I want to thank my colleague for the question again. Last Friday, I joined with the Premier and our caucus colleagues and Peel police services to announce the first $18 million as part of the $51 million that will be invested. I want to identify some of the municipalities that are going to be getting some of the money: Chatham-Kent, $879,000; York region police, $900,000; Toronto, $900,000; Hamilton, almost $900,000—and there’s a greater list.

The member is also correct—our federal and our provincial and territorial ministers met in Bromont, Quebec. This was discussed in the meeting, and the other provincial ministers said, with me, to our federal counterpart, “You must do something at the border. You must step up border safety. You must go to the port of Montreal and you must see for yourself.”

I can equate it like this: Every million dollars of money that is wasted by a police service to pay the carbon tax portion on a litre of gas equates to almost 10 officers—boots on the ground that can keep those communities safe. It’s completely unacceptable that when a police chief has to present himself before a police service board to go through his budgetary lines, one of the lines is the carbon tax on fuel. It is absolutely ridiculous.

So we’re calling on the federal government—call, yourself, the police service boards, call the police chiefs and see for yourself. We have to get rid of this tax.

It is completely unacceptable that 10,000 vehicles a day, on average, are on the road to keep Ontario safe, and every time a police officer who’s risking his life—or her life—for Ontario has to sign a chit for the carbon tax. Mr. Speaker, it’s very clear: This is regressive. This is affecting public safety. Let’s get rid of the tax.

Supplementary question.

My question is for the Premier. In Kitchener-Waterloo, one in 10 households struggle to afford to put food on the table—last year, it was one in 14; two years ago, it was 1 in 20. Things are not getting better in the province of Ontario—58,000 individuals in need; 4,629 households accessed a food assistance program for the first time, a 45% increase over the same quarter in 2020.

Yesterday, we received the 2023 Feed Ontario hunger report, and it was titled Why Ontarians Can’t Get Ahead. Well, isn’t that a good question, Mr. Speaker?

We all know the food bank model was fundamentally designed to respond to an emergency need, but emergencies are supposed to end. In Ontario, and KW, it is only getting worse. When will the government acknowledge this and respond to this emergency?

The people who are living in tents are not concerned about the carbon tax. They’re not concerned about the gas tax. They’re concerned about surviving in this province. Last year’s food bank use was double the increase seen in the 2008 recession—double since the last recession. This is not the future we want for our children, who now make up one in every four recipients, and families. People in Kitchener-Waterloo and across Ontario deserve so much more.

Feed Ontario has presented some really good suggestions on housing, on food insecurity, on employment. Will this government listen to the lived experiences of Ontarians and actually get back on track to working for the people we’re elected to serve?

Thank you—through you, Mr. Speaker—to the member opposite for that question. We’ve been acknowledging and we understand that many have been hurting in this province for some time. That’s why we moved early to reduce the gas tax back in the spring of 2022. Now we just are debating the fall economic statement, which extends that gas tax—so the member opposite has an opportunity to make life more affordable for the people of Kitchener and Waterloo. Not only did we do that, but we rebated the HST on purpose-built rental buildings to encourage more rental, which will help many people in this province. And of course, we didn’t stop there to encourage more housing—the water systems infrastructure fund, $200 million, so that we could build more affordable housing in this great province.

Mr. Speaker, the member opposite has an opportunity to support Bill 146 and make life more affordable for her constituents.

We also announced a historic deal with the city of Toronto which will benefit not only just Torontonians, but people in the GTA and, frankly, the whole province of Ontario. Included in that deal, of course, is to help transit, to help housing, and yes, to help homelessness and shelters for those people the member opposite is talking about.

In fact, in the budget that she didn’t vote for and her party voted against—the budget from last year—we increased the Homelessness Prevention Program by 40% for all Ontarians. Mr. Speaker, the facts are in: This is the party that supports the people of Ontario. The facts are in: That’s the party that votes against it.

The ayes are 56; the nays are 32.

The member for Glengarry–Prescott–Russell and parliamentary assistant.

The division bells rang from 1137 to 1142.

On November 23, 2023, Ms. Jones, Dufferin–Caledon, moved third reading of Bill 135, An Act to amend the Connecting Care Act, 2019 with respect to home and community care services and health governance and to make related amendments to other Acts.

On November 27, 2023, Mr. Calandra moved that the question be now put.

All those in favour of the motion will please rise one at a time and be recognized by the Clerk.

Ms. Jones, Dufferin–Caledon, has moved third reading of Bill 135, An Act to amend the Connecting Care Act, 2019 with respect to home and community care services and health governance and to make related amendments to other Acts.

Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? I heard some noes.

All those in favour of the motion will please say “aye.”

All those opposed will please say “nay.”

In my opinion, the ayes have it.

Call in the members. This is another five-minute bell.

Be it resolved that the bill do now pass and be entitled as in the motion.

Third reading agreed to.

The House recessed from 1147 to 1500.

Report continues in volume B.

I’d like to welcome the grandparents and the parents of our head page today. Our head page is Leo Kemeny–Wodlinger. His grandparents Marika and Robert Kemeny are here with his dad and mom, Jason Wodlinger and Gabrielle Kemeny. Thank you so much for being here today.

My question is to the Premier. Speaker, Londoners are facing waits for MRIs that in some cases are nearly 10 times the provincial average. Dawn from London West has waited 18 months for an MRI, well beyond the target 28 days. Tom learned in April of this year that he needs an MRI, and he finally got an appointment for February 2024—again, clearly nowhere near the 28-day target.

Without adequate health care staffing and resources, wait time targets are meaningless, and the result is 11,000 Ontarians who died while waiting on wait-lists for surgeries, MRIs and CAT scans last year. Why is this government more focused on improving profits for insider health care investors than in reducing wait times in Ontario?

I’m going to remind the member opposite that, in fact, since 2018, we have expanded the number of MRI machines that we are funding across Ontario—and that includes communities that have never had an MRI machine in their hospital before. What does that actually mean? I’ll give a very specific example: An emergency room doctor told me, when we announced the MRI for that hospital, that they would no longer have to spend literally hours trying to find access to an MRI machine and then trying to arrange transportation through the paramedic service. We’re bringing care closer to home, and it is making a difference in our communities.

Mr. Speaker, guests from the Canada-Ukraine leadership are with us today, and I want to give special recognition to Roma Dzerowicz, Denny Dzerowicz and Victor Hetmanczuk, who were with us earlier this morning. We announced that Ontario will be the first province to mandate Holodomor education. I want to thank them for their leadership.

I encourage every MPP who is with us after votes to join us—the Holodomor awareness bus is at Queen’s Park, which is very special. I’m pleased to promote this wonderful education led by the Canada-Ukraine Foundation.

Deferred vote on the motion that the question now be put on the motion for third reading of the following bill:

Bill 135, An Act to amend the Connecting Care Act, 2019 with respect to home and community care services and health governance and to make related amendments to other Acts / Projet de loi 135, Loi modifiant la Loi de 2019 pour des soins interconnectés en ce qui concerne les services de soins à domicile et en milieu communautaire et la gouvernance de la santé et apportant des modifications connexes à d’autres lois.

Thank you to the parliamentary assistant for that response. It’s reassuring to know that our government is taking the necessary steps to help Ontarians with the cost of keeping their homes warm this winter.

I’m disappointed to hear that the federal government refuses to address the problems the carbon tax is imposing on the people of Ontario.

Speaker, our government has known for years that the carbon tax is making life more unaffordable for Ontarians, and the Bank of Canada and the Parliamentary Budget Officer have confirmed our warnings about this regressive tax. The carbon tax is creating unnecessary burdens on the people of Ontario, and they’re looking for financial relief.

Can the parliamentary assistant please elaborate on how our government is making life more affordable for all Ontarians?