I will be sharing my time with the member from Parkdale–High Park.

I’ve heard quite often in this House, from the government side, “No other government in the history of the province” etc., but I would like to put a different ending on that. No other government in the history of the province has had a criminal RCMP investigation brought against it. No other government in the history of this province has had to roll back as much legislation as they have. No other government in the history of the province has had, I believe, six class action lawsuits brought it against it in regard to long-term care, and a class action lawsuit against the former Minister of Long-Term Care.

One of the things that I find is also remarkable is how much is promised, how often big numbers are put out, when, in fact, the amounts are less—the amounts going for supports for key things like health care, education, are actually less.

In terms of health care, in comparing 2023 interim actuals with the plan in this budget, the government plans to spend $1 billion less. And then we have all the money that’s going to private nursing agencies—that is gutting hospitals across the province, putting them into deficit.

I want to take a moment to talk about nurse practitioners in our riding. We have one of the oldest nurse-practitioner-led clinics. It is not-for-profit. It is a fantastic, holistic clinic, team-based—the kind of thing that we hear from this government that they want to support.

And yet a report came out in 2012 saying that nurse practitioners were grossly underpaid, and that has not changed—there were incremental changes since 2016, but not the pay that they need. Nurse practitioners, because they can’t make a solid living there, are moving into private, for-profit practice, or they’re leaving the province, or they’re going to the United States, where they can make more, or they’re going to Botox clinics, where they can make a decent living.

I’ve heard twice from the member from Thunder Bay–Atikokan that somehow he doesn’t know about the for-profit clinics in our community. That surprises me. There is a for-profit nurse-practitioner-led clinic in his riding and one in my riding, so I’m quite surprised he’s unaware of this—he should be. This is what is happening.

It has been known for so long that nurse practitioners need to have an increase in wages. They have an enormous scope of practice. And I must say that the Minister of Health completely ducked the question when I raised this before, by talking about scope of practice but not talking about wages, which is actually the issue in question. This same Minister of Health, of course, is also making remarks about not needing doctors, that it’s not a problem. Well, we have about 45,000 people in the area of Thunder Bay who do not have access to primary care.

This government talks a lot about job creation. I would like to talk about job destruction, and that is taking place in education. It has certainly been taking place in health care. But let’s talk about education, where there’s actually a cut of $1,500 per student—5,000 fewer education workers in the schools.

I just received a letter today from a constituent, from a father who has a special-needs child. That child, unfortunately, is continually being sent home because there’s no one in the school to support the child, so it’s not safe for the child to be there. He said, “For various reasons, people just don’t want to work in education anymore. There’s not enough supply staff to cover, and shortages are occurring way too often. Something needs to change. Investing money in upgrades and building new schools doesn’t really benefit the students if there isn’t enough staff inside for them to even attend.”

Well, we know there’s nothing in the budget, or certainly nothing in the education minister’s plans that is actually going to increase staffing, and that is tragic because the violence taking place in schools is enormous.

We heard from ETFO, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, yesterday. They brought with them statistics, and the statistics are shocking, with 80% of students and educators experiencing violence. That really affects people. For anybody who has experienced a lot of violence in their lives or experienced violence in their homes, they know that that becomes part of your body. It becomes part of how you see the world, and you start to approach the world with fear, wondering when the bad thing is going to happen again.

These schools are even experiencing evacuations. This is something that was unheard of certainly when I was a student. It is happening because there just aren’t the people in the schools to do the work, and there aren’t the people in the schools because the working conditions are untenable. The money needs to be put into the schools.

The minister started his discussion when he spoke here the other day by saying how much money they put in, but later, in fact, he admitted that he wants the boards to do much, much more with less. But when it comes to students and student needs, overcrowded classrooms, you can’t do more with less. I have been in those classrooms, and I know how hard it is to pay attention to all the students. They have such different needs. If you have half a dozen high-needs children in your room, you can’t look after them. You can’t look after anybody else. You can’t actually do a lesson. It’s impossible, and it’s tragic.

The money should be going into our education system, and it’s tragic that it’s not. That is a piece of the budget. This is why I say that I see this government putting out big numbers, but the reality is that they are continual cuts to the services that people depend on. I call that job destruction because people are leaving the profession because they just can’t cope.

I have a couple of minutes left. I want to talk a little bit about justice or the lack of justice. We hear from this government that it’s tough on crime, but it’s not tough on crime against women. It’s not tough on crime if it’s about sexual assault. A hundred people—survivors—had booked off time, had paid air fare and transportation to come here in order to hear a debate as a way to heal and have their experiences validated and to hear a bill put forward intended to really address some serious gaps in the justice system. Yet the government chose to dispense that bill, denying the opportunity to have those debates. What difference would it have made to allow the debate? The government could have voted in favour—

During the hearings, the issue was raised on behalf of Unifor workers that when there are methane leakages, Enbridge often uses private contractors in order to bypass the regulatory process.

So I’m wondering why the government really would have voted against an amendment put forward by one of my colleagues providing for the monitoring and prevention of methane leakages and for the publication of reports on such leakages. I’m wondering why on earth the government would vote against letting the public know and making sure that Enbridge always reports on any leakages that are taking place.

To the member from Kiiwetinoong: You noted that there was no funding for consultation with all the communities affected by the Ring of Fire. I wonder if you could talk a little about how many times members from northern First Nations communities have come to Queen’s Park and not received meetings, not had meetings with the Premier.

I’d like to ask a question to the member from Algoma–Manitoulin. I’m just wondering if you have any concerns about access to service. We know the objective of the bill, but in practice, in northern communities, it doesn’t always look that way. I wonder if you could speak to that.

I was saying neither one nor the other. What I was saying is that there is a two-year wait, and that the reason there is such a long wait is because the Conservative government removed many of the people who were there and then took years and years to appoint new adjudicators.

What the Ombudsman’s report says clearly is that it takes time for adjudicators to be trained, and that is part of why there are so many delays in getting hearings at the Landlord and Tenant Board.

What we have is many, many people coming into our region who are hoping to find a place to live, who are hoping to find work, but often they are coming with nothing, with no supports at all, so it is very difficult.

I have some optimism toward the government’s plan—which is not yet a part of this bill—to support housing for our homeless population. I do have some optimism there, but I don’t see anything in this bill itself that contributes to solving that problem.

I remind the minister and the government that they have been in power for five years, and nothing has been done to remediate the situation.

One family has been waiting nine years to place their son in a group home. Like the other families caring for their developmentally disabled adult children, they’re terrified of what will happen to their children as they themselves become too old to look after them.

Speaker, things are far worse than they were seven years ago, distressingly, and yet there’s no additional funding for assisted living services in the new budget. The government tabled a bill that doesn’t seem to recognize the urgency of this situation.

When will they start prioritizing people with developmental disabilities by making meaningful investments in assisted living?

You have communication with two First Nations, but I’m wondering what your plans are for the five other First Nations in the region who are opposed and who are very, very upset that announcements have been made about the Ring of Fire without their free, prior and informed consent.

We know we don’t want the men and women who work in mines to wind up living in mining camps long-term. We want them to be building communities in neighbouring municipalities or creating new communities, but in order for people to have confidence that they can build their lives in these communities that are very close to where the mines are, and raise families there, they also need to be confident that the remediation that follows has already been planned and financed, that those financial guarantees are there. Otherwise, you’re looking at very precarious—you don’t know whether you can really trust those places as places to live for the long term.

That’s my concern, and I wonder if you can speak to that.

Last year, the Premier promised workers at the Alstom plant in Thunder Bay, “We will make sure anything bought in Ontario should be produced in Ontario.” But this government secretly lowered the Canadian content rules for the Ontario Line from 25% to 10%. The Ontario Line contract went to a Japanese consortium, and $2.3-billion worth of subway car manufacturing jobs are leaving the province.

The United States requires 75% American content for publicly funded transit vehicles, and this government won’t even commit to 25%. Why did the Premier break his promise to Thunder Bay workers and send their jobs overseas?

Will the Premier commit to announcing their financial support for the new TTC cars before the new year, and further, will the Premier commit to maintaining at least 25% Canadian content in all future light rail projects, ensuring that our world-class manufacturing facility in Thunder Bay not only survives, but thrives?