I also want to quickly recognize our friends from Ottawa. Alex Cullen, Councillor Kavanagh, it’s nice to see you.

A quick thanks as well to the midwives for that delicious breakfast.

Also, I want to acknowledge François Desmarais, who has been in the building—public affairs for Alstom.

Thank you for being here.

I do. I seek unanimous consent that, notwithstanding standing order 40(e), five minutes be allotted to the independent members as a group to respond during statements by the ministry and responses today.

People in Sault Ste. Marie and across this province are mourning the tragic, horrific loss of five people, three of them children, as a result of intimate partner violence.

Tragically, gender-based violence and femicide is on the rise in our province, and it’s long past time for change. A report from July of this year found that Ontario had 30 femicides in as many weeks—30 women killed in 30 weeks.

My question is to the Premier: What actions will the Premier take to prevent further tragedies like we saw in Sault Ste. Marie?

It’s my great pleasure to welcome John Brunet and Jo Brunet, the grandparents of today’s legislative page captain Clara Brunet. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to recognize a family that is here today that has changed the world. Yes, that’s right; the Padulo family has done just that. They created the Treat Accessibly campaign so that children with disabilities not only here in Ontario but around the world can have a safe, happy and accessible Halloween.

To Rich and his wife, Natasha, congratulations. But the idea for Treat Accessibly came from Siena, their amazing daughter, who wanted to help children enjoy Halloween as she does.

To Rich, Natasha and Siena: You are an inspiration to us all. You are the reason Treat Accessibly exists. On behalf of this Legislature and the people of Ontario, I want to thank you for answering the call to make society better for all of us.

It’s my pleasure this morning to introduce some constituents and friends: Alex Cullen, the member for Ottawa West in the 36th Parliament, and Theresa Kavanagh, Ottawa city councillor for Bay ward. Welcome.

Good morning, Speaker. Meegwetch. I’d like to acknowledge and welcome, from my riding, Chief Russell Wesley of Cat Lake First Nation; Caroline Lidstone-Jones, chief executive officer at the Indigenous Primary Health Care Council; Dr. Lloyd Douglas, public health physician for Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority; Reece Van Breda, council member for Sioux Lookout; Marie Drummond, Alliance for Healthier Communities; and finally, Allie Kinnaird from IPHCC. Meegwetch for coming.

It’s my pleasure to introduce a friend of mine, my campaign manager, and a former staff member here in the House who many of you may recognize: Mr. Jeremy Wittet, who is also a school board trustee in the city of Ottawa.

Thank you for being here.

I’d like to warmly welcome the ward 4 councillor from the city of Windsor, Mark McKenzie, who is in the east lobby today.

I’d like to welcome the Association of Ontario Midwives, including Rebecca Farnum; Anna Ianovskaia; Leila Monib; Diane Simon, a Mi’kmaq midwife; Ashley Lickers, a midwife for the Six Nations; Manavi Handa, who is a dear friend of mine and a member of the second cohort of midwives when they were being re-established in Ontario; Thenusha Ratnasapapapathy; Ifra Zahid; and Althea Jones, president-elect of the Association of Ontario Midwives. Welcome to your House.

He’s making his way to Queen’s Park this morning, obviously running a little late, but I’d like to welcome my son, Jonathan Lindal, to his House. He’s a first-class petty officer for the Royal Canadian Navy.

The Leader of the Opposition will know that we had brought the motion forward for unanimous consent and it was turned down by the opposition at that time. In subsequent conversations with members on all sides, I think there has been some agreement that the former minister has accepted responsibility, and that is why he has resigned, so I have no intention of moving forward beyond that.

At the same time, there have been ample opportunities for the opposition to continue to debate on this—not only through the forum of question period, but through opposition day motions as well.

We are very committed to continuing to move forward, and not in any way, shape or form looking to avoid accountability; just the opposite. That is why the Premier asked me to ensure that we restore public trust in some of the decisions that we had made. That is why I moved to put the greenbelt back under protection and codify the boundaries under legislation, and that is why we made some reversals on 12 official plans.

We have accepted accountability for the mistakes that we made and for those decisions that did not meet the public’s faith in them.

At the same time, I was unhappy and the Premier was unhappy with the process that saw some of the changes in 12 official plans. That is why I reversed those plans.

It is about working better with our municipal partners, but it’s also about ensuring that we move forward on building 1.5 million homes across the province of Ontario. We’re not going to be distracted by that mission. We’ll continue to get the job done on behalf of the people of the province of Ontario.

To reply, the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.

The Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity.

The final supplementary.

Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.

Government House leader.

Thank you very much for the question.

Our thoughts go out to the victims, the loved ones and all those who were impacted by this unspeakable tragedy. No woman should ever be subjected to violence.

Through legislation and investments, our priority will always be to provide the supports to those impacted by violence, while also ensuring that perpetrators responsible for the horrible crime of intimate partner violence are held accountable through the justice system when possible.

When it comes to violence against women and children, we’re focused on actions that deliver concrete and tangible results. That’s why we have passed laws, some of which were the first of their kind in Canada, to make it harder to victimize women. That’s why we’ve invested significantly both in violence prevention and supports for violence. When it comes to violence against women—our government will do whatever it takes to make sure that we prevent violence in all of its forms.

This is a serious issue, and a serious issue needs action and for to all work together to make sure we prevent violence against women in all its forms across the province, in every single community, which is why the associate minister referenced some of the supports that have been made available.

We have said from the beginning that we’re working with the federal government. We welcome the support of our municipal partners. I welcome the support of the opposition. Every single person has a part to play when it comes to eliminating violence against women in this province. That’s why we have made the investments. We will not back down. We will not stop until we stop violence against women in all of it forms across the province.

Every act of intimate partner violence is heinous. It has an insidious impact that tears through multiple generations of family and can hurt communities deeply. We know that when you hurt a woman, you’re not just hurting her; you’re hurting her, her children, her family and communities.

That’s why we have invested significantly in community supports and organizations so that women can access them to get the support and help they need. And we’ll continue to fund these organizations, like the Investing in Women’s Futures Program that provides wraparound supports and housing, employment, counselling and safety planning for vulnerable women, and the Assaulted Women’s Helpline, for example.

What happened in the Soo is devastating and triggering.

If you are vulnerable or experiencing violence, please call the Assaulted Women’s Helpline at 1-866-863-0511. You do not need to suffer in silence.

Interjections.

Speaker, we don’t have time to waste. We should be doing everything we can to prevent even one more death from intimate partner violence.

Advocates have been sounding the alarm, calling for a clear and urgent strategy.

Last year, you’ll recall that a coroner’s inquest on the murders in Renfrew gave the province 86 recommendations, 68 of those under provincial jurisdiction. But this government rejected many of those recommendations, including choosing not to declare gender-based violence an epidemic.

To the Premier: Will the Premier stand with advocates and survivors and declare intimate partner violence an epidemic?

Interjections.

And the rates, the demand—under the pandemic, it skyrocketed. It hasn’t gone back down yet, and your government has not kept up.

Back to the Premier: Will his government commit today to call this an epidemic and adequately fund survivor services?

Interjections.

Anyway, my question is to the Premier: On September 25, the government House leader tabled a motion to accept the report of the Integrity Commissioner into the former Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and to approve the recommendation to reprimand that former minister. The motion is still sitting there on the order paper.

To the Premier: When will this motion be debated?

Speaker, this government is under criminal investigation by the RCMP. The RCMP has now even appointed a special prosecutor to investigate this case, including talking to witnesses this government muzzled by confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements.

But the Premier is just ignoring the commissioner’s recommendations to officially reprimand that minister for his well-documented misconduct. They are doing whatever it takes to avoid having this conversation in the public realm and in this House.

To the Premier: Why has this government refused to hold the former minister accountable for his misconduct?

Back to the Premier: Will the Premier allow a full debate on that reprimand motion so he’ll finally understand why giving his friends preferential treatment is wrong?

Interjections.

Actually, he wasn’t listening, because what I said was, the program that he put forward was out of the playbook of Communist Russia. We’ve gone down this road before. Bob Rae did the exact same plan that the members are proposing, and that program cost us many, many billions of dollars more than they’re promising to spend right now. They’re promising to spend—I think it’s $60,000 a unit. That is what they think that they will pay to bring this type of housing on board.

Yet we are actually building social housing across the province of Ontario, working with our partners. The member opposite voted against our successful attempts to remove development charges from those types of homes. In York region, that equates to removing $180,000, on average, from the cost of social housing. At the same time, throughout Toronto, for instance, I’ve used MZOs to build social housing, and they are opposed to that.

What are we doing? We’re building affordable homes across the province of Ontario. We’re doing it. We’re building higher and more along our transit corridors. We’ve removed development charges from our social housing. We have updated the definition of affordable housing in the province of Ontario to include income and so that it can be reflected across all of the province of Ontario, because we know it’s unique from Toronto; it’s different in the northern parts of the province. We’ve done all that. I’ve used MZOs to ensure that we build social housing with our partners across the province. We are getting the job done in a way that actually makes sense and delivers that type of housing for the people of the province of Ontario.

My question is for the Minister of Energy.

Ontarians need access to affordable electricity. They never want to return to the days of out-of-control costs like they experienced under the previous Liberal government. Never again should the people of Ontario have to choose between eating and heating because of high electricity costs. People want our energy grid to be efficient, effective, clean and reliable. At the same time, they also want to know that our government is ensuring that their energy bills remain affordable.

Can the minister explain what actions our government is taking to ensure that Ontarians continue to have access to electricity that is affordable, reliable and emissions-free?

The refurbishments described by the minister in his response are a massive undertaking. By completing these ahead of schedule and, yes, on budget, our government is demonstrating our commitment to building energy infrastructure projects for the future.

That’s why it’s so disappointing to see the opposition, once again, saying no, and once again, opposing Ontario’s nuclear industry. The people of Ontario deserve far better from their elected representatives who, unfortunately, are more interested in playing politics instead of finding solutions for our energy system.

Can the minister share his views on what impact the NDP’s and Liberals’ opposition to our vital nuclear sector will mean to hard-working families, individuals and the skilled workforce who rely on this source of power?

Interjection.

My question is to the Premier.

The Ford government recently announced its intention to seek judicial review of the federal Impact Assessment Act in light of a recent opinion by the Supreme Court of Canada.

Interjections.

Will the Attorney General stop wasting public money re-litigating a Supreme Court opinion that would deliver more transparency for Ontarians?