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 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?