Mr. Speaker, the member from Ottawa maybe forgot that, back in the election, we won an overwhelming majority—the largest since 1929—and it was based on the 413 that their government put the original route in. They flip-flop back and forth; we’re building the 413. We have a clear mandate from every riding in Mississauga, every riding in Brampton, every riding in Caledon—the whole region wants the 413.

They don’t believe in building. They don’t believe in spending $184 billion in building infrastructure. Not only are we building the 413, we’re building the Bradford Bypass, we’re building Highway 7, we’re expanding the 401 east out to your area so that people can get back and forth a lot quicker, we’re expanding Highway 3. We’re building this province because it was ignored for 15 years and we’re building homes for the young students that were—

This petition is signed by over 1,000 parents, students and people in Ottawa. The petition is titled: “Petition in Support of the Resignation of the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority General Manager and Executive.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority (OSTA) is responsible for all home-to-school transportation on behalf of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) and the Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB); and

“Whereas OSTA’s mission is to deliver safe, efficient, effective and equitable multi-modal transportation solutions for students with superior customer service for OCDSB and OCSB; and

“Whereas two days before the 2023 Labour Day long weekend which marks the beginning of the school year for OCDSB and OCSB students, OSTA informed parents their routes were cancelled, negatively impacting thousands of children in the city of Ottawa, including rural Ottawa; and

“Whereas OSTA reported as recently as September 14, 2023, that the route cancellations were due to ‘funding pressure’; and

“Whereas the Ministry of Education confirmed that throughout the summer they worked with the OCDSB, OCSB and OSTA to address the ‘funding pressure’ and committed to supporting the school boards with additional funding;

“Whereas OSTA failed to inform parents that the” additional “funding pressure was addressed; and

“Whereas OSTA refused to give parents a voice at the table and ejected an elected official from a ‘private’ meeting that was intended to provide an update to Ottawa city councillors; and

“Whereas 80% of reported school bus cancellations in the province of Ontario for the 2023–24 school year are attributed to OSTA; and

“Whereas OSTA has year after year” continuously “failed to meet its mission statement to deliver safe, efficient, effective and equitable multi-modal transportation solutions for students with superior customer service for OCDSB and OCSB;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“That the Minister of Education mandate the immediate resignation of the general manager of the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority as well as all OSTA executives, and the Ministry of Education oversee the hiring of new, competent leadership at OSTA who are capable of doing their job and will commit to being transparent, open and accountable to the public.”

I will sign my name to this petition and give it to page Constantine.

New Orleans is in Louisiana, which is in the southern United States. Orléans is a suburb of Ottawa—the eastern suburb of Ottawa, where the sun rises on our nation’s capital, just to correct the record.

In terms of affordability, when this government was elected in 2018, the average cost to buy a home in the greater Toronto area was $787,000. In Ottawa, it was $449,000. This isn’t about interest rates. It’s about the price of buying a home, which the Minister of Labour should understand.

The current average in the GTA exceeds a million dollars and, in Ottawa, it’s above $750,000. The price of homes is demonstrably higher five years after this government took power.

So, first of all, the government needs to decide how they’re going to track new housing, which metric they’re going to use, and then they need to be reporting on it, every year, to the public. As far as I can see, that’s not happening.