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?

Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

The supplementary question.

The next question.

Certainly this government does have the biggest Premier’s office in history. Once again, the standards this government holds itself to just don’t apply to them.

This Premier has a long history of railing against governments wasting money, the so-called “gravy train.” Torontonians remember him railing against it as a city councillor, and Ontarians heard him do it during provincial campaigns. Yet during his six years in office, the Premier has not hesitated to create new executive positions for his friends, giving every member of the Conservative caucus except one a pay raise and doubling the number of staff in the Premier’s office making $100,000 or more a year. I guess it’s hard for the Premier to rail against the gravy train when he’s up to his own waist in gravy.

Speaker, back to the Premier: How exactly is his gravy train deluxe different from everything he has railed against in the past, and how will he stop the gravy train deluxe this time around, when he has only himself to blame?

Speaker, what we’re doing is running a government that is delivering on behalf of the people of the province of Ontario.

The Liberals increased taxes and delivered nothing. They increased red tape and delivered nothing. Are there more people working in the province of Ontario? Yes, there are: about 700,000 more people working in the province of Ontario than there were under the Liberals. Do you know why? Because we’re doing what they wouldn’t do. We’re actually investing in people. We have the largest transit and transportation investment in the province’s history. We have the largest investment in hospitals in the province’s history, the largest investment in new schools in the province’s history. We have the largest investment in economic development ever. Do you know why? Because people want to come to Ontario and make those investments. Do you know why they want to do that? Because they have a confident Progressive Conservative stable majority government, and we’re delivering for them: cutting taxes, making investments, more jobs. It’s a good time to be a Progressive Conservative—

The new leader of the Liberal Party’s first ask wasn’t for the people of the province of Ontario; the first ask was what? A million dollars to pay her salary. That is what this member is supporting.

Do you know what we’re doing? We’re cutting taxes for the people—

Interjections.

The leader of the Liberal Party knows what we’re doing. What we’re doing is making sure that we have an economy that works for all of the people. We’re fixing the mess that they left behind, and we’ll continue to do that job for the people—

Interjections.

My question is for the Minister of Energy. The federal carbon tax went up again, and Bonnie Crombie and her Liberals refuse to oppose it.

Speaker, we know that Ontario families cannot afford the carbon tax. When I was door-knocking last week in my riding of Newmarket–Aurora, people expressed concern over the high cost of living. It seems like Justin Trudeau and his ally Bonnie Crombie don’t understand how much harder life has become for Ontarians due to this carbon tax.

While the Liberals are pushing for higher taxes, our government is lowering costs for the people of Ontario. Speaker, can the minister please explain how our government is keeping costs down for Ontarians fighting this terrible Liberal carbon tax?

Now more than ever, Ontarians need a government that will deliver true affordability, not increased taxes. Our government must continue to demonstrate leadership and support Ontario families during these challenging times.

Speaker, can the parliamentary assistant please elaborate on the steps that our government is taking to support the great people of Ontario?

I’d like to thank the member for Newmarket–Aurora, not only for her question, but her continued advocacy on this issue.

So 17 cents a litre is what we’re paying more for a litre of gasoline because of Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax. In a pickup truck like mine, which is a common way of transportation in rural Ontario, that’s over 20 bucks a tank. That’s what I’m hearing—she’s hearing it from her constituents; that’s what I’m hearing from mine.

When the cost of fuel goes up, the cost of everything goes up, because we need fuel to move everything in this province. We need it. So, the reality is that either Bonnie Crombie and Justin Trudeau don’t understand—which she asked, do they understand—or maybe they just don’t care.

On this side of the House, in this government, we care. We’re lowering the cost of living by reducing that tax. That’s $320 a year for the average person. And we’re also removing the cost of licence plate fees. We will continue to fight this punitive carbon tax until it’s gone.

But they’re hearing it in boxcar letters all across the province. Everybody is saying the same thing. They are being hurt and harmed. Their families are being hurt by the carbon tax. But the Liberals just sit there like deer in the headlights, like it doesn’t matter to them. But it matters to the people of Ontario. I hear it all across my riding. This tax is regressive, it is punitive and it is not accomplishing anything of what it was intended to do.

It is time for the Liberals in this House to talk to their chieftain out in Ottawa and tell the queen of the carbon tax to have a discussion with Justin. It is time to scrap this tax once and for all. The people can’t take much more.

My question is to the Premier. Seniors in hospital are being fined $400 a day if they refuse to be sent to a long-term-care home they didn’t choose, even if it’s up to 150 kilometres away from their families.

This government repeatedly denied the use of this cruel practice under Bill 7. The Conservatives claim that Bill 7 gives hospitals the authority to charge seniors $400 a day in order to force them out to clear out beds and create hospital capacity. But we know wait times in hospitals remain historically high, and one senior recently was slapped with—listen to this—a $5,200 bill.

Was the Premier actually unaware of the charges being billed to seniors, or did he purposely withhold that information from the media?

The member doesn’t want to listen to me, but maybe he will listen to his colleagues on the opposition benches: “Alternate level of care. It’s a fancy word that means ... you really would like to be supported someplace else, but you have no choice but to” be in a “hospital.”

Here’s another one, the MPP for Waterloo: “These are patients who should not be in a hospital. They should be in long-term care or in retirement or assisted living options.”

So, Speaker, I have a question. I mentioned the 17,000 seniors who are no longer patients in a hospital, now residents in long-term care. What about the 8,838 in Ontario Health West, including Niagara region, who have gone from hospitals to now living in long-term care? Would the member like to go with me and tell those members, all 8,800 of them, that they’re better off in a hospital? I’m not going to do that. If the member wants to do it, go ahead. Will the member apologize to seniors for ignoring them for decades upon decades, as this government is finally taking care of them and picking up on their failures?

Supplementary question.

Minister, a senior had to pay $5,200 to a hospital, as your party continues to ask question after question over affordability. There are not a lot of seniors in the province of Ontario who can afford a $5,200 bill. I don’t care if it’s one or 10, they shouldn’t have to pay that kind of money.

We’ve learned the minister has allowed nearly 300 seniors to be bullied and forced to move to a long-term-care home without their consent—think about that; without your parents’ or your grandparents’ consent—and he chooses to hide the information or is completely unaware that seniors are being fined $400 a day under his legislation. And he still refuses to apologize to the seniors and their families they have hurt and intimidated, including the thousands of seniors that died of COVID in long-term-care homes under the government’s watch.

Speaker, are the seniors simply cash cows, dispensable to this government, or will the Premier repeal Bill 7?

My question is for the Premier.

This weekend, I met with residents in my riding who live at a building at 250 Frederick Street. Please look it up. They’re all over the media. They’re being bullied by their bad-acting landlord. These tenants, mostly seniors, were handed N13s stating they have to vacate their units so that the landlord can do renovations.

In Ontario, people are losing their homes over a coat of paint and a dishwasher. This scare tactic works. It’s used a lot by this so-called investor who works in London, has done the same thing in Hamilton and might be coming for any of our ridings next. He will scare you out of your home and jack up the rent so he can make sky-high profits. Since 2017, the use of N13s has risen by 300% and N12s have risen by 70%, affecting over 20,000 people—people who pay their rent and are getting kicked out of their houses with nowhere to go.

My bill, the Keeping People Housed Act, aims to stop bad-acting landlords from clogging up the LTB and displacing tenants illegally. Will the Premier support my bill and stop the hemorrhaging of tenants onto our streets?

Wait times at the LTB have never been longer—over 427 days and up to two years for tenants, because it’s a two-tier system; and it was 70 days in 2018. So try something else. It’s not working.

My bill, the Keeping People Housed Act, if passed, would stop the misuse of the LTB by asking for proper paperwork before they get in the queue—a queue, might I add, that is 53,000 long.

Bringing back vacancy control would mean that bad-acting landlords aren’t given pay increases when they kick seniors out of their homes. I thought, in Ontario, that when you break the law and you do a job badly, you don’t get a raise.

Mr. Speaker, the Premier says that he cares about affordability, that he wants people to save up for a home, that he cares about justice. So don’t you agree that it shouldn’t be luck; it should be law to have a good-enough landlord?

I appreciate the question from the member opposite. If the member would like to help, she could support, the NDP could support, the Liberals could support, the Green Party could support—but they don’t. They don’t support any of the investments that we’ve made.

We have doubled the number of adjudicators. Last year we have taken in more cases than any time in the last 15 years, and we’re up on case intake by 31%, but we’re up on resolution by 45%, Mr. Speaker. So, we are fixing the system that they left in shambles, and we will take no lessons from the Liberals chirping over there.

I would ask the new Green member to please join us in making investments so that individual renters and landlords can actually get their cases heard fairly and quickly.

There are some bad actors on both sides, and the only way to resolve it is not political interference; the way to resolve it is to have an independent tribunal, have a hearing, with evidence, so that they can make a decision. That’s what we’re doing. We’re taking no shortcuts.

The NDP and the Liberals, during COVID, said, “Stop all hearings. Stop everything.” Well, we didn’t stop everything.

We do have a backlog, but we are getting it down in a fair, equitable, fast way. We are putting the resources in. We doubled the number of adjudicators. We put a new back-end system in. We hired more administrators. And we are getting the job done.

Thank you to my amazing colleague from Mississauga Centre for raising an issue that’s facing so many small businesses across Ontario.

Speaker, I have been hearing from entrepreneurs and job creators across our province about the devastating impacts the federal government’s punishing 23% carbon tax increase to $80 per tonne will have on their operations and bottom lines. The Canadian Federation of Independent Business warns that over half of small firms will be forced to raise prices and the other half will need to freeze or reduce wages. These are real, on-the-ground effects of this tax increase, with small businesses being forced to make difficult decisions that could impact their ability to support many families. This tax hike is not just a financial burden for these businesses; it’s a threat to the livelihoods of hard-working entrepreneurs.

Unlike the opposition Liberals and NDP, this government and this Premier will continue being the voice of Ontario’s small businesses and will continue to tell Ottawa to scrap the tax.

My question is for the Associate Minister of Small Business.

Speaker, small businesses are the backbone of our economy, and this was so evident when the minister and I visited a small family-owned business in my riding called Palma Pasta. Congratulations to the Petrucci family for being a staple of Italian cuisine and Italian culture in Mississauga.

However, the federal government is making it even harder for small businesses to survive and thrive with its massive 23% hike in the punitive carbon tax, to $80 per tonne. This job-killing tax is already increasing the cost on everything from heating to electricity to transportation and raw materials. Small businesses are already struggling under the weight of high inflation, supply chain disruptions and labour shortages. This new carbon tax increase is yet another burden.

Can the associate minister please further explain the impact the carbon tax has had on Ontario’s small businesses?

The contrast couldn’t be more clear. Under the leadership of the Premier, we are supporting small businesses across the province.

With many small businesses already struggling to repay their CEBA loans, the carbon tax is only adding further challenges. They need relief, not more taxes.

Speaker, the opposition used to be all talk and no action, but now, all of a sudden, they’re staying silent when the federal Liberals are hiking this job-killing carbon tax, and so is the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie. I think her new name should be carbon Crombie, because there isn’t a single tax that she doesn’t love.

Our government has the backs of our hard-working entrepreneurs and job creators, and we’ve got the record to prove it, but we know that more must be done. Can the associate minister tell the House how our government is pushing back against the carbon tax and its negative impacts?

Imagine signing a contract for a preconstruction freehold home. You put down large sums of money during these tough times, and after waiting years, you’re shocked to find out in the media that the project has been cancelled.

This continues to happen under this government, and the government regulator will only post cancellations for condos, but not freehold homes. This information is vital for consumers, so they can make the most informed choice when choosing a builder. Why is the government letting their regulator cherry-pick the information it discloses to consumers on the builder directory?

What is taking the government so long in fixing the builder directory, so consumers have the absolutely necessary information they need to make the best decision in purchasing a newly built home?

My question is for the amazing Associate Minister of Transportation. Families in my community of Oakville North–Burlington need immediate relief from the carbon tax. When people are already struggling to pay their bills and keep food on the table, the carbon tax only adds further strain to their household budgets, and yet, the NDP and the Liberals think now is the time to raise taxes. Our government knows that the people of Ontario deserve better.

Speaker, can the associate minister please explain what steps our government is taking to fight the carbon tax?

Speaker, can the associate minister tell the House how the Liberal tax hike is hurting Ontarians?

Thank you to the member from Oakville North–Burlington for her advocacy and for that question. Unlike the NDP and Liberals, we are fighting to put more money back into the pockets of hard-working Ontarians. That’s why Premier Ford announced our government is extending the gas tax cut to help make life more affordable.

The Liberals and NDP are ignoring the people of Ontario. The Liberals and NDP do not care that people cannot afford groceries. I invite the opposition—come to Scarborough. You will hear from families upset as they pay more at the pumps and see their shopping cost more than ever before.

Liberals want higher taxes, and they refuse to axe the carbon tax. We are the only party fighting to keep costs down. Our message is clear: Scrap the tax.

Mr. Speaker, their response to longer food lines? Raise taxes. Their response to higher fuel costs? Raise taxes. That is not leadership. Here in Ontario, our PC team will continue to put more money in the people’s pockets, and we will say no to a carbon tax.

Again to the great member: Our government has been listening to the concerns of small business owners and entrepreneurs about the devastating effects of the federal carbon tax increase. Unlike the opposition, we understand that overly burdensome taxes and costs make it harder for these job creators to survive, let alone invest in growth. It’s simple economics, Speaker.

CFIB estimates each business is owed approximately $2,637 in rebates, and yet the Liberals and NDP have been completely silent. Well, our government has had the backs of Ontario’s two million hard-working small business employees and owners from day one. That’s why we will continue to send another letter to my federal counterparts demanding Ottawa finally return the $2.5 billion it has withheld in promised carbon tax rebates to small businesses since 2019. We will keep pushing the federal government relentlessly—

Seniors in retirement homes are considered tenants and fall under the Ministry of Housing. There’s no required standard of care, and it has become very clear the moment a land speculator sets their eyes on their rental homes, the seniors can get turfed out.

What is this government doing to protect seniors living in retirement homes?

Premier, where are these seniors supposed to go now, into $5,000-a-month, Chartwell-owned retirement homes?