Thank you to the member from Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound for highlighting all the provisions from this budget.

I want to see what we have in the budget for our seniors. Seniors are the backbone of our province. They have done so much work in raising their families and contributing to Ontario. What are we doing for our seniors in this budget?

Thank you to the great member for his great question.

He’s touched on something that is so important to building housing: It’s the infrastructure that needs to be there at the beginning.

We heard loud and clear from your community and communities all over the province about needing housing-enabling infrastructure—water and waste water, essentially. There is new funding of $1.8 billion directed towards that area. This will enable municipalities to apply for this funding and get that infrastructure in place so the houses can be built.

But it’s not just that. There’s working with the Ontario infrastructure fund. There is other funding and opportunities that we’re doing. Re-profiling the Infrastructure Ontario lending program is being done as well. So there are more and more areas where municipalities can get that infrastructure built so that we can get the houses built that we need here in Ontario.

I point to the information in the budget on page 8—one of my favourite pages—talking about the spending programs. Post-secondary is going from $11.7 billion two years ago to $12.6 billion this year and into the twelves and thirteens in 2026-27, so big investments there. On the capital side: $5.7 billion over 10 years for colleges; $1.3 billion for universities.

We recognize the challenges facing post-secondary education, which is why the blue-ribbon panel was established. We’re taking action to stabilize the province’s colleges and universities by introducing a suite of measures, including an investment of nearly $1.3 billion in new funding to ensure the continued sustainability of the post-secondary education system. Whether it’s $903 million over three years for the new Postsecondary Education Sustainability Fund, including $203 million in funding the top-ups for institutions—and on and on and on.

So we recognize the importance of this sector. We will keep treating it as a priority, and look forward to working with the members opposite to support that goal.

The other element that is very important here is our Guaranteed Annual Income System program, the GAINS program, directed at seniors. That’s being enhanced and is a very, very fundamental part now of the tax system to assist those who need it most and were there for us. Starting in July, the benefit will increase to $87 a month for eligible seniors and $174 per month for couples. On and on and on, we’re going to keep investing in seniors.

I thank the member for the question.

When you invest in infrastructure, there are all sorts of projects all over that require attention—some of them big, some of them small. Look at this building here. It has been around since this province started, and we all feel that at times. Whether it’s the heating system or the cooling system, they all need work, and the media studio as well. I don’t know the intimate details of what was behind that project; perhaps it was to give the opposition more opportunities to be in front of the media over time. We’re always thinking of the opposition, Madam Speaker, to ensure that they have opportunities as well as we have.

Anyway, it’s an important part of our Queen’s Park infrastructure, and we’ll keep working on all that as we can.

It’s always an honour to be able to rise and advocate for the people of Kiiwetinoong. I know that Kiiwetinoong is a very unique riding. We have 31 First Nations. We have 24 fly-in First Nations that do not have access to provincial highways, provincial roads. But also, one of the things that we have—we are so rich in northwestern Ontario. We are rich in the resources that we have. We are rich in the rivers, the creeks, the lakes, the animals, the fish that live in those places, all the trees that we have. We are so rich. Not only that; we are so rich in our ways of life, in the teachings, the stories that we have as First Nations people.

I’ve been here about 5.5 years, close to six years. I sit here, and I’ll listen to the budget, I’ll listen to the fall economic statement, and if you’re in Kiiwetinoong, if you’re on-reserve in Fort Severn, if you’re in Big Trout Lake, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, this budget isn’t for you. If you’re a child that’s 12 years old and you’re thinking of dying by suicide, this budget is not for you. If you’re in Neskantaga and you have a boil-water advisory that’s going on 30 years, this budget is not for you. If you’re in a home with three families that have to rotate their sleeping schedule, this budget is not for you.

Those are the realities of Kiiwetinoong. I think sometimes the disappointment that the budgets give me becomes normal. Status quo is construed as normal and acceptable, with conditions that we see and the life-on reserve that would not be construed as normal or acceptable anywhere else in Ontario, anywhere else in Canada. That’s the reality.

What I mean by that is, when we talk about the realities of Kiiwetinoong, they’re not addressed in the 2024 Ontario budget. In Sioux Lookout, which is a town of 5,000 to 6,000 people but services 30 surrounding First Nations, we have 21 long-term-care beds for the 30,000 people that live in the area. In order to get a bed—there’s a waiting period of four and a half years to be able to get to a long-term-care bed.

So those are the realities that we see, and on Tuesday, I was able to see the budget, full of re-announcements, half measures, gaps. I could not help but just to sit here and shake my head in disappointment. But also I wish I could say that I was surprised. Again, this is not the first budget that has failed First Nations, failed communities in the riding of Kiiwetinoong.

I believe that there are not enough announcements that would address the issues people in northern Ontario and First Nations communities are facing. I know that this budget is not for the people looking for a family doctor or the people struggling with the cost of living. It’s not for the people of Kiiwetinoong.

Every now and then, the food prices—sometimes people will send me food prices in the riding of Kiiwetinoong. I think it was earlier, maybe Monday morning, somebody sent me a picture of a small fruit salad. It was, like, 30-something dollars. It was just horrendous, but that’s the way the system is. Some people’s answer is, “Okay, that’s why we need to build roads,” but that’s not the answer. That’s years down the road. That’s decades down the road. We need to be able have quality of life dealt with right away.

The things I’ve talked about for the last five and a half years—it is our status quo, a status quo where First Nations in the north have these boil-water advisories, where too many people, too many youth—11, 12 years old, losing hope—are attempting suicide due to intergenerational trauma.

I was in one of the First Nations not too long ago, a few months ago, and this one community had 24 11- and 12-year-old boys and girls who had a suicide pact. About a month and a half ago, one of those boys and girls fell through the cracks. That’s what we’re dealing with up north. When we see mental health being mentioned in big numbers but that it’s not filtered down to the actual people that need it, it’s wrong. I think, for a while there, when we talk about intergenerational trauma—you cannot just deal with them downstream.

Again, climate change is a real factor, as well, for the winter roads. The corridors that we have in my riding—there’s four corridors—and the First Nations rely on those corridors for winter roads.

I guess what I’m saying, again, Speaker, is these realities would not be acceptable for one day here in Toronto or anywhere else in the province.

When I look at the investments in this budget, the numbers just don’t add up. There are investments to connect 600,000 people to primary care, but today there are 2.3 million people without primary care. If I did my calculations, and if they were correct, that leaves 1.7 million people out—1.7 million people who will continue not to have primary care.

In northern Ontario, specifically in Kiiwetinoong and northwestern Ontario, the crisis in primary care is more extreme. I always talk about unnecessary suffering. I always talk about needless debts. When you have these small communities that are not able to get locum doctors for their hospitals, for their emergency rooms, for their surgeons, a few primary physicians fill in to keep these services running. Can you imagine the pressure and the burnout the physicians in the north experience? When I talk about health, when I talk about the struggles, it means that it’s difficult to retain physicians and the surgeons in the north. When we talk about the lack of surgeons, the hospital in Sioux Lookout can no longer offer seamless surgical coverage. This budget is not including to address this crisis.

There is a ripple effect to these shortages and service interruptions. More of the patients in Kiiwetinoong will have to be sent further away from their homes. Not only that, they have to be away longer from their families.

While we saw an increase in Ontario’s Northern Health Travel Grant, the budget for accommodations goes down every day after the first night. My colleague the MPP from Nickel Belt pointed out that when people come to Toronto for serious illnesses, the grant doesn’t come close to covering the cost, and some people give up. But even though the grant for accommodations increased a bit, the reimbursements for kilometres travelled did not increase.

We had so many questions in this budget that were just not answered, such as the role of private companies in health care, and paid sick days. Instead, if you compare the budget to 2023 interim actuals, and when you look at inflation, we are seeing less investment in health care.

I know that when I was at this meeting last month, on February 8, the Nishnawbe Aski Nation Chiefs Winter Assembly, the leaders declared a state of emergency. It was not only because of what I just discussed with the state of our health care and emergency health services but also because of the tragic and preventable deaths in our communities with the sudden death of our children, the child suicide pacts, the overall mental health crisis, the overall addictions crisis.

I hope that everyone in this House is aware of the responsibilities the government has to address the mental health effects of intergenerational trauma stemming from Indian residential schools and the Sixties Scoop and, furthermore, the intergenerational trauma of Ralph Rowe, who used to be an OPP officer, who was a Boy Scout leader and an Anglican minister. He had his own plane. Ralph Rowe was one of the most prolific pedophiles who lived in our region for 20 years. We know that he abused 500-plus boys in the 1970s and the 1980s in the riding of Kiiwetinoong.

I’ve seen my friends and family members die because of that, whether it’s through addictions, whether it’s through suicide. I heard it when I was at that meeting, that one day at the chiefs assembly. I heard the survivors talk about it and share their stories. I think to be able to acknowledge those, to be able to fund those is part of the reconciliation that we need to work toward.

A few weeks before this state of emergency was declared, the Legislature’s Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs was up north listening to presentations about the budget. I know that everyone who came to speak truly wanted to be heard and to have their suggestions included in the budget.

Among many issues discussed, we heard about the need for harm reduction, overdose prevention and supervised consumption sites. In the north and northwestern Ontario, where is the funding for operating grants for supervised consumption sites?

Where is the long-term-care budget for Sioux Lookout?

When we talk about reconciliation, the town of Red Lake has been advocating for funding for a new arena and event centre for years.

When we talk about safety, I know that the government announced sums of resources, money, to law enforcement—$46 million for the purchase of four police helicopters in the greater Toronto area. What about the safety and security of the people living in First Nation communities and reserves?

Just last week over here, we met with the leadership of Chiefs of Ontario. They told us about some of the criminal behaviour that’s happening on-reserve, and it has gotten worse. What the government has been doing is Ontario has been delaying the changes needed to enforce laws on reserve. Under the long-delayed Community Safety and Policing Act that will come into force April 1, First Nation laws are exempt from being enforced.

Chief Laurie Carr from Hiawatha First Nation told the Toronto Star, “It’s unthinkable that Ontario doesn’t see enforcing our laws and bylaws, which we use to keep drugs and criminals out, as part of adequate and effective policing.”

Speaker, the budget announced millions of dollars for critical minerals infrastructure funding and re-announced thousands to mining companies, but at the same time, the budget is missing funding for consultation—proper consultation: free, prior, informed consent.

In conclusion, we would like to take the necessary measures to make sure that housing affordability, health care and mental health are addressed in northern Ontario and the communities of Kiiwetinoong.

Few things are more important to people than the safety of their neighbourhood, their family and their fellow Ontarians. Our government is investing $4 million to $6 million over three years to fight crime, support patrol and improve response time to major incidents and serious crimes, demonstrating that we understand Ontario’s concern, and it demonstrates that we are a government that does not shy away from fighting these types of crimes and situations.

Through you, Madam Speaker, I ask the member whether they, too, will demonstrate a commitment to protect the safety of Ontarians in their community and vote for our government’s plan to keep streets safe, protect families and stop gangs.

We have time for questions.

Meegwetch to the member for the question.

I spoke about the crime, how gangs are coming into the neighbouring towns, cities, coming onto reserves. We are not able to enforce laws or bylaws to make sure that—the safety and the security of the people that live in those First Nations and the surrounding communities are not addressed. We need to be able to do that. Sure, you want to buy helicopters to protect the vehicles that are being stolen, but it’s important to address the crisis, to make sure that people are safe in our communities.

Further questions?

I’d like to thank the member from Kiiwetinoong for his presentation. The analysis and reaction to the budget are coming through. One of the stakeholders, Children’s Mental Health Ontario, has said that the budget is not meeting the need for urgent and sustained funding in mental health care and they also noted the long wait times for services in the community for children and youth in mental health care.

The member talked about the suicide crisis in his community. Can you please share with members of the House, particularly the government side, what should have been in the budget, what action does the government need to take in order to address the growing mental health care and addiction crisis we’re seeing among children and youth?

First of all, I want to acknowledge the member from Kiiwetinoong. I was listening to you. We actually—Madam Speaker, you won’t believe it—share a resident, who used to be his resident and lives in Malton now. And my OLIP intern is with him, so we have too many things in common, as well—and we were together at SCOFEA.

A few quick things: I was looking at what is in the budget for the northern communities and Indigenous communities. The government is investing $94 million over three years for health and well-being, $60 million to maintain mental health and addictions services, and $15 million over three years to support the ongoing delivery of Indigenous public health programs. So these are some of the investments we’re making.

But one investment that’s stuck to my heart, that I always talk about, is the Skills Development Fund. The government is investing another $100 million for the Skills Development Fund. So I just want to ask the member: Have you heard anything about the Skills Development Fund in your riding or in northern communities, or anything we can do to increase or improve that service—

When I was in northern communities I heard loud and clear that there is a need for skilled development in the northern communities. To the member, again, I would ask you a question: What can we do to support the northern Indigenous communities through the Skills Development Fund in creating those skills in local communities so that they can work, become financially better and give back to the communities?

I can say I was here in May 2019, and I remember some of the First Nations from the riding of Kiiwetinoong—and not only that, the Ring of Fire—I remember sitting and listening to the Premier: “We will not move forward without your consent.” But he later understood that “free, prior and informed consent” is a term that addresses the issues, how we’re going to move forward.

I think the approach where they continue to—this government actually ripped up the regional framework agreement, where the nine First Nations in the Ring of Fire were working together. Now there are only two. I think with that, again, that will not happen, because you have to work with people. It’s a divide-and-conquer approach, and without the proper consultation, I believe the Ring of Fire will not move forward.

I talked about some of the impacts of intergenerational trauma, some of the issues that we faced a long time ago, the long-term impacts. But I think one of the things, when we talk about programming, like healing programs, healing centres—that would go a long way to start the process of healing for people. People are going through that on a daily basis and they need to be able to find a way to come to terms with whatever that they are dealing with, whether it’s a suicide attempt, whether it’s intergenerational trauma. Because it’s not the kids that suffer, it’s the families that we need to deal with—we need to be able to have that holistic healing approach.

I think it’s important to be able to address the issues that are in the north. The issues are very deep-rooted, and incremental funding, incremental change makes it look as if you’re doing something without really doing anything. What incremental change, what incremental funding does is it perpetuates the crisis in our communities. I think we need to have significant resources to be able to go there. We need to be able to provide that healing, housing, the high schools. We need proper runways and there is the cost of living as well.

I’m pleased to rise today to speak to motion 22, the budget motion, especially since my remarks on budget day to the media following the Minister of Finance’s statement in the government press room are not available.

There has been a lot written about this in the media over the last few days. Apparently this government spent $310,000 of taxpayer money on this media press room. And so because either the media room isn’t working or because the government is withholding the video—I have asked but I haven’t had a response yet—I don’t have that video.

That aside, I also only have 14 minutes to speak to this motion. Let me say that if the House leader is listening, he might say I should be grateful to the government for being given this time as an independent member. Speaker, I disagree, because his premise is absolutely wrong. I’m only considered an independent member because it was this government that chose to change the rules of the game and therefore made Liberal members independent.

There are only two possible explanations that I can think of: They don’t believe they should be held accountable to the residents of our ridings, or they’re afraid to hear what we have to say. Either way, the outcome is the same. They are suppressing opposition voices.

Speaker, 14 minutes really is not enough time to highlight one by one all of the issues in this budget, all the people and organizations it lets down, specifically those who struggle to afford a home, those who struggle to put food on the table because the government cancelled the Liberal government’s planned increases to minimum wage. Because they constrained wages for workers with Bill 124, there are kids going to school hungry.

I need to say that I respect the Minister of Finance, and I like him too. He’s a person who I believe wants to do the right thing for the people in Ontario. He had a career in finance, so he probably knows that this budget is a disaster in waiting for this province. I expect that he may have even tried to tell this to his Premier. He likely knows that this $9.8-billion deficit and forecasts for deficits for three more years before maybe having a balanced budget is actually at risk.

One reason for this, of course, is that this government has a terrible track record for their forecasts. The deficit projections in nearly every budget tabled by this government have been off by billions. The second reason is the government’s misguided decision to implement Bill 124 and restrain wage increases for nurses and education workers, mostly women, to 1%. The government has already had to pay catch-up payments of $6 billion and will likely have to pay another $7 billion more. By the way, Speaker, this government’s budget is so lacking in transparency that I don’t even see the $7 billion planned for in this budget, even though they know these payments are coming. It might be hidden in the contingency fund, but, of course, we don’t know because they only show the contingency fund amount for the coming year.

Another reason this outlook is at risk, of course, is because, contrary to their rosy ads declaring how rosy things are in Ontario, which cost $8 million dollars during Super Bowl, things are not okay in Ontario. By the time they plan for a surplus, did you know that if the minister’s forecast for growth is off by even 30 basis points, 0.3%, we would have a $7.5-billion deficit instead of a modest surplus of half a billion? The agencies who rate our province’s economic health will now be in the throes of evaluating this huge deficit budget and the huge amount of debt the government is adding to our books. If these agencies lower our ratings based on this poorer economic performance, that will mean higher interest costs for the government’s $160 billion in debt they will have added to our books.

Earlier this week, the minister took us on a proverbial drive across the province while delivering his budget remarks. Well, Speaker, I want to take you on a stroll through the green meadows of the greenbelt, the very one owned by their insider friends, the very one that this government is now under an $8.3-billion investigation for. It’s also the greenbelt that they want to pave over to build their $20-billion Highway 413, which will also make a few of their rich developer friends, some of the same ones who would benefit under the greenbelt giveaway, even richer.

The Conservatives believe that less government is better for the people, and so they like to say that if you believe in less government, then less money will be spent on government, and therefore, that they are fiscally responsible with taxpayer money. We have a Premier that says the worst place you can give your money is to the government. I think what he meant to say is the worst place to give your money is to his government. This budget puts the fallacy of fiscal conservancy to bed. In this budget, we see a government that is spending $214 billion of taxpayer money to run this province, and we see they’re running it into the ground.

They brag about saving people a few hundred dollars a year on things like licence fees, but they’re actually costing us thousands of dollars a year because they’re paying their friends and supporters. For example, I would estimate that about half a billion dollars of taxpayer money is being paid out in profits from the public purse to private nursing agencies, like those owned by their insider friends, including those who sit here in this House. And to make it worse, they’re financing this with debt. They’re paying another half billion dollars to build a parking lot for a foreign-owned spa and financing that with debt.

So what do we have to show for this record level of debt and $10-billion deficit? We have record high rents; we have record ER closures; we have record numbers of people without a family doctor; we have record numbers of people lined up at food banks; and we have record numbers of problems in classrooms.

Speaker, can I just take a moment here to mention the TDSB? They’re looking at how to balance their budget given the underfunding by this government. One of the things they’re looking at to do that is cancelling seniors’ learning programs because it isn’t core programming for kids K to 12. Many of my Don Valley West constituents have written to me about this. The government needs to step up and pay the few million dollars for this program to the TDSB so that seniors get the programs that they need, but it’s not at the expense of our kids’ education.

This budget and this government have failed those people. This budget takes taxpayers’ hard-earned money—more money than they’ve taken ever before—and gives little in return. That’s just the day-to-day running of the government. Let’s talk about the rest of the taxpayer money they’re spending.

They’ve added $93 billion in debt since they came into office. They’re on track to add $60 billion more according to this budget. Interest payments are ballooning under this government, meaning every tax dollar goes more and more to servicing debt than supporting the people of Ontario. We’re over-leveraged on inefficient projects and bad policies: half a billion dollars for the foreign-owned spa at Ontario Place; $375 million in federal funding that they’re leaving on the table because they just don’t believe in affordable housing. How else could we explain this? Do you know why? Because their rich developer friends won’t get richer.

They’ve created conditions where hospitals are spending $1 billion on agency nurses instead of retaining public staff. They’re subsidizing private long-term-care facilities that are failing to address the needs of their residents, simply because they’re owned by friends of Ford. Billions and billions of taxpayer dollars are going out the door to private companies and the Premier’s friends. That means people who trust us with that money are losing while the Premier’s friends win.

These are just a few of the big mistakes they’ve made. We can’t forget the pointless and broken change of the Ontario licence plates that can’t be seen in the dark, nor the $1 billion in penalties this government failed to collect from the operators of the 407. They spent $230 million breaking renewable energy contracts during a climate crisis, then spent millions of dollars taking nurses to court. They sole-source projects rather than finding the best deal for the people of Ontario. All of these examples show how they’re taking money from taxpayers in this year’s budget and beyond, borrowing money from taxpayers to pay out to the companies of their rich friends. This is fiscal conservatism.

We’re over 200% net debt-to-revenue—that means we owe $2 of debt for every $1 we collect—the debt-to-GDP ratio is creeping higher; growth is low and slowing; that’s what the Minister of Finance told us this week; unemployment is rising—all the things that credit agencies look at to determine our borrowing interest rates.

We can’t grow our way out of this problem. Under this government’s failed leadership, GDP growth has only been 1.5% on average for the last six years, and it’s not projected to improve. By the way, it averaged 2.6% under Kathleen Wynne.

I’m not surprised they’re failing to handle the taxpayers’ money well because they don’t take their own promises seriously. They promised buck-a-beer; we don’t see that. More importantly, they promised a middle income tax cut—haven’t seen that yet either in the six years they’ve been in office. That tax cut would have saved people hundreds of dollars a year, according to the Conservatives’s own claims. They promised to not touch the greenbelt. Well, we know how that one went. It’s probably not what the voters expected.

Let me bring it back to where I started. Why are Conservatives considered to be good fiscal managers? How could they possibly be considered on the taxpayer’s side? They can’t; they are not. They’re wasting billions of taxpayer dollars and giving little in return.

These failures make life harder for the people of Ontario. They have real consequences for the people of Ontario. Their failure to respect and manage the public’s tax dollars means that people have less support.

I don’t believe this is simply a mistake or incompetency. I believe the government is deliberately stifling funding for public institutions like health care so they can justify the expansion of private services that enrich their friends. I believe we’re seeing that with the expansion of nurse practitioner-led clinics. They’re charging fees because there’s a market need. The market need has been created by this government underfunding family doctors. For everyday people, that will mean fewer resources and higher costs. That might just be the theme for this government: fewer resources, higher costs. Never has a government spent so much to deliver so little.

Speaker, there are things that are very unsettling in this budget. I feel very unsettled, but there are things that could be done to help people and build prosperity in Ontario:

—investments in the economy;

—spend that $40 million to continue the Digital Main Street program instead of cancelling it effective March 31;

—implement an “IP box” tax credit to help keep innovative ideas here in Ontario;

—provide incentives to small businesses to adopt new technologies to save time and improve productivity; and

—prioritize the use of the already allocated $3-billion infrastructure fund in the Ontario Infrastructure Bank away from programs that already have capital and use it to incentivize new high-growth communities in Ontario.

Let’s build healthy communities by prioritizing capital funding to the highest-growth, most beneficial projects, like building health care and making sure they’re staffed; building affordable housing; repairing the schools where workers of tomorrow are learning; funding our universities and colleges so that those kids have a bright future in whatever trade or field they choose; prioritizing the support of the public services Ontarians need rather than subsidizing private services that provide fewer services at greater cost; and immediately helping those community service organizations that need 5% to survive.

We need to address the affordability crisis. We could do things like giving $28 million to the Ontario Student Nutrition Program, which will serve over 761,000 meals to students in the province each day.

Stop playing the blame game and blaming everything on the federal government or the Bank of Canada and take action now by providing immediate financial relief for Ontario families by returning the provincial portion of HST related to home heating. Allow fourplexes province-wide to help improve gentle density and increase housing supply.

This government’s bad decisions and fiscal mistakes spell trouble. I know it’s not popular to cast gloom on our future prospects, and I don’t really want to, but I feel compelled to speak out against the position this government has put us in. There’s a fundamental issue at the heart of our provincial finances that’s leading to a fundamental breakdown of our public services and the quality of life in our province.

The Conservatives may claim to be prudent fiscal managers; they’re not. They’re populists, plain and simple—populists making short-term decisions in order to stay afloat for just one more term so they can extract as much money as they can from the public coffers before Ontarians realize what they’re doing and throw them out of office in 2026.

Questions?

Thank you to the member opposite. I think this budget, budget 2024, is a budget that’s focused on building Ontario, that’s building infrastructure, hospitals, education facilities, transit infrastructure and subways. It’s also focused on affordability for Ontario residents.

When our government took office in 2018, we did inherit the largest sub-sovereign debt in the entire world. Since then, both Standard and Poor’s and Moody’s have upgraded Ontario to positive outlook. They have upgraded the financial standing of Ontario, and this government has had six clean financial audits from the Auditor General, unlike the previous Liberal government. So, how do you account for that, to the member opposite?

I serve also with this member on the finance committee, and I need more than a minute and a hot second to talk about their financial record, but I’m going to focus on what we heard at committee.

Region of Peel Chair Nando Iannicca said the dissolution of Peel would have delayed housing in Peel by three, five, seven years. What would it take to make Peel whole? Some $1.5 billion. Since the revoking of the Hazel McCallion Act, Peel has been sent into a spiral, essentially, and that is how this government makes decisions or establishes legislation.

Can the member please talk about why it is so crucial to have strong partnerships with our municipalities and not create chaos, as they did with the Hazel McCallion Act?

Well, a positive outlook is good, but it’s at risk. Credit agencies will be looking at this. As I said, they’ll be looking at it right now and the positive outlook is at risk.

We’re still only ranked, I think, fifth of the provinces in terms of our overall debt rating. I think that the member opposite has forgotten that it was this government that balanced the budget several times during their term. That government did it once. Now they’re forecasting future deficits and almost a $10-billion deficit when they had forecast a surplus.

The margin of error here is astounding, and that’s what I’m talking about when I talk about their ability to forecast and do the right things for the people of this province by spending money on public services instead of making their rich friends richer.

Yes, you know, it does cause chaos. It’s just one more example of this government flip-flopping. They seem to talk about working and collaborating with leaders of all stripes, and yet when our leader, Bonnie Crombie, became the leader, they quickly, immediately announced the reversal of their decision to dissolve Peel. That does create uncertainty.

It also creates a lot of wasted work. The civil servants are sitting there, working on how to make this plan work, how to make things more efficient, how to make planning processes more efficient so we can get housing built, and instead they’re thrown into the middle of a political fight.

But we also know that private nursing agencies are making a lot of money. And who owns those private nursing agencies? Friends of this government.

We know that long-term-care homes are getting more money. Who owns those for-profit long-term care homes? Friends of this government.

So, Speaker, I recognize that there are services being delivered, but we also know that there is a priority around making their rich friends richer. Whether it’s the greenbelt, the 413, the Therme spa, there’s a record here and the record speaks for itself.

Speaker, when you’re spending money and you’re giving a profit to for-profit businesses with taxpayer money, that’s the problem I have with this deficit. At least half a billion dollars of the deficit is going to private agency nursing homes. We don’t know how much of the deficit is going to profit long-term-care homes, but I know it’s significant. We now have private clinics operating in this province; they need to make a profit. That profit comes at the expense and out of the pockets of taxpayers. That’s the problem I have.

When Liberal governments had deficits, it’s because we were spending on things like making sure that students had affordable access to university. We were making sure that there was rent control in place to protect tenants. We were making sure that student nutrition programs were well funded so kids weren’t going to school hungry. Those are the kinds of things that it makes sense to have a deficit on because then you’re actually helping the people of Ontario and not your rich insider friends.

In this budget—well, let’s just say there’s no Ontario government that has spent so much, borrowed so much, added to the debt so much and failed to address the issue of the day, the most important issue: affordability.

There are no measures in this budget to protect renters who are facing massive rent increases across this province, in all of our communities. The dream of an affordable home just got dimmer in this budget; there’s nothing there to give people hope.

Two million Ontarians don’t have a family doctor, and now they’re having to use their credit card instead of their OHIP card to get primary care.

So it’s evident that the Premier is able to point his finger, but he can’t lift a finger to help Ontario families facing an affordability crisis. My question to the member is: Why do you think that is?

I thank the member for her comments and certainly respect the member’s commercial background that she brings to this House. She has been an accountant and she has been on the board of the Bank of Canada, so good commercial experience.

I was also very interested in her comments about the size of the deficit. The implication is that she would like to see the deficit lower, and yet, also in her remarks, she was talking about increasing spending, whether it’s the TDSB or tax credits or health care. I don’t know. I started life as an accountant too, and those statements don’t quite add up together.

So I guess my question to the member would be: I’m encouraged by your comments on the deficit and wanting to get it down. To get that deficit lower, would you increase taxes to Ontarians, cut spending in health care or education, or what would be your formula of cuts and tax increases to get the deficit down?

I guess the member—I want to thank her for her question. I guess she assumes that we’ll be forming government in 2026. I’m not going to make commitments on behalf of a future government, but I would like to say that it was the Conservative government that privatized long-term care, long-term-care beds that saw people die at extremely high rates under COVID, instead of the not-for-profit long-term-care homes.

I will say that the Liberal government also created nurse practitioner-led clinics that could be billed through OHIP, whereas we have this government not advancing that cause and actually allowing the market to fill the need in creating nurse practitioner-led clinics where people pay with their credit card and not their debit card. People, we’ve been very clear: We’re very committed to public care.

The member also needs to remember that family doctors actually run a small business. That is how they run their practice today. If she wants to talk about overhauling the health system, I’m happy to do that in a future debate.

Further questions?

Further debate?