Again, in her opening comments, the member opposite frankly identifies that the bill would go to the exact same committee that we expedited the bill to yesterday. We were very clear that we thought that there are very important elements in the private member’s bill that the member brought forward.

But we’re undertaking right now a very comprehensive study into the challenges facing victims of intimate partner violence. The justice committee, which is, on our part, being led by a former crown prosecutor, is to provide recommendations to this Legislature, to the government, on how we can make the system better, how we can make those who provide services for victims of intimate partner violence better, how we can improve the justice system. We want to also ensure that the federal government understands how important this issue is to the people of the province of Ontario.

We’re not silencing anyone, Mr. Speaker. In fact, what we’re doing is showing how important it is and expediting that work, and the committee will continue to do that work.

What we want to see is, what are the obstacles that are being faced? We know that there are obstacles in the courts because the federal government seems somehow unable to appoint judges to the bench, which is causing delays, but there’s more to it than that, Mr. Speaker. We want to talk to the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions. We want to talk to the minister of family and children’s services, to the Minister of Housing—across government, to see what obstacles can we remove? How can we work better together? Are there provinces that are doing things better than we are doing? And how can we make changes that will provide victims of intimate partner violence real, real change so that they can move forward?

To reply? The parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health, the member for Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry.

What’s the plan?

My question is for the Minister of Energy. The inflation affordability concerns Ontarians are facing right now are a direct result of the federal carbon tax. They are paying higher taxes and higher costs for the necessities of life, like food, gas and housing, and it is only getting worse from here. Families need a break.

However, the carbon tax queen Bonnie Crombie and her Liberal caucus are supporting their federal buddies who want to keep punishing Ontarians. That’s unacceptable.

Speaker, can the minister please tell the House how our government is working for the people while the Liberals are punishing them with higher taxes?

Since the introduction of this regressive tax, the cost of people’s everyday essentials has reached a new high. Businesses are raising prices to keep up with costs, families are cutting back on groceries and seniors are worried about being able to afford heating fuel.

Contrary to what the Liberal members in this House believe, the carbon tax is not in the best interests of Ontarians.

People are looking to our government to keep costs low and deliver real energy solutions. Last week, we concluded the largest battery storage procurement in Canada’s history to meet growing electricity demand. Speaker, can the minister please explain why initiatives like this procurement deliver better results than a costly carbon tax?

To make sure that we understand, we’re talking about the town of Durham, not the region. Those good people are here today.

We’ve seen this all before with the closure of Minden hospital last June. This government starved rural hospitals and emergency rooms with chronic underfunding. They blamed the workers. They blamed the community. They blamed everything but themselves. After being ignored and dismissed by this government when the community of Minden asked for help, their local hospital officially closed their doors last June.

The good people of Durham are here today. They are living the same nightmare that Minden lived last year. Will the Premier assure the good people of Durham that their hospital will stay open?

Scraping the bottom of the barrel there.

Since this government won’t do anything for CHEO and their physician shortage, let’s talk about Grey county. Local residents are here today in the hope of finally getting some answers from this government. They are losing all of their in-patient beds at Durham hospital, meaning that patients can’t be kept overnight. Not only that, their emergency room is going to be permanently shut after 5 p.m.

We’ve been raising this with the government for years now. The community has experienced rolling closures in Chesley, in Kincardine, in Walkerton and Durham hospitals. For a month, their local councils have been asking the Minister of Health for a meeting—I mean, a call; frankly, any explanation for any of this. But what they got? Silence.

My question is to the Premier: Will the Premier do what the minister will not and commit to meeting with the people of Grey county today?

Health care workers across the province have not forgotten about Rae Days. I know the Leader of the Opposition really doesn’t like me to bring it up, but she was a staffer in the Rae government, as well as some of their other caucus members.

It does take time to reverse the poor Liberal policies. Unfortunately, the NDP cut the amount of residency seats by 10%. The Liberals cut 50 seats. We are going to continue making those investments that are needed to ensure that our health care system functions properly after 15 years of a Liberal-NDP coalition that put us into this mess in the first place.

The South Bruce Grey Health Centre is governed by a local board of directors to best serve their local community needs. When reviewing their community needs, they’ve decided to refocus the resources at Durham hospital to primary care and urgent care. This will result in expansion of care beds at Walkerton and Kincardine hospitals as Durham shifts to primary care and urgent care. With many patients in the Durham region community without a family physician, this focus will be imperative.

The South Bruce Grey Health Centre changes will have no impact on the level of care, while retaining the existing staff. These changes will ensure a stable and sustainable health care system that will better serve the local needs. The Ministry of Health, Ontario Health and South Bruce Grey Health Centre will continue to work together for longer-term solutions to health care in South Bruce Grey.

Under the leadership of Premier Ford, our government has made record investments into the health care system. Since 2018, we’ve increased the health care budget by over $18 billion, investing over $85 billion into the system this year alone.

Speaker, we will continue to ensure that we have the best publicly funded health care system all across Canada with our investments into our system.

Speaker, any tax hikes are misguided.

Look at what our government is doing. Yesterday, we welcomed a $1.6-billion investment from Asahi Kasei to build an EV separator plant in Port Colborne. We’ve now landed $43 billion in new EV investments in the last four years; that is more than any US state. These investments are creating tens of thousands of good-paying jobs right across our province. How? Because we’ve reduced taxes right across the province. We’ve lowered the cost of doing business by $8 billion each and every year.

Speaker, we’ve shown the Liberals the way: Lowering taxes is how you bring wealth to an economy.

Axe the tax.

We took the opposite approach. We have lowered taxes in Ontario. We have cut red tape. We have lowered electricity rates. That’s why 700,000 more men and women are working today and manufacturing employment is now at the highest level in 15 years.

The Liberal agenda of high taxes does not work.

Our message is very clear: Scrap the carbon tax today.

Minister of Education.

The supplementary question?

I’ll remind the members to make their comments through the Chair.

The next question.

Supplementary question?

Mr. Speaker, we took action to sign a better deal with the federal government. The members opposite urged this government to sign the first deal available that would have precluded 30% of the market—70,000 spaces.

The member opposite asks me why operators aren’t receiving support, and yet they wanted us to remove the ability of government to fund 30% of our operators, who are for-profit child care owners, often women that run these businesses, often one or two operations. So you’ve got to pick a lane. You can’t argue that we need more capacity and then single-handedly urge the government to deny 30% of families access to this program.

We are standing up for flexibility and affordability. We are delivering on our commitments, but the one challenge we face is the federal government has imposed a ceiling on growth because of an ideological adherence, the same one the NDP seems to champion today.

Stand up for families. Support choice. Every parent in Ontario deserves—

Interjections.

We’ve increased tens of thousands of spaces—31,000 spaces within our schools—and members opposite should make it aware to the families watching that you opposed the expansion of spaces and the reduction of fees. You actually would have made it worse. Wait-lists would have been longer because the opposition wants to impose blind adherence to ideology instead of standing up for every single parent in Ontario. And so the opposition should get on board with what every parent instinctively knows: Child care was too expensive under the Liberals, it’s finally more affordable under our Progressive Conservative government.

Interjections.

My question is to the Premier. Your government has failed to implement the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care program. Child care operators, stakeholders and advocacy groups have been raising red flags that your minister has not delivered the $10-a-day child care spaces that were promised. Ola, a child care provider, pulled out of the program, citing a broken funding model.

Everyone wants to know where the money is being spent. Your budget doesn’t even mention the words “child care.” Will the Premier commit to requesting the Auditor General provide a full report of government spending on the $10-a-day child care program?

Families, Speaker, are paying the price for this minister’s lack of action and his failure to implement the $10-a-day child care spaces. Wait-lists keep growing, and parents can’t access affordable child care.

Families have lost trust in this government’s ability to deliver affordable child care. This government won’t even publicly report on how many of the 41 child care spaces they created in 2019 are subsidized spaces—they won’t even report on that.

This government has not met with their own advisory group on the funding issue since last June. Families and child care providers want to know why this government continues to hide, and when will they finally come up with a funding formula that will work for kids?

My question to the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. The Liberals continue to tell Canadians that their carbon tax is the only way to fight climate change, but the people of Ontario know that paying more for gas and groceries is not fighting climate change. In fact, in my riding of Leeds–Grenville–Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes, all we have to do is look across the St. Lawrence River, south of the border, to our biggest trading partner, the United States—they don’t have a carbon tax, but yet they managed to have greater emission reductions than Canada.

My question to the minister is: Please explain why the Liberal approach to fighting climate change through the carbon tax is a misguided approach?

While Ontario’s economy, as you noted, Minister, has made significant progress since we took office, just imagine what we could do in Ontario if the Liberals scrapped the carbon tax.

Speaker, can the minister explain our approach to economic growth and how it’s so, so different from the Liberal approach?

My question is to the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery. Minister, auto theft is happening every day across this province. Car thieves are gaming the system and are able to get new VINs for stolen vehicles at ServiceOntario counters. This government has reportedly been getting advice from current and former law enforcement and insurance experts about how to prevent re-VINing. This is more than a loophole, it’s a highly lucrative scam that this government knows about but isn’t fixing.

So my question is, why is it so easy in Ontario to get stolen vehicles legitimized with a new VIN?

Provincial centres like ServiceOntario do not have a system that checks if VINs already exist in other jurisdictions.

In Ontario, someone can steal a car, register it, make quick cash and be good to go.

So my question is, what is this government doing to protect the VIN registry and Ontarians from car thieves?

Speaker, there is no reason people should live in fear of their cars being stolen or their homes being burglarized. That’s why our government is using all the tools available to immediately put an end to the increase in auto theft.

At our ministry, we have implemented many security measures with ServiceOntario. All employees at ServiceOntario centres go through a rigorous screening process and receive constant training to ensure that government services remain safe.

Under Premier Ford, this government takes matters of consumer protection very seriously. We will never stop taking action to protect Ontarians.

Interjections.

Again, I’ll remind the members to make their comments through the Chair.

To reply, the Solicitor General.

The Minister of Energy can reply.

I apologize to the member from Kingston and the Islands for making him wait. I recognize him for the next question.

Supplementary question?

Government House leader.

Interjection.

Sorry; I apologize to the government House leader.

In late 2021, COVID-19 cases skyrocketed in the Kingston area with the Omicron variant. An enterprising local doctor, Elaine Ma, ran a drive-through mass vaccination clinic. Community members, like my own daughter, volunteered to help. Thousands were quickly inoculated during a critical couple of days. That’s why I was shocked when I learned that OHIP asked Dr. Ma to pay back its $600,000 reimbursement. Why? OHIP said because shots were given in the St. Lawrence College parking lot, not in her office.

Mr. Speaker, this is a follow-up to a letter to the minister’s office that I sent several months ago: Does our government have the backs of doctors who think out of the box and take the initiative to protect us during health emergencies? Would the minister intervene and override OHIP’s action and offer a fair solution?

Dr. Ma followed the rules, the steps to qualify her mass clinic under the prescribed G, Q and H billing codes and OMA billing practices for mass clinics. She is being punished for no good reason.

The Minister of Health has the power to conduct post-payment review. Will she intervene today? Will she set a healthy precedent so that in our next public health emergency, doctors who take the initiative to protect us in good faith can count on support from the system?

Interjections.

Of course, we’ll look into that. I know, in my own riding, we had a drive-through vaccination clinic which worked very well.

The COVID pandemic really highlighted the failure of the previous Liberal government to do anything about health care. The reason we had some of the longest lockdowns in North America is because the Liberals left us with such a crumbling, decaying health care system.

And do you know who supported them every step of the way? It was the NDP. In 2011, the Liberals cut the health care budget when the federal government increased it by 6%. Do you know who supported them? The NDP. In 2012, the Liberals cut funding to small hospitals in rural areas across the province of Ontario. Do you know who supported them? The NDP. In 2013, the Liberals cut medical school admissions. Do you know who supported them? The NDP. On every—

Interjections.

But it’s really telling that the member for Ottawa South is yelling, because while he was here and he supported the previous Liberal government that year after year after year cut health care funding, supported by the NDP, this is a member who was an absolute failure when it came to delivering for his own community. Do you know who’s rebuilding CHEO, the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario? It is this government. While that member sat there and supported a government that built no long-term-care homes in his own community, it’s this government which is building more long-term-care homes in his own riding than they built province-wide.

My question is for the high-energy minister—sorry, the Minister of Energy.

The Liberal carbon tax continues to drive up the cost of living for all Ontarians. Families in my riding of Brampton North and across the province are paying more for everything, from fuelling their cars to feeding their families. What’s even worse is that there’s no end in sight for this tax. The federal Liberals are planning to nearly triple the carbon tax by 2030.

While the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, and her Liberal caucus are in favour of making life more expensive for families—they’ve never seen a tax they didn’t like—our government is fighting back against the Liberals’ unjust tax schemes.

Speaker, can the minister please explain how our government is standing up for Ontario families and putting more money back into their pockets?

I’ll note the Liberals don’t have any members in Brampton either. We’ve got Duncan here from Brampton North.

I know the Liberals support the carbon tax. I really hope that they’ll change their tune and finally call Justin Trudeau in Ottawa and ask him to scrap this ridiculous tax.

Speaker, Liberals can tout the carbon tax as a solution all they want, but they’re not fooling anyone. The carbon tax only punishes Ontarians by driving up the cost of daily necessities, making it harder for families to get by.

Our government knows that Ontarians deserve better. That’s why, under the leadership of Premier Ford, we have a plan to build our clean energy advantage.

Speaker, can the minister please explain how our government is securing a clean, reliable and affordable energy future for all Ontarians without a carbon tax?

Interjections.

Thanks to the member from Brampton. It’s great to get a question that is tough but fair from him this morning.

Unlike the NDP and the Liberal caucus and the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, we’re against a carbon tax in Ontario. The greens, the reds, the oranges—they’re in favour of a carbon tax.

As families are getting out on the road this summer, maybe the Liberals will be getting into their minivan and travel to southwestern Ontario to visit their members—oh, hold on, they don’t have any members in southwestern Ontario, so they won’t be going to visit their members. But it’s going to cost them a lot more to fuel up that minivan.

Families are fuelling up their minivans; it’s going to cost them more. Energy costs, gasoline costs, groceries—it’s all going up.

The Premier Ford team here in Ontario is making life more affordable for the people of Ontario—cutting taxes, cutting fees, cutting tolls, cutting the carbon tax.

We do have a plan, Powering Ontario’s Growth, and seeing the types of investment that the Minister of Economic Development and the Premier were at yesterday in the Niagara region—multi-billion dollar investments are coming back. It’s because we’re cutting the costs of doing business and making life more affordable for the people of Ontario.

While the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, is in full support of the federal carbon tax, we are not.

I know we’ve got some good folks here from rural Ontario who are going to the pumps every day. We’ve got some beef farmers here from Grey county as well, and the cost of them doing business is going up billions of dollars over time because of the increased carbon tax. It’s only going to continue to keep going up and up and up.

We’re making life more affordable. I know the member from Brampton really loves the One Fare program that’s been brought in for transit riders. It’s going to cut the cost by $1,600 a year. We’ve cut the gas tax, 10.7 cents a litre, making life more affordable. Cutting licence plate sticker fees, cutting taxes—

Interjection.