I recognize the parliamentary assistant to health.

Welcome back.

The House recessed from 1140 to 1300.

In St. Catharines, Shannon Horner’s mother fell ill in Jamaica and couldn’t come home due to claims of no available beds in Ontario. Communication failures between the ministry and the insurance companies caused this. We know that there were actual beds available at the time. I wrote a letter and was assured that it was being handled. However, I have yet to see any action.

The health care system is in crisis right now.

How are you going to explain to the people stuck in other countries why they cannot get home for care? And will you work with me and update on the steps your ministry has taken to make sure it will never, ever happen again?

This happened twice in one week in Ontario, and dozens of times over the years.

It is heartbreaking that St. Catharines lost an amazing community member and family pillar.

It is time for action from this government. The minister called the family, but there has been no follow-up to the family. The president of Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada asked for changes. However, again, there has been no follow-up.

Please, follow up.

My community of seniors, travellers and snowbirds need assurance that their health care system will be there for them when they need it the most.

Speaker, when will we see real, compassionate action—and prioritize action with the experts to fix these issues?

CritiCall Ontario is the organization that is prepared to be able to handle people who get injured while abroad. There was a miscommunication there, and that member did come home.

Speaker, under a decade under the Liberals, supported by the NDP, they underfunded the health care system, which put us in this situation. They closed hospitals, closed hospital beds. They fired nurses. And most importantly, they cut medical school residency spots, which leaves us with hundreds and hundreds of less doctors performing services in the province of Ontario.

Speaker, our government inherited a health care system under severe pressure due to the actions of the previous Liberal government, supported by the NDP.

Under the leadership of Premier Ford, our government has made record investments in health care, including a $3.1-billion investment into a new hospital in Niagara, which that member voted against.

The Liberals, in 2015, removed those 50 medical residency seats. That is now hundreds of less doctors in our system today.

Speaker, since 2018, over 80,000 new nurses have registered to practise in Ontario—including 12,500 new doctors who have registered in Ontario. Over 2,400 new doctors were ready to practise last year alone, including 1,000 internationally trained doctors—

Interjections.

We’re investing over $740 million to address the immediate staffing needs, supporting the expansion of over 3,000 new nursing seats in Ontario colleges and universities.

My question is for the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery.

The Liberal carbon tax is making life unnecessarily more difficult for people throughout the province. Due to the increased costs of goods and services, more Ontarians are struggling to afford basic essentials and make ends meet. Behind this record inflation and rising carbon tax, people are facing real harsh realities.

It’s time for the federal government to finally listen to Ontarians and stop piling on even more financial burdens. They must scrap the tax now.

Speaker, can the minister please explain how the Liberal carbon tax is impacting consumer confidence in Ontario?

I’m glad to see that, unlike the Liberals and the NDP, our government is actually listening to the concerns of the people who elected us.

Speaker, Ontario has had enough of the Liberal carbon tax. After last month’s carbon tax hike, commuters are being forced to pay more at the gas pumps. That’s unfair to the residents in northern, rural and remote communities—and Thornhill—who rely heavily on vehicles for their work and to run their daily errands. The federal Liberals and their provincial buddies need to start respecting Ontarians and get rid of this unnecessary tax.

Can the minister please elaborate on how the Liberal carbon tax overlooks the varied needs and challenges experienced in communities across Ontario?

I thank the member for Thornhill for her excellent advocacy for her community and that very thoughtful question.

Yes, the Liberal carbon tax is a major burden on families and households and our elderly and our young people, and on small businesses, the engine of the economy.

We must do all that we can, and we are doing, as a provincial government, all that we can to decrease the cost of living. My ministry has introduced the Better for Consumers, Better for Businesses Act, which ensures that price gouging will be recognized for what it is and declared unconscionable conduct. We have cut the gas tax. We have eliminated tolls on the 412 and 418 in Durham. We have banned licence renewal fees. So we’re doing all we can.

We ask the federal Liberal government—and if the NDP supported us on consumer protection, call your federal cousins, tell them to defeat the Liberal government in Ottawa—

When we talk about communities and how communities experience it, I can talk about my riding of Durham, which, as I have said many times, is a microcosm of the great province of Ontario. We have rural communities and farms in the northern part of Durham. We have suburban communities in Bowmanville, north Oshawa and Courtice and Newcastle. All of my fellow residents and citizens communicate with me regularly about, for example, the increased transportation, energy and operational expenses for our farmers, and the burden upon those who own homes or rent homes in terms of the energy cost impact.

As I said, we’re doing all that we can for our fellow citizens and residents to reduce the cost of living, but it’s time for the tone-deaf Liberals and NDP in Ottawa to pay attention to our citizens and scrap this ruinous, regressive carbon tax.

As the affordable housing crisis worsens, more and more Ontarians are falling into homelessness. The approach so far has failed. We need a coordinated, resourced provincial strategy to tackle the homelessness crisis.

My bill requires the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing to establish a homelessness task force to support the government of Ontario in creating and maintaining a provincial homelessness strategy. In a province as rich as ours, no one should be unhoused.

I beg to inform the House that today the Clerk received the report on intended appointments dated May 30, 2024, of the Standing Committee on Government Agencies. Pursuant to standing order 110(f)(9), the report is deemed to be adopted by the House.

Report deemed adopted.

Ms. Karpoche moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 204, An Act to establish the Homelessness Task Force / Projet de loi 204, Loi visant à créer un groupe de travail de lutte contre l’itinérance.

First reading agreed to.

I just want to join my colleagues earlier who welcomed the guests who are on the front lawn: 6,000 advocates for public health care.

I know my friend here from St. Catharines has been an advocate for it, as have many people in this House, but in the community, what I’m being told is that the direct cost of unplanned pregnancy between people aged 15 to 29 is $381 million and that what we need to do as a province and as a country is give people more control over their reproductive health and that universal access to contraception is a key way to do it.

I note that the federal government has made some inroads thanks to the federal NDP and the hard work of Jagmeet Singh and that team to move in this direction, but I encourage the House to listen to the people who have signed this petition, particularly the Canadian Federation of Medical Students, who are doctors in training, asking us to move on universal contraception for everyone in the province of Ontario right away.

Resuming the debate adjourned on May 29, 2024, on the motion for third reading of the following bill:

Bill 188, An Act to amend the Child, Youth and Family Services Act, 2017 and various other Acts / Projet de loi 188, Loi modifiant la Loi de 2017 sur les services à l’enfance, à la jeunesse et à la famille et diverses autres lois.

Meegwetch, Speaker. It’s always an honour to be able to speak on behalf of the people of Kiiwetinoong.

As you know, Kiiwetinoong is a very unique riding—294,000 square kilometres. We are so rich when we talk about land and resources.

I rise today to speak on Bill 188, Supporting Children’s Futures, again, on behalf of the people of Kiiwetinoong.

Last time I spoke about this bill, I spoke about the colonial history, and the care system reminds us of what it is like, in Kiiwetinoong.

I’ll talk about in my remarks—we still see examples of these practices that are implemented and imposed upon our children in the care system. And I talk about that because—particularly when they are forced to relocate from the north, far northern Ontario, to southern Ontario for care.

When I look at this bill, Bill 188, even with its supportable steps moving in a better direction, I know we can do so much more. We can always do more. Why take half-measures on this bill? As the province and as the government, it’s your responsibility to fix problems left unaddressed.

I want to be able to highlight some of those issues. I want to be able to highlight some of those problems that come with the bill and the many, many recommendations, most of which are not new, to help resolve these issues.

A few years ago—it was the summer of 2019—there was a cabinet shuffle that happened, and Minister Todd Smith looked at that file. One of the things that he had done was to show up in Thunder Bay, at the door, and introduce himself as the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services. He bumped into one of the directors of social services who looks after that children’s file, and they sat down for about half an hour or 45 minutes. That director of social services at Nishnawbe Aski Nation was able to tell Minister Smith at that time what he could do. There was a jurisdiction issue between two First Nation agencies, where they were fighting over the resources, fighting over the children, because when you have children in care, it means money.

And I know that, I think about two weeks after, Minister Smith, at that time, in the summer of 2019, made a letter to ensure that children in northwestern Ontario, in the Tikinagan area—that the Tikinagan children’s services have jurisdiction over their children. I share that story because I remember listening to a chief saying, “There are five kids who are under the age of five. I don’t know where they are. They’re somewhere in the system. I don’t know where they are. They could be all over Ontario somewhere.” She had no idea where they were. That’s the welfare system that exists for us today.

Going back, there was a letter that was provided by, at that time, Minister Smith under MCCSS. He made a decision to make sure that the people of northwestern Ontario, in that specific area, had the jurisdiction over their children and there was no more fighting over the children. Of course, the other agency was not happy, because of where they were located. That’s how you make change, and I encourage the current Minister of Children, Community and Social Services to meet with Nishnawbe Aski Nation to ensure he learns what the issues are that they are facing in the north.

Speaker, I know that in the north, First Nations are experiencing tragic death after tragic death. I say that because I’m thinking of Amy Owen, who died by suicide while she was in government care. She was 13 years old. And she was from Poplar Hill First Nation, which is part of my riding.

I am thinking of Kanina Sue Turtle, also from Poplar Hill First Nation, who filmed herself as she ended her life, getting care in Sioux Lookout, where I live. She was grieving the death of her friend, Alayna Moose, who had taken her life two weeks earlier.

I am thinking of so many others, so many other children from our communities, from our First Nations, who died in state care—but not all died by suicide.

What I’m talking about here tells us so much, Speaker, but to start taking away our children and pulling them into these places is hurting our kids. It’s hurting our families. It’s hurting our communities. They are not getting the care that they need.

I want everyone in this House to be aware of the overrepresentation of Indigenous children in the care system, which should also be top of mind when we discuss issues related to care. In their inquiry in 2016, out of the 27 agencies looked at by the Ontario Human Rights Commission, Indigenous children were overrepresented in 25—for example, in 93% of the agencies. They are also admitted into care at a rate 2.6 times higher than their proportion of the child population. But these numbers are very low estimates, because the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s sample was comprised of only mainstream or non-Indigenous children’s aid societies.

Speaker, we need to put an end to these policies that take our children away from our communities and put them into settings where these assimilationist practices are imposed on them. First Nations’ right to self-determination and jurisdiction over how our children are raised needs to be respected and supported by this government.

Just about a year ago, Ombudsman Paul Dubé published a report titled Missing in Inaction: Misty’s Story, which was an investigation into the adequacy of measures related to ensuring the safety of an anonymous child referred to as “Misty,” an Indigenous child living with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, who by 15 years of age had interacted with the child welfare system a number of times and had already experienced tremendous amounts of trauma.

Speaker, she was sent to southern Ontario by the children’s aid societies in northern Ontario because of their difficulty finding the appropriate resources closer to home. She was only in care in southern Ontario for 47 days, but these 47 were the focus of the Ombudsman’s investigation, because “over the course of the 47 days Misty spent in the care of Johnson Children’s Services in southwestern Ontario, she went missing seven times, including one period of 19 days. There is evidence that during these absences, she was physically and sexually assaulted, suffered injuries requiring medical treatment, used methamphetamines, fentanyl, cannabis, cocaine and Xanax—and overdosed.”

The investigation into this inadequacy of the three organizations’ fulfillment of their responsibilities towards Misty was very revealing. It showed us that the system failed Misty in many ways, in more ways than one, and left her vulnerable to harms, including human trafficking.

It also highlighted the need for agencies in southern Ontario to be educated in the learnings provided by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, which should inform how they understand and make decisions regarding the risks surrounding Indigenous children in care: “It is particularly pressing that agencies in southern Ontario such as Johnson Children’s Services Inc. educate themselves and their staff on the learnings from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. They should also consider the risk factors unique to Indigenous children and their decision-making around their care.”

Speaker, I could go on, but due to the limitations of time, I just want to emphasize how important it is that all legislation and policy change takes into account the recommendations in the Ombudsman’s report but also the calls to action, and the justice, from the TRC, the very first of which is “to commit to reducing the number of Aboriginal children in care.”

In the MMIWG inquiry, it emphasizes the need for Indigenous communities to have their inherent jurisdiction and self-determination respected when it comes to child welfare and service design/delivery.

Among their critical recommendations are to prohibit the apprehension of children on the basis of poverty and cultural bias; fully investigate deaths of Indigenous youth in care; and establish a child and youth advocate in each jurisdiction with a specialized unit with the mandate of Indigenous children and youth within a period of one year of this report.

So you might ask, where is the children and youth advocate in Ontario today? I remember back in 2019, this government closed down the Child and Youth Advocate office, and the Ombudsman has not been given power equivalent to those that the Child and Youth Advocate once had.

The story of what happened to Mindy, as well, is from 2020, but the grim details of how First Nations children are treated in the care system keep emerging. This is only four years ago, but since 2022, we have seen investigations from APTN and Global News that shared about the terrible abuses First Nations children have faced in for-profit, privately run care homes.

For some of these group homes, First Nations kids from northern Ontario are seen as necessary for the profit model where they have been called cash cows and the bread and butter, and First Nations in the north paid so much more to place children in these homes—cash cows.

I don’t have enough time, but I want to conclude my remarks by talking about the life and the tragic death of Devon Freeman, whose story should remind us all of the impact that the implementation of our legislation has. We know that Devon Freeman should be an adult today, a man somewhere around the age of 22 or 23. He should still be here, a member of the Chippewas of Georgina Island First Nation. He should still be able to ride his bike. But that concludes my time for now. Meegwetch.

Meegwetch. I think one of the things—back in March or May of last year, which was 2023, I was able to travel up to KI for the signing of bringing power and authority to the First Nations in the care of their children. I think that was the first week of the current Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, Minister Parsa—that was his first trip up north. It’s always important to learn of who you serve and learn of our ways of life and who we are in the north. I think I would encourage the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services that they meet with Nishnawbe Aski Nation to see how the shared priorities are working. Meegwetch.

Thank you to my colleague opposite from Kiiwetinoong. Member, thank you for your presentation. I have a lot of respect for you. Thank you for bringing your own story and for sharing with us. Thank you for your perspective to this House.

Madam Speaker, we understand the harsh reality that many young people face within the foster care and child welfare system. Our bill, Bill 188, will bring more accountability in the foster care system through the hiring of more inspectors, allowing for random inspections—it’s never happened before—giving the ministry more weight to enforce the laws that protect the rights of children in out-of-home care.

My question to the member opposite: Does he agree that there should be a stronger role in place to punish bad actors in the foster care system? That’s including in the Indigenous foster care system. Thank you, Madam Speaker.

Further debate?

That’s a good question from the member. I think the children who come into care pay the full price when the system is not working. They pay the full price of their life when the system is not working. We cannot continue to have organizations that are for-profit, continue to use our children as cash cows. I think it’s important that the child welfare system that’s there—we need to make it better.

I know, again, that’s the way colonialism works. That’s the way oppression works. What you describe in that story is exactly how it harms people. We need to do better. There’s always room for improvement. Meegwetch.

There are far too many children whom the government has failed, too many children who have had to have principles named after them. It is our duty in this House to end this cycle and pattern of institutionalized mistreatment against Indigenous children and youth.

Thank you, Madam Speaker. Since taking office, my hair is getting grayer, and I continue to live in Simcoe.

I want to thank the member opposite for his comments today. The Indigenous communities are separate and apart in some ways with respect to the children’s aid societies. I know the member opposite knows that Indigenous children’s aid societies make their own placement decisions without the province interfering. That’s the law; it’s not an option.

I’m wondering if the member opposite could comment on his opinion of the children’s aid societies in his communities and their effectiveness in making sure that children are placed in culturally appropriate settings.

Thank you to the member from Kiiwetinoong. I live in Thunder Bay, so I have seen and heard about many, many deaths of young people, of an adult who had a trailer hitch thrown at her and children who died in the river in Thunder Bay. There has been no justice for those people, as there was no justice for Barbara Kentner.

But what I want to focus on is Ian. He was one year old. He was in care. He was the child of somebody I knew through family. He died in care, and he had a major bruise on his head at the time. The family never got any resolution as to what actually happened to him. They always thought that something wasn’t right.

So my question to you is, do you feel confident that when things happen when children are in care, that it will be taken seriously, that their families will achieve some kind of justice? We want to prevent it before it happens, but if it does, will there be justice?

I’m happy to share a few words about the bill. I was part of the committee that debated amendments, and it was a good process to hear from people with lived experience about how they felt about the bill and different partners in the community.

I do have to commend the government; we did get a lot of really good feedback, especially from young people who have lived experience. They were grateful that their information will be sealed off when they leave care, that they don’t have to worry about people going back into the system, accessing their information. They were grateful to hear about holding bad actors accountable. And they were grateful that we’ll be making a better effort to ensure that young people know how to reach out and have a voice and share when things are not going well.

I also want to commend the government because I know they have made investments in the Ready, Set, Go Program and have made investments in mental health services and homelessness services.

I’m here to share a bit more about the concerns I have about the sector and what I think we could do to improve the bill.

When I went back to the CAS in my community, they shared really dire concerns about their level of funding. They say they’re at a 10-year low in funding, and we know the sector has shared the number $63 million that they need just to stabilize. When we say stabilize, it means not living in overdraft. I think everybody here knows what it feels like to live in overdraft—or maybe you don’t, and that’s a privilege. If you’ve lived in overdraft, you know how that feels. It’s sickening, it’s stressful and I can’t imagine being an executive director of a children’s aid society looking at the reality they face, of living in overdraft.

We know now that our systemic gaps that we face in mental health, in housing and other issues—autism funding, developmental services etc. are impacting children’s aids societies. Families are not able to provide shelter for their families. They are not able to feed their families at a growing rate. So 20% of people referred to children’s aid society were done so because of inadequate housing. We know there’s 20% to 30% that need complex mental health care that’s being cut.

I’ve had three expert mental health professionals that I know personally—one agency was shut down, another program was shut down and another service that provides attachment trauma in a culturally relevant way was shut down. We are providing more access to those who need eight to 15 sessions, but these kids aren’t that, and we can prevent them going into care by properly funding complex mental health care and developmental services.

We need to reflect on the privatization of the child welfare system. I know that the societies that I talked to said that the rates that they’re being charged have gone up, but the funding they receive to pay those for-profit agencies has not gone up. We know that kin care, for example, only gets one tenth—one tenth—the amount of money. So we will pay someone in the private sector 10 times the amount we will pay their family member, who could be living in poverty, to care for an additional child. They’re doing it because they care, but they face real financial strains as a result. We need to stop that. We need to start looking at the funding model and looking at a funding model that looks at prevention, because the government should not be parenting children at the rate that it’s parenting children.

We know, just in my riding, oneROOF—I spoke to them last week; they had a meeting on Monday. They are questioning closing because of budget shortfalls. This is a youth shelter that is an essential service in my riding, serving young people ages 16 to 24, and we know that 60% of the kids in care are teenagers. So we need to look better at the services that we offer teenagers and the services we offer those on the autism wait-list, for example.

We also need to do better for racialized communities. In Toronto, for example, there’s an 8.5% Black-identifying population, but 40% of the kids in care identify as Black—that’s a huge gap—for Indigenous children: 3.4% of the population, but 25.5% of kids in care; Latinx and Asian individuals and families are much more likely to be referred for investigations. We need to look at systemic racism that increases the likelihood of people going into care.

We have to worry about these unintended consequences because if we add this red tape without commensurate funding, it equals a funding cut. And that’s what the CAS in my riding said. They said, “If you give us more administrative work and not the funding to do it, it equals less time with families, not more.”

And as a social worker, I know what it’s like to have growing caseloads. Growing caseloads is a serious reality that children’s aid societies are facing. If you have a growing caseload and a growing number of times you have to see those people, it becomes a tick box—you’re doing it to be sure that you did it—but the depth and the quality of that service is severely lacking—

Further questions?

I listened to the members really speaking very clearly about how we can make better strides to increase autonomy of our Indigenous communities. Wabaseemoong, Pikwakanagan, KI: It was our government that was working with these communities to make sure that we are giving them the opportunity to have more care and the right to have more care over their children, which is so important—because you know it’s a system that has been rooted in colonization and has impacted so many Indigenous families. That’s a lot of pain and hurt to fix.

So I’m asking the member, based on the direction you see our government going, can you see the good faith that our government is putting into making changes that will be impactful? This is the beginning in a series of changes that we want to make.

I want thank my friend from Kiiwetinoong for his remarks. For those tuning in who don’t know what we’re debating, we’re debating Bill 188, the government’s latest effort around child protection law.

The member spoke about Amy Owen. This is a story from our community that broke hearts wide open when we learned of it, because it’s exactly as the member is describing: It is a child discarded to the for-profit foster care system, which disregarded her life. For the record, I want to read in something that Amy wrote on Facebook 11 months before she took her own life. She wrote, “I am just a kid and my life is a nightmare.”

I guess I would ask us, would we allow any child anywhere in the province of Ontario to be housed in a place that did them harm? And are we going to correct that harm—I’m asking the member: Are we going to correct that harm by continuing to fund for-profit operators who, as you say, often refer to the children in their system as “cash cows,” or do we need to move to a non-profit public system, with appropriate staff, that is well run?