Speaker, I have the honour to present to you and to the House Andrea Hazell, member for the electoral district of Scarborough–Guildwood, who has taken the oath and signed the roll and now claims her right to take a seat.

I’d like to give a warm welcome to my constituent Patrick Macklem, who is in the House. Welcome.

We couldn’t kick off the legislative session without a hello to Barbara Stevens, who loves to watch question period every day. Hi, Barbara.

I’d like to welcome to the House a constituent, Fraser Passmore, and his partner, Luca. Thanks for being here and welcome to your House.

I’d like to introduce to the legislature my new EA, Joseph Scheidl, and my LA, Michael Zwiep, here today. They’re going to be doing hard work on behalf of the people of Ontario in our office.

I also wish to thank Jared Yausie, who is off to the Alberta Legislature, for his service on behalf of the people of Niagara West.

Nous avons beaucoup de francophones aujourd’hui, mais je veux simplement souligner la présence de Melinda Chartrand, conseillère scolaire au conseil MonAvenir, et Isabelle Girard de l’ACÉPO. Bienvenue à Queen’s Park.

That concludes the introduction of guests today.

MPP McCrimmon was escorted into the House by Mr. Fraser and Mme Collard.

Applause.

I’d like to welcome back to the House, once again, Michau van Speyk from the Ontario Autism Coalition as well as the busloads of folks coming in from Hamilton for the rally on the front lawn today for the Ontario Health Coalition. I am welcoming them to Queen’s Park.

It’s a great pleasure to introduce three constituents of mine who are in the gallery today: Mayor John Logel from Alnwick/Haldimand and constituents Jim Corcoran and Jake O’Connor, who have also made the trip down from Grafton.

Welcome to the Ontario Legislature.

It’s my sincere privilege to welcome the great mayor of the city of Windsor, Drew Dilkens, who’s in the members’ gallery today.

Let the honourable member take her seat.

Applause.

During question period, I will recognize the three additional independent members to ask questions during each eight-day period, allowing us to accommodate all 14 independent members into the rotation. This means that one independent member will be recognized to ask a question each day, with a second independent member recognized every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Each independent member recognized during question period will continue to have the opportunity to ask one question and one supplementary question.

Further, as a result of the two recent by-elections in the electoral districts of Scarborough–Guildwood and Kanata–Carleton, there are now eight independent members who sit as part of the Liberal group.

Finally, with regard to members’ statements, there will continue to be one statement allotted to an independent member every sessional day. However, each individual member will now be entitled to participate once per 14-day period instead of once per 11-day period.

I thank the House for its attention.

I understand the member for Ottawa–Vanier has a point of order.

The supplementary question.

The final supplementary.

Welcome back, Speaker, and colleagues.

This summer, people across the province of Ontario were feeling the strain of the rising affordability crisis, a cost-of-living crisis, a housing affordability crisis, and meanwhile, they’ve watched their government lurch from scandal to scandal, crisis to crisis. Now we’ve seen the resignation of three cabinet ministers and two senior staffers so far.

Speaker, my question is to the Premier: How can people trust this Premier to work for them when he has spent the last five years putting his friends and insiders first?

The government said they were going to clean things up. That’s what this Premier ran on, and now he’s embroiled in a scandal that has seen ethics laws broken. Three cabinet ministers have resigned in disgrace or ran for the exits. Staff in the Conservatives’ inner circles are leaving under a cloud of suspicion, and they’re lawyering up, Speaker. The Premier has said the buck stops with him, so let’s hear from him.

Will the Premier finally come clean and explain his personal involvement in the greenbelt scandal?

People out there thought something was wrong, and now we have two independent officers of the Legislature who have confirmed it. The Conservatives rigged the system to benefit their friends. I mean, it’s so bad that it’s being turned over to the RCMP.

Speaker, my question to the Premier is, has he spoken to the RCMP about the circumstances of the greenbelt carve-out?

Again, I just want to welcome our friends from Arizona: Welcome; I look forward to speaking with you. And my friends from Arizona, you think politics are tough in the United States? Watch us over the next session.

Anyways, I want to thank the Leader of the Opposition for the question. I’ll answer the reason why people should trust us: When we came to office, it was like walking into a bankrupt company. There were 300,000 jobs lost, down to our friends, down to the US, and now there are 700,000 more people working today than there were five years ago. We’re building $184 billion of infrastructure. We’re focusing on $70 billion of building roads and bridges and highways. We’re focusing on making sure we have the largest transit system in North America. We’re building 50 new sites and hospitals or additions to hospitals, spending over $50 billion—

My friends from Arizona probably don’t realize that Ontario is leading North America in economic development and trade and growth. We’re the fastest-growing region right now in North America. We have over 800,000 people coming to Ontario every single year, and they’re coming to Ontario because that’s where the prosperity is. That’s where the jobs are. That’s where economic development is. That’s where the quality of life is. You want a great life, you come to Ontario. But I can assure the people out there—the new Canadians that are coming here, the young people that need to afford a home—that we’re going to build homes. We’re going to build affordable, attainable—

Interjections.

Speaker, I have the honour to present to you and to the House Karen McCrimmon, member for the electoral district of Kanata–Carleton, who has taken the oath and signed the roll and now claims the right to take her seat.

I do, Mr. Speaker, thank you.

I do seek unanimous consent that, notwithstanding standing order 40(e), five minutes be allotted to the independent members as a group to respond during statements by the ministry and responses today, which is about Franco-Ontarians.

Mr. Speaker, I can assure the minister that the city of Hamilton did not request that you meddle with our urban plan.

I have been ringing the alarm about this government’s backroom deals for urban sprawl in Hamilton for months now. The Integrity Commissioner’s report revealed that the same developers who successfully influenced the Ford government to remove their land from the greenbelt also benefited from a provincial order to expand the city’s urban boundary.

My question, Mr. Speaker: Did this government give preferential treatment to developers, with shady MZOs and undemocratic changes to our official plan?

Stop the clock.

Interjections.

Restart the clock. The next question: Once again, the Leader of the Opposition.

The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Restart the clock. The final supplementary?

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Maybe if the Premier had spent more time listening to people this summer—people who have seen their emergency rooms closed; kids who can’t get treatment with the autism program; people who were fighting forest fires all across this province—maybe he would have learned something and he wouldn’t have spent his summer divvying upping the spoils to his friends.

This afternoon, I’m going to be tabling the Greenbelt Restoration Act, the official opposition NDP’s bill to restore and protect all of the lands this government removed from the greenbelt—a solution that the Premier finally agrees is the right thing to do. We must restore integrity to government, Premier. We’re going to be calling for unanimous consent of this House, so, to the Premier: Ontarians will be watching. Will he pass our legislation to restore and protect lands in the greenbelt?

Interjections.

So, back to the Premier: How did these speculators know to give your office the details about the parcels of land to remove from the greenbelt before it was announced to the public? Who tipped them off?

Interjections.

Speaker, back to the Premier: How much is this government’s greenbelt disaster going to cost Ontario’s taxpayers?

Interjections.

Speaker, through you to the Premier: The same favoured insiders who received preferential treatment in the greenbelt decision are also benefiting from shady backroom deals for MZOs, urban boundary expansions and Highway 413.

Will this government stop paving over protected farmland to enrich its friends?