I had the privilege to be able to meet with Ontario Professional Firefighters Association: the president, Ryan Madill from St. Catharines, and their treasurer Liam McGrath from St. Catharines Firefighters Association as well.

I also want to thank all the members and agencies that are here from Niagara region. I want to give a shout-out to Marlene Ham and for their hard work with the Wrapped in Courage campaign to end violence against women.

I’d like to introduce Donna Harvey, who is from the riding of Haliburton–Kawartha Lakes–Brock, but more important, she’s here today to watch her granddaughter Chloe Hassberger serve as page captain in the Legislature.

I am also glad to welcome the Ontario professional firefighters, and from my area of Oshawa, Local 465 President Pete Dyson and Brad Whittle are joining me. I also understand I’ll be meeting with the Clarington folks: Michale Kalita, Dan Worral and Tyler Muir. And while I’m standing, I am also pleased to welcome the folks from OREA that I’ll be meeting with today: Vickey Sweeney, Chris Vale and Michael Watson. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Good morning. I’d like to welcome Laurie Hepburn, executive director of Halton Women’s Place; Sonia and Kirk Robinson, advocates for Keira’s Law; and Dan VanderLelie, president, Burlington Professional Firefighters Association. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to welcome Tim Lea, secretary of the Niagara Falls Professional Firefighters Association. I’m also looking forward our meeting at 2:30. But really, I want to welcome all the firefighters and thank you for everything you do every day keeping us safe.

I’d like to welcome Dan Bonnar and Clive Deonarine today from my riding here with the firefighters’ association. I also want to give a special shout-out to his mom, Sepelene, who will probably be watching today. Welcome to the House.

I want to welcome all the representatives from the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses on their Wrapped in Courage campaign day. I particularly want to welcome some wonderful women from Hamilton and Brantford. Let’s start with Erin Griver from Inasmuch House; Natasha Dobler, Nova Vita; the fantastic Daniela Giulietti from the YWCA; Tessa Mcfadzean, Good Shepherd Women’s Centre; and the women from Interval House. You do fantastic work keeping our women safe. Welcome to your House.

I would like to introduce, of course, page captain Chloe Hassberger, who’s grand-mother was already introduced by the member for Kawartha–Haliburton–Brock. Her other grandmother, Bev Hassberger is here as well, along with her mother, Carrie Hassberger.

And I want to welcome the various firefighters, Eric Webster and their contingent, who we met with this morning.

I’d like to welcome Wes Case and Karen Hill to the House today. They’re here on behalf of the Ontario Real Estate Association.

As well, I would also like to welcome Dennis Brescacin from the Thunder Bay fire service. I want to thank all the firefighters here in the House today for your service.

Mr. Speaker, all I can say is wow, okay? Wow. When it takes the most popular NDP leader in this country, the mayor, that we can cut a deal with, why can’t we cut the same deal with the NDP with their leadership? Because there is no leadership over there, Mr. Speaker.

Talk about housing: We had the greatest housing starts in 2021-22 that we have seen in over 30 years. We’ve put legislation after legislation forward that that leader, along with the cohorts over there, voted against. They voted against making sure that we have affordable, attainable housing for people who need it. We made sure that we had legislation that’s going to be easier for local municipalities to get permits out, to get people building.

But guess what, Mr. Speaker? She voted against it. She votes against everything we move forward on; votes against building new hospitals, new roads, new infrastructure that these homes need to get built. But, again, the NDP is about no, no—

Interjections.

I, too, would like to welcome the Ontario Professional Fire Fighters Association who are here today. I’ve so enjoyed working with you. I enjoyed speaking with you yesterday.

I also would like to welcome some incredible con-stituents I have the honour of serving: JimBob Marsden, who’s here with Anishinabek Nation; Nancy Johnston, executive director of Cornerstone in Cobourg; and Dan Worrall who’s here with the firefighters. Thank you for being here at Queen’s Park.

I would like to acknowledge the Cambridge firefighter representatives that I’ll be meeting with later today. Thank you for your support and for what you do.

I think I may be the last one standing this morning, so I appreciate that. I want to thank this morning, for having met with me, the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance—we had a great discussion about mental health in universities—Abby Samuels, Katie Traynor, Carleigh Charlton, Simi Olufowobi and Riley Ambrose. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

That may have been the longest five minutes in the history of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. I recognize that. Had there been a single objection to us continuing, I would have moved on, but members on both sides of the House wanted to introduce their guests. I’m glad that we were able do to that. Thank you for your patience.

It is now time for oral questions. I recognize the leader of His Majesty’s loyal opposition.

Moving on to the next question.

Minister of Infrastructure.

The Premier.

Look at this again: The Leader of the Opposition, that’s all she can talk about. But what I want to talk about is the fact that the Ontario Science Centre business case is being made public today. What I want to talk about is the new deal, the historic deal that the Premier and the mayor of the city of Toronto had struck, providing the city with more operational funding, with more support for TTC trains and streetcars, for the homeless, for one-fare service integration, improving the quality of life for the people, the hard-working people of the city of Toronto. And Mr. Speaker I want to talk about the vision for Ontario Place which includes far more than what she obsesses over.

Mr. Speaker, we are bringing Ontario Place back to life because we want it to be a place that families can enjoy and the city of Toronto is supportive of bringing the science centre, building a brand new facility with 10,000 more square feet of exhibition space.

Mr. Speaker, what the Premier did over the last couple of days is make sure that the city of Toronto, the largest city in Canada, is now financially secure and has financial sustainability for years to come.

And the new deal did include the city’s support for a brand new science centre facility. The old science centre is 54 years old. We want to make sure there’s a new science centre for generations of children to enjoy.

This question is for the Premier. After five years of Conservative rule, life is more expensive then ever for ordinary people. From big cities to small towns, more and more people are depending on food banks to get by, even while they work full-time. This week, we learned that food bank use has increased by 36% in Ontario over the last year alone. That’s about 5.9 million visits. In the Niagara region alone, food bank use has increased by a staggering 56% driven mostly by people visiting for the first time.

Speaker, while people struggle under the weight of this cost-of-living crisis, why is the Premier’s top priority the construction of a luxury spa in downtown Toronto?

So, Speaker, I’d like to hear from the Premier: What is so special about this luxury spa that the government is literally changing the law to make it happen?

Rents are skyrocketing and we are nowhere near the one and a half million homes that we’re going to need. We’ve got a minister of housing who brought together stakeholders and municipalities this week only to refuse their request for help.

Speaker, it’s time for the Premier to get real. Why is he dragging his feet on building the housing that people need while fast-tracking a luxury spa that no one wants?

Let’s go through what’s really in Bill 154. The Conservatives are giving themselves unprecedented powers to bypass laws to force through this luxury spa development on behalf of a private company. This bill would also block lawsuits against the government for misrepresentations or misconduct and would block legal remedies for—and I’m going to quote here, Speaker—“misfeasance, bad faith, trust or fiduciary obligation.”

Why is the Premier giving his government the power to commit misfeasance and breach of trust with this Ontario Place scheme?

Interjections.

The appearance of abuse of power is so bad under this government that the current minister of housing is reviewing more than half of the MZO decisions made by his predecessor, and the Auditor General is investigating. And now the Conservatives are giving the Minister of Infrastructure the power to issue ministers’ zoning orders.

Back to the Premier,: When this government is already under multiple investigations for its abuse of planning authority, including a criminal investigation by the RCMP, why would the Premier give MZO powers to the Minister of Infrastructure?

Interjections.

You know, again, Mr. Speaker, the opposition, all they want to do—

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker, we’re leading North American job creation, economic development. We’re leading North America when it comes to creating new opportunities for families to get a job—

Ontario is Canada’s largest life sciences sector, and we have a storied reputation around the world. Ontario is where insulin was discovered. We developed the first cardiac pacemaker right here in Ontario, and we detected the gene that cracked cystic fibrosis. That’s what the 70,000 men and women who work in life sciences do.

In the last three years, we have attracted $3 billion in new life science business. That’s because we lowered taxes and reduced red tape in Ontario. We have 1,900 firms generating $11 billion in annual exports. All of that is because we lowered the cost of doing business in Ontario by $8 billion every single year. You don’t achieve those heights by raising taxes.

Speaker, we plan to grow that 70,000 to 85,000 people and they too will care about a carbon tax. This growth only happens because we keep our taxes low.

My question is to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Earlier this week, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing hosted a housing round table with municipalities. Municipalities told the minister very clearly that they were ready to cut red tape to get more housing built, but they needed more funding for growth-related infrastructure.

They asked the minister to allocate funding under the Building Faster Fund, based on housing permits, which they can control, rather than housing starts, which developers control. Why did the minister say no to these municipalities?

My question is back to the minister. Earlier this year, the Regional Planning Commissioners of Ontario pointed out there were hundreds of thousands of development-ready homes in Ontario that were approved for construction but remained unbuilt. No matter how fast a municipality issues a housing permit to a developer, they cannot force the developer to build.

This is my question to you, Minister: Why is this minister withholding infrastructure funding from municipalities for something they cannot control?

Interjections.