Stop the clock.

The Leader of the Opposition has the floor. She has the right to ask a question. I need to be able to hear it.

I apologize to the Leader of the Opposition for the interruption. Start the clock. Leader of the Opposition?

The Leader of the Opposition.

The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

The member for Kitchener–Conestoga will come to order. The member for Mississauga–Malton will come to order.

Interjection.

Start the clock. I apologize. The member for Ottawa Centre.

The Minister of Transportation can reply.

To reply, the Premier.

Now, the Premier has the floor. He has the right to answer the question. I need to be able to hear him.

Premier.

Interjections.

The next question—

Interjections.

The next question.

Brought to you by Grimms’ fairy tales.

Interjections.

That member’s question is very well timed because last week, on November 23, alongside General Jones, we announced $300 million in provincial funding to help recruit thousands of PSWs in the long-term-care community—that’s $25,400 in incentives to PSW students and recent graduates. Here’s how it breaks down: $10,000 to those who commit to working in a long-term-care home or community care for at least 12 months; another $10,000 to help with relocation costs for those who commit to working in rural, remote or northern communities for 12 months; plus a $5,400 allowance to students while they complete their clinical placement in a long-term-care home or community care.

Speaker, by recruiting thousands of new PSWs into the sector, we are ensuring that people who need care in the long-term-care setting have the best care available to them—working towards that four hours of daily care for residents.

We’re getting it done for seniors in Ontario.

We are also providing $100 million to help PSWs who want to become practical nurses and advance their careers and practical nurses who want to become registered nurses to do the same—an opportunity to scale up and to continue to prosper and succeed while they help our seniors, Speaker. Our efforts are leading to results: 2,000 new nurses to the long-term-care sector will be added by 2025, which will ultimately help reach our goal, as the member said, of four hours of daily care per resident.

Let’s remember, Speaker: Seniors built our lives as we know it. They built our communities. They took care of us; we have a moral imperative to take care of them. That’s exactly what this government is doing by investing in them, Speaker. We’re getting it done for seniors.

Thank you to the member for that question. We are taking our time and reviewing the 31 recommendations from the blue-ribbon panel’s report. We’re working very closely with Colleges Ontario and the Council of Ontario Universities as well. We’re putting working groups together to work directly with my ministry on those recommendations.

But we launched the blue-ribbon panel because we wanted independent and expert-driven advice to help form a practical and principled way forward for the sector. I’ll tell you, if we wanted to waste tax dollars, we would have called it the orange or the red panel.

But while the Liberals and NDP blew their chance to prioritize students when they held the balance of power, our government will always put the needs and future of students first. Unlike our blue-ribbon panel that focused on a shared approach to supporting post-secondary education in Ontario, the Liberals and NDP previously partnered in blowing through spending, blowing off the needs of students and blowing off their responsibility to the taxpayers of this province. That is why our government struck a blue-ribbon panel to ensure that the student experience and access to education—

My ministry has already begun working with institutions on a financial accountability framework that will allow for early detection of financial challenges and require immediate action to correct bad practices. In order for our sector to be sustainable for the long term, institutions need to take leadership and review their operations from top to bottom. From governance practices, program offerings, day-to-day operations, and everything in between, colleges and universities across the 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 of course the taxpayers can have confidence that every dollar is being allocated appropriately and with complete transparency.

My question is for the Minister of Long-Term Care.

Our government must ensure that Ontario’s seniors receive the quality of care they need. By building 30,000 new long-term-care beds and upgrading 28,000 beds, seniors in communities across the province will receive care that is close to home. Seniors and families in Richmond Hill are relieved.

However, our government must continue to make investments that will expand programs and provide specialized services to our seniors. That said, in order to implement specialized services and increase the number of direct care hours per day, there must be sufficient staff.

Can the minister please explain what steps our government is taking to deliver high-quality care to residents in long-term-care homes?

However, it takes an entire team of care providers to ensure that our residents receive the care and services they need. This includes nurses, who are vital in order to meet the growing needs of Ontario’s seniors.

By recruiting and investing in additional staff, our government is ensuring that our seniors receive the high quality of care they deserve.

Can the minister please elaborate on how our government is supporting long-term-care homes to deliver safe and effective care?

My question is to the Premier. Since this government came to office, the post-secondary sector has seen a 12% decline in operating grants. Per-student funding now accounts for less than one third of university operating revenues—by far the lowest in Canada—while the need for investment in student mental health, housing and other supports has never been greater.

Last week, the Council of Ontario Universities released a report on the extensive efforts already being made by the sector to find efficiencies and cost savings. Speaker, how can this government possibly think that the funding crisis they created can be magically solved by universities just finding more efficiencies?

At the same time, Ontario university tuition fees remain among the highest in Canada. Students should not have to make up for this government’s failure to properly fund universities, especially during an affordability crisis.

Will this government commit today to a sustainability plan for the sector that increases operating grants without increasing student tuition?

Supplementary?

The next question.

Supplementary question?

Thank you, Minister, for that response. It is difficult to witness the federal government place this punitive tax on the north. The carbon tax negatively impacts affordability and increases the cost of living in northern and Indigenous communities. It is sad and unfortunate that the federal government is ignoring these critical concerns.

First Nations communities across Ontario are having to endure higher operating costs, higher fuel bills, higher heating bills and out-of-control food prices. That is why it is so disappointing to see how the opposition consistently downplays the crippling economic impact that the carbon tax is having.

The reality is that Canada’s carbon pricing regime disproportionately impacts First Nations communities. Speaker, can the minister please explain how our government is supporting First Nations in responding to the negative impacts of the carbon tax?

Mr. Speaker, that former Liberal government was responsible for signing that horrible contract. They were the reason this project is so delayed. But we’re going to deliver it, just like we’re delivering our $70-billion transit plan.

When the Liberals had a chance for 15 years to build transit in this province, they did absolutely nothing. They ignored the people of Scarborough, but this Premier, under his leadership, is building the Scarborough subway extension.

Under the leadership of this Premier, we’re building the Ontario Line. The former Liberal government ignored the concerns and the support that transit needed in this province. The Ontario Line will take 28,000 cars off the road. The Liberals have voted against $70 billion of public transit investment in this province every single time they’ve had a chance, whether it has been in our budget or whether it has been in the FES. They did absolutely nothing for this province. Thank you to the Premier of this province, who’s building public transit across—

Interjections.

Let’s take a look at the projects that we’re doing across Ontario: the Ontario Line; the Scarborough subway extension; the Yonge North subway extension, which we just announced a huge milestone on this past Friday; the Eglinton Crosstown west extension and Eglinton West project; the Finch West LRT; the Hazel McCallion Line; the Hamilton LRT.

Then, let’s talk about our highways: Highway 413, the Bradford Bypass. We are building this province, and the Liberals, when they had a chance to do anything to support public transit, to support highways, did absolutely nothing. They did absolutely nothing for the people of this province. Under the leadership of Premier Ford, we are changing the face of transportation in this province, building highways, building subways.

My question is for the Associate Minister of Housing. When the previous Liberal government took office in 2003, Ontario was registering 85,000 home starts per year, and after 2004, Ontario never hit 80,000 housing starts until the Liberals were removed from office. The NDP record was even worse. In fact, based on their policies, it would take 50 years to build 1.5 million homes.

The housing crisis that we’ve inherited was the result of the failures of previous Liberal governments, supported by the NDP, to plan ahead for the future needs of Ontario. In contrast, our government must be focused on helping Ontarians find homes that meet their needs and budget.

Speaker, can the associate minister please explain how our government is increasing housing supplies?

Good morning, everyone. Congratulations to our new leader, Bonnie Crombie. I’ll start with that.

Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Premier. The people of Ontario are sick of deceit. They deserve transparency and—

Interjections.

They deserve a trustworthy government that sticks up for them instead of wealthy insiders. Might I mention the RCMP criminal investigation into the $8.3-billion greenbelt land swap again?

Ontarians need to know why Metrolinx continues to delay, delay, delay. It has been over 12 years of construction on the Eglinton LRT. Where are the answers? There’s no timeline for its opening, and Metrolinx announced last week that there would be no announcement—

Interjections.

Interjections.

Speaker, to the Premier: Will you commit to requiring Metrolinx to post an entire organizational chart publicly and show the people of Ontario that you actually care about transparency and accountability?

Last week, the government presented a so-called business case to justify its decision to build a half-sized Ontario Science Centre on top of a public-funded parking garage the Premier wants to build for a luxury spa company. The business case actually showed that the cost of building a new science centre at half the size is twice the cost of repairing the existing heritage building. Not only that, according to the province’s lease with the city of Toronto, the province is already required to make these repairs, regardless of what happens to the science centre.

So my question is to the Premier, and hopefully he answers today: Why does the business case misleadingly present the choice as—

Interjections.

The question back to the Premier: Did the Premier put his nephew in charge of the Ontario Heritage Act because he was already planning the destruction of the Ontario Science Centre?

Interjections.

I heard the comment. Thank you very much for drawing it to my attention.

The member must withdraw her unparliamentary comment—

Minister of Infrastructure.

Minister of Transportation.

The supplementary question.

I don’t know where to start. It was the NDP that’s been crying for months to make the business case public, and we have. And do you know what the business case says? That taxpayers will be saving $257 million over a 50-year span in today’s dollars, but $600 million over 50 years if you take into account inflation.

We are building a brand new science centre—one that will be modern; one with new exhibits, new technology, and one that will have 10,000 square feet more of exhibition space for the children to enjoy.

Now, I know what the NDP would like to do. They would like to just leave the building and let it continue to fall apart until they are forced to close it. What we would like to do, Mr. Speaker, is be responsible and provide a long-term solution. We want a science centre for the next 50 to 100 years, and we will have one at Ontario Place.

My question is to the Premier. We have an affordability crisis in the province of Ontario and people in my community of Niagara are suffering. We have a historic increase in the use of food banks. In Niagara Falls, Project Share food banks serve more than 11,000 people. That’s one in every eight residents. Think about that. It represents a 71% increase from the year before.

Despite these challenges, the Premier thinks we should be spending $650 million of hard-earned tax dollars on a private spa. Speaker, when is the Premier going to take real action to address the affordability crisis?

The Feed Ontario report was clear, Mr. Speaker: The driver of food bank usage was precarious employment, legislated poverty, housing and the high cost of living. The Premier has refused to raise social assistance rates and he wasted—wasted—a year on his greenbelt scandal, instead of building the houses we need. When is the Premier going to stop the handouts to developers and private interests and instead deliver for Ontarians and stop the dying on the streets in the province of Ontario?

I appreciate the question coming from the member for Peterborough because he actually has an innovation cluster in his riding, in the city of Peterborough, that really is all-encompassing, including food production. I very much appreciated the opportunity to visit that with him recently.

I want to touch on the fact that we are not resting on our laurels, Speaker. We’re continuing to invest so that farmers and processors alike understand that they finally have a government in Ontario that is working with them to continue to increase production. We’re investing $25 million, in partnership with the feds, through the Sustainable CAP program. But the total results are going to be driven by Ontario farmers and processors through the Agri-Tech Innovation Initiative. This is going to reap incredible returns.

I think we need to recognize that all of our sectors are increasing production, and now we need the food processing to continue to innovate and match what the farmers are doing on the land.

My question is to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Ontario has a robust agriculture and food industry that contributes over $48 billion to our province’s GDP and economy. And it represents more than 800,000 jobs. I’d like to point out that about one in 10 of our jobs are in agriculture, but I guarantee you that 10 out of every 10 consumes what comes from agriculture. That is why it’s so vital that this sector continues to grow and produce more food for Ontario’s growing population and expanding export market.

The agriculture and food industries must continue adopting new processes and implementing new equipment and technologies to expand production and enhance efficiency. That’s why our government must do all that we can do to strengthen our province’s vital agriculture and agri-food sector. Can the minister please explain how our government is supporting the growth of Ontario’s agriculture and food sector?

Thank you for the well-researched question from the member from Thornhill.

Speaker, last week on November 27, Ontario held its first-ever housing forum, at Exhibition Place. It was a great event. We had home builders there. Modular home builders were there. The great not-for-profit sector was represented. Municipalities, councillors, mayors and wardens were there, planners and, obviously, all industry stakeholders. It was a great event where everyone shared their expertise and experience.

And what happened? We had a great cross-pollination of ideas and solutions came forward. These solutions are going to be incorporated into our next housing supply action plan—by the way, which is working, because we’ve seen record housing starts in the last three years and record rental starts in the last three years. The plan is working.

We know there are headwinds. We’re going to work hard to challenge those. It might even be inflation and maybe the carbon tax—maybe, maybe not.

At the end, Speaker, we’re building—

We’re working with our municipal partners. In fact, Speaker, a couple of weeks ago, I was joined with the great member of Scarborough Centre, along with the mayor of Toronto, Olivia Chow, and we visited 39 Dundalk Drive in Scarborough, where they put up 57 supportive housing units, all modular. And I would point out that modular construction was built here in Ontario, built in Cambridge, Ontario, an Ontario-made solution that will continue to succeed.

Scale and speed is what this is about, Speaker. Modular is another tool in the toolbox. It will support our housing supply action plan and our homelessness prevention plan. Everyone deserves a roof over their head. The job is getting done.

Thank you.

The supplementary question.

The next question.