I’d like to welcome to the Legislature the parents of page Anushga Trivedi from my riding: her dad, Biren, and her mom, Truph.

For International Women’s Day, I want to recognize and welcome some incredible women from Parkdale–High Park who are in the galleries today as my guests. We have Karen Allmen, co-founder and coordinator at the Bloor West Food Bank; Maggie Galloway, who joined the Bloor West Food Bank as a volunteer and now has moved into her current role as coordinator; and also Mary Anne Waterhouse, co-founder of Bloor West Food Bank, although she cannot be here today. Speaker, these women are devoted to bringing community together to tackle food insecurity and foster sustainable practices.

They have with them their guests: Maureen Sirois, Karen’s sister; Arthur Galloway, Maggie’s husband; as well as Angela Gei, Wendy Lyon and Carolyn Anne, volunteers at the Bloor West Food Bank.

I would like to welcome the parents of our page captain, Paras Sodhi: his dad, Sandeep Sodhi; mother, Rajni Sodhi; and sisters, Akriti Sodhi and Kriti Sodhi. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I had the pleasure this morning of meeting with representatives from the Sickle Cell Awareness Group of Ontario: Delaney Hines, Dr. Jacob Pendergrast, Fitz-Ann Howell and Simone Griffith, a fantastic representative from Hamilton. Thank you so much for educating me. I also want to thank MPP Cuzzetto for his support of that group. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to welcome, from my constituency of Newmarket, Kara and Max Bilo, who is also a friend of Skye Baker, a page from Newmarket.

I’d also like to give a warm welcome to Derek Rowland, who is from my hospital, Southlake Regional Health Centre. Welcome to your House.

Yesterday was a wonderful, wonderful day in Brampton North. I spent the afternoon down at Loafer’s Lake. If you haven’t had a chance to walk around Loafer’s Lake on a sunny day, Mr. Speaker, you really ought to try it.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of showing off Loafer’s Lake to Ontario’s terrific Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. We were joined by Brampton’s mayor and city council, as well as a ton of local community groups, namely the People Against Littering, the Brampton Environmental Alliance, Heart Lake Happenings, the Guru Nanak Mission Centre and, of course, the legendary Heart Lake Turtle Troopers.

We were happy to see the minister and even happier when she brought a big cheque with her. I’m pleased to report to the House that the Ontario government is investing in Loafer’s Lake and the surrounding wetlands through a wetland preservation grant to a total of $2.5 million. This money will be used for a few purposes: restoring the Loafer’s Lake shoreline, combatting invasive species, enhancing the natural flood mitigation around Etobicoke Creek, planting 6,500 trees up near Conservation Drive and more. All of this work will happen by the end of 2024.

Speaker, restoring the Loafer’s Lake shoreline is a task I’ve been seized with for literally a year and a half. I’m thrilled we’re getting it done this early in my term. Yesterday was a wonderful, wonderful day.

I’d like to introduce two constituents: Tracy MacDonald—she is the CEO of Trillium Mutual—and Julie Garner; she is the board chair with Trillium Mutual Insurance. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I would like to welcome guests from Terrace Bay. They’ve come a long way to be here: the president of United Steelworkers Local 665, Stephen Downey; executive members Warren Sutherland, Michelle Richardson and David Mayry; and USW staff representative Cody Alexander.

Thank you so much for coming. Welcome to your House.

It’s my pleasure to welcome great friends from the Sickle Cell Awareness Group of Ontario: Lanre Tungi-Ajayi, Timothy Tunji-Ajayi, Doreen Alexander, Delaney Hines, Dr. Robert Klaassen and Dr. Jacob Pendergrast. Welcome to your House.

I rise today to wish my daughter, who’s turning 6 today—

Interjections.

She’s going to be 6 years old today, yes. Star Smith said that she’d like to be here with Daddy, so somewhere along the line, I’m going to have to train her to become a member of this House.

This question is for the Premier. Our plan to remove tolls on trucks on Highway 407 would save people money and time. It would help ease traffic for everybody. Across the province, people clearly support this common-sense solution. Why is this government willing to sit back and let a private company continue to profit off Ontario drivers instead of doing something to make life easier for them?

Look, this isn’t about truckers. This isn’t about the 407. This is the NDP’s continued opposition to Highway 413. They continue to listen to the protest groups. The people of this province sent a very loud and clear message to that member and the previous Liberal leader and the current Liberal leader, who has actually continued on this campaign to cancel the 413.

Come to Brampton, come to Mississauga and listen to the challenges people are facing on the streets every single day and the gridlock that they are facing. Our government is committed to building $30 billion worth of infrastructure—roads, highways—all across this province and that is exactly what we will do. We’ll continue on our path forward to build Highway 413.

Let’s talk about the changes that we’ve made, whether it was getting rid of the val tags, $125 per car or truck, or the reduction of the gas tax by close to 10 cents a litre. That member has never once supported any of those measures that we have put forward for drivers across this province. Will that member stand up and call her federal counterpart and the Prime Minister and say a 23% increase in the carbon tax is unacceptable and they will not stand for it, and stand with truckers as we oppose that increase in the carbon tax?

Let me get this right: You’re against the 412 and 418. You voted against getting rid of the tolls. You voted against the 413. You voted against the Bradford Bypass. You voted against the largest transit expansion in North America. Which way are you going today? Are you going one way, are you going the other way?

At the end of the day, we’ve done more for the taxpayers of Ontario than any government in the history of this province, reducing the cost and burden of being taxed to death. You’re for taxes; we’re against taxes.

Thank you for the question. We have—and I’ve told this House many times—been working since the second that mill idled to get it open again, and my greatest respect to the steelworkers that are here today that have joined us that are concerned about their jobs. We are equally concerned about their jobs and the best thing that can happen is that mill reopens. We will be remorseless in our—sorry, in our—blah, blah, blah. Some days you’ve got it and some days you don’t. But we will not stop in our efforts to get this mill open.

You know, Mr. Speaker, I heard their media studio piece this morning, and they talked about all the things that we’re actually already doing, including making investments in the forestry industry to make sure that there’s a forestry industry in the future we can all count on. And the NDP and the Liberals had 15 years to do that. They did not do it. We’re doing it every day. We’re supporting that sector every day.

Meanwhile, we’re working the phones. We’re looking for the opportunities. We’re looking for the operators. We’re the ones making the investments in the forestry sector to make sure that Terrace Bay and Schreiber and every community in the north can benefit from a strong forestry sector: $60 million announced last week invested in biomass and the forestry sector, the same product that gets used in those mills, because we’re looking towards not only today, but to the future.

So to the opposition: Stand up and join us. You know we’re doing the right things. Stop playing games and let’s get this done. Let’s get it done for everybody.

Interjections.

No, Minister, this is about getting some relief for people today, not 10 years from now.

I’m going to bring my question back to the Premier. This is about political will. The Minister of Transportation said yesterday that it would be just too difficult to scrap tolls on Highway 407 because it’s owned by a private entity. He even admitted to journalists that it is within the government’s power to renegotiate the 407 contract, but they’re not willing to do it.

So my question back to the Premier is, why is this Premier so afraid of taking on the 407 operator?

Interjections.

Yesterday we gave them a chance to reverse their soft-on-tolls policies and actually do something, but they refused. Back to the Premier: When are you going to start prioritizing the interests of Ontarians instead of big corporations?

Interjections.

My next question is back to the Premier. In January, it was announced that the AV Terrace Bay pulp mill would close indefinitely, throwing 400 workers out of work. Workers from the mill, members of USW Local 665, are here today. I welcome them. They’re watching us now and they’re looking for answers from this government.

This is a viable mill in a competitive industry. If this mill is allowed to shut down, somebody else is going to open a mill outside of Ontario to do the same work.

Can the Premier tell these workers and the people of Terrace Bay what they are doing to save these jobs and get this mill back up and running?

And what is this government doing? They are saying the same things they always say; they’re making these empty promises. Those workers came a long way today to hear this government say, “We are going to fight for you and we are going to fight for northern Ontario.”

When will this Premier fight for the people of Terrace Bay?

Interjections.

To reply for the government, the Minister of Transportation.

Minister of Transportation.

The Premier.

Interjections.

Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry.

Members will please take their seats.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Okay, I’m going to start calling out members by name to come to order.

Interjections.

Start the clock.

The supplementary question: the member for Thunder Bay–Superior North.

Thank you. And I’d like to say, the biomass projects have nothing to do with helping the workers in Terrace Bay. There has been no communication with the workers in Terrace Bay whatsoever.

The owners of the mill, the Aditya Birla Group, received nearly $130 million from the province with an expectation that, when they purchased the mill, they were in for the long hail and the community could depend on the jobs. The town, the workers there and all the surrounding communities don’t have two years to wait until maybe another multinational thinks they can get a good deal on a mill that actually produces some of the best pulp in the world.

There has been no communication with the workers and almost no communication with the town leadership, so everybody is waiting to hear something.

So I want to know now, today, with workers who have travelled all the way here from Terrace Bay, what is the government doing, specifically, to bring back jobs for the workers at Terrace Bay, to bring that mill back to life?

Interjections.

My question is for the Minister of Education. Our government agrees with parents in Ontario: Students need to be in class getting back-to-basics education. Last week, we heard the minister tell this House that Ontario is second in the nation in reading, writing and math, top 10 in science and top 15 in math internationally. We need to keep this momentum going. We must work to keep children learning and provide them with the stability they deserve so they can continue to succeed in school.

Can the minister please explain what’s being done to support students in Ontario and ensure they stay in class without interruptions from threats of union strikes?

Speaker, our next generation have big, bold dreams for their futures. It is of critical importance that they have our support to develop the skills, understanding and self-efficacy they need to grow and thrive. Our government must continue to put education first, deliver stability and invest in students’ potential.

Can the minister please tell the House how our government is preparing Ontario students for future success?

I thank my honourable colleague for the question. Let me make it very clear: Our government will do whatever it takes to protect every single child and youth in our province. There is no room in our system for providers who refuse to provide high-quality care, full stop.

Our government didn’t need another report to tell us. We took action. We created 20 new inspector positions across the province. We increased the number of inspections across homes. We increased the number of unannounced inspections that were being done. We improved the quality of the child welfare data to establish a common standard for every children’s aid society across the province.

These actions have demonstrated that, once again, we will do whatever it takes to protect every child and youth in our province. It’s the moral and legal obligation of every provider to make sure they protect children and youth. We will hold them to account every single time.

On action, as I mentioned earlier, it was our government that said actions were not taken. Enough was not done to support the children and youth, which is why we had the consultations with Indigenous leadership. The Ontario Indigenous Children and Youth Strategy is co-developed by the Indigenous communities with the Indigenous leadership.

And we took action. As I mentioned to you, Mr. Speaker, we increased the number of inspectors across the province. We increased the number of unannounced inspections. We posted just this past summer that we are looking at increasing fines, all to make sure that those providers that are looking after our children and youth in this province know that they have a moral and legal obligation to look after them. We will hold them to account.