I want to thank the member—or, first, to congratulate her on her election. I know how tough it was for you to actually get here. This is not your first crack at the polls. Your perseverance is what got you here, and your perseverance is what is going to keep you here.

You know what needs to happen. You basically need to listen to the voices that brought you here, and I know you realize that. Your constituents are going to be the guiding force and the strength that you’re going to need each and every day when you take your place in this House. It’s also going to be very enjoyable to listen to that lens that you bring to northern Ontario-based issues, because it’s not that we’re asking for more, but we’re certainly not going to accept anything less for our communities and our constituents in northern Ontario.

My question to the member is, what can your constituents expect from you in the years to come, and what are you going to be doing in order to make sure that you stay engaged and have the pulse of your constituents in your riding?

First, thank you to the union workers who I hope will be doing that work. But I’d also like to point out that there is nothing in the discussions about the manufacturing of electric vehicles that addresses the undoing of environmental policies that took place during the last government. I think it’s fantastic that we will be building these vehicles, but what are we doing about making sure that our building processes guarantee that future generations will have a livable world to live in? That has to be a part of every project, and so far I have not heard that from this government.

I will certainly be listening and fighting hard for what we need. We have recently gone through an exercise in which ambulances have been cut from the region. This means that people in Beardmore, for example, are at least two hours away from getting any assistance in an emergency.

Now, Beardmore, for people who don’t know, is on Highway 11, mostly a two-lane highway that has thousands of trucks travelling on it every day—many truck drivers, who unfortunately have not been well-trained and who are under a great deal of pressure to get where they’re going fast. More reputable employers actually don’t put the same pressure on their drivers, but what we are seeing is a constant number of trucks going off the road, and some of these accidents can be severe.

When I think of the area near Beardmore and Rocky Bay, which is just down the highway, there is no turning lane, and yet a school bus has to go back and forth from Rocky Bay to Thunder Bay or to Nipigon, which is about an hour, and there’s no safe way for that bus to get in and out of that community. So I will be—

We could also use money to improve snow clearing. I believe it was brought to this House last term that we need to change to an eight-hour snow-clearing cycle, and not the 16-hour one that we currently have.

We certainly want to see money invested in health care, and I would support this bill if I truly believed that that was what was happening, but what I see is that there is punishment taking place of the workers who are there right now, the workers who have been there during the pandemic and are being punished—for what? For being there—while private services continue to be funded excessively out of the public purse. That’s why I don’t support it.

Thank you to the member opposite. Welcome to the Legislature. It’s good to have you here. I know your predecessor was here for many years, a very honourable gentleman.

My question relates to the statement you made about the environment. You mentioned that in the budget, there were no words related to that. I did want to just get your thoughts on what we’ve done with respect to electric vehicle manufacturing in the province.

The previous government had a subsidy for multi-millionaires to go and buy $80,000 vehicles, and get money for vehicles that were built in California. What we’ve done as a government is to put a focus on manufacturing right here in Ontario, so we can have good-quality jobs—in my community of Oakville, but also in other parts of the province—and build the vehicles here, which is (a) good for business, (b) good for local communities and (c) good for the environment. I just want to get your thoughts on the government’s proactive approach to getting electrical vehicle manufacturing right here in the province of Ontario.

Thank you very much.

Questions?

The next question.

Boozhoo. Remarks in Ojibway.

Bonjour. Je voudrais remercier les citoyens de Thunder Bay–Supérieur-Nord qui m’ont envoyée ici pour être leur représentante dans cette Chambre.

Greetings, Mr. Speaker. My name is Lise Vaugeois. I represent Thunder Bay–Superior North. I would like to congratulate you, Speaker, on your re-election to this important position and would also like to congratulate new members of the assembly and those who have been returned. And I want to thank and send my best wishes to my predecessor, Michael Gravelle, who served this riding for an amazing 27 years.

I would like now to offer a land acknowledgement for Thunder Bay–Superior North, which is on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg and the Fort William First Nation, signatories of the Robinson-Superior Treaty of 1850. In addition, there are two communities that are signatories of Treaty 9, known as the James Bay Treaty. Regardless of which treaties each one of us falls under geographically, we are all treaty partners, and it is important for every member of this House and, indeed, all Ontarians that we learn what is in the treaties and how they came to pass. We are all represented in these agreements, and despite the deception and skulduggery enacted by various governments in the negotiation of these treaties, we have the opportunity today to learn from Indigenous elders, scholars, teachers and activists to adjust our notions of what constitutes prosperity. The time is now to move in new directions to achieve respectful nation-to-nation relationships as we do the hard work of learning to move forward together.

I must add, though, this is not just a matter of including Indigenous peoples in our projects but a matter of rethinking everything from the ground up: putting environmental stewardship at the forefront and thinking ahead to the effects our actions will have on the well-being of the seven generations that follow us.

I raise this here because climate change and its effects were invisible in the throne speech, and I believe addressing climate change needs to be at the forefront of every decision every government undertakes. This refusal to even name climate change as an issue, let alone responsibly address climate change, is a failure that is actually contributing to the mental health crises so many young people are experiencing.

Before I go any further, I would like to thank my partner, Maureen Ford; my mother, Yolanda Hall; my sister, Paula Vaugeois; my Kam family; my friends such as Diem Lafortune; my fantastic campaign team; and the people of Thunder Bay–Superior North for supporting me in this election and bringing me to this Legislature. It’s an honour to be here and I look forward to repaying people’s trust in me by representing the interests of our northwestern Ontario riding at every opportunity.

We had a fantastic campaign that brought people together from so many different constituencies, including teachers, students, social workers, professors, office staff, cleaning staff, health care workers, geological engineers, construction workers, environmental activists, carpenters, members of First Nations communities, artists, people living with disabilities, queer and straight activists, musicians, anti-poverty activists, seniors, teenagers, local business owners, people from small resource towns, and people from the more urban city of Thunder Bay.

I also want to take this moment to pay tribute to Miriam Ketonen, who was such a key member of our riding association—so smart with numbers and money, so funny, and above all, so kind. Miriam died almost a year ago from lung cancer that seemed to come from nowhere. It took her very quickly and we are still mourning her loss. Thank you, Miriam, for being such a good friend and anchor to so many in our community.

For those who don’t know much about Thunder Bay–Superior North, I want to offer a short geography lesson. People are often deceived about the distances in the north because when you flip a map of Ontario over, the scale is completely different. I’ve met more than one traveller who mistakenly thought the distance between the Soo and Thunder Bay was merely four hours. In fact, it is a good 16-hour drive from Toronto to Thunder Bay, and it’s eight hours from the Soo.

Thunder Bay–Superior North covers 92,928 square kilometres of beautiful and challenging country. Along the spectacular North Shore of Lake Superior—Highway 17—the communities include Thunder Bay, Red Rock, Nipigon, the Red Rock Indian Band, Schreiber, Terrace Bay, Pays Plat First Nation, Marathon and Biigtigong Nishnaabeg First Nation. But that’s only the places on the North Shore of Superior. Along what we refer to as the northern highway, Highway 11, there are seven First Nations communities: Rocky Bay, Sandpoint, Poplar Point, the Lake Nipigon Band, Long Lake #58, Ginoogaming, and further north, Aroland. Municipalities along Highway 11 include Beardmore, Geraldton, Longlac, Nakina and Caramat. These are all now amalgamated as the township of Greenstone. And throughout the entire region, there are long-standing and vibrant francophone communities. Finally, along the west side of Lake Nipigon there are Gull Bay and Whitesand First Nations, and the town of Armstrong.

In fact, there is so much distance covered and there are so many distinct communities involved that when the men’s a cappella chorus I directed for the last six years did our own version of the song I’ve Been Everywhere, we could not fit in all the different place names. We had a lot of fun trying, though.

Thunder Bay–Superior North has people living and working in urban spaces, on farmland, producing lumber, pulp and paper, involved in mining, tourism and, as well, many who are engaged in traditional, land-based Indigenous economies.

The city of Thunder Bay itself has a college, a university that includes a school of education where I taught for many years, a law school, a school of nursing, a school of forestry and a medical school. We have a professional theatre company and dance, theatre, musical and visual arts collectives, both community-based and professional. The Ahnisnabae Art Gallery, owned by Louise Thomas, is a fantastic business where it is possible to buy the works of many esteemed Indigenous artists.

The Thunder Bay Community Auditorium is a fully professional facility that produces touring as well as community shows. In fact, the auditorium was originally built to house the wonderful professional Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra, and it was this orchestra that brought me to Thunder Bay in the first place. I was a member of the orchestra for 13 years before pursuing my PhD at the University of Toronto, where I studied the relationship between colonization, culture and systemic racism, returning in 2011 to teach educators at Lakehead University.

What has become apparent to me after living for 30 years in northwestern Ontario is that this region is often an afterthought for people living elsewhere in the province; yet Thunder Bay–Superior North generates an incredible amount of wealth that benefits the rest of the province. The people of northwestern Ontario need and deserve access to the same services needed in all other parts of Ontario. Advocating for the people of the region and speaking loudly and proudly about the significance of northwestern Ontario is what I intend to do in my role here.

There are, of course, other issues that I hope to address.

Thunder Bay is the home of the first injured workers support group in Ontario, where I learned just how badly injured workers have been betrayed, first by the 1995 Conservative Government and Mike Harris, then by subsequent Liberal governments and, most recently, when the Ford government took money that should have been going to injured workers and returned it to employers. This was a complete betrayal of the original purpose of the Workmen’s Compensation Board, as conceived of over 100 years ago by the Conservative minister, Sir William Meredith.

The WSIB, formerly known as the Workers’ Compensation Board, was meant to be a no-fault insurance plan to benefit both employers and workers. Today, the WSIB is a travesty. Almost all applications from workers with permanent injuries are denied compensation, forcing them to enter an appeal process that can take years to complete. In the meantime, injured and unable to work, workers often lose their homes and wind up on ODSP—a fast track to becoming homeless. And please note, when workers are forced to go on ODSP because their employers and the WSIB have chosen not to meet their obligations, it becomes a public problem to solve—a public expense. This is contrary to everything that the original Workmen’s Compensation Act was intended to address.

This brings me to the rates for ODSP and OW. It was the Conservative government of Mike Harris that slashed Ontario Works and ODSP rates by 21.6% in 1995. The Liberals raised the rates by small amounts, and at the end of their mandate they suggested a small increase of 3%—not close to the rate of inflation; however, that was still too rich for the Ford government that cut that increase in half the moment they were elected. The Conservative minister of the time characterized this increase as compassionate. Well, I beg to differ.

So Mr. Speaker, when members from the other side of the House talk about an historic increase of 5%, they are forgetting the previous Conservative cuts and the failure of subsequent governments, including this one, to increase ODSP and OW to at least meet the rate of inflation. In other words, the amount has been effectively cut for the last 37 years. If we wonder why there is so much homelessness and suffering evident in communities all over the province, we need look no further than the policies of previous Conservative and Liberal governments. In a wealthy province like Ontario, this level of deep poverty is cruel and, frankly, completely unnecessary.

Now to health care: Let’s also go back again to the Mike Harris government, which fired 6,000 nurses, cut 28,000 health sector jobs and closed 28 hospitals. The Harris government also opened the door to long-term-care privatization that he now personally benefits from. Flash forward to the pandemic, and these same privately owned long-term-care homes became the site of thousands of lost lives due to poorly run and insufficiently regulated homes. And yet, in spite of all the evidence telling us that privatized long-term care puts profits over people, at the end of their first mandate, the Ford government sold 35-year licences to the same egregiously run for-profit long-term-care homes. It’s very hard to understand how this could even be remotely acceptable to members on the other side of the House.

So what about today’s health care crisis? I remember vividly the assault on public services initiated by massive cuts and an aggressive campaign to destroy unions that began in their earnest with the Mike Harris Conservative government. The Liberals did little to nothing to reduce the damage and indeed made it worse by instituting even more cuts and privatizing a significant portion of hydro.

I would like to recall the incredible admission made by a former Conservative Minister of Education, John Snobelen, who was overheard stating that the government should create a crisis in order to create public appetite for private alternatives. In the mid-1990s, when Minister Snobelen stated that a “climate of panic” would be necessary to mobilize public support for cuts to education, the strategy was described by Snobelen as “creating a useful crisis.” These machinations were followed by brutal cuts to Ontario classrooms and attacks on the professional standing of teachers.

Those of us who are old enough to have long memories have been watching the destruction of our public systems develop over the last 37 years, with the most recent attack being the removal of collective bargaining rights and the repression of wages brought about through Bill 124—this at the same time as encouraging for-profit nursing agencies to charge hospitals two and three times the wages paid to the front-line health care workers. In other words, wage repression has nothing to do with saving money and has everything to do with breaking unions by creating crisis conditions for patients and for health care workers. In fact, I suggest that Bill 124 was designed to create exactly the crises we are experiencing today in our health care and education systems, with people quitting the fields they love because they can’t take the overwork and abuse from this government anymore.

I worry when the government finds ways to pay its own members extra wages by creating new ministries and positions, costing taxpayers far more money at the same time as it supports excess spending on for-profit nursing agencies while refusing to acknowledge the sound recommendations of health care workers, those who provide the front-line work. Yes, the government is saying that people will continue to use their health cards to access services, but where will our public dollars be going? Will surcharges be allowed? What regulations will be maintained? What kind of job security will be available to workers once unions have been beaten down, and how much will be sucked out of public resources to be wasted on private profits?

Clearly, the NDP has a very different analysis of which government policies have brought us to the housing, health care and education crises people are experiencing across the province. In spite of our cross-party differences, however, I come here with hope and optimism, because I believe that many, if not the majority of members of this House, want to see change that will allow health care workers, teachers and all public sector workers to do what they signed up to do: serve the interests of the public.

I agree with the Premier when he says that the status quo cannot go on. The state of crisis instigated by the imposition of Bill 124 is in fact the status quo, manufactured and delivered by a Premier determined to turn public dollars into private profits. This status quo, the disenfranchisement of current health care workers, is what must end.

The government can talk all it wants about what it is doing, but clearly what it is not doing is showing existing health care workers that they are wanted. These are the people working in our hospitals right now who are being ignored, who are being disrespected, being kept from having decent wages and kept from having the right to actually bargain.

The current status quo, with its goal of privatizing health care and education, goes right back to the Mike Harris government of 1995. We know this. I believe the government knows this, and I hope that the people of Ontario come to know this as well.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity to speak.

Unfortunately, there is no further time for questions and comments.

Second reading debate deemed adjourned.

I appreciate this opportunity to speak to our Plan to Build Act. But in my first official opportunity outside of question period to speak in this place, Mr. Speaker, I want to express a heartfelt thank you to the people, my constituents, of Kenora–Rainy River for five elections—four of them, I had an opportunity to come to either the other place, the House of Commons in Ottawa, and here now for my second session. I appreciate the support, the confidence that you have put in me.

Standing in this place today, I reflect on the past four years. I would make the observation that it went quite quickly, as these sessions often do. Just getting back from AMO in Ottawa—the seven years that I spent there and the seven years since seem a bit of a blur. But in sitting down with some of my older old colleagues from that other place and looking around this magnificent Legislature, I am struck by the opportunity for renewal—most notably, in this session, the strong, stable majority that the people of Ontario have given the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, and some fresh new faces to join us here today, because they rejected out of hand the platforms of the opposition parties and, in particular, if you will, the gaggle of non-affiliates across the way there who used to form the governing party for some 15 years. So if there’s anything to be proud of there, it is the fact that they’ll have an opportunity to sit in this place and take note of the fact that in this legislative session, the people of Ontario have sent a strong message that they want our government to continue to build.

I’m going to focus, for the purposes of my remarks, on northern Ontario, where not only did we pick up a few new seats, but we also got a couple of those NDP members out on the doorstep a lot more vigorously than they’re used to, as we replaced a couple of seats in northern Ontario and finished a strong, notable second in every other seat across northern Ontario—a historic finish in and of itself. I want to thank the candidates who ran for us across northern Ontario.

Mr. Speaker, from hospitals to highways, from bridges to broadband, we’re committed to building northern Ontario and rebuilding our economy across northern Ontario. In the past four years, several new mines moved to construction or transitioned into electrification only. This isn’t just sound environmental policy; this puts significant demands, positive pressure on our northern communities to ensure that we’re ready and that we continue to be ready, as some northern communities across the province will see exponential growth and therefore requirements for infrastructure and community enhancements moving forward.

We understand the opportunity to ensure that our highways, our modes of transportation, are upgraded. We saw, in print, our budget highlighting a plan to twin Highway 17 from the Manitoba border to Kenora, and hopefully points beyond, as we make a commitment not just based on safety, but based also on the economic opportunity to link our northern communities across some 800,000 square kilometres and ensure, as we move from earth to electric vehicles, from mining to motors, that for the first time we have a fully integrated supply chain in our transportation modalities—most notably buses, transport trucks and electric-powered vehicles—that northern Ontario is part of that integrated supply chain. More importantly, it would start there. So, safe transportation modes, rail into the Far North out in northeastern Ontario, and a plan to link our highways with two-plus-one and/or twinning is a great way to get started.

My colleague the Minister of Mines and I have an extraordinary opportunity to continue on with our growth plan to open up what I’ve referred to as the corridor to prosperity, leveraging what governments do. Let mining companies build those mines; we will be there to support the regulatory pieces, but most notably, to create a highway or road infrastructure to leverage health, social and economic opportunities for those isolated communities in the north. I know a thing or two about that. I spent more than eight years of my life living and working as a nurse in those isolated communities. Retired in that capacity, I also served as a lawyer—I asked my constituents not to hold that part against me—and then as a politician, ensuring and committed that the northern communities—I even got a smile from the Speaker on that one. Lawyers are good people, Mr. Speaker, just for the record—just to ensure that we understand the opportunity to connect our communities.

There has been much discussion about health care. As a former health care provider and someone who has worked with communities across northern Ontario to improve access to health services and programs—we’re investing $142 million, starting in 2022-23, to recruit and retain health care workers in underserved communities. This will start with $81 million, beginning in this fiscal year, to expand the Community Commitment Program for Nurses, which includes compensation and recovery for the cost of full tuition for nurses.

We see at Seven Generations Education Institute in Fort Frances and Kenora an incredible opportunity, as that Indigenous post-secondary education institution, now accessible for all students, is training in paramedicine, PSWs, RPNs and registered nurses.

There is a plan and a relationship to work with the Northern Ontario School of Medicine to address one of the greatest opportunities we’ve seen perhaps in a generation, and that is to ensure that students attending northern high schools—and now northern colleges and potentially northern medical schools—will have an opportunity to play out and live out their dream to be educated and then work in their region. As a young man coming from southern Ontario, armed with a diploma in nursing in the very late 1980s, early 1990s, I came there, I settled there, I made it my home, and went on to other things. We need to ensure, moving forward, that as many northern students have that opportunity.

The expansion of these kinds of programs—the Ontario Learn and Stay Grant—will support and attract the retention of a whole host of human resources, health human resources, moving forward. We think that is the right thing to do.

Mr. Speaker, I want to talk about a couple of other programs that are highlighted in this bill but that find their importance in the previous session—because this is about building. It’s not just building Ontario as a legislative exercise; it’s about a government building on the previous session.

A couple of those key things for northern Ontario were found in the Northern Energy Advantage Program. This wasn’t just a rebrand. This was a program that replaced the northern industrial energy rebate program. NEAP, as it’s called, is kind of neat, because it provides—now, as opposed to before—large industrial electricity consumers with competitive and predictable electricity rates. This program is now broader in scope and will assist more major and larger operations, through a new investor class, to be competitive. In the forestry sector, margins are razor-thin. Mines are pivoting to full electrification, in some cases, and they need to know that that cost has certainty—unlike from the previous government—and that it’s competitive.

Listen to the names of companies that have rallied behind our government, Mr. Speaker, to support this and access this:

—Algoma Steel, which is now transitioning to an electric arc furnace thanks to the investments that we’re putting into their operations;

—Domtar, one of the most efficient pulp producers across northern Ontario—in fact, in the world—right there in Dryden, in my own riding;

—Evolution Mining;

—Vale Canada in Sudbury;

—Impala Canada;

—GreenFirst Forest Products;

—Pan American Silver; and

—Agnico Eagle.

These have a couple of interesting features. They are anchor tenants and major employers in all our ridings.

Historically, we’ve brought these programs to this legislative floor.

And do you know what, Mr. Speaker? Are you curious?

The Speaker is curious.

They have two features: They were transformative programs, and the members of the NDP, for reasons I don’t understand, voted against them. They have a chance at redemption here today and as we vote moving forward. They’re going to get an opportunity to support these programs. They’re going to get an opportunity to ensure that their constituents, especially the younger ones, have an opportunity to transition out of high school or out of college or other training, Red Seal training, into the industries that have characterized northern Ontario for well over a century. This is a plan to build, but this is a plan for opportunity.

I mentioned transportation modalities earlier in my remarks, and I just want to return to that for a moment. Our government’s efforts in the last session and moving forward, as highlighted in our plan to build, include cutting the gas tax and fuel tax by a combined 11 cents. That doesn’t sound like a lot, until you fuel up jets and my 133-litre tank in my pickup truck, to serve one of the largest ridings in northern Ontario with highway networks.

It’s a commitment to make investments through the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, widely acknowledged as one of the most robust efforts to modernize the investments for municipalities and northern businesses moving forward. But it also made investments in airports—the town of Hearst, to replace the René Fontaine Municipal Airport in-ground fuel system; the town of Iroquois Falls, to make improvements to the Iroquois Falls municipal airport; Confederation College, to improve and expand and modernize its aviation programs so pilots can move out across northern Ontario to ensure safe passage across some 800,000 square kilometres of this amazing part of the province; and, of course, closer to home, for my purposes, in the city of Dryden and the town of Fort Frances, improvements to their facilities and terminal buildings.

I’m so pleased to serve with an amazing Premier and a caucus, frankly, who have made sure that every time discussion substantively comes up in caucus or cabinet, it is viewed mandatorily through a northern Ontario lens, and that we continue to understand that through things like the Northern Ontario Resource Development Support Fund, we are ensuring that our towns and cities, where pressures are put on them as a result of the resource sector, are accounted for and are stackable to work with other levels of government, including our own, for meaningful upgrades to their infrastructure that’s targeted towards the impact of resource development.

I’m going to take up the last few minutes to talk about, in my capacity as Minister of Indigenous Affairs, some of the tremendous progress that has been made not just historically but for the purposes of this plan to build.

We sat down with Indigenous business and political leaders to talk about a wealth creation table and a prosperity table. We took our direction from then-Regional Chief RoseAnne Archibald, now the national chief. We took our lead from people like Matt Jamieson, president and CEO of Six Nations of the Grand River Development Corp.; my friend Kevin Eshkawkogan, president and CEO of Indigenous Tourism Ontario; Brenda LaRose, partner and head of the national diversity and Indigenous board practice; Desiree Norwegian—one of my favourites—owner and chief executive officer of Atunda Inc., working in the nuclear sector; and of course, a dear friend of mine, Darren Harper, co-founder and president of Maawandoon Inc. What they know is what we know: the tremendous opportunity for Indigenous communities and businesses to prosper. It’s why we’ve advanced and built on resource revenue-sharing agreements between Indigenous communities in the province. It’s why we have invested in increased funding for Aboriginal financial institutes to access capital. We’re going to have more to say on that as budget 2022 endeavours to address the Indigenous Economic Development Fund highlighted in our plan to build.

This is exciting because this is organic. It comes from Regional Chief Glen Hare’s pen and his adviser Ted Nolan—you will remember him as the coach of the Buffalo Sabres and a former player in the National Hockey League. My only wish is that he had played for my beloved Toronto Maple Leafs. But forget all that. For the purposes of this discussion, Ted, who has one of the largest business networks the province over and the country over, with Indigenous partners, has come to the table to advise Regional Chief Hare and create an opportunity to the tune of $25 million.

The Chiefs of Ontario office and their Indigenous leadership, the Grand Chief included, know that access to capital, investing in Indigenous businesses is the right way to go.

Mr. Speaker, finally, on that note and making a quick pivot, Indigenous businesses, now more than ever, under the revamped Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, are seeing exciting opportunities—expanding existing businesses, helping to support the creation of new ones, and, vitally, by virtue of our business programs in the new-look Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, ensuring that they are an essential part of the supply chains.

As I mentioned earlier, not only does northern Ontario count itself in from mines to motors, from the earth to electric vehicles—from some of the most northern communities that you can contemplate, right down to the Stellantis plant in Windsor that we intend to onboard—but we want to include Indigenous communities in that opportunity.

So, Mr. Speaker, already we’re seeing the results in the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund revamp. This budget accounts for an ongoing commitment to the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund.

Once again, my NDP colleagues across the way will have an extraordinary opportunity to stand with the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, to focus on the opportunities and support this important bill as we build Ontario and as we build, importantly, for the purposes of my representation, northern Ontario.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Thank you to the member for her always passionate advocacy for the beautiful riding of Scarborough–Guildwood.

We’ve heard over and over again from the government side that the Liberals have done such a terrible job, even though they earned the trust of the people of Ontario for four consecutive mandates.

While, of course, no government can brag of having a perfect record, I want to ask the member: What are the policies or the initiatives from the previous Liberal governments that you are most proud of—and what policies the current government is actually able to build on?

I’d like to thank the member from Scarborough–Guildwood for her presentation.

My question is quite simple: What, in their mind, would be an acceptable increase in ODSP and OW?

Questions?

I thank my colleague from Scarborough–Agincourt. We are on the same side, when it comes to fighting for the people of Scarborough–Guildwood. That’s why I was elected nine years ago. Speaker, on August 1, which is Emancipation Day, I was elected by the people of Scarborough to do this very thing, to fight for them.

Scarborough is a community I grew up in—went to high school; went to University of Toronto, Scarborough campus. I know Scarborough needs more infrastructure. In fact, the extension of the subway is something I fought for. I was elected in 2013 as the “subway champion,” to bring that very infrastructure to the people of Scarborough. I continue to fight for the people of Scarborough.

You recently announced a medical school for Scarborough. That was a project that I helped to co-create with the former principal of the University of Toronto Scarborough campus because I noticed that we had a gap in that area. I pushed for that.

Oftentimes, that’s what the people of our province expect—that in successive governments, you will build on the work that has already started for their benefit.

I will always continue to fight for the people of Scarborough and for what they need.

I’m also very proud of the environmental contributions that were driven by the former Liberal government. The closure of coal plants was recognized even by President Obama as the most significant contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases in North America by any jurisdiction, and that was led by a Liberal government.

I’m also proud of how the former Liberal government handled the Great Recession. We remember how precarious everything was. We brought back over 800,000 jobs. All of the jobs that were lost during the Great Recession were brought back under our leadership. That is why I call out this current government in terms of what they are doing—with the lack of vision, the lack of a road map, the lack of a plan in this budget—when we’re facing such precarious economic times.

Of course, on health care, we have some of the most innovative approaches—Cancer Care Ontario—to our health system, in terms of leading the transformation and renewal of our health system.

That form of innovation and leadership is needed today and always. And I give credit to the great people of Ontario for our great education system, and the people who work so hard—

First of all, I would like to congratulate my colleague from Scarborough–Guildwood for her re-election to this august House.

For 15 years, the Liberals—my colleague was part of that government, as the Minister of Education and other posts or positions—did not plan for the growth of our city or province. The best demonstration is Scarborough—for 15 years, Scarborough has been ignored.

During our government’s last term, we brought so many important infrastructure projects, like subways, building hospitals, community centres, medical centres.

Wouldn’t my colleague support our plans—which will also benefit individuals in Scarborough—to improve the quality of life?

We often rise in this House and put questions to the government, but sometimes those questions are best coming from our constituents. I want to raise this one from a constituent back home for the member for Scarborough–Guildwood. It’s from Donna Behnke. She’s from Elliot Lake. She writes: “If any of them had a single ethical bone in their body or even the slightest hint of common decency, they would do what is right. Does”—she used “Ford,” but I’ll change it to “Premier”—“not realize some people on ODSP are fighting mental illness? People with cancer, people that had strokes, people that had multiple sclerosis—the list goes on and on. He needs to stop painting everyone with the same paintbrush. The Premier and prior governments always target the poor. You can’t make healthy people by destroying them. They will never be fit to hold a job. But what it will do is push more people to seek out MAID.”

My question to the member is, do you agree with Donna?

Thank you to the member opposite.

It does not meet the current needs that people have. It actually doesn’t come close to meeting the inflation cost and pressures. Someone in my community said to me, “Milk is so expensive right now, and babies need milk.” People on ODSP need the government to recognize that. It does not meet the current need of the affordability crisis that people are facing in this province, and it’s actually forcing them into food bank lines.

In my riding, there has been an over 25% increase in food bank use. When you look at the faces of those individuals, it’s really changing.

There’s a real, desperate need there. If you talk to people who are part of the ODSP coalition, you’ll hear that it needs much more than that.

We, the Ontario Liberals, say 20% immediately, with a review of the basic income pilot so that we can provide adequacy for people who are most vulnerable in this province.

So I do believe that all Ontarians should be able to have a choice in how they live in our society, and our society should accommodate that.

What is very distressing in this situation is that the government creates so many hurdles for people who are on ODSP, even just to access support. During the pandemic, there was a $200 amount that they had access to, but they had to go through their caseworker. So many people contacted my office because those offices were closed, or people were working from home and they were inaccessible. So why would the government put an extra burden on people on ODSP, rather than just distributing the funds to the cases that they know they have on record and have on file?

Absolutely, there is more that can be done to support people with disabilities in this province.

I’d like to thank the member opposite for a very eloquent speech and address to the House. She touched on many very important issues that we obviously addressed during the election. And we won a historic victory.

We also understand—this House, this party and this government understand—that all Ontarians are struggling, not only with inflation but the rising cost of living in all the areas she touched on.

A simple question to the member for Scarborough–Guildwood: Does the opposition not support the historic increase to the ODSP that we are presenting, that will be adjusted, I might add, for inflation in the future?

Questions?

Thank you for the question.

There are so many things that are missing from this budget. There are probably too many to list, as I’ve got a minute left. But I do want to highlight one thing which I think is critically important.

Earlier this month, Statistics Canada released some new data and it specifically talked about the rise of gender-based violence and how Canada is seeing no end in sight. We’ve seen the highest level of gender-based violence that we have seen in past years, and this has grown an astounding 18%. There’s absolutely nothing in this budget that addresses gender-based violence. I couldn’t even find the words “gender-based violence.” I couldn’t find the words “sexual assault.” And yet we know it’s an epidemic in Ontario.

That is one example of the things that are missing, but we also know that when it comes to missing one critical policy piece, the others fall apart—with respect to court services and support, with respect to housing for women who are fleeing violent situations, with respect to children who are losing the capacity to stay in school because their housing situation is so unstable.

I want to congratulate the member from Toronto Centre on her election to the province’s Legislative Assembly. I’ve known the member for quite some time, and I know how passionate she is in representing the people in her community.

Speaker, I want to ask the member, in her review—and it seems as if she did quite a thorough review, bringing her knowledge and experience from city hall to this Legislature.

In the $198-billion budget that was just tabled, could you tell me what you believe ought to have been the priority of the government and what you see is missing from this budget?

Today, we’re debating Bill 2. The province’s budget bill ought to be a road map for the people of Ontario, to show them what the government’s vision, plans and priorities are for their well-being, and yet, in the midst of an affordability crisis that has been steadily worsening, with health care staffing shortages that are literally closing down hospitals, closing emergency rooms, at a time when Ontarians are looking to Queen’s Park, their Legislature, for leadership, it has fallen well short. We have no road map to guide these uncertain times.

The budget failed to provide the support that is desperately needed by so many people, and in this way, it has offered no solutions to the problems that threaten not only the present but also the very future of this province. Imagine a budget that does not mention the climate crisis. How could that be possible?

With its heavy focus on infrastructure projects, this budget sent a clear message—even just on the cover of the budget, with the smoggy highway—to the increasing number of Ontarians lining up at food banks to eat; it sent a clear message to the growing number of residents unable to afford their rent; and it sent a clear message to the province’s most vulnerable, trying to navigate skyrocketing inflation while living on ODSP.

The Premier and the finance minister are either unable to see or they are unwilling to acknowledge that Ontarians need more support. Either way, it simply is unacceptable to prioritize things like roads and highways over people. Instead of working to improve circumstances for the people with their annual budget, the Ford government made a choice to double down on an approach to governing that refuses to allocate support to the alarming number of Ontarians who continue to struggle for the very necessities of life.

Speaker, in re-tabling their pre-election budget, virtually unchanged, while the situation around them has completely shifted, the Ford government showed Ontarians that despite changing circumstances in the form of rising inflation and a deepening crisis of affordability sweeping across the province, they have priorities that do not include taking action that is needed right now to address soaring rents and skyrocketing inflation.

More than 500,000 people, individuals and families in Ontario count on ODSP for part or even all of their income. Many of them live in my riding, in Scarborough–Guildwood. A 5% rate increase is not nearly enough for our province’s most vulnerable people to survive on. Even when asked—to the finance minister—if he could live on $1,169 a month, the minister’s response, admittedly, was that it is merely a step in the right direction. But this is wrong; this isn’t even a baby step.

In my own riding of Scarborough–Guildwood, my staff receive so many troubling calls from residents, including emails from distressed residents who are wondering when more help is coming and asking why the government has not just provided those supports that are needed right now in the face of the rising cost of living. There is so much urgency to do that. When the government is projecting higher-than-expected revenues driven by this very inflation, and when the budget that they just re-tabled features $7.2 billion in underspending, including in our troubled health care system, these are very difficult conversations to have with Ontarians who, quite justifiably, find the government’s accounting difficult to reconcile.

The bottom line here is a shameful one. By prioritizing themselves, the Premier and his government failed to get it done for the province’s most vulnerable, while effectively abandoning Ontarians they are duty bound to support.

Speaker, we already know the PC government’s and this government’s history when it comes to supporting public education and education workers. Even prior to the pandemic, thousands of education workers were standing right outside of this House and circling Queen’s Park and rallying outside of schools to call out the government’s cuts to education. Unfortunately, since then, and even throughout the global pandemic, the government has demonstrated time and time again that the safety of children and education workers is not a top priority. In fact, privatization is more of a priority versus public education.

Two years of learning in a global pandemic has left many students struggling, while the full impact of the pandemic on student outcomes is still unknown, and we are just scratching the surface of this. One thing we do know is that a return to normalcy for Ontario’s world-class public education system is sorely needed right now. That means a proactive plan to return to in-person learning. After two years of disruption, what our students need the most is consistency, stability and a safe, in-person return to a well-funded public education system, not privatization.

Adoption of an ongoing hybrid model or expansion of online learning requirements is solely about cutting costs at a time when our children need more support, not less. We simply cannot exacerbate the issues caused by the pandemic when there are other pathways available. The government, in fact, needs to consult with education partners to set these priorities.

It also means a return to classrooms that aren’t overcrowded. If we’re going to close the learning gap that was created by COVID-19, our students need the focused, individual attention from teachers and education workers that can only come when we keep class sizes manageable. My students and parents, frankly, in Scarborough–Guildwood are asking for this support.

We also need to ensure that our students have access to the support services, the programs and the personnel that they need to succeed, and that means ensuring our schools not only have the appropriate number of educational assistants, speech-language pathologists, mental health professionals and other support workers needed to deliver those services, but also ensuring that those professionals are valued as vital contributors to our strong public education system.

I’m going to take a minute to say thank you. Thank you to our teachers. Thank you to our education workers. Thank you for all that you do on an individual basis, frankly, without the help and support from this government, on behalf of our students, even in the face of these challenging times.

Speaker, having school-board-employed support professionals immediately available within schools would help to ensure that our students get the help and the support they need.

I know that right now our students are crying out for help. I want to remind the Premier and the minister that it is still not too late to do the right thing and to table a plan for a safe return to in-person learning in our education system. School is not yet open. There is still time. We know that our students, right now, are suffering. There’s rising anxiety, mental health and other concerns that we’re hearing about. What is this government doing to support their learning and their well-being?

Speaker, I also want to say that it is an absolute shame what is happening in our health care system. It is particularly distressing that the Premier and his health minister refuse to take proactive action in addressing the staffing crisis that our health system is currently facing. Why are they dragging their feet when the needs are so clear? For months, hospitals have been closing emergency rooms—and yet re-tabling a budget that was drafted pre-election, without acknowledging this problem, is absolutely shameful. The government is failing to react to this crisis and actually letting the system fail. They are being called out by our front-line health care workers—our nurses, our emergency room doctors—and they need to respond. Scrapping Bill 124 should have happened long ago—and yet Bill 2 does not do that. In fact, the Premier and his health minister are doubling down on this health crisis that needs to be fixed right now.

I mentioned in my opening remarks that one of the failures in this budget is not even mentioning the term “climate crisis.” In fact, there was less than a paragraph on the environment in general. It’s as if it does not matter at all. But what about the future of this province? As I said, a budget needs to be a road map; it needs to be the government’s vision, telling Ontarians, the people of this province, where its priorities belong. And we know that it does not align at all with the needs that we have in the environment.

What about housing? The budget falls well short in recognizing that we are in a housing crisis and that people need help and support.

The people in my community, in Scarborough–Guildwood, are struggling. They are struggling with the rising costs of food, of rents and of basic needs.

This budget that we are debating today does not acknowledge the priorities and the needs of the most vulnerable people in Ontario, and it is a shame.

Next, we have the member for Scarborough–Guildwood.

Thank you to the member from Toronto Centre. I want to congratulate them on their success in the election.

One thing she said earlier on—she was talking about health care—was, we’re not investing; we’re in fact making a cut. She was talking about the dollars towards—versus the cost of living and the inflation rate being at 8.1%.

Some 27 years ago, Speaker, as you know, the former Conservative government under Mike Harris cut OW and ODSP by 21%.

Then, in 2018-19, they started bragging about the 1.5% increase.

And then this budget is looking at 5%.

With your lived experience of being on social assistance, can you explain what it means when you can’t make ends meet, when you don’t make enough money even to pay for rent, let alone for food or hydro?