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.

It’s a pleasure today to introduce two very important people to me. Many people here know these two individuals. The first one had her booties changed when she was learning how to walk upstairs and got a big cake when she was a page here: my daughter, who has now turned 19—she’s not a baby anymore like she was up in the gallery when I got first elected 18, 19 years—Victoria Varner. You can just wave to people.

The second person is my husband, Joe, who, of course, was my campaign manager over the past six elections. I fired him many times, but he has stood by me, particularly for the last couple of years when I’ve been sick. When I lost control, this guy took the driver’s seat and he looked after the wheel. He’s here today too. You can wave.

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.

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.

My question is for the Minister of Finance.

Speaker, under the previous Liberal government, supported by the NDP, businesses left our province in droves. In contrast, under the leadership of our Premier, our government has welcomed record levels of investments, job growth, and businesses.

Unfortunately, the federal government has decided to punish hard-working people and business owners with a regressive carbon tax—a tax that is set to, believe it or not, increase 23% next month. It is not right or fair that people and businesses have to bear an additional cost that is forced on them, especially at a time when all governments need to prioritize affordability.

Can the minister please tell this House what our government is doing to help Ontario families and businesses cope with the high cost of the carbon tax?

When it comes to the negative impact of the carbon tax, everyone shares the same concerns.

While our government continues to keep costs down for the people of Ontario, the federal Liberals remain persistent on their position in hiking this tax. On top of that, their provincial counterparts are in support of this money-grabbing practice.

Under the carbon tax queen, Bonnie Crombie, the Liberal members in this House refuse to acknowledge their constituents’ struggles, refuse to bring forward people’s concerns on the carbon tax and refuse to fight against the federal government’s unjust action. That’s not what the people in their ridings elected them to do.

Can the minister please explain, if the independent Liberals won’t help and the federal Liberals won’t listen, what our government is doing to ensure Ontario’s economy continues to thrive and prosper in 2024 and beyond?

Thank you to the member for your question and the great work that you do in the riding of Brantford–Brant.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday we heard Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie refuse again to call for an end to the federal Liberal carbon tax. That same Liberal carbon tax is set to increase in Ontario in just under two weeks.

Whether here or in Ottawa, both Liberal Parties are doubling down on making life more expensive and more unaffordable for Ontarians.

But our government is standing up for the people of this great province. This is why we will not stop the work to lower costs, cut taxes and make life more affordable. And that’s why we continue to call on the federal government to do the right thing and finally scrap the tax.

Speaker, on this side of the aisle, we know that things are expensive right now. That’s why we took action to cut the price of gas, to lower the cost of transit and to eliminate tolls right across the province. We are putting billions of dollars back in the pockets of Ontarians. In fact, since we cut the gas tax, we’ve put $2.1 billion in the pockets of Ontarians.

But across the aisle is a Liberal Party who have yet to find a tax they didn’t like to raise. When it comes to cutting the gas tax and saving our drivers money, they voted no. But when it comes to standing up for Ontarians against the federal Liberal carbon tax, their leader made it clear that it wasn’t her problem.

Mr. Speaker, it’s time for Ontario Liberals to decide if they are for Ontario or if they are for an expensive and tax-loving federal government.

La ministre de la Santé.

Supplementary.

The next question, the member for London West.

To reply, the Minister of Colleges and Universities.