The Associate Minister of Small Business will come to order.

To reply, the government House leader and Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

Start the clock. The next question.

Interjections.

The Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.

Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development.

Ma question est pour la ministre de la Santé.

Mike, a proud steelworker, is a 78-year-old resident of Sault Ste. Marie. Mike has diabetes. He is a two-time cancer survivor. Last year, he underwent a heart procedure, so Mike needs frequent consultation with his doctor to manage his recovery and his new medications.

On Friday, Mike, his daughter, two grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and 10,000 more Sault Ste. Marie residents will lose their family doctor. What is the Minister of Health’s plan to help the good people of Sault Ste. Marie?

It doesn’t have to be that way, Speaker. The Group Health Centre has submitted solutions, alternatives, to this Minister of Health, and they did not even get a reply. Some 10,000 people in Sault Ste. Marie are losing access to primary care this Friday; no answer, no plan, no action, nothing from this government. How could that be, Speaker?

Interjections.

Oh, God.

I’d welcome a sit-down with that member with respect to the incident that he referenced.

I would also mention—he mentioned family leave. He would know that Ontario has launched extensive consultations. I just met with colorectal, with cancer groups on a protected leave, and it’s on our registry right now.

At each step of the way, this Premier, through multiple labour bundles, is putting forward progressive legislation that’s expanding protections under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, expanding protections under the Employment Standards Act, putting in place some tough fines for bad actors, and he’s doing it creating a competitive economy that’s attracted $40-plus billion in automotive investments alone; creating a world-class power grid that’s keeping costs down, unlike the reckless Green Energy Act of the previous government; building public transit—

Interjections.

The member will take his seat. Order.

Interjection.

The next question.

The Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.

Interjections.

Start the clock. The next question.

The Minister of Health.

Speaker, at every single opportunity they get, the Liberals have hiked taxes. Not only do they continue to hike the carbon tax, but now they plan to cancel the accelerated capital cost allowance. Now, Speaker, that’s the exact program that our government put in place to create 700,000 jobs since we were elected. The Liberals are taking that away from our businesses.

Their tax hikes chased 300,000 manufacturing jobs out of Ontario. If they need proof that lower taxes create jobs, just look at our track record: again, 700,000 jobs created since we were elected, 80,000 jobs this year alone.

Enough with the tax hikes. They don’t work. Lowering taxes is what works to create the jobs. Scrap the tax today.

My question is the to Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. I’m so proud that Ontario continues to be top of mind for businesses that want to invest and expand. However, I think we all agree that the federal carbon tax imposed on the hard-working people of Ontario and our businesses really threatens all of that great progress that we’ve done as a province.

It’s unbelievable the Liberals in this House continue to be silent. They continue to sit on their hands as their federal Liberal colleagues chase investment and jobs out of this province and out of our country. I’d love for the minister to explain how the Liberal carbon tax not only makes life more expensive for Ontarians and our businesses, but how it threatens the progress that you and Premier Ford have been able to make in our province for job creation.

We know that the members opposite are hearing the same things in their ridings that we’re hearing, yet they are ignoring their constituents’ calls to stand up and ask the federal government to scrap the tax. Their lack of concern and the rapid rise in costs just show how out of touch the provincial Liberals and their federal colleagues are.

We don’t believe as a government that lowering emissions by crushing businesses and individuals, making life more unaffordable, is the way to go. So, Minister, can you please elaborate on why it’s so important that the federal government scrap that tax?

Well, I want to thank the member for the question and the great job by the Minister of Economic Development and Trade. He’s travelling around the world, as he said, creating over 700,000 jobs. We have become now an economic powerhouse, not just in Canada, not just in North America, but around the world.

As we saw in the news there, now Bloomberg said in the headlines that Canada—which should really be Ontario—is now the number one destination for EV battery assembly, right here. We’ve seen over $43 billion of investment and over $16 billion in the tech sector. We have now overtaken Silicon Valley, the San Francisco Bay area, with the most employed in the tech sector.

We’ve seen over $3 billion in life sciences and more coming every single day. Last year, Ontario manufacturers created more manufacturing jobs here in Ontario than all 50 US states combined. We’ve seen revenues go from $150 billion, from a bankrupt province before we took over, to $214 billion, a gain of $64 billion, by reducing—

As soon as we were notified by Group Health Centre that they were going to be separating themselves from some of their patients, we energized, we motivated and we got the member from Sault Ste. Marie, who has been working non-stop on this issue—he’s actually issuing some very good news for Mike and others in the community today. We are increasing our investments in Sault Ste. Marie.

We’ve been able to do this because we have set aside and invested in primary care and multidisciplinary teams across Ontario: 78 in total, two in Sault Ste. Marie and more good news coming today from the member from Sault Ste. Marie.

Are we going to take the first proposal that comes forward? No. We’re going to assess. We’re going to review and look at them, and make sure that they are patient-focused. The announcement that the member from Sault Ste. Marie is making today is exactly that.

La semaine dernière, j’ai rencontré un avocat francophone à mon bureau de Vanier qui s’est déplacé de Glengarry–Prescott–Russell pour me faire part de multiples exemples décrivant de sérieux manques de services en français à la Commission de la location immobilière—je parle du Landlord and Tenant Board—des histoires d’Ontariens qui ne parlent que le français, mais qui voient leur dossier confié à un adjudicateur unilingue, anglophone, ou des francophones qui sont accusés de créer des délais simplement parce qu’ils demandent des services en français.

La réalité sur le terrain, c’est que chaque jour, la commission viole les droits linguistiques des Franco-Ontariens. Le fait d’être francophone ne devrait pas mettre en péril leur droit à l’accès à la justice.

Donc, ma question pour le procureur général : que fait ce gouvernement pour assurer que dans les 26 zones désignées par la Loi sur les services en français les francophones puissent réaliser leur droit à une audience en français?

Let me begin: I want to congratulate our Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing for negotiating a great deal for Ontario. The National Housing Strategy: We’ve got our rightful $357 million that are going to help the most vulnerable in this province. So well done, sir.

Our government is committing to getting more homes built faster. We’ve seen more homes built in the last three years than we have since the 1980s. We’ve seen more purpose-built rentals started than in years—actually a record.

But Speaker, as a federal MP, Bonnie Crombie supported the carbon tax. I know that’s a surprising fact, but it’s true. As a mayor, she said no to housing. She had the worst housing record, one of the worst in the province of Ontario.

So I wonder, Speaker, are the Liberals going to continue to raise taxes? Are they going to continue to support taxes, or are they going to support us by helping get needed infrastructure on the ground and getting homes built faster?

When I think of the budget in 2024, Speaker, I really call it an infrastructure budget. When you think of it, we added a billion dollars in housing-enabling infrastructure. We quadrupled, thanks to the Minister of Infrastructure, the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund. We added $1.2 billion, as you know, to the Building Faster Fund. That’s over $3 billion, Speaker, that we’ve invested in our communities, with our municipalities, to get shovels in the ground faster.

What is driving us crazy is this carbon tax. Infrastructure is key to getting homes built, and the cost of the carbon tax is punitive, especially in our rural communities. Rural communities that—it takes longer to get infrastructure there. Transportation costs become punitive.

So, Speaker, let’s use the line—it rings true—scrap the tax.

We want school boards and TDSB to do their job. The member opposite—

Interjections.

Interjection.

Stand up to TDSB and demand better for your students.

Interjections.

My question is to the Minister of Education. Humberside Collegiate in my riding is in desperate need of major repairs. When it rains, the roof leaks, the basement gets flooded, entire sections of the building must be closed off. A classroom ceiling has caved in. These are the conditions that students and teachers are learning and teaching in. It’s also a serious health and safety issue.

Minister, you know the problem very well. You have underfunded school repairs for years. Now, we’ve reached rock bottom. It doesn’t get any worse than this when it comes to building maintenance.

If the images and videos I’ve shared don’t lead the minister to fix the schools, I don’t know what will.

I want the minister to fix the schools. Are you going to fix it?

Interjections.

What I want the minister to do is take the time, go to the school and fix it. You are the Minister of Education; the buck stops with you. Fix it.

My question is for the Associate Minister of Housing. Last month, the federal government increased the carbon tax by a staggering 23%. It is the cruellest April Fool’s joke the province has ever seen.

Speaker, the federal Liberals, with the full support of their provincial counterparts, want to triple this tax by 2030. It’s not right, Speaker. This disastrous carbon tax is burdening Ontarians and adding more obstacles in housing construction, leaving more young families waiting to achieve their dream of home ownership.

The people of this province cannot afford the carbon tax and that’s why we are calling for its complete removal. Speaker, can the associate minister explain how the carbon tax is driving up the cost of building new homes?

The carbon tax is impacting each and every Ontarian who is looking to buy a home. It not only drives up the cost for home builders, but it is making it more expensive to build the critical infrastructure that each community needs to meet its growing housing demands. If we want to be able to build more homes and make housing more affordable for Ontario families, we need the federal government to remove the carbon tax.

Speaker, can the minister please explain how the carbon tax is also raising the costs of building housing-enabling infrastructure?

I’m very pleased, in fact, to stand alongside the minister responsible for francophone affairs. We’ve expanded French services throughout Ontario not only for interpretation for individuals, free of charge; for filing documents at any court counter across the province. We do actively recruit all the time for adjudicators who are qualified, who are bilingual. We look for them vigorously.

Just yesterday, I sat down with the Windsor-Essex Bilingual Legal Clinic to hear how things are going for them in front of the Social Benefits Tribunal, the LTB and the other tribunals. So Mr. Speaker, not only are we on the job, we’re getting the job done.

Mr. Speaker, we actively seek out bilingual individuals when it comes to justices of peace as well, because that’s a very important component of our system. But I know, the member opposite—we share the same goal, which is robust services for the people of Ontario. So I’m always open to ideas or to know where the gaps may be, and I look forward to continuing to work with you to solve some of those challenges.

Supplementary question.

Minister of Education.

Interjections.

Start the clock.

Supplementary question?

La Loi sur les services en français oblige le gouvernement à offrir de façon proactive des services juridiques en français. La loi est claire : la qualité des services gouvernementaux doit être la même en français qu’en anglais.

Cependant, les expériences des francophones démontrent que dans nos cours de justice et nos tribunaux administratifs ce n’est pas le cas. Les francophones sont trop souvent traités comme des inconvénients et des boulets, et forcés de naviguer des processus en anglais. Ils sont obligés de remplir des formulaires en anglais, d’écouter des réponses à leurs questions en anglais ou d’attendre très longtemps avant que du personnel francophone soit disponible pour les aider.

Il est clair qu’il existe un manque cruel de juges et de personnel bilingue dans nos cours et tribunaux administratifs. Donc, au lieu de dépenser plus d’un milliard de dollars pour prioriser l’accès à l’alcool aux Ontariens, ce gouvernement va-t-il investir les fonds nécessaires pour embaucher plus de juges et de personnel francophones dans nos tribunaux pour que les Franco-Ontariens puissent accéder aux services en français auxquels ils ont droit?

One more time, I’ll remind the members of the House to make their comments through the Chair.

Interjections.

The Minister of Education may reply.

Interjections.

Interjections.

Start the clock. The member for Haldimand–Norfolk, next question.

My question is to the Premier. There are 2.3 million Ontarians currently without a family doctor, and no admission from this government that this province is headed into a perfect storm.

On Monday, the health minister, in response to a question, suggested the member sit down with hospital CEOs to learn the truth. I’ve sat down with hospital CEOs and they are clear that health care in Ontario has never looked as grim as it does today.

Last week, I was contacted by a mayor, represented by a government member, who said that in the near future, one third of the population this mayor represents will be without primary care. “We are desperate now,” this mayor told me, and yet the minister is on record as saying recruitment and retention of doctors in Ontario is not a major concern.

Speaker, through you to the Premier: If 2.3 million Ontarians without a doctor or a third of a town’s population without a doctor is not a major concern, then what constitutes a major concern with respect to health care in this province?

I was on a call recently, and there were government members also on that same call, where a mayor expressed frustration that this government expects him to welcome more and more people through new builds, and yet his local ER is constantly shuttered.

If everything is fine, why are 2.3 million Ontarians without a doctor? Are the hospital CEOs not telling the truth? Are the mayors I speak to being dramatic? What about constituents lining up for hours at walk-in clinics or at ERs? Are they faking it? And why are there thousands of Ontarians set to converge on Queen’s Park tomorrow for a health care rally?

Ontarians need a doctor, not rhetoric. Speaker, again through you to the Premier, who is telling the truth: this government, or the very people who rely on an ailing system each and every day?

I thank the member for her interest in northwestern Ontario. Yesterday I shared with colleagues our annual ritual where myself, my sweet precious Abigail Mae and darling Poppy Kate, and their friends Whisper and Adele joined us in our leap into Lake of the Woods, at 48 degrees.

Interjection: Wow.

Mr. Speaker, the message is clear from those tourism operators: The federal government needs to scrap the tax, and our provincial counterparts need to stand with us in keeping costs low so that these folks can make an honest living.