None of us can take our place here in the Ontario Legislature without the support of our family.

I’m delighted to welcome my son Seth Harrison Kerzner to the Legislature today.

I was truly proud to see that Windsor and Tecumseh were once again front and centre in our government’s affordability-focused budget.

As this House is aware, in 2017 the then Liberal government announced that planning funding for our new regional acute-care hospital would be stopped in its tracks with the 2018 budget.

The contrast couldn’t be clearer: Premier Ford committed to seeing the Windsor-Essex regional acute-care hospital, and this budget sets out the hospital procurement for 2025.

This budget also builds the new Banwell Road and E.C. Row interchange, right at the boundary of Windsor and Tecumseh—a project that successive governments of all stripes outright ignored for 40 years, until this government.

This budget also develops the future Lauzon Parkway and 401 interchange, supports thousands of new jobs at NextStar and Bobaek, invests in local broadband, grows access to primary health care and long-term care, and says yes to our new local schools, including the Beacon Heights Public School and Eastview Horizon Public School.

These investments make our region stronger than ever.

I want to say thank you to Premier Ford and the Ontario government for doing the heavy lifting for Windsor-Essex that just never happened under NDP representation and Liberal governments.

I encourage all of my Windsor colleagues to support these great investments in the budget.

I’m really proud to announce our page Justin. His mom, Estelle Chapin-Ker, is here today with her husband, Jeff Ker, and Onikay Neil, who is the godmother of our page Justin.

Welcome to the House today.

Au nom de la ministre des Affaires francophones, j’aimerais bien souhaiter la bienvenue à une délégation du Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir. Avec nous aujourd’hui, nous avons des élèves des écoles secondaires catholiques Saint-Charles-Garnier à Whitby, Académie catholique Mère-Teresa à Hamilton, Saint-Frère-André à Toronto, Monseigneur-de-Charbonnel, Renaissance à Aurora et Maple; ainsi que M^me Geneviève Grenier, présidente du conseil; M^me Nathalie Dufour-Séguin, vice-présidente du conseil; et M^me Nicole Mollot, directrice de l’éducation. Je souhaite la bienvenue à vous tous.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome folks who have travelled from Milton here this morning and who are part of the group called Action Milton. We have George Minakakis, the board chair; Sharon Barkley; Heather Murch; Cindy Lunau; Gary Williams; Monica Minakakis; Scott Travers; and Noah Zatzman.

Thank you for coming today, and welcome to Queen’s Park.

I’d like to welcome members of our University–Rosedale team today: Doga Koroglu, Matthew Cooke, Molly Tarsey, Leah Wahl, Madeleine Vogelaar, and Kirsten Snider. It’s wonderful working with you. Thanks for being here.

I have the parents of page Owen from Oakville here today. We have Ji Li and Frank Zeng. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

I want to introduce visitors from my riding in the gallery: Andrey Golubovsky and his daughter Maria.

Thank you for coming.

The member for Algoma–Manitoulin has a point of order he wants to raise.

That concludes our introduction of visitors.

My question is for the Premier.

As I continue to review this Conservative government’s budget, I’m left with very serious questions.

Does this budget make rent affordable for renters?

Interjection: No.

Interjection: No.

Interjection: No.

As I look upon all of us in here, I look at you as being part of my family, and also team Ontario. And I want to wish you all a happy Easter weekend.

We have an opportunity to vote for Elliot Lake to become Kraft Hockeyville 2024. Elliot Lake is one of four who are reaching the finals—the only Ontario finalist. You are team Ontario. Voting starts in less than 24 hours. So I’m asking you, on March 29 and March 30, vote for Elliot Lake to become Kraft Hockeyville 2024.

This particular matter is before the courts, so it would be inappropriate for me to comment on this at this time.

Mr. Speaker, let me remind this House and the public that it was the previous Liberal government, always supported by that NDP, that left this historic place, Ontario Place, in a state of neglect and disrepair.

What this government is doing is bringing Ontario Place back on the map—and will bring a remarkable, world-class destination for families to enjoy, and a brand new amphitheatre, a wellness centre, a water park facility, and a brand new science centre. Not only that; it will create thousands of new jobs and will attract four million to six million visitors annually. We are bringing an Ontario Place and a science centre that the people of Ontario will be proud of. We will bring it back on the world map.

Speaker, bragging about doubling down on failed policies is definitely not leadership.

I know who this budget is not made for. This budget wasn’t made for post-secondary students or educators. This budget wasn’t made for teachers or nurses or 1.7 million renters.

Funding in this budget is not going towards making life more affordable. It won’t improve wages for workers. It won’t keep post-secondary institutions afloat. It won’t make $10-a-day child care a reality for so many struggling families in this province.

Since this budget was not made for struggling Ontarians, Premier, tell us which corporations and private companies are set to benefit from this government’s budget. That’s your priority.

I do want to say that this government says that this budget is fiscally responsible. In reality, the government projected a $200-million surplus and instead delivered a $10-billion deficit. They have slashed post-secondary education by $425 million while almost half of Ontario’s universities are running deficits. The justice system is broken in Ontario—just ask Cait and Emily—and there’s no mention of legal aid anywhere in this budget.

Speaker, to the Premier: What will it take for this Conservative government to listen to the people of Ontario and fund the services that they rely on?

Interjections.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak about some of the investments that we have been able to make in northern Ontario.

We’re investing more in northern Ontario health than any other previous government.

Our plan is investing in infrastructure, in boosting health human resources and adding educational supports for the future. We have, of course, expanded the Northern Ontario School of Medicine—over a hundred additional seats available, and 60% of those, of course, are set aside for primary care, the family doctors we so desperately need across Ontario, and particularly, acutely, in northern Ontario.

We’ll continue to make those investments because we know that when people have access to primary care multi-disciplinary teams in their communities, it makes an impact, and it ensures that people have the care they need closer to home.

I hope the member opposite will continue to advocate, but I also hope that they will acknowledge the investments that we are making in northern Ontario and across Ontario.

Road safety is a paramount focus for this government and with this transportation minister—

Last month in northwestern Ontario, Nishnawbe Aski Nation declared a health state of emergency.

There continues to be unnecessary suffering and needless deaths across Kiiwetinoong.

Speaker, what page in the 2024 budget addresses this crisis?

Speaker, hospitals across northwestern Ontario are struggling to retain surgeons.

Patients in Sioux Lookout will be sent further away from home for surgeries that they need.

Again, what page in the 2024 budget addresses the crisis?

Speaker, what page in the 2024 budget addresses highway standards in the north?

The courts have confirmed that the Ford government owes the public answers about why they skipped an environmental assessment for the mega spa planned at Ontario Place. The judge said the matter was of significant public law interest, despite government lawyers arguing that the challenge should be thrown out.

My question to the Premier is, will you halt all redevelopment activities on the Therme site and conduct an environmental assessment?

Supplementary question?

The member for Oakville.

The member for Oakville.

The next question.

Interjections.

I’m not sure if the member opposite actually read the budget and read what people are saying about budget 2024, because what you’re saying is the complete opposite of what we’re hearing and what the people of Ontario are saying.

This is a budget that puts the people of Ontario first. The people of Ontario, like the rest of the world, continue to face economic challenges. Costs are up. People are struggling. And at this point in time, at this juncture, we could either slow down or we could continue to build—build an economy, build infrastructure, build housing, build health care—and put money back in the pockets of the people of Ontario.

This is a budget that’s getting it done for the province of Ontario.

This is a budget that is focused on affordability for the people of Ontario. This is a government that is getting it done for the people of Ontario.

We have the great Associate Minister of Transportation bringing in the One Fare program—$1,600 in savings for commuters across the GTA, whether they’re in Oakville, in York region, in Burlington. Wherever they are, that is an enormous savings for people who are travelling. Many of the staff who work at Queen’s Park actually take transit. They’re going to save a lot of money. You go and tell them that you don’t support that.

We’ve also indexed ODSP to inflation; we’ve had the largest increase in the history of Ontario.

We’re helping 100,000 additional seniors through the GAINS program.

We’ve cut the renewal fees for licence stickers and licence plates.

And, of course, we are lowering the gas tax here in Ontario, which is going to help everybody.

We are continuing to build Ontario, and we’re doing it in a fiscally responsible way. We have a path to balance, unlike every other government pretty much in Canada and the federal government.

We are investing $1 billion in municipal housing funding infrastructure—municipalities asked for this; we are delivering.

We are quadrupling the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund.

Of course, as I mentioned, we are extending the gas tax cut. Go ask the residents in your riding if they are against that tax savings.

We’re also adding an additional $100 million to the Skills Development Fund so we can continue to build Ontario.