Point of order.

My question is to the Premier.

Speaker, this side of the House has spent months trying to get to the bottom of just how widespread the alleged corruption which the RCMP is investigating goes. Public accounts revealed that the Premier’s former principal secretary, Amin Massoudi, after leaving the Premier’s office, was paid nearly a quarter of a million dollars to do the same job, only this time through his private company, Atlas. Yet this government has refused to answer questions on just exactly when that contract started.

My question is to the Premier. When did the contract with Atlas Strategic Advisors start with the Conservative caucus?

The Premier’s office told the Toronto Star that this government paid Mr. Massoudi’s firm at least $237,300 from about July 1, 2022, through to March 31 of this year.

Back to the Premier: Can he confirm that the contract with Atlas Strategic Advisors started in July 2022?

Did the Premier’s friend double-bill the taxpayers for speech-writing services because he was, indeed, a close friend of the Premier?

This question is also for the Premier.

While our public services, like health care and schools, are crumbling across this province and housing is getting more and more out of reach, somehow this government brags about spending more than ever.

To the Premier: People who are stuck in longer and longer waits in the emergency room or being treated in hospital hallways want to know, where is the money going?

The Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario is here today. They also have a reception later on this evening. I’d like to welcome, from my riding of Waterloo, Shara Bierman. She’s the central west director, and she represents Waterloo.

Welcome to your House.

I’d like to welcome to the Legislative Assembly Deputy Mayor Dave Beres and Cephas Panschow from the town of Tillsonburg.

I’d like to give a very warm welcome to my friend and former colleague Margo Duncan, who was here in this building at Queen’s Park working with three different MPPs, and is a community activist in the Lambton area and with Heritage York. Welcome.

It really is my privilege to introduce members from Takeda’s patient value and access team who are visiting Queen’s Park today. Takeda is a 240-year-old global R&D-driven biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Japan.

Thank you for the important work that you are doing in the life sciences space. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It’s my pleasure to introduce the former member of Parliament and current mayor of St. Thomas—and, as the Premier likes to call him, “Mr. Yes”: Joe Preston.

It’s my great pleasure to welcome friends from the Unite Here workers’ union: Guled Warsame, Alejandra Muro, and Derrick Ahn, who are all here visiting Queen’s Park today. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

To respond, the government House leader.

I appreciate the question.

As the Leader of the Opposition highlighted, this is something that was in the public accounts of the province. It is not a secret or something that was hidden—just the opposite.

At the same time, we are continuing to focus on those things that matter to the people of the province of Ontario; that is creating jobs, building more homes. We are seeing really extraordinary results across the province of Ontario. Some 700,000 people have the dignity of a job who didn’t have that when we came to office. We’re going to continue on that path of building more jobs and a bigger, better, stronger province of Ontario for the people of the province.

At the same time, we’re going to continue to do what is important, focusing on creating jobs in the province of Ontario, building a strong economy, and really doubling down on ensuring that we can build more homes across Ontario.

I’m very glad to see today that the mayor of St. Thomas is here. That is a mayor who has undertaken extraordinary work to remove obstacles so that we could bring a massive amount of jobs to his community, so that we could build homes, economic growth. That is the type of leadership that we need across the province of Ontario from our municipal partners. I’m really happy that His Worship is here. We will continue to work with Mayor Preston so that can ensure that not only St. Thomas but all parts of Ontario can experience the exact same growth that they’re going to have in St. Thomas. Thousands of jobs, economic growth—it’s good for the people of the province of Ontario.

Well, I’ll tell the Leader of the Opposition where the money is going. Since we’ve been in office, we’ve registered over 63,000 nurses. Last year was a record—over 15,000 nurses, and there are 30,000 in the hopper. But they voted against that legislation. They voted against building a new medical university up in Peel.

As a matter of fact, our backlog of surgeries has dropped by 25,000 patients—but they vote against that as well. They vote against building 50 new or additions to hospitals across the province, to a tune of $50 billion. They voted against that as well. They don’t believe in fixing the health care system. What they believe in is the status quo. Under the previous two governments, the Liberals and propped up by the NDP—not spending. As a matter of fact, they fired nurses when they were working together.

We’re hiring thousands and thousands of nurses. That’s what we’re doing with the health care dollars.

Interjections.

It gives me great pleasure this morning to introduce, in the gallery, Judy Hanson from Bowmanville, in my riding of Durham. She is a champion and advocate for adults with autism, and she is the representative today of Autism Home Base.

Welcome to the House.

It is my great honour to welcome the remarkable Dragon Boat Team Canada. This summer, they achieved victory in an international race in Pattaya, Thailand. After question period, a photo op with some of the team’s exceptional athletes will take place at the grand staircase. Members are welcome to join.

On the Trans Day of Remembrance, there’s a flag raising at 12 o’clock, and there are a number of esteemed guests in the gallery today who are here: Rev. Cheri DiNovo—of course, the former member of provincial Parliament—and she is joined by Rev. Junia Joplin from the Metropolitan Community Church. We also have members from the community at large: Stephanie Woolley, Monika Gontarska, Arson Gontarska, Tomasz Kosut, Aleksander Kosut, Anastazja Kosut, and Keith McCrady.

Welcome to your House.

It’s Ontario Pork’s lobby day, and there are a few of the directors in the members’ gallery. I’d like, on their behalf, to invite you to their lunch in 228 and 230 this afternoon.

Thank you to the member for that question.

The opposition can ask questions until they’re blue in the face, but my answer is still the same. We are reviewing the panel’s recommendations, and we will look forward to working with this sector and to develop a plan that works for the long-term sustainability and success for Ontario’s colleges and universities. But I want to remind everyone that the NDPs, under the Liberal government, let tuition skyrocket in this province. But now that our government is taking a practical approach, putting students first and taking the time to review the recommendations, they don’t want to be a part of our solution.

Like always, they will oppose the measures that we take to support students. They’ll vote against the solutions that we bring forward and focus on playing politics. We are here to support students and to ensure financial sustainability of the post-secondary institutions for years to come.

Institutions need to take leadership and review their operations from top to bottom. From governance practices, program offerings, day-to-day operations and everything between, colleges and universities across this province need to become the best possible version of themselves. This is not a change that will happen overnight but it is one that is necessary so that students, families and taxpayers can have confidence that every dollar being spent is allocated appropriately and with complete transparency.

My question is to the Premier.

The crisis in our post-secondary system provides yet another example of a public service that is crumbling under this government’s erratic and irresponsible fiscal approach. Last week’s blue-ribbon panel found that Ontario’s funding for post-secondary education is just half that of the rest of Canada. Eight Ontario universities have run deficits for two years in a row.

Speaker, what is the Premier’s plan to address the fragile and financially unsustainable situation of Ontario’s colleges and universities?

Will the Premier commit today to ensuring that colleges and universities in Ontario will get the increased funding that they, and more importantly, students need to keep the sector afloat?

Interjections.

You know something, Mr. Speaker? You talk to anyone who’s waiting a year or two years for hip replacement, a knee replacement or cataracts—they did 14,000 cataract surgeries, taking the burden off hospitals, and guess what? It was all paid by the OHIP card, not by their credit card.

We’re continuing building on 19 common ailments, resulting in 530,000 assessments fewer every single year, taking the burden off the family docs, taking the burden off people going in and waiting in a doctor’s office for over an hour to get an appointment. Now they can go to the local pharmacy—making sure they have convenient care closer to home. That’s what we’re doing with the health care system.

And what are we doing for the people of Ontario? We’re putting more money into people’s pockets. Under their reign, there were 300,000 jobs lost in this province. There are over 700,000 more people taking home a paycheque, being able to pay rent or pay a mortgage. We got rid of the tolls on the 412 and the 418. We eliminated that sticker tax. We reduced the gas tax by 10 cents a litre. But guess what? They voted against every single item that we did.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Speaker, I’ll help the Premier. Do you know where the money is going? It’s going directly out of the public coffers and into their friends’ private pockets. That’s where it’s going.

This is a government that continues to spend more for less. New data shows that the private surgical clinics this government was so keen on expanding are charging OHIP 138% more for the same surgery. It’s also making wait times longer, all while public operating rooms sit with the lights off.

Back to the Premier: When will this government admit that their private, for-profit surgery scheme is increasing the cost to taxpayers and worsening wait times?

Public operating rooms sitting empty, emergency rooms closing, affordable housing wait-lists decades-long, more people with full-time jobs going to food banks than ever before—all while this government has been so preoccupied with their shady, backroom deals, spending more for less in health care, $650 million on a private luxury spa, hoarding billions in their rainy day fund; all while Ontarians are struggling.

Back to the Premier: Five years in, people are worse off now than before. The rainy day is here. When will this government finally invest to make life easier for Ontarians?

Interjections.