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?

When we are in the US, companies tell us they cannot comprehend this carbon tax. They know any additional taxes are harmful.

Now, Ontario is the US’s third-largest trading partner after Mexico and China: $494 billion in two-way trade between Ontario and the US. That’s up more than $100 billion since we took office. But all the products that these companies buy from us are now more expensive because of this carbon tax. We are putting our trade at risk with our largest partner because of these rising prices. Mexico does not have a carbon tax. The US has alternatives than buying from Ontario. Scrap the 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.

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?

This afternoon, I will be sharing my time with the MPP from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston and the Minister of Agriculture.

This will be the first time that I address the assembly as the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Agriculture. As I said this morning, I don’t think we take enough opportunities in the assembly to recognize the talents of the members who serve here. So, before I start off, I would like to recognize the Minister of Agriculture. She’s a graduate of the University of Guelph, an alumnus of the Advanced Agricultural Leadership Program, an alumnus of the George Morris executive leadership program, a former chair of the Ontario 4-H Foundation, a former vice-chair of Ontario Agri-Food Education Inc., and a former general manager of the Ontario Dairy Goat Co-operative. Based on these achievements in agriculture and based on her former role as the general manager of the Ontario Dairy Goat Co-operative, you might say she’s the greatest of all time.

I want to take this moment now to recognize the contributions of the two previous parliamentary assistants to myself in this role. First, my neighbour here, the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington—not only my close seatmate, but also my geographical neighbour—is a former OPP officer, a former agricultural executive, a former town councillor, and a model father and husband. I’m proud to call him my friend.

I’d also like to recognize the MPP from Elgin–Middlesex–London, now the Associate Minister of Housing, who started his career at Masterfeeds. He worked his way up and became the president and CEO in 1993. He won the golden award from the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada. He served with the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair board and the Canadian Hereford Association, and he’s the owner and operator of Flack Farms. I’m proud to call him my friend.

And I’m lucky to share my responsibilities with another parliamentary assistant in the Ministry of Agriculture. He’s the honourable member from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston, born and raised in Lanark county, where he and his family still own and operate a small farm in the beautiful Montague township. I’m happy to call him my friend.

What you’ve noticed, after hearing about all of these individuals, is that they all seem to be a natural fit in agriculture, these folks: the members from Chatham-Kent–Leamington and Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston and the gentleman who owns Flack Farms and the Minister of Agriculture. You might be asking yourself, well, they seem to be a natural fit, but the member from Essex, who has a background in 24 years of law and previous to that being a teacher, doesn’t seem to be a natural fit, so how did the member from Essex find himself to become the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Agriculture? Well, this is how it happens, and it all started on the second concession of Anderton township, where I grew up.

My parents owned a big one-acre lot on the second concession, and at the back of that one-acre lot, we had an old shed that my dad had built with his own hands. Every springtime, my dad would go into the shed and pull out the old rototiller. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a rototiller; it has wheels on the back and a mechanism on the front, like a pair of claws, that grabs the dirt and tills the dirt, turns up the dirt. And that old rototiller was as big as a dinosaur and was probably that old, too. My dad would put gas into that rototiller, and then he would start it up and it would roar to life. He would take the rototiller to the back of the lot and he would turn up the soil—I think about a sixth of the lot.

My parents would plant a huge garden, and my parents’ garden had everything in it. It had corn and tomatoes and peppers and onions and garlic, but mostly we grew tomatoes. But my dad always reserved a spot for me and my pumpkin patch. As a child, I would take my little pack of seeds which I had saved from the previous year, and I would dig a hole just like my dad taught me and I would put the seeds in a circle, just like my dad taught me, and I would cover it up and water it, and then I would wait for the miracle to happen. I didn’t understand it fully back then, but I think I understand it better now: that if a seed does not fall to the ground and die, then it remains a seed, but if a seed falls to the ground and dies, it brings new life.

Over the course of the summertime, my pumpkin plants would sprout, grow and bear fruit. And the pumpkins would appear. They would be green and then they would ripen and ripen into orange, and the oranger they got, the happier I would be until the end of the summertime when I would find my little wooden wagon, pull it out of its storage and take my little wooden wagon and bring it to the back of our lot. I would pick up my pumpkins and put them into my little wooden wagon and then carry the pumpkins to the front lawn where I hosed them off with a garden hose. And then I arranged them from the largest to the smallest and put them up for sale. I would call my friends and relatives to come to buy my pumpkins for harvest and for Halloween. And that, Speaker, was a child’s introduction to the business of agriculture, and that brings me to the importance of today’s bill.

You see, the bill that’s before us today is Bill 155, the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Amendment Act. That’s a mouthful, and given that it’s a bill about agriculture, it should be a mouthful.

The function of this bill is to update the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario, which it does, update what it does, because agriculture isn’t what it was 50 years ago or even just a short while ago, when I was a child. It’s very impressive, the amount of research and the innovation that goes into agriculture in Ontario today. I’m going to illustrate my point by talking about one incredible and impressive operation that’s located right in my riding, the riding of Essex.

You might know a few things about the riding of Essex: We have 20 wineries. We produce great wine. We have craft breweries. We produce great brew. We have craft whisky. We produce tons and tons of cucumbers and tomatoes. We produce grains: corn, soybean, wheat. We have a great organization called Upper Canada Growers. Upper Canada Growers is owned and operated by the Haynes family. The Haynes family came to Upper Canada in 1784—and I could tell a long story about that, but today, I’m just going to stick with agriculture.

The Haynes family started growing fruit and grapes, and they’ve been in agriculture and production for over 200 years. Today, the operation is run by Robert Haynes, his daughter Megan Haynes and his son Jason Haynes.

Upper Canada Growers doesn’t just produce fruit; they do much more than that. They actually grow 80%, or approximately 80%, of all of the fruit trees that are in Canada. You have to visit their operation to really appreciate what they do. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to see the laboratory. Inside this climate-controlled, highly protected area, they are producing disease-free and disease-resistant fruit trees. The product of Upper Canada Growers is in high demand because they are recognized for their excellent product, produced right here in Ontario.

But of course, they cannot rely merely on one stock of trees, because diseases mutate, and a disease will mutate and find a new way of attacking fruit and fruit trees. So Upper Canada Growers has to stay on top of all this. They’re supplying 80% of all of the fruit trees in Canada, and they have a reputation to uphold. So this is a highly scientific and technical operation.

They bring in scientific talent from all over the world. When I visited their operation, I met one scientist from Iran, another scientist from India, another scientist from Egypt. These people came from all over the world, and they’re all working on a quiet, rural back road in Essex county, Ontario, and helping supply Canada and the world with the most nutritious and safest food in all the world.

And that’s what we’re known for, Madam Speaker: Good things grow in Ontario. We live in Foodland Ontario, and Foodland Ontario means the most nutritious food in the world and the safest food supply chain in the world. That’s why, when you go to a grocery store and you see the Foodland Ontario label, you know it’s nutritious and you know it’s safe. You don’t have to think twice about where your food is coming from or whether it’s good for your family. You know it’s good for your family if it comes from Ontario. You know it’s good for your family if it bears the Foodland Ontario symbol, because Ontario produces the best.

And that’s why we need the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario. That’s why we need to keep researching and innovating and experimenting and sharing our knowledge with fruit producers and food producers in the province of Ontario: because when we do that, we continue to guarantee that people in Ontario and in all of Canada and even in the rest of the world will continue receiving the most nutritious food and the safest food in all the world.

Let me give you another example from my riding. We have marvellous greenhouse growers in Essex county. One of those greenhouse growers is Cielo Vista Farms. At Cielo Vista Farms, they are inventing new ways of harvesting high-quality and highly nutritious plant products. In partnership with Nature Fresh Farms, they’re now getting into the strawberry business.

Now, you might think, “Isn’t the strawberry business dominated by California? Doesn’t California produce just about everything that’s consumed in North America when it comes to berries?” Well, you know what? You might think that nobody can compete with California, but now, Ontario is competing with California for the strawberry business.

Let me read the latest news about strawberries in Ontario. I promise you, this is going to be a “berry” interesting story. I don’t know if other members of the House will be able to judge this the way my excellent colleague the member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington could do so because of his remarkable experience in the industry. But if anybody has any doubts, I encourage them to please ask my colleague from Chatham-Kent–Leamington about the remarkable strawberry growth happening in Ontario. He’ll be happy to share it with you.

Here’s the latest news: “Nature Fresh Farms is moving forward in expanding its commodities into the berry category with more acreage dedicated to a strawberry program. With help from its long-standing growing partner Cielo Vista, the greenhouse grower will be expanding its strawberry farm from one to 16 acres, planned to be completed this fall.

“With strawberries being one of the top fruit imports in Canada, the expansion would help reduce food miles through increased local production, shortening transportation routes and offering quality product. This is an opportunity to drive this rapidly expanding category by delivering consistently flavourful, high-quality berries to North American markets that were previously out of reach due to lengthy food mile barriers.

“Nature Fresh Farms continues to focus on research and development, discovering new products and opportunities that support its commitment to sustainability while delivering quality produce to customers throughout the year. Its main objective of all its trial programs, including the strawberry program, is to learn how to grow more consistent and flavorful product.”

That is great news for all of us. It’s great news for us in Foodland Ontario. So I say: Let’s keep innovating. Let’s keep researching. Let’s keep producing nutritious food from the safest supply chain in the entire world. That is what this bill is all about. It’s all happening now. It’s happening now here in Ontario. It’s happening in Foodland Ontario, the place where we produce the most nutritious food in the world with the safest food supply chain in the world.

Would the member for Essex care to lead off the debate?

Speaker, I have several names here on a petition that calls on the government to provide relief to families from the federal carbon tax. The petition asks for the government to stop collecting the carbon tax on home heating by following Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe’s lead.

I fully support this petition and thank all those who signed it. I will affix my name to it and send it to the table with page Jerome.