My question is for the Premier. People are sick and tired of this government’s failure to address the housing crisis, which is the primary driver of the affordability crisis. Rents are sky-high and young people are wondering if they’ll ever be able to afford to own a home. And now the Premier says no to legalizing missing middle homes, no to the fastest way of increasing housing supply where infrastructure already exists, no to homes that ordinary people can afford in the communities they love.

So I say to the Premier: Build homes people can afford. Legalize missing middle homes province-wide. The Premier has a choice. He can either choose to be Premier NIMBY, or he can choose to say yes to removing the barriers to housing. Which one will he choose today?

But here’s the bottom line: This government took $5.1 billion for infrastructure away from municipalities. They’ve given half back. That will not get the job done, especially when the Premier says no to building homes where the infrastructure already exists.

We know that the cheapest and fastest way to increase housing supply is to build missing middle homes where we already have infrastructure. As a matter of fact, if only 18% of single-family homes became a fourplex, that would be two million homes where we already have infrastructure. So the government needs to say yes to more homes that people can afford, yes to more choices, yes to vibrant communities.

So the question is, will they say yes to removing the barriers to missing middle homes province-wide?

I want to thank the member for the question. No doubt, we live in big country out there in northern Ontario, and it costs a lot to get around.

Just this weekend, I read a post from the member from Kiiwetinoong. He pointed out that a fruit salad costs $30.35. We learned that butter is $8 a pound, flour more than $25 for 10 kilograms. These are all double the cost that we would pay here in southern Ontario, and those prices are already high.

Now, I don’t want to refute the member’s notion that the grocery stores up there, including the Northern Store, have a peculiar pricing model, but there is no dispute about the fact that it’s the cost of transporting those goods and the carbon tax that’s embedded in it that is driving those costs up. When communities are asking for upgrades to roads, to build bridges and infrastructure, they’re facing a 25% cost increase, and that’s unacceptable.

My question this morning is for the Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Northern Development. Unlike other parts of our province, the north faces unique barriers regarding fuel costs. Northern residents rely more heavily on their vehicles to go to work, to visit family and friends and to run their daily errands. The carbon tax is negatively impacting these communities as they’re hit hardest at the gas pumps.

It’s disgraceful that the federal government is forcing this burdensome tax on the people who need financial relief the most. And it’s also disgraceful that the Liberals and the NDP in this Legislature continue to downplay the impact of the carbon tax on individuals and families in northern Ontario.

Speaker, can the minister please tell this House why northern and Indigenous communities in Ontario cannot afford the federal carbon tax?

While our government continues to take leadership in addressing Ontarians’ affordability concerns, we need all parties in this Legislature to do the same. Speaker, can the minister please explain the detrimental effects that the carbon tax is having on the people, communities and businesses in northern Ontario?

This bill, which has the short title, Fewer Backlogs and Less Partisan Tribunals Act, would, if passed, establish an independent adjudicative tribunal justice council to see that governments fulfill their obligations as set out in the Adjudicative Tribunals Accountability, Governance and Appointments Act, 2009. The council will monitor the appointment, operational and severance policies of Ontario’s tribunals. It will have proactive approval, reporting and investigative powers, and its chair will be an officer of the Legislative Assembly.

Ontarians deserve accessible, timely, expert, inclusive, impartial and just resolutions to everyday legal disputes, provided by tribunals such as the Landlord and Tenant Board. If governments stop leaving vacancies while waiting for “like-minded” or patronage appointees to tribunals, we’ll be better served. You don’t have to look further than the distress caused by long delays at the Landlord and Tenant Board.

Everyday justice has to work—

When the Minister of Energy and I sat down with a community leader from way up north, the first thing he wanted to express was his concern about further increases to diesel fuel, which is the source of energy for that community.

I was in Ottawa last week, speaking to some of my federal counterparts. Tone deaf is the feeling I left with—perplexing. How is it that the province of Ontario, perhaps advancing the single biggest environmental policy as a sub-sovereign government, from earth to electric vehicles and mines to motors—this amazing, incredible opportunity for a fully integrated supply chain that will reduce GHG emissions, yet a carbon tax is going to be slapped on every single aspect of the production of those critical minerals to make this world a greener place to live. It’s unacceptable on every level, and it’s time to just scrap the tax.

Under this government, a quarter of elementary schools and a third of high schools are facing daily teacher shortages. Nearly half have daily EA shortages. Instead of fixing the problem, the government invested millions of dollars to try and convince parents that everything is okay in our schools, with ads that the Auditor General said are too partisan and not supported by any evidence. Why does the Minister of Education think it’s okay to spend on partisan ads but not invest in our kids?

Will the Minister of Education support the NDP motion today to ban partisan advertising, like his party promised in 2018?

It is ironic to get a question from New Democrats or Liberals on the teacher supply issue when they opposed a common-sense provision supported by every trustee and principals’ association to allow and leverage retired educators in the front of class.

It isn’t surprising, in a way, because this is part of a track record of opposition to common sense. They opposed 3,000 more front-line teachers and 7,500 more education workers in our schools today. They opposed a provision that cut certification timelines by 50% in Bill 98, the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act. Of course they opposed the removal of regulation 274, the punitive, regressive regulation on seniority hiring, because they conceived it.

It is our Premier who is standing up to ensure we have qualified educators to go back to basics in Ontario schools. We’ll take no lessons from the members opposite, who have opposed every step of progress on the way, instead of standing up for quality education in this province.

We are making a difference. We know there is more to do, but the most important that we can do, as parliamentarians, is to stand up to ensure children remain in school without disruption. And that is exactly what our Premier, exactly what our government is doing: ensuring stability, hope and opportunity for the next generation of students in this province.

I appreciate the question from the member from Hastings–Lennox and Addington because he does really get it, because he’s working and listening with farmers every day, which I wish the federal Liberals and provincial Liberals would do as well. If they did, they would actually be hearing first-hand how the carbon tax is causing everything to go up with regard to production.

Just on Thursday, I was at the Christian Farmers annual AGM and the chair actually asked me to thank the Premier for listening. To give you an example, grain farmers have estimated that by the year 2030, the grain farmers across the province of Ontario will be paying $2.7 billion in carbon—

Just on Saturday, I was at the Grey County Federation of Agriculture meeting. The apple farmers from the Georgian Bay fruit growers specifically asked that the federal government pass C-234 immediately, because it too is raising the cost of cooling their buildings so that they can keep apples year-round for Ontario consumption.

Moreover, though, Speaker, you need to know the greenhouse growers have been charged an additional $16 million in 2023, but by 2030, when the carbon tax triples, they’re going to be paying almost $90,000 an acre.

Again, do the honourable thing once and for all and tell those—

A point of order on two big milestones this morning on the government benches: a 30th birthday and a 40th birthday. The 30th, of course, is to Minister Michael Ford, and the 40th to the great parliamentary assistant to long-term care, John Jordan. Happy birthday, gentlemen.

Deferred vote on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

Bill 168, An Act to implement the Low Impact Development Stormwater Management Guidance Manual and to report on stormwater management guidelines periodically / Projet de loi 168, Loi mettant en oeuvre le Manuel d’orientation sur la gestion des eaux pluviales par un aménagement à faible impact et visant la rédaction de rapports périodiques sur les lignes directrices en matière de gestion des eaux pluviales.

The ayes are 34; the nays are 66.

Minister of Education.

Supplementary question?

The division bells rang from 1140 to 1145.

On March 21, 2024, Mrs. McCrimmon moved second reading of Bill 168, An Act to implement the Low Impact Development Stormwater Management Guidance Manual and to report on stormwater management guidelines periodically.

All those in favour will please rise and remain standing until recognized by the Clerk.

Second reading negatived.

The House recessed from 1149 to 1300.

Mr. Hsu moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 179, An Act to establish the Adjudicative Tribunal Justice Council and to improve the transparency, independence and capacities of administrative tribunals / Projet de loi 179, Loi visant à créer le Conseil de justice régissant les tribunaux décisionnels et à améliorer la transparence, l’indépendance et les capacités des tribunaux décisionnels.

First reading agreed to.

Ms. Scott moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill Pr41, An Act to revive Qui Vive Island Club Inc.

First reading agreed to.

This petition is entitled “Pass Anti-Scab Labour Legislation.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the use of replacement workers undermines workers’ collective power, unnecessarily prolongs labour disputes, and removes the essential power that the withdrawal of labour is supposed to give workers to help end a dispute, that is, the ability to apply economic pressure;

“Whereas the use of scab labour contributes to higher-conflict picket lines, jeopardizes workplace safety, destabilizes normalized labour relations between workers and their employers and removes the employer incentive to negotiate and settle fair contracts; and

“Whereas strong and fair anti-scab legislation will help lead to shorter labour disputes, safer workplaces, and less hostile picket lines;

“Whereas similar legislation has been introduced in British Columbia and Quebec with no increases to the number of strike or lockout days;

“Whereas Ontario had anti-scab legislation under an NDP government, that was unfortunately ripped away from workers by the Harris Conservatives;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To prohibit employers from using replacement labour for the duration of any legal strike or lockout;

“To prohibit employers from using both external and internal replacement workers;

“To include significant financial penalties for employers who defy the anti-scab legislation; and

“To support Ontario’s workers and pass anti-scab labour legislation, like the Ontario NDP Bill 90, Anti-Scab Labour Act, 2023.”

I support this petition. I will affix my signature and provide it to page Krishna for the table.

I have a petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. I want to thank Sally in my office for the work on this.

“Whereas in 2015 the Liberal Party of Ontario with their leader Kathleen Wynne who was the Premier of Ontario at the time announced that Ontario would implement a cap-and-trade carbon tax scheme; and

“Whereas the Liberal government of Ontario began their cap-and-trade carbon tax scheme on January 1, 2017; and

“Whereas this cap-and-trade carbon tax scheme immediately raised the price of every consumable product in Ontario; and

“Whereas during the provincial election in 2018 the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario campaigned against this unfair tax on the people of Ontario; and

“Whereas the newly elected Doug Ford Progressive Conservative government of Ontario repealed this unfair tax on the people of Ontario; and

“Whereas in 2018, the federal Liberal government passed the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act; and

“Whereas on January 1, 2019, the federal government’s output-based pricing system for large emitters came into force; and

“Whereas the federal carbon tax forced on the people of Ontario on fuels came into effect on April 1, 2019; and

“Whereas the federal carbon tax forced on the people of Ontario will rise by an additional 23% on April 1, 2024; and

“Whereas the federal carbon tax forced on the people of Ontario is a tax on the factors of production (i.e., labour, capital, and intermediate inputs). Intermediate inputs are goods and services (such as energy) used in producing goods and services; and

“Whereas the federal carbon tax forced on the people of Ontario will raise the intermediate input cost and thereby increase production or business costs. Intermediate input costs play an essential role in most businesses, affecting the final price at which goods and services will be sold to customers, which in turn influences the business’ profitability; and

“Whereas when the federal carbon tax forced on the people of Ontario is applied to refineries, utility companies, and other intermediaries that supply electricity, fuel, and other energy that industries use. The tax then translates into higher fuel prices, which in turn increases input costs for other industries; and

“Whereas the production of goods and services necessitates businesses input costs which include capital, goods, services, energy, wages, and salaries, production costs will increase by more than 10% in the utilities industry; and

“Whereas in 2023 Ontario’s agriculture sector 6.7% of production costs are for energy; and

“Whereas in 2023 Ontario’s forestry sector 7.7% of production costs are from energy; and

“Whereas Ontario’s electric power generation, transmission, and distribution sector will see a cost increase of almost 11.8% due to the federal carbon tax forced onto the people of Ontario. (Electric power generation uses natural gas in the generation mix, which accounts for 5.8% of the industry’s inputs.) At 62%, iron and steel manufacturing will see the highest cost increase of all industries from the carbon tax; and

“Whereas the federal carbon tax is costing Ontarians, on average almost $500 per year, increasing annually until 2030, when the average cost for an Ontario household will be faced with an annual federal carbon tax bill of over $1,416 annually; and

“Whereas there is a federal fuel charge that applies to all purchases of different fuels such as gasoline, propane, and diesel, this hurts the daily aspect of life on Ontarians especially those residents of northern Ontario and Indigenous communities where prices are significantly higher than elsewhere across the province; and

“Whereas the Chiefs of Ontario have been calling on the federal government to consult with them on the impact that this harmful tax is having on all of their communities; and

“Whereas due to the federal government’s failure to address the First Nations’ concerns, the Chiefs of Ontario have filed for judicial review into the application of the carbon tax in Indigenous communities; and...

“Whereas those in northern Ontario do not have a choice when it comes to how they heat their homes, they are using home heating fuels such as natural gas or propane; and...

“Whereas home heating is not a luxury and Ontarians should not be unfairly forced to pay additional costs to stay warm during the winter months; and

“Whereas the federal Parliamentary Budget Officer just concluded that the federal government finances will increase the deficit by $5.2 billion in 2030-31; and

“Whereas higher federal carbon tax will have a negative impact by shrinking the economy by 1.8%; and

“Whereas a higher federal carbon tax will have a negative impact on approximately 185,000 jobs across the country; and

“Whereas the federal carbon tax has contributed to inflation, high taxes and big spending, which is leading to higher interest rates and is forcing thousands of people out of the housing market; and

“Whereas the federal carbon tax has shown to have a significant impact on inflation, which accounts for a 16% rise in inflation last year alone; and

“Whereas truckers in the province of Ontario are facing an additional cost of about 17.5 cents per litre; and

“Whereas this increase in fuel costs will translate to an annual cost of $15,000 to $20,000; and

“Whereas small businesses across the province of Ontario, especially those with fleets of trucks, the federal carbon tax could add up to over $100,000 annually; and

“Whereas this increase in cost will lead to layoffs or forcing those small businesses to close their doors permanently; and

“Whereas 60% of households in Ontario pay more in carbon taxes than they receive in rebates. This figure could be increased by 80% by 2026; and

“Whereas farmers are the experts on improving climate impact on their farms, and the federal carbon tax penalizes those farmers who are working hard to create greener farming; and

“Whereas since its introduction, the production costs for farmers, greenhouse growers and food processors have increased significantly. The delivery of every single consumer good in our province, particularly fresh and processed food, is being impacted by this punitive tax; and

“Whereas the federal carbon tax is driving up the cost of transporting agricultural inputs such as seed, fertilizer and packaging; and

“Whereas the federal carbon tax is driving up the cost of transporting fruits and vegetables to market; and

“Whereas rural Ontario is home to more than 2.5 million people and as the federal carbon price rises so will the cost of food and energy; and

“Whereas the federal carbon tax is not working to reduce emissions. Instead, it is simply driving up the costs of goods, services, and other essential items for the people of Ontario; and

“Whereas in the natural resources sector, the federally imposed carbon tax has had an impact on the cost of products such as sand, stone, lumber, and other building materials” needed to build schools, hospitals, homes and roads; and

“Whereas not only does the federal carbon tax make raw materials more expensive, but it also increases costs across the entire supply chain; and

“Whereas small businesses contribute significantly to the federal carbon tax revenues, up to 40%, but receive very small portions of it in rebates; and

“Whereas the federal government has decided to cut the carbon tax rebate for small businesses from 9% to 5%; and

“Whereas the Canadian Federation of Independent Business says that $8 billion will be collected from small businesses and only $35 million returned; and

“Whereas for most businesses—56% of them in fact—will have no choice but to pass on those increased prices to the consumer because of the federal carbon tax and the HST to the consumers ... ; and

“Whereas the federal carbon tax is also affecting Ontario’s public safety; and

“Whereas the Ontario Provincial Police alone have spent almost $4 million on carbon tax; and

“Whereas the $4 million spent on carbon tax could have put 40 new officers directly on the front line; and

“Whereas that is only the costs borne by the OPP and not the other first responders such as ambulance paramedics and firefighters that are on the roads multiple times a day requiring them to fill up their vehicles; and

“Whereas the federal government’s carbon tax has impacted Ontario’s public hospitals by increasing annual heating costs by $27.2 million for the year of 2022 alone; and

“Whereas that $27.2 million would be better spent on front-line services that improve the health care for the people of Ontario; and

“Whereas without the carbon tax hospitals would have been able to offer an additional 104,615 MRI operating hours, providing scans for an additional 157,000 patients;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To continue to urge the federal Liberal government to repeal the unnecessary increase in the federal carbon tax scheduled for April 1, 2024, imposed on the people of the province of Ontario.”

I fully endorse this petition. I will sign my name to it and give it to page Tyler.

“Whereas Alzheimer’s disease affects over 250,000 people in the province of Ontario;

“Whereas it is estimated that approximately 400,000 individuals will be diagnosed with dementia by 2030;

“Whereas by the year 2050, more than 1.7 million Canadians are expected to be living with dementia, with an average of 685 individuals diagnosed each day;

“Whereas Alzheimer’s disease is not a normal part of aging and is irreversible...;

“Whereas caregivers of those living with dementia decrease their participation in the economy;

“Whereas upstream investments in dementia, prevention, and care are needed to reduce the strain on capacity and resources;

“Whereas strategies to mitigate stigma and combat ageism should be at the heart of the strategy;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To urge all members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to build on the progress this government has made on building a patient-centred home and community care system.”

I fully endorse this petition, and I sign my signature to it and give it to page Noah.

I have a petition certified by the Clerk calling for paid sick days. It reads:

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas there is overwhelming evidence to show that paid sick days significantly reduce the spread of infectious disease, promote preventive health care and reduce health care system costs; and

“Whereas 60% of Ontario workers do not have access to paid sick days, and cannot afford to lose their pay if they are sick; and

“Whereas low-wage and precarious workers are the most likely to be denied paid sick days; and

“Whereas enabling workers to stay home when they are sick without losing pay helps limit the spread of illness in the workplace and allows workers to recover faster; and

“Whereas during an infectious disease emergency, it is unreasonable and dangerous to public health to make workers choose between protecting their communities and providing for their families; and

“Whereas legislating paid sick days through the Employment Standards Act, with transitional financial support for struggling small businesses, will ensure that workers have seamless, uninterrupted access to their pay;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately amend the Employment Standards Act to provide Ontario workers with 10 employer-paid days of personal emergency leave each year and additional paid sick leave in the case of an infectious disease emergency.”

I fully support this petition. I’ll affix my signature and send it with page Jack to the table.

I move the following motion:

Whereas in 2017 the Auditor General found that the Liberal government spent $17.4 million on partisan ads with the primary goal of fostering a better impression of the governing party; and

Whereas this is the result of loopholes created under the Liberal government that watered down advertising rules and weakened the Auditor General’s oversight of government advertising; and

Whereas the Auditor General found that, in 2023, the current government used the same loopholes to spend $24.89 million on partisan ad campaigns, including $20 million to promote the Ministry of Health; and

Whereas the current Minister of Health introduced a bill in 2018 entitled End the Public Funding of Partisan Government Advertising Act, and that bill has been reintroduced by a member of the official opposition;

Therefore, the Legislative Assembly calls on the Ontario government to pass the official opposition’s Bill 176, End the Public Funding of Partisan Government Advertising Act, 2024, to close the loopholes and ensure that taxpayer dollars are not spent on ads intended to foster a positive impression of the government.

After six years of this Conservative government, life is only getting harder and more expensive. Instead of rising to the challenge, fixing what they’ve broken and taking on the big issues our province is facing, this Conservative government is spending millions of taxpayer dollars on partisan ads telling people just how good they have it. They are blasting the airwaves with expensive, highly produced ads that have only one purpose: to promote the Conservative Party. But Ontarians aren’t buying it, and neither are we.

That’s why today, the official opposition NDP is seeking to put an end to taxpayer-funded partisan ads and to put that money to work hiring health care workers, building homes and making life more affordable for the people of this province.

Before we go any further, Speaker, I’d like to take us back a few years, to 2017. You’ll remember this as the dying days of the previous Liberal government—a government that was mired in scandal and deeply unpopular after having privatized Hydro One, cut hospital funding and overseen the expansion of hallway medicine. It was not a good time for Ontario; that’s for sure. In fact, the failures and misguided priorities of the Liberal government were what drove me to seek office—certainly, what I was seeing in our schools and in health care.

As their popularity was plummeting and the polls started to look really bleak, they spent big on massive ad campaigns that sought to turn the tide of public opinion. They promoted programs that didn’t even exist yet in some cases. And they did it all not with money from the Ontario Liberal Party, but with taxpayer funds—government funds.

How did they get away with it? Well, guess what? They changed the law to allow them to get away with that. In 2015, they removed the Auditor General’s authority to review all government advertising and to stop ads that were deemed too partisan; that is, ads that don’t inform or share information about government services but instead just seek to create this positive impression of the governing party.

New Democrats took up the issue, and we called out the Liberals. We called them out for rigging the ad review system so that it would help them out. And we had an unlikely ally, I would say, in the Conservatives, who, at the time, were the official opposition.

Leading the charge, in fact, was none other than the current Deputy Premier, the MPP for Dufferin–Caledon. Here’s what she had to say at the time: “The government is spending taxpayer dollars on an advertising campaign on their latest hydro scheme in an attempt to save their electoral fortunes....

“The Auditor General has said that these recent hydro advertisements would not have been approved under old legislation.

“In the past two years, the government has spent nearly six million taxpayer dollars on a series of advertising campaigns the Auditor General said ‘provided viewers with no useful information’ and ‘could be seen as self-congratulatory and in some cases, misleading.’

“It is shameful that this government refuses to respect taxpayer dollars and restore the Auditor General’s authority to review and approve government advertising.”

Strong words.

I will continue. Those were some strong words—wouldn’t you say, everybody—from the Deputy Premier. I mean, my goodness.

The member from Dufferin–Caledon even tabled a bill to reverse those changes and restore the auditor’s authority to act in the public interest.

Later on, they went even further: They made it a part of their platform in 2018. In their platform, they said they were going to change things. But something happened. They got into power. That’s right. They got into power, and then they got into trouble. That’s what happened. A dismal record on housing, court battles with nurses and education workers, stag-and-doe deals, RCMP criminal investigations—suddenly, those partisan ads don’t look like such a bad idea, do they?

A freedom-of-information request by CBC that was just released today found that this Conservative government spent nearly $8 million of public money—your dollars—on a glitzy ad campaign. That’s the one that’s called It’s Happening Here. And I remind everybody: That aired during the Super Bowl, during the Grammy Awards, during an NHL All-Star Game. Was it paid for by the Conservative Party? No, it was not; it was paid for by you—by you. The people of Ontario paid for that. And just for context, people should know that the Canadian Super Bowl ads cost about $250,000 to $400,000 per spot. That’s what this government is spending your hard-earned dollars on. The Conservatives want you to think that they’re—and we heard it this morning when I asked the Premier questions. The Conservative government wants you to think that they’re spending it on ads to attract investment. Really? Nothing in those ads says that, first of all. Nothing in that ad actually speaks to, “Come to Ontario. Live in Ontario.”

More importantly, they don’t talk about any of the services. That’s really a critical piece of what a government ad should be doing. It should be improving people’s lives by providing information that they need—not a partisan puff piece, not a vanity ad to serve the interests of the Premier.

These ads don’t inform the public of new programs. They don’t inform you of new services. They simply sell an idea that things are going just fine—no need to worry about inconvenient facts, like the 2.3 million Ontarians who don’t have a family doctor. By the way, that’s a number that is just increasing and increasing, along with wait times and wait-lists.

But the ad buys are increasing too.

The Auditor General’s 2023 annual report found that the Conservative government spent $20.8 million, 72% of their total ad budget for 2023, on a health care campaign—many of us will recall this—called Building a Better Health Care System. I remember the Auditor General’s report, where they looked at that ad campaign and they said this: “The ads we took issue with included statements such as ‘we’re reducing wait times for surgeries,’ ‘we’re building 3,000 more hospital beds’ and ‘we’re adding and upgrading nearly 60,000 long-term care beds’”—it defies belief, but, more importantly, “without context or evidence to back up these claims.”

At a time when people are losing their access to primary care, when people are experiencing dangerous wait times for treatments and diagnostic checkups, when rural emergency rooms are shutting down and nurses are leaving the profession in droves—and I will point out, as well, we are spending more than $1 billion now on private agency nurses in both long-term care and hospitals; we are hemorrhaging our health care dollars—what does this government decide to do? They don’t try to solve the problem. No. They just put out some fancy ads to tell people, “Guess what? That’s not what’s really happening. Everything is okay.”

So when you’re sitting there in the emergency room waiting room with your sick child, for six hours, for eight hours, don’t worry, because you can look up at the screen above you and see an ad telling you, “Do you know what? You’re wrong. It’s okay.” Well, it’s not okay, and the government opposite knows it.

We’ve gone ahead and we’ve tabled the exact same bill that the Deputy Premier tabled back in 2017—

MPP Stiles has moved opposition day number 3.

I recognize the leader of His Majesty’s loyal opposition.

We’ll have the leader continue.

Point of order.

I recognize the member from Mississauga–Lakeshore.