My question is for the Minister of Transportation.

Every day, thousands of residents in my riding of Burlington and communities across the GTA rely on our GO Transit networks to help them get to work, to school, to appointments, and to visit their families and friends.

Like many communities across Ontario, the city of Burlington and the surrounding areas are growing rapidly. Every day, new families are calling Halton region home. The people of Burlington, Halton and the surrounding communities are counting on our government to continue to make investments into transportation networks that will benefit all of Ontario.

Can the minister please provide an update on what investments our government is making into the GO Transit system?

I hear regularly from individuals and families in my riding that the GO train is the easiest travel option, whether they’re going to a sports game or heading to work downtown.

The Lakeshore West line is already the busiest line in the GO train network, and the need for expanded services is a pressing concern.

While the previous Liberal government failed to plan ahead when it came to meeting our growing transportation needs, our government must continue to implement transit solutions that will help to build a stronger Ontario.

Can the minister please explain how our government is expanding public transportation networks in my community and beyond?

Maybe it would be helpful if I explained a little bit about why that fairness monitor matters.

The NDP has learned that a few days before the bid submission deadline for the Ontario Place procurement, Infrastructure Ontario mysteriously extended the deadline by three weeks. Several bidders had already submitted their bids on time, but Therme, with its private luxury spa proposal, had not.

Speaker, to the Premier: Was the deadline extended to give Therme an advantage?

Fair procurements use scoring criteria and metrics to objectively assess each bid. Earlier this year, the NDP asked Infrastructure Ontario to provide these criteria and give us the scorecards for the Ontario Place bids. They won’t provide it. It seems there were no scoring criteria, no scorecards. If this seems familiar, well, it’s because this sounds an awful lot like the greenbelt grab.

If Therme was chosen based on fair and objective criteria, why won’t this Premier and this government release the details of the selection process?

Interjections.

Final supplementary?

To reply, once again, for the government, the member for Brampton West.

Interjections.

Restart the clock. The next question.

If the member opposite had actually attended the consultations, he would have heard loudly and clearly that the residents of Ontario do not want their tax dollars going to subsidize a Therme spa.

This government has been planning changes to Ontario Place for some time. In 2021, they even hired a special adviser on Ontario Place—a job that paid as much as $171,500 per year. They gave the job to a close ally of the Premier’s—one of their candidates and the candidate the Premier endorsed to be mayor of Toronto, Mark Saunders.

Speaker, to the Premier: What work did the special adviser on Ontario Place do?

Back to the Premier: Can the Premier show any evidence that his special adviser produced any advice?

As I said earlier, this is a government that believes in public consultation, and we are continuously consulting the public and other stakeholders. As I said, over 9,200 people participated in the public consultation process, to share their input and ideas for the future of Ontario Place.

This government is taking action, as I said. Not only are we doing the redevelopment of Ontario Place, but we’re investing $184 billion over the next 10 years. Most importantly, we’re making these investments by not only building new hospitals and highways, but we’re also connecting all Ontarians with high-speed Internet by 2025. This is a government that will get it done.

Mr. Speaker, just this week, Minister Surma and Premier Ford attended the Toronto Region Board of Trade for a discussion on the waterfront and our plans to redevelop Ontario Place. Premier Ford thoughtfully said, “Bold thinking will always invite disagreement.” The Premier is completely right.

After 15 years of neglect and mismanagement, we’re acting on a world-class vision to bring Ontario Place back to life. And once this government brings it back to life, this will be a remarkable, year-round destination. Let’s improve Ontario Place. It will provide people of all ages with something to enjoy, including enhanced public spaces, increased access to the waterfront, food—

We are the government that believes in action and getting things done and built—and this is what our government is doing. We’re investing $184 billion over the next 10 years in infrastructure.

Our government is delivering on our promise to bring Ontario Place back to life, making it a remarkable, world-class, year-round destination that’s fun for everyone.

As I said, with the redevelopment of Ontario Place, we are supporting economic growth and prosperity and providing an open and enjoyable destination for all. Our investments in Ontario Place will create approximately 5,000 new jobs during both construction and permanent operations. It will also attract four million to six million—

I want to thank the member for Burlington for that question and her advocacy for transit users in her riding and across the province.

Mr. Speaker, we’re building the largest transit expansion plan in Ontario’s history; in fact, the largest in North American history. From new subways, LRTs and two-way, all-day GO—we’re investing $70 billion over the next 10 years to keep people connected. GO expansion is a key part of our plan. Work is well under way as we move forward with two-day, all-day GO every 15 minutes on key segments of the GO train corridor. With new electric trains, we will be able to reach speeds of up to 140 kilometres per hour. More trains, more service, and faster speeds—the investments we’re making today will have a generational impact for years to come.

Thank you to the member.

Mr. Speaker, we know that communities need investments into public transit right now. That’s why, since 2018, we have continued to steadily increase GO train service across this province, and made billions of dollars in investments in our transit systems. We have also made incredible progress on two-way, all-day GO.

Last year, our government announced a contract award with partners to design, build, operate and maintain an expanded electrified GO rail network and fleet over the next 25 years.

In addition, work is complete on a new section of the Aldershot GO. The new tracks will give commuters on the Lakeshore West line more service to West Harbour GO in Hamilton, and beyond.

We’re full steam ahead, and I look forward to sharing more updates as we transform GO Transit across this province.

Under the leadership of Premier Ford and this government, we’re making record and historic investments into supporting the people of Toronto, building a world-class city and a province that is connected from east to south to north to west.

Every time we have put forward changes in this House, the members opposite have voted against them.

The Building Transit Faster Act is a great example of that—taking the learnings from the challenges of building transit in this province. We’re getting it done.

When the members opposite were given a choice and a chance to stand—building transit faster in this province, in this city and cities like Toronto, where we need to get shovels in the ground—they voted against that every single time.

We’re making investments to build two-way, all-day GO to places like Kitchener, on the Kitchener line. The members opposite vote against that every single time.

Mr. Speaker, the people of this province expect us to build transit. That’s exactly what we’re going to do—$70 billion over the next 10 years.

My question is to the Premier.

The Eglinton Crosstown LRT project is running way behind schedule, and there’s no clear end in sight. People are fed up. People want answers. That’s why the NDP put forward a motion this morning. We want Mr. Verster to come before committee and tell us what’s going on with the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. The Ford Conservatives rejected our motion.

Why is this government protecting Mr. Verster?

In the meantime, under Mr. Verster’s watch, Metrolinx has become even less transparent, even more wasteful, and overly reliant on private consultants. The only train running is the gravy train Metrolinx executives are on. Mr. Verster’s own salary has doubled, to almost $1 million, since the Conservatives came to power.

Premier, why are you rewarding Mr. Verster for his failures?

Interjections.

My question is to the Solicitor General.

Human trafficking, intimate partner violence, domestic violence and child exploitation are horrendous crimes that often go unreported. Trafficking, exploitation, and violence exist in many forms, preying on the vulnerable and taking advantage of systemic issues, such as poverty and inequity, discrimination and unsafe working conditions. Regardless of the cause, the outcomes are devastating, resulting in physical, psychological and emotional trauma to the victims. To combat these crimes, it is imperative that our government invest in services and programs that will reduce the incidence of these crimes and provide support to survivors to help them in rebuilding their lives.

Can the Solicitor General please explain how our government is keeping Ontarians safe and mitigating the harm inflicted on victims of crime?

The sad reality is that many victims are often in precarious situations and are afraid to come forward.

These investments by our government into police services across our province are a positive step in supporting victims and survivors, as well as in strengthening partnerships among community agencies. However, it is essential that programs and services through the victim support grant match the needs and the unique circumstances in each local community.

Can the Solicitor General please explain how victim support grant funding will provide support for victims, survivors and law enforcement?

To respond, the Minister of Transportation.

The Minister of Transportation.

I appreciate the question. The member from Scarborough–Agincourt is right; there is nothing more villainous than preying on the vulnerable.

That’s why I recently announced that Ontario is investing more than $4 million across the province to help support victims and survivors of intimate partner violence, domestic violence, human trafficking and child exploitation. The funding is being delivered through the victim support grant. The victim support grant is part of Ontario’s Guns, Gangs and Violence Reduction Strategy and complements the province’s $307-million anti-human trafficking strategy. I’m proud to say that 45 police services are receiving funding through this program for 2023 and 2024.

Monsieur le Président, nous investissons de manière proactive, ciblée et précise, afin de lutter contre la criminalité et d’assurer la sécurité des collectivités.

You can’t make this stuff up with these guys, right?

So we sent a letter to them. As you know, Mr. Speaker, we’ve undertaken 23 of the recommendations. We asked our municipal partners—who, by the way, are actually here today, speaking with us on how we can build homes faster across the province of Ontario—to identify the top five items that we could work together to move on so that we could get more homes built faster. Our municipal partners are excited about this opportunity. As I said, they’re here today working with a number of ministers to do just that.

We’re going to continue doing all that we can to build homes faster. In fact, we have a new fund that’s in place for our municipal partners called the Building Faster Fund—what that is is working with our municipal partners. I think you voted against the Building Faster Fund, like you voted against building transit faster, like you voted against building more hospitals, like you voted against building transit and transportation. But we’re going to work with them. We’re going to get homes built for the people of—

Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Education.

These past few weeks have forced OSTA’s leadership to play their hand and show their cards. Despite meeting with Ministry of Education officials and receiving extra funding this past summer, the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority has left parents scrambling to get their children to school. It has been over a month since school started, and the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority did not have their act together. Reports continue to come out regarding numerous school bus routes being cancelled. For the past four weeks, this has left thousands of parents in my riding of Carleton and across the city of Ottawa to have to set up carpools or rearrange their work schedules so they can drive their children to and from school.

Just last night, OSTA announced that it has appointed an interim operations manager to take over during the GM’s leave of absence, which was announced Monday.

Families are frustrated and are looking for leadership and accountability from OSTA.

Speaker, through you: Can the minister please set the record straight and explain what supports our government has provided to address student transportation needs in Ottawa?

Unfortunately, problems with school transportation services are occurring only with the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority, impacting thousands of children.

While the Ottawa French-language transportation authority can get students to and from school, it has been the English boards that have had difficulty with OSTA.

The difficulties that families are facing to get their children to and from school are unacceptable. One parent from rural Ottawa even had to take off work indefinitely to get her child to and from school. Another parent from Munster told me that she’s at risk of losing her job. Parents have told me that they’ve spent over $1,000 on Ubers just in a month.

OSTA’s steps are hopeful, but more needs to be done.

Mr. Speaker, through you: Can the minister please explain what actions our government is taking to support reliable and safe transportation services for students in Ontario?

Mr. Speaker, while members from Ottawa West–Nepean and Ottawa Centre literally sit on the sidelines on this issue and do what they do best—slacktivism and hashtag politics—this government is standing up for Ottawa families and getting the job done. We are the only party in this Legislature holding the school board and the consortia to account—and we have not only done that; we’ve launched an audit of the consortia, because we demand better. Speaker, 70% of all cancellations in the entire province are in the English public Ottawa school board. The French school board consortia, which has fewer students and a larger territory, is getting the job done—and not the English consortia. So I expect all members to stand up for Ottawa families—like the member from Carleton—to demand better. We provided an additional increase of funding of $1.8 million to that school board and, even still, with additional funding, they can’t get the job done. So we’re going to stand up and demand better for all Ottawa residents.

Thank you. The supplementary question? The member for Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas.

[Inaudible] withdraw the unparliamentary comment.

Interjection.

Everyone knows that the Premier’s so-called housing policies have nothing to do with housing. The Premier ignored his own housing task force and focused instead on enriching his speculator friends, who made huge profits from zoning changes without building a single home.

I’ll let the minister know that in Hamilton we are exceeding our housing targets, and we’re doing it within our previous boundaries. This means, for Hamilton, complete, sustainable communities. This means lower infrastructure costs. This means more affordable housing options.

Will the Premier stop making it harder to build homes in Hamilton, stop trying to enrich his speculator friends, and reverse his forced and harmful expansions of Hamilton’s urban boundaries?

Interjections.

No, Mr. Speaker, I will not reverse the expansion of the urban boundaries. The urban boundary expansion, of course, was done in Hamilton. The planners in Hamilton identified that they did not have enough space to meet future demands in their community—

As you know, the official plans also contemplate intensification within the existing urban boundaries before additional boundaries can even be contemplated. The municipalities remain in control of when that additional territory would be used, if it would be used.

The good news for the people of Hamilton is that, despite the objections of the opposition, this government has put policies in place that will see thousands of additional people moving into that community to be included in the economic growth we’re seeing in Hamilton.

My question is to the Minister of Transportation.

Scarborough deserves the same support for transit that the rest of Ontario experiences, but I’m not sure this government agrees. The outdated Scarborough RT has been shut down, but the Scarborough subway extension to replace it—which this government loves to brag about, despite it being a project commissioned by the previous Liberal government—is only set to open by 2030.

The TTC wants to build a busway in the RT route, but they need provincial funding to get it done. We need this busway so that thousands of Scarborough transit users can get to work and school on time and spend more time with their families.

Will the minister commit to treating Scarborough with respect and funding the busway?

We had a subway derailed and shut down for good in Scarborough, and the province will not lend our beautiful city a hand. Why does the minister find it acceptable for this to happen and not provide any support to the people of Scarborough? We matter.

I want to make it crystal clear: After 15 years of inaction by the former Liberal government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, Scarborough is no more a forgotten part of the city of Toronto.

We are building the Scarborough subway, after the Liberals did nothing. We are building the first ever medical school in Scarborough after almost two centuries now. We are building a brand new hospital. We are redeveloping a new emergency department.

And Mr. Speaker, I’ll tell you one thing: We will continue to build transportation; we will continue to build hospitals; we will continue to make Scarborough a better place for everyone—it doesn’t matter where they come from.

Under the leadership of Premier Ford, Scarborough is thriving and Scarborough is on the map.