I’d like to give warm welcome to Mr. Joachim Stroink from SustainAgro. Joachim is a former MLA in Nova Scotia, having served from 2013 to 2017. Welcome to Ontario.

Good morning, everyone. Good morning, Speaker. I would like to welcome the Citizens’ Climate Lobby Canada to Queen’s Park. It’s wonderful that you were able to host a reception this morning.

I also want to extend my personal warm gratitude and welcome to Sue Graham-Nutter, the CEO of the Rekai Centres, a distinguished long-term-care facility in our community of Toronto Centre, and also the chair of AdvantAge Ontario.

I also want to welcome all the members from AdvantAge Ontario and recognize the great work that they do for seniors in this province, and a special welcome to Carey Duncan, director of Lanark Lodge, in beautiful Perth, Ontario. It’s one of our most preferred homes thanks to the hard work of Carey Duncan and all her staff. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

In 1978, if you phoned 476-5044, you would have got me at the end of the line. But today, 45 years later, you will get Scott and Cheryl Clark on the line, and they’re here in the audience.

Thank you very much for granting me leave to take a little extra time to introduce Steven Harrison, who is here with AdvantAge from my riding of Kitchener–Conestoga.

I’d like to welcome Sudburians from the Citizens’ Climate Lobby: Cathy Orlando, Claire Orlando, Maggie Fu and Sophia Mathur.

Maggie now lives in Toronto, Speaker, but she reminded me that when I was there, her and her father became Canadian citizens. It’s very special to me that she’s here today.

I’d like to welcome two guests from Haliburton-Norfolk, Laurie Burroughs and Jeff Muller. Welcome to your House.

I’d like to introduce Ontario Genomics, with us here today in the gallery. I’d also like to invite my colleagues to attend their lunchtime reception taking place in room 228 right after question period. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

This being the first sitting Monday of the month, this morning we have with us in the public gallery the Rehoboth Christian School choir from the riding of Flamborough–Glanbrook to perform O Canada and God Save the King. Please stand and join them in the singing of our national and royal anthems.

Singing of the national anthem / Chant de l’hymne national.

Singing of the royal anthem / Chant de l’hymne royal.

Applause.

My understanding, of course, is that the chief of staff has reached out to the Integrity Commissioner to highlight the fact that there is actually no inconsistency with the testimony.

This question is for the Premier. During the Integrity Commissioner’s investigation into the greenbelt grab, the Premier’s chief of staff, Patrick Sackville, said under oath that he did not discuss removal criteria with anyone until October 27, 2022. But late last year, we in the NDP obtained an email sent from the personal account of Ryan Amato to the personal account of Mr. Sackville, discussing the removals and dated October 17, 10 days earlier.

To the Premier: Can the Premier explain this 10-day discrepancy in the testimony of his chief of staff to the Integrity Commissioner?

This email was sent on the same day as a dramatic meeting between ministry staffers and the Premier’s housing policy adviser, Jae Truesdell. You might recall that was called a “train wreck of a meeting.” Mr. Truesdell was learning about the greenbelt scheme for the first time and, evidently, what he heard alarmed him. Mr. Amato said Mr. Truesdell didn’t know about the greenbelt scheme because he was told to “leave him in the dark.” According to the Integrity Commissioner, Mr. Amato identified Mr. Sackville as the “decision-maker in the Premier’s office for this project.”

Back to the Premier: Why did the Premier’s chief of staff tell Mr. Amato to leave his own housing policy adviser in the dark?

So I want to go back to the Premier again: In addition to Mr. Sackville, how many other officials in the Premier’s office discussed the greenbelt scheme earlier than what they told the Integrity Commissioner?

This question is for the Premier as well. This government was warned by the Auditor General back in 2021 that an overreliance on international student tuition was going to put our post-secondary education sector in a very untenable financial position. There was a steady stream of warnings coming from colleges and universities, from the government’s own expert panel, from us in the opposition, about the serious financial risk they were facing because of a lack of funding. The Minister of Colleges and Universities has claimed she wasn’t even aware a cap on international students was coming. It defies belief.

Back to the Premier: Was the minister asleep at the wheel here, or did she look the other way while private career colleges massively exploited the International Student Program?

Interjections.

My question is to the Premier. The Attorney General recently put two of the Premier’s buddies onto the committee responsible for judicial appointments. Shockingly, when the Premier was asked about these appointments, he said that he wants to ensure that the committee is only recommending Conservative-affiliated judges. He went so far as to suggest that if a judicial candidate had voted for the NDP or Liberals, they are a threat to public safety.

Yet, it is on this government’s watch that our criminal justice system has spiralled into chaos. It’s on this Premier’s watch that our courtrooms are closed every day due to understaffing. It’s on his watch that serious cases are routinely thrown out for delay.

Will the Premier reverse his partisan appointments, or is he just comfortable further undermining public confidence in the justice system?

Interjections.

The Federation of Ontario Law Associations put out one of the more measured statements in response to the Premier’s comments, saying that the Premier has a “juvenile misapprehension” of the judicial appointments and that his comments are irresponsible, harmful and dangerous to our democracy.

It is shocking that even in our criminal justice system, the Premier’s focus seems to be entirely on producing favours for his insiders. Many people sitting across from me were given useless titles around King’s Counsel, and now, this government is putting unqualified friends into a position where they get to do favours for more Conservative allies.

Will the Premier reverse these appointments and apologize to the public and the legal community for their interference in the judicial appointments?

Interjections.

I want to start with the acknowledgement that only those that would always be political expect others to always be political, Mr. Speaker.

It’s my obligation to make recommendations to the cabinet to appoint judges. I take that responsibility seriously and, obviously, I want advice from those that I respect. The advisory committee provides the advice. It has more than two members on it; in fact, it has three judges on the committee. So I don’t know if the member opposite is maligning all of the members of the committee or just the ones that she doesn’t agree with, which kind of is ironic given that she doesn’t want their advice and she doesn’t think we should have it.

I take the committee’s collective advice, Mr. Speaker, and these “Liberals in sandals” over here are no different than these Liberals over here in that they want to appoint advisers for me. Shocking that a Conservative government wants to hear from Conservative voices. As Brian Lilley said, they’re only upset because they think they should still get to make the decisions.

Interjections.

I can tell you that this government takes judicial appointments seriously. We have appointed 100 judicial positions, Mr. Speaker, and I would take exception if they could even point to one that isn’t qualified. We have a committee that’s been in place since 1985. It’s been populated with volunteers and judges ever since. We have a gold standard of appointments of judges, and that standard has continued. Only because the Toronto Star wrote a story are the NDP now paying attention. I am happy to go through every single one of the judicial appointments, and you will see that they are, in fact, qualified.

Mr. Speaker, you would think a government in waiting would have a little better understanding of how the system works—but I’m afraid we don’t. So we will continue with the—

I will remind the minister that, under their watch, one university went bankrupt and now nearly half of our universities are reporting multi-million dollar deficits—under this government’s watch.

Speaker, the minister and this government knew exactly what they were doing by undermining the public colleges and universities to open the door to for-profit diploma mills. That’s what they were doing. Last week, we learned that those same colleges were making major donations to the minister’s re-election campaign.

So back to the Premier: Is this yet another case of wealthy donors and insiders shopping for policy changes behind closed doors?

Interjections.

It’s students and families who are paying a huge price for this government’s failure. They’re relying on food banks. They’re juggling multiple jobs just to make rent. I’ve talked to families who are seriously questioning whether they can send their child to college. But instead of bringing forward the funding, the minister responsible was busy funding her own campaign, bringing in over $24,000 in a single night from directors and executives of those very same private colleges.

So, Speaker, back to the Premier again: Will there be any consequences for this minister, or does he approve of this return to Liberal-style cash-for-access fundraising in Ontario?

Order.

The Minister of Colleges and Universities to reply.

The Minister of Colleges and Universities.

And to reply, the Minister of Colleges and Universities.

To respond, the Attorney General.

Supplementary question?

Interjections.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Thank you to the member of the opposition for that question. And that is correct: Quite frankly, we are very disappointed in the federal decision that was made, a unilateral decision without consultation with the provinces or any of the post-secondary institutions. We are working very closely with our institutions right now.

But I can tell you, this is going to be an economic hit across not only Ontario, but across Canada. That’s what we were hearing from many different organizations. I talked to the tourism association during the ROMA conference and heard from them directly the impact that they foresee happening in the hospitality and tourism industry in Ontario.

As I have said, the Premier and the Prime Minister signed a historic health care deal. We need to ensure that we have enough PSWs to fill those spaces for the Minister of Long-Term Care, and enough nurses in this province for the Ministry of Health. We are going to continue working very closely with our partners, and we will have more to say by the March 31 deadline.

I’ve heard extreme dissatisfaction from many institutions—but more importantly, the economic impact this is going to have on Canada and Ontario. The Minister of Economic Development is bringing new companies here to Ontario every single week, and guess one of the reasons they come here? It’s because of the talented pipeline of students that we have in this province.

I will continue to work with our institutions and we will be addressing this by the March 31 deadline.

Mr. Speaker, the Premier announced an additional tuition freeze moving forward for students. I want to ensure affordability for students. There’s an affordability crisis in Ontario and across Canada right now: the cost of housing, the cost of food and the cost of gas. But what this government is doing is ensuring that post-secondary education is affordable for all students in this province.

My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. Under the leadership of the previous Liberal government, we saw Ontario garner a reputation as an extremely high-cost jurisdiction. Companies that had set up shop left in droves and international businesses overlooked Ontario as a potential jurisdiction in which to expand and grow and add jobs.

But since taking office, our government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, has recognized the importance of building a resilient manufacturing sector and we’ve made sure that these jobs are being created in every corner of this province.

Speaker, could the minister provide an update to the House on some of the manufacturing investments we welcomed in Niagara since the beginning of the year?

Thank you to the member from Richmond Hill for that question.

Mr. Speaker, let me be crystal clear. No government is doing more for transit riders than under the leadership of Premier Ford. We are making public transit more accessible and affordable than ever before. Our $70-billion transit plan—we are building transit all across Ontario. Starting today, our new one-fare program will put more money back into people’s pockets. Double fares are now gone. On average, this is a savings of $1,600 every year. Liberals couldn’t do it, but under Premier Ford, we got it done.

Starting today, as I said, commuters can simply use the same card to tap to transfer from one transit agency to another transit agency. That’s going to save them more money so they can save their money towards their future, their children or for their most important things, like groceries.

We are the only party that is working to eliminate barriers and make life more affordable, under the leadership of Premier Doug Ford.

To the Premier: In December, the Ontario Energy Board decided to protect Enbridge Gas customers from unreasonable rate increases for new gas line installation. We’re talking about $300 per customer over the next four years. The next day, the Premier’s Minister of Energy said he would bring in a bill to overturn the decision and crank up the gas bills.

Will the Premier protect gas customers from higher Enbridge charges?