At this time, I’d like to welcome all of the members from Niagara’s Community Living. I’m looking forward to your reception this evening.

To reply, the Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.

Supplementary?

Minister of Health.

Minister of Health.

Once again, I need to remind the House that it has long been the established practice of this House that members should not use props, signage or accessories that are intended to express a political message or are likely to cause disorder. This also extends to members’ attire where logos, symbols, slogans and other political messaging are not permitted unless the House has granted unanimous consent. This Legislature is a forum for debate, and the expectation in the chamber is that political statements should be made during debate rather than through the use of props or symbols.

I’m going ask the member for Toronto–St. Paul’s to come to order.

I’m going to warn the member for Toronto–St. Paul’s.

I must name the member for Toronto–St. Paul’s. Jill Andrew, you must leave the chamber for the duration of the day.

MPP Andrew was escorted from the chamber.

This question is for the Premier. Today, the Ontario Medical Association confirmed what we all suspected, that this government has no plans to address the primary care shortage. In fact, if they keep it up, they’re on track to make the crisis in health care worse.

Family doctors are concerned that this government—and I want to quote them here—will “further erode the ability of family doctors in Ontario to build viable practices, and continue to put access to family medicine out of reach for a growing number of Ontarians.”

Further, we know that the number of physicians that are retiring far exceeds the number of graduates into family practice.

So the people of Ontario want to know, does the Premier agree that a strong recruitment and retention plan is necessary to care for the more than 2.3 million Ontarians who do not have a family doctor?

While this government is ignoring the crisis in primary care, we are seeing private, for-profit clinics popping up all over this province. They’re promising 24/7 access to primary care. But the catch is patients have to pay hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. This is all about making money off of very sick people, Speaker. It is shameful. There is something very seriously wrong with that.

The government is doing nothing to stop these so-called executive health clinics from gouging patients. So my question to the Premier is, is this government eroding the public health care system to help line the pockets of private clinic operators?

Interjections.

Physicians have been warning successive Liberal and Conservative governments for years about the consequences of not investing in primary care. So, Speaker, back to the Premier of this province, why is this government ignoring the solutions that are being proposed by family doctors?

Interjections.

I’m going to use this opportunity to do a bit of compare and contrast, shall we? So I look at what the NDP government did under Bob Rae. They actually cut the number of nurses and residency positions. Under the Liberal government, they cut 50 residency positions available for family physicians, for physicians looking to match a residency. What does that mean? That means today, we have over 300 less physicians practising in the province of Ontario.

Now, let’s compare that to what we have done since 2018. Since 2018, under the leadership of Premier Ford, we have seen a historic high of 12,500 physicians licensed to practise in the province of Ontario—a historic high. We are ensuring through last month’s matching of residency positions—those are young people, those are medical students who are matching with their residency specialty of choice—a 100% match in the province of Ontario. And, of course, we’ve actually increased—

Since February, we have already seen in Minto-Mapleton, in Innisfil, in Kingston that these primary care multidisciplinary teams have recruited and started taking on new patients. Those are patients who are being attached to primary care practitioners in the province of Ontario—78 that we announced in February. Of course, under the leadership of the Minister of Finance, we have made an additional investment of over $500 million in our most recent budget.

We’re getting the job done.

The Northern Ontario School of Medicine today has 51% of their students wanting a match for a primary care practitioner position. The scope-of-practice changes that we are making to ensure that people see the right clinician when they are looking for assistance—we know that those changes, specifically with pharmacies, have led to a decrease in people going to emergency departments, because they have access at their local community pharmacy.

We will continue to do that work and make sure that Ontario continues to lead the Canadian federation in the number of physicians who are matched with patients—

Let’s talk about Brampton, Mr. Speaker, and what this Premier and this government have done for that city. In fact, it’s that same leader who lost three of her own MPPs because of the neglect that they have shown to cities like Brampton.

Let’s talk about the 413. Your position on that is to oppose it while the entire city and region needs it.

When it comes down to investing in new hospitals for Brampton, what did you do? You voted against that.

When it comes down to opening the new medical school, the first one in the GTA in over 100 years, what did the NDP do? They opposed that, Mr. Speaker.

We will continue to invest in Brampton, and I hope the NDP get out of their downtown bubble, come to the streets of Brampton, Mississauga and Peel region, and listen to the people and what they are saying. They want us to build roads, highways and transit, and that is exactly what we will do.

Interjections.

Start the clock. We can resume question period.

Once again, I recognize the leader of the opposition.

And the final supplementary?

Interjections.

The Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity.

Start the clock. The next question.

Yes, let’s talk about Peel. Peel doesn’t want the NDP to represent them, because Peel voted in all PC members to represent the Peel region. Why? Because the Liberals, supported by the NDP, for decades neglected the region of Peel: one hospital; didn’t rebuild the second hospital. But what is happening? We are building the second hospital in the region of Peel. We are making a highway to get people home faster so that they could spend time with their families. That is happening under the leadership of Premier Ford and this government.

So, yes, we will continue to represent the people of Peel, because we actually listen to the people of Peel, and we will continue to get the job done for the people of Peel.

My question is for the Minister of Energy. The Liberal carbon tax continues to not only increase our energy and gas bills, but also drive up the cost of food, housing and so much more. That’s why, Speaker, it should be a given that all members in this Legislature oppose this tax. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Rather than join our government in calling for the federal Liberals to scrap this disastrous tax, the NDP and independent Liberals are choosing to play politics and ignore their constituents.

Our government stands with the families and people of Ontario, which is why we will not stop until the federal government finally listens and eliminates the carbon tax.

Could the minister please explain what steps our government is taking to support our clean energy future without resorting to the carbon tax?

If the member opposite wants to talk about statistics, the number of hectares is way down over a 10-year average already this year.

But, Mr. Speaker, we’ve been clear. I’ve been very clear in this House about the respect and support we have for our wildland fire rangers in Ontario. We have our crews ready to go. We have our aircraft ready to go. We have the people on the ground, doing the logistics, ready to go. In fact, we’re ready to help not only Ontarians, but other jurisdictions all throughout this great country of ours, should they be suffering during their forest fire seasons.

We have always made it a priority to look after the well-being of communities, infrastructure, individuals all throughout Ontario. That’s what our wildland firefighters do. We’ve got the crews on the ground, in the air and ready to go when the time calls for it.

We’ve got our attack bases all throughout the north, again, ready to go—ready to go to make sure that Ontarians stay safe. That’s the mission of this government. That’s always been the mission of this government.

Previous governments did not make the investments that we make today to make sure that we’re supporting our firefighters, to make sure that we’re doing the things that want to bring people into forest firefighting in Ontario. But the conclusion of all of this is that this government is the only government that is making sure that northern Ontario stays safe, grows and has opportunities.

Back to the Premier: Global News has just reported on the chaos and confusion that surrounded the Premier’s reckless decision to restructure and dissolve Peel region and then his—of course, we’ll all remember this—partial reversal, another giant flip-flop just months later. Billions of dollars in taxpayer costs were at stake, and the Premier either didn’t care or had no clue.

It seems like neither the transition board nor anyone in the ministry had any idea where the Premier was going with his plans for Peel. So when it comes to the restructuring of Peel, does this government have any idea what they’re doing?

Is the government solving problems for the people of Peel, or just insiders and land-hungry developers?

Interjections.

Yes, absolutely, Mr. Speaker.

Good morning, Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Indigenous Affairs and Northern Development. We’ve heard it from Ontarians, from Premiers of all political stripes and from experts that the Liberal carbon tax needs to be scrapped, but the federal government is not listening. Instead, they hiked the carbon tax by another 23% last month—

Interjections.

Speaker, can the minister further share with the House how the Liberal carbon tax negatively impacts northern and Indigenous communities?

Back to the Minister of Energy: We hear it time and time again: The Liberal carbon tax only stands to punish Ontarians.

As people in our province continue to struggle with high interest rates and a rising cost of living, all governments should be putting forward measures that provide financial relief for individuals and families. Instead, the federal Liberals, supported by their provincial counterparts, are choosing to drive up the prices of day-to-day essentials like gas in the tank and groceries. Speaker, Ontarians have had enough. It’s time to scrap the tax.

Could the minister please explain to the House why the federal government must end this unjust carbon tax?

Member for Beaches–East York, come to order.

Supplementary question?

The next question.

Supplementary question?

Speaker, the member opposite knows exactly what we’re doing because he’s a huge champion of the investments that we’re making in our nuclear sector, coming from the Durham region, Canada’s clean energy capital—the refurbishments that are going on at places like Darlington and soon will be going on at the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station; also the new development of small modular reactors.

Mr. Speaker, we know we don’t need a punitive carbon tax in Canada or in Ontario. It’s simply not working. But the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, and the king of the carbon tax, Justin Trudeau, are continuing to make people pay more. They’re making them pay more on their home heating bills. They’re making them pay more on their gasoline fuel-ups. They’re making them pay more on their groceries.

My parliamentary assistant and I were even saying this morning that the Queen’s Park media gallery spring fling next week has even doubled in price, up to $80 next week, Mr. Speaker. Now, I don’t know if we can blame Bonnie Crombie and Justin Trudeau for that, but it’s 80 bucks this year.

So we can do this without increasing the carbon tax—

Interjection.

Interjections.

There’s no bones about it. It’s costing everybody more to live in our province and the carbon tax is driving that, not just in Ontario but right across the country.

But our plan is working here in Ontario. Our energy plan is called Powering Ontario’s Growth, investing in new and refurbishing our nuclear reactors, investing in multi-billion dollar refurbishments of our hydroelectric facilities, building the country’s largest energy storage in a competitive process and other non-emitting renewables that are coming onto the grid in the future that are going to continue to ensure that we are the economic powerhouse in North America.

We’re landing deals like $15-billion Honda deal—

Interjection.

It’s one thing for us to say it here in this place, it’s another thing to hear it from municipal and First Nations leaders from across northern Ontario, which is precisely what happened at the northern Ontario municipal association meetings just about 10 days ago and, of course, FONOM yesterday. All we heard, Mr. Speaker, was the costs associated with the carbon tax on just about every aspect of a municipality’s operation and, for isolated and remote First Nations communities, that additional cost on their fuel.

Now, despite the Prime Minister’s inculcations that this is good environmental policy, there is an overwhelming number of people who are opposed to it. When the leader of the provincial Liberals took the throne, you would have thought that she would have said no to the carbon tax. She sat back and she did precisely the opposite. It’s what makes her the queen of the carbon tax. Everybody in northern Ontario says they’re out of touch. It’s too expensive in northern Ontario. Scrap the tax.

My question is to the Minister of Education. Speaker, this government is deliberately and chronically underfunding education in Ontario and children are paying the price. This year’s budget included no meaningful increase in base funding to address the complex needs of students in Ontario, particularly the funding for special education in Ontario. It was a drop in the bucket and does not even cover the deficit of most school boards. Last year, the TDSB spent $67.6 million more on special education than what they received. Kids are hurting, teachers are struggling. It has never been this bad in Ontario before.

My question is to the Minister of Education. Why is this Conservative government so adamant about underfunding the education sector which is at a crisis point?

Speaker, recently a constituent of mine who works at a local elementary school in Waterloo region as a child and youth worker said, “Violence in schools is at a crisis point.” She detailed the abuse she faced at her school, and it was shocking: being injured or degraded on the job; being spit at; having scissors thrown at them; being punched, kicked, pinched.

On top of this, there is a lack of support to cover sick or injured staff. The Conservative government’s significant underfunding of the education system means that EAs and support staff—shows the lack of respect they have for these workers. They weren’t even mentioned at all in this latest budget.

To the minister: When will the Conservative government give the education sector and education workers the funding they desperately need and the respect that they deserve?

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today about an investment we have made to improve public education. I’m proud that our government has increased funding for special education by $659 million. When compared to the former Liberals, that is the highest investment—$3.5 billion—ever recorded in Ontario history. We’ve also increased funding to $29 billion overall for education. We’ve increased the staffing by 9,000 more education workers, 3,000 more teachers.

But let’s listen to what a student had to say on the front page of the Waterloo Record just a few days ago: Kian Mirzaei, a 16-year-old youth mental health advocate said, “I think that the Ontario government is doing the right thing, backed by the right data,” when it comes to the imposition of restrictions on cellphones, the banning of vaping and the removal of social media from school devices—common sense back in the classroom. Join us as we restore focus and discipline in Ontario’s schools.

Interjections.

I would hope that members opposite, parents and legislators, would stand with the government as we implement this plan to finally establish academic rigour back in Ontario’s schools. We’ve added more staffing. We added more funding, and we’re asking for higher expectations in our school boards to deliver safety and academic achievement and excellence back in Ontario’s schools.

May is Community Living Month. In Ontario, we have over 100,000 people with intellectual disabilities accessing developmental services. Over 11,000 people have added their name to #5ToSurvive campaign online. Their ask is 5%—5% base funding to keep the lights on, accessible vehicles running and qualified staff during a human resource crisis.

Premier, will you commit today to provide the 5% that Community Living is asking for?

Interjections.

Aging parents need to know that their now adult loved ones will be in safe, supportive housing with consistent staff. Their ask, their plea, was for 5%. Your government gave them 2%.

Premier, when will you take responsibility for the absolute crisis you are creating and properly fund our supportive housing living homes?

Interjections.