It’s a privilege to welcome Jennifer, Lucy, Holly, Laura and Jake from the Canadian Liver Foundation to Queen’s Park today. They are hosting a reception this afternoon, at 12 in room 228. Everyone is welcome. I welcome you to Queen’s Park.

We have several members from the TVO branch of the Canadian Media Guild. A few of the executive are here: Meredith Martin, Cara Stern and Dan DiMillo.

I am seeking unanimous consent that, notwithstanding standing order 45(b)(iv), eight minutes be apportioned to the independent members as a group for debate on opposition motion number 1 today.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. On your behalf, I do believe I see your wife sitting up in the gallery. Lisa Arnott is here, and I think we should all give a round of applause for her putting up with the Speaker for many, many years.

The member can speak for herself.

We have some guests here from Alberta, fresh off a tour of the world’s largest nuclear facility at Bruce Power: Minister Nathan Neudorf is the Minister of Affordability and Utilities and the vice-president of the Treasury Board in Alberta. They’re in your Speaker’s gallery this morning, Mr. Speaker. Also, a couple of staff members—Jon Dziadyk, the chief of staff, and Michael Smith—are joining us today, all the way from Alberta.

On behalf of the government and the Ministry of Citizenship and Multiculturalism, I too want to welcome the National Council of Canadian Muslims as well as community leaders from across the province on behalf of the Muslim community here. Welcome to your House.

J’aimerais souhaiter la bienvenue aux gens de TFO qui sont ici aujourd’hui avec nous. J’ai eu la chance de les rencontrer ce matin. J’ai eu la chance aussi de participer à leur évènement à Ottawa, la rentrée. Je dois les féliciter pour la programmation puis aussi pour leur implication dans l’éducation de nos francophones en Ontario. Donc, madame Godin, madame Séguin : bienvenue à Queen’s Park.

Today in the Speaker’s gallery, we have with us this year’s cohort of the Ontario Legislative Internship Program, or OLIP, as we know it. They are Razan Akiba, Milena Basciano, Steffi Burgi, Evan Cameron, Bridget Carter-Whitney, Olivia Collver, Kaitlin Gallant, Astrid Krueger, Taylor Pizzirusso and Rhea Saini.

This non-partisan program allows interns to gain practical experience in the daily workings of the Legislature. They will each complete two placements over the course of their time at Queen’s Park, one with a government member and one with an opposition member. I want to encourage all eligible members to participate in this exceptional program. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

There should be no political commentary during introduction of visitors.

The member for Kitchener–Conestoga.

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

Interjection.

Agreed? I heard a no.

Interjections.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome members of the National Council of Canadian Muslims who are here for their advocacy day. I look forward to seeing you later on at the reception. Welcome.

Every day, we find out new details about who and how this government’s insiders were involved in the greenbelt grab. Public accounts revealed that this government paid the Premier’s former principal secretary Amin Massoudi nearly a quarter of a million dollars to do the same job via his private company, Atlas.

My question to the Premier is, why did the Premier hire his good friend to provide the same services but at an exorbitant pay increase?

It’s my privilege to take the opportunity to introduce my sister-in-law, Meredith Martin, who’s in the gallery.

It’s a great honour to welcome the following TVO executives and workers to their House at Queen’s Park: president of the TVO branch of the Canadian Media Guild Meredith Martin and VP Cara Stern, along with Sameen Ahmad-Wing Quan, Aaron Bala, Nathaniel Basen, Chris Beaver, Preeti Bhuyan, Eric Bombicino, Jacquie Busby, Ryan Buskirk, Hilary Clark, Dan DiMillo, Natalie Drajewicz, Colin Ellis, Sean Foreman, Erica Giancola, Sandra Gionas, Ruth Hurst, Daniel Kitts, Namugenyi Kiwanuka, Liane Kotler, Tiffany Lam, Christine Lee, Harrison Lowman, Lisa Marinelli, John Michael McGrath, Matthew O’Mara, Sangeeta Patel, Aaron Reichert, Wodek Szemberg, Shajgev Umaharan, Jeanne d’Arc Umurungi, Cara Vaughan and Brittany Weaver.

Thank you to these education workers, journalists and producers from TVO workers.

Interruption.

I also want to give a great thank you to the Jain Society of Toronto, in Scarborough, that held an excellent morning ceremony today on the power of friendship.

I’d like to introduce Charlie the chaplain. He’s in the public gallery today and he offers counselling services to MPPs, if you wish. And let’s be honest, we need all the help we can get.

I want to introduce Brooke Timpson, a friend and a former staffer here at Queen’s Park. Welcome.

I’d like to welcome board members Pamela Baker and Stephen Harvey from RTOERO. Welcome. RTOERO is an association of retirees associated with education. Welcome to your House.

Mr. Speaker, it is an absolute pleasure to introduce His Holiness Acharya Dr. Lokesh Muni Ji, Dr. Mahendra Jain, Anshul Rohil, Mahendra Bhandari, Prakash Kumar and Harshit Shah from the Jain Society of Toronto in Scarborough, and a resident of Mississauga–Malton, Tanvi Nagda.

As I mentioned, the Premier highlighted a couple of weeks ago in Niagara Falls that that contract had ended and Mr. Massoudi is no longer working for PC caucus services.

Mr. Massoudi himself, I’m told, has never been registered to lobby the government. If she has a complaint, I would suggest that she take that up with the Integrity Commissioner and I’m sure he will investigate that further. But as I said, he’s no longer employed by PC caucus research services.

The slogan “for the people” isn’t just a slogan for us; it is at the core of what we do. Everything that we do, since 2018, has been about advancing the people of the province of Ontario, unleashing the economy. Now we’re going to tackle the housing affordability crisis that they helped create with the Liberals. It’s about doing what’s right for the people of the province of Ontario. This Premier is not going to stop doing that. This caucus won’t stop doing that. The only people getting in the way are the opposition and their partners in the Liberal Party.

Interjections.

I’ll tell you what happened in the last election: We went to the people of the province of Ontario and we said that we’re going to continue to unleash the power of the economy of Ontario. Do you know why? Because it’s not only good for the people of Ontario; it’s good for all of Canada when Ontario succeeds. That’s why people from Alberta are here: because they want to see what we’re doing, and it is good for all of Canada.

So I tell the member opposite, take a look behind you. There are so many fewer NDP members in that caucus. Do you know why? Because the people of the province Ontario put their faith in a Progressive Conservative government to continue to build the economy, to tackle the housing affordability crisis and to continue a bigger, better, bolder Ontario.

Interjections.

We said, in 2018, colleagues—remember when we said that a carbon tax would hurt the province of Ontario’s economy? What did they say? No. We said federal policies of high taxes, red tape and the carbon tax would hurt the Ontario economy. They said no, and they doubled down to support the federal Liberals.

You know what we’re going to do? We’re going to fight it every step of the way. We’re going to continue to cut taxes, continue to cut red tape, because we don’t accept high interest rates that are what happens when you do all the things they want to us do. It takes too many people out of the economy and won’t—

At the same time, we are focused on what matters to the people of the province of Ontario, and that is growing the economy. There is no doubt—there is no doubt that we made a public policy decision that was not supported by the people of the province of Ontario when we suggested we would open up the greenbelt to expedite housing. We accept that responsibility, Mr. Speaker.

What we will not accept is the opposition’s continued obstruction on building new homes for the people of the province of Ontario. You know what? People want out of their parents’ basement. They want to have a home for themselves so that they can build bigger, better opportunities and futures for their families. We’ll remain focused on that. We’ll get the job done, Mr. Speaker.

The supplementary question.

Start the clock. Supplementary.

The final supplementary.

Back to the Premier: We all remember Mr. Massoudi for his participation in the infamous Las Vegas boys’ trip with greenbelt land speculator Shakir Rehmatullah. Last week, journalists asked the Premier’s office about Mr. Massoudi’s lucrative contract and a spokesperson for the Premier said that the contract has ended and he has no formal role.

When exactly did the contract with Mr. Massoudi’s firm, Atlas strategies, end?

Back to the Premier: Which is it?

Back to the Premier: Government lawyers have now confirmed that the Premier routinely uses his personal devices to conduct government business. The Premier was warned by the Information and Privacy Commissioner that government business must be conducted on government devices and platforms. It’s about basic transparency. This is not new.

Why has the Premier refused to follow the commissioner’s guidance?

Back to the Premier: It’s really important to remember that the commissioner’s guidance came after staff in this Premier’s office were caught using personal email accounts to arrange for the Premier’s souped-up custom van.

The people of Ontario are not going to be played for fools. Did the Premier intentionally continue to use personal devices in order to avoid freedom-of-information requests?

So to the Premier: Will his personal phone logs reveal conversations with the very land speculators who benefited from preferential treatment by this government?

Good morning, Speaker. My question is to the Premier.

Speaker, the details just don’t add up on the former minister’s trip to Vegas with a greenbelt speculator. The member for Mississauga East–Cooksville, Mr. Massoudi and Mr. Truesdell all suspiciously and consistently told the Integrity Commissioner that their trip was in 2019 when it actually occurred months later. The former minister said he only saw the developer in the lobby. Now it’s reported that they got spa services at the same time.

Would the Premier agree, as a generally accepted practice, that members of the Ontario Legislature shall present only honest and true information to the Integrity Commissioner?

Back to the Premier: When we’re elected to this Legislature, we all take an oath; we pledge that we will all perform our duties honestly. Key members of the Premier’s staff and a former cabinet minister all mistakenly misremembered the date of a luxurious trip to Vegas consistently, can’t recall exactly how they paid for the trip and don’t mention the good-luck massage. What’s worse, their story was only corrected when the media reported evidence to the contrary.

How can we trust this Premier to hold members accountable for violating the Members’ Integrity Act when he himself won’t follow the recommendations of officers of the Legislature?