My question is for the transportation minister. He’s a fellow Brampton boy, so it won’t take me long to go knock on his door tomorrow if he gives me the runaround today.

Actually, Speaker, getting around Brampton takes a heck of a lot longer than it used to, thanks to 15 years of dithering, delays and neglect from the previous Liberal government. Now, we have a federal Liberal government that decided that the first provincial highway that they ever wanted to declare a federal impact assessment on just happens to be Brampton’s bypass highway, Highway 413.

I wish I was joking about this next part, Speaker, but could you believe that the federal Liberal environment minister, Steven Guilbeault, actually said that Canada should get out of the road-building business altogether? I wish I was joking. Can you believe that—a minister of the crown?

Speaker, could our transportation minister please highlight our government’s approach on whether or not the Ontario government should be in the business of building roads and highways?

The federal carbon tax is making life more expensive for everyone in this province. I’ve heard from many people in my riding of Brampton North that they’re finding it difficult to keep up with the rising cost of living. They’re paying more for everything, from buying groceries to gassing up their cars to heating their homes. People in our province should not be experiencing financial hardship for the simple acts of buying groceries, taking their kids to school or going to work. We need to stand up for Ontarians all across the board and ensure their concerns are heard loud and clear.

For many residents in Brampton and across our province, heating your home is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. Driving is not a luxury; it’s a necessity.

Speaker, can the minister highlight what our government is doing to keep costs down for drivers, families and individuals across Ontario?

My question is for the Premier. Over 60,000 children and youth have been waiting for years without assessments, supports or funding for core autism services, funding that is calculated by an annual determination of needs meeting. Done virtually, it’s about four hours long and is intense, and if that isn’t stressful enough, the funding allocated is far less than it has been in years past with absolutely no explanation and uncontested. An appeal is the only option left. Some take over a year and lapse over the next DON.

Premier, how could you possibly call this a world-class program?

This year, Lisa has been told by AccessOAP that, starting in March, they will be receiving $8,900—over a $56,000 cut. Her care coordinator has no explanation and tells her to file a dispute, a process that could take over a year and will absolutely interfere with Jaxon’s progress. I call that a black hole, not progress.

Premier, is this acceptable to you?

My question is to the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry. With the forest fire season around the corner, we can’t help but reflect on last year’s fire season. In 2023, Ontario and Canada experienced one of the most challenging fire seasons in recent memory. That’s why our government must not lose our focus on the importance of keeping Ontarians and our natural resources safe. It is essential that we do all we can to protect communities across the province in supporting the brave men and women who are on the front lines responding to wildland fires.

Speaker, can the minister please tell the House what actions our government has taken to strengthen Ontario’s fire ranger workforce?

Speaker, can the minister please explain what actions our government is taking to improve fire ranger recruitment and retention?

Thank you to the member from Sault Ste. Marie for the question. Speaker, I’ve said many times that we have what the world needs right now to fuel the EV revolution right here in northern Ontario, especially in Timmins.

Under Premier Ford’s leadership, the critical minerals investment strategy was announced, backed by $45 million in innovation and exploration investments. These investments were not supported by the NDP.

It’s clear our efforts are working. I recently joined Canada Nickel’s announcement that they are looking at Timmins, to build two new mineral processing facilities here in Timmins. Our $500,000 Critical Minerals Innovation Fund investment helped Canada Nickel research and develop innovative processing techniques that will be used at these facilities to produce clean nickel and clean steel.

Thanks to our government’s sound strategy and investments, we are securing major investments from battery plants in the south to processing plants in the north—

Speaker, these facilities will bring more jobs, increase Ontario’s processing capacity, and make Timmins a pillar of the supply chain we are building to fuel the EV revolution. One facility is going to be the largest nickel processing centre in North America, while the other will be the largest stainless steel and alloy production facility in all of Canada.

When asked why he chose Timmins, CEO Mark Selby said, “You’d be very hard-pressed to find anywhere else in the world that has the unique combination of advantages we can find right here in Timmins.” I couldn’t agree more. But these projects aren’t just about a better future for Timmins. They’ll create a better future for everybody in Ontario, especially Indigenous communities. Canada Nickel has been working with First Nations from the start, and Chief Bruce Archibald of TTN proudly voiced his continued support for these superb projects.

We have the opportunity of a lifetime in our province, and thanks to Canada Nickel, we are turning opportunities into realities, proving again that there’s no better place to invest and to do business than right here in Ontario.

Thank you.

Supplementary?

I want to thank the minister for his answer. This is amazing news, not just for Timmins and northern Ontario, but for all of Ontario.

These facilities will ensure that the minerals from Timmins are getting processed in Timmins, boosting local employment opportunities and creating sources of nickel for the North American electric vehicle supply chain.

Speaker, the opposition has made it clear, based on their voting record, that they do not believe in the potential of the mining industry in northern Ontario. They would rather rely on minerals from overseas to fuel the electric vehicle revolution.

On this side of the House, we believe it is our obligation to ensure critical minerals are developed and processed right here in our wonderful province of Ontario.

Will the minister please tell us more about how these processing facilities are going to help us build a made-in-Ontario supply chain for electric vehicles?

My question is to the Attorney General. In 2022, we found out that the Attorney General was personally interviewing candidates to be Ontario’s next Chief Justice. Now the government is openly admitting that they are seeking conservative candidates.

So in interviewing Chief Justice candidates, what questions did the Attorney General ask? Did he ask the candidates who they vote for? Did he ask how the candidates would rule in certain cases? Did he give the candidates instructions on the political agenda that they’d be expected to carry out? And does the Attorney General think it’s appropriate for a government under criminal investigation by the RCMP to be so involved in the selection of judges?

In interviewing candidates and assessing their conservative credentials, is the minister asking judicial candidates to override their constitutional responsibility to provide people with a fair and impartial hearing, or is he asking them to make judicial decisions based on political bias?

Thank you to the member for the question. I’m always thrilled to be able to talk about our great fire rangers here in Ontario and how we are supporting them.

We’re going to play a little game called, “Did you know?” Did you know that the previous government’s base funding for fire fighting was $69.8 million and we raised that to $134.9 million? Did you know that, last fall, we invested an additional $20.5 million to support our fire rangers, support new aerial suppression technologies, support science and innovation, including entering into collaborative research agreements with universities and building capacity to work with Indigenous communities in wildland fire management? Did you know that? Because that’s what this government is doing to support our fire rangers every fire season since we’ve taken over.

Mr. Speaker, we have their backs. We have the backs of the communities in northern Ontario, the individuals, the infrastructure that Ontario needs to continue to grow, and we’re going to keep everybody safe.

What are we doing to help more people come into the fire ranger network? We’re reimbursing them for tuition costs to help remove that barrier and providing more equipment bonuses for them to make sure that what they need is covered. We’re providing, for the first time, standby pay and on-call pay.

This is a tough job, Mr. Speaker. We recognize that. We celebrate the men and women who answer the call and do this on behalf of Ontarians. We will always have their back. We are always looking for new ways to support them, and we’ve got more good announcements coming up to support our fire rangers right here in Ontario.

Good afternoon, colleagues. It is my pleasure and honour to welcome to the Legislature this afternoon Black student and community leaders from across the province and representatives from: Delta Family Resource Centre; Early Childhood Development Initiative; Youth Now on Track; Youth Association for Academics, Athletics and Character Education; Smile for Sache; Kingdom House Christian Centre; and, lastly, the chair of the Premier’s Council on Equality of Opportunity, Mohamed Firin. Welcome to your House.

I seek unanimous consent that, notwithstanding standing order 40(e), five minutes be allotted to the independent members as a group to respond to the ministerial statement today on Black History Month.

I seek unanimous consent of the House that, notwithstanding standing order 100(a)(4), five minutes be allotted to the independent members as a group during private members’ public business today.

In budget after budget, we’ve made investments in the judicial system in terms of the administration. We finished the courthouse with 73 more courtrooms, 63 plus 10 meeting rooms. We have done a ton of work to modernize this system, more work than has been done in decades.

The member opposite and her party, and the Liberal Party, voted against every single step forward and keep talking about defunding police and yanking supports out of the system, redirecting those supports.

I can tell you, let’s just talk about any part of the system and the investments that we’re making; they are historic. We have moved the system forward decades in a matter of years, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, we have revolutionized the way that the courts work. We are seen across the country as leaders. A former federal Attorney General said to me, “You know, with the COVID money that you got, you were the only province that was deploying it the way it was meant to be done.” I am very proud of that fact.

We are doing things that couldn’t be done for decades, that wouldn’t be done for decades, because the Liberals weren’t paying attention and the NDP were focused on the social worker side of everything. We’re focused on the offenders. We’re focused on the victims. We’re focused on making sure the administration runs exactly the way Ontarians expect it to, and we’re going to keep that up.

Thank you to the terrific member from Hastings–Lennox and Addington.

Crushingly high interest rates are hurting families right across the province. We’ve called on the Bank of Canada to do the right thing and stop raising interest rates—in fact, start lowering those interest rates. When the price of gas is making life harder and less affordable for the millions of Ontario drivers, we stepped in and we cut the gas tax, providing savings right across the province.

Now, Mr. Speaker, we all know that the carbon tax unnecessarily is driving up inflation and harming the pocketbooks of Ontarians. We continue to call on the federal Liberals to do the right thing, listen to the people and end the carbon tax.

My question is to the Premier. The newly appointed chair of the judicial appointments committee is a registered lobbyist for an American gun manufacturer. The Premier then claimed that he wanted to quadruple down on violent offenders, but it’s actually on his watch over the last six years that we’ve seen offenders going free because the criminal justice system is literally collapsing under this government’s neglect.

Chronic underfunding has led to critical understaffing, which has led to the critical courtrooms being closed, which also means that serious cases are being thrown out because they have missed their basic administrative delays.

Will the Premier explain to victims of crime in Ontario why his focus is naming gun lobbyists to the judicial appointments committee as opposed to being laser-focused on funding and fixing the broken court system?

Under this government, court delays have exploded, forcing judges to release violent and gun-related offenders because they have not had their trials completed in a constitutionally allowable time frame. What I think Ontarians want to understand is, how can we have a Premier that has no respect for the charter rights of Ontarians?

Speaker, will the Premier own up to his track record and let Ontarians know how many sexual assault charges, how many impaired driving charges and how many gun-related charges have been thrown out because of the dysfunctional court system, because they can’t get their trials done in time, because they refuse to fund the courts properly and they refuse to fix the system?

Interjections.

My question is for the Minister of Finance. When I’m out speaking with my residents across Hastings–Lennox and Addington, one thing keeps on becoming very, very clear: I hear constantly about affordability, specifically how unaffordable it is to fill up their gas tank, to heat their homes, to light their stoves. The federal carbon tax is raising the price of everything. Families in my riding and across Ontario can’t afford higher taxes that the opposition Liberals and NDP seem to want to impose, and the members opposite are failing to recognize that the rising cost of consumer goods is quickly becoming unsustainable.

So, Speaker, can the minister please tell this House how we are fighting for the people of Ontario to make their lives more affordable?

It’s an absolute pleasure to introduce Navi and Ana from Sai Dham Food Bank who are here to discuss looking for a sustainable revenue model to support our youth and give back to the community. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I thank colleagues for a scintillating week here at the Legislature this week and for all of your hard work.

Next week, on Monday, March 4, in the morning, as the Speaker announced, we will be coming back at 9 a.m. We will begin with the third reading of Bill 157, Enhancing Access to Justice Act. In the afternoon, there will be opposition day motion number 1 and then we will continue on with third reading of Bill 157.

On Tuesday, March 5, in the morning, there will be third reading of Bill 157 and then that will continue in the afternoon. For private members’ business that day, it will be motion number 77 from the member for Mississauga Centre, which is on lung cancer screening expansion.

On Wednesday, March 6, in the morning: Bill 166, Strengthening Accountability and Student Supports Act, 2024. In the afternoon, there will be a debate on concurrence in supply. At 6 p.m., there will be private members’ business, Bill 158 standing in the name of the member for Cambridge, which is the Group of Seven Day Act.

On Thursday, March 7, in the morning: Strengthening Accountability and Student Supports Act. In the afternoon, there will be a ministerial statement on International Women’s Day. In the afternoon, we will return to Bill 166. Private members’ business that day, standing in the member for Mississauga–Lakeshore, is motion number 81, halting the alcohol escalator tax.

I am pleased to be sharing my time today reflecting on Black History Month with my colleague the Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism.

Mr. Speaker, Black history is Ontario’s history. The journey of Black Ontarians throughout our history is interwoven into the very fabric of our province and was critical to several milestones achieved by Ontario.

Ontario was a founding province of Canada back on July 1, 1867, but in 1812, more than half a century earlier, Black Canadians took up arms in defence of this land, fought, bled and died in order to preserve and safeguard the future of a country to come.

Richard Pierpoint, a former slave who escaped the cruelty and inhumanity of slavery in the American South, settled here in Ontario and fought for this colony against American expansionism. He and other Black Loyalists who joined this cause understood like no other that their fight was about more than simply winning a war; it was about maintaining their freedom. Because to lose in 1812 would have meant that this land of liberty would have become the territory of a slaveholding country. To lose in 1812 would have meant no Canada 150, no mosaic of multiculturalism and no “True North strong and free.” Their stories make up Ontario’s rich history, and how they have changed the face of our nation, from Confederation right up until this very moment.

My point is that Canadians of African descent have been living for, fighting for and dying for Canada before there was even a Canada to speak of. This is a history that we too often don’t know about and it is a crucial part of why, under the joint leadership of both the minister and parliamentary secretary of education, Black history will now be a core part of the curriculum for Ontario’s students in grades 7, 8 and 10. This knowledge will inspire and empower students to learn about these contributions, to reflect on reconciliation and the road ahead as we continue working together to build a province that welcomes everyone.

As a Black woman, an MPP and a member of cabinet, I feel that I am a voice for the community in my constituency here in the Legislature and across the province. I’m honoured to be a Black woman in a leadership role with a voice at the table, and I am so grateful to this Premier for choosing me to be a part of his cabinet, to serve as the first Black person, man or woman, in a PC government cabinet in Ontario’s history. I made history and our Premier was a vehicle to make that history happen.

I’m proud to be one of the many Ontarians who are working to make our province the best that it can be. Black History Month is about honouring the legacy and the important contributions of Black people who help make Ontario a more inclusive and diverse province.

This very Legislature has made its share of Black history. In 1963, Ontarians elected MPP Leonard Braithwaite as Canada’s first Black parliamentarian at either the federal or provincial level. Then of course there is the glorious trail-blazing path of the Honourable Lincoln Alexander. Not only was he Canada’s first Black MP, he was also the first Black person to serve in a vice-regal position in Canada, as Ontario’s Lieutenant Governor.

Speaker, the government of Canada’s theme for Black History Month this year is “Black Excellence: A Heritage to Celebrate; a Future to Build.” That theme is why I believe Black History Month is an ideal opportunity to look ahead and find ways to work together to strengthen Ontario’s proud and historic Black community. Acknowledging that there is still a lot of work to be done in this province to overcome anti-Black racism and determination, it is an important step to achieving equity for all Ontarians.

As we work together to bring more women into the forefront of our economy, I see first-hand the barriers that many women face in empowering themselves economically. Research shows that Black, Indigenous and other racialized women are more likely to be majority owners of small businesses than other women. They exemplify the Ontario spirit, taking a chance to build a better future for themselves, their families and Ontarians at large. However, these women face even greater barriers when starting and scaling up their businesses. That’s why Ontario has been leading a range of initiatives and commitments to empower women to be successful and to help build a strong Ontario together.

One program I’m particularly proud of is the Women’s Economic Security Program. This program provides training for low-income women to equip them with the skills, the knowledge and experience to get a job or start a business and increase their financial independence. Participants can also access wraparound supports such as child care, transportation, food and referrals to other services.

Our government, with the help of our community partners, is tearing down the barriers that have stood between women and building their dreams. I’d like to thank organizations like Roots Community Services that put a particular focus on black women in entrepreneurship, making sure they have the supports that they need for success.

Speaker, I invite this House and all Ontarians to take a look at the phenomenal number of black women entrepreneurs and business leaders who are making their mark in every field. Even as we work to remove the barriers and empower more women, Black History Month provides us an opportunity to reflect on the injustices and the inequities the community has faced throughout history, some of which continue to this day.

That brings me back to the late Lincoln Alexander. Last month, I saw the unveiling of the bust commemorating this larger-than-life trailblazer, whose father worked as a railroad car porter and whose mother worked as a maid. The Honourable Lincoln Alexander’s bust will be on permanent display in this Legislature’s west wing, where it will be viewed by thousands annually, in particular the schoolchildren who will walk through the halls and see someone who reflects them and their community and be inspired.

That’s the same way I feel now when I come into this Legislature and I see students sitting around. Representation is so important. Now, when students look down in this room, they see representation in every part of this House, in every government. That is so important. They will see themselves and the indelible contributions. They will see him, the Honourable Lincoln Alexander, and the contributions he made to Ontario’s history.

As I told the House last year and to every young Black person watching today, if you can see me, you can be me. You are strong. Your voice is important. You are powerful beyond measure. When it comes to celebrating Black History Month, and when it comes to realizing Black potential, visibility is not just a possibility; it’s a necessity.

I want to thank you all. Happy Black History Month. Let’s keep moving forward and building on the progress that we’ve made.

The Attorney General.

Attorney General.

I understand the member for Ottawa–Vanier has a point of order.

There being no further business this morning, this House stands in recess until 1 p.m.

The House recessed from 1149 to 1300.

Signed by the Lieutenant Governor.

Members may take their seats.

Report deemed adopted.

Mr. Byers moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill Pr39, An Act to revive 1082472 Ontario Limited.

First reading agreed to.