It is my very great honour and pleasure to introduce members of Shomrim: Avi Grinberg, Kyle Klein, and Noa Golan. They were there beside Atara and were so helpful for our community.

I’d like to welcome to the west gallery this morning Peggy Chapman of the Brantford Bulldogs Foundation and Mayor Kevin Davis of the city of Brantford. Welcome to the people’s House.

I want to welcome Myeloma Canada—specifically, the two people I met with, Lisa Bowden and Martine Elias. Welcome to the Legislature.

Carolyn Ferns and Alana Powell and all their guests, who are too many to mention—welcome to the Legislature, when you get to the House.

I would like to welcome Alina Cameron, who is the president of the Ontario Autism Coalition, families from across the province from the Ontario Autism Coalition, Michau van Speyk from the Ontario Autism Coalition—also, a warm welcome to Peggy Chapman; it’s wonderful to see you. Welcome to your House.

I’d like to introduce a regional councillor from the city of Brampton: Councillor Gurpartap Singh Toor.

Jarnail Mand, Kevin Walia, Mandy Sharma and Bevneet Punia are here today with the Ontario Dump Truck Association.

I also want to welcome my friend Noa Golan, who is also in the Legislature today.

The member will please take her seat.

Stop the clock. Maybe the member wasn’t here when I started off the introduction of visitors. There can be no political statements associated with the introduction of visitors.

Introduction of visitors. Start the clock.

The member for Perth–Wellington.

Members, it’s my honour to introduce this group of legislative pages: from the riding of Oshawa, Saniyah Abbas; from the riding of Oxford, Jesuloba Joel Adeoye; from the riding of Scarborough–Rouge Park, Caesar Beesley; from the riding of Ajax, Simran Bhatt; from the riding of Toronto–St. Paul’s, Philippe Boyer; from the riding of London North Centre, Clara Brunet; from the riding of Dufferin–Caledon, Sachkaur Chahal; from the riding of Davenport, Danté Cronier-Thériault; from the riding of Brampton East, Gurkaram Dhillon; from the riding of Perth–Wellington, Beckett Gloor; from the riding of Kenora–Rainy River, Paxten Hughes; from the riding of Kitchener South–Hespeler, Ananya Joshi; from the riding of Northumberland–Peterborough South, Katherine Kennedy; from the riding of Etobicoke–Lakeshore, Margo Koenig; from the riding of Aurora–Oak Ridges–Richmond Hill, Isolde Li; from the riding of Waterloo, Trent MacDonald; from the riding of Kitchener–Conestoga, Michael Milloy; from the riding of Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas, Fallon Noakes; from the riding of Brampton South, Lillian Park; from the riding of Richmond Hill, Owen Rao; from the riding of Whitby, Bronwyn Renwick; and from the riding of Markham–Thornhill, Yijie Wang.

Welcome to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.

Applause.

I would like to welcome Bev Hershkowitz, a St. Paul’s health advocate, and Michelle Milheiras. They joined us this morning at our endometriosis presser—a massive shout-out to Tami Ellis and Leah Haynes, the co-founders of Endometriosis Events.

I want to also say a welcome to Hillcrest Community School; Hillcrest choir; Mr. Jamie Roblin, the choir teacher; Mr. Douglas Cornell, principal; and those fabulous kids who sang our national anthem on native land.

Tarion reform, Barbara Captijn—

It is my great honour to introduce today’s page captain Fallon Noakes. She’s from my riding of Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas and is proud to be one of the very few First Nations pages in this House. I also want to welcome her family: Kris Noakes, Beverly Noakes, Bruce Noakes, and David Dreager.

You represent us well. Thank you for your service.

As we’ve noticed, the Ontario Dental Association represents more than 10,000 dentists across Ontario. I’d like to welcome Dr. Brock Nicolucci, ODA president, and the CEO of ODA, Frank Bevilacqua. I would like to also welcome Dr. Lisa Bentley, ODA past president—while it is not a political statement, she is a Dufferin–Caledon resident.

I would like to welcome Dr. Boyce from St. Catharines and the Niagara region, from the Ontario Dental Association. I look forward to meeting with you this afternoon. Welcome to your House.

It is my pleasure to extend a warm welcome to Vivienne Jiang, who is here with us today as the proud mother of Owen Rao. Owen is one of our legislative pages, from St. Charles Garnier Catholic Elementary School, and he is representing my riding of Richmond Hill.

Yesterday, the government House leader took all the Premier’s questions—so I was going to try again, to see if the Premier will actually address the disastrous situation he has landed his government in.

Every month, people are struggling to make ends meet. People need a government that’s going to help them, but instead they are seeing one mired in scandal.

Speaker, the revelations from the government’s $8-billion greenbelt grab are getting more and more serious every single day, and people deserve answers.

Can the Premier confirm that his government is currently under criminal investigation by the RCMP?

Speaker, to the Premier: How can the people of this province trust their government when it’s under an active RCMP criminal investigation?

When a government is embattled in this much scandal, it is bad for businesses; it is bad for the economy.

What kind of precedent does it set if people think that succeeding in Ontario is about your connections rather than your merit? It is shameful.

I made this point yesterday, and I want to remind the government again, that the special unit at the RCMP that is investigating the Premier and his government’s actions investigates elected officials on “fraud, financial crimes, corruption and breach of trust.”

Back to the Premier of this province: How can the Premier maintain the confidence of the people when his government is being investigated by the RCMP?

Interjections.

I’m going to get very specific here, Speaker. On September 14, 2022, a senior staffer for this government received greenbelt removal packages from developers at a dinner. The next day, this staffer sought clarity directly from the Premier, his chief of staff and the former housing minister. The Premier and his chief of staff claimed they don’t recall this meeting.

Will the Premier let us know what was discussed in that meeting with Ryan Amato on September 15, 2022?

Interjections.

We have a Premier who still won’t come clean or answer that question.

Over three days in September, this government went from a rough notion of a policy framework on the greenbelt to specific properties being identified for removal. Day one: the BILD dinner where developers identified properties for removal from the greenbelt. Day two: a meeting with the Premier and housing minister and their staff on the greenbelt—mysteriously, no one can recall the details of this meeting. Day three: The Ministry of Housing moves forward with site-specific removals and identified three properties. These properties accounted for 91% of the land this government attempted to remove from the greenbelt, and two of those properties were identified by developers at the BILD dinner.

Speaker, I’m going to ask again: What caused this government to make a policy 180 on the greenbelt file from September 14 to September 16?

Interjections.

The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and government House leader.

Final supplementary.

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

The next question.

Stop the clock.

Interjections.

I’ll remind the members of the House that interjections are out of order—always out of order, as a matter of fact—and I have to be able to hear the member who legitimately has the floor. All of us should listen to each other, listen to the member who has the floor.

Start the clock.

Leader of the Opposition.

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

As I said yesterday, we stand ready to assist the RCMP as they undertake a review. At this point, we have not been contacted by the RCMP.

The Leader of the Opposition, in her first question, talked about affordability. Imagine an NDP Leader of the Opposition talking about affordability when she and her party have voted against every single measure that would put more money back in the pockets of the people of the province of Ontario. They actually voted against—remember the LIFT tax credit. For those colleagues who were here in the last Parliament—they will know that we introduced the LIFT tax credit, which virtually eliminated the lowest income earners from having to pay taxes to the province of Ontario. They voted against it, because there’s a fundamental difference between them and us. They want people to rely on government and to be dependent on government. We want to give people the tools to succeed. And each and every day that is what we’re doing—working for the people of the province of Ontario to give them the tools to succeed. And that’s why 700,000 people have the dignity of a job—

Interjections.

Yesterday, this minister, along with the Premier, announced another over $2 billion in investment in the province of Ontario. Do you know who has confidence in the people of the province of Ontario? Investors around the world who have given over $27 billion of investment to this economy. Do you know who has confidence in this government? The over 700,000 people who have the dignity of a job—that they didn’t when they and they were in power. That is what we’re doing.

Do you know what the Leader of the Opposition can do to help us on affordability? She can call her leader in Ottawa and say, “Take the 14.3 cents a litre on gas off. Help us remove the carbon tax to put even more money back in the pockets of the people of Ontario.”

Will they do it? No, because they don’t care about the people of the province of Ontario—

Interjections.

As I’ve said on a number of occasions, we made a public policy decision that wasn’t supported by the people of the province of Ontario. That is why I introduced legislation yesterday to reverse that, Mr. Speaker.

But do you know what’s an insult to the people of the province of Ontario? Every time they go to the gas pump and they’re paying an extra 14.3 cents a litre because of the NDP and the Liberals; when they go to the grocery store and they see that the price of vegetables is higher—why? Because of the Liberals and the NDP and a carbon tax. When they open their gas bills over the winter season and they see the carbon tax on each of those bills, that’s an insult to the people of the province of Ontario.

If the Leader of the Opposition really wants to respect the people of the province of Ontario, she’ll call her federal leader in Ottawa and say, “Work with us. Let’s remove the carbon tax on the things that matter to the people of the province of Ontario. Let’s make this country more affordable, because we can do it.”

Colleagues, the leader of the NDP said that she doesn’t believe a carbon tax is costing the people of the province of Ontario anything. So I ask my colleagues, do you believe it’s costing us more? Yes—

Interjections.

I was speaking to Larry Simpson in my riding, a magnificent potato farmer, who was talking about a great crop this year, but the cost of taking that crop out of the ground and then delivering it across the province of Ontario is exorbitant. The cost of heating the potatoes over the winter to keep them available for delivery is incredible, and it’s because of the carbon tax.

If the Leader of the Opposition doesn’t believe that it is costing the people of Canada enormously, I ask her to call a few people who are struggling each and every day because of a carbon tax.

But we’ll continue to work for all people, to put more money—

They can talk about it as much as they want—what they really are saying, and we all know it, is that they want to put obstacles in the way of building more homes for the people of the province of Ontario, because they were so effective at doing it with the Liberals, right? They were so effective at putting obstacles in the way that they put Ontario into a housing crisis. Every single year that we have been in office, we have put measures on the floor of this Legislature to remove those obstacles, and they have voted against it. But we will not stop.

We will continue to make life more affordable for the people of the province of Ontario. We will continue to fight against carbon taxes. We will continue to build infrastructure. We will continue to build long-term care. We will continue to build roads so that we can get our product to market faster. And we will continue to see massive investments, like the over $27 billion that has come to Ontario, that has created over 700,000 jobs. That is what we’ll continue to do each—

I’ll tell you what we have here—we have the mayor of Brantford here. Do you know what he’s excited about? He’s excited about the groundbreaking of a brand new long-term-care home in his riding. That’s what he’s excited about. He’s excited about the jobs and opportunity that come with that investment. Do you know who never brought that investment? It was the Liberals and the NDP—because in their time, they brought 611. There are more long-term-care beds being built in that community, in Brantford, than there were in the entire province of Ontario when they had the opportunity.

That’s what people are excited about. It’s not a rant. It’s fact. And that’s what the people of Ontario care about.

Interjections.

It is they who have been dragging their heels, voting against every single measure that would grow the economy. They dragged their heels when it came to investing in hospitals, building new hospitals, refurbishing some of the old hospitals. They dragged their heels and continue to drag their heels when we talk about building the 413. They’re absolutely dead set against people bringing their product to market. They have voted against the investments that we’re making to bring back our auto sector. They have voted against the expansion of our colleges and universities. They voted against the changes that we’re making to our education curriculum that are finally seeing results for our students, who stagnated over 15 years of policies of the Liberals and NDP.

So when she talks about dragging your heels—the only people who are dragging their heels are the Liberals and NDP, a coalition of the doomed that saw this province brought to its knees.

We’re rebuilding this province and we’ll continue to do it, and 700,000—

Interjections.

Speaker, I understand that the Premier and the government House leader don’t want to address the questions about the RCMP criminal investigation of their government.

I bet the RCMP won’t accept that the Premier can’t recall—I know that the people of Ontario and I don’t buy it.

It’s not just September 15—there were a number of meetings between the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, the Premier’s office, the Cabinet Office and the Premier’s chief of staff. The Cabinet Office booked a meeting on September 7. On September 21, there was a meeting to discuss site-specific removals. An hour-long conversation between the Premier’s chief of staff and Mr. Amato on September 23—I could go on.

Does the Premier really expect people to believe he had nothing to do with this?

Two senior members of the Premier’s staff and a minister of his went down to Vegas with a greenbelt speculator and may have “misled” the Integrity Commissioner about it.

Will the Premier use the ability his cabinet has to ask for a full inquiry from the Integrity Commissioner into the Vegas affair?

This boys’ trip to Vegas, with its massage tables and its good luck rituals and its manis and pedis, made international headlines. How embarrassing.

This government wasted no time asking the Integrity Commissioner to look into the actions of a staff member, Mr. Amato. They promised that they would look to the Integrity Commissioner to investigate the actions of someone else who was on that trip—the member for Mississauga East−Cooksville, a former Conservative minister—but they don’t seem to have taken any action.

Back to the Premier: Is his government dragging its heels because the Premier himself has something to hide?

Stop the clock.

I’d really like to be a part of this, if possible.

Interjections.

Please start the clock.

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Start the clock. The supplementary question.

Order. Order.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.

The previous Liberal government left Ontario fully unprepared for the electric vehicle future. They allowed thousands of auto manufacturing jobs to leave this province and watched as the electric vehicle supply chain was being built somewhere else.

Thankfully, our government recognized that our province has everything we need right here to build a resilient, end-to-end EV supply chain right here in Ontario. That’s why we’ve seen more than $26 billion in auto and EV-related investments in just the last three years, including a huge investment we welcomed from Umicore just yesterday in Loyalist township, my home.

Can the minister please discuss Umicore’s recent investment and what this will mean for the people of Loyalist township, Lennox and Addington county, and all of Ontario?

Speaker, we were in the member’s riding yesterday, along with Premier Ford, and we turned the sod at a historic $2.8-billion plant, where Umicore will make battery cathode components. This is an expansion of their previously announced $1.5-billion facility. But we’re not just building a plant; we are building Ontario’s future. They are hiring 1,000 workers for two years to build the facility. This will be one of the largest employers in all of eastern Ontario. They will have 600 sought-after, good-paying career jobs. They will hire 700 apprentices—student co-ops. This is the first type of this EV battery supplier in all of North America.

Welcome, Umicore.