To the Premier: Earl Grey Senior Public School in my riding is supposed to offer extended French, but because of cutbacks and disrespect for teachers, we have a severe teacher shortage. That has meant that students in extended French have gone without teachers for months at a time. This is increasingly a problem in many of our schools.

Why won’t the Premier provide the funding to Toronto schools to actually have teachers in class?

It is an ironic question from the members opposite, who have voted against 3,000 additional teachers in Ontario classrooms today. In TDSB, a board that has 10,000 fewer students relative to 2018, they have $120 million more. We’ve hired additional education staff, and we passed a bill to do it quicker.

I would have hoped that the members opposite would have worked with government, like other parties did, to support acceleration of certification, as we cut the timelines by half. That was our commitment. We did it alone, without support of members opposite.

And we launched a recruitment action plan specific for French educators in Ontario that has yielded over 400 new French-language graduates last year—1,000 additional French-language candidates registered relative to the year prior.

We know there’s more work to do. But let’s work together to ensure all children have access to a certified teacher, an issue that is of contrast where the members opposite do not want retired educators in the front of class.

Three hundred and twenty million—that’s how much more the TDSB would have this year if funding had just kept pace with inflation. The Minister of Education likes to use the word “historic” a lot, but what is actually historic is the largest cut to education funding in the history of our province: $2.7 billion less this year alone. So instead of hiring EAs and child and youth workers and lunch supervisors and social workers and French teachers, school boards are being forced to cut them.

Why does the Premier think our children do not deserve these essential supports?

My question is to the Associate Minister of Transportation. Hard-working families and business owners in Whitby tell me that the federal government is choosing to ignore the challenges Ontario residents are facing. At a time when our cost of living continues to rise, the federal Liberals doubled down and hiked the carbon tax yet again, by 23%.

Increases in fuel costs make life more expensive for everyone in our province, including the hard-working men and women in the trucking industry. Ontario’s truckers play a critical role in transporting the goods we all need in our daily lives. They should not be burdened with additional costs. Speaker, can the associate minister please tell the House why the carbon tax is hurting Ontario’s truckers?

Unlike the out-of-touch NDP and Liberals, who continuously fail to support Ontarians, our government is taking every necessary step to make life easier and more affordable. Can the associate minister please tell the House how our government is standing up once again for truckers in Ontario?

It is not going to be surprising to Ontarians to hear members opposite defend the bureaucratic incompetence that takes place in many school boards in this province. But members opposite seem to believe it is acceptable for a board that is the largest real estate holder in the province of Ontario, responsible for $20 billion of assets, that sits on $300 million of unspent maintenance funding, that has $150 million of proceeds of dispositions sitting in cash—they’ve tripled the amount of sunshine list workers.

It’s about time school boards get a simple message to work to advance the interests of children instead of the interests of administration. Our message is clear: Balance your budgets and do what every school board in this province will do.

The supplementary question.

Thank you to the member from Whitby for that question. I am proud to represent hundreds of hard-working truckers who live in my riding. Every day, they ensure we have the goods that they deliver, and they tell me all the time that the carbon tax adds unnecessary costs to each delivery that they make. This only makes the cost of everything more expensive. The truckers are not asking for a free ride; they are asking for a fair one. Their commitment to our economy is not phased with a penalty.

According to the Ontario Trucking Association, the carbon tax of 17.4 cents per litre increases the cost for a long-haul truck between $15,000 to $20,000 per truck per year. It is clear the carbon tax is hurting the economy and making life more expensive. The federal government and Minister Guilbeault are out of touch. We call on the federal government to axe the tax.

The carbon tax is only a tax on hard-working people who fill up their cars, heat their homes and rely on truckers who deliver their goods. I invite Minister Guilbeault to come to Scarborough to meet the hard-working men and women who deliver our goods. They will tell him that the carbon tax is making it harder for a family to put food on the table and to heat up their homes, Speaker, and adding to the inflation.

Only this government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, and with this transportation minister, we will fight for businesses and families. The Progressive Conservative government will stand up against the carbon tax.

My question is to the Premier. The Ford Motor company is pumping the brakes on its Ontario-built electric vehicles, delaying the start of manufacturing from 2025 to 2027. This news has left the more than 5,000 auto workers at Oakville Assembly and throughout the supply chain with an uncertain future.

The last built-in-Oakville Ford Edge will roll off the line in the weeks ahead. Oshawa auto workers know a thing or two about uncertainty. This government has been taking credit for this Ford deal. I would be very surprised if a two-year delay was part of the deal.

So my question is: Staring down a two-year delay, what is this government going to do to secure an EV future for auto workers in Oakville?

Speaker, we are not EV-ready, and we are falling behind. We need a serious EV strategy to grow development, manufacturing and the charging infrastructure. So my question is, what specifically will this government do to make sure Ontario auto workers build the electric vehicles of the future, and where is the EV infrastructure so we can actually drive them?

It is our work that’s been done in all sectors of government, but particularly at economic development and on the Ministry of Energy file where we are securing the power that we’re going to need for the electric vehicle implementation, which we know is coming, Mr. Speaker. That’s why we’re investing in new nuclear facilities in that member’s own region, the clean energy capital of Canada in the Durham region, with not one but four small modular reactors, the newest technology. And we’re leading the world when it comes to the development of that technology. We’re ensuring we have five gigawatts of new development at a Bruce C power plant over on Lake Huron, Mr. Speaker.

The NDP, if they were in charge, are against nuclear power and the 76,000 people that work in that sector in Ontario. Mr. Speaker, I don’t know where the NDP thinks the power is going to come from. Maybe they think we can continue to power our electric vehicles with intermittent wind and solar. We don’t believe that. That’s why we’re making the investments in the energy infrastructure for the future and are powering Ontario—

Interjections.

La députée de Vanier.

Ma question, en français, s’adresse au ministre de l’Éducation. La population des écoles francophones est en forte croissance depuis des années, surtout comparée aux écoles anglophones, mais la construction de nouvelles écoles ne suit pas le rythme. Je dirais même que c’est très loin de là.

Dans son dernier budget, le gouvernement a annoncé la construction de 1 022 places en français. Mais selon le Bureau de la responsabilité financière de l’Ontario, ça ne suffira même pas à couvrir l’augmentation des inscriptions juste pour cette année, donc encore moins à rattraper les importants retards.

Le 4 avril, le ministre de l’Éducation a annoncé la somme de 1,3 milliard de dollars pour la construction et l’agrandissement de 60 écoles. Donc, ma question au ministre est très simple : combien d’écoles francophones seront-elles construites avec ce financement?

La députée d’Ottawa–Vanier.

Je suis vraiment intéressée à savoir ce qui s’en vient. Par contre, merci pour les investissements.

Monsieur le Président, les écoles francophones en Ontario souffrent non seulement d’un manque de place, mais aussi d’une importante pénurie de personnel qui dure aussi depuis longtemps. C’est une crise de recrutement et de rétention.

En 2021, un groupe de travail a publié un rapport sur la pénurie de personnel enseignant dans le système d’éducation en langue française de l’Ontario, ce qui a mené le gouvernement à élaborer une stratégie de recrutement pour les années 2021 à 2025. Nous sommes maintenant en 2024 et le problème est très loin d’être réglé.

Le dernier budget du gouvernement n’a même pas mentionné une fois la pénurie importante de personnel enseignant dans nos écoles francophones. Alors, comment le gouvernement envisage-t-il de réussir à recruter et retenir le personnel nécessaire pour combler les nombreux postes d’enseignant nécessaires dans nos écoles francophones si on ne fait pas d’investissement?

I want to thank the member opposite for the question and the partnership as we work together to build schools across Ontario.

We are absolutely committed to building more schools. It’s why I was proud to stand with the Minister of Finance, on behalf of the Premier, to announce the historic more than doubling of funding to build more schools faster in this province for the people of Ontario. We’re talking about over $1.3 billion of investment; it was historically at $550 million. This will yield more than double the number of schools we build per year.

For French-language education, we have invested a quarter of a billion dollars to build roughly 18 new schools and 16 school additions. We’ve created over 7,000 spaces within our schools, and likewise, over 900 licensed child care spaces—affordable child care spaces for French-language families.

We know there’s more to do. It’s why our government has stepped up with a historic investment to build, to invest and to grow our French-language school system.

The Minister of Francophone Affairs and I have worked together to cut through the red tape and to attract, and we’re seeing some result: 1,000 additional French-language candidates registered on the recruitment portal just last year; 151 additional internationally trained French-language teachers, newly certified by the college of teachers.

Mr. Speaker, I was proud to stand with the Minister of Colleges and Universities to more than double the amount of teacher placements in University of Ontario français and the University of Ottawa.

Together, this is going to make a difference till we bridge the gap and ensure all children have access to a qualified teacher in Ontario.

Parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Finance, the member for Oakville.

The supplementary question.

My question is for the Minister of Finance. Speaker, I hear it in the House and I hear it across my riding of Newmarket–Aurora: The carbon tax is making life more and more unaffordable. During this challenging time, families and small businesses in all communities need to feel supported, not penalized. That’s why it is disappointing to see the federal government refuse to scrap the tax.

To make matters worse, the carbon tax queen, Bonnie Crombie, and her Liberal caucus continue to stand behind their federal colleagues. Ontario cannot afford Bonnie Crombie and the Liberal carbon tax she supports.

Our government will keep fighting this regressive carbon tax and putting more money back in the people’s pockets. Speaker, can the minister please explain how our government is combatting the negative impacts of the carbon tax?

They have chosen to ignore the concerns of the people that elected them. That’s not fair. At a time of economic uncertainty and an affordability crisis, let’s not tax Ontarians more.

Speaker, can the parliamentary assistant please tell the House what our government is doing to fight the carbon tax?

Thank you to the great member from Newmarket–Aurora for a really good question. We have been clear: Now is not the time to be raising taxes and making life more unaffordable for the people here and across this great province.

Unfortunately, it seems like the Liberal plan to tackle affordability is to actually make life more expensive for the people of Ontario and Canada. We saw Liberal members refuse to support a motion to eliminate the carbon tax which makes goods and services more affordable in this province.

We even heard the Liberal member of Kanata–Carleton say that “the vast majority of Ontario households are better off with a carbon price,” in spite of all evidence to the contrary.

Speaker, it’s time for all parties in this House to unite and join us and agree that this federal carbon tax needs to be eliminated now.

Interjections.

That’s why, only a few weeks ago, we announced a new extension of the gas tax cut, providing direct relief to the people of Ontario at the pumps. This cut means hundreds of dollars in savings for the average Ontario household and billions of dollars across the province.

Our government acted early on affordability, and we aren’t stopping now. We will continue to drive down prices and we will make life more affordable for the people of Ontario.

To the Premier: We learned yesterday from the Financial Accountability Office that Ontario spends the lowest per capita on health care than the rest of Canada, almost 16% below the Canadian average. We are last in Canada.

Currently, 2.3 million Ontarians are already without a family doctor and another two million are projected to lose access in two years. Two weeks ago, I stood in this House and asked the question: Why are you allowing 60,000 Hamiltonians to go without a family doctor? This financial accountability report gives us the answer. You are short-changing Ontario’s health care spending and funding. Why?

With the greatest of respect, wrong, wrong, wrong. We have made historic investments in our health care budget and our health care system, whether it is expanding primary care, multidisciplinary teams—over a half a billion dollars that we are investing in primary care multidisciplinary teams. Whether it is capital projects that are happening in our hospitals across Ontario, over 50 capital projects that are happening right now across Ontario, new expanded and renovated hospitals, including, of course, in the Hamilton region.

We continue to invest in our health care system. We know that Ontario leads Canada, whether it is attachments to family physicians or primary care docs, whether it is the lowest wait times in Canada that are happening here in the province of Ontario, we will continue to do that work to make sure that we build up a system that, frankly, previous governments have ignored for decades.