We work in our ridings.

Further debate?

Toute une annonce qu’ils nous annoncent aujourd’hui avec la motion. On pensait qu’on revenait au mois de septembre; mais non, on va revenir le 21 octobre. Ça, ça veut dire qu’on est parti, de 13 semaines à 19 semaines, sans revenir en Chambre, sans revenir débattre. Les « issues » que nos comtés ont—tout l’été, on va passer avec nos concitoyens pour se préparer pour ramener leurs « issues » en septembre, pour représenter nos comtés. Là, ils viennent de nous annoncer—comme un cheveu sur la soupe, comme on dit en français—qu’on revient le 21 octobre.

Après ça, on se demande pourquoi la population est sarcastique avec les politiciens. Ce sont des motions comme ça qui rendent que le monde, les concitoyens, disent : « Cela a-t-il du bon sens? »

Moi, je le sais; j’ai négocié toute ma vie. J’ai négocié des conventions collectives. J’ai négocié des vacances. Je sais que mes collègues vont parler, probablement, de ça aussi. Mais on a négocié des vacances.

Quand tu commences à travailler, tu as deux semaines de vacances, et avec les années, tu accumules une autre semaine puis une autre semaine. Si tu es chanceux, tu peux te rendre jusqu’à huit semaines, mais c’est assez rare, on s’entend assez bien, dans une convention collective, mais tu vas voir, normalement, deux, quatre, peut-être six semaines pour ceux que ça fait plus longtemps. Nous autres, on parle de 19 semaines. Ce gouvernement-là, ils ont quoi? C’est quoi le problème, là?

On a été élu pour venir représenter nos concitoyens en Chambre, pour amener les « concernes » de nos concitoyens, pour essayer d’améliorer la vie en Ontario. Puis, tout d’un coup, on est parti 19 semaines. Le 21 octobre—on s’entend-tu? C’est du temps loin de la Chambre pour essayer de faire des changements pour nos comtés et nos concitoyens.

C’est quoi que le gouvernement a à cacher? C’est quoi la transparence? On ne comprend pas. On part une semaine avant. On était supposé de finir le 15; là, on part une semaine avant et on va revenir le 21 octobre—le 21 octobre. Ce ne sont pas des farces, là.

On est supposé travailler comme tout le monde. On est ici pour représenter nos concitoyens. C’est une vraie honte. Mon collègue de Niagara l’a dit : « It’s shameful. » On devrait avoir honte.

Je ne sais pas pourquoi l’idée de faire ça—c’est-tu pour faire encore plus de cabales? Vous avez battu les babines pendant quelques mois. Ce sont les rumeurs : va-t-il y avoir des élections prématurées? Est-ce que c’est juste pour ramasser encore plus d’argent et encore faire la cabale plus longtemps?

On dit comment la province va mal. C’est drôle, mais sur votre bord, tout va bien en province. Il n’y a pas de problèmes en Ontario. Tout va bien. On sait que vos campagnes à la télé, à la radio, disent que tout va bien, mais en réalité, tout ne va pas bien.

Moi, je peux vous dire, dans mon comté, quand j’ai une ville comme Hearst où 65 % à 70 % du monde n’ont pas de médecin de famille, ça ne va pas bien. Quand je vais sur la baie James, il y a du monde qui n’a pas de maison. Ils n’ont pas d’eau potable. Tu es obligé de prendre une douche de quelques minutes parce qu’il y a trop de chimiques dans ton eau. Tu viens avec des rougeurs sur le corps. Il y a des maisons qui sont pleines de moisissures, et on demande une extension à la réserve pour être capable de répondre aux besoins de la communauté. Les chefs et les conseils de bande sont arrivés en quêteux devant le gouvernement, et pourtant ils sont sur leurs terres ancestrales et c’est leur droit. Mais non, nous autres, on prend 19 semaines à ne pas s’asseoir pour débattre de ces projets de loi-là ou de ces demandes qui viennent de nos concitoyens.

Je pense, avec l’éducation—on a des problèmes en éducation. Je ne sais pas. Moi, j’ai ma femme et j’ai ma fille qui travaillent comme aides-enseignantes. Ma fille est qualifiée pour restreindre les enfants en crise. Elle arrive à la maison pleine de bleus parce qu’elle est obligée de s’occuper de plusieurs enfants à la fois.

Je vais vous dire une expérience qu’elle a vécue. Elle s’est tournée une seconde parce qu’un autre de ses enfants avait besoin d’elle—une seconde. Elle s’est virée de bord puis l’enfant lui a donné un bon coup de poing dans le ventre. Elle a perdu une journée d’ouvrage. Imagine-toi si elle avait été enceinte.

L’enfant est en crise. Ce n’est pas la faute de l’enfant. Mais c’est la faute d’un gouvernement qui ne donne pas assez d’argent aux conseils qu’ils sont obligés de donner plus d’enfants de qui s’occuper. On a appris qu’il y un jeune enfant de 16 ans qui est décédé. Puis ils disent qu’on politise ça? On ne politise pas ça; c’est la situation. C’est qu’on sous-finance l’éducation. On sous-finance la santé. On sous-finance plein de choses en Ontario, puis ils disent que ça va bien?

Moi, je peux vous dire, dans mon comté, je parle aux directeurs des hôpitaux. Ils nous disent que l’élastique est au bout. Il est à la veille de péter, à 4 %—puisqu’ils ont dit que c’est 4 % qu’ils ont donné aux hôpitaux. Pourtant, l’inflation est bien plus haute que ça. Fait que, ils sont sous-financés, puis qui paye pour ça? Ce sont encore les patients.

Mais non : « Tout va bien. On revient dans 19 semaines. »

On pourrait débattre des projets de loi à faire avancer pour améliorer notre système de santé. Parce que dans le Nord, là, je peux vous dire, ça ne va pas bien. C’est facile quand tu viens du Sud; tu as accès à des services. Qu’est-ce que tu fais des familles autistes qui n’ont pas les services? Qu’est-ce que tu fais—on a besoin de maisons pour les personnes qui ont des troubles de santé mentale. On n’a pas de place à rester. C’est deux, trois, cinq ans d’attente. Ça, ce n’est pas mentionné, les soins de longue durée.

Mais tout va bien en Ontario, assez pour qu’on puisse se permettre de rentrer le 21 octobre. On est élu pour travailler. On travaille tout l’été, on rencontre nos concitoyens, on parle, puis quand arrive septembre, on amène les « concernes » qu’ils nous demandent. C’est ça, notre travail.

Mais non, il y a un bord du gouvernement—le gouvernement, dans sa grande sagesse, vient de dire le 21 octobre. Pourtant, tous les travailleurs de cette province-ci, la plupart ont deux semaines de vacances, quatre semaines de vacances. Puis nous autres on va en avoir—on va as être obligés de ne pas revenir ici pour adresser les « concernes » de ce monde-là qui vient nous voir puis qui vous [inaudible].

Je suis convaincu que vos concitoyens vous disent la même chose qu’ils nous disent à nous autres : « Vous êtes là pour nous représenter. » On devrait être là, en temps et lieu, pour représenter nos concitoyens. On devrait être ici, comme d’habitude, au mois de septembre. Mais le gouvernement encore—19 semaines. Moi, je n’en reviens pas.

C’est une atteinte à la démocratie. On dirait que vous vous foutez de la démocratie. C’est parce que vous avez juste une grosse majorité, vous êtes blindés, et tout ce qu’on amène ou qu’on veut discuter ou qu’on amène pour amender des projets de loi, ce n’est jamais assez bon. Pourtant, ça vient des mêmes concitoyens, ça vient des mêmes agences, ça vient de toutes les personnes qu’on consulte, qui sont les mêmes que les vôtres. Vous êtes dans les comités. Vous les entendez comme nous autres.

Pourtant, ces recommandations viennent de ce monde-là. Mais non : « On s’en fout de la démocratie. On est majoritaire. » Ça, c’est une honte. Ça, c’est un affront à la démocratie.

Encore pire, quand je vois le premier ministre rentrer à moitié, dans le milieu d’une période de questions, c’est un manque de respect envers notre chef, mais c’est aussi un manque de respect de la démocratie. Il devrait être assis là puis prendre les questions puis y répondre aussi.

En tout cas, comme vous pouvez le voir, moi, je ne suis pas un gars qui a l’habitude de manger mes mots. Mais on est ici pour faire un travail. Moi, je pense encore comme un travailleur. J’ai été mécanicien industriel. J’ai représenté les travailleurs pendant 21 ans de ma vie. J’ai négocié des bonnes conventions. Il y a des conventions que, quand ça commence, on travaille fort pour améliorer constamment les conditions de travail—

Interjection: Say you’re sharing your time—

Ah, je partage mon temps avec ma collègue—

Interjection: Windsor.

Mais c’est juste pour vous dire que c’est décevant de voir un gouvernement qui nous annonce cet après-midi qu’on va revenir le 21 octobre. Moi, je peux dire à mes concitoyens que je suis prêt à travailler. Je suis prêt à amener vos « issues ». Je ne suis pas sûr si le gouvernement est prêt à faire la même chose. À cause qu’ils sont majoritaires, ils sont capables de se permettre de bafouer la démocratie, comme on le fait là.

Je vous remercie, monsieur le Président.

I came in here this afternoon. I had petitions that I was going to read from constituents that are calling on this government, as we are seeing, from May 26 to June 1 of this year, actually, 15 opioid overdoses reported among emergency department visits in my community alone. We’ve heard a similar story from my colleagues in Toronto, from those in the north. It’s happening in every single community. It’s happening in every single Conservative riding too.

Instead of being able to come in and read those petitions calling on this government to reopen the SafePoint consumption and treatment site in Windsor, or reopen The Spot, in Sudbury, and provide ongoing funding for these treatment centres where people go in and lives are saved and they’re getting connected with the supports and services they need, they’re getting connected with hospital care and they go through withdrawal management and rehab—these are our loved ones. These are our community members. Instead of being able to talk about that and read that petition, this government has brought forward a motion to shut down this House from today, June 6, until October 21. While people are dying—just walk out the doors from Queen’s Park and look around you; open your damn eyes. People are dying on the streets, and you want to shut the Legislature down until October 21 because you don’t want to be held accountable. You don’t want to bring legislation forward or entertain legislation that would actually save lives, to reopen these important health care services. It’s absolutely shameful.

I have petitions from people in my community and all over the province—and I hope my colleague from Windsor–Tecumseh is listening because it’s his community too—people who are living in legislated poverty. I was going to read a petition from people in my community and around Ontario, saying that you need to double ODSP and OW rates. The government pulled this stunt, so we don’t get to read those petitions now. They’re shutting down the voices of people in my community and their own communities and communities all over the province.

Speaker, I had tabled a bill, the Intimate Partner Violence Epidemic Act. Right now there is a pretrial under way into the murder of Sahra Bulle in my community, who was murdered by her ex-partner. This government played games with it and they’re continuing to play games with it, because now we don’t have a chance to actually bring that back into the House for third reading and get it passed until at least October 21.

Just two weeks ago, I believe, there was a young nurse, Shannan Hickey, 26 years old, brutally murdered by her ex-partner. I raised that in this House, and you know what the government’s response is to it? “We’re going to shut this place down until October 21 because we don’t want to talk about it. We don’t want to do anything about it. We don’t want to be held accountable while women are dying in this province”—absolutely shameful.

How many women have to die? That’s my question. How many women have to die before you take action? How many women have to die before you act on the 75 recommendations from the Renfrew county coroner’s inquest that were directed to your government, that you could implement? But instead of sitting next week, like we’re supposed to, you’re shutting the House down and not bringing us back until October 21. How many women have to die? How many is enough for you?

My colleague from Waterloo tabled Lydia’s Law. You didn’t even give it the consideration of allowing it to be debated. You shut it down when you knew there were hundreds of people coming from around this province to try and be heard—survivors, victims’ families—and you shut it down and sent it to committee before that debate could happen, without even consulting or giving a heads-up to the woman that tabled that bill. Then the government House leader had the nerve to stand out there and say to the media that it was theatrics—theatrics that my colleague was upset that that happened, theatrics that those families and those survivors were upset that you did that. Now we’re not going to get to debate that until October 21. Because—why? Why would we want to talk about women, about sexual assault survivors who are being failed by the justice system that you refuse to do anything about?

We had women here today—Speaker, I want to be clear; sorry. I’m going to share my time with the member from Kiiwetinoong.

We had women here today, elected officials, who have asked this government to bring in legislation to hold elected officials accountable for harassing and abusing other elected officials, their staff members, those who work in municipalities, municipal staff. This government promised over a year ago they were going to act on that. You’ve done nothing. You’ve done nothing, but you’re going to shut this Legislature down a week early and not come back until October 21, with no action—absolutely no action.

We see an increase in homelessness encampments. We have an over 40% increase in people accessing food banks between 2022 and 2023. That number is 101% more than it was pre-pandemic. That’s all under your watch, and you can’t get out of here fast enough, because you don’t want to be held accountable—absolutely shameful.

These are the people you’re supposed to represent. These are the people who you’re supposed to bring in policies for and make decisions for to make life better for them, not these wealthy developers that you’re putting ahead of everybody else, not your donors that you’re putting ahead of everyone else—people in this province who are struggling. And you’re shutting the Legislature down a week early and not bringing us back until October 21—absolutely shameful.

The wait times for people for hospital care continue to climb. We have emergency departments and urgent care centres that are literally closing in communities all over this province, including in yours. We heard a heartbreaking story from one of my colleagues around the Minden ER, where a man was in cardiac arrest, and because they couldn’t take him to the hospital that was in his community because you have underfunded it and the emergency department—

Further debate?

I’m sorry to interrupt the member, but I’m going to remind her to make her comments through the Chair.

Member for Windsor West.

Thank you, Speaker.

Because this government is underfunding the health care system, this man could not go to the emergency department in his own community because it’s now closed, and by the time they got him to the neighbouring emergency department, he died. He died. This is what you don’t want to talk about and what you don’t want to be held accountable for.

Speaker, the education system: We just had the story of Landyn. My colleague raised it here in the House, but it has been all over the news. Landyn was a student with a disability who died at school because they were under-resourced, because there was nobody there to provide care for him—nothing. What we get from the education minister are thoughts and prayers, and we trust that things will be better. How many more Landyns do there need to be?

There’s 70,000 kids on the wait-list for autism services, and the minister responsible stood in this House this morning and said that things were fantastic, that they’re doing great. That’s the longest wait-list there has been under any government.

Again, I will state how incredibly shameful and irresponsible it is for this government to not only shut us down a week early but not bring us back until October 21.

I will ask the final question: How many people need to go hungry in this province to be enough for you? How many people in this province have to be homeless to be enough for you? How many women in this province have to die to be enough for you? How many of our loved ones do we have to lose to addiction for it to be enough for you? Thank you, Speaker.

I’m going to be sharing my time with the members from Ottawa South and Kingston and the Islands.

C’est un peu ridicule que le gouvernement a décidé d’annuler la session d’été une semaine avant le « schedule ». Puis, maintenant, on ne retourne pas à la législature qu’après la journée de l’Action de grâce en octobre. Cela veut dire qu’on a une vacance d’été plus longue que nos étudiants, que nos enseignants; que la législature est fermée plus longtemps que nos écoles ici en Ontario, et qu’on n’a pas la possibilité d’avoir un débat ou une discussion pour améliorer la qualité de notre système d’éducation pour nos enfants qui retournent en septembre à des écoles qui agrandissent, à des écoles sans le système de chauffage nécessaire pour une bonne qualité d’éducation.

It’s a little ridiculous that this government has chosen to not only end the spring session a week early, but now, not return the Legislature into session until after Thanksgiving. This, of course, means that the Legislature will be closed for almost 50% longer than our schools. We’ll have a summer vacation that is significantly longer than our kids and teachers—teachers this government far too often decries for not having the same kind of work ethic that they do. And yet, they’re extending their own summer vacation by months—not just weeks, but by months. Of course, this is time that Ontario’s elected officials, the members of this place who are chosen by the people, could have used to debate important issues that are before us.

I’m reminded that the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, who is also the House leader, promised us legislation this session on improving integrity issues across our 400-plus municipalities across the province. As we know and we’ve heard far too often, staff members in our cities and our towns, elected officials in our cities and our towns are going to work at city halls and town halls across Ontario and facing really egregious levels of harassment and abuse. We’ve had serious cases in Ottawa, in Brampton, in Barrie, in Mississauga, and undoubtedly in communities right across the province. This is a government that said they were going to address this issue. They’ve had legislation drafted for almost two and a half years. We have a minister who promised to bring this legislation forward before the end of this session. Of course, this session is ending a week early, and no such legislation has been tabled. I fear it hasn’t been tabled because a week after the minister said he would bring legislation forward this summer, the Premier was in Ottawa saying that he would never support that kind of legislation at all. So I have to question who is actually in charge. Is it the Premier or is it the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing?

Of course, we could have been using this next week and the six weeks in the fall that we’re going to miss to talk about the doctor shortage across the province. We have over two million Ontarians, two million of our neighbours and our friends, who don’t have a family doctor or a front-line health professional. This is a number that is getting worse and worse, and it has gotten particularly worse in the last six years under this government.

Just yesterday, I was speaking to a constituent of mine, Christie, who, like many parents this spring, received the thrilling news that their child has been accepted to university and their child is going to be going away to university. It is a thrill for many families to get to that stage in their life. As a result of being accepted to university, as a result of going away to school in the fall, her daughter was dropped by her family doctor. Her family doctor dropped her from her list of patients because she thought that she would be too far away to provide adequate continuing care. That’s ridiculous. If we allow our kids to be dropped by their family physician simply for being accepted and deciding to go away for college or university, we are going to have a tsunami of students who are going to be losing out on primary health care. That is an issue that is worth discussing and debating in this place, and it’s an issue we won’t be able to talk about again now until after the Thanksgiving break.

Small businesses in Ontario are suffering. They’ve been suffering for years as a result of the pandemic, and they continue to suffer. So this would have been a perfect opportunity to debate my colleague from Don Valley West’s proposal to cut small business taxes in half, saving small business owners up to $18,000 a year. That’s real money—real money that they could reinvest into their business, real money that they could use to pay off some of the lingering debts from COVID, real money that they could use maybe even just to keep the lights on and doors open and ensure that small business continues in their communities to serve their neighbours, friends and residents, and that’s a debate that we won’t be able to have now until after Thanksgiving.

Of course, as the largest city in the province, as the largest city in the country, which is in the midst of a potential devastating and crippling transit strike, we could have spent six or seven weeks we’re not going to be sitting here talking about adequately funding transit operations in Ontario. It’s possible that while the Premier and his cabinet are taking a summer vacation that transit in the largest city in the country might actually shut down the city. That is something that we could be debating, that we could be discussing. We could be sharing stories of those who are going to go through that pain and suffering as a result of a potential transit strike, but unfortunately, we won’t be here to do that, because, I presume, the Premier is going to be at his multi-million-dollar cottage in the Muskokas.

So, there is absolutely no need to extend the summer vacation well past Thanksgiving. It’s going to simply take away the opportunity to share stories from our constituents. It’s going to take away the opportunity to debate important legislation. It’s frankly going to take away the opportunity from the government to introduce important legislation. We know that they haven’t used the opportunity so far this year to introduce a heck of a lot of important legislation. I presume that’s why they don’t think they need these five or six weeks, is because they’re just bereft of ideas and don’t have anything else to bring forward.

So, with that, I can’t support this motion. We need to be here in the fall to debate these important issues.

And now, I’m glad to pass it on to my friend from Ottawa South.

Further debate?

Cette motion vise à échapper—échapper pendant six semaines—le devoir de ce gouvernement conservateur de répondre aux demandes de comptes dans l’Assemblée législative de l’Ontario, dans cette Chambre. Pourquoi?

Why is the government trying to evade the ability of the opposition to hold it to account in this chamber?

Speaker, I want to give you an example of the kind of question that we should be asking. This government is fast-tracking beer and wine in the corner store and paying a billion dollars for it. A billion dollars would go a long way in my riding and, no surprise, the people of Kingston and the Islands have other priorities. They want family doctors. They want to fight addictions and fight violence in schools. They want affordable housing. They want ferries that work. No beer on that list.

A billion dollars would go a long way elsewhere, too. In Prince Edward county, one of the worst roads in Ontario—County Road 49 has been one of the worst roads in Ontario as ranked by the CAA year after year. The province could re-upload County Road 49, making it provincial highway 49 again. My question would be: Does the energy minister care about his riding where this road—if you’ve ever driven on it, has just got slabs that kind of go up and down. It’s used by a lot of industry, by a lot of tourists and really should be taken care of.

Last week, the finance minister on AM640 conceded that for this move to put beer and wine in convenience stores just a year earlier, there was no cost-benefit analysis for this $1 billion.

Interjection.

I didn’t think that we’d be debating the non-prorogation prorogation today, because essentially there’s so little on the order paper, you could fit about half a dozen prorogations in what this non-prorogation is.

So, you have to ask yourself, why are we closing this place down for an extra six weeks? Is there not important people’s business? Does anybody have an answer? Maybe you can get up over there and say something, tell us why it’s right. I haven’t heard anything yet.

So, two reasons that I can think of: to avoid the scrutiny of this House, to avoid the scrutiny of what happens here every day during question period and during debate, to avoid the scrums that are in the hall, to try and take the steam out of politics in Ontario.

I also have to say, there’s so little on the order paper, and I think, “What are we doing this session? What’s the government’s great accomplishment?” Well, I’ll be fair, and I’ll say something good: We got Bill 200 done, but, you know, we did that on a Wednesday afternoon. It was like lightning speed. It was incredible. It’s important to get done. That’s good.

What’s this government’s signature piece in this session? It didn’t happen in here; it happened outside of here. What’s their signature piece? It’s a billion dollars to get beer and wine in the corner store a little more than a year earlier. What I don’t understand is, what is this obsession with booze? Ever since this Premier has come here, that’s all he likes to talk about. Remember that show, “Men, men, men, men”? It’s like “Beer, beer, beer, beer.” That’s what it is.

There are so many other things that are so much more important, like the 2.3 million Ontarians who don’t have a family doctor, and that number’s growing. What about our kids at school, those kids who have exceptional needs? They’re not getting what they need. How about their schools? Their schools are crumbling, some of them. How come that’s not that important? Why is there no sense of urgency around that?

We have ERs closing. We’re going to have more this summer. We have rural hospitals closing. This government’s promised legislation around private nursing agencies for two years; it’s done nothing, zip. They promised harassment legislation for municipalities. What have they done? Zip. They can’t get it done. I don’t understand why the government thinks this is okay.

Private members’ legislation: It’s going to back it all up by six weeks. That includes all of you, right? Your bills are going to be delayed. I’ve got a bill that I just put it on the order paper; it’s called Sacred Spaces, Safe Places Act. It’s bubble-zone legislation, and it’s modelled after what we do at abortion clinics, to make sure that people can go their places of worship without being harassed. It’s creating a safe zone. It’s going to sit on the order paper, and we won’t even be able to talk about it around here. We won’t be in a place where we can gather where we can talk about it—because I think all of us should do this. All of us should figure out a way to send the message that, those places where people worship, we have to consider them differently because people are very vulnerable. So we’re not going to be able to talk about that.

I’m going to say one last thing in the session, and I hope it doesn’t come across the wrong way. I did mention that the Premier’s office had tripled its six-figure salaries in five years—tripled the number of people making six figures. That’s pretty incredible. When you take the average of those salaries, an average of those salaries, well, they make more than any of you on the other side, including ministers.

I asked somebody the other day—I won’t say who it was, but somebody who knows the Premier pretty well, and the Premier said to that person, “If you want good people, you gotta pay them.” My question is: too bad for all of you.

No. So the finance minister in fact made fun of “pointy-headed economists” on the radio.

So how do we know we’re getting a fair shake? How do we know that this is a good plan? Why the hurry? Why can’t we just wait a year and save a billion dollars to tackle real crises?

Speaker, people in my riding want funding for Queen’s University and St. Lawrence College. They want smaller class sizes and more EAs so classrooms aren’t disrupted by violence. They want support for affordable, licensed child care. They want relief for those struggling on ODSP and OW. They want rural economic development for local farmers who have farms near urban boundaries. They want our local public health lab to stay open.

These are the real priorities—no beer on this list either. It seems like a lot to ask this government to do what’s sensible: wait one year and invest the billion dollars where it’s needed most. So, Speaker, I would want to ask this government, what is the real reason they are fast-tracking beer and wine in the corner store at the expense of Ontarians’ priorities?

By delaying the return of this Legislature by six weeks, they are avoiding scrutiny by the opposition, the attention that question period brings, the attention that debate brings, the attention that the scrums bring to the actions that unveil things like moving ServiceOntario from small business, private contractors to big-box, corporate contracts without any proper scrutiny, at least by this Legislature. Fortunately, my colleague from Don Valley West has gotten the FAO to investigate that.

It’s these sorts of things. It’s the fact that in the Premier’s office, the cost of funding the Premier’s office has gone up by so much. That theme and this picture of a gravy train and the ability of us to add cars to this gravy train, it seems every couple of weeks, whenever something else is revealed about the government—these are things that happen when the Legislature is in session. We help communicate and find out what this government is doing. We help communicate it to our constituents, and we help bring the concerns of our constituents into this riding.

For example, I have a constituent who is on ODSP who did a calculation. She told me, “You know what? It would be cheaper for me to drive next door to Napanee to get dentures rather than have ODSP pay for dentures from students at Georgian College but then also have to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars for the transportation costs instead of my just going to Napanee and paying more for the local procedure.” These kinds of things we are able to bring to the Legislature and bring to the attention of the government, the attention of the press and the attention of fellow MPPs across the province, because maybe they’ve heard the same problem, and then a consensus builds.

This is what happens when the Legislature sits, and the government should not be avoiding—you know, we pay probably about a million dollars a day to run this Legislature. The Legislature should not be avoiding the scrutiny that the presence of members here and the proceedings bring to the government.

So I oppose this motion, and I urge all of my colleagues to oppose this motion.

I recognize the member from Ottawa South.

I recognize the member from Niagara Falls.

I’m going to share my time with the members from Timiskaming–Cochrane and Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas.

I came here this afternoon, quite frankly, because I was upset that you were going to not meet next week. Then, I get here, and I hear a motion come forward that we’re not going to sit now until October 21. That’s absolutely disgraceful.

Every one of you that are sitting here today and the two over here that are sitting should be ashamed of yourselves. How do you go back to your constituents and say, “Everything is wonderful in the province of Ontario; we don’t need to sit, we don’t need to hear from the opposition and we don’t need to hear from the Liberals or the Green Party”?

You know what? In the province of Ontario, everything isn’t wonderful. Today, right here in the province of Ontario—and you guys have been in power for six years, six years too long. But you know what? Just outside these doors, not far from here, there are homeless encampments that have families right there under your watch. When I got here 10 years ago, do you know how many encampments there were? None. In six years, they are everywhere. They’re in Niagara Falls—

I went to the St. Catharines Collegiate. I was in a four-year course and I stayed six years just because I liked the place. But you know what? We had a saying: When the going gets tough, the tough get going. And what is this government doing? When the going gets tough, what are you guys doing? You’re running out of this Legislature, not only a week early, but you’re now filing out until October 21.

I’m going to look right into that camera right there: How many people today are suffering to pay their groceries, suffering to raise their families, suffering to pay for their rent and for their housing—that don’t have a house? I’m looking right at you and I’m going to say that it’s happening all over the province of Ontario. And the reason why we sit here—because we have a little media up here—they get, at least, a message out. And you guys, what do you do? We’re not going to sit until October 21.

I came today for one reason. I was mad about—I’ll tell you, I was pissed off about losing a week to challenge you guys—sorry, I’ll retract; I apologize.

In my own riding of Niagara Falls, the tourist capital of the world, we have high homelessness. We have homeless encampments just down from the tourist sector in Fort Erie. My urgent care centre, which used to go 24/7, is now only operating 12 hours a day—or 10 hours a day, because in the last two hours, they don’t take new patients. That’s happening not only in Fort Erie, it’s happening in the north, it’s happening in London—it’s happening everywhere. We’re shutting down rural hospitals. Everything is not wonderful, so how couldn’t you guys support it?

Because you’re all sitting here—not all of them, by the way; some aren’t here, but I won’t mention who’s not here because I can’t do that. But the ones that are sitting here: You’ve got to go back to your ridings and you say, “Oh, we don’t need to sit. We don’t need to have question period. We don’t need to have debate on bills that are important.” I brought a motion forward just the other day. You talk to the Minister for Seniors—he’s here—and I talked about a caregiver bill, that we should have a direct payment for caregivers to take care of our loved ones—most of them are seniors; some are kids. We should be having those debates. Instead, what do you guys do? We’re going to shut the Legislature down. It’s absolutely terrible.

And what’s going on in the province of Ontario, as you guys stand up and you blame everything on the carbon tax? Let’s talk about groceries. Put your hands up on that side—even on this side—if you guys are listening over here, put your hands up: Who is having trouble paying for your groceries? I am. How many of your kids and your grandkids are having trouble buying groceries because they’re being gouged by the Weston family? How many are having trouble paying their rent?

In Niagara Falls, the average rent is $2,200 a month. What young person, having their first job, can afford to pay $2,200 for rent and then pay for groceries? Who can do that? And in Toronto, where a lot of you guys are from—not all of you, but a lot of you are from Toronto—do you know what the average rent is? It’s $3,400. Yet, you know what? Let’s just shut down for almost six months because there are no issues out here in the province of Ontario.

And then you go and take a look at gas prices. People can’t afford to pay their gas. They can’t afford their rent. Why don’t we have rent control? I’m telling you guys, come and tell me what you hear over the next six months, by the way—it’s close to six months that we’re shutting down: six months. When I ran here, and it’s been four terms, at no time did I say, “Do you know what? Is there any way you could shut the Legislature down from June until October? Is there any way you could do that?” How many people out there are working every day? I came out of the General Motors plant, where I worked for over 30 years. And do you know what I got? Three or four weeks of vacation as seniority grew. The company didn’t say we were going to shut down for six months because we don’t want to listen to the customers.

What are you guys doing? What are you thinking? Who came up with this idea? Was it all you guys? Put your hand up who had a vote on it. You’ll have a vote pretty soon and you’re going to have to defend it in your ridings. You can’t defend it. It’s undefendable. It’s absolutely disgusting, what you’re trying to do here to democracy in the province of Ontario.

I mentioned health care. I was at the hospital just two days ago, and the doctor told me he was dealing with patients who had been sitting in that emergency for over eight, nine and 10 hours as he came on shift at 6 in the morning. He told me that they’re short-staffed. They don’t have enough nurses, they don’t have enough people to take care of us. But what is this government doing? “We’re going to shut down health care. We’re going to shut down the Legislature. Everything is wonderful in the province of Ontario.” I can tell you it’s not.

I want to talk about our food banks. We have more people using food banks today than at any time in our history—in our history. And what are we going to do? “Oh, we don’t need to meet until October 21, from today, June 6.” It’s absolutely terrible.

Do you know what the hard part about the food banks is? Listen to this—25% of that is kids going to food banks right here in the province of Ontario. What people don’t talk about is that we are the richest province in the country and we’ve got kids going to bed hungry, going to food banks.

We have homeless encampments just outside these halls here—I got a note. My time is up.

Anyway, I’m going to close by saying—and I’ll try to keep this—yes, even the Clerk is giving me that eye. I’m going to tell you, you guys have to go back to your ridings—it’s undefendable, what you’re trying to do here this afternoon. Every one of you should be ashamed of yourselves for what you’re doing this afternoon—not just for the week that we’re going to close here early, but to stay there until October 21 and not come back here and be held accountable, when we know we’ve got all these crises, in health care, education—everything. It’s absolutely terrible. You should all be ashamed of yourselves.

Northern Ontario.

Order.

The member for Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas, are you finished?

Sharing your time with the member for Timiskaming–Cochrane.

Pursuant to standing order 32(b), the time allotted for the afternoon routine has expired. I am now required to put the question.

Mr. Jones, Chatham-Kent–Leamington, has moved that when the House adjourns today, it shall stand adjourned until 10:15 a.m. on Monday, October 21, 2024; and

That, in addition to any other committee meetings authorized by the House, the standing committees be authorized to meet for the purpose of the consideration of the estimates during the 2024 summer adjournment of the House.

Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? I heard some noes.

All those in favour of the motion will say “aye.”

All those opposed will say “nay.”

In my opinion, the ayes have it.

Call in the members. This will be a 30-minute bell.

The division bells rang from 1430 to 1500.

That, in addition to any other committee meetings authorized by the House, the standing committees be authorized to meet for the purpose of the consideration of the estimates during the 2024 summer adjournment of the House.

All those in favour of the motion will please rise one at a time and be recognized by the Clerk.

Motion agreed to.

Thank you, Razan, Milena, Steffi, Evan, Bridget, Olivia, Kaitlin, Astrid, Taylor and Rhea, for your contributions to our Legislature this year. All the best as you wrap up your OLIP year, and we look forward to seeing the important contributions you will go on to make in the future.

Applause.

It is therefore 6 o’clock.

Madame Collard moved second reading of the following bill:

Bill 133, An Act to proclaim the month of September as Kids’ Online Safety and Privacy Month / Projet de loi 133, Loi proclamant le mois de septembre Mois de la sécurité et de la protection de la vie privée des enfants en ligne.

Shame on the NDP.