I want to thank the member for the question, and I want to just commend that man for the work he’s doing to make sure that the tragedies that have happened have not happened in vain.

I want to make it very clear that no woman should ever be subjected to violence. No woman should ever have to live in fear, be intimidated, and that’s why I know we are working really hard in our government to put strategies in place to ensure that we’re looking to community and organizations.

I want to encourage everybody to take a look at Ontario-STANDS. The minister responsible for community, children and social services—we went and brought this to Ontario, and we said, “We want to hear from you.” Ontario-STANDS, in their second goal, calls for community organizations to bring us the proposals so that we can fund and close the gaps to keep women safe in Ontario. So, please, if community members don’t know about it, share Ontario-STANDS, because we believe every woman has the right to be safe in Ontario.

Again, I thank the honourable member for the question. As the government House leader indicated already, we are looking at passing this and, as he mentioned, taking it a step further to make sure all members of this committee have the opportunity to contribute to the solution. All partners, who are doing great work on the ground, are contributing to this. That is what our government has said from day one.

I have said this on many occasions: This is an issue that affects every single person in every community of our province. We need to work together, which is why we signed the national action plan, an agreement with the federal government for us to be able to work together, because this is not a partisan issue. We will work with municipalities. We’re working with all partners on the ground to make sure that we end violence against women in all its forms in every community, and we need your help. You need to come together. We need to work on this committee to make sure that we hear from survivors, that we hear from community partners.

We invest over $250 million annually on violence-against-women initiatives, over $10 million on preventative measures—

And the supplementary question? The member for Niagara Falls.

Interjections.

The next question.

Supplementary question.

Interjections.

The next question.

My question is to the Premier. Just last year, a Niagara woman, a first responder, was murdered in what police called an act of intimate partner violence. The family is devastated, navigating a broken and difficult system to find justice for their loved one who was so cruelly taken from this world. One of the most heartbreaking realities for a family is the knowledge that this type of violence is far too common.

Nearly 100 municipalities have declared IPV an epidemic, including Niagara. Will the government do the right thing today and support my colleague’s bill to declare IPV an epidemic immediately? A study is not needed. The recommendations are clear. Declare it an epidemic today.

It’s really an ironic question coming from the member opposite, who was a member of a federal government who expanded the civil service by, what, 35%, and whose federal cousins’ policies are literally devastating the community that she represents.

But do you know what we’re going to do? We’re going to go back to the people of the province of Ontario two years from now and we’re going to say to them, “Look, we have put in place the climate that has seen over 700,000 jobs created in the province of Ontario.” We’ve cut red tape. We’re building subways, Mr. Speaker. We’re building hospitals. We have got over $30 billion worth of economic development and jobs created in the province of Ontario. Do you know why, Mr. Speaker? Because we’re doing the work that is necessary to make Ontario the engine of the economy of the country.

Interjections.

Interjections.

What we want to do is build an economy where all Ontarians can thrive. We don’t want a carbon tax. They do. We’ve cut gas taxes. They’ll increase them. The taxes that we reduced, they want to increase. The very first job of the leader of the Liberal Party was to beg for a million dollars to—

Interjections.

This government insists on tightening the belt for everyone but themselves. They’ve cut the salaries of nurses and health care workers, teachers and education workers, even air ambulance drivers, but a quick look at the Premier’s office, and you will see his budget has exploded. His staff are being paid $6.9 million, the most expensive Premier’s office in history—not just in total, but 48 staffers are earning more than $100,000 every single year.

When this Premier was running for office, he said he’d be the one to stop the fat cats, to stop the gravy train, but he’s worse than any of his predecessors. Spending $6.9 million every year, the Premier is the most expensive Premier we’ve ever had, more than double any other Premier. When Ontarians face austerity, how will the Premier explain his runaway and self-serving expenses to the people of Ontario?

Now, it’s not a bad thing to reverse a bad decision, but you need to learn from your mistakes rather than continuing to follow an unintelligible ideology. “Measure twice, cut once” was my dad’s advice.

Why is the Premier okay with wastefully burning through Ontarians’ hard-earned tax dollars while expecting Ontarians to scrimp and save?

My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. There are plenty of countries around this world who have proven you can take climate change seriously without an inflationary carbon tax. Unfortunately, Trudeau’s Liberal government has chosen to implement a carbon tax that punishes the hard-working people of this province by driving up prices across the board. You don’t fight climate change by taxing citizens until they can’t afford to heat their homes, drive their cars and put food on their tables. Just look south of they border, where politicians of all political stripes are vehemently against the idea of a carbon tax.

Speaker, can the minister please highlight how, since we took office, we’ve strengthened our trade relationships with the US, who doesn’t have a carbon tax?

The federal Liberal government always touts how well the US is doing on climate change, but what they don’t mention is that the US does not have a carbon tax that raises the cost of everything.

The Trudeau Liberals continue to hike their carbon tax. All the while, their friend Bonnie Crombie says nothing. If the Liberals listened to the businesses and workers of this province, they would understand that no one supports their carbon tax. In 2019, they told everyone the carbon tax wouldn’t increase, but it’s now costing people an extra 18 cents a litre at the pump while it drives up the prices of everything.

Speaker, we know where the US stands on carbon tax, but can the minister talk about what Ontario’s other trading partners think about the Liberals’ carbon tax?

My question is to the Premier. I want to acknowledge that today is a very emotional day for many of us, including the survivors who are here with us today. I’m thinking of Latonya Anderson from Whitby, Angie Sweeney from Sault Ste. Marie and Argentina Fuentes from Mississauga. They lost their lives to intimate partner violence. Their families do not need to go through another retraumatizing committee work. We have the answers to address intimate partner violence. We need to apply them.

Money, Speaker—or, rather, lack of it—has always been a major hurdle for those trying to escape intimate partner violence and abuse. Poverty often keeps women and children in unsafe situations, and without access to supportive funds, survivors face the impossible choice of living under ever-present threats of death or fleeing into poverty, homelessness and endless uncertainty. That’s why it’s more urgent than ever that we fund and build supportive housing options.

To the Premier: Why was dedicated funding for supportive housing for victims of intimate partner violence left out of this year’s budget again?

Interjections.

I have a petition that has been collected across the province and refers to over 100,000 signatures that have been collected in support of Bill 74, which is the missing persons alert. It comes on the unfortunate death of Draven Graham, a young boy with autism who went missing in his community and unfortunate circumstances left him to be gone too long and unfortunately perish; as well as the death of Shirley Love, who was a senior in the city of Hamilton who was missing with dementia.

Many organizations across the province are calling on this, as well as many municipalities, and they’re asking that Bill 74, the missing persons alert, be called to committee immediately.

I wholeheartedly support this petition and will give it to page Nate to bring to the Clerk.

People on Ontario Works have not seen a raise in decades; they’re living on a mere, measly $733. We know that this cannot even pay for the cost of housing. People on ODSP have seen very meagre increases, but again, not enough to be able to even pay the rent and to be able to buy a meal at the end of the day. So I wholeheartedly support their petition to double the social assistance rates for both Ontario Works and ODSP, and hope that the government sees fit to do so also, with all of the hard work that has been put into ensuring that this petition is on each and every one of our desks, that we’re able to read.

I support this petition. I’m going to affix my name to it and give it to page Lyra to bring to the Clerk.

This petition is specifically asking for the government to implement evidence-based recommendations to retain and recruit nurses, to ensure that there are enough nurses on the floor to be able to work those long hours, those long, stressful hours, and that they have the appropriate pay to go with it, because we know that they’ve been held back for years. Hopefully, they’re starting to see the payback of Bill 124 in ensuring that those lost wages are recouped, but it’s still not enough. We need to have a better position and program in ensuring that we’re retaining and recruiting into fair and equitable compensation for the nurses of Ontario.

I wholeheartedly support this petition, will affix my name to it and give it to page Ruby to bring to the Clerk.

This is a petition from my constituents and the surrounding communities that calls on the government to reduce the clawback on ODSP recipients who have an income-earning partner. This is about people who are poor, who are living near the poverty line. A really easy way to help them: Don’t penalize them for having a partner who has income.

I have a petition here calling for the government to raise social assistance rates. Folks who are on social assistance, both Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program, are receiving amounts that are far below the poverty line. People who are on OW are receiving rates that have been frozen for over two decades, and those on ODSP have seen a very small increase to their rates and are still below the poverty line. This petition here is calling for the government to double OW and ODSP rates.

The rent control laws did exist for all units, but under the current Conservative government, that was cancelled, and so a lot of tenants in my riding and across Ontario are currently living in apartment rental buildings that are not covered under rent control. As a result, they’re seeing, year after year, their rents increase by double digits for absolutely no reason other than that the landlord can simply do it.

This is causing, of course, a tremendous amount of stress. It is a highly precarious situation for a lot of people in terms of their housing because how much rent can increase by is unpredictable. And so, in this petition, the residents are calling on the government to pass a bill that I’ve tabled in the House called “rent control for all units,” and I fully support and will affix my signature to this petition.

Speaker, health care services are exempt from the HST—including many health care services; however, psychotherapists are still required to charge HST. It makes no sense, for such an important health care service like psychotherapy, that Ontarians should be taxed on it. So this petition simply asks that the government of Ontario take that first step in removing the HST.

I’d just like to welcome Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region, which is present in my riding.

And I want to say Eid Mubarak to all the Muslims all across Ontario who are celebrating today. I hope you have a peaceful celebration with your family, and good job with your fasting.

Deferred vote on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

Bill 170, An Act to amend the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, the City of Toronto Act, 2006 and the Municipal Act, 2001 to implement various measures respecting rental accommodation / Projet de loi 170, Loi modifiant la Loi de 2006 sur la location à usage d’habitation, la Loi de 2006 sur la cité de Toronto et la Loi de 2001 sur les municipalités pour mettre en oeuvre diverses mesures relatives aux logements locatifs.

I thank the honourable member for the question. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, through Ontario-STANDS, we have a proposal in place where in every single community, they can put forward proposals for support during the duration of the national action plan, of which we’re in the second year now. That is backed by investments. As I mentioned to you, there are localized solutions that community partners are aware of. We want to hear from them. We want partners on the ground to come forward with ideas and submissions for us to be able to support. That is what the call for proposals is about.

We invested in our partners in the first year. In the second year, we are looking at working with them on localized supports—supports that in rural, northern communities might be different than it is in downtown Toronto. We want to hear from the partners on the ground. We’re ready to work with them to make sure that we combat violence against women in all its forms, in every corner of this province.

Speaker, companies always ask us to explain the federal government’s carbon tax, and it is a difficult answer, because one in five jobs in Ontario depends on trade. Ontario has tariff-free markets in over 50 countries around the world. Adding a carbon tax is adding a cost to everything we sell globally. The federal Liberal carbon tax is putting companies’ sales at risk. It’s putting our economy at risk. It’s putting Ontario jobs at risk.

Ontario—we’ve lowered taxes. We’re showing the Liberals that there is a path. Scrap the tax today.

I would like to welcome the Tutsi community from Rwanda to Queen’s Park, and also my good friend Leo Kabalisa, who are here to commemorate the 1994 genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda.

I just wanted to make a quick point of order. The Sikh Arts Council is holding a Sikh Heritage Month event on the front lawn. They’ve asked all members of this House that they’re more than welcome to attend and join in the festivities, so that extends to all members that are in this House.

The ayes are 36; the nays are 66.

No, Speaker. I refer it to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs.

This is, of course, a broader spring red-tape-reduction package. It continues on the government’s very aggressive actions to remove red tape, cut costs for people and businesses, and it also is the next phase in targeted actions to help us get more homes built across the province of Ontario.

Members will please take their seats.

The Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.

The division bells rang from 1145 to 1150.

On April 9, 2024, Ms. Clancy moved second reading of Bill 170, An Act to amend the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, the City of Toronto Act, 2006 and the Municipal Act, 2001 to implement various measures respecting rental accommodation.

All those in favour, please rise and remain standing until recognized by the Clerk.

Second reading negatived.

Deferred vote on the motion that the question now be put on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

Bill 180, An Act to implement Budget measures and to enact and amend various statutes / Projet de loi 180, Loi visant à mettre en oeuvre les mesures budgétaires et à édicter et à modifier diverses lois.

The division bells rang from 1154 to 1155.

On April 10, Mr. Leardi moved that the question be now put. All those in favour of the motion, please rise one at a time and be recognized by the Clerk.

Mr. Bethlenfalvy has moved second reading of Bill 180, An Act to implement Budget measures and to enact and amend various statutes. Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? I heard some noes.

All those in favour of the motion will please say “aye.”

All those opposed will please say “nay.”

In my opinion, the ayes have it.

Interjection: Same vote.

Call in the members. This is another five-minute bell.

The division bells rang 1158 to 1159.

Second reading agreed to.

I recognize the government House leader.

This House stands in recess until 1 p.m.

The House recessed from 1203 to 1300.

Mr. Calandra moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 185, An Act to amend various Acts / Projet de loi 185, Loi modifiant diverses lois.

First reading agreed to.

So we’re in petitions. As members know, the standing orders were recently amended, and just for the benefit of the House, I’m going to, once again, remind members of the standing order: “A member may present a petition in the House during the afternoon routine ‘petitions’. The member may make a brief statement summarizing the contents of the petition and indicating the number of signatures attached thereto,” but shall not read the text of the petition.

No member so far has read the text of the petition. I appreciate that. I would continue to ask members to keep their explanations of the petition as brief as possible.

Start the clock. Petitions?