It’s my pleasure to welcome my constituents Margaret and Richard Hensen from Oakville North–Burlington. They’re the parents of Mark Hensen, who works with our Premier’s office.

I want to welcome to the House today a good friend, Nikos Alexiou from UNICEF. Thank you for being here in your House.

Mr. Speaker, we have, from the great town of Kingsville, Mayor Dennis Rogers and CAO John Norton.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Speaker, I was joking.

Speaker, if you seek it, you will find unanimous consent for the House to observe a moment of silence in remembrance of Nobel laureate, master of the contemporary short story and Ontarian, Alice Munro, who was the 13th woman to receive the Nobel Prize in literature, winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award, winner of the Trillium Book Award, winner of the Man Booker International Prize for lifetime achievement, and recipient of many other honours and awards, who sadly passed away on Monday, May 13, 2024, in Port Hope, Ontario.

I’m pleased to introduce, here in the gallery today, guests from the St. Thomas Elgin Food Bank: Karen McDade and Sarah Coleman. Welcome to Queen’s Park. We’re delighted to have you as guests today.

Interjections.

I heard a no.

Interjections.

Members will please rise.

The House observed a moment’s silence.

It is now time for oral questions.

It’s my pleasure to introduce Doreen Armstrong-Ross, CEO of Dryden Regional Health Care Centre, and Andrew Williams, CEO of Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance, also from the great riding of Perth–Wellington.

I would like to introduce the members of the Canada Chinese Mazu Community Centre tour team, who are sitting up there in the public gallery. They are Ye Feng, Li Rue-Jia, Huang Shengjia, Xie Xiumin, Lin Yang Zhong, Ma Haohua, Cai Limei, Li Antony Chang and Cheung Chiu Lie Lan.

As I said yesterday, Mr. Speaker, I’m sorry that the Leader of the Opposition and her party are characterizing it that way.

What we did yesterday was in recognition, really, of the important step that this Parliament took as a whole with respect to the motion on intimate partner violence and the standing up of the justice committee, led by a former crown prosecutor, the member for Kitchener–Hespeler, to investigate how we can ensure that victims and survivors of intimate partner violence are better treated not only in the justice system, but by those who provide services for victims and survivors.

It seemed reasonable to me that we expedite passage of that bill into the committee so that it can also form part of the work that is being done by the standing committee on justice—very, very important work that is being done by that committee—so that it can report back to this Parliament, and as a whole, we can consider the options.

The leader of the opposition is quite correct; intimate partner violence and what we’re challenged with in that bill are two separate things but are often handled in very much the same way, not only in our court system, but by those who provide services for victims, survivors and their families.

We’ve heard from countless numbers of individuals that, often, services are fragmented.

We look at the work that was done by the member from Haliburton and the committee with respect to human trafficking.

We lead the world in how we handle and tackle human trafficking issues. I think this Parliament can do the same when it comes to these issues. We’re ready to do that work.

We have a lot of things that we do in this province very, very well. But what we have heard from victims, from their families, from survivors is that often those services don’t work well together. How can we make that change happen better?

I take it at full faith that the members opposite are going to work co-operatively with members from all sides of this House to move forward and do some very, very important work, similar to the work that we did, led by the member for Haliburton, with respect to human trafficking.

We want the same thing. To suggest that anybody is not hearing is just absolutely wrong.

Let’s take the opportunity to do something very special, to work across party lines and get this right.

We do have a plan. Since 2018, we’ve registered 12,500 new physicians in Ontario, including an almost 10% increase in family doctors. But we do know there’s more to be done. Our plan is reversing the old Liberal policies that were really short-sighted—they were supported by the NDP—that eliminated 50 medical residency school positions; that is hundreds of less doctors practising today in Ontario.

On top of that, we can go back to the Rae Days. The Leader of the Opposition—you were a staffer there. I know you don’t like the facts, but you were a staffer, part of the Rae Days, and you—

Interjections.

We’re working closely with MPP Romano on our expansion of primary care. As part of Ontario’s largest expansion of primary care, we’ve invested $1.1 million into two new teams in Sault Ste. Marie.

My question is back to the Premier.

It is unacceptable that they will stand here and say to the women who worked on Lydia’s Law, the women who travelled to Queen’s Park yesterday, and to Lydia herself, that it wasn’t their turn to speak.

The government says they need to know more before they can address the crisis in the courts. Well, yesterday they had a chance to learn, but they refused to listen.

Survivors of sexual violence are being told to wait until the government gives them permission to come to committee. They feel betrayed. Lydia feels betrayed.

Premier, how can the intimate partner violence study succeed when you have lost the trust of this community in this province of Ontario?

Interjections.

Members will please take their seats.

Government House leader.

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

The government House leader may respond.

I will continue to ask members to make their comments through the Chair.

Government House leader to respond.

Member for Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry and parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health.

Member for Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry, please conclude your answer.

The supplementary question.

Interjection.

Interjection.

Interjections.

I need a note, too, to keep track of who has got the floor. I hope no one objects to that.

Start the clock.

Leader of the Opposition.

My question is for the Premier.

Survivors of sexual violence travelled from all across this province to hear this House discuss the crisis in our justice system yesterday, and their government betrayed them. They didn’t just kill the debate on an important bill; they wouldn’t even allow a discussion about the thousands of sexual assault cases that are being dismissed right now in our broken court system.

Will the Premier stand in his place and explain to survivors of sexual assault why they are not only losing their day in court, but also losing their day in this Legislature?

Interjections.

We are asking, actually, about accountability, and we are asking about clearing the backlog for sexual assault cases. Our courts are so overwhelmed that in one year alone, over 1,300 survivors had their cases dismissed, thrown out. There is no justice in that. And you don’t need to study it. It is a fact.

But once again, the government is playing procedural games on a very important issue.

So I want to ask the Premier—you are in government. You have the power. How about you be decisive for once and do the right thing?

Interjections.

Speaker, 10,000 patients are going to lose their primary care in Sault Ste. Marie by the end of this month, in just a couple of weeks, including retired steelworkers. Do you know why that matters? It’s because those retirees founded the Group Health Centre, and they took a pay cut; they took their hard-earned dollars to build themselves a world-class, world-renowned clinic in their hometown. In exchange, they were promised health care at that clinic for the rest of their lives. But now that’s being taken away, and this government has no plan to help them.

I’m going to ask the Premier: Is he going to make sure that his health minister finally acts here, or is the loss of primary care in the Soo not a major concern either?

Interjections.

Interjections.

I just want them to answer the question. They know perfectly well that they’re not addressing the current issue.

Access to primary care shouldn’t depend on where you live.

If these patients in Sault Ste. Marie lose access to their primary care doctor, do you know where they’re going to end up? They’re going to end up in emergency rooms that are already overcrowded. And there’s only one emergency room in the Soo. The next closest one is Sudbury. That’s four hours away.

So what is this government’s plan to address the urgent crisis in primary care in Sault Ste. Marie before the end of the month?

The final supplementary.

The member for Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry.

The Solicitor General.

The House will come to order. The member for Perth–Wellington has the floor. He’s allowed to ask a question.

Member for Perth–Wellington.

Any death is too many. We are absolutely committed to making sure that Ontario’s correctional system is safe for everyone.

Years ago, under the previous government’s watch, they brought our correctional system and our public safety system to its knees.

That’s why this government, under Premier Ford, has made a tremendous investment to make sure that our correctional systems are safe. We’ve invested over a half a billion dollars on infrastructure improvement. We’ve hired over a thousand new correctional officers. We have native inmate liaison officers, NILOs, and chaplains there.

Mr. Speaker, we have done a lot in a short period of time, and we will continue to do so each and every day.

Mr. Speaker, that’s exactly why, in the last years since Premier Ford has been our Premier, we have taken public safety very seriously—and that includes the investments in our correctional facilities, the half-a-billion-dollar infrastructure improvements, the suicide prevention and intervention training to make sure that our correctional officers understand things that they may not have understood 20 years ago.

It’s important that everyone knows we will make the investments required to keep our Ontario safe.

I want to thank the member from Perth–Wellington for a very important question.

I can’t believe the response from the opposition parties in the Legislature today when everybody in our province and across the country knows that the carbon tax is driving up the cost of living. It has been confirmed by the Bank of Canada, C.D. Howe and so many different institutes, and it is having an effect on people’s ability to afford groceries, gas and home heating.

This federal carbon tax, supported by the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, is going to—well, it’s the impact today. It’s going to be the legacy of the federal government, and ultimately it’s going to be the downfall of the federal government, because not only is it causing a crisis now in communities across our province and our country; it’s going to create an even further impact next year on April 1, when the carbon tax goes up again.

We have a plan here in Ontario. It’s working, and it doesn’t include a carbon tax.

My question is for the Minister of Energy.

Speaker, last year’s Feed Ontario report saw a 38% increase in food bank usage in Ontario, with over 800,000 Ontarians having to access a food bank. This is the single largest increase ever recorded. Sadly, Ontarians are being forced to visit food banks because the regressive and harmful carbon tax is driving up the cost of food.

Interjections.

Interjections.

The independent Liberal members in this place and the federal Liberal government need to understand that if you tax our farm families who grow the food and the truckers who ship the food, you end up taxing the Ontario families who buy the food.

This regressive tax is a disgrace, and it must be scrapped.

Can the minister please explain how the Liberal carbon tax is making life harder and more expensive for hard-working Ontarians?

My question is to the Premier.

In 2016, Soleiman Faqiri suffered from schizoaffective disorder. He was temporarily housed in a correctional facility. He was denied mental health resources. Pleas from his family were ignored even though he was clearly in crisis. Soleiman Faqiri died in jail 11 days later. He was restrained with his hands behind his back. He was restrained on his ankles. He was restrained in many other places, pepper-sprayed, and his face was covered with a spit hood.

His death was deemed a homicide by Ontario’s coroners in an inquest that put forward 57 recommendations directly to this government. The first recommendation called on the government to recognize that correctional facilities are not an appropriate place for people experiencing a mental health crisis. The government was expected to respond within 60 days; it has now been six months.

Yesterday, because of government inaction, I tabled the Justice for Soli Act. I and the Faqiri family, who are here today, call on this government to support the act. And they want to know, how many more people have to die in jails because they are living with a mental health crisis, before they act?

Interjections.

According to the coroner’s report, at the time of death, Soleiman Faqiri had over 50 bruises on his body, despite the fact that he was in segregation during his entire time in jail. There were over 60 policy breaches leading up to Soleiman’s homicide while he was in government custody.

The family here is asking for an apology, recognition of their pain and suffering.

Yes or no, Premier, will you give the Faqiri family the apology they deserve for Soleiman’s tragic and preventable death?

Speaker, the fact is, this clinic is closing its doors to 10,000 people by the end of this month—10,000 more people in the Soo without health care, and this government has no plan.

Some 2.4 million Ontarians have no primary care right now, but for this government, for their health minister, that’s not a major concern.

We’re 350 physicians short in northern Ontario, including more than 200 family doctors. Many, many more—half of the physicians working in northern Ontario—are expected to retire in the next five years, and this government has no plan.

So I want to ask the Premier to stand in his place for once, stop making excuses, do something decisive and treat this issue like the crisis that it surely, surely is.

Interjections.