A question to the Premier: Environmental advocacy groups have joined our efforts to uncover information about the backroom deals that have been directing the government’s policies. Environmental Defence and Ecojustice filed a freedom-of-information request late last year to “find out what kind of influence developers had on the Ontario cabinet and Premier in its greenbelt decision.”

This government unlawfully ignored this request, so the Information and Privacy Commissioner ordered the government to comply with the law. But the government ignored this order again. Now, Environmental Defence and Ecojustice are suing to enforce this order.

Why is the government breaking the law to avoid disclosing these requested records?

But this Premier is ignoring freedom-of-information law and the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s orders. He is wasting more public money fighting in court to keep this information a secret. What is the Premier trying to hide here?

Again, Speaker, will the Premier release all records on the greenbelt grab, or do we have to wait until they come out in the RCMP investigation?

For weeks now, we’ve been asking questions of this government on what exactly happened over the three days in September when this government did a 180 on their greenbelt policy, from a rough policy framework on the greenbelt to specific properties that they identified for removal. The Premier told the Integrity Commissioner he did not recall the meeting.

I want to give the Premier one more opportunity to take some responsibility here: Did the Premier have a meeting to discuss the greenbelt on September 15, 2022?

Day 1: a dinner with developers where greenbelt packages were exchanged with the minister’s chief of staff.

Day 2: an alleged meeting with the Premier, his chief of staff, Mr. Amato and Minister Clark, following which Mr. Amato said the Premier and his chief of staff were “very serious” about greenbelt swaps.

Day 3: Mr. Amato informs the ministry that they will be going forward with site-specific removals and identifies three properties, accounting for 91% of the land this government attempted to remove from the greenbelt. Two of them were provided at the dinner just days earlier.

Speaker, back to the Premier: Did the Premier attend the meeting on the greenbelt on September 15, 2022?

Thank you, once again, to my colleague from Whitby for his tireless advocacy for his community and transit.

Under the leadership of our Premier, our government continues to build on our commitment to improving transit experience for all Ontarians.

We’re making it easier to take transit by giving riders more ways to pay. After launching payment by credit and debit card as a pilot on the UP Express, we extended the option to pay by credit card through smartphones or smart watches to the entire GO Transit network as well, to communities like Brampton and Mississauga and the Oakville transit systems. We are further expanding new payment options to more transit agencies across the GTA, including payment by debit.

We are aligning our Presto system with leading transit practices from jurisdictions across the world. This is how our government will continue delivering—