This morning, I would like to welcome the Nurse Practitioners’ Association of Ontario and my friend Krystal Fox.

I’d also like to welcome the Canadian Cancer Survivor Network, Lung Cancer Canada and the Lung Health Foundation—specifically, Jessica Buckley, CEO; Jess Rogers, VP of programs, research and public affairs; and Riley Sanders, manager of public affairs.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It’s an honour to rise today and welcome all members of the Police Association of Ontario to Queen’s Park. I’d like to give a special shout-out to PAO president, Mark Baxter, and former Guelph PA president, Matt Jotham, who are over in the gallery. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It’s my pleasure to welcome, from the Police Association of Ontario, Rick Derus, Pete Mombourquette and Mike Hradowy—and I’ve been told his sister Martha is the best sister in the entire world.

I’d also like to welcome the Ontario Library Association and the Federation of Ontario Public Libraries, folks I’ll be meeting with later today—more specifically, their president Johanna Gibson-Lawler, who is with the Greater Essex County District School Board back in my hometown.

As a former teacher librarian, it’s my great pleasure to welcome members from the Ontario Library Association as well as the Ontario School Library Association for their library days at Queen’s Park: Michael Ciccone, CEO and chief librarian at the London Public Library; Wendy Burch Jones, the vice-president of OSLA and with the Toronto District School Board; Johanna Gibson-Lawler, the president of OSLA and with the greater Essex school board; as well as Sarah Vaisler, who is the chief librarian and executive officer at Ajax Public Library. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Good morning. We have several individuals from the police association: Adam Kitson, Colin Campbell, Derek Watson—there are a couple of others that I missed. I apologize.

I also would like to introduce Willie Noiles from my St. Catharines riding association, representing injured workers from Niagara. Welcome to your House.

Thank you, Madam Speaker—or Mr. Speaker.

Interjection: It’s early.

Look, Mr. Speaker, the ministers and the Premier, of course, follow all the rules as set out by the Integrity Commissioner and the information commissioner. But at the same time, the ministers and the caucus members of this government have been very, very accountable to the people of the province of Ontario, and that is why we won a massive majority from the people in the last election. That is why the ranks of the Progressive Conservative caucus have grown.

Primarily, it is because we have been focused on what matters to the people of the province of Ontario: building more homes, improving the economy—groundbreaking legislation that had seen us bring over $27 billion worth of investments to the province of Ontario. At a time when the rest of the world was being challenged, Ontario was thriving. That is a level of accountability I will take each and every day, and it is why the people of the province of Ontario have supported us in larger numbers, election after election.

I’ll tell you what the Minister of Health is doing. Like every other minister of the government, we’re not contemplating how many times did I turn my phone on each and every day. There are other ways of communicating. You know, my iPad—actually I can text-message on my iPad.

Interjections.

That concludes our introduction of visitors for this morning.

From the riding of Sarnia–Lambton, Muhammad Mustafa Arif; from the riding of Brampton West, Jessy Ashraph; from the riding of Cambridge, Shahan Awan; from the riding of Kanata–Carleton, Elliott Bernier; from the riding of York–Simcoe, Brooke Cake; from the riding of King–Vaughan, Angela Di Donato; from the riding of Don Valley West, Harris Elahi; from the riding of Ottawa Centre, Emma Forster; from the riding of Mississauga–Erin Mills, Scarlett Hao; from the riding of Hastings–Lennox and Addington, Henry Hasler; from the riding of Barrie–Springwater–Oro-Medonte, Chloe Hassberger; from the riding of University–Rosedale, Leo Kemeny-Wodlinger; from the riding of Kingston and the Islands, Peter Meligrana; from the riding of Scarborough–Guild-wood, Keya Patel; from the riding of London–Fanshawe, Eoife Scott; from the riding of Etobicoke Centre, Walter Martel Spracklin; from the riding of Haldimand–Norfolk, Fouegap Tegomo Nguepi; from the riding of Don Valley North, Alina Wu; and from the riding of Eglinton–Lawrence, Angela Yue.

Welcome to the Legislature. We’re delighted to have you here.

Applause.

Good morning, Speaker. My question is for the Premier. The Premier has been caught repeatedly using his personal phone to conduct government business, contrary to guidelines. This appears to be a way to avoid freedom-of-information disclosures.

It seems that this culture of non-compliance has evidently spread to other ministers. Global News found the ministers for education, finance, health, housing and transportation either never or rarely made calls on their government-issued phones during crucial moments when key and very controversial government decisions were being made.

So, Speaker, to the Premier: Is it standard practice for ministers to avoid accountability in this way?

Speaker, back to the Premier: Did the Minister of Health discuss these changes in advance with Christine Elliott, her predecessor as health minister and now a lobbyist for Clearpoint?

With sincere regrets, I missed two from the Windsor Police Service who are here: Kate Mitchell and Dave Kellam. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Adding to the welcome for the Police Association of Ontario, the Barrie Police Association in particular: John Brooks and Patrick Brouillard.

Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent that, notwithstanding standing order 45(b)(iv), the time for debate on opposition day motion number 4, regarding two-way GO rail service along the Kitchener GO corridor, be apportioned as follows: 56 minutes to each of the recognized parties and eight minutes to the independent members as a group.

I’d like to welcome Ellie Bale, president of the Halton Regional Police Association. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I am pleased to welcome members of Lung Cancer Canada here today, part of the Right2Survive coalition. They are Winky Yau as well as Julia Kulczyski.

I’m also pleased to welcome the Nurse Practitioners’ Association of Ontario and my good friend Jennifer Clement and, of course, the Sudbury Police Association that is here: Jacques Roberge, Steve Train, Mauro Gianfrancesco and Matt Hall. Welcome to Queen’s Park. Welcome to your House.

I would also like to welcome members that I’m really looking forward to meeting this afternoon from the Police Association of Ontario: Anne Brennan-Walsh and Jim Mulligan. Welcome to the House.

I just want to welcome the Police Association of Ontario visiting Queen’s Park. I’d also like to welcome Cara Everson, Heath Miller and Jarrett Thomas from Richmond Hill. I look forward to our meeting later.

I am looking forward to my meeting later today with members of the London Police Association. I want to welcome Gary Bezaire, Kyle Tedball and Ozzie Nethersole, who are with us today at Queen’s Park.

Order.

Government House leader.

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

The final supplementary.

I’m going to call upon the member for Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke to please come to order.

And I’ll recognize the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to reply.

The next question.

Here’s a massive innovation that has never obviously occurred to the NDP: It’s called looking at somebody across the table and saying, “What is the advice that you have for me?” It’s about bringing people in and talking to them, right?

Now, I know they don’t like to do that over there. They don’t want to do that over there because when they talk to each other, they divide. So the less they talk, the better it is for the NDP. But in this caucus, Progressive Conservatives enjoy each other. We enjoy the public, and that is why the public has put their confidence in us. That’s why businesses are coming back and investment has increased.

I know the Minister of Finance and the parliamentary assistants are criss-crossing the province, doing—do you know what? Not talking to people on the phone; they’re meeting face to face, getting ideas on what we should have in the next budget. That is what this caucus is doing. We do it all the time.

My gosh, I know the Minister of Agriculture and a number of caucus members were at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. You know what they were doing? Talking to people about the great things that are coming. We’re in a chamber that does what? Talks to each other, Mr. Speaker.

I would suggest to the Leader of the Opposition—I know that their party is based on the principles of 1933, but the modern age has many other ways of communicating, not just the old technology that is a phone.

But, make no mistake, Mr. Speaker: We will not be sidetracked from what our mission is, and the mission is to build 1.5 million homes for the people of the province of Ontario.

Our mission is to get people out of their parents’ basements and into their first home. Our mission is to ensure that people who graduate from college or university, who are going into the trades or having their first job, can enjoy the same dreams that almost every single one of us in this chamber had: the value and the dream of a home of their own.

That is what we are focused on. We will not be sidetracked on that mission, despite the fact that the NDP and the Liberals worked so hard for 15 years, put obstacles in the way that the largest land mass in the country has a housing crisis. We’ll disentangle that, we’ll get the homes built, we’ll get people out of their parents’ basements and into the homes that they deserve.

Now, listen, the NDP have a candidate in their current by-election. Do you know what she’s known as? She’s known as the queen of NIMBY. Do you know why? Because she’s turned down a 1,174-unit development downtown; another 10-storey, 132 units in downtown; 532 residential units, which also was in downtown, which contained thousands of extra dollars for affordable housing. Do you know why she turned that down, the NDP candidate? Because it was too close to a pickleball court.

Now, I think I’m too young to play pickleball, Mr. Speaker, but I’ll tell you what, this is a culture of the NDP: Turn down everything and then find an excuse. Blame it on the pickleballers. That’s—

The only party that is having trouble in this place, outside of the van party, is the opposition leader’s party. They can’t even caucus together, because every time they caucus together, they fight. I mean, this is a Leader of the Opposition who ran unopposed for the leadership of the party. Do you know why? Because nobody wanted to lead the party.

Interjections.

The former Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing made only about 20 minutes of calls using his government-issued phone last November. Now, think back, Speaker: This was the month the minister announced changes to the greenbelt, as well as the forced expansions of the urban boundaries of Hamilton, York, Peel, Ottawa and other municipalities. There is evidence the government gave preferential treatment to the favoured speculators who benefitted from these changes.

To the Premier: Did the minister stay off his government-issued phone to avoid leaving a record of who he was talking to?

Interjections.

My question is for the Premier. Has the Premier, or anyone in his staff, been in contact with the RCMP regarding the investigation into the greenbelt grab?

Earlier this month, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing confirmed that the RCMP has been in touch with his ministry. They are already sniffing around the cabinet and other members of government caucus who have deep connections to these land speculators. This scandal has already cost the government two cabinet ministers and multiple staff members, not to mention a full year wasted on speculator-friendly policies that had to be reversed because they did not meet the needs of Ontarians.

My question is for the Premier: How many current or former cabinet ministers or political staff have been contacted by the RCMP?

Interjections.

Speaker, to the Premier, what is it going to take for you and your government to come clean with the people of Ontario? My gosh.

Interjections.

Ma question est pour le premier ministre. Yesterday, CBC reported that privately owned Don Mills Surgical Unit was paid rates “noticeably higher than what the province provides public hospitals for the” exact “same procedures.” This government paid $1,200 for cataract surgeries at the for-profit clinic versus giving $500 for the same surgery in a public hospital. Even worse, the Ford government paid $4,000 for a meniscectomy in a for-profit clinic versus $1,200 in our public hospitals.

Can the Premier explain why he is willing to pay private clinics 240% to 333% more than what he pays to our public hospitals for the exact same procedure?