I have a couple of introductions. First off, I’d like to welcome to Queen’s Park MPP Crawford’s Oakville student youth council: Aiden Pinto, Elliott Dixon, Sakeena Iqbal, Mariam Naboo, Anbo Yuan, Ahmed Anjum and Tianyang Jiang. We’re honoured to have you here today and advocating for financial literacy.

Second, I’d like to welcome the group from Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving to Queen’s Park today. With us today or joining us shortly are students from Niagara Catholic District School Board schools, including Denis Morris, Blessed Trinity, Saint Francis, Saint Paul, Saint Michael, Holy Cross, and Notre Dame College School; from the board office, Camillo Cipriano and Aldo Parrotta; and school staff Patricia Beck, Nikki Royer, Ana Krlin, Carey Bridges, Chaundra Collin, Sue Sparks and Brandy Delaney.

Welcome to Queen’s Park.

My question is for the Minister of Long-Term Care. All seniors in Ontario deserve to be treated with dignity and to receive the quality of care they need. The previous Liberal government failed to invest in long-term-care facilities and services. This led to unnecessary hospitalizations and, in some cases, forced seniors to move to a long-term-care home outside their community. Now, the provincial Liberals are supporting a tax that is burdening existing long-term-care homes with higher costs of operation while making it more expensive to build new homes.

Our government remains focused on helping seniors get the right care in the right place. We’re building more homes faster, and we won’t stop calling on the federal Liberals to scrap the punitive carbon tax. Can the minister please tell the House how our government is improving long-term care for seniors despite facing challenges from the Liberal carbon tax?

At a time when families are already struggling to make ends meet, it’s unfair and unjust for the liberals to keep hiking the carbon tax, just like they did on April 1. Unlike the Liberals, our government will continue to speak up for Ontarians, continue to fight for our seniors and continue to deliver real affordability. Can the minister tell the House what our government is doing to combat the negative effects the carbon tax has on our long-term-care sector?