The member for Brampton North here—first day.

It is an honour to rise in this House on behalf of my constituents in Brampton North, and I am humbled by their trust in me to be our voice for our community at Queen’s Park.

Mr. Speaker, please allow me to speak on behalf of my community when I say that Brampton North is simply tired of waiting. We’re tired of waiting in bumper-to-bumper traffic on Highway 410, Bovaird Drive and Sandalwood Parkway. We’re tired of waiting at the Brampton Civic waiting room, where our incredible health care workers strive to keep up with the demands of our growing and aging population.

And quite frankly, we’re tired of the committees and the studies and the working groups. We demand action. We demand a government that gets it done. That is exactly what our Premier and our government are here to do.

We’re getting it done by building a new Peel Memorial Hospital with a full-fledged 24/7 emergency room.

We’re getting it done by building Highway 413, cutting commute times and bringing economic opportunity to our region.

We’re getting it done with the TMU medical school where, for the first time ever, Brampton students will become medical students and eventually become Brampton doctors.

Mr. Speaker, we will get it done for Brampton North.

My question is to the Premier. Records from Ontario Health show 1,400 people died while waiting for surgery last year. That’s a 43% increase compared to pre-pandemic years and a 30% increase over just a year before. When lives hang in the balance, why is the Premier refusing to invest in recruiting, retaining and respecting health care workers?

The staffing crisis is costing people their lives. Why is this government planning to spend money on privatization that will bleed even more staff from our hospitals?

We have a hospital staffing crisis. Privatization would siphon staff out of our hospitals and send them to a for-profit system. Why is this government planning to spend money on privatization that would make the hospital staffing crisis even worse?

I’m pleased to introduce Angela Preocanin, the first vice-president of the Ontario Nurses’ Association, as well as Nour Alideeb from the ONA. Welcome to Queen’s Park, ladies.

I’m proud to welcome Society of United Professionals president Michelle Johnston. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a pleasure to see you in the chair this morning.

I would like to welcome my long-suffering wife, Joni Bouma, to the House for the first time in this government; my daughter and former page Ella Bouma; and a special guest, our family friend Tessa Overduin, who, as you can see, is looking forward to the Immersive King Tut later today and going to the ROM and seeing the mummies there.

The member for Brantford–Brant.

I would like to invite our page back—Pania Ghaneian, who’s from the riding of Barrie–Innisfil. Welcome today.

The member is quite correct: There has been a great burden on health care providers for a long time in the province of Ontario. I know the member referenced the fact that she wasn’t here, but the reality is that the NDP and the Liberals did work together for many years, and the changes that they refused to make put us in a very difficult situation.

Now, the Premier, of course, highlighted many of the investments that we’re making, but it didn’t just start recently. We started with the transition to Ontario health teams because a lot of people told us the quality of care that they were getting is good if they could get into the system. So we started the transition to Ontario health teams. We brought on new nurses. We brought on more medical professionals, a medical school in Brampton, a medical school in Scarborough, so that we could educate more doctors right here in the province of Ontario, keep them here, working in communities across the province. We had a low ICU capacity. The Premier said that had to be changed, so we’ve increased ICU capacity across the province of Ontario. We’re educating more nurses. We’re fixing long-term care. It is about building an integrated system that works for all of the people in the province of Ontario, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.

The member knows full well, Mr. Speaker, that it is our responsibility—the responsibility of the government of Ontario and all parliamentarians—to make sure that everybody has access to the top-notch quality health care service that they pay for through their taxes. We will continue to ensure that all parts of this province have the best, highest quality of care regardless of whether they’re north, south, east, west, remote or urban.

Beds don’t equal surgeries, Speaker. A bed without a nurse is just furniture.

At the Ottawa Hospital, we’re seeing the many serious consequences of not having enough nurses. Patients are waiting days to be admitted even though beds are available because there’s no nurse to staff the bed. Surgeries are being cancelled even as patients are entering the operating room because there’s no nurse. And recently, a patient who showed up for chemo was sent home without it because there was no nurse to administer it.

Will the government act swiftly to fill these nursing shortages so that every patient in Ontario gets the care they need?

The Ottawa Hospital is short more than 500 nurses, and this government’s actions to date are a drop in the bucket compared to the scale of the crisis. There are nurses in Ottawa who are working 16-hour shifts, 12 out of 14 days, just to fill nursing shortages. Just imagine trying to provide good care while working that many hours, not to mention the risk of mistakes. No wonder nurses are leaving the profession.

Will the government repeal Bill 124 and address working conditions so that we keep nurses instead of driving them away?

Last week, I had the chance to sit down with nurses from ONA Local 83 and they told me that every day they go to work feeling scared. They wonder, who will I not get to today, and what will the consequences be? It is only a matter of time until the consequences for someone are deadly. This is an unfair burden to put on our hard-working health care heroes and terrifying to patients across Ontario.

Will this government finally listen to nurses and implement the solutions they are calling for, starting with repeal of Bill 124?

Thank you for that question. And by the way, I spoke to Cam Love. What a great CEO—probably one of the best in the province. He assured me as well that they’re going to make sure that they have the proper staffing.

How we’re helping the hospitals across the province is the Learn and Stay program—that we’re going to pay for the tuition of the nurses. We’re going to make sure that they’re taken care of—any expenses they have—as long as they serve in underserved areas.

With Ottawa—I’ve got to tell you, I think the world of Cam Love. He drives an efficient hospital. But, again, as he said, and every other CEO that are feeding us information to help the system—every one of them said the same thing: You can’t stay with the status quo under the Liberals and the NDP that destroyed the system for 15 years, Mr. Speaker. We’re going to continue investing into the hospitals, into nurses.

And, again, I just want to remind people of the numbers: We added 14,500 nurses since 2018. Those are staggering numbers.

Mr. Speaker, we’re going to continue to invest in health care. We’re going to continue making sure that as long as our government’s here, people are going to be using their OHIP card instead of their credit card. But guess what? We can’t do the same, status quo. The status quo has been broken. We’re going to fix it. We’re going to deliver health care in a different fashion through the sector’s advice—not through our government’s advice—through the experts’ advice: the docs, the nurses, anyone involved in taking care of the great health care system that we do have in Ontario.

But this is a broader conversation we need. All Premiers across the provinces and territories all have a common voice, and the common voice is: This is not going to be sustainable—making sure that the feds pay their fair share. You know something? They’re paying 22%. We’re asking for 35%. It will not be sustainable without the federal government stepping up to the plate, making sure that they give us our fair amount to sustain the health care system. This isn’t unique to Ontario. I talk to the Premiers every single day. They’re facing the same problems. They’re facing the same problems down in the US. But we need the federal government to give us our fair share of funding for health care across this country.

To reply, once again, the Premier.

Final supplementary?

My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. Under the previous Liberal government, rural communities like mine were left behind and neglected when it came to investments that would support our local economy. Time and again, we saw the previous government make announcements that would be supporting investments only in and around the GTA. That’s why I am here to continue to advocate for my constituents and the abilities they have to lead our province.

On that note, I am proud that Grey-Bruce continues to lead the way in female apprenticeships. For the past five years, we’ve had more female students going into the skilled trades than the rest of the province, by a significant margin.

Speaker, what is the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade doing to help support economic growth in my riding? What is the government doing to tap into the amazing workforce potential we have in our community?

Ma question est pour la ministre de la Santé.

Minister, in July, you received a letter informing you of the closure of the Gogama nursing station on September 1. Gogama is a small, isolated community. Residents rely on the nursing station as their only access to health care. September 1 is fast approaching. Can the minister reassure the people of Gogama that they will not find themselves without any health care services at the end of the month?

I want to thank the member opposite for the question. On the contrary, In fact, we have enhanced the mandatory learning within the science curriculum in every single grade when compared to 2017 under the former Liberal government. Every single grade in the science curriculum now has enhanced mandatory learning as part of our commitment to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and our commitments to Indigenous, First Nation and Inuit peoples.

Part of the first response of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission actually called us to complete what the Liberals did not do. In the social science curriculum, we will have mandatory learning in this province from grades 4 to 6, but not grades 1 through 3. I enjoin the Minister of Indigenous Affairs, on behalf of the Premier of the government, to actually fix that gap. And, for the first time this coming September, 2023, students in Ontario will learn—from grade 1 right through 8—about residential schools and what the Premier called “the dark chapter” in Canadian history. We know there is more to do, and I am open to his feedback and his leadership to get this right.

Supplementary.

Congratulations and welcome to the member from Brampton East.

For too long, Ontario had a government that never met a fee increase or a tax that they didn’t like. Cap-and-trade tax schemes, licence sticker fee increases, road tolls in Durham—they loved those. But our government knows the best way to support the people of Ontario is to put more money back into their pockets, not out of their pockets. That’s why we signed a deal to bring down the cost of child care and enhanced our Child Care Tax Credit to make it even more affordable for families. We have enhanced the LIFT tax credit to deliver an average of $430 in relief in 2022 for low-income workers and families and we will raise the minimum wage to $15.50 per hour on October 1. We will never stop investing in our workers, our seniors and our families.

Thank you, Minister.

Speaker, for 42 years under a Progressive Conservative government, Ontario became a manufacturing powerhouse, able to compete with any jurisdiction. Yet, under the previous Liberal government, jobs began to leave when high taxes, red tape and out-of-control electricity prices made Ontario one of the least competitive jurisdictions in North America. The result: 300,000 people lost their jobs when Liberal policies forced manufacturing right out of Ontario.

With growing instability in Asia as China attempts to destabilize the region, businesses now more than ever are seeking strong, stable partners when it comes to manufacturing operations. Now is the opportunity for Ontario to regain our rightful spot as a manufacturing powerhouse. We must be taking every and all necessary actions to get this done.

What is the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade doing to bring back manufacturing jobs to Ontario and to my riding?

Our government listened to businesses, like those in that riding, and we learned about the support that they needed and all those regional challenges that they had after a decade of Liberal neglect. That’s why we launched the $100-million Regional Development Program to attract investments to southwestern Ontario, southeastern Ontario and rural Ontario. We knew that this would benefit those many communities who could expect to see growth, job creation and economic opportunities for years to come.

To date, those very businesses have invested $716 million into Ontario and created 1,200 jobs in their own communities. We are demonstrating that small towns in Ontario can sustain and attract those businesses. We’re bringing back that lifeblood to these rural communities, all after the Liberals chased those businesses out of the country.

Our province is supporting Greenlid’s project with a $500,000 investment through our Regional Development Program. This is a made-in-Ontario success story. Greenlid produces compostable products like cups and lids and bowls. Their products are found in 14,000 stores across the continent, and they’re made here in Ontario. This is just one of the thousands of examples of products that are made in Ontario, and manufacturing that’s coming back to rural Ontario.

But we won’t stop there. We’re going to continue to fix that Liberal mess and bring the jobs back to where we need them most.

From gas to groceries, rising prices continue to impact Ontario workers and Ontario families. Food prices have gone up by almost 10% from a year ago and rent prices are also rising. In Brampton, Regeneration Outreach Community’s local food bank is seeing a rise in families coming through the door at a time when donations are typically lower. There are nearly 400 families coming to them for groceries—a number that has doubled in the last two years. With Canada’s inflation rate reaching a nearly 40-year high, households across the country are facing increasing pressures to make ends meet. According to Food Banks Canada, one in five people report going hungry, meaning some households are foregoing buying groceries in order to pay other bills, including rent, hydro and fuel.

What is the Minister of Finance doing to help provide financial support and relief for the people of my riding and all other Ontarians?