Last week, we saw an extraordinary action taken by the Chiefs of Ontario, and it’s one that we strongly support, and I hope that the member from Kiiwetinoong will stand in solidarity with the Indigenous leadership from across the province, in fact, who have filed this injunction. Grand Chief Abram Benedict of Akwesasne said on Thursday that “Canada should be working with us to confront the climate crisis and close gaps on reserve instead of creating policy in an ivory tower that exacerbates the affordability issues our citizens face.” It’s an incredibly insightful comment, Mr. Speaker.

We know that our government has worked to reduce the cost of fuel for planes flying into the north, for people operating vehicles across the province and building electrification projects to a scale never seen before in this province. We just hope that the federal government will finally get the message and scrap this tax before the court—

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.

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.

Thank you to the associate minister for that response, and thank you for his hard work for the people of Ontario.

When the associate minister was appointed, the Premier identified the importance of focusing on solutions to increase the supply of affordable housing. Individuals and families across Ontario deserve an opportunity to find a home that meets their needs. This includes modular homes that could increase the speed of home construction in Ontario, helping to make home ownership attainable for more people. Innovative construction techniques like this could allow Ontario to use manufacturing skills to build factory-made homes more efficiently.

So, Speaker, can the associate minister please update the Legislature on what progress has been made on modular housing construction?

I thank my honourable colleague for the question.

Affordability for the people of Ontario has been our primary focus from the day we got elected. Just recently, I joined the wonderful Minister of Education in increasing the Student Nutrition Program in the province of Ontario by $5 million to help families.

Mr. Speaker, we have either reduced or eliminated the LIFT tax credit, which helps the lowest-income earners in our province; the child care tax credit; the Resilient Communities Fund, which provides $96 million of funding to non-profits in our communities, including to food banks; as well as increasing the minimum wage. We have reduced the gas tax for the people of Ontario. We have removed tolls and removed licence plate stickers.

There’s only one problem here, Mr. Speaker. Do you know the one thing that we have in common here? We’ve done all this to reduce costs for the people of Ontario, and the NDP has voted systematically—

When it comes to the cost of living, I will remind my honourable colleague and everybody across there that we have said from the beginning there is one thing that is raising the cost of everything in this province. The government House leader has even been so gracious as to provide phone numbers to the opposition to call their colleagues in Ottawa to stop the carbon tax, which is adding a cost to everything and is hurting our most vulnerable. It’s time for them to stand up for Ontarians, help us, and tell the federal government—

My question is to the Premier. Last week, there were at least two overdoses at the corner of Church and Wellesley in broad daylight, just three city blocks from this very building. The community members were horrified to learn that getting someone into an addiction treatment and recovery bed takes at least a year, when we all know that mental health and addiction services are provincially funded. This government has been making one-off announcements for one-time funding, and it’s clearly not meeting the basic needs.

Can the Premier explain to this community and to those across the city how someone struggling with addiction is supposed to get help when there’s no shelter and the wait-lists for basic recovery beds are at least one year long?

Maybe the minister didn’t hear my colleague. Two people died just last week, three blocks from this building. Whatever you are doing is not enough. It’s not enough.

Speaker, back to the Premier: People wait months for detox beds, wait again for withdrawal management, and then again for rehab—unless, of course, they can pay tens of thousands of dollars to get into a private clinic. In that time, many relapse or die.

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit has shown that Windsor’s SafePoint CTS is safe and effective: Hundreds of visits from people in need of care and referrals to addiction treatment, mental health supports and social services have occurred, in addition to primary care, wound care and foot care on-site. It will close at the end of this year due to the lack of government funding.

The Conservatives haven’t provided a timeline of when the provincial review that was declared in August will be completed, and the longer it takes, the more people will die. Speaker, when will this government finally treat mental health and addictions as a public health crisis and properly fund wraparound supports that will actually save lives?

Thank you for that question. As the member opposite knows, this government, the first government to make such substantial investments in mental health and addiction supports in the history of this province, is making a difference by building a continuum of care in the communities.

What does that mean? Just recently, in February of this year, we opened up 400 new treatment beds, 7,000 new treatment spots to support individuals both with respect to withdrawal management, to support individuals with addiction treatment and, of course, the supportive housing that’s necessary in that continuum of care.

Mr. Speaker, we are serious about the investments that we are making to ensure that every Ontarian gets the support they need, wherever they are in the province of Ontario.

With respect to the CTS site, the member opposite should be familiar at this point that it is under a review as a result of the incident that occurred in Leslieville. That review is ongoing, and it will determine the best course of conduct within the province of Ontario.

Public safety is a priority for this government, and we’re going to ensure that individuals are safe—not just the individuals who are using the consumption and treatment sites but also the people who reside in the areas where they are located. It’s a priority of this government. Until that review is completed—and we will await that review—the member opposite has the ability to also determine and to also participate by contacting the individual at Unity Health through their email address and perhaps engaging with them—

My question is to the Associate Minister of Small Business.

Under the previous Liberal government, supported by the NDP, businesses left our province in droves. In contrast, under the leadership of the Premier, our government has welcomed record levels of investment, job growth and businesses. It’s both unfortunate and sad that the independent Liberals and opposition NDP continue to sit on the sidelines, criticizing our businesses and voting no to measures that help make things better.

Small businesses in my riding have been vocal about the negative impact that increasing taxes and expanding red tape will have on affordability for all Ontarians.

Speaker, can the associate minister please explain the negative impacts of increasing taxes on our small businesses?

While the Ontario Liberals have doubled down on their claims that families and businesses are better off with less money in their pockets, we know that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Speaker, can the associate minister please elaborate on the consequences that increasing taxes, high interest rates and burdensome red tape will have on our small businesses?

From the minister’s response, it’s clear that adopting new innovations and technology processes is crucial to ensuring the continuous growth of our agriculture and food sectors, and she’s absolutely correct: The innovation cluster in Peterborough does a fantastic job of promoting it. But beyond that, I’m going to take a second and say Trent University has an experimental farm that is absolutely fantastic, and invite everyone to come down and see it.

At a time when food security is paramount, meeting the goals of the Grow Ontario strategy remains a top priority. All Ontarians deserve consistent and reliable access to affordable and nutritious food, and that’s why our government must continue to make investments that will support our farmers and food producers to enhance food production.

Speaker, can the minister please elaborate on how the Agri-Tech Innovation Initiative will help to strengthen Ontario’s agriculture and food sector?