Today I want to welcome Rabia Khedr from DEEN Support Services. Thank you for being here.

We have some family here of my EA, Athena, from Whitefish River First Nation: Mariette Sutherland and her daughter Violet Sutherland.

Also, from Grassy Narrows: Chief Rudy Turtle; council members Arnold Pahpasay, Little Bear Copenace, John Clint Kokopenace; Melissa Bunting; Maka Fobister; Zuri Joseph; Zaagaate Bunting; Keewayten Bunting. Meegwetch.

With the agreement of the House, I’d like to continue with the introduction of visitors. I heard a no.

That concludes our introduction of visitors for this morning.

I’m going to recognize the member from Don Valley West on a point of order.

I just want to welcome students from Roland Michener Secondary School from my hometown, South Porcupine, who are visiting today. Welcome.

I seek the unanimous consent of the House for the Speaker to immediately put the question on second and third reading of Bill 195, the Cutting Taxes on Small Businesses Act, without debate, to provide immediate relief to Ontario’s small businesses.

I’ve answered this question a number of times for the Leader of the Opposition. If the leader has additional information—or any information whatsoever—that she would like to provide to the commissioner, I encourage her to do so, Mr. Speaker.

I and members of this government, we’re not investigators, although we do have many former police officers amongst our ranks. That is not our job, Mr. Speaker. So if she wants to raise those issues, I encourage her—as opposed to bringing it up here in the Legislature, she could provide that information to the commissioner and allow the commissioner to do the job that we as a Legislature empower him to do.

I would like to extend a warm welcome to members of Disability Without Poverty here today, including Sabrina Latif, Lisa Presutti, Vienna Psihos, Rabia Khedr, Janet Rodriguez, Hossam Khedr. I am looking forward to meeting with them later today. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Good morning, everyone. It’s always a pleasure to be here in the chamber with you, and especially today, when I welcome such amazing Bangladeshi community leaders from the east end of Toronto. They’re up there in the gallery: Hydari, Islam, Hosne, Sanjoy, Afia, Sayed and Jalal. They really make the city a more vibrant, livable, beautiful space.

Thank you for coming. Welcome to your House.

It’s a great honour and a pleasure to be able to welcome John Whitehead here from St. Catharines. He is a diabetes advocate from Niagara.

Thank you for all your hard work that you’ve done over the years. Welcome to your House, John.

June is ALS Awareness Month, and I’m delighted to welcome Tammy Moore and Ilayda Ulgenalp from the ALS Society of Canada back to Queen’s Park today. Welcome.

I’d like to welcome a good friend of mine, Janet Rodriguez. Janet is an incredible advocate for people with disabilities.

Welcome to your House.

This question is for the Premier. People have a right to know what their government is doing on their behalf and with their tax dollars. It’s why we have strict rules around things like government communications and record-keeping. It’s why emails of senior government officials are subject to freedom-of-information laws.

But this government and this Premier don’t seem to think that that kind of transparency matters. We’ve seen a disturbing pattern of government members and senior staff using their personal accounts for government business. On Friday, the Premier himself confirmed that his chief of staff regularly uses his personal email for government business. My question is, why?

Let me try to tell you why, because there’s only one reason why this government would repeatedly be using personal emails to avoid detection. These aren’t just emails about upcoming staff meetings; we are talking about major government decisions that impact the public. We’re talking about the greenbelt. We’re talking about secret meetings. We’re talking about code words and government business that was being done on massage tables in Vegas. They did everything they could to cover their tracks.

Now, the Premier himself is doubling down. He’s saying his chief of staff did nothing wrong when he repeatedly gave false testimony to the Integrity Commissioner. So does the Premier think he or his chief of staff are above the law?

Again, Mr. Speaker, it’s the drive-by smear from the NDP. They have no relevance in this place at all. It is obvious that the people of Ontario have overlooked the NDP and have completely forgotten about them as an effective opposition party. The evidence of that, of course, is the fact that in the last two by-elections, “other” received more votes than the NDP.

They have absolutely no policies when it comes to the economy. They understand that their continuing support of the federal Liberal Party that supports a carbon tax puts them offside of the Canadian people, including the people of Ontario who have said loud and clear that they do not want a carbon tax and that it is harming them. So they’re offside on that.

They’re offside on law and order. This is a party that opposes the police at every step of the way. They’re offside on the infrastructure funding that we’re bringing in place. They’re offside on the reforms that we’re doing in the education system. They are a party that is increasingly irrelevant to the—

Interjections.

Now, colleagues, I don’t know about you. I don’t feel very desperate. I don’t feel very desperate. I’m actually happy. I’m happy, because we have a government that is moving in the right direction for the people of the province of Ontario, out of the ashes of the Liberal and NDP coalition that put this province in the ground. What are we doing? We’re investing in health care. We’re investing in infrastructure. We’re investing in hospitals in all parts of the province. And do you know who agrees with us, Mr. Speaker? The people of the province of Ontario, who elected two Progressive Conservatives in two by-elections, while at the same time sending a message to the Leader of the Opposition that they prefer “other” than they do the leader and the NDP—

Interjections.

The Minister of Natural Resources has actually increased funding to fight forest fires by 92%, colleagues. That is what we have increased the budget by to fight wildfires. Of course, Liberal and NDP math would suggest that a 92% increase is actually a decrease. But do you know what the good news is? The good news is that we’re making those investments. The bad news for the people of the province of Ontario is that these two opposition parties, both irrelevant to the people of the province of Ontario, but the NDP historically irrelevant—they always vote against all of these.

Interjection.

Interjections.

We’ve made the investments. Imagine that when we came to office, this sector was so underfunded by the previous Liberal and NDP coalition government across the province of Ontario that we’ve had to increase it by 92%. Of course, the Leader of the Opposition and the Liberals voted against those increases—because you know what happens: When the camera is on, they say one thing, but when the camera turns off, they do something completely different. We’re consistent. We’re always there for the people of the province.

Speaker, you know when you’re getting close to the truth, because you get a desperate response like that. That’s the truth. Multiple independent officers of the Legislature have warned this government about avoiding disclosure rules. Explosive reports from the Auditor General, the Integrity Commissioner, the Information and Privacy Commissioner and RCMP criminal investigation under way into this government—it all shows the same thing. This is a government that wasn’t just deleting emails related to the greenbelt. They were also using their personal emails to avoid detection.

The Premier himself conducts his government business on his personal devices and refuses to disclose the details of those phone records to the public, even though it’s required by law. When the Liberal government got caught covering up their gas plant scandal, you know what happened? Someone went to jail. Why is the Premier following the Liberals down the same path of code words, cover up and criminal investigations?

Interjections.

So far this year, there have already been 94—four fires just this week. But inexplicably, the budget to fight those wildfires is down 37.5%. And you know what, Speaker?—

Interjections.

Interjections.

So I’m going to ask the Premier, who’s sitting in his seat right now, if he could stand up, answer this question: Can he explain why he thinks this is enough when those who fight the fires are telling you it’s not?

Interjections.

I want to be very specific with my question to the Premier: Will the Premier assure Ontarians that there will be fully staffed crews and planes for every single region that needs it?

Interjections.

Order. Final supplementary.

Member for Brampton North come to order. The member for Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke come to order.

Government House leader may reply.

Leader of the Opposition, next question.

Government House leader.

The House will come to order.

Start the clock. Supplementary question?

The government House leader may reply.

Government House leader.

I did not.

Interjections.

The member opposite knows that one of the first actions we took upon forming government in 2018 was to actually index the mercury disability benefits to inflation after not being increased for inflation since the inception of the mercury disability fund. As a result, most beneficiaries saw their monthly payments nearly double, Mr. Speaker. The mercury disabilities investment fund was then replenished with over $127 million, based on a triannual assessment that we received in June 2021. These funds will ensure that the mercury disability fund is resourced to provide benefits to beneficiaries for many years to come. The next actuarial assessment is expected in June of 2024.

In June 2022, the Mercury Disability Board marked the opening of its new clinical space in Kenora, along with the successful launch of reformed assessment clinics. We’re working with communities—

We’re taking good care of those beneficiaries from Wabaseemoong and Grassy Narrows First Nations. The mercury disability fund, having been replenished, will ensure that all people currently on that registry are going to get the benefits that they deserve for those historical damages.

Next question. Once again, the Leader of the Opposition.

Secondly, as the member is aware, unparliamentary language cannot be permitted. I’m going to ask the Deputy Premier to withdraw her unparliamentary comment.

The Minister of Health will please withdraw her unparliamentary comment.

Interjections.

Start the clock. The Leader of the Opposition has the floor.

The Minister of Northern Development and Minister of Indigenous Affairs.

Minister of Northern Development and Minister of Indigenous Affairs.

Member for Lambton–Kent–Middlesex, supplementary.

Again, Mr. Speaker, that is why the Minister of Natural Resources has brought forward a plan that saw an increase in funding by 92%. That is why the Solicitor General brought forward a program to ensure that we had fire services in unincorporated areas, so that they could participate. On both occasions—

Interjection.

We’ve increased support for new technologies by over $20 million. In fact, Ontario is such a valued partner that we are called upon to participate and to assist other provinces and internationally whenever we can, Mr. Speaker. That speaks to the professionalism of Ontario’s fire crews, it speaks to the investments that we have made and it speaks to why, again, the NDP and the Liberals have become so irrelevant in the province of Ontario: because for a decade and a half they underfunded it, and it took us to bring those resources so that we could fight fires not only in Ontario, but around the world—