I want to thank the member from Ottawa West–Nepean for her remarks. Just on your most recent point about schools running out of space, part of the budget has a capital plan of over $16 billion in capital grants for the next 10 years, including a public high school in the city of Ottawa. I’m hoping you might be able to share with us what school that is and what community it will serve.

Thank you so much to the member from Ottawa West–Nepean. I was able to be here this morning for that portion of her debate. She talked about Community Living and struggles that people with disabilities are having when it comes to living in supportive housing and ensuring that those homes are available. We know that we have wait-lists already, and now we’re hearing that they’re starting to close their doors, they’re considering closing their doors or they’re changing to a fee-for-service program. The Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services has implemented a Journey to Belonging plan, which is into year 3, and there are still no answers from the ministry.

Would the member like to elaborate maybe once again to update the current members of the House on what she’s been hearing for people who need supportive housing living and are seeing those houses close?

It’s an honour to rise this afternoon to debate the 2024 budget.

Madam Speaker, blessed are our children because they will inherit this government’s massive debt. Our kids will be paying for this government’s record, massive spending and deficits likely for the rest of their lives. This Conservative government is now projecting a deficit of $8.8 billion. Never in the history of Ontario has a government borrowed so much money to achieve so little.

In fact, the Premier is about to become the biggest-spending Premier in modern Ontario history. That’s right; he’s spending money and running deficits that would make Kathleen Wynne and Bob Rae blush. When compared to GDP, program spending will be higher than it was during any of the years that Kathleen Wynne was Premier. It will be even higher than 2010. Remember what happened in 2010—2010 was during the global economic financial meltdown. This was when governments of all partisan colours from one side of the planet to the next side of the planet were spending money to stimulate the economy. And this year’s spending will be higher than that.

Remember, Madam Speaker, during the economic crisis that started with the failure of those big American financial institutions—let’s remember that crisis, something that was affecting Ontario greatly. Something that the government of that day was spending money on, to save Ontario jobs, was the auto sector. We remember how bad the auto sector in North America, how bad the auto sector here in Ontario was affected during that great recession of 2008 and 2010, the last time spending got anywhere close to this high.

The reason I raise that as an important point is that, at that time, when Canada and Ontario came together to invest $3.3 billion to save the auto sector in Ontario, to save tens of thousands of jobs here in the province—when program spending was that high to save those jobs and to save the auto sector, who was against it? It was the Ontario Conservative Party. They were against program spending that high. They were against saving the auto industry.

Lo and behold, 15 years later, now that they’re in government, they’re spending even more money. They’re spending so much money that they don’t know where it’s all going.

So they voted against saving the auto industry. They voted against the spending to save the economy after the massive financial crisis of 2008 and 2010. And now they’re spending even more money than they ever did back then. Frankly, they’re making it rain across Ontario, and everyone is getting wet, because we don’t know where the money is going.

I’d like to just suggest, Madam Speaker, that I will be sharing my time with my good friend from Ottawa South this afternoon.

This government is spending money like never before. They’re spending money like it’s going out of fashion. They’re spending money like it’s water. And what are we getting for it? Some 2.2 million Ontarians don’t have a family doctor or primary health practitioner. Emergency rooms are closing across the province, sometimes for a couple of hours, sometimes for a day, sometimes for a weekend. You never know when the emergency rooms are closing—emergency room closing soon in your neck of the woods, Madam Speaker.

We remember a Conservative Party that was against high hydro prices. Well, now, hydro prices are higher than they’ve ever been, and this is despite the fact that this government is using billions of dollars of income taxes to try to keep them low.

So they’re running massive deficits, taking income taxes that could be hiring doctors, income taxes that could be hiring teachers and building schools and building highways, and they’re using that to save a couple of bucks a month on your hydro prices. And your hydro prices are still the highest they’ve ever been.

The cost of rent is going up. The cost of buying a home is going up. The cost of buying groceries is going up.

You can’t even go to the Beer Store and buy a beer for the price the Premier said he would have.

You can’t drink a beer without looking down your nose at another broken Conservative promise. That’s how far off the fiscal cliff these guys have gone.

They’re spending money like no government has ever done in Ontario. Some 2.2 million people don’t have a family doctor. Hydro prices are higher than they’ve ever been. The budget is not doing anything to provide relief for families. So where is all the money going? Well, we know that some of it is going to the Premier’s office because, lo and behold, the Premier, who decried the length and depth of the sunshine list in 2017 before he was Premier, has seen a massive, enormous, and some might say historic jump in the number of people on the sunshine list, and a bunch of them work for the Premier. His office budget has gone up; it has doubled since last year. His office went from 20 staff to 48 staff now, I think, in a year, and every single person who works for the Premier makes more as an individual than the average Ontario family does in a year—some of them make double the average, some of them make triple the average, some of them make quadruple the average Ontario family.

That’s not a government that’s concerned about minding their purse. That’s not a government that’s watching the pennies or the dollars. That’s a government that has lost all fiscal responsibility. They are out of control, and our kids are going to be paying their deficits for the rest of their lives.

The member from Ottawa South.

John, your phone is ringing.

It’s a pleasure to follow my colleague and friend from Orléans.

He’s right; never has a government in Ontario’s history spent so much, borrowed so much, incurred so much debt to do so little.

Ontarians have to ask themselves: “Is my life any better? Is it any easier?” “Is my rent cheaper?” “Is my mortgage cheaper?” “Is it easier to get groceries?” “I’ve got a problem with my landlord. I’ll have to take him to the tribunal. Oh, it takes 400 days now; it used to take 70 in 2018.”

This budget does nothing for those people.

As my colleague just mentioned, there are two million Ontarians without a family doctor, so people are having to use their credit card instead of their OHIP card to access basic medical attention for their son or daughter or themselves.

Interruption.

Interjection: It’s not yours.

Interjection.

That’s not fair. Put some more time back on the clock.

It all starts at the top, folks.

Interjection.

Oh, pardon me, I withdraw.

Thanks for the call, the member from Nepean.

Now stop, Lisa, because I’ve got to finish. I’m going to have a big finish here, Lisa.

It all starts at the top. As my colleague just mentioned, since 2019, the Premier’s office budget has almost doubled, to $7 million. It has increased by $4 million—it has actually more than doubled. There used to be 20 staff in 2019; there are now 48—sorry, that’s 48 staff on the sunshine list. There are actually 80 staff. My colleague just talked about the average Ontario family income. Let’s talk about the median Ontario family income—the people right in the middle. All of those people make more than that—a whole bunch of them make double; another group makes triple; there’s another group that makes quadruple that. It doesn’t make any sense.

People are having a hard time paying their bills, their rent, their mortgage. It’s hard to put food on the table.

Do you know what the minister said the other day? “Yes, some people are using their credit card to get health care—just a few people”; they used to say there was nobody.

And then, the Premier did what he does best, the thing that he really excels at, which is pointing a finger: “It’s them over there. They have got to fix their legislation. It’s the federal government. It’s their problem.” It’s not their problem. So instead of pointing a finger, the Premier needs to lift a finger and actually realize that all you have to do is pay nurse practitioners. It’s not complicated. It’s simple. You could have done it a year ago. You just have to pay them. It’s about who pays them. Treat them the same way as, well, pharmacists. Pharmacists can diagnose 12 minor ailments. That’s their scope. Who pays them when they do that? The government. Who pays them when they do meds checks—that’s a whole other issue altogether about financial mismanagement. The government. So what’s wrong with nurse practitioners? Why is that so hard?

So the Premier has to stop pointing a finger at the federal government. I know it’s easy.

They did mention the carbon tax 10 times in the first 10 minutes of the speech of the budget. They ask every single darn question in question period about it. But they have got their own carbon tax and they have got their own cap-and-trade.

It’s like, do something to help Ontario families with affordability, and maybe, just maybe, life will get better.

Fix the rental housing tribunal so it’s not 400 days for a tenant to get there—I know it’s 70 or 80 days for a landlord to get there. That’s not making lives easier for Ontario families.

Premier, maybe un-bloat your office. That’s a bloated office—48 people. Remember the old show Entourage? I wanted to Photoshop that, but then I realized they didn’t have 48 people in the picture. So it’s like this small army of people, while people are hurting. I know I’m making a joke about it, but it’s serious. If you’re serious about helping families, you don’t bloat your office up more than double; you don’t have 48 people who are making more than the median Ontario family—some of them four times as much.

The Premier used to like to rail about the gravy train and the sunshine list and insiders and fat cats, but he has become the ultimate insider. When he said, “Stop the gravy train,” maybe he meant, “Just stop it so I can have a station here, over on Wellesley there, on the sixth floor.” I don’t know; maybe that’s what he wanted to do.

So I just would encourage the Premier to walk the talk; to slim down his office to what I would say would be a mean, lean fighting machine.

And on behalf of the people of Ontario, make sure that you address their issues of affordability—whether having to use their credit card instead of their OHIP card or that they have to go the rental housing tribunal, or any of those things that families need most.

I think it’s more enraged than underwhelmed.

I want to remind the member from Nepean that she voted against the auto sector, as well—one of the few members who’s still here—and so did this member.

Do you know what? Never has a government in Ontario’s history, in six years, amassed so much debt—no government in Ontario history has borrowed so much, spent so much, incurred so much debt as this government. It’s to do, really, so little to not actually address those things that families need, like a family doctor or being able to go to the rental housing tribunal to make sure you’re not getting—I can’t use that word; “that your landlord is not getting one over on you” is the best way to put it. I could have said another word, but I didn’t.

I’ll stop there, Speaker.

I was in the store last night, and I saw Bartlett pears for $3.49 a pound. That’s lots of money—apples for three bucks a pound; butter, eight bucks—

So if you’re asking me what the budget does for people on assistance and the vulnerable, well, it is the square root of—anyhow, I’ll leave it there.

I appreciate the opportunity to be here, because it’s interesting, the member opposite, of course—both of them from the Liberal Party and also from the city of Ottawa.

I do have an opportunity later to address the budget bill, and I was looking at my Hansard from my maiden speech on April 18, 2006, against a budget of theirs. I remember saying at the time that it was a “buy less, pay more” budget that they offered. They actually cut funding from the farmers. They cut money from children and youth. They had an entire infrastructure budget, and they forgot the city of Ottawa.

If the members opposite would like to talk a little bit about the city of Ottawa and this historic $600-million deal made with Mark Sutcliffe, our mayor, I would love to hear it.

I’d be happy to talk about the raw deal the city of Ottawa is getting from this province.

Let’s break down the numbers. Last November, the city of Toronto signed a deal with the province to get $1.2 billion over three years; Ottawa is getting $197 million over three years. Basically, Toronto is going to get $396 for every resident; Ottawa is going to get $181 for every resident. That’s per capita funding. That’s corrected for population.

I guess my question back to the member for Nepean is, why does she think her constituents in Nepean are only worth 46% of the Premier’s constituents in Etobicoke?

I want to thank the members for their very thoughtful speeches that really got to the point of the matter.

Something that I heard a lot about in 2018 was this mantra that Ontario was the most indebted subnational jurisdiction on earth, and I want you to expand on their solution to that—by adding more debt to that subnational jurisdiction.

Being a veteran member in this Legislature, you’ve seen many budgets. Have you ever been so underwhelmed?

Thank you to my colleagues for the excellent points you’ve made today regarding the budget.

The budget is making some investments; let’s not deny it. If you’re a car owner, if you’re into infrastructure—there is a lot of money pouring into there.

But the fact of the matter is that our community organizations are underfunded—community organizations that help support victims of sexual assault, that provide mental health support; women’s centres and food banks, for our sake.

The Ottawa Food Bank just marked their 40th anniversary just last week—a food bank that was supposed to be an emergency measure, that has been operating for 40 years now.

What is the budget doing to help vulnerable people and people who need to count on food banks?

It’s the carbon tax to get them there.

I was listening to the member from Orléans speak about how we’re spending much more in this budget—and I agree; we are, because in 2017, under Charles Sousa and your government, you were spending $152 billion, and today it’s $214 billion, without raising a tax, and giving money back to the people here in Ontario.

And if you remember George Smitherman saying—he was the Minister of Health at the time. He said he starved health care. Health care was $59.4 billion, and today it’s $85 billion. Even your new leader, Bonnie Crombie, said on TVO that she would not have spent that much money on health care, but today we’re spending much, much more on health care.

Do you agree with your new leader saying that she would cut spending on health care as well?

Next question?

Member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington.

I recognize the minister once again.

Subways.

I’m glad that the topic today is health care in the budget. As mentioned before, 2.2 million Ontarians don’t have a family doctor.

In my riding, I just had a call in early March from a woman who had a stroke in October 2023, and she didn’t have a family doctor. And so, she has asked the professionals who were coming to her home to give her rehab, “What happens when I have a question medically? What happens if I’m not feeling well? I don’t have a family doctor,” and do you know what their advice was? “Go to the emergency room.”

Speaker, this government has failed on health care and providing for people to be able to get doctors. But the NDP talked about a solution. They have provided answers to those questions, to provide the primary care doctors with resources—the staff, if you will—so that they can be alleviated from the administration burden of reports. That would actually create enough doctor hours to provide care for 2.2 million.

Does the member agree that the NDP has a real solution to a doctor shortage here in Ontario?

I think that proves the point: They’re spending massive amounts of money and getting nothing in return; 2.2 million Ontarians don’t have a family doctor.

You’ve increased spending. Where is it going? You’re running up deficits, you’re charging the credit card, and there’s nothing to show for it—

I guess it’s a solution. I don’t know whether it’s real or not. I guess we’d have to see it working, because we haven’t had an opportunity to for about 30 years.

But what I do want to say is that there’s a solution that’s right there, and I mentioned it earlier: The Premier, instead of pointing his finger at the federal government, just has to pay nurse practitioners. What’s so complicated about that? Just pay them. I don’t understand why he can’t do it. I don’t understand why the government can’t do it, especially when they’re spending a billion dollars on nursing agencies every year that they don’t have to spend.

You want to talk about ballooning deficits? A billion dollars, paying people two and three times what we paid them when they worked for us, just because they’re at agencies right now, because the government has mismanaged the health care human resources—a billion dollars; unnecessary MedsCheck—about a million dollars a week. Maybe we could solve the primary health care crisis by actually not wasting money, and spending it on primary care.

I’m really pleased to rise to speak to second reading debate of Bill 180, the Build a Better Ontario Act, 2024. Similar to the Minister of Finance, when you think about building a better Ontario, you think of those who came before us, but you also think of what led us here.

I would be remiss if I didn’t wish my mom a happy birthday today, because I wouldn’t be here without her, so: Happy birthday, Mom.

I was really fortunate. She made the ultimate sacrifice in our family in the sense that when I was four years old, our grandparents chose to move to Barrie, Ontario, from Cuba. When they arrived in Gander, Newfoundland, they called her and said, “By the way, we have your daughter in Canada,” and the best decision she could have made was to allow them to continue to raise me in a different country, obviously not being able to see me as a young four-year-old. So I’m forever grateful to you, Mom, for allowing my grandparents to raise me here.

And now, finally, she’s in Canada. She has spent the last decade or so here, so I’m really grateful for that. But I wouldn’t be here without her, and as we reflect on building a better Ontario, I could not build a better Ontario without her, so I wanted to mention that.

But we also couldn’t build a better Ontario without our veterans, and I also just wanted to give and pay my respect to the fact that it’s the 107th anniversary of Vimy Ridge and the Battle of Vimy Ridge, and I want to thank those veterans who fought for our freedom and the reason we, as parliamentarians, are able to speak in this chamber and have the right to freedom of speech and freedom of expression, and this just comes on the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force as well.

My riding neighbours CFB Borden, and CFB Borden was actually a training ground for many of those military personnel who trained to go to Vimy. It was also the scene a few days ago, or just last week, where they raised a monument to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force, so I have to thank them for their great sacrifices.

Leading back into discussion of the budget, my community of Barrie–Innisfil is a growing community, and this budget really reflects the fabric of those people. They work hard every day. Often they have to use Highway 400 to commute from A to B in the city—because the city’s growing so much—in order to get to work or to drive their kids to school and all those things.

But what we’re really trying to do is that, as much as we are creating a lot of attainable housing within the city of Barrie and Innisfil, we also want to spur job creation. Something I heard a lot about in our community, not just in Barrie and Innisfil but all across Simcoe county, is the need for a regional innovation hub. It was clear that the fact that the closest regional innovation hub was 90 kilometres south in Markham, and the closest regional innovation hub north was 300 kilometres, in Sudbury—two great communities, I’m sure, but not a lot in common with what the needs are of Barrie–Innisfil, Simcoe county and our great area.

So a lot of folks came together—

Interjection.

What we heard very clearly from all on innovation hubs, whether it’s Nottawasaga in the member from Simcoe North’s riding, is the fact that the businesses that are there have room to grow, they have room to innovate, but they don’t have the tools they need. As I mentioned, the tools that were close to them for a regional innovation hub, we’re looking at 90 kilometres south in Markham and 300 kilometres in Sudbury. How is someone in Simcoe county supposed to get the right innovation and supports they need to grow their business if those supports are so far away? Luckily, we worked as a team, Team Simcoe county and Barrie to bring these resources closer to home, to allow for that job creation to happen so people can live and work all in one place.

I would be remiss, Speaker, if I didn’t mention the folks whom we’ve heard from already who are greatly supportive of this project. We have Craig Busch, who led the Sandbox in Barrie. He was very supportive of getting this project off the ground, as well as the Henry Bernick Entrepreneurship Centre, with Mira taking the lead there with all the work that they’re doing within Georgian College. They really contributed some great thought ideas to this project.

Speaker, I just wanted to quote a few great supporters of the regional innovation hub. We have many to come, but I’m only going mention a few because I have a short time to speak on this particular matter.

I want to thank Georgian College for stepping up to support this. Their CEO says, “We’re thrilled that a regional innovation centre with a network approach will be in our area and look forward to continuing to collaborate with our partners to leverage our collective strengths, build capacity and, ultimately, expand our impact.” That’s a quote by Kevin Weaver, the president and CEO of Georgian College.

He goes on to say, “Our Henry Bernick Entrepreneurship Centre is a well-established business accelerator in the region with a reach extending across Simcoe, Grey and Bruce counties. We’re proud to be a key partner in the innovation ecosystem and this new centre will further strengthen the influence we and our partners can have on the growth and development of our communities, local businesses and economy.”

That is really building the knowledge economy we have within our area, and it does start with great institutions like we have with Georgian College. They really see the great potential in having a regional innovation centre close to home.

But the other folks who see the great potential is the mayors that I get to work with in my riding. The Barrie mayor, the Innisfil mayor both see the great potential in this project. In fact, the Innisfil mayor, who knows that Innisfil is home to the DMZ—Speaker, that stands for digital media zone; it’s an arm’s-length of TMU’s digital media zone we have just down the street from Queen’s Park—says:

“We are excited to learn that the province is investing in Simcoe county’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.... The establishment of a regional innovation centre will support programs like the DMZ Innisfil and will drive growth and innovation in Simcoe county which is essential for future economic prosperity.”

Speaker, the mayor in Innisfil, she sees the growth we’re having in our area, the fact that we want to keep a lot of that knowledge in our community instead of having it leave our community. By doing that, we’re fostering it and investing in all of the economic and innovation potential we have in our region so we can continue to grow the jobs, and we’ve seen the successes already with the digital media zone, for instance. They have been so successful that one of their businesses that started there—it’s called FreshSpoke, so congratulations, FreshSpoke; I’ve spoke about them in the House before—they’ve grown so big that the footprint they used to be in, I just went to an opening of a different business there last week called Green Bowl that does a lot of upcycling of food, and they’re trying to get rid of food waste. That’s where the former business used to be. Now, they’ve gotten so big, they moved out of that location. Now, that location is home to a new innovative business that I’m sure will also be a great contributor to the regional innovation centre.

But, Speaker, this speaks to our government’s vision and agenda for building complete, whole communities and building interconnected communities where everyone has a sense of belonging and has a place to be. Like we said, we’re not only building regional innovation centres where we can again build that thought leadership and create more jobs. We’re building parks. We’re building Ontario parks. We’re building homes. We’re building ways for people to use transit more effectively. In Barrie, for instance, we have Barrie public transit, and many students in Barrie, when they graduate from high school, they choose to go to post-secondary in the greater Toronto area. Because they make that choice, they also want to save money. So, often, they stay at home and live at home, and they commute from Barrie and they go—whether it’s to York University, TMU or Humber; you name it—anything that is on a transit corridor.

Part of the government’s changes to, again, be connected with people and putting people at the centre of what we do is affordability. And because of our One Fare program, those students who are choosing to continue to live in Barrie or continue to live in Innisfil are able to use the benefits of One Fare, where they’re saving about $1,600 a year on their transit. That is good news for them in making sure that affordability is at the centre of what we are doing.

But part of the centre of what we are doing in terms of affordability is also making sure that we have those strong paycheques. That’s where we invest in training. Just like the regional innovation centres, it’s going to be such a big game-changer in local communities by empowering more of those businesses to grow, to strengthen those high-paying paycheques so that people can afford more things, and the cost of living.

In addition to that is investing in other training opportunities like skilled trades. In our community, not a day goes by where you can’t see a truck, you can’t see a crane. Our skilled trades and training community is vibrant and strong. But many of these individuals who work in contracting business or building business, they understand that gassing up a gas tank is going to cost them more, and they’re grateful for the fact that we’ve been consistent as government for lowering the gas tax. In fact, as a household now, Ontarians are going to save $320 for gassing up their vehicle. That’s $3.2 billion in gas taxes—

Interjections.