The government House leader.

The supplementary question.

The next question.

Next question.

Thanks to the great member from just north of Kingston. He’s an outstanding new member in our caucus. He’s standing up for residents in his riding who have great concerns about the carbon tax, whether they’re farmers, or that mom and dad who is heading to take their kids to hockey—as I mentioned earlier—or to school, or the construction workers who are working so hard.

The member talked about those small business people who haven’t received their carbon tax rebate. We can solve this by not having the carbon tax in the first place, which is what we’ve been pushing for since 2018 here, with Premier Ford and our team in Ontario. I had a meeting with the Canadian Federation of Independent Business just last week, where they told me about the fact that this $1.3 billion had been stuck there in Ottawa and business owners hadn’t received it. Obviously, again, the solution to the problem—scrap the carbon tax. Eliminate it entirely, so you don’t have to worry about it.

Bonnie Crombie, the queen of the carbon tax, and the Ontario Liberal caucus believe that the people of Ontario are better off with this carbon tax than without it.

I know the people just north of Kingston, up in Smiths Falls, Perth and all of those great communities in eastern Ontario, don’t support the carbon tax.

Let’s be clear again: The queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, loves hiking taxes. That’s all she did when she was the mayor of Mississauga for all those years, and now she has brought those same practices to her partisan role as the Liberal leader here in Ontario. She’s happy to have the federal carbon tax in place. And she would be way too expensive for the people of Ontario if she was ever elected into this wonderful chamber that we have here in Ontario.

Again, we’re standing up for the people of Ontario by cutting gasoline taxes, while Liberals are driving gasoline taxes up higher and higher every year—on April 1. We’re cutting those gasoline taxes. We’re ensuring that we have affordable energy right across the province, like that big investment in hydroelectric power—

Interjections.

After the Liberals increased child care costs 500%, pricing so many families out of the job market, and mothers often had to stay home instead of going to work because of the economic disincentives of unaffordable child care, we delivered a plan, in partnership with all levels of government, that has reduced fees by 50%, saving $8,000 to $12,000 per child.

The member speaks about access for constituents who would seek child care, and yet the member’s party and the Liberals recommended to the government that we remove 30% of the market by denying for-profit child care. We’re talking about tens of thousands of spaces for families in Toronto that would have been reduced and cut and eliminated if we did it the way the NDP and Liberals recommended.

We are standing up for choice, we’re respecting parents, and we’re ensuring all families benefit from affordability in this province.

The record must be clear: Liberals and New Democrats stood in this House encouraging—in fact, demanding—that the government sign a deal that would have left 70,000 spaces and families behind because of your ideological conviction to oppose small business women who own for-profit child care. That’s the choice. That’s what those three parents you mentioned should know—that you would have made it worse, increased wait-lists, decreased access, increased costs.

We stood up to this Prime Minister for a better deal. We will always stand up for all families, all children, in all regions of this province.

The Carmelite daycare that serves my riding is shutting its doors for good in July. Once the doors are shut, Jennifer, a single mother in my riding, will no longer have child care for her daughter. She is one of 175 families impacted by this closure.

What is this government doing to make sure that there is child care for all of the families in Ontario who require it?

Tina, another parent who is impacted, is on multiple wait-lists for child care, and her child may have to change schools if the Carmelite centre closes.

This government has fought against $10-a-day child care from the get-go. They were the last province to sign the agreement with the federal government. TD Bank estimated that we would need 315,000 spaces for $10-a-day child care; this government made a plan for one third of that number. This government downloaded administration to municipalities for implementing the $10-a-day child care, then cut $85.5 million from those administration fees.

Will this government stop its crusade against $10-a-day child care, or will you leave Jennifer, Tina and hundreds of thousands of families across this province without the child care that they need?

Supplementary question.

Aamjiwnaang First Nation is asking Sarnia’s Ineos chemical plant to be shut down after community members reported headaches, nausea and dizziness on Tuesday. The First Nations’ air quality monitoring station near the band office continues to report high benzene levels.

Why is Ontario allowing this company to continue with business as usual while people are getting sick from their emissions?

I’d like to thank the member from Simcoe–Grey for that important question.

Ontario farmers are ready to grow food for a growing Ontario, and they’re ready to do it 365 days out of the year. But by taxing farmers, you’re actually taxing growing Ontario.

Let me give you a quote from John de Bruyn, the former chair of Ontario Pork: The carbon tax “has amounted to an unfair burden to farmers, adding costs and lowering incomes, without reducing emissions.”

Mr. Speaker, farmers need to heat their barns; they need to dry grain; they need to power the greenhouses—there’s no option here; it has to be done.

If we eliminate this useless tax on farmers, we could unleash the full potential of farming and agriculture in the province of Ontario.

That’s why the Minister of Agriculture signed a letter, together with 25 farm and agricultural organizations, calling on the federal government to pause the destructive carbon tax increase on April 1.

I urge the Liberals in this House: Please, take that letter to your federal colleagues in Ottawa. Hop in your minivan and hand-deliver it to Justin Trudeau in Ottawa and remove the carbon tax.

Farmers cannot afford Liberals. They can’t afford the Liberal leader.

Our government will do everything it can to make farming and food production in Ontario more affordable.

My question is to the Solicitor General.

Speaker, with more than a 100% increase in occurrences this year compared to the same period in 2023, I need to talk about the carjackings again. This is clearly not the first time that you have heard me speak on this issue, but when my constituents tell me that they feel unsafe in their cars, on the streets, and even in their own homes, I must speak up for them.

Can the Solicitor General please tell this House about the progress that the Provincial Carjacking Joint Task Force has been making?

Speaker, more than 12,000 vehicles were stolen in Toronto last year, with a combined value of $790 million.

The impact of car theft extends to all Ontarians, due to increasing insurance premiums. With the rise in inflation and the costs of living, the last thing that we need now is another added expense.

My follow-up question to the Solicitor General is, how are stolen vehicles being shipped overseas? And can he explain how this government is putting pressure on the federal government to take this issue seriously and to act immediately?

I want to thank my colleague opposite.

It’s undeniable that the crisis that we have in auto theft is completely unacceptable—people’s doors are being knocked in at 5 in the morning and people are being demanded to hand over the keys. That’s why we’ve never had a government—we’ve never had a stronger government, our government, led by Premier Ford, that takes this so seriously.

Mr. Speaker, I have to say that the OPP and Toronto police have teamed up to lead a province-wide task force to fight auto theft, and in January, this past year—the proof is in the pudding, because of what they have accomplished: 89 people arrested, 554 charges laid, and hundreds of vehicles returned.

Our investment of over $100 million is working. Supporting over 21 police services with auto theft grants is working. We’re treating this with high priority.

Mr. Speaker, we know, on this side, where we sit, but the opposition does not stand for public safety. And do you know why we know it? Because when police board budgets went before their councils for approval, the proxies for the Liberals and the NDP voted no in Ottawa, in London, in Hamilton, and in other cities. It’s completely unacceptable.

I am concerned about what’s happening, and I spoke to Aamjiwnaang’s Chief Plain yesterday to discuss the situation and the impacts on the people of his community. I also spoke to representatives from Ineos and made it clear that we expect them to quickly work to identify the source of these emissions and implement a solution.

Make no mistake: When it comes to protecting health and safety, we will not hesitate to use our strong regulatory tools and enforce actions to hold emitters to account.

As of now, our mobile air-monitoring truck has already been deployed for several days and remains on site in Sarnia indefinitely.

I will continue to ensure that compliance with all past orders made to Ineos, including requirements to install emission-control equipment, are done and air quality is monitored.

I remain deeply concerned, and I do have an additional call with Aamjiwnaang’s Chief Plain this afternoon. We currently already have environmental compliance officers who have been conducting site visits at Ineos. But we will not hesitate to take additional actions to protect the people of Sarnia and Aamjiwnaang First Nation.

And welcome to the board from Waste to Resource.

I want to thank my friend from Peterborough–Kawartha for his commitment to public safety in his community. And I want to give a shout-out to his police chief, Stu Betts, who does a great job to keep Peterborough safe.

Mr. Speaker, I’ve said this many times, and it’s absolutely obvious: The carbon tax has a direct impact on the cost of public safety. As an example, the OPP spend over $4 million a year just in carbon tax. And by the numbers—as of April 1, Ontarians are now paying 18 cents a litre for gas and 21 cents a litre for diesel; that means on every vehicle that is being used for public safety, there’s carbon tax.

We know where we stand. We know where they stand.

Bonnie Crombie has to come clean and say this is regressive and it’s affecting our community—

Interjections.

Let’s just talk about Peterborough. As of April 1, 3.3 cents a litre was added to the carbon tax; that means the vehicles for Peterborough Police Service have to pay this—in every vehicle, at every fill-up. This means they’re paying, on average, $800 a year just for the increase in the carbon tax. And do you know what, Mr. Speaker? Bonnie Crombie knows this. She sat on the board of Peel police services for many years. She knew how to read a budget. She knew that the carbon tax is embedded in the cost of fuel.

She should come clean with Ontarians and say, “This is wrong. I will call Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet in Ottawa and tell them it’s affecting our community safety.”

The Minister of Health has repeatedly claimed that no one needs to pay for health care with their credit card. Yet my constituent Khalid was charged $3,590 to get his cataracts fixed. Khalid’s doctor said the surgery was medically necessary.

Can the minister of Minister of Health please explain to Khalid why he had to pay for the surgery and the tests on his credit card?

One of the things Khalid was charged for was the lenses used for his surgeries. The doctor told him he needed to have this lens because he has astigmatism. These lenses cost him $1,590.

And Khalid is not alone. We know from the Ontario Health Coalition report yesterday that thousands of people across our province are being charged fees like this every single day for procedures they don’t need.

Why is the Minister of Health allowing private clinics to upsell patients on services by telling them that they are necessary when they are not?

It gives me pleasure to present the following petition on behalf of Paul King in my riding of London North Centre. It is also a petition that has been put together by Architectural Conservancy Ontario.

Now, given the changes to the standing orders, we are not able to read the entirety of the petition text, so I will do my best summarize the key elements within this petition.

It talks about the changes that this government made to the Ontario Heritage Act—all of the changes that were made in 2022—and it talks about the heritage properties that are currently listed which are at risk. There are 36,000 heritage properties at risk, and the meagre protections for them will end January 1, 2025, unless this government acts.

What this petition does is it calls upon this government to correct that mistake that they have made—to backpedal upon yet another mistake that they have made—and amend the Ontario Heritage Act to give municipalities an additional five years, giving them until January 1, 2030, before heritage property listings expire.

I completely support this petition, will affix my signature and deliver it with page Armaan to the Clerks.

Within this petition, it talks about the difficulties that two-spirit, transgender, non-binary, gender-diverse and intersex communities face when it comes to accessing the vital health care upon which we all rely.

It’s important for us to recognize that, unless we make sure that the government understands that this is a necessity, people within medical circles are not going to be taught in a way that respects people’s identities. So what this calls upon the government to do is to create an advisory committee to make sure that we address those gaps within the education system of medicine, and make sure that there’s greater access and coverage for gender-affirming care in Ontario.

I fully support this petition, will affix my signature and deliver it with page Shiara to the Clerks.

I rise to seek unanimous consent for the following:

That, in the opinion of this House, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario calls on the Ontario government to protect Ontario’s water supply and not repeat the tragedy that happened in Walkerton 24 years ago by ensuring the current safety regulations, including Ontario’s free and public water testing, remain unchanged.

So, the three petitions today—I’ll just summarize each one very briefly.

The first one is to invest in a dedicated OPP hate crime unit. The second one is to provide mandatory, standardized training for all employers about anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and to do it at the same time as they get training about accessibility for Ontarians with disabilities. And the third one is to make some changes to the Comprehensive Ontario Police Services Act, the Ontario Provincial Police government advisory council and how the Ontario Provincial Police operates in order to help combat anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.

I’m very happy to present these petitions today, Speaker.

Our government knows the status quo is not working and more needs to be done. That is why we launched the Your Health plan. We are taking bold action to eliminate surgical backlogs and reduce wait times for publicly funded surgeries and procedures. Our plan is investing in infrastructure, boosting health human resources and adding educational supports for the future. Our plan is adding thousands of hours of MRI and CT scans and more procedures, including hip and knee replacements, closer to home—all accessible with your OHIP card, not your credit card. Our plan has already reduced the surgical backlog to below pre-pandemic levels.

We will continue to work with our health care partners across Ontario to ensure that we have the best publicly funded health care when and where people need it.

It took Ontario years of neglect by the previous governments, propped up by the NDP—but our government has taken action and delivered results for Ontarians. Our government is proud to have one of the largest publicly funded health care systems across the whole world—a system we’re investing $85 billion in this year. There are countless stories of life-changing impacts across the province and evidence that expanding our capacity in our health care system is creating access for more surgeries and procedures than ever before.

Our government will continue to find innovative ways to make it faster and easier for Ontarians to access the care they need, when they need it, closer to home.

My question is for the Associate Minister of Small Business.

Canada’s inflation rate just rose to 2.9% this past month thanks to higher gas prices. Data from Statistics Canada indicates that if it wasn’t for gasoline prices, inflation would have actually gone down month over month.

We know that many small businesses rely on transportation to deliver goods and services. The carbon tax is making it more expensive to run their operations. The federal government must fix their broken tax measures, scrap the carbon tax and deliver real affordability for small businesses across Ontario.

Can the associate minister please tell this House how the carbon tax and high gasoline prices hurt our small businesses in Ontario?

Thank you to the great member from Brantford–Brant for his strong advocacy for his small businesses.

So many of our small businesses rely heavily on transportation and energy-intensive operations to deliver their goods and services. Ontario’s agricultural and agri-food businesses, from family farms to processing facilities, have seen their transportation and operating costs skyrocket. But the opposition Liberals and NDP have ignored the basic economics of why the carbon tax is bad for business. In fact, they think business owners and customers are better off.

So if you’re a lover of farmers’ markets, you can thank a Liberal the next time you see the price of Ontario produce go up. And when you pick up the necessary groceries for your family, you can thank a Liberal when you have to make those tough decisions on what to pick up and what to put back.

Join us and tell the Trudeau Liberals that this expensive, unaffordable tax has to be axed.

Point of order.

Mr. Speaker, obviously, we’re not going to entertain a substantive motion like that. If the Liberal Party would like to bring something on the floor, they have many opportunities to do that—as opposed to playing games, perhaps they would take their work seriously and bring something to the floor of this House. But I can assure the member that we will be voting against a motion that we have neither seen nor have been advised about what the contents of it are.