My question is for the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery. No jurisdiction wants to fall behind in implementing technological advancements that can make it more convenient and efficient for people and businesses to interact with government services. However, with new emerging technological advancements, the protection of personal information is rightfully a key concern for many individuals.

Ontarians need reassurance that our government is protecting the safety and security of their personal information in an ever-evolving digital world. Speaker, can the minister please explain how our government is approaching the integration of digital solutions that will help to improve the delivery of public services?

It’s reasonable to say that confidence in the security of the digital world is critical to our province’s success in the digital economy.

Ontarians are looking to our government for answers, and they expect our government to protect them and their personal information.

Can the minister please explain how our government is ensuring that Ontario is protected from any potential or perceived digital threats?

Speaker, I’m disappointed, of course, to see that the two parties have not been able to resolve the negotiations to date.

Our goal is, and has always been, to negotiate collective agreements that are fair and equitable to Ontario’s dedicated public servants but at the same time support the long-term fiscal sustainability for the people of Ontario.

There’s no question that labour negotiations require some give-and-take and it’s a lot of hard work, but the goal for both sides remains the same: a fair and equitable agreement.

So we encourage the two parties to continue working to find a resolution that supports the goal of protecting the sustainability and high quality of Ontario’s public services while respecting the taxpayers who pay for them.

Supplementary question.

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Next question.

As I just said, look, the city of Ottawa remains in control of when or if those lands will be developed or serviced, for that matter. But here again is another question from the opposition, from the Liberals, who for 15 years put obstacle after obstacle after obstacle in the way and led us into a housing crisis.

But I know why they’re having such trouble, right? Because this Minister of Finance cut taxes for purpose-built rentals. Do you remember when he did that? And what did we say? We said to the federal government, “You have to come on board. You have to help us by matching that with a GST cut.” But we know Liberals hate to cut taxes, but thanks to one person in the Liberal government, Minister Fraser, they finally had to admit that cutting taxes means improving an economy. Now, they did it only once, and that’s because of the leadership of this Minister of Finance.

We’re going to work with Alberta and every other province to cut taxes for all Canadians to unleash the economy so that everybody can participate in the Canadian dream that they took away.

My supplementary is also for the Premier. Mr. Speaker, the mayor is so convinced of the government’s process that he voted unanimously with city council to ask the minister to review that process from last year. Following the purchase of these ag lands but before their designation by the minister, it appears that the directors of the corporation collectively donated tens of thousands of dollars to the Conservative Party. Since that re-designation, the former minister unilaterally added these lands without the city having undertaken any scientific or consultative review of the quality of the lands for farming or their suitability for urbanization. The company who purchased the lands is referenced in the Integrity Commissioner’s report about Minister Clark’s behaviour as having lands on the infamous USB key.

Lands on the USB key, donations to the Conservative Party, connections to Conservative insiders: It’s sounding awful familiar, Mr. Speaker. Maybe there’s a Mr. X in Ottawa as well.

To the Premier: Was the delay in approving Ottawa’s official plan designed—

I thank the excellent member for Burlington for her question. The falling-behind that the member described is a very real concern for governments around the world. That is why our Ontario government is taking decisive action by making strategic investments to ensure that we remain a leader when it comes to technological security.

Recently, Ontario had the privilege of hosting members and deputy ministers from federal, provincial and territorial governments across Canada for the third ever Symposium on Digital Trust and Cybersecurity. That symposium was held in beautiful Niagara-on-the-Lake. This symposium focused on increasing people’s confidence and participation in our ever-evolving digital world, because only by working as one united team can we further succeed in our work to build innovative digital solutions and highlight new possibilities to streamline and improve the delivery of public services for all the people, businesses, organizations and institutions that call Ontario home.

Cyber security is a top priority for the Premier and our Ontario government. We know that the cyber security landscape is changing exponentially, with cyber attacks growing in frequency and sophistication, while the public sector remains a top target.

Ontarians can rest assured that our government is working hard to develop the next iteration of the Cyber Security Strategy by leveraging the recent OPS cyber security maturity assessment and the BPS expert panel report.

This is October, and it’s a great month for Blue Jays baseball—and today is the first day of the playoffs—but it’s also Cyber Security Awareness Month. It’s an important time for Ontarians not just to watch our Blue Jays but to learn about how they can continue to keep themselves safe online, while also learning about the work our government does to protect them and their personal information. So I encourage all members and viewers watching at home to stay tuned in the coming weeks—

Thank you to the member for the question; it’s an important one.

We understand the importance of protecting and supporting wildlife in Ontario. In fact, Speaker, 100% of the dollars spent on licensing by hunters and anglers goes back into those support programs, and that includes research and monitoring for black bear, moose, caribou populations; that includes stocking over 1,100 lakes with eight million fish so anglers can be ready for that next great catch; that includes over 720,000 rabies vaccines that are distributed to the wildlife population to help abate rabies. It also includes over 115,000 opportunities for our great conservation officers to work with members of the public every single year on education.

Mr. Speaker, we are committed to wildlife in this province, and we are committed to ensuring outdoor enthusiasts can stay on the lookout for the next great catch.

We have an absolutely fantastic relationship with OFAH, and I’d encourage anybody—if they haven’t had the opportunity—to go to Peterborough and go to their visitors’ centre and just see what a fantastic experience that is.

But, Mr. Speaker, we continue to do great work with this organization. The family fishing events that occur in Ontario four times a year—OFAH gives us great help with that, and I was pleased to attend one in Brechin where they were helping us with the invasive species side of that conversation around bait fish, and we continue to do great work with them on other invasive species projects. The Community Hatchery Program that exists in many com-munities to support stocking efforts like I was talking about earlier and the great work that those community programs do—OFAH assists us with that.

Mr. Speaker, we are going to continue to work hand-in-hand with this great organization. I’m looking forward to speaking with them later today, and I want to thank them for making Ontario a world-class destination for outdoor enthusiasts, anglers and hunters.

My question is to the Premier. Speaker, the Ontario Seniors Dental Care Program has been a failure since it was created in 2019. The official poverty line for a single person in Ontario is estimated to be about $27,000, yet the Ontario Seniors Dental Care Program income cut-off for a single senior is $22,000, much closer to what experts call the “deep income poverty threshold.”

Wait-lists continue to grow across this province and seniors in Kitchener-Waterloo want to know why this program for low-income seniors does not even meet the basic expectation of serving seniors who are living in poverty.

In Kitchener-Waterloo my office continues to hear from seniors who are eligible and, after receiving the one-time inflation payment from the federal government, are now deemed ineligible after waiting for a whole year. In some cases, they’re ineligible by 30 cents. The flawed design is causing immense stress for seniors in the province of Ontario.

Is the government content—it sounds like they are—with a flawed dental program that leaves Ontario seniors stranded on a wait-list or bumped off, never receiving the care that seniors deserve in this province?

My question is for the Associate Minister of Housing. For nearly two decades under the previous Liberal government, propped up by the NDP, housing construction suffered in our province. Because of the indifference and inaction demonstrated under their watch, building homes in Ontario was not a priority, creating the crisis that continues to pose challenges for many of the individuals and families in my riding of Brantford–Brant.

The seriousness of this housing crisis is not just felt in southwest Ontario. Communities across our province are facing similar challenges. While our government has made major progress by passing new housing legislation, the people of Ontario are looking to our government to produce even more results and continue to show bold and decisive leadership.

Can the associate minister please explain what actions our government is taking to increase housing construction in the province of Ontario?

Ontario is leading the country as one of the few provinces to provide seniors access to the high-quality dental care that they deserve. I want to remind the member opposite that in 2021 we actually reduced the qualifying income by over 10%, making it easier for more seniors to access this program. In 2023 we had the highest total number of renewed clients, with over 81,000, up from 69,000 the year before. And we have some innovative public health units that are actually providing dental care directly to patients so that they don’t have to travel.

We’re making the changes and we’re leading that innovation to ensure that people have access in their community, where they need it.

I thank the member from Brantford–Brant for his question. Yes, Speaker, the member is spot on. We have a housing crisis in this province like we’ve never seen, and we have to fix it. But it’s results that count, and this government has delivered four housing supply action plans. We’ve delivered $700 million this year—up $200 million year over year—for the Homelessness Prevention Program, $1.2 billion for the Building Faster Fund to support our municipalities, and we’ve cut red tape to get shovels in the ground faster. It’s results that count: more homes built, more rental starts in the last two years than in over 30 years.

We also know that there is more to do. But while the opposition raises doubts, we’re busy raising roofs over the people of this province. There’s more to do, and more will be—

To reply, the Minister of Education.

I do thank the member for the question. I want to reaffirm the message shared by the President of the Treasury Board that we want all parties to come together to put children first, as we just did last week with OSSTF, a large union in the province of Ontario, where we were able to sign a deal, a pathway that averts a strike and keeps kids in school. We want the spirit of unity to come together around the negotiating table where all parties come together to sign a deal that ensures the continuity of services.

We value the work of TVO employees, be it Mathify, digital learning, the high-quality online courses which, of course, members opposite have systematically opposed. The bottom line is, Speaker, we value their contributions—funding is at $50 million for TVO specifically—and we reaffirm and urge all the parties to come together to sign a deal that allows the continuity of these critical services in Ontario.

This petition is entitled “All-Day, Two-Way (Including Weekends) GO Trains for Waterloo Region.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the government of Ontario is responsible for investing in building, maintaining and upgrading GO Transit trains and rail routes throughout the province; and

“Whereas the government of Ontario has repeatedly made commitments to invest in and improve GO Transit trains for the purposes of improving connectivity, increasing transit ridership, decreasing traffic congestion, connecting people to jobs, and improving the economy; and

“Whereas a lack of reliable transit options impedes quality of life and growth opportunities for commuters and businesses, including the tech sector, in Waterloo region;

“Whereas Waterloo region is home to three post-secondary institutions, the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, and Conestoga College, whose students and staff require weekday and weekend train options; and

“Whereas dependable, efficient public transit seven days of the week is critical to the growth of our region;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to provide a firm funding commitment and a clear timeline for the delivery of frequent, all-day, two-way GO rail service along the full length of the vital Kitchener GO corridor.”

It is my pleasure and privilege to introduce this petition for the first time. And thanks to the students at University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier for collecting the signatures.

Point of order, Speaker. I would just like to congratulate the member from Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke on his 20th anniversary, as well.

Interjection: We did that: Barry’s Bay.

Let me tell you about Tim, Speaker. Tim is an insulin-dependant diabetic with long-term disabilities. When his family doctor passed away, Tim was left without a family practitioner. He contacted Health Connect Ontario to no avail. He visited numerous family practices and nurse practitioner clinics—had no success. Tim eventually had to go to the waiting room of the emergency room for hours just to get his prescriptions filled.

Tim is not alone, Speaker. One out of eight northern residents don’t have access to a family doctor. This is why NOSM needs this money.

So to help people like Tim, will the Premier commit today to a permanent $4-million increase in the base funding for the Northern Ontario School of Medicine?

[Inaudible] that the NDP ironically voted against and now try to take credit for. One of the great things that we’ve been doing since we got to government—again, after 15 years of destructive Liberal government where they refused to build long-term care. They didn’t add to our medical schools, Mr. Speaker—

Interjection.

Interjection.

Applause.

Ma question est pour le premier ministre.

L’École de médecine du Nord de l’Ontario est un succès pour augmenter le nombre de médecins dans le nord de l’Ontario : 50 % de leurs diplômés choisissent la médecine familiale et plus de 90 % des apprenants et apprenantes demeurent dans le nord de l’Ontario. Aujourd’hui, plus de 400 000 résidents et résidentes du Nord reçoivent des soins primaires et aigus d’une médecin ou d’un médecin formés à l’EMNO.

Lorsque le gouvernement a créé la première école de médecine autonome au Canada, il savait que ça coûterait plus cher—4 millions de dollars de plus, pour être exacte. Parry Sound, Muskoka et de nombreuses autres communautés de circonscriptions du Nord ont écrit au premier ministre pour appuyer la demande de l’EMNO d’augmenter de façon permanente son financement de base.

Quand est-ce que le gouvernement va accorder à l’université de l’EMNO le financement annualisé de 4 millions de dollars dont elle a besoin pour rester à flot?

Thank you, again, to the member from Brantford–Brant. Creating the environment for success is what leadership is about; that is what this Premier and this government have done. In fact, 15,000 purpose-built rentals, up 7.5% year over year—this is success.

I would also add that we need to, humbly submitted, pass the Affordable Homes and Good Jobs Act legislation before this Legislature. It’s going to lower costs. It’s going to cut red tape. It’s going to work with our municipal partners. It’s bold, it’s innovative and it’s results-oriented.

Speaker, we have a mandate to act and, I would conclude, we have a duty to succeed. We will get the job done.