I want to welcome all members from the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, and particularly Nadeem Mahmood and Elizabeth Sinclair, whom I will be meeting later on today. I’m looking forward to it. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

We also have with us in the House some former members: the member for Stoney Creek in the 38th Parliament, Jennifer Mossop; from the riding of Sault Ste. Marie in the 38th, 39th, 40th and 41st Parliaments, David Orazietti; and from the 42nd Parliament, the member for Thunder Bay–Atikokan, Judith Monteith-Farrell. Welcome back.

We also have with us in the visitors’ gallery a trustee from the Halton public school board, Jeanne Gray. She represents Halton Hills on the school board.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I missed her earlier, but I see her up in the public gallery now: Diane Lloyd from Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board.

Remarks in Anishininiimowin.

Good morning. We have a visitor in our office who is at the Legislature for the first time today: Valerie Bedassigae-Pheasant. She comes from Whitefish River First Nation, but she is a principal at Migizi Wazisin School, which means eagle’s nest school, in the Long Lake #58 First Nation. Also, she is with her daughter Athena, who is my EA—but she just calls her Mom. Meegwetch for being here today.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome all of the wonderful people from Feed Ontario. There’s a copy of their most recent report, Hunger Report 2023: Why Ontarians Can’t Get Ahead, on each member’s desk. The members I’d like to welcome are Carolyn Stewart, Ashley Quan, Adelaide Wimpenny, Kirstin Beardsley, Neil Hetherington, Kimberley Wilhelm, Meghan Nicholls, Christine Lind, Vanessa Glasby, Brendan Carlin, June Muir, Lynda Davidson, Rachael Wilson, Radhika Subramanyan, Benjamin Earle, Ryan Noble, Connor Evans Davis, and Andrea Waters. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

To reply, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Again, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

The government, as I’ve said on a number of occasions, made a policy decision that was not ultimately supported by the people of the province of Ontario. That is why we have a bill in front of this House that would return those greenbelt lands back to the greenbelt and add added protections to those very same lands.

But members opposite should be under no illusion: Today we are hosting our first-ever Ontario housing forum, ostensibly because we want to double down and make sure that we build 1.5 million homes for the people of the province of Ontario. We want to get kids out of their parents’ basements and into their homes.

We’ve done heavy lifting before in this province. A wartime effort was needed after the Second World War, and we’re in the exact same position today.

We have to build millions of homes for the people of the province of Ontario. We will remove the roadblocks. We will remove everything that is standing in the way, and we will get the job done.

At the same time, we’ve said that we will assist the RCMP as they undertake a review.

At the same time, again, let there be no confusion around what our goal is. Our goal is to build 1.5 million homes across the province of Ontario and to ensure that as many Ontarians as possible can get into their very first home. We’re seeing the results of that. Minister Clark, when he was here, brought in four housing supply action plans which see us, right now, with the highest starts in Ontario history when it comes to purpose-built rentals. We have the highest starts, with new shovels in the ground, that we’ve had in over 15 years because this government has been focused on building homes for the people of the province of Ontario.

We’re putting billions of dollars of investments in the ground—whether it’s transit, highways, trains or subways—and across that system, we’re going to build even more homes. The opposition is opposed to that.

But let me be very clear: We are going to double down, remove the obstacles, and build 1.5 million homes for the people of the province of Ontario.

When I was a federal member, I announced the Sheppard subway five different times. Do you know who stopped it? They and they, Mr. Speaker.

Do you know why we need to build more roads? It’s because we’ve got $28 billion worth of investments in our automotive sector, and all of those roads lead back to this government that is making historic investments.

Some 700,000 people have the dignity of a job who didn’t when the socialists were in power, with the Liberals, and we will not turn our back on those Ontarians. We will get the job done.

In fact, when we introduced the LIFT tax credit so that the absolute lowest-income-earning Ontarians didn’t have to pay taxes at all, the NDP voted against it.

So let’s get this straight. Increased ODSP: They voted against it. Removing the lowest-income earners from the tax rolls altogether: They voted against it. Transit fares unified across the GTA so that people have to pay only one fare, saving them $1,600: They voted against it. Tax cuts: They voted against it. All they care about is making people responsible—

Interjections.

I’d like to welcome Kathleen Woodcock, who is the vice-president of OBSPA and a local Waterloo Region District School Board trustee, along with Scott Piatkowski. Welcome to your House.

I want to wish a warm welcome to all the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association trustees here today, including Sarah Cipkar, from the great city of Windsor, and, from southwestern Ontario, Robert Hunking, Jan Johnstone, Kelley Robertson, and Arlene Morell. Thank you for being here at Queen’s Park.

My question is to the Premier. Feed Ontario released their 2023 Hunger Report on food bank use. Every MPP has a copy on their desk. Food banks in Ontario have doubled their use since the pandemic, with six million visitors over the last year. Two thirds were first-time visitors, signalling that things are getting much worse for Ontarians. Yet this government wants to keep people in poverty. During a cost-of-living crisis, the minister won’t even back off from a cruel social assistance clawback, and food banks warned us today they’re on the brink of collapse—on the brink of collapse.

To the Premier: Will you act now to save Ontarians from legislated poverty and increase ODSP and OW?

Back to the Premier: Ontarians are struggling under out-of-control costs of living, including food prices, leading over 800,000 more Ontarians to food banks and leaving them to make tough nutritional choices, especially those on social assistance, affecting their health and, ultimately, our health care system overall. Throughout this affordability crisis, grocers continue to post record profits and are making the situation even worse.

Why won’t this government stand up to these gouging grocers instead of making excuses for them?

Interjections.

My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. Since we took office, Ontario is seeing record levels of investment across our economy. Countless companies from across the globe who didn’t have a Canadian presence before 2018 have come to Ontario to set up shop.

Now, under the previous Liberal government, the opposite was occurring. Their high-tax agenda, endorsed by the NDP, drove businesses out of Ontario. Now they want our government to sit idly by while the federal government tries to hike the carbon tax. That’s unacceptable, Speaker. We refuse to go back to the Liberal days when businesses were fleeing our province in droves because of high taxes and, yes, red tape.

Can the minister please explain how our government’s approach to business has contributed to record levels of investment in Ontario?

Well, here’s the difference: While the federal government is increasing taxes through the carbon tax, we have been reducing taxes. In fact, we’ve lowered the cost of doing business by $8 billion a year. What has that resulted in? Site Selection Magazine declared Ontario as Canada’s most-competitive jurisdiction again this year. That’s five out of six years Ontario is our most competitive jurisdiction. The CBRE declared Toronto is the leading North American jurisdiction for tech job creation. Ontario leads Canada in foreign direct investment. In fact, in the first half of the year, almost $9 billion came into Ontario from outside of North America. That’s 57% of Canada’s foreign direct investment.

Speaker, none of this happened by raising taxes. We want our federal government to hear loud and clear that lower taxes create jobs.

The member for Brantford–Brant will come to order. The member for Waterloo will come to order.

Supplementary question.

Final supplementary.

The government House leader.

Government House leader.

Revisionist history over there. ODSP maxes out at just $1,300 a month—just $1,300 to cover housing, utilities and food in the middle of a housing and affordability crisis. Food bank use is at an all-time high for working people. It’s up 40% from last year. The federal benefit was always supposed to be a top-up to the provincial program to help people make ends meet, yet the Conservatives want to use it as an excuse to make more cuts.

To the Premier: Why is your government taking away vulnerable people’s safety net at a time when things are more expensive than ever before?

To the Premier: Will you commit to doubling the ODSP today?

Interjections.

The Leader of the Opposition knows full well that we’re doing no such thing. In fact, we are making record investments, because what we know is this: We know that when we give people the tools to succeed, they will pick up those tools and they’ll do just that. That is why 700,000 people have the dignity of a job today that didn’t when the Liberals and the NDP were in office. We’ve increased ODSP rates. The Leader of the Opposition voted against that increase. We tied it to inflation. The Leader of the Opposition voted against that.

If the Leader of the Opposition wants to have a role, any role whatsoever, what she can do is pick up the phone, call the coalition partners in Ottawa—the NDP, who hold the balance of power—and make sure that they provide Ontario with the exact same resources that they provide every other province. The Minister of Children, Community and Social Services is standing up every single day for all Ontarians. I wish the NDP and their federal partners would—

Interjections.

Now, listen, this is a party that voted against increasing ODSP. They literally voted against it. They had the balance of power—this is what I love about the NDP, whether it’s here or in Ottawa. They actually held the balance of power. They could have brought any of these policies in place. They could have increased ODSP rates. Did they? No. They could have tied ODSP to inflation. Did they? No. Instead, they stuck with a stretch goal for insurance. Did insurance rates go down when they held the balance of power? No, they actually increased. Do you know the only party to bring insurance rates down was the Progressive Conservatives? That’s it, Mr. Speaker. They support a carbon tax, which hurts every single Ontarian. They didn’t support a child care deal which allowed hundreds thousands of people to get back to work. They vote against everything that puts more money back in the pockets of the people of Ontario, and we will always—

Interjections.

But Mr. Speaker, this is a party that, until recently, fought tooth and nail to put a carbon tax on everything.

Interjections.

So as opposed to standing up for taxes, stand up for the very same people that you’re asking a question about.

If the member opposite wants to have a real impact, then I suggest the member opposite call the federal Liberals’ coalition partner in Ottawa today, put in a motion of non-confidence and bring down the federal Liberal government so we can have a party that actually cares about the people of the province of Ontario in Canada.

To the Minister of Health: Your openness to work with me on contraception is very appreciated. Yet 250 days have passed since the public response to our motion for universal access. Rarely does a policy dramatically address gender equity while making such a significant health system savings.

Consider the research: It’s $76.9 million in projected annual health savings. It’s a substantial reduction in unintended pregnancy. It’s a gateway to economic participation and independence for many. It is about women’s health. It is about gender equity, and it’s about affordability.

Minister of Health: As this comes up for debate on Wednesday, will you commit to working with me to provide universal contraception access across the province?

Back to the minister: With fierce competition from across the globe, it’s great to hear that Ontario has been able to land billions of dollars in job-creating investments.

One of the reasons we’ve been able to secure record levels of investment is because we’ve kept costs low for businesses and workers. But as we do that, Liberal leadership candidates and opposition members in this House are going around talking about how great the federal carbon tax is. They think you can raise taxes on businesses and people, and still see job creation and growth. They had their chance to test that theory out and it failed miserably: 300,000 manufacturing jobs disappeared when the Liberals were in office.

Speaker, can the minister please explain how our government’s approach to job creation and business development is helping to turn Ontario’s economy around?

And the supplementary question.

To reply, the member for Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke and parliamentary assistant.

The member for Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke, in reply.

Interjections.

The next question.

The next question.