Mr. Speaker, why is the member opposite disrespecting Ontarians by standing in the way of us building a new science centre that will be enjoyed for another 50 to 75 years?

In fact, do you know what the member opposite would like? He would like the science centre, like Ontario Place, to just fall apart so that it ends up being closed. But we will not do that, because we believe in science education, as does the Minister of Education.

But again, Mr. Speaker, not to worry; under the Premier’s leadership, we will have a brand new science centre with more exhibition space for families to enjoy, and a brand new Ontario Place.

Thank you very much for summarizing your petition.

I would like to thank Nicole Lafrenière from Garson in my riding for these petitions: “Neurological Movement Disorder Clinic in Sudbury.”

Basically, the people have signed this petition because the rate of neurological movement disorders in northern Ontario is the highest in all of our province. It’s actually the highest of many provinces in our country. There are specialized neurological movement disorder clinics that exist in Ontario, but none of them are located in northern Ontario, where the people that have signed their signature come from.

They recognize that in northeastern Ontario, it is Sudbury that is the health care hub for services. So they are asking for such a clinic to be set up in Sudbury so that the many, many patients in northeastern Ontario that have a neurological movement disorder do not have to travel to southern Ontario to gain care, but the care would be available in Sudbury—easier to get to.

I fully support the petition—I would love to have a neurological movement disorder clinic in Sudbury—and I would ask my page Sophie to bring it to the Clerks.

Comme vous savez, monsieur le Président, dans le nord de l’Ontario, nous avons droit à des subventions pour voyager vers le sud de l’Ontario lorsque les soins ne sont pas disponibles. Ça nous permet d’être remboursés pour les hôtels, pour le millage, des choses comme ça. Malheureusement, les fonds qui nous sont disponibles n’ont pas été mis à jour depuis très longtemps. Maintenant, le gouvernement l’a changé : on aura le droit à 175 $ par nuit, plutôt que 100 $ par nuit, et un petit peu plus pour le millage. Mais ça reste quand même que plusieurs, plusieurs familles, surtout des familles avec de jeunes enfants, ne sont pas capables de se rendre à Toronto pour les soins dont ils ont besoin.

Un médecin, un pédiatre de Sault Ste. Marie, est venu me voir pour me parler d’un couple. Le bébé risque de perdre la vue s’ils ne sont pas capables de l’emmener à Toronto et les parents n’ont pas d’argent pour l’emmener à Toronto. On aimerait que le programme soit changé pour que les familles dans le besoin aient droit à des fonds avant le voyage, pas avoir besoin d’attendre le remboursement.

Je suis en faveur de cette pétition. Je vais la signer et je demande à Charlise de l’amener à la table des greffiers.

Presently, we have over 2,700 people in Ontario—that was as of Monday. It could have changed; it changes every week. But as of Monday we had 2,037 people on the wait-list for an organ transplant in Ontario. Unfortunately, every three days one of those 2,037 people will die because there are no organs available to help them.

You know, Speaker, that organ and tissue donation can save up to eight people’s lives and help the lives of 75 more.

If you ask Ontarians, over 90% of us want to be organ donors, but unfortunately only 36% of us have registered. So what the petition wants to do and what the people that have signed the petition want to do is to go to a presumed consent, exactly the same as what Nova Scotia has done in their province, which would make more organs available for people who want to be an organ donor. There would be plenty of opportunity to opt out, all the way to the time of death, where someone from your family will have to guarantee that, yes, you wanted to be an organ donor. For the 2,037 people waiting, that would be a life-changing change.

I fully support this petition, will affix my name to it and ask a very patient page to bring it to the table.

You will remember, Speaker, that in the 1980s, 30,000 Canadians were infected by HIV or hepatitis, and over 8,000 of them died because of a tainted blood transfusion. The royal commission was set in place, led by Justice Krever, and he made recommendations to protect the integrity of our blood production and collection.

Recommendation number 2 of the Krever inquiry was that donors of blood and plasma should not be paid for their donations. In British Columbia and Quebec, they have forbidden the Canadian Blood Services to pay for plasma. Unfortunately, the present government is allowing pay-for-plasma clinics to set up shop in Ontario.

We have lived through what it means when we cannot trust the blood transfusion. We don’t want to live through that again. So those people have signed a petition to make sure that Ontario adopts a voluntary blood donation act to forbid the privatization of blood products collection and the payment for a donation of blood or plasma.

I fully support this petition, Speaker, will affix my name to it and ask Charlise to bring it to the Clerk.

We all know that there is a shortage of PSWs in every part of our health care system. Whether you look at home care, at long-term care—even hospital care, primary care—we have shortages. The reason for that is that our PSWs are often overworked, underpaid and underappreciated, leading to many of them leaving the profession. The lack of PSWs, especially in long-term care and in our home care system, leaves patients to have to go without and the family having to step in.

What they want is they want to make PSW a good job. They want PSWs to be paid a fair wage, to have sick days, pension, benefits, to have vacation days, to have full-time jobs—permanent full-time jobs. I can tell you, Speaker, that when my hospital, Health Sciences North, posts one PSW position, they have hundreds of people apply. Yet the long-term-care homes, the home care cannot recruit and retain PSWs. Why? Because they don’t offer good jobs. A PSW working home care cannot pay the rent and feed their kids. They have to go someplace else, although they are very, very good at what they do. So they want to change this, to make PSW a career that you can raise your family on and make good wages on.

I think this is a good idea. I fully support this petition, will affix my name to it and ask my good page Charlise to bring it to the Clerk.

I have a petition here to support access to spine care in Ontario.

To summarize this petition, essentially, it’s very difficult for people with complex spinal diseases and injuries to get surgery, and that’s because the compensation for the physicians who perform surgery is complex and takes an incredibly long amount of time. Also, the time for surgical rooms to be available is causing a great deal of grief and pain and suffering for people with conditions like scoliosis and other diseases and injuries to the back.

I’ll give it to Aaldrian, and he will take it over. Thanks, Aaldrian.

I love afternoon debate, because you’re all so lively. Hopefully, we can get to some really interesting questions.

But I’m really happy to be able to say a few words about Bill 162, which could be named as well the getting it undone act. Here’s the interesting thing: The most interesting thing I find in this bill is schedule 5, followed by schedule 6.

I’ll go to schedule 5 first. Now, schedule 5 says “Protecting Against Carbon Taxes Act, 2024.” So there would have to be a referendum if there’s going to be a carbon tax, but the Premier of the Conservative government—well, you’ve got your own carbon tax, the industrial carbon tax: $2 billion going up by 23%, I think, next January. You’ve got your own carbon tax. You’re saying to people, “We’re going to prevent it,” but you have one. I don’t really understand how that makes any sense. So are you legislating against yourself? Are you legislating against maybe your future desire to do that again? You’ve already done it.

We hear about the carbon tax all day long in question period, but we don’t hear about the Conservative carbon tax. Next January, it’s going up 23%, the industrial carbon tax. While consumers may not be able to see that on their bills, on their invoices, on their grocery bills, it’s still there. It’s still there. And you guys put it in. You’re trying to pretend that you’re against it, but you’ve done it. How could anybody support a bill that did that?

But here’s really the one that sticks out. The members from up just past Oshawa, up towards that part of the 407 that the province owns? You’re going to do a referendum on tolls—you’re going to ban tolls—but you’re not going to do anything about the road that we own. The tolls—

I understand the other piece of that road, the 407, was something that your government—not your government, but your party sold off some 25 years ago. You sold it off 25 years ago.

Interjections.

Interjection.

Not only did you sell the road for a song—like a song, literally a song. Guess what? They owed us $1 billion, and you said, “That’s okay. Don’t worry about it, folks. Keep it. Keep the $1 billion.” That’s what I call the 407 gravy train. It’s not one that people know well. It’s that gravy train where they said, “Here’s $1 billion for you folks. You know what? You can have it. Don’t worry about what you owe us. And you know what? We’re not going to try to lower tolls on that road.”

If you were so against tolls, like you’re saying in this bill, why would you not do that? I thought you were about the people, saving people money. No. Come on, guys. Speaker, we’re going to ban tolls, but they keep the tolls, and they keep the tolls on the road that they own. Then they forgive $1 billion. Come on. Who are you kidding?

You did freeze licence fees, which is good. And you did finally get around to figuring out the licence plate stuff, which was causing some people some grief, because their Premier made an announcement that you didn’t have to pay anymore, but nobody told anybody that you had to keep registering, until you figured it out some three months later. I have a number of constituents who had received fines because it wasn’t clear. It was communicated once and then not very well at all after that. The government did not spend any time reminding people, “You’ve still got to do it.” You’ve still got to do it today because this bill hasn’t passed. That’s totally unfair to people.

It’s nice to get a good story. I love it when the Premier says, “We’re going to stop doing this, Speaker, because it’s good, and I’m for the people.” But you don’t tell them that they’ve got to keep doing it for three months, and it costs them 500, 600 bucks—if you’re out of province, $1,000. That’s not saving people any money.

The Official Plan Adjustments Act: I don’t know at what stage of doing or undoing this schedule comes in, but it’s certainly part of the doing/undoing that has been the whole scandal around—well, let’s put it this way: the whole scandal around urban boundaries changing for no discernible reason, other than maybe somebody made a donation or somebody knew somebody. Because it does seem like the well-connected insiders do well when it comes to anything that has got to do with land or property—see the 413; see the greenbelt. I think that that’s a fair assessment of that schedule that seems to be undoing a thing that you did that got undone.

I do want to add that it’s really not right that you’re saying you’re going to protect the people from carbon taxes when you have one, or that you’re going to ban tolls when you keep the tolls on the road that you own, and when you forgive $1 billion of the road that you sold for a song. It makes it impossible to support this bill.

I’m trying to run the clock here so I can make sure that I get 10 minutes’ worth of questions, because I know you’re all going to want to have fun. So I might divert a little bit into something different.

I did talk about the 407 gravy train. There’s a greenbelt gravy train. Now there’s a carbon tax gravy train in there. So there’s a lot of gravy going around.

I think, if we wanted to save the taxpayer money, it would have been better for the Premier not to have increased the staff in his office making over $100,000 a year—the Premier’s sunshine staff list—from 16 to 48. It’s now 49 because we’ve added somebody in Ottawa, a new regional minister, a new office in Ottawa. He’s got a six-figure salary too. I don’t know whether we could have addressed something like that in this bill—which is, the Premier’s office should be more modest instead of so bloated; lots of gravy going there.

Here’s the other thing: Now they’re going to spend—so the Conservative candidate that lost in Nepean-Carleton, that candidate just got a six-figure job because he lost. And guess what? They’re going to spend $1.7 million every year to keep him in a job there in Ottawa. Why are they really doing that? Because they want him to run again in Kanata. That’s a lot of taxpayer money.

So, when we talk about protecting the taxpayer, who is going to protect the taxpayer from that? I mean, that’s kind of gross. I think most people would say, “Why would you do that?” Why did the Premier’s office budget for staff—just sunshine staff—go from $3 million to almost $7 million? That’s $4 million. Now, you throw the other $1.7 million on that, you’re getting close to, what, $6 million? And God knows what else.

Really, folks, I’m trying to get to, like, four minutes, because I want the 10 minutes of questions. So, I’ve got all this stuff. If you have any other topics that you want me to discuss, I’ll throw it in. It’s just—anyhow.

I could go back on the toll thing, because the toll thing is hilarious. It’s like, “We’re going to ban tolls, but we’re keeping ours. We’re keeping the tolls on the road that we own. We’re going to keep—but we’re banning them. And by the way, the highway that we sold? Guess what? We’re going to forgive them a billion dollars.” If that’s not a gravy train—I mean, that’s a billion-dollar gravy train: “Here, guys. Forget it. I know you owe us the money. It’s okay. Nobody’s watching.”

Come on. It’s like, you’re not really against tolls; you have them. You’re not really against the carbon tax; you have one. So why are you putting this in the legislation? Are you trying to fool somebody—as I say, pull the wool over their eyes? I don’t know.

Guys, I’m getting down there. I’ve only got 12 seconds left. I’m just going to stand here in silence for 10 seconds.

We took the toll off.

You’re very patient with me, Speaker. Thank you.

I would like to thank Robert Morin, who is from Chelmsford in my riding, for these petitions. The petitions are called “911 Everywhere in Ontario.”

Speaker, we all know that when we face an emergency, what you do is you dial 911 for help. Help is available in northern Ontario. We do have police officers. We do have ambulances. We do have fire departments. What we don’t have is 911. You have to memorize a 1-800 number. There are many of them through my riding—three of them that I have memorized; another that I don’t know, but I have them written in my car. Nobody knows that.

Usually, they find out that 911 is not available when they dial 911. They’ve just been at the scene of an accident or trauma. They dial 911, and you get, “This number is not in service. Please try your call again.” So you dial 911 again, and it’s not. Then, you dial 0. And the lady at the other end says, “No, no, you have to dial 911,” but 911 is not available.

We are the only province that does not have 911 everywhere. It has to change.

I fully support this petition, will affix my name to it and ask my very patient page to bring it to the Clerk.

There we go.

First, on a point of order: Mr. Speaker, pursuant to standing order 7(e), I wish to inform the House that tonight’s evening meeting has been cancelled.

Resuming the debate adjourned on April 25, 2024, on the motion for third reading of the following bill:

Bill 162, An Act to enact the Protecting Against Carbon Taxes Act, 2024 and amend various Acts / Projet de loi 162, Loi édictant la Loi de 2024 sur la protection contre les taxes sur le carbone et modifiant diverses lois.

It was a rather brief overview of this bill, but I would say that I agree with a lot of your opinion as to what was in this bill. When we talk about the pressure that we see right now, whether it be on the cost of living or on our health care system falling apart or schools not being able to meet the needs of students—often students facing barriers—do you see anything in this bill that will help us get that done?

Questions?

Further questions?

Oh, you can’t do that.

The moment that we’re facing in this House should be actually really quite serious, which is this government continues to meddle with planning in the province, and really, the question of the day is, why does the government keep doing that? We released 4,000 pages of documents yesterday that I believe provide the answer, that this government—it was not about housing. That was never the question. The question was, how could they benefit their developers and their speculators? This is part of an RCMP investigation—ongoing.

You talk about the gravy train, the bloat. Can you just talk about how this really is the station, where the gravy train left the station when it came to the greenbelt scandal?

I can do that. Oh, wait—damn. You blew it. Okay.

Thank you very much, Speaker.

When you say “no tolls” and still charge tolls on a road that you own, or forgive a billion dollars when maybe that billion dollars could be used to make schools better, make our health care system better or help people build more housing—that would be, to me, the thing that we want and that we need, that all of us want in our communities. We want people to be successful. We want to make sure that people just get that bit of help that they need. I don’t see that here.

The reality is, in a few short years—we’ll put it that way—we may not be here, and our kids will have to live with whatever’s here. And there is a climate crisis. Unless we do something to address that, we’re going to be leaving them short. However we do it, generations that came before us made sacrifices to make sure that we do okay, and we may be called upon at some point to make some sacrifices to make sure that things are okay for those people who come after us.

I would like to thank the member from Ottawa South for his presentation on the get nothing done act. This bill is what has been described by quite a number of people as “performative,” and especially when you look at the toll prohibition on roads that don’t currently have a toll, and not removing the tolls on roads that currently do.

I wonder: Would the member like to make any comments about the performative nature and the vacuous nature of this bill, rather than legislation that actually achieves its desired goals?

I appreciate the opportunity to interact with my friend from Ottawa South. We always have a good time in the House here. I appreciate the fact that we sit on the same side of the House so that we can develop that relationship.

He brought up the question of carbon tax, and I watched with interest an interview a few weeks ago with the Liberal leader, Bonnie Crombie. She was asked specifically about the carbon tax, because obviously we’ve had a member here in the House from the Liberal independents say that Ontarians know that they’re better off because of the carbon tax.

The Liberal leader was asked point blank whether she supported the carbon tax or not, and she didn’t have an answer to that question. She had hoped to go on a listening tour across Ontario to hear from Ontarians what they thought of the carbon tax. I was wondering if the member, because I know he spent time as the interim leader, probably very commonly in contact with Bonnie Crombie—if she has had the chance and if he had an interim report on what she has heard about the carbon tax from the people of Ontario out on the street.

He wasn’t quite clear on that, so I was wondering if he could say in the House if he’s personally supportive, and if he believes that the people of Ontario are better off because of the carbon tax.

I really appreciated the speech about gravy. We’ve seen a lot of gravy in the last six years. My question was just simply: Of all the flavours of gravy that we’ve seen in the last six years, what was your favourite flavour?

Well, here’s what I’d say: I think the people of Ontario and the people of Ottawa would be better off if the Conservative candidate who didn’t win in Kanata–Carleton didn’t get a six-figure job and didn’t have an office that costs $1.7 million annually.

I’ve got a feeling we should have a poutine party here. I think we should have a poutine party in the Legislature, and we should have a bunch of different types of gravy. I’ll take any recommendations as to what kind of gravy or names for gravy that we could test out. I’d like to do that, if people are willing.

I know the Premier wants to make a nice announcement. I know he wants to be a good guy and make everybody happy, but you’ve got to deliver the things that people need to know so they don’t actually end up getting penalized. And that was the problem.

The member talked about not having to renew your licence plate anymore. This has caused a lot of problems in my riding. The only way you can know that your licence plate is about to expire is if you knew to go into a website and register with the dates and all of this so that you get an email. When you live in northeastern Ontario, like I do, where access to the Internet—am I allowed to say—sucks because this is the level of Internet access we have where I live, are you surprised that people did not do this? Most of the time, the Internet doesn’t work, so a lot of people in my riding, where there’s no public transit, have to drive, did not renew their licence in time and got—