I’d like to welcome a good friend and my political assistant from Ottawa who is joining us here in Toronto today: Dave Williams.

Last year, to help Ontarians through the winter, Ontario Liberals proposed removing the HST from home heating. This Conservative government said no.

This spring, Ontario Liberals have proposed a $1,000 tax credit for parents who put their children in extracurricular activities and sports.

And just this week, Ontario Liberals have proposed a massive tax cut for small businesses that will save them up to $18,000 a year.

What have we seen from the government? The Conservative gravy train getting longer and longer—bigger budgets for the Premier’s office; a sunshine list of six-figure salaries that eclipses all others in history; sole-sourced contracts and special access to greenbelt lands for their friends, donors and insiders. While Ontario Liberals propose concrete measures to help families with the affordability crisis, this Conservative government is focused on adding passengers to their gravy train.

When will this government vote for common-sense Liberal tax cuts and start putting Ontario families first, over their friends, their donors and their insiders?

When campaigning for office, the Premier promised a 20% tax cut for the middle class—six years later, nothing.

The Premier campaigned on reining in spending and cutting the deficit. Six years later, his government is breaking all records for spending, and the province’s debt has increased by $90 billion.

The Premier famously promised buck-a-beer, and while Ontarians prepare for the May Two-Four weekend, they know that a two-four in Ontario has never been more expensive.

While the Premier has broken all of his promises to the middle class, he has done his best for his friends, his donors and his insiders. The passengers on the Premier’s gravy train are treated to first-class patronage, sole-sourced government contracts, greenbelt giveaways and special access, all leading to an RCMP investigation.

Why does this government continue to put the interests of highly paid insiders, lobbyists, friends and donors over the interests of Ontario families?

Good afternoon, colleagues. Promoting Leisure Activities for Youth Act, 2024, PLAY: It’s very simple. We all remember the joys of playing growing up. Over time, we’ve learned more and more about the physical, mental health and academic benefits of play. For our kids, it can be as easy as running around outside or picking up a ball and bouncing it with their friends. But participating in sports and extracurricular activities as a child can help set you up for a healthier lifestyle as we age. And while it is sometimes harder for us old guys to play, it remains a critically important life skill and health habit, one that is much easier if it’s developed at an earlier age.

As a dad, one of my greatest joys is seeing the important life lessons my son takes away from his participation in sport: important lessons about fitness, about teamwork, leadership and commitment, the ability to persevere through difficult moments, to remember that it’s never over until it’s over.

In fact, Madam Speaker, one of the important benefits of sports was recently brought to my attention, and I think it is particularly important and poignant given what’s happened in the Legislature this week: 94% of women in the C-suite played sports, including 52% of them playing high-intensity university sports. Three quarters of women in leadership surveyed said that a background in sport can help accelerate their careers.

En tant que père, l’une de mes plus grandes joies est de voir les leçons de vie importantes sur la condition physique, le travail d’équipe, le leadership et l’engagement que mon fils apprend grâce à sa participation aux sports.

During the pandemic, too many of our kids were forced to put the ball down. They were forced to stop playing. Recess was nonexistent; organized sports were cancelled or seriously watered down. Many kids were stuck indoors, and their physical and mental health suffered.

Coming out of the pandemic, families are facing an affordability crisis not experienced in a generation. With higher grocery prices, higher mortgage payments, higher energy costs, families are tightening their belts. And while we could debate until the cows come home the cause of the affordability crisis, one thing is for certain: It’s impacting our kids, and it’s making it harder for families to afford many of the extras. Families of all shapes and sizes, of all income levels, are looking for ways to save. For some, this means cutting out the little extras. For too many, it means cutting out essentials. But we must do everything that we can to ensure that our kids’ physical and mental health doesn’t suffer as a result.

Fee inflation is pushing too many kids out of sports. Too many families can no longer afford to participate in organized sports and extracurricular activities.

Nous devons faire tout ce qui est en notre pouvoir pour que la santé physique et mentale de nos enfants n’en souffre pas. Trop de familles n’ont pas les moyens d’inscrire leurs enfants à des activités sportives et extrascolaires organisées.

In Ontario, the richest province in the country, one in four kids from middle-class families don’t participate in any organized activity or sport—one in four. That number gets worse as income levels go down. Think about it: One in four middle-class kids don’t participate in any organized activity or sport. What could be more middle class than waking up Saturday morning, getting the kids to the rink with a hockey bag in one hand and your Timmy’s in the other, or heading to the field on Friday night to see the human cluster of kids surrounding a soccer ball as it criss-crosses the field? That, for many, is the Ontario dream, and one in four middle-class kids can’t participate. With skyrocketing fees, too many families can’t afford to keep their kids playing.

Moreover, in a recent report by ParticipACTION, only 39% of children and youth ages five to 17 in Canada met the recommendation of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity of physical activity every day—39%. We need to get more of our kids playing. Making it easier for mom and dad’s pocketbook is a great place to start. Giving parents some financial relief, making it financially more viable to put their kids or to keep their kids in sports and extracurricular activities can make a real difference in their lives. It will make our kids healthier. Healthier kids mean healthier adults; healthier adults mean reduced burden on our health care system.

We know the strains that our health care system is facing at the moment. We have 2.2 million Ontarians without a family doctor. That number is going to double in the next three years. We have emergency rooms that are closing, sometimes for a couple of hours, sometimes for a couple of days, sometimes for a couple of weekends, sometimes, we fear, maybe permanently. Everything we can do to create a healthier population we should be doing.

We need to start to view children’s sports and physical activity as a critical and integrated part of our health care system, because if we can be healthy and stay healthy, we can stay out of the doctor’s offices and we can stay out of the hospital.

Nous proposons de permettre aux parents de choisir plus facilement de faire participer leurs enfants à des activités de loisir. Nous voulons que le choix soit un peu plus facile. Si elle est adoptée, la loi sur la promotion des activités de loisir pour les jeunes créera un crédit d’impôt non remboursable de 1 000 $ pour les activités extrascolaires pour les enfants.

What does this bill do? This bill proposes to make it a little bit easier for parents to choose to keep their kids in leisure activities. We want the choice to play to be a little bit easier. If passed tonight—and I hope the government will join us in voting for this—the promoting leisure activities for youth act would create a $1,000 non-refundable tax credit for children’s extracurricular activities. We want this to be as inclusive as possible. These activities would range from anything from hockey and football to drama and art. Our goal—and as I mentioned, it’s a goal that we hope the government will join us in—is to help families to keep their kids playing.

Over the last number of months, Ontario Liberals have proposed an array of affordability measures to help families. Before Christmas last year, we proposed removing the HST from home heating. That proposal for a common-sense tax break was rejected by the government.

We are debating here tonight a proposal to create a $1,000 tax credit for families to keep their kids physically fit and engaged in extracurricular activities. We hope the government will join us in that.

Earlier this week, we proposed a massive tax cut to small businesses, a small business tax cut that could save those businesses up to $18,000 a year—over $1,000 a month, Madam Speaker, to help small businesses, which are the heart of our economy, to continue to invest in their communities, to continue to invest in human resources and skills development in our communities across the province, to ensure that we have that workforce that we need to ensure that those services are being provided in our communities, and to ensure that the economic benefits are achieved from all of their hard work and their creativity as entrepreneurs.

Ontario Liberals are proposing common-sense tax measures to help Ontarians during these difficult economic times, and we hope that the government will join us in that common sense approach. Cost, Madam Speaker, should not be the barrier to the academic, the mental health, the physical health and the social benefits that extracurricular activities provide.

I’d like to thank my colleagues from Humber River–Black Creek, from Don Valley West and from Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas for their remarks this evening.

I think it’s clear that the academic, the mental health and the physical health benefits of playing sports, of participating in extracurricular activities, are clear. The opportunities to improve academic results and test scores as a result of kids being more active after school, whether that’s in sports or other extracurricular activities, is clear. The health benefits of kids who play sports, who become adults who play sports and stay active, should be abundantly clear. When we’re trying to deal with a health crisis, when we’re trying to deal with a crisis in our schools, when we’re trying to ensure that we have the workforce that we need for the future, everything that we can do to enhance academic success, everything that we can do to enhance health outcomes and health benefits, should be a no-brainer.

The member from Oakville criticized the bill because not everyone will benefit, or it won’t be exactly $1,000. Well, if the litmus test to legislation in this place was that it was perfect, nothing would ever pass. I would like to propose a refundable tax credit. The rules of Parliament don’t allow me to do that. I would prefer to have the government create a fund to directly help parents pay for sports registration so you can get those families that can’t afford to pay it on the front end into sports. But I’m not allowed to do that, Madam Speaker.

I would encourage the government to consider those kinds of options for their budget next year. And if they actually had real measures in next year’s budget that would provide real relief for middle-class families, that would provide opportunities for families of all income levels to put their kids in more sports, then maybe they would get my support.

But tonight, I’m asking for their support to help some families keep more of their kids and put more of their—

Interjections.