It gives me great pleasure to welcome the family of today’s page captain Jerome Bow Pearce: Jerome’s mother, Jennifer Bow; brothers Vincent Bow Pearce and Dominic Bow Pearce; as well as family friend Jennifer DeSilva. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Thanks to the member opposite for the question this morning.

Since day one, on receiving the OEB ruling that they would be—which, I should point out, by the way, was a split decision, which is rare at the Ontario Energy Board—that this decision was going to make the price of home ownership soar, we have been ready and ensuring that we were going to protect future homeowners so that they could afford to buy homes in our province.

The other thing that we’re very focused on here since I’ve become the Minister of Energy, and prior to that—basically, since we became the government in 2018—was ensuring that we kept the price of energy low in our province, and as a result, we have seen the results. We have seen massive investment in our province. We are building over a million homes in our province.

What we’re doing on the energy file is working, ensuring that our growing province is going to have the electricity and the energy that it needs, that we will have a reliable, affordable and safe electricity system. That’s what we’ve been focused on at the Ministry of Energy since day one, and the proof is there: billions of dollars of investment in our province.

I can assure the NDP that our government and the Ministry of Energy are focused on ensuring that we have the energy we need for our growing province, and that includes natural gas, something that the members of the NDP are opposed to. They say that natural gas is not healthy. They say that nuclear isn’t healthy. They would get rid of nuclear energy. They would get rid of gas, which is the insurance policy that keeps our lights on and keeps over 70% of our homes heated during the winter months.

We’re ensuring that we have a reliable, affordable energy sector in Ontario that is going to support our growing economy, support our growing population in this province.

The last time the Liberals and the NDP were in charge of our energy sector, we saw electricity bills triple. We won’t stand for that.

We’re going to make sure that home ownership is also affordable for new home buyers. That’s why we stepped in.

First of all, it’s unbelievable for the people of Ontario to think that the NDP are for lower gas bills. The NDP are for a carbon tax. The NDP have members in their caucus who were calling for the highest carbon tax not just in North America, but in the world. The Liberals are fully on board with that as well.

There’s one party in this Legislature that actually gives a darn about the affordability for people in this province, and that is Premier Ford and our team here on the PC side. We have been fighting since day one for more affordable electricity bills, not the tripling of electricity bills that we saw under the Liberal-NDP coalition or what we’re currently seeing with the Liberal-NDP coalition up on Parliament Hill that has us driving to the pumps today, where it’s a buck eighty a litre—that’s because of the punitive carbon tax that the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, Jagmeet and Justin have slapped onto the people of Ontario.

We will not tolerate clinics taking advantage of a loophole created by federal legislation, as we’ve stated in this House many times. That is why Minister Jones wrote to our federal counterparts to ensure that they prevent non-physicians from charging for publicly funded health services.

While Ontario leads the country, with close to 90% of people connected to a regular health care provider, we know there’s more to do.

As announced in the budget, our primary health expansion has expanded a total investment of $546 million over three years to connect 600,000 people to primary care.

Our government is taking bold action through our Your Health plan. We are taking innovative steps to grow our workforce to better serve the people of Ontario now and for years to come.

Speaker, we will continue to work with our health partners across Ontario to ensure that Ontario has the best publicly funded health care when and where they need it.

We started the year with a record investment of $110 million to create 78 new and expanded interprofessional primary care teams and add over 400 new primary care providers to help close the gap in accessing primary care. In this budget, we went even further. Our primary care expansion has expanded to a total investment of $546 million over three years to connect 600,000 Ontarians to primary care.

While Ontario leads the country, with almost 90% of people connecting to a regular health care provider, we know that more can be done. As I mentioned, we will continue working with our health care partners across the province to ensure that we have the best publicly funded health care system when and where the people of Ontario need it.

Maybe the minister doesn’t really understand what’s going on here. This is passing on an additional cost to consumers in this province, on their gas bills.

On the morning of the OEB ruling, the chief of staff to the Minister of Energy reached out to the Premier’s staff and called an urgent meeting to prepare a response in case the OEB ruled against Enbridge in favour of consumers. It just happens that the minister’s chief of staff is—guess what?—a former lobbyist for Enbridge.

So my question to the Premier again is, was this chief of staff in a conflict of interest when he decided to put the interests of his former employer ahead of the interests of Ontario gas consumers?

Government lawyers warned the Premier’s staff and the former Enbridge lobbyist, who now, I will remind everybody, is working as the minister’s chief of staff, that intervening in the OEB decision carried legal risks. They did it anyway. They announced a plan to overrule the OEB only 15 hours after the decision was published. I have never seen a government so determined to overrule an independent regulator and drive up gas bills for Ontarians.

Why is the government risking legal action in order to give preferential treatment to this gas monopoly over the interests of hard-working Ontarians?

Interjections.

As millions of Ontarians struggle to find a family doctor, private companies are seeing an opportunity to make a profit.

Instead of making sure everyone has access to primary care, the government is letting so-called executive health clinics continue to charge patients thousands and thousands of dollars to see a doctor.

Does the Premier believe people who can afford it should be able to use their credit card to skip to the front of the line?

I want to make sure that the government truly understands this. These concierge clinics are promising patients 24/7 care and access to a dedicated team, but there’s just one catch: Patients are expected to pay a whopping $12,000 a year. In the middle of a severe primary care shortage across this entire province, this is clearly creating a two-tiered health care system where those who can afford it are going to move to the front of the line at the expense of everybody else.

So my question, again, to the Premier of this province: Why is this government allowing for-profit clinics to compromise the integrity of the public health care system?

Interjections.

Public health care providers out there are calling this government’s strategy for funding primary care the “Wild West.” The government isn’t just allowing these companies to take advantage of patients; they are, in fact, encouraging it.

I want to ask the Premier, why are you allowing these for-profit clinics to get away with this while ignoring the model that we know works here in the province of Ontario?

Interjections.

To reply, the Minister of Energy.

Minister of Energy.

The parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health.

Our government is currently investing $85 billion into our publicly funded health care system, which is a 30% increase since 2018, when we took government.

While the Liberals, propped up by the NDP, cut the residency school spots and limited the number of physicians practising in interdisciplinary teams, our government has added 12,500 new physicians since 2018, 10% of those being family physicians.

We have a plan to rebuild the health care in Ontario, and we will not stop until everyone gets more convenient access to care when and where they need it. Our government is taking bold action through our Your Health plan. And we are taking innovative steps to grow our workforce to better serve the people of Ontario for years to come.

My question is to the Premier.

The government’s only plan to alleviate traffic will take at least a decade. Meanwhile, it refuses to look at the 407. The NDP has put forward a cost-effective, smart solution to make better use of the 407. It is simple: Take the tolls off for trucks; get things moving. It’s good for business and gives commuters room to breathe.

So my question is, will this government recognize a good idea and remove 407 tolls for truckers?

Any Ontarian can tell you that Highway 407 is terribly underused. If the government would get out of the Queen’s Park bubble, they’d find the 407 sitting half empty while the 401 stays bumper to bumper. It makes no sense.

We have infrastructure we aren’t being smart about. We need to better use existing highways.

This government needs to do something about the 407. Specifically, will this government recognize a smart idea and remove 407 tolls for trucks?

Interjections.

My question is to the Minister of Energy.

People in my riding of Perth–Wellington tell me they want an end to the Liberal carbon tax. Ontarians are not fooled by the Liberals’ renaming tactics. A tax is a text is a tax, plain and simple. They feel the impact of this disastrous tax every time they are at the pumps, at the grocery store and paying their heating bills. They have had enough.

Our government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, has spoken out against this tax since day one, because we know that a carbon tax makes life more difficult. That’s why we fought this carbon tax all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, and we won’t give up until this tax is abolished.

Can the minister explain how the carbon tax unfairly impacts the people of Ontario?

The carbon tax does nothing—I say again, nothing—to reduce emissions. It only punishes the hard-working people of this province. But shockingly, at a time when families are struggling to put food on the table, the Liberals decided to hike the carbon tax even further. They want to increase this carbon tax until it reaches $170 per tonne. That is unacceptable.

Speaker, during these challenging times, all governments should be working together to make life more affordable for everyone.

While the provincial Liberals support their federal counterparts, our government will continue to have Ontario’s back and end this punitive tax.

Can the minister please explain how the provincial Liberal carbon tax is creating financial hardship for everyone?

In the middle of our housing crisis, rents continue to climb at alarming rates. In Hamilton, rents increased by 20% in just the last year.

Data from Ontario’s rental housing tribunal shows that corporate landlords are abusing the above-guideline-increase process to raise high rental rates even higher than provincial guidelines.

So my question is very simple: What is this government doing to protect tenants from the unfair rent increases, and what are you doing to make sure tenants stay housed?

I thank the member for the question.

The cost of everything is a concern for this government. You’ve heard the Minister of Energy address some of those issues.

Mr. Speaker, what we’re doing is making sure we have an independent tribunal with a fair and independent process to look at those requests to raise above guidelines. That’s how the system is built, so that it’s not a political decision, so that we have professionals making independent decisions. That is what we’re doing in terms of letting those people have their say.

I’ll say more in the supplementary, Mr. Speaker.

Members will please take their seats.

The parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health.

The Minister of Transportation.

Our government is investing over $28 billion in the next 10 years to build highways.

We know what the NDP is trying to do with this. They don’t want the 413 to be built.

We know that our highways are going to be at capacity in the next five to 10 years.

For 15 years, the Liberals did absolutely nothing to build infrastructure in this province.

It’s under this government, this Premier and this Minister of Infrastructure that we’ve launched over $190-billion worth of—whether it’s hospitals, schools, roads, highways, we’re going to get that built, because this government is about building.

We know that people are stuck in gridlock. Over 30 minutes will be saved each way when we build Highway 413. We will continue to move forward with this plan because that is what the people of this province elected to us do.

I urge those members to go to communities like Brampton—in fact, they actually lost all three members of their team because of their position on Highway 413.

I urge the Leader of the Opposition to please go to Brampton, Mississauga, Milton and communities across—

In fact, the members opposite are so out of touch. Just look back at June 2, 2022. What happened? Where are those three members who were a part of that team before that? They’re not here anymore—because the members from Brampton North, Brampton East and Brampton Centre supported the building of the 413.

Let’s look at their record when it comes to drivers. They voted against removing tolls off the 412, the 418; they voted against those two measures that we took for drivers. They voted against removing $120 off your licence plate sticker for trucks or cars. Every step of the way, whether it’s removing 10 cents off a litre for gasoline—they voted against that as well.

We asked them to join this government in our fight to scrap the carbon tax. What do they do? Absolutely nothing.

This government will put drivers first, people first, and will do whatever we can—

I want to thank the member from Thornhill for her leadership in advocating for us to go back to basics in Ontario schools.

After we landed deals with every teacher union in Ontario, a historic achievement that’s providing stability for children, we announced a commitment to more than double the funding to build modern schools, after the former Liberals closed 600 in this province—a commitment to more than double the funding, a 136% increase in funding as we approved, this year alone, over 27,000 student spaces, 1,700 additional child care spaces in schools. When you put it all together, under our government’s leadership, 100,000 spaces are being built as we speak.

We’re building. We are investing and delivering a more highly qualified education system that goes back to the basics in Ontario.

Speaker, I’m proud to report that in this round, because of the changes we implemented in the Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act, 81% of new builds in this province are using standardized designs as a consequence of our mission, which is to speed up construction, to approve shovel-ready projects in our smallest towns and our biggest cities, as we build schools and highways and homes and the infrastructure necessary to ensure we build this province.

Supplementary question. The member for University–Rosedale.

Back to the Attorney General: At 1440 Lawrence Avenue West and 1442 Lawrence Avenue West, owned by Barney River apartments, tenants have received three above-guideline rent increases in the last seven years, despite the buildings being in such horrible condition that Canada Post deemed them unsafe to deliver mail to.

At 33 King, owned by Dream Unlimited, tenants have received the highest number of AGIs in the whole city, making their rents go up three times higher than rent control.

These are some of the most profitable landlords in the country. They can afford to maintain their buildings with the rent they collect without resorting to AGIs.

This government needs to clamp down on AGI abuse. Can you do that? Yes or no?

Coming to question period, sometimes, is just like reading the Toronto Star—because I read that story this morning.

The NDP want us to interfere in the independent tribunal when it suits their purpose. They want us to interfere in an independent tribunal and independent hearings. They would have us meddle in that independence. When they want a different outcome somewhere else, they say, “You shouldn’t be meddling.” So I just don’t know which way it goes with the NDP, except the end justifies the means for them.

We will not meddle with the independent tribunal. We set up a fair, transparent process. And we’ll let them do their work.

My question is for the Minister of Education.

As Ontario’s population grows, the need to maintain and expand our public education system has become increasingly important.

Our government must continue to build the education infrastructure we need to ensure that future generations have access to state-of-the-art schools in their communities.

Under the leadership of Premier Ford, we’re making critical investments that will provide children in this province with the resources and the support they need to thrive and succeed in an ever-changing world.

Can the minister please tell the House what our government is doing to help more children attend school close to home?

It’s crucial that more learning spaces be built so our education infrastructure can keep pace with Ontario’s growing communities. Ontario families cannot wait, like they did under the Liberals, to have a new school built in their communities. Students deserve convenient access to in-class learning that comes with extracurricular activities, sports and clubs. That’s why our government must continue to support the construction of modern educational facilities where students can receive the important lifelong skills, such as reading, writing and math, they need.

Now that our government has more than doubled the fund to build schools—Speaker, through you—can the minister please outline our government’s plan to build schools faster?

We take highway truck training and safety on our highways very seriously. That is why we continue to rank, in Ontario, as some of the safest roads in all of North America.

Mr. Speaker, Ontario leads North America in our truck training, and we will continue to work with the industry to do whatever we can to strengthen that and have no room for any of those who abuse the system or who act outside of the rules and regulations.

We will continue to ensure that safety is the topmost priority on our streets and on our highways. There’s nothing more important than that. We will come down hard on anyone who contravenes any of those rules or regulations. We will continue to speak with the industry, speak with those on the roads and ensure we do everything we can to continue improving those measures.

We have worked with the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development to ensure that truckers continue to be trained. In fact, the minister has done various measures to help improve safety and training, along with truck drivers across the province.

Truck drivers are some of the most important people in our economy. They move goods across this province. Their safety is of utmost priority to this government and to all members of this House, and we will do whatever we can. That is why we have always constantly supported measures for the trucking industry, whether it’s building new highways, whether it’s building the infrastructure that they need, to continue to support the safety of their transportation industry. We will continue to do so and continue to work with the industry to ensure that all measures are taken into consideration.

According to a recent Insurance Bureau of Canada report, new commercial truck drivers with inadequate training are putting the safety of Canada’s roads and highways in jeopardy, validating what we have been saying all along.

Premier, this is the reality: Immigrants are being charged up to $40,000 for training they never receive. Many are simply given a licence and sent on the road, with red tape and green tape on the pedals to indicate stop and go.

Licence testing must be done by the MTO.

When will this government finally do something to protect these workers and all other road users from preventable accidents?

When will you institute company inspections with harsher consequences for employers breaking the law?