthermore, we were the first province in the country to bring in paid sick days for workers to stay home, and those businesses get reimbursed up to $200 per day.

Mr. Speaker, we’ll continue having the backs of workers every single day during this pandemic and beyond.

That’s why, during the pandemic, we hired more than a hundred new health and safety inspectors. And I have to remind the opposition members that you voted against that; you voted against raising the total number of health and safety inspectors to the most in provincial history. But guess what? Under the leadership of Premier Ford and our PC government, we got it done.

Thank you to the member from Markham–Thornhill for that question. I, too, was encouraged to see the reports that applicants to nursing programs are up in both college and university programs by 25% since the 2018-19 school year. Speaker, that translates to more than 13,000 students who applied to a university program and more than 12,000 students who applied to a college program right here in Ontario.

Our government has been working hard to address the gap in health care professions through innovative programs like our three-year college degrees and our new Learn and Stay program. Over the next four years, the Learn and Stay program will help over 3,000 nursing graduates receive financial support to cover the cost of tuition in exchange for committing to practise for two years in an underserved community.

We have created 14 new programs at colleges and universities across Ontario, allowing thousands of students to have greater choice and flexibility in accessing high-quality and local education.

This record number of applications demonstrates that the work we are doing to increase the number of students entering nursing and health care professions is working, and we’ll continue to look for innovative ways.

Through the Bridging Educational Grant in Nursing—this is a nearly $100-million investment that will support the upskilling and training of PSWs and RPNs. This program will increase access to nursing programs and create an additional 500 spaces for enrolment in our bridging program this year. And through our fall economic statement, we announced an investment of nearly $342 million over the next five years to add over 5,000 registered practical nurses and 8,000 personal support workers.

To reply, the Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions.

My question is for the Premier.

Last week, the government rammed through Bill 7, overriding a patient’s right to consent and leaving many questions in its wake, like how far patients can be sent away or how much they can be charged.

Last week, the member from Ottawa West–Nepean brought forward the story of Deana Henry, who, under the threat of Bill 7 and an $1,800-a-day hospital bill, was compelled to go where she didn’t want to go. “I feel like I am non-existent,” is what she said.

Last week I heard the Premier muse about $1,800-a-day hospital bills and how they weren’t right, without any concrete commitment to do something about it.

So will the Premier please let us know what he’s going to do to make sure that this doesn’t happen to any other Ontario family?

And, respectfully, saying you think something is not right and not taking action, especially when you have the power, doesn’t amount to much. It’s cold comfort to the families out there who are worried.

So I put forward a motion on the table today that will limit the maximum charge an alternate-level-of-care patient awaiting placement in a long-term-care home can be charged as equal to the copay in Ontario’s long-term-care homes. It’s the fair and reasonable thing to do. Allowing the threat of a huge hospital bill to hang over people’s heads is neither fair nor reasonable. It’s unjust and unfair.

And it’s within this government’s power, it’s within the Premier’s power to pass this motion and to amend the Public Hospitals Act. Will the Premier commit to doing just that?

The only thing that was unfair and unjust is he sat there for 10 years and built 611 beds, propped up by the NDP. The Liberals were the ones who created this mess, created the disaster. I can’t believe he has the nerve and the gall to stand up there and try to preach to us when we’re building 58,000 new homes for seniors. We’re going to continue to build them, make sure they have good health care moving forward in their later years—but you have nerve like I’ve never seen before.

Mr. Speaker, as I promised, the regulations will be out very, very soon, and people will undoubtedly see how the opposition’s fearmongering over this bill was uncalled for.

More importantly, what the member refuses to highlight is how important this policy change is to ensuring that our seniors who are in hospital, who have been discharged or are waiting to be discharged, who are on the long-term-care-home waiting list, get the appropriate level of care in a long-term-care home.

I will let the opposition argue why a senior wanting to be in a long-term-care home should be waiting in a hospital, should be without the social environment that comes with a long-term-care home and the physical activity that comes with a long-term-care home, should be subject to the disease that comes when somebody is in a hospital. These are our seniors who are waiting to be in long-term care, and the best care for them is in a long-term-care home. It is a home, not a hospital, and that is what we want our seniors to progress to.

The supplementary question.

The next question.

Thank you to the phenomenal member from Windsor–Tecumseh for the question. It’s an excellent one.

The member is correct. I was honoured to take part in the international Candu fuel conference, which was hosted by Cameco. On a personal note, Cameco is one of the largest employers in my riding and employs hundreds of hard-working men and women in the clean energy sector across this province and across Canada.

Not surprisingly, there was a lot of discussion about SMRs and praise for our government for recognizing that investing in SMR technology is what we need to do to secure Ontario’s future. More importantly, it’s securing a cleaner future for Ontarians. In fact, one SMR can prevent up to two megatons of greenhouse gas emissions. What does that mean? Speaker, that’s the equivalent of taking over 600,000 cars off the road, and it can power up to 300,000 homes with clean, reliable baseload power.

This is just another example of tangible steps that our government is taking to promote a cleaner future, working with men and women in the trades and making sure that we can have reliable, clean power for generations to come.

Speaker, it’s not through punishing taxes on the backs of hard-working Ontarians when we’re dealing with an inflationary crisis that we will achieve a cleaner, greener, more sustainable future. It is working with industry that we’ve seen historic reductions in the steel sector. It’s working with industry that we’re making record investments in public transit. And it’s working with industry that Ontario will be a powerhouse in SMR clean green technology for the world.

We’ll continue working for workers every single day. That’s why we increased the number of health and safety inspectors, and since the pandemic hit Ontario, we’ve done more than 100,000 inspections and investigations in workplaces right across this province. It’s why we were the first in Canada to bring in job-protected leave almost on day one, when this pandemic hit. It’s why we were the first province in the country to bring in three paid sick days, and the member opposite is well aware we’ve extended this until the end of March next year.

I can be clear with the members opposite and with all the people of Ontario that we’ll continue to have their backs, we’ll continue to ensure that we protect workers—that they can stay home when they’re sick—and we’ll continue working for workers every day.

The residents of Windsor–Tecumseh—and truly all Ontarians—saw it on their hydro bills every month: The previous Liberal government ignored the needs of Ontarians when it came to providing reliable and cost-effective clean, green energy. As Premier Wynne stated about her Liberal government’s record, “‘Electricity prices are going to have to go up. How are we going to pay for this?’ I heard it. But ... I don’t think I took it seriously enough.”

As the Auditor General pointed out in her 2015 report, we spent $9.2 billion more than we needed to for green energy programs because of reckless policies.

The Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks recently attended the 15th International Conference on Candu Fuel in Ajax. Could the minister share what lessons he learned from this conference and what actions we are taking as a government to avoid the mistakes made by the previous Liberal government on green technology innovation?

We’ve seen how other parties played politics and stood on the sidelines, criticizing innovations and new technology without offering viable solutions. Could the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks elaborate on how we are tackling climate change by supporting electricity-generating technology and innovative solutions like SMRs?

I would like to thank Faye Moffatt from Hanmer in my riding for this petition.

“Stop Privatization

“Whereas Ontarians get health care based on their needs, not their ability to pay;

“Whereas the Ford government wants to privatize our health care system;

“Whereas privatization will bleed nurses,” physicians “and PSWs out of our public hospitals and will download costs to patients;”

They petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To immediately stop all plans to privatize the Ontario health care system, and fix the crisis in health care by:

“—repealing Bill 124 to help recruit, retain, return and respect health care workers with better pay and better working conditions;

“—licensing tens of thousands of internationally educated nurses and other health care professionals already in Ontario;

“—incentivizing health care professionals to choose to live and work in northern Ontario.”

I fully support this petition, will affix my name to it and ask my good page Sharmin to bring it to the Clerk.

Mr. Speaker, we know that increasing the number of electric vehicles on our roads and highways is good news not only for the environment, but for our economy as well.

My question is for the Minister of Energy. We know that we have a long way to go before electric vehicles replace gas-powered cars. We have seen that other provinces have a head start when it comes to EV policies and infrastructure. What, then, is the Minister of Energy doing to ensure that electric vehicle ownership becomes more accessible and attractive in Ontario, so we can get more electric vehicles on our roads and highways?

I’m proud to read out the petition entitled “Put Public Safety First. Get a Fair Deal for Safety Inspectors.

“Whereas safety inspectors at the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) help ensure the safety of Ontarians by inspecting amusement park rides, food trucks, elevators, fuel-burning equipment, propane-dispensing stations, boilers and pressure vessels in our schools, hospitals, long-term-care homes, nuclear power plants and more; and

“Whereas TSSA safety inspectors have been bargaining for their first collective agreement since November 2021, and when the employer walked away from the table were forced out on strike on July 21; and

“Whereas TSSA safety inspectors are fighting for improved accountability for public safety standards and practices, wages and benefits that are consistent with industry standards, measures to address understaffing issues and improve retention and recruitment and be a stronger voice in the workplace; and

“Whereas the government of Ontario, including the Premier’s office, is responsible for protecting public safety and ensuring that provincial agencies such as the TSSA bargain with their employees in good faith.

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to:

“—intervene to ensure that the TSSA stop its stonewalling, return to the bargaining table and negotiate fairly with OPSEU/SEFPO Local 546 TSSA members to reach a deal;

“—ensure that newly unionized employees have automatic access to first contract arbitration should they want it when bargaining reaches an impasse; and

“—commit to labour policies and legislation that are actually working for workers and advance a decent work agenda for all working people in Ontario.”

I’m proud to sign this, and will be giving this to page Sophie.

Thanks to the member from Canada’s clean energy capital, the Durham region, for this question this morning. It’s important, because when I talk to people who are interested in buying an EV, one of the first things that they talk to me about is potential range anxiety. They want to know that when they buy a car, they’re going to be able to get to where they want to go and not run out of electricity.

That’s why we’ve taken the steps to ensure that the EVs have the charging stations that they need in the province. Unlike the previous Liberal government that did everything they could to slow down EV uptake in our province, by driving the price of electricity through the roof and putting EV charging stations at places where they’re plugged in all day and only one vehicle can go there, like a GO station, we’re taking the steps to ensure that we’re building EV chargers at every single ONroute across the province, so that when people are travelling to visit our beautiful province, they can go to the Thousand Islands, or they can go to Sarnia–Lambton, or they can go to Kingston and the Islands, or they can go to London, or they can go to Brantford. They can go anywhere they want along the 400 series of highways and get a charge and power up.

That’s why, last year, I provided direction to the Independent Electricity System Operator that sets out the path to procure new electricity generation in our province over the next 10 years through a competitive process. This work is well under way. Just recently, we were able to renew new capacity, new generation in our province, saving the people of Ontario 30%-plus along the way. Unlike the former Liberal government, which drove up the cost of electricity, we have a plan in place that’s going to provide reliable and affordable energy—

Through you, Mr. Speaker: Thank you to the member opposite for that question. As the member well knows, this government actually acted on the non-resident speculation tax by increasing it from 15% to 20%, and made it province-wide, so that foreign speculators wouldn’t hurt people buying homes in this province.

Now, the member opposite also talks about the vacancy tax, and of course, the vacancy tax is in action right now. In fact, municipalities such as Toronto have the vacancy tax, and other municipalities have asked for the vacancy tax, and we have granted that.

But, Mr. Speaker, what the member opposite is really getting to is that we have a housing supply challenge in this province, and it’s this government that is committed to building 1.5 million houses over the next 10 years, something they didn’t do.

I appreciate the member opposite’s question, because it gives me an opportunity to talk about some of the great work that we’re doing with our Ontario health teams, including, of course, the CHCs, family health care practitioners who provide guidance and resources that could be used for all primary care providers when caring for transgender individuals, and that’s the Sherbourne Health centre or CHC.

We have many primary care teams across Ontario who run primary care programs as part of their LGBTQ+ services, or specific clinics for trans populations, providing interdisciplinary primary care services. These are teams that work together—including mental health services—for their clients. In addition, we have a couple of examples of family health teams: the Couchiching Family Health Team in Orillia, an interdisciplinary program created to provide trans health care, mental health care, education and system navigation for trans or questioning people and their loved ones living in the north Simcoe and Muskoka region.

We have the Queen Square Family Health Team in Brampton—again, trans health programs supporting trans individuals with access to supportive, team-based—

Minister of Finance.

The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

The supplementary.

There being no further business at this time and it being Tuesday, this House stands in recess until 3 p.m.

The House recessed from 1141 to 1500.

MPP Wong-Tam moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 18, An Act to proclaim Consent Awareness Week / Projet de loi 18, Loi proclamant la Semaine de sensibilisation au consentement.

First reading agreed to.

Speaker, our legislation that’s on the floor right now, Bill 3, builds upon our success. Our government has made a commitment over the last three years. We’ve spent $4.3 billion supporting our community housing sector and building more supportive housing.

I’ve said many, many times, Speaker, that there is not one silver bullet that is going to solve the housing supply crisis. Our government has put forward many pieces of legislation—More Homes, More Choice, our province’s first housing supply action plan, in 2019. We followed that up with More Homes for Everyone. Each time, Speaker—this is the craziness of the whole situation—every time I put a bill forward—

Interjections.

Interjections.