The plan was to introduce my mother-in-law, Florence Warner, this morning, but I just got a note that she’s been delayed because she got started celebrating her 101st birthday this morning. She’s decided to continue to celebrate and not join us—only by watching us on television.

Florence, happy birthday.

I, too, would like to welcome members from OCUFA, particularly Paul Andrews, McMaster; Helen Booker, Guelph; Ryan Ladner, Wilfrid Laurier; Melody Viczko, Western; and OCUFA staff Michael Savage. I look forward to our meeting today.

It’s my pleasure today to welcome three of my co-op students from the Oakville community: Desha Barrow from King’s Christian Collegiate, Sarah Kadhim from Iroquois Ridge High School and Ava Nouri from King’s Christian Collegiate.

I would like to welcome, from OCUFA, Gautam Das from Lakehead University—I also want to note that Gautam helped me through some difficulties when I was teaching at Lakehead; looking forward to speaking with you again—Fabrice Colin, Laurentian University; Kristen Shaw, Northern Ontario School of Medicine Faculty and Staff Association; Todd Horton from Nipissing University Faculty Association; and Kimiko Inouye, OCUFA staff. Welcome to your House. I look forward to meeting with you this afternoon.

Bonne journée de la Francophonie. I’d like to welcome to the House, from the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, from my old stomping ground, York University, Patrick Phillips; Cliff Caines from the Ontario College of Art and Design; Dave Mason from the Toronto Metropolitan University; and Rachel Heydon from the University of Western Ontario Faculty Association. Welcome to your House. I look forward to meeting you this afternoon.

Continuing on with our guests from our isotope advocacy day: From CNIC, we have Peter D’Amico, Melody Greaves, Andrew Thiele and Sabeeh Masud; and from OPG we have Terry Campkin. We may have Karin Stephenson from McMaster, and then from our wonderful sponsors of the event, Bruce Power, we have Clint Thomas, James Scongack, and I don’t know if she’s there, Lindsay Grummett—if you’re listening, you’re in my heart. Welcome to your House. So looking forward to our lunch.

I’d love to welcome from the Canadian Academy of Osteopathy Wayne Oliver, Kristen Jarvis and Matthew Olson. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Je demande le consentement unanime pour permettre aux députés de faire des déclarations après le dépôt de projets de loi aujourd’hui pour souligner la Journée internationale de la Francophonie, avec cinq minutes accordées aux députés indépendants en tant que groupe, cinq minutes accordées à la loyale opposition de Sa Majesté et cinq minutes accordées au gouvernement de Sa Majesté.

Le député d’Orléans a demandé le consentement unanime pour permettre—

Interjection.

D’accord? I heard a no.

The government House leader, to speak to the point of order.

The supplementary question.

The Premier can respond.

J’aimerais reconnaître qu’aujourd’hui nous célébrons la Journée internationale de la Francophonie. Alors, bonne journée de la Francophonie, tout le monde.

My question is for the Premier. The NDP has unearthed new documents revealing plans for a phase 2 of the Ontario Place redevelopment that, for some reason, this government kept secret from Ontarians. We know what phase 1 is. That’s the backroom deal where government, we know, is spending hundreds of millions of public dollars and handing over public land to a private luxury spa company for 95 years. But what is phase 2 and why has the government kept it a secret from Ontario?

My question is, when was the Premier going to tell the public his secret plan to pave over Lake Ontario?

The whole Ontario Place redevelopment scheme has been cloaked in secrecy from the beginning. The Premier won’t tell the public the terms of the 95-year lease that they have with Therme. Time and again, the only reason why we know anything about this government’s real intentions is because of our own investigative work.

I would like to know, on behalf of Ontarians: What else is the Premier keeping secret from the people of Ontario?

I’m going back to the Premier. Late last year, the government jammed through a bill that would exempt all undertakings at Ontario Place from the Environmental Bill of Rights and from the Environmental Assessment Act. Did the Premier change the laws to try and get away with his secret plan to pave over Lake Ontario?

The Premier—I will remind you, Speaker—jammed through a bill that would allow the government to ignore the provincial laws when it comes to Ontario Place. I remind the members here that the bill even lets the government commit acts of misrepresentation, misfeasance, breach of trust and bad faith without any consequences, and this is the same government under RCMP criminal investigation for another scandal.

I wonder why they passed that bill. Did the Premier jam through this wildly irresponsible bill because he knew that his secret plans for Ontario Place would not survive public scrutiny or judicial review?

Interjections.

Thank you to the member opposite. Now, I’m not sure where she was on April 18, 2023, when I joined the Premier and Live Nation at Ontario Place. The entire Queen’s Park press gallery was there and that’s where we showcased the fact that we’re building a new science centre, a water park facility, a wellness facility on the west end, 50 acres of public realm space and a brand new marina, as well as a brand new amphitheatre stage for Live Nation. That is our mission for Ontario Place, and we are under construction today.

Today, we are under construction and we will make sure to bring Ontario Place back to life for the people of Ontario.

I am very excited, because construction is under way at Ontario Place, and finally, after years and years of neglect, the people of Ontario will have a wonderful Ontario Place to enjoy with their families.

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition nailed it: It’s “no, no, no, no” to everything we do, and that’s why we’re in the position we were in when we inherited a bankrupt province five and a half years ago. Let’s move forward now.

We’re putting $184 billion into infrastructure. We’re building $50 billion worth of new hospitals. We’re building the 413 and the Bradford Bypass. We’re adding new doctors; we’re adding new nurses. But guess what? “No, no, no, no.” That’s why we walked into an absolute disaster when we inherited this province.

But guess what? We’re the leaders in the world. We’re an economic powerhouse now. We have $28 billion of EV vehicles being built here in Ontario. We have tens of billions in tech. We have $3 billion when it comes to life sciences. Everyone in the world is talking about Ontario Place.

Thank God you and the Liberals aren’t still in charge. It would be a complete disaster.

Interjections.

Order. I’ll remind the members to make their comments through the Chair.

Final supplementary.

The Premier.

Minister of Infrastructure.

What they are is a shady government under investigation by the RCMP. That’s what they are, and we won’t forget it.

Speaker, we now know that the Premier has been secretly planning to pave over a portion of Lake Ontario for more than three years. He pushed for a secret deal to hand over public land to a private luxury spa operator for 95 years—95 years. Who does that? Then he changed environmental and integrity laws just to force through his personal vanity project. If that doesn’t smell bad, I don’t know what does.

To the Premier: What are the real plans for Ontario Place, and which of the Premier’s insider friends are set to benefit?

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker, let’s go with the NDP and Liberal plan. Let’s leave it just the way it was—weeds growing up; no one’s going to Ontario Place. It just sat absolutely bare. Or let’s go with our plan that’s going to be the number one tourist attraction, not just in Ontario but in Canada. Mark my words.

The ironic thing is, their families, their constituents, guess where they’re going? They’re going to the brand new Ontario Place. Even Therme told me one time, “We build world-class facilities around the world. They roll out the red carpet.” But here in Toronto, with the NDP and the Liberals, it’s a whole different ballgame. They don’t believe in creating anything.

That’s the reason, under their leadership, they chased 300,000 jobs out of this province, made it uncompetitive compared to today. There’s 700,000 people collecting a paycheque, being able to put a deposit down on anything they may want because we are an economic powerhouse, and it kills them. It actually kills them to see we’re thriving as a province—world-class.

I’ve been listening to the Premier and the minister’s non-answers this morning. I can tell you, I was at the government’s press conference in April 2023 and you did not disclose the full vision for Ontario Place. The only reason we know about your plan to pave over a portion of Lake Ontario is because we got it through freedom-of-information requests.

This government had this deal cloaked in secrecy from the beginning, and they refused to release the terms of the 95-year lease. Now they won’t tell anything about what they call phase 2 of the plans for Ontario Place. What else is the Premier keeping secret from the people of Ontario?

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the member.

Again, we held a competitive process in 2019 to bring Ontario Place back to life. In 2021, we partnered—we announced our partners, which are Live Nation and Therme. And in April 2023, the member just admitted that he was at Ontario Place when our government made the announcement where we shared that we would build a new science centre, a wellness water park facility, 50 acres of public realm space, and a brand new amphitheatre and Live Nation stage. The member just admitted that he was there at the announcement. That is our focus now. Our focus is to construct the vision that we shared in April when the member was there with us.

Mr. Speaker, in the new deal, we will be providing operational funding for transit; we will be providing funding for the city of Toronto to keep TTC riders safe. Contingent upon federal funding, we will also be providing funding for our homeless and for shelters.

We’re very proud of the new deal that we landed in the fall and the legislation that was presented before Christmas. And of course, we’re very happy to continue to work with the city of Toronto to bring Ontario Place back to life so that families can enjoy the site once again.

The minister won’t release the secret 95-year deal, and that says it all.

Late last year, the Conservatives passed Bill 154, which exempted the Ontario Place redevelopment project from obligations under the Environmental Bill of Rights and the Environmental Assessment Act. The bill was jammed through this House with little public input.

Did the Premier push through this bill because he wanted to avoid the public scrutiny of his secret plan to pave over Lake Ontario?

Interjections.