The Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.

This House stands in recess until 1 p.m.

The House recessed from 1148 to 1300.

I’d like to thank the Elliott family for this petition.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the Ontario government assisted in the preservation of 123 acres of ecologically significant lands at Upper Cedar Creek in Harrow and Hillman Sand Hills near Hillman Marsh in Essex county; and

“Whereas the Ontario government is a leader in conservation within Canada; and

“Whereas Ontario’s world-class system of protected areas, which includes 340 provincial parks and 296 conservation reserves, covers almost 11% of Ontario and grows every year;

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

“That the Ontario government continue to consult with the public, stakeholders and Indigenous communities as we continue to expand Ontario’s vast network of protected lands and secure our natural heritage for future generations.”

I endorse this petition. I will sign it and give it to page Eoife to bring to the Clerks’ table.

This petition is entitled “For Fair and Equitable Compensation for Nurses,” and I’m pleased to present it on behalf of RNAO and health care professionals from Etobicoke, Scarborough, Mississauga and Brantford. It reads as follows:

“Whereas the government has a responsibility to ensure safe and healthy workplaces and workloads for nurses by enhancing nurse staffing and supports across all sectors of the health system;

“Whereas the RN-to-population ratio in Ontario is the lowest in Canada and Ontario would need 24,000 RNs to catch up with the rest of the country;

“Whereas there are over 10,000 registered nurse vacancies in Ontario;

“Whereas nurses are experiencing very high levels of burnout;

“Whereas registered nurses have experienced real wage losses of about 10% over the last decade;

“Whereas the government of Ontario needs to retain and recruit nurses across all sectors of the system to provide quality care for Ontarians;

“Whereas the Ontario government needs to retain and recruit RNs to meet their legislative commitment of four hours of daily direct care for long-term-care ... residents;

“Whereas wage inequities across the health system make it particularly difficult to retain and recruit RNs to community care sectors, such as long-term care and home care;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to implement evidence-based recommendations to retain and recruit nurses, including fair and equitable compensation that is competitive with other jurisdictions in Canada and the United States.”

It’s my pleasure to affix my signature and give this petition to page Scarlett.

It’s my great honour to present the following stack of hundreds of petitions on behalf of the hard-working teachers of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario Thames Valley Teacher Local. The petition reads:

“Keep Classrooms Safe for Students and Staff.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas students and education workers deserve stronger, safer schools in which to learn and work;

“Whereas the pressure placed on our education system has contributed to an increase in reports of violence in our schools;

“Whereas crowded classrooms, a lack of support for staff, and underfunding of mental health supports are all contributing to this crisis;

“Whereas the government of Ontario has the responsibility and tools to address this crisis, but has refused to act;

“Therefore, we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to:

“Take immediate action to address violence in our schools;

“Invest in more mental health resources;

“End violence against education workers and improve workplace violence reporting.”

I fully support this petition—I could not support it any more. I will affix my signature and deliver it with page Emma to the clerks.

Mr. Speaker, it is an absolute pleasure to welcome Nixon Charles and Joy Charles from Joystar TV, who have been serving the community for over five years, since 2018. Welcome to the House of responsibility, Queen’s Park.

I appreciate the question. In northern Ontario, hunting and fishing is a way of life. It’s actually a pastime for many people all throughout Ontario who want to enjoy that. Of course, now when they want to try to do it, well, a family loads into the truck. If they want to go to the camp, they’ve got to stop at the gas station. They get to pay some carbon tax. They get to fill up the gas tanks to run the genny at the hunt camp; they get to pay carbon tax. This tax is really—it’s just part of everything we do now, and it is providing absolutely no positive benefit.

If the Liberals want to help out our friends across the way, maybe they should spend some time not kneecapping each other during their leadership race and try to find productive ways to talk about how to get rid of the carbon tax—once somebody gets to be the leader that gets to drive the van.

I have a question for the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry. When I was back in the riding last week, I heard repeatedly how the federal carbon tax is making life more unaffordable for people. The carbon tax is increasing the cost of everything for the people in my riding: the fuel in their cars, the groceries they buy and the electricity they need to heat their homes. Many individuals and families have also told me that the carbon tax is even making hunting, fishing and travelling in rural, remote and northern parts of our province too expensive. It’s not right, and it’s not fair that this regressive tax negatively impacts the quality of life for so many people in Ontario.

Speaker, can the minister please explain about the negative impact that the carbon tax is having on so many households and how it’s impacting the cost of living for so many?

Speaker, can the minister please explain how the carbon tax impacts people in Ontario’s rural, remote and northern communities?

It was a pleasure to meet with the Ontario Library Association and the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries. I would like to give a deep, heartfelt thank you to Margie Singleton, the CEO of Vaughan Public Libraries; Rebecca Hunt, the CEO of Temiskaming Shores Public Library; Dina-Marie Raggiunti Stevens, executive director of Federation of Ontario Public Libraries; Melanie Mills, president of the Ontario Library Association; Wayne Greco, treasurer, Federation of Ontario Public Libraries; Caroline Goulding, the vice-president of Ontario Library Association; David Harvie, board member, Federation of Ontario Public Libraries; Johanna Gibson-Lawler, Ontario School Library Association president, teacher librarian, Greater Essex County District School Board; Wendy Burch Jones, Ontario School Library Association vice-president, Toronto District School Board; Christine Row, CEO, Mississippi Mills Public Library.

Also, I had a chance to chat with some visitors to Queen’s Park today: Zenia Menezes, a new Canadian citizen—it was her first time visiting Queen’s Park—and Stephanie Gomes, Zenia’s cousin. It was a pleasure to meet everyone, and libraries are such an important part of our community.

It’s my honour to rise on behalf of the residents of Ottawa West–Nepean to present a petition entitled “Health Care: Not for Sale.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontarians should get health care based on need—not the size of your wallet;

“Whereas Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones say they’re planning to privatize parts of health care;

“Whereas privatization will bleed nurses, doctors and PSWs out of our public hospitals, making the health care crisis worse;

“Whereas privatization always ends with patients getting a bill;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately stop all plans to further privatize Ontario’s health care system, and fix the crisis in health care by:

“—repealing Bill 124 and recruiting, retaining and respecting doctors, nurses and PSWs with better pay and better working conditions;

“—licensing tens of thousands of internationally educated nurses and other health care professionals already in Ontario, who wait years and pay thousands to have their credentials certified;

“—10 employer-paid sick days;

“—making education and training free or low-cost for nurses, doctors and other health care professionals;

“—incentivizing doctors and nurses to choose to live and work in northern Ontario;

“—funding hospitals to have enough nurses on every shift, on every ward.”

I wholeheartedly endorse this petition, will add my name to it, and will send it to the table with page Brooke.

Speaker, I move that:

Whereas Kitchener is one of Ontario’s key economic hubs and is home to three world-class post-secondary institutions; and

Whereas a lack of reliable transit options impedes quality of life and growth opportunities for the region; and

Whereas the official opposition NDP has been advocating for two-way, all-day GO service between Kitchener and Toronto since 2012; and

Whereas the government has failed to deliver a GO Transit strategy for Kitchener despite years of promises; and

Whereas the previous Liberal government also failed to deliver on their promise to implement all-day GO service to Kitchener;

Therefore, the Legislative Assembly calls on the government to provide a firm funding commitment and a clear timeline for the delivery of frequent, all-day, two-way GO rail service along the full length of the vital Kitchener GO corridor.

Interjections.

At that time, the research indicated two-way, all-day train service would create as many as an additional 30,600 jobs and generate $2.5 billion in income and $542 million in personal income taxes. Speaker, those are 2013 dollars; it’s an awfully safe bet that those figures are much, much higher today.

The Liberal government at the time said that it “makes a lot of sense,” and in March 2014 they promised to make it happen by 2024. They made announcement after announcement after announcement. They even went so far as to blanket the airwaves with paid ads for the Liberal Party of Ontario, trumpeting two-way, all-day GO to Kitchener. As my colleague from Waterloo said at the time, just because you put it in an ad or just because you stand up in this House and say it’s so does not make it so. The truth is, they couldn’t get the plan on track. Two-way, all-day GO service for Kitchener fell lower and lower on the Liberals’ priority list.

Flash forward, and two-way, all-day GO between Kitchener and Toronto is a promise the Conservatives have maintained; although they revised the timeline from 2024 to 2025, and just last month, their million-dollar man, Phil Verster, CEO of Metrolinx, said that Kitchener-Waterloo would finally get trains “every 15 minutes or better on the Kitchener line.” Only now, the Conservative government does not have a credible timeline for this work. When asked for one, all Metrolinx can muster is “it depends,” and when she was the Minister of Transportation, all the member for York–Simcoe could muster was, “We’re continuing to work closely with CN to increase service.” Speaker, this Conservative government is giving the people of Kitchener-Waterloo the runaround.

Interjection: That’s right.

Speaker, it’s a bit of a cliché, maybe, but I’m going to use it anyhow: Failing to plan is planning to fail. This government doesn’t have a plan to get two-way, all-day GO service up and running for Kitchener, and the people of Kitchener have been waiting for nearly 10 years now. We’re a month and a half away from that original promised timeline. How much longer must people wait? Because the people of Kitchener-Waterloo have waited long enough.

Now, the demand for this service is more than evident. Just this past May, the weekend GO buses between Kitchener and the GTA were so full, they were leaving people behind on the platform. There are times when the bus service is so bad that it can take as long as three hours to travel between Kitchener and Toronto. That is simply unacceptable. No one—no one—should be left behind on a platform or spend three hours just to travel 110 kilometres.

What’s even worse is it compromises people’s already shaky confidence in intercity public transit at a time when we need more people to take transit and not their cars. Because right now, the overwhelming majority of trips between Kitchener and the GTA are by car, adding to congestion, growing our carbon footprint and worsening Ontario’s economy. In 2016, commuters, shoppers and students took 64,000 daily trips between Waterloo region and the GTA, but less than 2% were by GO train, given the state of the current service—less than 2%. Of the commuters, only around 10% were taking GO trains or buses; 86% were taking the car.

Anyone who’s tried to make it between Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto on the 401 knows just how congested it is. That time spent in traffic negatively impacts our productivity. It limits the economic potential of Kitchener at a time when we really need it and it’s just not okay. It means that families are spending more time away from their kids, parents commuting instead of spending that critical time with children, who we know right now are really struggling.

It means that families who are struggling right now feel even more hopeless. Because, Speaker, the cost of everything is through the roof right now—rent, mortgages, groceries, everyday essentials—and the congestion cost people even more. Let’s point out, Speaker, this is a government that’s been in power for five years—five and a half years now, I guess—and things are just so much worse for the people of Ontario. Instead of helping people, the Conservative government is just making things worse. They’re rigging the system to help a select few of their insider friends get even richer. They’re driving up the cost of housing by fuelling rampant land speculation with their greenbelt grab, unilateral urban boundary changes and sketchy MZOs, preferential treatment for which they are now under criminal investigation by the RCMP.

I can tell you, Speaker, the official opposition NDP stood up to this government and we saved the greenbelt, along with all those farmers and environmental activists and community members from all across this province. We got that greenbelt grab reversed, but we will not stop fighting until we get true accountability, truth and integrity back to the province of Ontario.

Meanwhile, this is a government that is rewarding the CEO of Metrolinx, the person in charge of failed project after failed project, with a million-dollar salary.

Interjection.

It’s my pleasure to rise to table a petition entitled “To Raise Social Assistance Rates,” with signatures collected by the tireless Dr. Sally Palmer, who actually gave me these sheets personally when I had the opportunity to meet her in person recently.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontario’s social assistance rates are well below Canada’s official Market Basket Measure poverty line and far from adequate to cover the rising costs of food and rent: $733 for individuals on OW and $1,308 for ODSP;

“Whereas an open letter to the Premier and two cabinet ministers, signed by over 230 organizations, recommends that social assistance rates be doubled for both Ontario Works (OW) and the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP);

“Whereas small increases to ODSP have still left these citizens below the poverty line. Both they and those receiving the frozen OW rates are struggling to survive at this time of alarming inflation;

“Whereas the government of Canada recognized in its CERB program that a ‘basic income’ of $2,000 per month was the standard support required by individuals who lost their employment during the pandemic;

“We, the undersigned citizens of Ontario, petition the Legislative Assembly to double social assistance rates for OW and ODSP.”

I wholeheartedly endorse this petition. I will add my name to it and send it to the table with page Scarlett.

I have a petition entitled “Health Care: Not for Sale.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas Ontarians should get health care based on need—not the size of your wallet;

“Whereas Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones say they’re planning to privatize parts of health care;

“Whereas privatization will bleed nurses, doctors and PSWs out of our public hospitals, making the health care crisis worse;

“Whereas privatization always ends with patients getting a bill;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately stop all plans to further privatize Ontario’s health care system, and fix the crisis in health care by:

“—repealing Bill 124 and recruiting, retaining and respecting doctors, nurses and PSWs with better pay and better working conditions;

“—licensing tens of thousands of internationally educated nurses and other health care professionals already in Ontario, who wait years and pay thousands to have their credentials certified;

“—10 employer-paid sick days;

“—making education and training free or low-cost for nurses, doctors and other health care professionals;

“—incentivizing doctors and nurses to choose to live and work in northern Ontario;

“—funding hospitals to have enough nurses on every shift, on every ward.”

I fully support this important petition. I will add my name to the thousands that have already signed it, and I will pass it to page Eoife to take to the table.

Ms. Stiles has moved opposition day number 4.

I return to the leader of the official opposition for her remarks.

Further debate? Further debate?

I recognize the member for Waterloo.

I want to thank our leader for weighing in with such passion and drive. I want to tell you, that’s exactly what the people of Kitchener-Waterloo are looking for. They’re looking for a leader who’s going to back up those words with action. The community of Kitchener-Waterloo—the region, in fact, which is highly dependent on this rail service, because the 401 between Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto has turned into a 100-kilometre parking lot. It is unacceptable to wait for so long just even to have a timeline, just even to have a funding commitment.

I don’t usually do this, but I’m going to start at the point of frustration and give the House some sense of the tipping point that the people of Kitchener and Waterloo are feeling right now. This came into my office—and I’ve been getting these emails for 11 years. This is one commuter who posted and also reached out to my office. He said, “I’ve been commuting for five years, and the last 12 months have been absolute” garbage—he uses another word. “The parking lot is tiny and cannot accommodate the number of people that ride the train right now. Basically, if you want to guarantee yourself a spot, you need to take the 5:35 a.m. train or the 6:15 a.m., because by 6:20 it’s full and people are parking on the bloody grass. The exit is just a nightmare too. One entrance in and out. People double-parking, waiting to pick up folks, cutting the line. It’s pure chaos.”

For those of you who don’t know, we don’t actually have a GO station in Kitchener, even after all these years. We have a Via Rail station that is sometimes open and sometimes not. I can tell you, as a woman who does commute on the Kitchener line, there have been times when I’ve arrived very late and that station has been closed and it is dark. I want to raise the bar on this debate around health and safety, because the chaos that ensues around the Via Rail station in Kitchener is dangerous and it is unsafe, and it is time for this government to recognize that this substandard level of service is beneath even this government.

This person went on to say that this is only going to get worse as more people are forced back to the office. This is the work-life balance piece. And what’s worse is, no improvement or development plan has been implemented.

Also, I want to say, there are people in Kitchener-Waterloo who see other communities getting their nice, shiny GO stations—and we’re happy for them, but many of them have not been waiting as long as us. So that is part of the reason for today’s debate—to ask the government, what is actually going on over there, and why do we keep getting bumped down the list of priorities? It is only going to get worse. And as I said, it truly is a safety issue.

This is another reader: “The Kitchener GO station is completely inadequate for the amount of people who are now riding.”

There’s nothing that we can do in the short term, but there are things that we can do in the long term, and one of the calls is to actually have the station be part of the Metrolinx strategy, at least—because this actually impacts ridership, because public transit will only work if it’s working for the people who need it. It needs to be affordable, it needs to be fast, it needs to be reliable and it needs to be consistent.

Currently, right now, it takes an hour and 47 minutes to go one way. There are no plans to have even one express train. There is no train that leaves Toronto in the morning that can get people to Kitchener in the morning, to a job—where there are jobs available, in Kitchener. The tech sector is hiring. The tech sector has been lobbying for this for over a decade. Companies like Google, for instance, have pretty much given up on this government. They value their employees, these very talented individuals who have specialized skills. They’re not trusting those employees with the GO train, with unreliable service. Plus, there is no train that gets there in the morning unless you leave at 9:34 and then you arrive at 11:21. That’s a good chunk of the morning, right? Not too many bosses are okay with that.

I did have a unique opportunity here to go down memory lane a little bit, because I’ve been here what feels like, on a day like today, a very long time. However, when I look back at all of the governments and all the Ministers of Transportation that I’ve had to deal with, it’s astounding. When I go back to 2012, this headline in the paper is “GO Train Must Be Faster to Keep, Grow Ridership,” because there was a real reluctance for people to get on a GO train that was going to take two hours and five minutes to travel 100 kilometres. And you can’t really blame them. This was when there was a 7:07 train. This is when Kathleen Wynne, the previous Premier, came to town and we had two slow trains and she promised four slow trains. She doubled—this is what we like to call a Liberal overachievement and perhaps a stretch goal.

One of the students at the time—and I’m going to talk about the students because their voices are often left out of this debate. This is a student from the Ontario College of Art at the time, Christina, and she says that she hedges her transit options and takes a mix of GO trains, GO buses and Greyhound buses to downtown. You will know that we lost Greyhound. I also used to commute on the Greyhound. Boy, you can do a lot of casework on a Greyhound bus in the morning, I can tell you. She said that the addition of an express train, which stops at fewer stations, should be the government’s number one priority. Why is this thinking not even on the table? If there are four trains, at least one of them could truly be an express train, and then you give another community their express train, and you grow your ridership. You build confidence in the system as a whole and you actually run a competitive and competent train service in Ontario.

At this point, back in 2012, there were nine stops, and it took over two hours. So, at this point in the game, the Liberals of the day were dealing with their own scandals. It’s kind of like Groundhog Day sometimes around here. They had their OPP scandals, the Premier that had prorogued the Parliament, and so they were desperate to change the channel. Now, does this sound familiar to anyone around here? The Liberals were trying to change the channel. They took a very dramatic and creative approach. They promised us a bullet train.

Interjection.

Really, shame on them.

This is a government where we have seen rents skyrocketing 37% in Kitchener, and this is a government that voted against bringing back real rent control.

Instead of helping Ontarians who are frustrated and struggling to make ends meet, the Conservative government would much rather spend $650 million—public money—for a private luxury spa in downtown Toronto. That tells you everything you need to know about this government’s priorities. This is a government that is failing to deliver for regular people in this province, failing to deliver for the people of Kitchener-Waterloo.

In fact, Speaker, all this government has been able to deliver for the people of Kitchener-Waterloo so far are excuses after excuses, and excuses aren’t going to help the people of Kitchener-Waterloo get to and from work. They won’t help students get home on the weekend or during reading week. Excuses will not help those who are being left stranded on the platform in Kitchener because the buses are too full to board. They won’t bring more jobs and economic opportunities to the Kitchener-Waterloo region. Speaker, excuses won’t get people the two-way, all-day GO service that they deserve. The people of Kitchener-Waterloo require a comprehensive plan with clear timelines and a firm funding commitment, and this plan needs to be completely transparent to the people of Ontario, and especially to the people of Kitchener, who are still waiting to this day.

Our motion today is calling for the government to finally make two-way, all-day GO service to Kitchener a priority. It’s a priority for those of us here in the official opposition NDP, and we think it should be a priority for this government too, because the people of Kitchener have been left waiting long enough, and they deserve better.

I know. It was Glen Murray, the Minister of Transportation. He stood in his place, and he told the people of Kitchener-Waterloo that they were going to have a high-speed rail train and it was going to take half an hour.

I remember, then, taking the article at the time—because it’s actually published—over to my friend there Mr. Yakabuski and I said, “Look at this.” They had, even, a diagram. It was like a cartoon, if you will, that someone had drawn up, obviously, on the back of a napkin. They promised a high-speed bullet train and then they actually came ahead of the 2014 election and got on a GO train and had the GO train come into the station and everybody is waving. I wasn’t invited to that particular announcement, as you can imagine. They came and they promised us GO service every 15 minutes, both ways. Of course, there was no plan, no strategy to actually make that happen, and so my community feels burned, actually. Trust has been compromised, which is why the official opposition has brought forward this motion here today for your consideration.

Then we go just later in 2014, which says, “Road Ahead: We’re a Long Way from Two-Way GO Trains.” This is from Jeff Outhit, who’s a Record reporter. Anytime we mention GO trains, Jeff calls me, because we’ve had this conversation many, many times.

Listen, there were aspirational goals, I want to say. Actually, this train is referred to as an aspirational goal in a Metrolinx report. It’s aspirational for the communities along the line; there are aspirations of maybe having a strategy, a plan. But I will make this one point: That every time Metrolinx puts out a report about this particular train on the Kitchener line, our train gets pushed down the line. The latest number is 2030—full implementation by 2030. We’ve been promised so much, Madam Speaker. We still, to this day, have no weekend train, not one weekend train, which is why I have the petition before the House.

When you think of the economic potential of connecting Kitchener-Waterloo, which is essentially the silicon valley of Ontario—and Canada, to be honest; our IT and tech sector is second to none in this country. Their sense of frustration with a government that moves at a slug’s pace has really compromised the confidence in our potential as a community. That important corridor between Toronto and the GTA and KW—the research is done, the councils have endorsed it and all politicians at all levels have said how important and crucial it is to reach our potential as a community. Yet we cannot get this government or this arm’s-length agency, Metrolinx, to actually make the full commitment—and make the funding commitment, because resources are actually in question.

In this particular article, it ends by saying, “A plan to bring two-way trains to Kitchener will only ... emerge, and may be a low priority as ridership underwhelms.” So this is the challenge. As the service continues to not improve—it almost has reached a point of stagnation—then you have people getting so frustrated that they’re walking away from the service. So it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy actually. But boy, if the government came out with a strong strategy, a strong plan: “This is 2024. We are going to have two-way, all-day GO service,” as the Premier promised in the 2018 election, as he stood on that platform and as he said, “We’re going to do the environmental assessment on high-speed rail”—boy, they got sold a bill of goods on that one, I can tell you. The fact that the Premier actually said “environmental assessment”—I believe the last time those words were used was in that particular sector.

We’re going to move on to 2017, when we actually brought forward my private member’s bill. So it’s not like we haven’t been trying to work with the government. In 2017, we introduced a motion, and the quote is here—it’s a pretty good quote, I have to say: “Fife said the region is losing on economic potential as the region’s tech workers waste time stuck in traffic as they travel back and forth” on the 401. I go on to say—I’m quoting myself—that I had “tabled a motion asking the Ontario government to hold a vote on whether or not it will provide a ‘firm funding commitment and clear timeline’ to deliver all-day, two-way, GO train services along the Kitchener-Waterloo corridor.” This was obviously following through on the previous Liberal promise.

Now, we forced a debate on it. You’ll remember there was this fellow, Mr. Yurek, who was part of that at the time. Promises were made and he said, “Let’s just go in the hallway and have a conversation about this. Let’s see if we can get this done.” I mean, is that really the way you do business?

Having a master transportation plan for the province of Ontario is traditionally how responsible governments have planned for transit projects. There’s a reason why it’s 10 years: It’s because transit projects do take a long time. There’s a reason why it is a master plan: because you actually need a road map. But, boy, when you throw the cottage highway in there, the Bradford Bypass, and then your developers ask you to build the 413, that knocks down all these other important local projects. It also destabilizes, once again, confidence in a government that has said on many occasions, “No, no. We’re going to do this.”

But this new PC government came in, very similar to the Liberals in many, many ways. We heard the Premier make his promise. He said it’s doable, according to whatever napkin he was reading from on that day. But Jeff Casello actually is a planning expert, and he weighed in at the time, because once the majority was won, then there was sort of a revisionism happening around this timeline. Mr. Casello says—and this a direct quote—“There’s really no technical reason, no physical reason why we can’t have two-way, all-day GO service by 2024,” and he’s the University of Waterloo school of planning professor. He says, “It’s time for the province to be serious about this connection.” We agree. It is time for the province to be serious about the Kitchener GO train service. We’ve waited long enough.

And then you flash forward, and now we’re in 2018. I just want to remind the government members, because this is on all of you, right? It’s on all of you to make sure that this connectivity piece comes to be a reality. This was an interesting time, because Kathryn McGarry, at the time the Liberal transportation minister, was calling into question their numbers. I found the whole thing very amusing in some regards, because they were both calling out each other for not having strategy.

The Progressive Conservative leader at the time said—it’s right here in writing—that they would “fund all-day, two-way GO trains and continue with the environmental assessment for high-speed rail if elected in June.” He says, “We’re going to fund that. We’re going to” get it done “as quickly as possible.” Well, here we are, five years later, and the train still takes an hour and 46 minutes. There’s still no train that gets workers who need jobs from Toronto to Kitchener-Waterloo, where those good jobs exist. What a wasted opportunity, right? It really is about priorities, though, I would have to say.

Now, Mr. Ford wouldn’t provide a timeline for when the PCs would be able to reach that goal if elected, but he said that he would cut some red tape and get it done as possible. Well, if it was red tape—it’s more like “blue tape” right now, because this is a government that thinks that there’s some way to get some things done in those back rooms, just with those conversations, much like Mr. Yurek actually thought: “Let’s just have a conversation. Let’s just take the criticism off the heater, and let’s just be reasonable and be rational.” Well, can someone please say that to Phil Verster at Metrolinx? If you want to talk about red tape: 59 vice-presidents at Metrolinx? A million-dollar salary?

Interjection.

What was that? How many was it?

He said—this is a direct quote from the Premier of the day—“We’re going to have the pedal to the metal, and we’re going to move forward, we’re going to cut all the red tape and bureaucracy that gets in the way of these projects.” Well, that didn’t happen, you know. That did not happen.

I think it also bears to mention that as Kitchener-Waterloo keeps getting bumped down the highway or the rail track, other communities are also really struggling. Niagara’s GO is not rolling out as fast as it should. Hamilton’s LRT—what a shemozzle that was; we saw the Minister of Transportation actually run out of the back side of a building when that got cancelled. And the Eglinton Crosstown—I mean, I feel so badly, and I know our MPPs have been really advocating for the completion of that, but the Ontario Line is at $1 billion for a kilometre.

So these public-private partnerships that this government has been selling to the people of this province are not a good deal. It’s just not a good deal for the people that we’re elected to serve. It’s not smart business, nor is a 95-year lease for Ontario Place. Who with any kind of business degree or any business acumen or any business experience would ever tie the hands of an organization with a 95-year lease? It certainly doesn’t make any sense at all.

In this article, I actually say, “I think if anyone really wants to see all-day, two-way GO service finally come to Kitchener-Waterloo, they should keep Mr. Ford as far away from government as possible.” That is my quote, and I still stand by it, I will say.

So then we’re in 2018, and this is when we find out that the report from Metrolinx indicates two-way all day GO trains are “unlikely in Waterloo region before 2025 and it could take until 2030 to become a reality.” This is when we got into a really interesting back-and-forth between the government members—you know, we do work well together when we can, when we find common ground. I think the Kitchener line two-way, all-day GO service should be something we should be able to work together on. I think it’s actually what the people of KW expect, and even though some of the other MPPs sort of surround KW, it certainly is something that people in the entire region have come to depend on.

The GO expansion full business case report from this point in time lists the GO rapid rail services or the Kitchener line as being between 2025 and 2030, and this was sold as a positive turn of events. I said, again, “Our province will never be able to compete globally if Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto are separated by a 100-kilometre-long parking lot.” This is the truth. It really is. I mean, the potential is so profound if this is actually realized and if we could get the ridership to buy back into this line.

But at that time, Mr. Yurek says, “I think you’re going to be happy with our announcement,” because they’re so good at announcements. But I came back and said we’d really received radio silence. That is another problem. It really is a lack of transparency. I know my colleagues across the province have been trying to get answers on their transit projects. They’ve been asking for some clarity around contractual agreements, because ultimately, even though Metrolinx is an arm’s-length agency, it actually is funded by the people of the province, so the people of the province deserve to know what they’re paying for services that they’re not receiving.

Because I can’t get any answers from this government, I actually recently wrote to the federal infrastructure minister. I said, “Listen, the federal government has flowed $786 million to the province for this project. Can you please find out where that money is, where it has been invested or where it has not been invested?” He essentially sent me back a letter saying, “Yes, good luck with that. We can’t get any answers either.” It’s unfortunate, because we hear from the Conservatives all the time, “Hey, there’s only one taxpayer.” Well, that one taxpayer wants answers, and so do we.

So here we are, and this is when Mr. Yurek actually said to me: “Listen, do you know what? Let’s just take the conversation out in the hallway.” This is just after a debate, I have to say. They actually did support it, but then they just told us to stay tuned. I just want to say, the region is hoping to see all-day, two-way service to Toronto by 2024, as the Premier had promised.

I remember when this government first got elected, they were really fond of saying, “Promise made, promise kept.” It was built on a house of cards, because so many promises have not come to fruition, so many promises have not been honoured in this Legislature.

And then, this is later in 2018, when then-MPP Fee took to Twitter and said, “We are going to get this done. Don’t worry about it”—I said, “Well, maybe you’d like to look at the report.” The report very clearly indicates that 2030—"GO rapid rail services launch on Lakeshore West, Kitchener, Barrie, Stouffville, and Lakeshore East lines.” This is where we are on the timeline, so I hope my colleagues understand why people are so frustrated and, certainly, why we were motivated to come forward with this.

I want to talk a little about the students. When MPP Mulroney was still the Minister of Transportation, I did ask a question in this House, because what has been happening is that students—we have three post-secondary institutions in Kitchener-Waterloo. We have Laurier, an excellent institution; University of Waterloo—they were here recently—an amazing research institution; and then we have Conestoga College. Because affordable housing for students is such an issue in the KW area, we’re actually seeing students go to school in Waterloo but find housing in Brampton or Bramalea or in more affordable areas. So they’ve become incredibly reliant on the GO train and then the GO bus to get into KW to go to school—some of them, also, to get jobs—and it’s so overcrowded that they were literally being left on the platform. So it’s not just that you have made promises that you’ve not kept; it’s not only that you have timelines that you have not honoured; it’s not only a lack of transportation, on the funding, but you are literally and figuratively leaving Kitchener residents on the platform. That is literally what is happening. And it’s well past the point of trust here. There really has to be an honourable commitment from the government to follow through on the words of the Premier—as he did in 2018. That literally has to happen. So this is more than commuting convenience for these students; this is the increased access to educational opportunities—which we hear often in this House.

I have mentioned how international students have become a revenue generator for some of these post-secondary institutions, only because the government has reduced funding, based on inflationary costs, by 12% to the PSE sector. The University of Waterloo is going to be running a $15-million in-year deficit this year. That’s huge money for the PSE sector. You can draw as many international students into that sector as you wish, but at the end of the day, those students need housing and they need food. They’re the highest—one of the growing number of food bank users in KW, up 222% from this time last year. Those students deserve to have a quality of life, when they come to Ontario—isn’t that what we want? We want them to be successful if they’re coming to Ontario. Meanwhile, they’re trying to get to school and they’re being left on the platform.

So the increased access to educational opportunities should be a motivator for this government. There are cost savings. Owning a car or using ride-sharing services can be expensive for students. These students are very resilient. They’ve started their own apps. You can get a—it’s a ride-share program, and it essentially came out of a sense of desperation, I want to say, that they didn’t have any other options.

And then, of course, there’s a need for flexibility in scheduling. I myself have used this. I would love to take the GO train in on a Sunday, late afternoon, early night, to come here to work. It would mean you could spend more time with your family on a Sunday. All of us know across all of the benches in this place that we make a great sacrifice to be away from our families to do this job. So having a GO train on a weekend to get to work for the week would be a game-changer for so many people. The economic driver actually on a weekend train—a professor at the University of Waterloo did this work around tourism, around supporting small businesses, reducing the environmental impact of the parking lot called the 401. These are huge—these should be issues that motivate the government to follow through on clear timelines and clear funding commitments, and I just want to say that the enhanced quality of life should not be underestimated.

The economic impact that was mentioned actually by our leader has been very true, and the focus on connectivity and value for productivity, economic returns and the environmental impacts of having a two-way GO service between these centres, as I said, has been well-documented. Transit connectivity enhances productivity by providing efficient, reliable transportation options. Yes, we can all agree on that, I hope. Transit connectivity is a critical component of a sustainable and thriving economy. Yes, I hope we can agree on that.

The connectivity contributes to economic returns by stimulating business activity and attracting investment. This is especially true for Kitchener-Waterloo. When you look at the companies that have been attracted to our community, the biggest hurdle I think for the decision for a US or a European company to come into K-W is connectivity. Because Toronto is the economic engine of Ontario, so having connections and having access to Toronto has been confirmed by the local chamber of commerce president, Ian McLean. It has been confirmed by the Toronto Region Board of Trade—they have been long-standing advocates for this connectivity. Also, it’s 2023. For the love of humanity, why can’t we have a train that actually works? Why not?

This is why we’re here right now, debating this issue. It does highlight a number of ongoing and emerging patterns of behaviour from this government. I always say that when people show you who they really are, then you should believe them. So our way as the official opposition to try to hold the government to account, which is our job as Ontario’s official opposition—there are only two recognized parties in this House right now. I often say, as the finance critic, that you do give me a lot of material to work with, and sometimes I’m thankful for it and sometimes I’m not, but this latest time in June and July of this year—I have to say, when push came to shove with Metrolinx, it really exposed how unaccountable Metrolinx is in this whole discussion.

I understand that the government likes this arm’s-length agency. They’re about to create an arm’s-length bank called the Ontario Infrastructure Bank, and I believe the concept that was really “modernized,” if you will—that was a Liberal word that they used all the time—but the Liberals loved removing their responsibility from any issue, really, and that’s how we got Infrastructure Ontario, how we had these health agencies that are sort of arm’s length because then the government can say, “Well, Phil Verster won’t call me back.” This has actually happened in the House. Phil Verster had a press conference—and this is also connected to the Ontario Line too—and he said, “We don’t want to mislead people. We don’t want to give them false hope on the timelines of certain projects.” You could see the Minister of Transportation had not been looped into that conversation, right? However, her office was fairly significantly involved in ensuring that our Toronto members who were concerned about the Ontario Line didn’t get the full memo and didn’t get the information.

That’s a pretty serious thing to say, I have to say, because we are all duly elected. We all take an oath to serve the people of the province. The people in our communities expect us to have access to the information so that we can make informed decisions in this Legislature.

As I just mentioned, the 2019 business case report from Metrolinx notes that the expansion of rail service between Kitchener and Toronto “has been a key aspiration for communities” along the corridor. However, in 2021—and I just want to remind you, this is within your purview as a government, because this government is very, very good at saying “the Liberals”; they’re still blaming the Liberals. But in 2021, the preliminary design business case report does not mention 2025 as a possible opening year. So not only do we have this 2030 date, potentially, but 2025 is not even anywhere on the reporting system. This leaves us with even more questions around this timeline.

But then Phil Verster, the president and chief executive officer of Metrolinx, told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo in 2021 that he was not prepared to announce any timeline for the project. So who is holding the president and CEO of Metrolinx to account? You just renewed his contract and you gave him a $1-million salary, and you’re happy? You’re content with this kind of delivery of service? Because I can tell you, the people of Kitchener-Waterloo are not happy with that promise.

He goes on to say, “What we’re trying to avoid is a sense of exuberance to over declare dates very early in the projects.... We find it’s much more conducive and positive if we declare dates when we have more certainty.”

The question remains: Why don’t you have certainty? Why can’t you work backwards, at least, and try to figure out what is needed? And if something is needed, why can’t you tell the people what is needed? Are we actually asking for too much here? I really don’t think so.

In the early days of two-way, all-day GO, it was listed as something that is for sure going to happen: “It’s not that difficult. We’ll get it done. We’ve got to figure out this freight line piece and we’ll have some conversations with them.” It’s all very loosey-goosey. But then, in 2021, when the whole timeline is shot forward to 2030, he’s saying that this is a massive undertaking.

The story on two-way, all-day GO keeps getting more and more convoluted and complex. What we are doing here today is asking the government to hold Metrolinx to account, find out what the obstacles are. If it’s political will, then obviously we have an issue. But one fellow just said to me the other day, “It’s feeling really personal. It’s feeling personal because we keep getting bumped down the line.”

I would say, given the 11 years of having this conversation—some days it does feel a little bit like Groundhog Day on this file—it is certainly worth fighting for, Madam Speaker. Fighting for greater connectivity from an economic perspective, from an environmental perspective and from a quality-of-life perspective is worth fighting for. We are not going to stop fighting for two-way, all-day GO service to Kitchener. It just is not going to happen.

That’s where it stands—lots of photo ops for lots of politicians.

Finally, I do want to thank some city councillors over the years who have really continued to keep this issue on the radar. As I said, I can work with almost anybody and there are some really good councillors who brought forward motions, like Kitchener councillor Jason Deneault. He brought forward a motion just this past June 26—I know the member knows about it—at a council meeting asking for the city to advocate to GO Transit and the province to prioritize the Kitchener line and ensure “continued timely improvement and expansion.”

This is not so much to ask for. And then he goes on to say, “Having that connectivity to the largest centre in the country I think would be a huge boon for not just Kitchener but also Waterloo as well. So let’s try to reach outside of our own region” and connect with people in the GTA. Because the business case is very much there.

Mayor Berry Vrbanovic said, “We need to keep that pressure on” to ensure two-way, all-day GO trains happen. And this motion passed unanimously at city of Kitchener. I want to thank all the councillors at the city of Kitchener for voting for this and for keeping the pressure on.

But then, CBC News had reached out to the region of Waterloo to see when officials last received an update on two-way, all-day GO trains, and a spokesperson for the region directed questions to Metrolinx or the Minister of Transportation’s office. So the communication is getting worse; it’s not getting better. The story seems to be changing as the narrative in the province also changes, as the province and this Premier decides which of his favourite transit projects he’s going to pull out of the Treasury Board, because let me tell you, if you actually go ahead with 413 without an environmental assessment—and Highway 413 goes through the greenbelt, I believe, does it not?

Interjection.

Nineteen C-suite executives.