The Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.

Supplementary question.

To reply, the member for Thunder Bay–Atikokan and parliamentary assistant.

Don’t worry, that’s going to happen. That’s going to happen.

Speaker, we spend a lot of time in here talking about this government’s scandals—the greenbelt grab, the cover-up, G*, the RCMP criminal investigation of this government—but one of the biggest scandals in this province is the fact that more than 2.2 million Ontarians don’t have a primary care doctor. The health of Ontarians is at risk and that risk increases with every single passing day that this government fails to deliver.

My question to the Premier is, exactly how long will he keep people waiting for a doctor?

My question to the Premier is, why is this Premier letting paperwork stand between doctors and patients?

Minister, doctors are leaving the system faster than anyone can recruit them because of this exact issue. Doctors should be spending their time with patients, not with paperwork. Why does the government continue to complicate this issue? Doctors are spending 19 hours per week on administrative tasks. If they could spend that time with patients instead, it would be like adding 2,000 more doctors. That would reduce the primary care wait-list by 90%, Speaker—a practical solution, a simple solution.

Why won’t the government get the paperwork off doctors’ desks?

Good morning. Last weekend, a nursing station in Cat Lake burnt down. This is a letter from a 10-year-old worried about his access to health care:

“Dear Sol Mamakwa MPP,

“I am 10 years old and from Cat Lake First Nation.

“Our health clinic burnt down this past weekend.

“We need your help. I am feeling sick as I write this.

“Please take this seriously and get us help.

“Brysen Wesley, Cat Lake.”

To the Premier: Will you make sure Brysen and Cat Lake have the access to health care that they need?

Interjections.

We are deeply saddened to hear about the fire at the Cat Lake nursing station. Minister Rickford has reached out to Cat Lake First Nation Chief Russell Wesley to reassure him and the community of Cat Lake that our government will be there to support them.

We remain in contact with Cat Lake leadership as the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre carries out their work. Our government stands with the families and community members of Cat Lake and is mobilizing quickly to ensure supports are available.

Nurses are still in the community and working out of the MNR building. Additional nurses and emergency medical equipment have already been sent to the community. We continue to monitor the situation, and we will also continue to work with community partners in Cat Lake to address this tragic situation.

Access to health care is the responsibility of the Minister of Health. For decades, residents of Cat Lake had access to excellent nurses and nurse practitioners, but their nursing station burnt down. They cannot just go to the nearest walk-in clinic. This is a fly-in First Nation community. They have no access to care.

Is the Minister of Health going to simply abandon the 650 residents of Cat Lake, like the 2.2 million Ontarians that do not have access to family physicians?

I love these questions because it gives me an opportunity to talk about the investments that our government, under Premier Ford, has been able to make in primary care multidisciplinary teams—78 new or expanded primary care teams, multidisciplinary teams, which means doctors working with nurse practitioners, working with nurses, with dietitians, with mental health workers. It is historic that we have seen this investment and, respectfully, the investments are happening across Ontario: 78 different teams in Toronto, in Ottawa, in Orillia. Where we see the need, we have made those investments, a tripling of the investment that we announced under our Your Health plan.

But having said that, we’ve already made changes. The expanded scope of practice that we have announced and embarked on, particularly in pharmacies—we now have over 800,000 people who are accessing their local community pharmacist to deal with minor ailments. Those are changes that our government has been able to put in, working with our partners. We’ve expanded scope of practice for nurse practitioners. We’ve expanded scope of practice for RNs. And we continue to do that work because we know people need to be able to see the appropriate clinician, depending on the issues and illnesses that they’re dealing with.

Speaker, numbers matter. It would have been over 200 new physicians in the province of Ontario.

We are actively working with our partners like the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. A single ministerial directive letter ensured that internationally educated graduates who are waiting and want to practise in the province of Ontario have that opportunity. The direction was to quickly assess, review, and when appropriate, license people who are waiting to practise in the province of Ontario. We’ll continue to get the work done. Thank you.

There is no doubt, when these catastrophic events happen, that we all need to work together. The member opposite knows that this was a federal nursing station. We will absolutely be there as a provincial partner, but we have to make sure that all of us are working together for the people of Cat Lake. Thank you.

My question is for the Minister of Energy. People in my riding of Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound are concerned about the harmful impact of the federal carbon tax. So far, the federal government has increased the carbon tax not once, but five times.

To make things even worse, they plan on increasing it another seven times by 2030. This is ridiculous. Since the implementation of this tax, Ontarians have been paying more and more every single day for food, for services and for transportation. These dire effects are felt by our trucking industry, which serves a crucial role in transporting the goods we need in our daily lives.

Can the minister please further explain the impact of the federal carbon tax on Ontario’s trucking industry?

Thank you to the minister for that response.

Speaker, it’s not just truckers who are being adversely impacted by the carbon tax; it’s all commuters. The rising cost of fuel is affecting individuals and families in every corner of our province. They should not have to be burdened with additional costs when it comes to driving to work or driving their kids to school.

We know the people of Ontario deserve better. That’s why our government will continue to keep costs down for Ontarians so they can keep more money in their own pockets where it belongs.

Can the minister explain what our government is doing to counteract the federal carbon tax and make life more affordable for Ontario commuters?

My question is to the Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism.

During the 2022 provincial election, the minister said Pearen Park would be a priority as construction on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT extension takes place. In fact, I’ll quote from a letter the minister wrote to the community: “If elected as your representative at Queen’s Park ... I will be in the best position to bring your concerns forward to Metrolinx and will work with you directly on this issue.”

Speaker, members of the Mount Dennis community are here today, and they haven’t heard from their minister in two years despite their countless appeals to get his ear and to have meetings.

So my question is a simple one: Minister, why did you break your promise to your community?

Our friends from Mount Dennis here today can affirm this is true. Mount Dennis residents face an opaque and arrogant Metrolinx bureaucracy that would rather rip up 1,500 trees and bulldoze parkland than listen to community concerns.

Speaker, we can have great public transit and urban forests right here in Ontario, but we need leadership to help get that done.

My question is back to the minister: Will you keep your promise and fight for the people of Mount Dennis, Minister of Multiculturalism and Citizenship?

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker, here you have it again: absolute NIMBYism everywhere you go. Anywhere this government is trying to build a project, the NDP and the Liberals oppose every single thing that we are doing.

The previous Liberal government—15 years of absolute inaction in this province, doing absolutely nothing to build.

And what does the NDP do when we’re making record and historic investments of over $70 billion in the next 10 years? They’re standing with those who want to protest and stop the building of transit in our communities across Ontario.

The time to build is right now. Our government is getting shovels in the ground. We will take no lessons from the NDP or the previous Liberal government that did absolutely nothing to build infrastructure in this province. That is why we are committed to building $80 billion, over the next 10 years, in public transit and investing close to $30 billion in highways and roads across this province. The people of this province deserve it, and we’ll get those shovels in the ground.

We’re not going to take lessons from the NDP or the Liberals that did nothing for 15 years when it came to building this province.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Supplementary question.

To reply, the Minister of Transportation.

Minister of Transportation.

The Minister of Transportation has a few extra seconds to finish up his answer.

We have with us in the Legislature a former member who was here for many years as the member for Leeds–Grenville: Bob Runciman. Welcome back to the Legislature. It’s great to see you here. Your timing, as always, is perfect.

We’ve long had a convention in this House that we don’t make reference to the absence of a member who might be away for any given reason from the House on any given day. I don’t think it’s a road we want to go down where we start drawing attention to whether or not members are attending a sufficient number of community events. I think if we give that some thought, we’ll conclude that that’s not a good road that we want to go down—if we think it through.

Start the clock. The next question.

Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. I’m glad that my predecessor Senator Runciman is here, because I know he agrees with this question.

Speaker, there is fierce competition across the globe to attract and retain skilled, talented workers. We know affordability issues are a big consideration when workers are deciding where they should call home. That’s why, as a government, we’ve taken concrete action to do our part to lower costs for households.

But unfortunately, the Liberals are proceeding with hiking their carbon tax on April 1. Their carbon tax is going to see the price of gas increase by 37 cents a litre in 2030 while home-heating costs skyrocket. It’s almost like they’re deliberately trying to hurt the pocketbooks of hard-working families and chase those talented workers out of our province. It’s a shame that the Liberals in this House still support the carbon tax.

Speaker, can the minister please explain how the carbon tax hurts the Ontario workers that are powering our economy?

We all know that the carbon tax is a tax on every single family, on every single worker in Ontario. We have the best talent pool in the world. We’re better educated than any OECD country: 71% of Ontarians have a post-secondary degree, 70,000 annual STEM grads, 420,000 tech workers, 100,000 auto workers, 85,000 AI workers, 72,000 life sciences workers. Our economy needs these workers, but the carbon tax hurts them and the carbon tax risks chasing all of them away. We need to axe the tax.

The Liberals need to stop making it harder for these companies to expand and to grow. They need to scrap the tax today.

Supplementary question.

The Attorney General.

The supplementary question.

To reply, the Premier.

Back to the minister: I want to thank him for his answer. I think we can all agree that the talent we have in Ontario is second to none. As economies across the world grapple with aging populations that are exiting their workforce, the race for talent is going to heat up. It has never been more important for us to foster the conditions to retain and to attract skilled workers. That’s why we’ve been so adamant as a government in our efforts to put more money back into the pockets of hard-working Ontarians who have earned it.

The Liberals want to do the opposite with their carbon tax. They want to take more money out of people’s pockets with a carbon tax hike every single solitary year. We’ve never supported the Liberal tax grab, and I can assure everyone in this House that, under the leadership of Premier Ford, we will never support the carbon tax.

Can the minister please highlight how the carbon tax jeopardizes the progress that we’ve made in key sectors?

My question is to the Minister of Health. Yan Ping Ye lives in the Chinatown area, and she doesn’t have a family doctor. After not sleeping and feeling dizzy for four days, she had no choice but to go to the Toronto Western emergency room, one of the busiest hospitals in Ontario. Yan waited seven hours overnight, but eventually left without a prescription or help because there was no one in the emergency room who spoke Cantonese or Mandarin, and Yan is not fluent in English.

Minister, do you think it’s acceptable that thousands of people in the Chinatown area have to go to an emergency room for non-urgent care because they don’t have access to a family doctor?

The family doctor shortage in Toronto is bad and it is getting worse. In Chinatown, five doctors have already retired and two more are about to retire, which means over 7,000 people are going to be without a family doctor.

I am worried that this government is driving the primary health care system into the ground.

Minister, what is your plan to address the worsening family doctor and primary care provider shortage in underserved areas like Chinatown?

With the greatest of respect, where was the member when we were increasing scope of practice for pharmacies to ensure that people did not have to access emergency departments as their only option but had the opportunity to visit their local community pharmacy? Some 800,000 people since that policy was brought into place in January 2023 have accessed that service. It’s critically important.

I look at all the investments that we are making in the Toronto region specifically related to the primary care expansion: $110 million that we’re increasing access to primary care. We are getting it done by making the investments very strategically to ensure people get access to care.

When we make investments of $110 million to make sure that we have sufficient primary care access in the province of Ontario, this member and this party votes against it. That’s what we are seeing in this government.

This government is relentless. If there isn’t a ready-made opportunity, they will create a way to insert their friends and insiders into every public good in Ontario. They did it with the greenbelt. They did it with Ontario Place. They did it with ServiceOntario. And now they’re putting their own former Conservative staffers into the judicial system.

My question is for the Premier. How can Ontarians trust a court that has been overtly and intentionally poisoned with blatant political bias?

Interjections.

Trust in our judicial system is absolutely key to the functioning of our democracy. One only needs to look to our neighbours to the south to see where the politicization of justice leads.

How could the Attorney General possibly think that this overt and blatant politicization of our judicial system won’t erode that trust—unless that is the endgame.

Interjections.

I just want to cast back to last year, when the member from Oakville North–Burlington brought a motion forward on Keira’s Law, saying that we should require that judges take mandatory training, as they come to the bench, and JPs take mandatory training, as they take their positions, on sexual assault and sexual violence. Do you know what happened with that motion? It was unanimously supported by this House, Mr. Speaker. When we then incorporated Keira’s Law into the Strengthening Safety and Modernizing Justice Act, 2023, everybody in the House spoke in favour of that piece of legislation.

When we talk about diversity and we want to increase the diversity of the bench, people say, “Absolutely, you need to do that.” And when we talk about raising awareness of victims’ perspectives and issues, people say, “Absolutely.” And I can tell you, Mr. Speaker—you know where this is going—when we say we want to have tough-on-crime judges and JPs, the House says, “Oh, no, no. We can’t have a perspective.” Well, we do have a—

Interjections.