Thank you to the minister for his response. It’s reassuring to hear that our government is working to put the forestry sector at the forefront of new economic opportunities.

Under the previous Liberal government supported by the NDP, the valuable contribution of Ontario’s forest was neglected. They actually referred to the north as “no man’s land.” They wasted billions of dollars between scandals and called it a “wasteland.”

Unlike the previous Liberal-NDP coalition, our government continues to secure forestry jobs across the north and drive the industry towards sustainable growth. Can the minister please share what our government is doing to support a strong forestry sector for future generations?

My question is to the Minister of Health. After Niagara lost access to two of their urgent care centres after 8 p.m., I looked at the ER wait times at St. Catharines general. It was five hours—the longest wait times across all Niagara, Hamilton and Brant. With Niagara’s significant senior population, chronic conditions, doctor shortages and staffing crises worsening with Bill 124, it is deeply problematic to see continual defence of regional service cuts reported by the Ontario Health Coalition.

Minster, you hold the purse strings to adequately fund hospitals. Why not put a stop to these closures and increase funding to hospitals for the seniors in Niagara that need them the most, right now?

Good morning, everyone, and Merry Christmas. Christmas is, of course, the season of love and hope. Last week the Premier professed his hope for Toronto, the city he grew up and the city he loves.

I grew up in Ottawa and I love my city, and our city has problems just like Toronto. We have problems with homelessness. We have problems with transportation. We have problems with our city running deficits. In recognition of the season of love and hope, when will this government show some love for the city of Ottawa?

Now that there is a precedent to upload highways to the province, will the government commit to uploading Highway 174 back to provincial responsibility so the city can spend that money improving local roads, investing in public transit and reducing commute times for Orléans residents?

Just a gentle reminder to the member opposite that in fact hospital base budgets were increased by an average of 4% in our last budget. We invested $44 million in every single hospital. This is unheard-of, never happened before. We invested $44 million to make sure that those hospitals, including smaller hospitals across Ontario, had sufficient resources to ensure that their emergency departments remained open.

We have invested in our paramedic services, with dedicated off-load nursing programs that ensure paramedics can quickly be able to transfer their patients to a nurse, a respiratory therapist or a paramedic who is stationed in the emergency department to make sure that those paramedics get back out into community quickly.

We have so many programs that have made an impact in hospitals across Ontario and we will continue to work with our hospital partners.

What does that mean, Speaker? It means that people who had to wait, who had to be transferred to other hospitals, now have an MRI machine in their community. That allows those physicians to get that diagnostic piece that is so important to make sure that we have health care close to home. We’ll continue to make those investments. Unfortunately, if your history is any indication, you will continue to vote against it.

Mr. Speaker, let me start by wishing everyone a merry Christmas and happy, safe holidays.

My question is for the Minister of Long-Term Care. For far too long, seniors in Ontario were neglected by the previous Liberal government. More than 40,000 Ontarians, including my residents of Mississauga–Erin Mills, were left waiting for a bed, and they needed to wait an average of 123 days to be placed in a long-term-care home. That’s unacceptable, Speaker. Our seniors deserve a government that works for them and helps them live comfortably and with dignity. We must do all that we can to build more homes and more beds across all communities to create a better future for our elderly residents.

Speaker, can the minister please share with the House how our government is ensuring that seniors in Ontario are getting the quantity of care and the quality of life they need and deserve?

My question is for the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport. Just recently, many of my constituents from Burlington joined fans from across the country to watch Canada’s biggest sporting and cultural event. This year’s Grey Cup did not disappoint, including the lively festivities following the game. Multiple outlets have reported it was a Grey Cup for the ages.

The Grey Cup is more than just a football game; it plays a critical role in fuelling Hamilton’s local economy and tourism sector, drawing over 28,000 people in attendance.

Speaker, can the minister please share how events like the Grey Cup unite communities and bring Ontario economic prosperity?

It’s encouraging to see the positive effects sporting events have on Ontario’s tourism sector. Our tourism sector attracts visitors to the area, boosts local businesses and creates jobs. Many people in my riding of Burlington rely on tourism for their jobs, and they have appreciated the various investments that saw them through times of lower attendance at their venues and activities.

As we see the ongoing strength in Ontario’s tourism, our government must continue to take the lead in supporting its development to unlock our province’s true economic potential.

Speaker, can the minister please elaborate on our government’s efforts in building the tourism industry?

Thank you very much.

Supplementary?

Ma question est pour la ministre des Collèges et Universités.

Madame la Ministre, la seule personne franco-ontarienne sur votre panel d’experts, appelé le « Blue Ribbon » en anglais, s’est retirée du rapport dans la section sur l’éducation supérieure et postcollégiale en français.

L’Assemblée de la francophonie, l’Université de Hearst et l’Université de l’Ontario français se sont exprimées en désaccord avec les solutions amenées par le rapport du groupe d’experts anglophones. Elles réitèrent leur demande initiale : des institutions pour, par et avec les Franco-Ontariens.

Ma question pour la ministre : Ça veut dire quoi pour vous le « pour, par et avec »?

Thank you to the member for that question. Might I remind the member that this government, under the leadership of this Premier, has done more for francophone education in Ontario than any other government? We established not only one but two stand-alone francophone universities governed by and for francophones: the Université de l’Ontario français and the Université de Hearst. This year alone, we provided $73 million in dedicated funding that supported more than 320,000 post-secondary students enrolled in 381 French-language and bilingual-language programs across the province.

In fact, this fall, with my colleagues the President of the Treasury Board as well as the Minister of Education, we were thrilled to announce an additional 110 French-language education spaces for the 2023-24 academic year, as well as stand-alone nursing programs for Boréal college in Sudbury as well as Toronto.

We are standing up for francophone education in this province.

We need to ensure that money is being spent wisely. My job as the minister is to ensure that post-secondary is viable for generations to come. That is what we are doing, and we are reviewing the recommendations and working with the sector currently. I look forward to those continued conversations.

On n’a pas entendu de réponse par rapport à « pour, par et avec », mais j’ai une autre question.

Dans les années 1960, un groupe d’experts anglophones nous disait qu’on ne pouvait pas avoir d’écoles secondaires francophones; ça coûterait trop cher—mais on les a. Dans les années 1980, un groupe d’experts anglophones nous ont dit qu’on ne pouvait pas avoir de collèges francophones; ça coûterait trop cher—mais on les a. Dans les années 1990, un autre groupe d’experts anglophones nous ont dit qu’on ne pouvait pas avoir de conseils scolaires francophones; ça coûterait trop cher—mais on les a.

Puis, il y a quelques semaines, un groupe d’experts anglophones ont écrit à la ministre pour lui dire qu’on ne pouvait pas avoir d’universités francophones; ça coûterait trop cher. Qu’est-ce que la ministre en pense?

Thanks to the minister for this response. It is great to see our government deliver on the commitment to add more beds and upgrade existing homes for our elderly residents.

Speaker, seniors currently compose 17.6% of Ontario’s population, and their share of the province’s population will continue to grow. The Canadian Institute for Health Information reveals that over the next 20 years, the seniors’ population in Canada is expected to grow by 68%. Our government must continue to address the growing numbers of aging Ontarians and their additional care needs.

Speaker, can the minister please share how our government is ensuring that every senior in Ontario has fast and convenient access to the services they need?

My question is to the Premier. Speaker, families across this province are languishing on child care wait-lists because this government has, at every turn, refused to take steps required to address the workforce crisis.

The YMCA of Greater Toronto area has just 16,000 kids enrolled in its 35,000 spaces because they don’t have the workers to staff them. Reports indicate that wait-lists can be up to two years to get access to a space in the $10-a-day child care program.

The government’s own experts say that Ontario could be short 8,500 ECEs by 2026. Workers say they can’t afford to make a living working in child care.

Will the minister finally admit he needs to listen to experts, commit to a salary scale starting at $25 per hour for all child care workers and $30 for RECEs to ensure the government can deliver on the promises for the spaces that the parents are waiting for their child care programs to access?

Speaker, I want to thank the Minister of Long-Term Care for this opportunity to speak today.

Let’s just take stock of where we’re at.

When we came to office in 2018, child care was prohibitive for so many families—it increased by 400% under the former Liberal Party. This government came to power, and we cut fees by 50%. We committed to build 86,000 spaces. We committed to a historic increase of salary for our hard-working ECEs. And, yes, we committed to go even further—down to $10 a day. That is a record that is leaving a legacy of affordability for the working parents of this province that we all, as parliamentarians, should be proud of.

We worked across party lines to do what’s right, to enable higher rates of women’s economic participation, under the strong leadership of the minister of women’s economic opportunities.

We’re working together to make life affordable, to cut fees, increase spaces, and give hope to parents that they do not have to make a choice of raising their kids or working—no longer in this province.

Supplementary?

Welcome back. It’s good to have you here.

It is my sad duty now to have to say a word of thanks to our legislative pages as they depart. Our pages are smart, trustworthy and hard-working. They’re indispensable to the effective functioning of this chamber, and we are indeed fortunate to have had them here.

To our pages: You depart having made some new friends, with a greater understanding of parliamentary democracy and memories that will last a lifetime. Each of you will go home now and continue your studies, and no doubt you will contribute to your communities in important ways. We expect great things from all of you. Who knows? Maybe some of you someday will take your seats in this House as members or work here as staff. But no matter where your path leads you, we wish you well.

I would ask the members now to join me in thanking this group of legislative pages.

Applause.

The member highlights several important problems that our government inherited. When you have a problem, you have to look at where that problem originated from and take steps towards fixing it. That’s what this government did in 2018, Speaker.

One of the problems the member highlights is a capacity issue. Under the last government, over 15 years, 611 net new long-term-care spaces were built—not nearly enough for a growing population, an aging population, with record immigration and seniors moving to this province.

This government decided to do things differently: a $10-billion investment—the largest capital investment in this country’s history—to build and upgrade 58,000 new spaces for our seniors. That plan is bearing fruit, Speaker.

In fact, I was just last month with that member in his riding to announce 160 new spaces in the Ivan Franko home, part of 18,000 spaces we have built, or have shovels in the ground, since 2018. We’re going to continue to invest in our seniors.

I want to thank that member, and merry Christmas to you.

But to make those homes, it has to be more than just a physical space. We have to talk about the health human resources. That’s why this government is investing up to $1.25 billion for long-term-care homes this year to hire, to retain thousands of hard-working front-line health care workers who do the job for our seniors that, frankly, many of us cannot do—part of a larger plan of $4.9 billion to make sure we hire 27,000 PSWs, to hire thousands of nurses, to provide programs for those PSWs, for those nurses to scale up and to stay within the sector because we know that our seniors need them. In fact, by 2025, we’re establishing a nation-leading standard of four hours of daily care per resident in our homes for our great seniors.

Seniors built our country. We have to take care of them.

I want to wish everyone happy holidays and remind people that tomorrow the Ontario Greenhouse Alliance is here—they’re known as TOGA. In the spirit of the holiday season, they’ll be bringing poinsettias and celebrating with you. So if you’re available from mid-morning to noon tomorrow, please pop by room 247 to visit with the people who belong to the Ontario Greenhouse Alliance. That’s an invitation for all of you.

I just want to sincerely wish everyone happy holidays, a very merry Christmas, a happy Hanukkah.

We may disagree back and forth; people see this on television, and they don’t see the interaction after, when we go over and we talk to the members over there or you come over here.

I have a personal New Year’s resolution: Let’s not get personal. I do it sometimes, too. I really do. Let’s just be kinder to each other. We can have healthy debates back and forth, but we can respect each other, because we’re all here for the same reason: We’re here to serve our constituents. Obviously, all of us want to make our constituents proud of us, our family proud of us. Let’s leave the family out of it going into 2024 and just have great parliamentary debates, because when we work together, we get so much more done than working separately.

I want to wish everyone the very best. God bless each and every one of you.

On behalf of the smallest but growing caucus over in this corner of the Legislature, I want to wish everyone a merry Christmas, happy holidays, happy Hanukkah.

I, too, want to thank everyone for your service to the people of Ontario.

Aislinn wanted me to pass on just how much she appreciated the warm welcome she received when she was here the other day. She’s looking forward to taking her seat and joining all of you.

Like the member from Timiskaming–Cochrane, I want to thank everybody who serves us in this Legislature and in this building, including the people who clean my office each and every evening, and wish you all the best in the new year.

Applause.

On behalf of the official opposition—this isn’t the time to be oppositional—happy holidays to everyone. Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah—whatever faith, colour or creed.

We play a crucial role in this province, all of us—the government, us holding the government to account. But I would like to especially thank the people who allow us to play our role: the people at the table; the people behind, where no one but us knows what goes on; the security; the people who clean our offices; anyone else that I’ve forgotten—but the one group that I can’t forget: the folks in the cafeteria.

We all serve the people of Ontario, and whatever we do, we all play a crucial role—a role that none of us could function without each other.

Merry Christmas. Happy new year.