Good morning. What an honour it is to talk about the city of Toronto: the city that I call home, the city that my family calls home. It is a privilege to be here at second reading of the government’s proposed legislation the New Deal for Toronto Act, 2023. I first want to thank the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Infrastructure and the Premier for their work in delivering Bill 154, the Rebuilding Ontario Place Act, and bringing about this new deal for Toronto.

Speaker, as a proud representative of Toronto I’d like to talk about the importance of the city of Toronto to Ontario’s economic prosperity. Our government knows what people across this province also know, that when Toronto succeeds, Ontario succeeds. Toronto is a vibrant economic and financial hub and driver of not just this province but also our whole country. People across the country would flock to Toronto to see the many amazing attractions it provides. As these visitors come to Toronto, they boost the economy and have fun while doing it. For example, my cousin, her husband and my cousin’s kids—one is my goddaughter—are here this weekend to see a play, and we’re going to have some brunch on Sunday and they’re going to do some Christmas shopping.

People come from everywhere just to come to Toronto to see the sites, maybe go see the Maple Leafs, the Marlies, maybe the Raptors, the Blue Jays, the Toronto Argonauts, the Rock or maybe even Toronto FC play. We have so much to offer.

When we talk about tourism, I also want to give a shout-out to an amazing organization in my riding of Etobicoke–Lakeshore, and I hope that many of you have heard of it. It’s called Famous People Players. It’s run by a wonderful woman, Diane Dupuy, and her daughter. It’s a glow-in-the-dark dine-and-dream dinner theatre. It attracts people and their families from all around. I know as a small child, I remember watching a movie on TV with Liberace. It featured these puppets, and I could not believe that this little puppet theatre was actually located in my riding. So if you haven’t had the opportunity to visit Famous People Players in Etobicoke–Lakeshore, I highly recommend going, having an evening out and just enjoying the scenery and helping those who have different abilities who are learning how to cook, hang coats and how to serve. It’s just an amazing, awe-inspiring opportunity. I want to thank Diane for all her work over the years in making this truly a success in our province.

When people come to Toronto, they also visit the CN Tower. I know many of you here have visited the CN Tower and our major entertainment attractions. You may go to the theatre. You may try out our amazing restaurants and cafés—doesn’t matter your price point; you can get a high-end restaurant, a medium restaurant or you can just go and grab a hot dog on the street. Toronto has everything and something for everyone.

Do you know what? Whatever you desire is whatever you desire, and you never know who you’re going to see. I’ll tell you, you never know who you’re going to see on the street. Always, when I’m walking around, sometimes I’ll see someone and I’ll go, “I recognize that person.” It might have been somebody I grew up with back in Thunder Bay and they’re walking the streets shopping in our amazing city.

Having the opportunity and the privilege of serving in Toronto, I can confidently tell this House that Toronto is world-class in every way. But, you know, this also has some issues. They do need the support, and they do need a new deal for the province, because—let’s be honest—we can’t afford a property tax hike in our city.

For decades the city has serviced and facilitated vast networks of both domestic and international trade. The city boasts representation in every business sector. You name it; it’s here: financial services, tech, education, life sciences, digital media and gaming, fashion, design, food and beverage, the film and television industry—a lot of that actually takes place right in Etobicoke–Lakeshore. We are the home of major movie studios, which is an economic engine for the city of Toronto. I’m just a really big fan of the city.

Toronto is the financial capital of this country, a recognized financial hub in North America and top 10 among the global financial centres. It is an engine of economic growth. In fact, Toronto alone drives a significant portion of this country’s GDP growth, outpacing the national average. Unfortunately, we cannot let these facts mislead us. Not everything is perfect. Without our government’s support, that upward trajectory would be at risk.

Our government has the proven experience with righting the financial course of major jurisdictions. That’s why we ensured the work was undertaken by a new-deal working group to secure a historic deal between the province of Ontario and the city of Toronto, and out of this working group has become a deal that will help achieve long-term financial stability and sustainability for our city.

When Toronto came to our government asking for assistance and worried about the viability of their finances, not only did we listen, the government took action. It was clear that addressing the city’s deep financial troubles would require significant collaboration from all levels of government. The city’s deep financial challenges are no longer sustainable. The financial pressures are unique, decades in the making, and growing. Our government’s response was rapid and comprehensive. We worked with the city right away to create the new-deal working group.

I want to reinforce that federal assistance is essential for our city to achieve long-term financial stability. Along with our city, we continue to call on the federal government to step up as a full partner with funding in critical areas of need such as shelter support, funding in critical areas such as asylum claimants—you know, the weather is turning a little cooler these days, although today is actually quite a nice day, but we know it’s inevitable. Winter is going to be here.

We need more money for transit. We also need transit that is safe, dependable and reliable. I should note that the federal government eventually did come to the table—late and following our lead, but they came and offered their expertise, as well.

Our government is not a government to sit on our hands. We are a government that gets things done, and we will fix the problems.

The goals set out in the working group were ambitious. The working group was tasked with delivering recommendations before the end of November 2023. For the last two to three months, Ontario has been working closely and alongside the city of Toronto, through a new-deal working group, to find real solutions to help our city achieve long-term financial stability and sustainability.

The group focused on the government-shared goals, including supporting transit, infrastructure, shelters, housing, as well as getting Toronto’s finances back on a stable and sustainable path. As you have already heard, they put forward a set of concrete, actionable recommendations that would protect services, avoid new taxes—I’m going to repeat that, avoid new taxes—and put the city on a path forward for long-term financial stability and ensure it remains an economic engine for Canada—and once again, no new taxes.

But as a government, we know that funding alone cannot solve some of these structural problems. While the opposition may want us to spend recklessly with no concern for the future—and we know there are no taxes the Liberals don’t like—we want to ensure that Toronto remains an economic engine, and this must be met with a series of measures that, together, are a realistic, proportional and good response.

Speaker, there are those who might call me slightly biased as I believe that Toronto is unique among our nation’s cities. It sure is. And it’s uncapable in its long-standing and unparalleled contributions to Ontario’s shared success. It is, in many ways, unique in terms of the scope and scale of the challenges it faces. In addition to its fiscal obstacles, the city is facing a housing crisis—although you wouldn’t know that in Etobicoke because we are growing like crazy. We have cranes everywhere but, obviously, we are still in need of housing.

This is a challenge exasperated by the record numbers of new residents looking for affordable places to live. These new residents include record numbers of immigrants, refugees and asylum claimants, all drawn to the promise that Toronto offers. The nice thing about Toronto is that people come move here because it’s so culturally diverse. We have so many amazing communities, food, culture—it’s just all there right at your fingertips, so I understand why people want to move here to the city. I chose to move to the city from northern Ontario because it just had something different to offer.

Our city is also struggling with tremendous pressure on social supports that are being stretched to capacity. That’s why, with this new deal, we are providing new supports to improve transit across the city. This offer includes $300 million in one-time funding for subways and transit safety, recovery and sustainability. This includes commitments on the part of the city to establish a new transit rider safety commitment. This commitment must include increased police and/or safety officers present on and near transit vehicles and in station areas. It’s going to have continued expansion of cellular and data services for transit riders across the TTC network and enhanced emergency reporting options and response timelines for riders to signal incidents, threats or concerns to the attention of authorities.

You know, people need to feel safe on the TTC. I take the TTC. I take the GO train. Anytime I go to a concert or a soccer game or a football game or basketball game, I’ll hop on at the Mimico GO station and it takes me seven minutes to get downtown, and I just sit there and it’s at ease. But you have to feel safe. We do hear often from our constituents that maybe they haven’t been feeling safe lately so they haven’t been taking the TTC. They haven’t been jumping on the Bloor line or the Yonge line or whatever line they want to get on. We want to make sure that you do feel safe.

And we’ve been doing other things to make sure transit is actually easier to take, because if you want to take transit, please take transit because that takes one other car off the road, which helps with congestion. One thing I like is that one day I was taking transit—I think I was actually going to a volunteer event that Minister Ford’s office put on. I forgot my Presto card, but I was able to tap my Visa on the train and I was able to get on, and it was just seamless. We’ve done a lot of work to make sure that it’s easier to ride the TTC, so I just encourage people to go back on the TTC. It is a great way of getting downtown. You don’t have to park, you don’t have to drive and you can just sit back and relax. We’re going to make it safer for everybody.

This province and this government have always been guided by the goal of supporting Toronto on a path towards long-term financial stability and sustainability. The new-deal working group operated with a set of guiding principles. At the core of each is a deep love and pride for our great city. But while making this deal, we also laid out some serious and non-negotiable priorities. For Ontario to lend its support, the terms of the deal had to maintain investment and supports for critical services and programs that residents depend on. To put it plainly, there could be no deep cuts to front-line services or workers. And Speaker, did I mention that we would not entertain any new taxes on people or businesses in Toronto, who are already facing enough uncertainty?

Now, as our great Minister of Finance reported in the recent fall economic statement, we are a province that continues to face heightened economic and geopolitical uncertainties. Many times over the past year, he has said that Ontario is not immune to the risks of an economic slowdown, and that’s what he has highlighted in the 2023 fall economic statement. Our government has a prudent and responsible fiscal plan that shows we can deliver a path to balance as we also continue to deliver on priorities that the people and businesses of this province have come to expect and deserve.

I just want to highlight some of the items that the Minister of Finance mentioned in his fall economic statement. We have to look at affordability and what’s affordable in our communities, and one thing I would like to talk about—I actually had the privilege of attending this announcement with the Premier, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Infrastructure and the Minister of Transportation, and it was the cut to the gas tax. It’s the extension of that nine cents. Now, that makes a really big difference to families who have to drive.

I know that, if my councillor is listening, she likes the bike lanes on Bloor Street, but on Bloor Street is not the right place for bike lanes. There are other streets that you can put those bike lanes on, because not everyone can buy a barbecue and put it on the back of a bike. I’m sure our Speaker may have heard of that from some of her constituents, because it’s just maybe the wrong section of that. I am not against bike lanes, but just on that one section of our businesses, it’s really hurting. So, if Ms. Morley is listening, please, let’s look at those bike lanes on Bloor.

But when we talk about gas tax, people are driving their kids to hockey practice. It’s cold. It’s cold right now, so they’re driving their kids to hockey. They’re driving their kids to skating, once those skating rinks open. These are things you can’t usually take transit to; you have to usually drive, so that nine cents makes a difference.

Interestingly enough, my uncle Robert always likes to watch when I’m on TV. He lives in Thunder Bay, and he said, “Well, we didn’t get that discount of the nine cents,” and I said, “Yes, you did. You would be paying nine cents more.” So it is across the board. Everybody is getting that nine-cent reduction, but you have to think, if we didn’t cut it by the nine cents, you would be paying nine cents more. So, Uncle Robert, if you’re listening, you did get that cut.

Now, where was I? We were talking about gas tax. Oh, we were talking about the fall economic statement and some of the good things he said. Tomorrow, I’m actually touring two schools that are almost finished, so I thank the Minister of Education. We were able to get four new schools in the area of Etobicoke South, which is a growing community. Tomorrow, with our local trustee, Teresa Lubinski, I am going to be visiting St. Leo, which is in the middle of construction, and it’s great. It’s a growing school, a growing area, with lots of immigrants coming down there who are attending school there.

And we’re going to add some child care spaces, so that was an extra announcement. I want to thank the Minister of Education for adding that money, so we can have child care spaces right in the school, because it’s so important for parents to be able to have one stop: child care, and then school. It’s one drive versus hopping around and driving all around town, because we all know that it’s not the easiest to drive in Toronto.

The other school I’m visiting is Holy Angels, which is almost completed. I drive by it on my way to work. It looks fantastic. So, you know, we are building infrastructure, and it’s so exciting that we’re building more spaces for our students. We have two more schools on the books that have not put shovels in the ground yet, and that’s a high school, Bishop Allen, which is getting more spaces, and St. Elizabeth, which is not only getting a new school, they’re getting new child care spaces—once again, an important element to parents, families, people who want to make a one-stop drive and drop off your kids at child care and at school. It’s just convenience for parents, but we want to make sure that we get more women in the workforce, so they can have their child care at $10 a day, which is great—and again, to our Minister of Education, for the work he did to make sure that happened. We want to be there for our parents and our families.

What else are we doing? This is an important one, really near and dear to my heart: the breast screening for 40 years and older. I had a cousin; her name was Jan Lockwood. She passed away at 42 of breast cancer—42 years of age. I was a lot younger then, and at that point, I probably thought 42 years of age was old. Well, it certainly is not old. So I am really pleased to see this in our legislation and, to all those ladies out there: Please go and get your screening. Go get it done. It’s a little uncomfortable, but just do it. Book those appointments and make sure you get your screening done. I applaud the Minister of Health for making sure that our women can remain safe and healthy, because some things are curable, so let’s get that done and have a healthy population.

Now, back to the new deal for Toronto. I wanted to talk—I don’t have a lot of time, so I actually want to spend my last minutes talking about Ontario Place. On my way here, I actually drove down Lake Shore and took a look at Ontario Place. There are boards up, and the sun was shining and it shone on this derelict old amusement park area that’s falling down, that’s all full of vandalism. So I really applaud the Premier for his initiative and his sight to improve Ontario Place.

You know, I was here in the late 1970s. I grew up in northern Ontario and I used to come down here for allergy testing because I had allergies. I think I was allergic to absolutely everything. My dad took me down—I guess they probably felt bad that I was sick, so my dad took me to Ontario Place. It was the late 1970s. When we were there, we went in. I remember being really itchy because when you do allergy tests—well, that’s what it is: you find out what you’re allergic to. We went there and I remember there was this gigantic jungle gym and I just remember having fun. That stuff doesn’t exist there anymore.

It has such potential, and right now, I love going to the concerts there at night at the amphitheatre. It is one of my favourite venues for concerts. Any time in the summer, you see the parking lot jammed full of cars. You see the Ubers dropping off people. You see people on these little caravans making their way there. It is such a great venue, and I’m so looking forward to having a brand new Ontario Place for the future for children, adults and young adults.

You know, we have to always look forward. We’re here for this time but I believe long-term goals are really important. We have to look: What do people want to see in the future?

You’re going to come down and have an experience. You’re coming from other places. You might be coming from northern Ontario. You might be coming from western Ontario. You might be coming from eastern Ontario. Who knows where you’re coming from? You might not even be coming from Ontario. We want an Ontario Place for everybody and all through the season.

You might want to go to a water park. You might want to go to the beach. You might be a boater. You might have a friend who has a boat and you can raft up outside and swim onto the beach or go get a hamburger or a hot dog or a coffee. Right now you can’t do any of those things, so I am so excited about the future of Ontario Place.

And I love the idea that the science centre is going to be moved down there because it gives you something else to do. It gives an educational purpose for our kids. If it’s wintertime or if it’s raining—you’re not sitting on the beach—what are you going to do? This is your day outing. Well, you’ll go to the science centre and check out what it has to offer.

So I think this is a really important element. I just want to thank the minister, and I thank you for your time this morning.

Good morning. Let us pray.

Prières / Prayers.

Resuming the debate adjourned on November 29, 2023, on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

Bill 154, An Act to enact the Recovery Through Growth Act (City of Toronto), 2023 and the Rebuilding Ontario Place Act, 2023 / Projet de loi 154, Loi édictant la Loi de 2023 sur la relance portée par la croissance (cité de Toronto) et la Loi de 2023 sur la reconstruction de la Place de l’Ontario.

Niagara Falls.

The member mentioned about women 40 years and over not needing a physician’s referral anymore to gain access to breast screening services. Whenever we make access easier, it always helps health care, but we know that the existing hospitals that have mammograms for breast screening already have very long wait-lists. You’re talking—if you phone now, you will get an appointment in July when the recommended time frame is no more than two months. Is your government going to invest in those publicly delivered funds in our hospitals or give private clinics the money to handle the new clients?

I’d like to thank the member for her presentation. What I’m trying to understand—and I hear all these wonderful things that the member was talking about, about what’s going to happen at Ontario Place. But the thing that we’re concerned about is we don’t actually know about the deal. We’re dealing with a company that is a sole proprietorship. It’s not traded on any exchange. It’s not subject to any security laws. We don’t have anything about the deal. All of a sudden, we had a $650-million parking lot that the people of Ontario were supposed to participate in that wasn’t part of what the RFP was. So there’s no transparency around it, and this government has, in this session and probably for its full term, had a history of insiders getting an advantage: greenbelt, urban boundaries, MZOs. So how come we can’t see what’s in the deal?

I appreciate the comments made, but I really don’t think the taxpayers should be paying $650 million for a spa using taxpayers’ dollars. I think that’s a mistake.

We also know that the government is spending $600 million on a private spa while food bank usage has skyrocketed and people can’t afford to make ends meet right here in Toronto. In my riding in Niagara Falls, Project Share had a 71% increase in usage.

Could the member explain why the government cares more about a private spa than people going hungry, dying on the streets of Toronto, and having encampments set up all over Niagara Falls?

Since I’m going to be spending a lot of time in Toronto in the next few years, one of my plans is to make a bucket list of all the things that I want to see and do while I have this opportunity.

So my question for the member from Etobicoke–Lakeshore is, how do you think this new deal, this plan, will make Ontario Place sustainable? Because that’s one of the things on my list for sure, as well as the science centre.

Thank you to the member. I was listening intently. Your uncle—so if he’s watching, I want to assure him, yes, there is an Ontario gas tax which has been reduced by this government. However, can you tell your uncle there is another tax, the carbon tax, which is 14 cents, from the federal government? Can he help us to shave that off so that all Ontarians can get the same benefit of—having to live under this affordability crisis—a little more savings so they can spend more on their family?

I’m happy to talk a little bit about my excitement about Ontario Place, because I am actually really excited. There’s going to be a wellness centre, yes, as we’ve all discussed, and there will be more things. There will be bike lanes. There will be beautiful bike paths. They have these fire pits. Ontario Place is going to be amazing.

We are going to be building some parking because people need to drive because they come from your riding. They’re not going to ride a bike from the Windsor area; they’re going to have to drive a car.

So, wherever we come from around the province, we have to actually drive. We also like to be environmentally friendly but it is actually impossible for you to put four kids on the back of a bicycle, so you need a place for that car to go.

Our plan for Ontario Place is phenomenal, and if you have some other ideas, please share them.

I know the minister has been working hard. There is a map if you want to see all the things that you can share with your constituents of what Ontario Place will offer.

You can go to the aquarium, which is down by the CN Tower. You can go to the CN Tower. You’ll be able to take—because the new Ontario Line will connect everything. You can actually walk it. It’s not that far if you have the energy, and we all know that young kids have the energy to go take a walk through. Or you can rent bikes. We have bike rentals everywhere, so you can grab a bike and you can bike through the biking paths through Ontario Place and have a great day. You can stop and have a coffee; you can stop and have lunch. It’s going to be a destination for everybody.

I understand that the Liberals had an RFP and chose the same, Therme, when they were in power. So there was an RFP that was put out, and they were the winning bid. But you know what I didn’t mention? I didn’t mention the uploading of the Gardiner and the DVP. That’s part of this whole plan. This will help get people to Ontario Place. They can take the Gardiner. The city of Toronto can no longer dangle that in front of our face, saying, “We’re going to get rid of that”—because we need that infrastructure so people can get to and from work on time, people can get to and from the places. This is a major artery. I’m really happy to see that the government is going to be taking over the Gardiner.

When it comes to the carbon tax, one thing that I can look at in my riding of Etobicoke–Lakeshore, which is the home of the food terminal, is, how does that food get from the farms to the food terminal in Etobicoke? Well, they drive. They have to fill up their trucks with gas. Each time they fill up their cars with gas, it costs more. Then they come to the food terminal and the trucks ship it out again, and how much—what is that? More tax, and it’s the carbon tax. Then you look at the circle—so that means your prices of your food are going up, everything is going up. So the carbon tax, there is nothing positive about it. It is a tax. It is money that’s coming directly out of our pockets. We’re in an affordability crisis. I think it’s time to axe the tax.

Questions?

Thank you for your presentation. The other day, the Premier said that this was a very one-sided deal but that he was willing to do it because he loves his city so much. I love my city. I think we all love the cities we’re from and that we represent. So I’m wondering, when is this government going to show some love to the city of Ottawa? Because it got no money to repair from the derecho. It got no money to support from the trucker convoy. There’s a bill before the House to upload Highway 174, which is similar to the Don Valley and the Gardiner in Toronto. So when is the government going to show Ottawa a little love?

Thank you to the member for that question. I know in Sudbury they have a great group of workers. Louise, who is a nurse at the hospital in Sudbury—I say hello to you and thank you for your work.

I will give you an example of how that is not accurate. I had a breast screening. My doctor said I needed a breast screening. It was five weeks I waited. I went in—it was 8:30 in the morning.

I also want to thank the Minister of Health for the infrastructure investments in St. Joseph’s hospital. They’ve opened up their new breast-screening rooms, which are on the third floor. It was seamless. It was easy to park. I had my test and I went home. I was in and out within an hour—I only had to pay $5 for parking. That’s why I know.

So we are investing in our hospitals. Hospitals are getting the money. They’re getting the funding to open up these sessions. If you want to look at the one at St. Joseph’s hospital, please do. It’s a beautiful site, and I—

This is for everybody, these highways. So I just want to congratulate the government on this bill.

Thank you. Next question?

It’s a pleasure to rise this morning and speak to this legislation before the House, the New Deal for Toronto Act.

I want to acknowledge some breakthroughs in this legislation, despite the fact that I have some lingering concerns. One of the breakthroughs, I think, about this legislation is beyond what’s actually in the bill. It’s a lesson for anybody that wants to get into politics. Let me explain what I mean by that, Speaker.

We began this morning with a prayer, with the directive, as we have often heard, to use power wisely and well, to create a society where freedom reigns and where justice rules. I love that prayer. It’s a terrific prayer. But often in the five years I’ve served in this building for the great people of Ottawa Centre, I’ve heard us collectively offer that prayer, and then the moment we tumble into debate, we start doing the opposite. We start saying and holding forth in a way that disrespects each other, that insults the integrity of this place and that puts Ontario on a bad footing, in my opinion.

I believe the Premier of this province did that when, on June 21, 2023, he called Mayor Olivia Chow an “unmitigated disaster.” Those were the words that tumbled out of the most powerful office-holder in this province. The Premier is entitled to his opinions. His speech, like all of our speech, is charter-protected. But I don’t think he set a very good example for people who are thinking about getting into politics in the way he characterized someone like Mayor Olivia Chow as, again, for the record, on June 21, 2023, an “unmitigated disaster.” The Premier was making the argument, I guess, that Mayor Chow—now Mayor Chow—would create too great a toll on the revenues of the city of Toronto and was too ambitious in her plans. Well, the people of Toronto thought differently. Thankfully for us, the Conservative-supported candidates in that mayoral race would appear to have been split at least three ways because they couldn’t get their act together.

So what Mayor Chow has done since then is not respond in kind with ritual denunciations to the Premier—that’s more his gambit. What she has done is take the higher road in speech after speech. Her choice was not to fire back at the Premier and call him a bunch of names. She certainly could have. Her choice was to say, “What do the people of Toronto deserve?” They deserve good transit. They deserve community safety. They deserve money for housing; money for community services; the after-school programs that so many children in this city rely upon; the city staff, who work hard every single day, whether it’s collecting the garbage or the recycling in this city or monitoring the safety of our streets, roads and enforcing the bylaws, or making sure the beautiful parks of this city are well-maintained. That was Mayor Olivia Chow’s priority—not responding in kind to ridiculous assertions from the Premier. There’s a lesson in here for how we do politics.

And do you know what also is informative for me, Speaker? What’s informative for me is: This week, as the Premier was promoting this particular bill in the House, I saw him describe Mayor Olivia Chow as the greatest NDP leader in history. Colleagues, did you see that too? So it’s an interesting leap of logic for a man to go from categorizing somebody as an unmitigated disaster to calling her the greatest NDP leader in history. What’s happened since? Well, I want to believe that what’s happened since is that one person showed humanity in politics and the other did not. One person showed how you lead in a moment, despite the arrows slung by your critics, and the other did not.

It reminds me, Speaker, of a quotation often used by the great Nelson Mandela, someone who had the pleasure to visit this particular building twice. I have a picture of one of those occasions proudly in my office. Mandela once said, “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” Who would know the lesson of that better than him? Someone imprisoned for 27 years by an apartheid regime that dehumanized him.

And I think about Mayor Olivia Chow and the roads she walked to the mayor’s office: losing a mayoralty race that many people predicted she was pledged to win, getting knocked down, dusting herself off and getting back up again to serve not yourself, but to serve the community that you live in.

I had great pleasure, Speaker, to knock on doors in the mayoral by-election. I came a day early one weekend. It’s always a negotiation, I’m sure, for all of us when we come to this city from out of the city a day early. I had to plead with my family: “Hey, let me go a day early to Toronto. I want to go knock on doors for Olivia in St. James Town, where she grew up.” And when I knocked on some of these apartment buildings, they are, in Ottawa-Centre terms, like twice or three times the size of apartment buildings back home—massive apartment buildings. But when I said the words “Olivia Chow,” faces brightened because those are the buildings Olivia grew up in. That was the community she proudly served as an immigrant kid coming to this country at the age of 14, with a family divided by violence and difficulty. She persevered to the office of school board trustee. She persevered to the office of city councillor. And now, St. James Town has a mayor—a mayor, in the seat of power, serving this great city. That’s not an unmitigated disaster, Speaker; it’s a Canadian success story. She withstood the arrows from this Premier. She clearly has turned him around.

And now, before the House, we have a piece of legislation that is proposing some significant investments that I want to talk about this morning. One of them is something that I have had occasion to talk about many times as the transit critic for this province: funding for operational transit. In this legislation is $300 million in a one-time transfer for subway and transit safety recovery and sustainable operations. Another is a $330-million investment over three years—that funding accumulates over three years—for operating support for new integrated provincial transit projects.

People have been rising in this House for years, encouraging this government, encouraging governments before it, to not come to the people of Ontario and say, “We have a wonderful transit plan. Billions of dollars of aspirational transit projects”—be it the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, the Finch West LRT, the Confederation LRT in my city. “Look at the wonderful products we have. Look at the consultants we’re hiring. Look at the beautiful ticker tape we’re going to cut at press announcements.”

This is what I call aspirational transit. That is what governments have been seized with in Ontario for years, but it hasn’t moved a single human being, and the only person who has been employed by aspirational transit are the consultants hired to come up with the dreams. Meanwhile, the women and men who woke up this morning early to move people around this great city have been struggling with a poorly funded transit system.

But again, what precedes this bill? What precedes this bill is a mayor of the city, Olivia Chow, who said on September 20 that as this government’s aspirational transit plans continue to fail, the Finch West LRT, the Eglinton Crosstown LRT—both over budget, both delayed, both being built by consultants who rake huge salaries from the taxpayers despite delivering nothing. Mayor Chow announced that she was going to reallocate, based on advice from staff, $10.3 million from these delayed aspirational transit projects to the TTC that actually exists. She said in that press conference that 160 more staff could be hired with that $10.3 million to make sure staff were visible on our trains, to make sure neighbours who are having mental health challenges, whatever they may be—feeling themselves unsafe, making other people feel unsafe—they would visibly be interacting with staff so transit could be safer.

While we’ve had a government for years that has gotten up in this building and talked about aspirational transit, here we had a mayor of this city who said, “Actually, I’m going to redirect money from your failing transit projects”—I’m adding the editorialism; Olivia is a bigger person than me—“I’m going to reallocate money to make sure that people are safe in our subways, because the aspirational transit systems of this government and governments before it are failing.” That’s leadership.

But what’s also leadership in this bill is the fact that we have finally convinced the Premier of this province to take an interest in operational transit. But as the member for Orléans just said, the transit needs in this province are much bigger than the city of Toronto. We need a new deal for transit all over this province. We need it for Sudbury; we need it for Niagara Falls; we need it for Windsor; we need it for Thunder Bay; and we absolutely need it for Ottawa, Speaker. I can tell you that. Because what we just learned at city council in Ottawa is that in 2024, we are going to have 74,000 fewer service hours in our public transit system—74,000.

I took the bus over the weekend, as I was finding my way around community events. I took the number 6 down Bank Street, headed back to home near where I live, near Billings Bridge—packed to the gills, barely a place to sit or stand. But do you know what was great, Speaker? You could always see, as I’ve seen on so many buses, so many subways, neighbours helping elderly folks, people with children finding safe places to sit.

But you ask yourself the question, “Why isn’t there another bus right behind this bus at peak hours? Why is there one staff member on this entire elongated bus sitting in the front, behind Plexiglas, and no other staff members that are available, dispersed across stops to help people figure their way on and off the bus who have mobility challenges?” Cutbacks, Speaker—cutbacks from this government.

What we know is, we’re $500 million short in operational funding for transit across the province of Ontario. We have been making the message very clear to this government that in their upcoming budget, they need to put that $500 million back into the system so the buses, the subways, the streetcars can run safely and run effectively to get people to work and get people back home, get people where they need to go. But that hasn’t happened.

So who has been the stopgap, as this government loves its aspirational transit but neglects its operational transit, loves its dreams but disrespects the people who deliver every single day? I’m going to tell you: It’s the riders who are organizing to get together to bring messages into this place and, close to my heart, it’s the workers who operate the public transit system.

I want to spend some time this morning talking about someone who has got a message for this House. His name is Cory MacLeod; he’s the president of ATU 1320, which is in the great city of Peterborough. In Peterborough, Cory MacLeod just presided over a terrific campaign that sadly had to lead to a strike, in which he told the city of Peterborough that 2%, which was the original wage offer being offered by the municipal authorities in Peterborough—2% is good for milk, but it’s not good for people fighting to make a living.

The member from Peterborough–Kawartha just said there’s no strike. Do you want to know why, Speaker? Because the women and men who stood up and fought—the 125 operators and the eight folks who work in the garage fixing that transit actually stood up and fought for their transit system.

But it’s funny, Speaker—as the member for Peterborough–Kawartha heckles me—I don’t think he’s once called Corey MacLeod to congratulate him on the agreement that they just won. I don’t think he has once taken an interest in his public transit system to talk to the elected leadership of the transit authority at the municipal level. Isn’t that a curious thing, Speaker? I wonder why the member from Peterborough–Kawartha has nothing but disinterest and disrespect for the people who run and work in the public transit sector. That’d be a good question for him to answer his constituents.

It might be the fact that Laurie Stratton, who is a disgraced former Metrolinx executive, was sent to his city to run the Peterborough transit system, and it may be the fact that Ms. Stratton was fired in March, because she—among many transit executives—had been pushing this on-demand transit system to try to eat into the schedules and the jobs and the operating hours that serve his city and many great cities.

But unfortunately the member never found it worth his time to contact Corey MacLeod once, to visit the transit workers once, to find out about their concerns, to raise them in this House. Let’s look through the Hansard, Speaker, and see if the member has once stood up for his community.

Now the members of that union, however, they stood up for Peterborough. They care about the people of Peterborough.

Interjection.

But do you know who has? Mayor Olivia Chow. Mayor Olivia Chow has stood up for the transit workers in this great city of Toronto. Mayor Olivia Chow cares about the operating efficacy of transit in this city.

The member for Peterborough–Kawartha may think that people will forget how he behaved in this moment. They may think that people will forget that he wasn’t there as Laurie Stratton and that team drove that transit system into the ground—or attempted to. But people won’t forget, Speaker. People won’t forget. They won’t forget the fact that, as the member sat on his hands and watched a transit disaster almost unfold, as people were pushed to the brink of a strike, as people pushed and fought and tried to get the attention of decision-makers like him, they stood up for their community. And I tip my hat this morning to ATU 1320. I thank them for their public service.

I hope this government extends its new-found empathy for the city of Toronto to the rest of Ontario, because the great people of Peterborough, the great people of Sudbury, the great people of Windsor, of Thunder Bay, of Niagara Falls, of Oshawa, of London—they deserve great, functioning transit too, and it shouldn’t have to come to the fact that women and men working in a struggling operational transit system have to go nearly on strike to make sure that we get their attention.

I wonder, Speaker, how do you contrast a government that manages to find over $600 million in funding for a luxury spa, for an Austrian-owned conglomerate, but that will watch operational transit systems fall apart; they will watch people suffer instead of helping the people that make our communities work.

I wonder how big the cheques are, Speaker, that are coming out of Therme into the Progressive Conservative donations department. I wonder how big the cheques are coming out of various real estate conglomerates for the various projects this government pushed. Meanwhile, Speaker, the women and men operating transit in this great city impacted by this bill, operating transit in Peterborough, operating transit in Ottawa—they don’t get the attention and the love. There’s no new deal for them, and you have to ask yourself why.

Interjection.

It doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter, because whatever opinions that member over there and this government may have of transit workers in this province, they will persevere. They will persevere. They will persevere in Peterborough, will persevere in Ottawa. We’ll persevere in a great city like Hamilton, where ATU 107 just negotiated an agreement.

I was moved deeply, Speaker, when, just before the Grey Cup that was in that terrific city of Hamilton, the transit workers were pushed into a position of having to threaten job action that would have impacted that terrific celebration, the Grey Cup celebration, because they were pushed to the brink. Cassie Theaker, who is a single mom, told the press with tears that she had no money in her bank account after two weeks, despite serving that city for 25 years. The costs of living have increased so much that with what she is paid to operate public transit in the great city of Hamilton, she couldn’t feed her kids; she couldn’t pay the rent. So that should be a cautionary tale for all of us.

I want to congratulate the Premier for having a change of heart about Mayor Olivia Chow. I want to congratulate the fact that finally, this government seems to have taken an interest in operational transit instead of aspirational transit. They finally looked into the eyes of a leader who had more humanity than them, who suffered the arrows of the moment to win the victories that come later, and that’s a lesson for all of us in politics. That is a lesson for all of us.

Now, we have a bill before the House that is proposing some funds for operational transit for this great city, but we need funds for operational transit all over Ontario. That’s what this government needs to recognize, and if they’re not prepared to do it, there will be a consequence for them. If they’re not prepared to fund the transit systems of Peterborough and Windsor and Niagara Falls and Sudbury and Thunder Bay and Ottawa—the residents of those communities care about those buses. The residents of those communities care about the operators and mechanics that fix those buses, and we’re prepared to stand up and advocate for them.

So, is this bill a useful step in the right direction? Yes. It has taken them a long time. Meanwhile, we somehow find a million dollars to pay Phil Verster at Metrolinx. Meanwhile, we somehow find the money to pay his 59 vice-presidents and 19 C-suite executives. Meanwhile, we have projects like the Eglinton Crosstown, which is a billion dollars over budget and three years late.

We’ve got some work to do to get transit back on track. There are elements of this bill that I like that move in that direction, and I’m happy to rise as the transit critic in this province to speak to those. But I remind this government again: The province of Ontario is bigger than the city of Toronto. It’s a wonderful place, and I agree with the government members who said we have to recognize Toronto’s special place in Ontario. But the rest of this province needs a new deal for transit too, and we need to see it now.

Except there’s no strikes.

The member for Peterborough–Kawartha will come to order.

Before we move on to questions, I want to recognize that Peter Meligrana from the riding of Kingston and the Islands is today’s page captain, and he is being visited by his grandparents: his grandmother Hiltrudis Meligrana and his grandfather Francesco Meligrana. They have been married for 60 years and have lived in Parkdale–High Park the entirety of their marriage, and are excited to be here today to support Peter during his page captain day. Welcome.

Questions?

It was great to hear the presentation this morning from my colleague from Ottawa. I was, however, slightly confused during parts of the presentation, because on one hand, the member rails against one of the primary features of the deal between the Premier and the mayor of Toronto, which is the completion of the Ontario Place partnership and the building of a water park and what he describes as a luxury spa, and on the other hand, he tries to take credit for the NDP in negotiating such a great deal with the Premier of Ontario. That’s certainly the tack that the leader of Ontario’s New Democrats has taken the last number of days.

So I’m wondering, is he going to vote against the bill and support the leader of Ontario’s New Democrats, or is he going to vote for the bill and support the most powerful New Democrat in Ontario, the mayor of Toronto?

What I’ll say to my friend from Orléans is this: This bill is before the House now, before debate, and our job in that debate is to scrutinize this bill heavily. That’s the job of the official opposition.

So really, this bill, in the end, as my friend from Oshawa was just telling me, is about committing to a conversation, and I think it’s a good thing that that conversation—so far, at least—is committing to real money going into operational transit. Do I have a problem with the fact that the government would seem to have a greater priority for a wellness spa that would cost $650 million to taxpayers in Toronto? That investment is greater than the investment contemplated for operational transit in this bill. So yes, I’ll say to my friend from Orléans, yes, I have a problem with that. But am I happy that this conversation is moving in a direction of more funding for transit? Great. He knows and I know, though, that the transit needs of Ontario are much bigger than the city of Toronto. We need a new deal for transit everywhere.

The richness of advice from Ottawa Centre on transit has not been lost on this government. I know, because we fought for two years for a public inquiry into stage 1 of our LRT system and we won. We won. We finally got the government to listen to us. So we’re happy to offer the richness of that advice every day.

The member is right: The Premier is known for his deals in this place. Half the time I wonder, as I hear government members talk about red tape, if I’m going to walk into this building one day and see police tape wrapped around the Premier’s office because of the kinds of deals that have been publicly exposed that this Premier has been privy to negotiate. That’s on them. That’s their caucus meeting. That’s the presence they have to live with.

I am happy that in this bill before the House there is contemplation of real investments in operational transit. Am I happy about that, member? Yes, I am.

So, are we potentially moving into a good place with this commitment to a conversation? Yes. Is there a chance that there will be more money for operational transit in Toronto? Yes. Do we need it everywhere else in Ontario? Yes.