I want to thank the members for those eloquent tributes as this morning we’ve come together to give thanks for the life and public service of Roy McMurtry.

Final supplementary?

Actually, Speaker, that’s in fact not what I said. What I said is that there were not enough details with respect to the announcements made by the federal government on its infrastructure programs. I also said that we would be working very closely with our municipal partners—AMO; big city mayors; ROMA, the Rural Ontario Municipal Association—and we will be coming forward with a Team Ontario approach to ensure that we can access as much as of the federal dollars that have been put on the table.

At the same time, I’ve been very clear. The Premier has also been very clear that we don’t think that we’re in the best position to mandate what 444 municipalities should be doing across the province. We want to ensure that we meet our goals of building 1.5 million homes. That is why, of course, the Minister of Infrastructure has brought forward one of the largest infrastructure programs in the history of the province to ensure that we can get sewer and water in the ground. It is also backed up by the Minister of Education, who will be building more schools, and the Minister of Transportation, who is building more roads and transit. We’re building communities, Mr. Speaker.

The reality is that we want to work with our municipal partners—there are 444 of them—who have very unique circumstances across the province of Ontario. We have set a goal of building 1.5 million homes, and across the province, we have heard one issue constantly gets in the way of building more homes, and that is sewer and water. That is why we brought forward a nation-leading program of $1.8 billion to build sewer, water, roads and bridges across the province of Ontario.

But what also gets in the way are high taxes and regulation. So the high interest rate policies of the federal government because of high inflation, because of overspending and taxation, are stopping people from building homes. They are also stopping people from being able to afford homes. So what we’re going to continue to do is double down on removing red tape, putting sewer and water and infrastructure in the ground, working with our municipal partners to build not only hundreds of homes but millions of homes in communities across—

I have talked about the student and the family in my riding. He works at Circle K. He works at the Petro-Canada. He and his family live in a basement apartment miles away from their college. You know what he said to me? He’d like to live closer to the college. He’d like to live on campus. He would like options. For the NDP, he’s a bother; he’s a nuisance. For us, he’s somebody who builds the province of Ontario, and we will stand by him every step of the way.

My question is for the Premier. Yesterday, I asked why the government was suddenly ruling out missing-middle housing options like fourplexes and risking losing billions in federal funding in the process. In response, the minister told us that they needed more details—more details before they would decide if they would accept the money.

The research has been done. The studies are clear and there’s no time to waste. So I have to ask again: Why is the Premier risking billions in badly needed federal funding by ruling out higher-density options?

Why is the Premier ignoring the experts, ignoring the people of this province and standing in the way of getting housing built?

Speaker, people don’t want padded housing numbers. They want a decent place to live. If the Premier can’t get housing built, will he at least get out of the way so somebody else can do it?

Speaker, every Ontarian should also be able to see a doctor. They should absolutely be able to see a doctor when they need it, but right now, 2.3 million Ontarians do not have a family doctor, and that number is expected to nearly double in 2026. That’s going to be more than a quarter of the population in Ontario.

Despite the need, community health clinics haven’t seen a base budget increase in 15 years. They were forgotten in this year’s budget, too. While local clinics are being left to scrape by, the Premier’s budget for his office has somehow doubled since 2018. Does that seem right to the Premier?

This question again is for the Premier. Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Canada Health Act, which enshrined into law the principle of universal public health care in this country.

Interjections.

Can the Premier tell us what directives he has issued to prevent unfair billing for primary care?

I thank the member from the opposition for allowing me to speak about Ontario’s world-class health care system. Our government has taken bold action through the Your Health plan. Ontario is leading the country, with over 90% of Ontarians having a family doctor or primary care provider. Since 2018, we’ve registered over 12,500 new physicians in Ontario, with 10% of those being family physicians. But we do understand more needs to be done.

The NDP, when in office, cut 10% of medical enrolment seats, and the former Liberal Premier in 2015 removed 50 medical residency positions, leaving Ontario with hundreds less physicians practising in our province today.

We also just announced the York University investment, where it will be exclusively towards family physicians. We will continue doing what is needed for the people of Ontario to ensure that we have the best publicly funded health care.

Our government will not tolerate clinics taking advantage of a loophole created by federal legislation. We need the federal government to take action to ensure all people of Ontario and Canadians can access publicly funded primary care. The ministry reviews all possible violations that come to its attention, to ensure that all OHIP-insured patients who are charged for an insured service are reimbursed in full.

If the NDP is serious about expanding access to primary care, we invite them to vote in favour of our budget that will connect hundreds of thousands of people to primary care in their communities for years to come.

Final supplementary.

The Minister of Colleges and Universities.

Speaker, I’ll tell you what: This government’s platitudes mean nothing to the 2.3 million Ontarians who are struggling to find a family doctor right now, to those standing in line to register for a doctor or those waiting hours and hours in emergency rooms.

Times are tough for Ontarians, and this government is only making it harder by compromising that treasured health care system, that public health care system that we all believe so strongly in. The government is moving at an absolutely glacial pace, approving and funding integrated primary care teams. They either don’t understand the urgency, or they’re hoping they can push everyone into for-profit health care to benefit their corporate friends.

So to the Premier: Which is it? Incompetence or insiders?

Interjections.

Let’s look at the history of medical schools. The Liberals and the NDP have voted against every single measure we’ve taken to increase medical seats in this province. Budget 2022 was the largest expansion in medical seats in over 10 years, and you voted against it. Budget 2023: again, another increase in medical seats, and guess what? They voted against it.

Budget 2024: a new medical school at York University that will be specifically for family medicine. I urge both of you, the NDP and the Liberals, to get on board, support budget 2024 and see access to more family medicine in this province.

I have a question for the Minister of Energy today. On April 1, we saw the federal Liberal carbon tax go up not 10%, not 15%, not 20%, but 23% for the people of Ontario, and we saw opposition to this increase from Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

Here in Ontario, we’ve taken a leadership position and say that we don’t need more carbon tax increases on the people of Ontario. Yet we see that Bonnie Crombie, the leader of the Liberals here in Ontario, insists on fighting to raise the carbon tax. We see that families in Ontario in my riding of Niagara West can’t afford to spend more on groceries, more on gas, more on every aspect of life, and I know that this is a government that isn’t going to give up on fighting for those hard-working families here in Ontario.

I know that we’re continuing to fight this tax every step of the way, and I’m wondering if the minister could share more with the chamber about why it’s important that the government of Ontario and all members in this House step up to show leadership in fighting the carbon tax and defending hard-working families.

Speaker, the previous Liberal government drove away investments. We saw them double the provincial tax burden. We saw them increase the debt for this province and also punish Ontario families with more tolls and taxes in every corner of their life. And under Bonnie Crombie, we see that the Liberal members of this House also refuse to stand up against the federal carbon tax. We know that Ontario families can’t afford more Liberal taxes. It’s what they’ve come to expect from the federal government; it’s what they saw from the provincial Liberals. But, Speaker, this is a government that is standing in contrast with that tax-and-spend burden.

Could the parliamentary assistant please explain to this House and to my constituents who are watching what we are doing to support the people of Ontario, what we are doing to reduce the cost of living for them and their families in contrast with the federal carbon tax increases?

Again, thank you to the member of the opposition for allowing me to speak about Ontario’s world-class health care.

Our government is investing over $85 billion this year alone into our health care system, which is a 30% increase from when we took power in 2018. Ontario is leading the country, with almost 90% of Ontarians having a family doctor or a primary health care provider.

But we understand more can be done. That is why, in Sault Ste. Marie, we have two new primary care units that are going to be going on with $1.1 million. Since 2018, we’ve registered 12,500 new physicians in Ontario, including the 10% increase in family doctors.

As I said, we know more needs to be done. In this year’s budget, we went even further. The primary care expansion has expanded to a total investment of $546 million over three years to connect 600,000 more Ontarians to care.

Our government is also expanding the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. NOSM will soon offer 108 seats, nearly doubling the capacity of their MD program. They’ll increase from 60 postgraduate positions to 123 by 2028.

Speaker, we will continue to work with our health care partners across the province to ensure that Ontario has the best publicly funded health care when and where people need it.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the member for Niagara West for continuing to stand up against this punitive, regressive carbon tax. And he’s absolutely right: It has raised the cost not just at the pumps; it’s on the grocery shelves—it’s everywhere. Everything is going up as a result of the carbon tax. And we’ve been standing here and fighting for the people of Ontario and trying to reduce their costs, reducing the gas tax $320 to the average family in the course of a year—that’s going to save them money. We’re removing the cost of licence plate stickers on the cars—that’s going to save them money as well. All of these things, while the Liberal government continues to raise the carbon tax 23% on April 1.

Justin Trudeau had a choice. He could have sided with the people or sided with the ideologues. He chose the latter. It’s time to side with the people and scrap the tax.

We’ve reduced the cost of doing business in this province by $8 billion. That gets passed on to the consumers because businesses have had more freedom to operate here in the province of Ontario, creating more jobs. All this while Bonnie Crombie stands with her leader from Ottawa in supporting the carbon tax.

Speaker, we are doing everything we can to put money back into the pockets of people in Ontario. We know they’re suffering under the carbon tax. It’s time for the Liberals and the NDP to support what we’re doing: Help us scrap the carbon tax.

My question is to the Premier. There are many landlords across Ontario who owe tenants a lot of money—money in the thousands of dollars. Big landlords regularly ignore the requirements to reduce rents when above-guideline rent increases expire, so tenants everywhere are paying illegal rents.

Will the Premier take steps to ensure landlords follow the law and reduce rents for tenants so they can pay their bills?

The Attorney General.

We have a fix for that, Mr. Speaker. It’s an independent tribunal: the Landlord and Tenant Board, Mr. Speaker.

And I can tell you that we are making tremendous progress with what we call the AGIs, the above-guideline increases. Independent hearings by independent members are hearing concerns. They’re making decisions. They’re getting the decisions out the door, 90% of the time within 30 days.

So I’ll address it more in the supplement, Mr. Speaker, but we have a process. And it’s a proper process to address any kind of concern like that.

We’re investing in the back office. We’ve invested in upgraded systems that the Liberals left in shambles before we took over, Mr. Speaker. But we’re beyond that. That’s now history. We have a good system. We have good people. We have a system that’s coming down, and we’re going to make sure that people have their matters heard independently, fairly and quickly.

Back to the minister: This is a very serious matter. It is the difference between buying groceries or not for a renter, the difference between keeping up with your bills or not. Tenants should not be paying illegal rents to big landlords, but in Ontario today, they are.

My question is to the minister: Will you take action to curb AGI abuse, and protect tenants and get them the money that they are owed?

Speaker, the carbon tax is holding us back from unleashing the full potential of Ontario. But we’ve shown the Liberals the way: less red tape and lower taxes equals more jobs.

We have removed 500 pieces of red tape that the Liberals put in. Our fall red tape reduction package alone is saving people and businesses over 100,000 hours each year. As a result, 700,000 more men and women are working today than when we took office. Last year alone, we added 180,000 new jobs in Ontario and $11 billion in new investments. Imagine— just imagine—what we could have achieved without the carbon tax.

We refuse to let the Liberals jeopardize the progress that we have made. Scrap the carbon tax today. Work with us to create the conditions for growth in Ontario.

My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. The federal Liberals are turning their back on the hard-working people of Ontario, whether it’s the auto worker in Windsor, the miner in Timmins or the tech engineer in Waterloo—they’re all concerned about the rising cost of living.

The absolute last thing that a government should be doing is making things more expensive by hiking taxes, but that’s exactly what the federal Liberal government did last Monday when they increased the carbon tax. As we all know, the carbon tax is driving the cost of everything up across the board, penalizing Ontario’s workers and squeezing businesses in every sector of our province.

Speaker, can the minister explain how, by cutting costs, our government is able to create the conditions for job growth and new investment?

With the stroke of a pen, Speaker, the federal Liberals could scrap the carbon tax and bring down the cost of gas by nearly 18 cents a litre while simultaneously alleviating inflationary pressures, not just in Ontario but across our country. But instead, they’ve chosen to proceed with their 23% carbon tax hike.

While elected officials of all political stripes are standing up against the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie and the provincial Liberals have not said one word.

Speaker, can the minister highlight the progress of Ontario’s economy since we took office and since we’ve lowered costs?

Mr. Speaker, Metrolinx and their team are undertaking the largest public transit infrastructure investment in the history of not only Canada but all of North America.

And do you know what? Those members, including the Liberals, who for 15 years did absolutely nothing to build transit in this province, voted against every single one of those transit projects: the Ontario Line—388,000 daily boardings projected; 28,000 fewer cars on the road once that line is built. And do you know what, Mr. Speaker? That member has voted against those public transit investments every single time. Let’s look at the Yonge North subway extension, another project this government is delivering on: 4,800 tonnes of GHG emission reduction when that project is built. And guess what? That member has voted against it every single time.

We’ll continue to build public transit across this province, and we’ll be ambitious and continue to do what the previous Liberal government refused to do, which is build for future generations.

We want to get shovels in the ground, and guess what, Mr. Speaker? We do have shovels in the ground, on the Ontario Line, on the Eglinton West extension, on the Yonge North subway extension. We’ve put the RFQ to market. The Scarborough subway extension: Shovels are in the ground. This is historic. And if the NDP and if the Liberals did what we experienced for the last 15 years, we’d have no shovels in the ground, and we’d have no public transit for this province.

So I ask the members of the Liberals and the NDP to support public transit in this province, to support investments that we are making so we can move the people—

Interjections.

My question is for the Premier. It begins with some unfortunate news for this House, however: There is something growing faster in Ontario than the number of six-figure staffers in the Premier’s office. It’s the army of vice-presidents that work for CEO of Metrolinx, Phil Verster.

My question to the Premier is very simple: Can he say to this House if he has confidence in Metrolinx right now and its executive leadership?

So, my question again to the honourable gentleman: Please, for the transit users who work in this province, why are you rewarding failure? When will you rein in the gravy train at Metrolinx? It’s time for action.

In 2018, the Premier ran a tough-talking campaign aimed at convincing Ontarians the previous government was wasting taxpayer money. He spoke about the growing sunshine list of public sector employees earning over $100,000. One would think he was some kind of Robin Hood figure who was going to take from the rich and give to the poor. His record in office proves otherwise.

Speaker, this government has made many mistakes: Bill 124, axing workers’ rights, the greenbelt scandal, to name just a few. But now, the government has a mistake right in the Premier’s office. The Premier has added so many new sunshine-list employees to his staff that it’s costing taxpayers more than double what it did under any previous government.

My question to the Premier: Is he ready to admit that he is running a government that is full of friends, insiders and fat cats, to use his own words, and to clean up the bloated mess in his office?