I’d like to welcome to the House today an excellent lawyer from Durham, Ms. Kelli Preston, and her son Liam, a major in political science.

I would like to introduce my friends Kate Dudley-Logue, Rhonda Allaby-Glass and Bruce McIntosh from the Ontario Autism Coalition. Welcome to your House this morning.

It’s probably no secret from some of my statements that I am an advocate of policing and a lover of social media. A little-known fact about me: I did my undergrad in philosophy, but it was specifically focusing on Islamic Golden Age philosophy and theology in a historical lens. I never thought all of those things would come together, but they did.

Early on in my journey of being an MPP, I was on Instagram, and I ended up connecting with a Toronto police officer where we were talking about school resource officers. Our friendship since then has developed significantly. My friend Farhan Ali, who is present here, is a Muslim officer, and his insights became incredibly important to me as an MPP representing a very diverse riding with a lot of newcomers to Canada. He was a wonderful resource for me.

I’m also, as you know, a big advocate of community policing, which is about building those relationships early on. What I’m very pleased to be commemorating today is that Farhan has joined with Constable Haroon Siddiqui, who was primarily our first Muslim liaison officer, and together, the two of them are now part of a new operation, a new organization, spearheaded by Officer Demkiw of the Toronto Police Service, to really maintain those relationships: to foster current relationships and build new ones in the Muslim community. I think that’s an absolutely wonderful initiative and, also, I want to celebrate good friends of mine.

Let the honourable member take her seat.

As a result of the recent by-election in Kitchener Centre, the number of members sitting as independents has increased by one since the House last met in December. Our practices must now be adjusted accordingly to ensure that these members have a reasonable opportunity to participate in our daily proceedings and in debate.

During question period, I will recognize the new independent member to ask a question during each eight-day period, allowing us to accommodate all 15 eligible independent members into the rotation. This means that one independent member will be recognized to ask a question each day, with a second independent member recognized on alternate Mondays as well as every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Each independent member recognized during question period will continue to have the opportunity to ask one question and one supplementary question.

Additionally, the member for Kitchener Centre will be allotted three minutes of speaking time for debates on second and third reading of government bills and on substantive government motions. This time may be banked but not shared.

Finally, with regard to members’ statements, there will continue to be one statement allotted to an independent member every sessional day. However, each eligible member will now be entitled to participate in this proceeding once per 15-day period instead of once per 14-day period.

To respond, the Premier.

The supplementary question?

Premier.

The final supplementary?

It’s great to be back in the House here, and it’s so nice to see everyone.

Maybe I’ll start with the cost of living. The Leader of the Opposition went around the province, she said, and looked at the cost of living. Well, let’s tell your constituents and everyone in Ontario that you voted against the one fare that we put forward that saves people $1,600 a year. She voted against getting rid of the licence sticker fee; again, voted against reducing the gas tax by 10.7 cents. She voted against getting rid of the tolls on the 412 and 418. So I don’t think the Leader of the Opposition really cares about the people and making sure that they keep the costs down, taxes down, because she’s voted constantly against us reducing the tax.

Let’s talk about health care. There’s no government in the history of this country, not to mention the province, that is spending $81 billion a year—that’s up over $20 billion since 2018. In the—

Do you know something? The nurses out there—we’re paying for the education of new nurses, and obviously, there’s a huge take-up, because we set another record of 17,500 nurses registered last year. We’ve seen over 80,000 nurses register in this province in the last five years. Over 10,400 doctors have registered. We’ve added more seats: 449 postgraduate seats, 260 undergraduate seats. We’re building new medical universities, which haven’t been built in decades. As the Liberals froze health care funding, we increased it $21 billion. As they slashed physician services and cut residency seats, we’ve added them. We’ve added over 3,500 beds. We’re going to add another 3,000 beds—

Good morning, Speaker, and welcome back. It’s good to be back here, I think.

This question is for the Premier. Throughout the break, I was travelling all around this province. It’s pretty clear that people all across this province are hurting right now. They’re feeling the rising cost of everything from utilities to mortgage payments, groceries, rent. For workers in our hospitals, in our schools, in the broader public sector, they’ve also had to contend with their own government fighting to suppress their wages with Bill 124 and then with the costly legal battle and campaign to defend that bill. But the workers won, and the courts have ruled once again that Bill 124 was unconstitutional. It was an unconstitutional attack on the rights of working people and their paycheques.

So my question to the Premier is: Will he apologize to Ontario’s hard-working nurses, PSWs, teachers, educational assistants and all the public sector workers for suppressing their wages with Bill 124?

Interjections.

I’ll tell you, Premier, that did not sound like an apology to me. The government not only used their power to cut the wages of health care and education workers during a pandemic, they spent untold amounts of dollars fighting those workers in court for years, only to be told what we already all knew: The bill is and always was unconstitutional.

Speaker, through you again to the Premier—do-over—how much did this government spend on legal costs to keep down workers’ wages on Bill 124?

Interjections.

Bill 124 deteriorated conditions in hospitals, in long-term-care facilities, at the worst possible time. We were already struggling with rampant hallway medicine when this government came into power, and they managed to make things even worse. Burned-out nurses, health care workers have been leaving the sector in droves. They can’t get out of here fast enough with this government in power. And guess what, Speaker? Private nursing agencies, the friends of this government, have been ready to jump in and fill the gap, bleeding our hospitals dry at the same time, and demanding exorbitant fees for exactly the same work.

Speaker, back to the Premier: Will he admit his choices worsened the crisis facing our health care system and, once and for all, please, apologize to Ontarians for Bill 124.

Interjections.

Speaker, I have the honour to present to you and to the House Aislinn Clancy, member for the electoral district of Kitchener Centre, who has taken the oath and signed the roll and now claims the right to take her seat.

I have a letter dated December 13, 2023, addressed to the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario that reads as follows:

“Dear Mr. Day:

“A writ of election, dated the 1st day of November, 2023, was issued by the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario and addressed to Cathy McInnes, returning officer for Kitchener Centre. This writ was for the election of a member of provincial Parliament to represent Kitchener Centre in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, following the resignation of Laura Mae Lindo as representative of this electoral district.

“This is to certify that, an election having been granted and held in Kitchener Centre on the 30th day of November, 2023, Aislinn Clancy has been duly elected, as appears by the return of the said writ of election dated the 2nd day of December, 2023, which is now lodged of record in my office.

“Yours sincerely,

“Greg Essensa

“Chief Electoral Officer.”

Ms. Clancy was escorted into the House by Mr. Schreiner.

Mr. Speaker, I think that’s a question better asked to the authorities. We’re continuing to work with them, but at the same time, we are continuing to focus on things that matter to the people of the province of Ontario.

Look, there can be no confusion about the fact that we inherited a housing crisis in the province of Ontario. We’ve heard that from former Liberal ministers who have been testifying in front of the regional government review committee, who talked about the crisis that was created under the previous Liberal government.

We’re undoing those obstacles, Mr. Speaker, and we’re seeing, month after month after month, a trend is continuing in a very positive way, despite the high inflation, high interest rate policies of a federal Liberal government bent on hurting the Canadian economy. We’re seeing strength in the province of Ontario.

Now, these are the same policies, of course, federally that we saw here in the province of Ontario—colleagues, you will know this—high interest rates, high inflation, out of control debt, spiralling costs for the people of the province of Ontario. That is what we’ve put back on track. We’re ensuring that people have jobs and opportunity, and we will not stop on that mission, Mr. Speaker.

Members will please take their seats.

The Deputy Premier and Minister of Health.

Premier?

To respond for the government, the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery.

Our ministry officials took the opportunity, with expiring contracts at some ServiceOntario locations, to reach out to a dozen potential retail partners. This is part of a tradition that goes back a century. Every party that has ever formed government here at Queen’s Park has embraced and expanded the private service delivery model, to the point where we now have 71% private sector delivery models in this province, and it works. The retail partnership model has proven so successful with Canadian Tire, IDA and Home Hardware that we’ve expanded it:

—longer hours—up to 9 p.m. on weeknights;

—more parking;

—more accessibility;

—ability to make appointments online, so you can get in and out of interacting with government in just 15 minutes; and

—of course, all-day Saturdays, 9 to 5.

This is what Ontarians have embraced and appreciate. It’s about convenience. It’s about putting the customer first. The people of Ontario come first. That’s why we’re doing this.

Speaker, I want to be very clear what the Leader of the Opposition is asking for. She is asking that 17,000 people who received cataract eye surgery and minor eye surgery last year are still on wait-lists. That is what you are asking for.

When Premier Ford announced an expansion of cataract surgeries in the province of Ontario in January 2023, that meant 17,000 people are back reading to their children, are back volunteering in community, are back driving their vehicles. That’s what we are doing to make sure people are looked after in the province of Ontario.

Just consider for a moment, Speaker, how many times this government has let Ontarians down. We are starting this session with another example of that, another policy reversal.

Here’s the thing, though: There are consequences. Because of Bill 124, the privatization of health care and the growth of these for-profit nursing agencies has absolutely exploded. Ontarians want reliable, publicly delivered health care, not a publicly funded revenue stream for private companies.

Back to the Premier: If the government is going to continue backing up the policy train this session, can they make reversing their privatization of health care their next signature policy reversal?

Interjections.

Speaker, the government has had to backtrack on almost all of their major policy decisions because they met with tremendous public opposition: the greenbelt grab, unilateral municipal boundary changes, the dissolution of Peel, licence plates you can’t read, cuts to public health during a pandemic—all bad ideas that we warned you about. At this rate, they’re going to spend more time reversing their own legislation than taking the actions that would make life better for the people of Ontario, the people that they were elected to serve.

Speaker, back to the Premier: How many reversals, how many flip-flops, how many backtracks does he have to be forced to make before he realizes that his insiders-first agenda is failing Ontario?

Interjections.

I want to take, for a moment, the plan to sell off our critical services at ServiceOntario to yet another American big box corporation, like Staples and Walmart. Ontarians are so on to you. They are so on to you, and they can tell that this is another privatization scheme, Speaker, that is going to make corporations richer and not serve the people of this province.

My question is for the Premier: How exactly did Staples get a sole-source contract to open ServiceOntario kiosks?

Speaker, to the Premier: Since the Legislature was last in session, Ontarians want to know, how many government officials, including ministers’ staff and staff in the Premier’s office, have spoken with the RCMP as part of their investigation into the greenbelt scandal?

The greenbelt grab was an $8.3-billion scheme intended only to carve up vital resources in the province of Ontario for wealthy developers with connections to this government. And I will remind everyone in this room again: They are being criminally investigated by the RCMP for that scheme. It has cost this government at least two cabinet ministers. An RCMP investigation, I will remind you again, is under way. And we are still no closer to improving access to affordable housing in this province.

Today in Ontario, housing starts are down from last year, the cost of housing is skyrocketing and rents are worse than ever. Encampments have become the norm in most cities. Will the Premier finally act, support our proposal to build the affordable, non-market housing that people desperately need and bring back real rent control?

Interjections.

I find this so ironic. Their government, the NDP government, supported the Liberals. They fired 1,600 nurses. We’ve registered 17,500—80,000 since we’ve been in office. We’re building 50 new hospitals, as I said—either building them or expanding the hospitals, adding 3,000 beds. We’re going to add another 3,500 beds when these new hospitals go up.

But one of the best was a couple of weeks ago when my Minister of Health added $110 million to connect 300,000 more patients to family physicians—and, by the way, it’s the lowest in the country, Mr. Speaker.

We’re going to continue investing into health care. Just the pharmacies alone served over 700,000 people that didn’t have to go to primary care docs in less than a year. That’s what we’re doing for health care. As they continue to vote against health care, we continue to fund it and expand health care.

Another great thing since we took office—the Liberals and NDP chased 300,000 jobs out of this province because they were going to the service sector. Do you remember that? Well, there’s 700,000 more people working today than there were five and a half years ago. That’s what we have done.

Again, there can be no doubt that when we came to office in 2018, Ontario was facing a crisis, largely as the result of policies of the previous Liberal government, policies that of course are under way in Ottawa: high inflation, high interest rate policies, which have made it difficult to build homes.

However, because of the policies of this government, we are seeing, month after month after month, housing starts continuing to increase in the province of Ontario. In fact, we have met our target for last year, and the year has actually started off very strong. But the trend line is a very important one, and we’re going in the right direction. I’m very happy about that, Mr. Speaker.

When it comes to purpose-built rentals, in fact, more purpose-built rental starts have happened under this government’s watch than at any time in the history of the province, Mr. Speaker, because what we’re trying to do is end what the NDP and the Liberals did for 15 years. We’re trying to end NIMBYism, to make sure that we make the most use out of the investments that we’re making in transit, in transportation.

We will meet our targets, we will reduce obstacles and we will restore Ontario to the best place to live, work, invest and raise a family, to ensure that all Ontarians have the dignity and the opportunity to have the same dream that millions more did. That dream was lost under the previous Liberal government. This Progressive Conservative government will restore it.

My ministry and our government are always looking for alternative service delivery models, building on a century of private sector delivery models. Small business will always be part of that, but the retail partnership process is also such a great success, with the extended hours, with the convenience and the community hubs associated with it. Every single location that was due to expire anyway, every single one of those employees is eligible for employment at any one of the retail partnerships, including that of Staples Canada.

This is good news for Ontarians. They welcome the longer hours—up to 9 p.m. weeknights, all day Saturday—more accessibility, more parking and the convenience of online booking. That is interaction with government that puts the customer first. The people of Ontario come first every time with ServiceOntario.

As I have indicated, there are no job losses whatsoever on the government side. Everyone on the private side has the opportunity and are eligible for employment at the extended-hours locations of the nine Staples Canada locations.

Members will please take their seats.

Interjections.

The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

To reply, the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery.

I want to say a heartfelt welcome back to all my friends and colleagues in the House.

My question is for the Minister of Transportation. Residents in my riding of Thornhill have been extremely vocal about the need for more infrastructure to support the rapid and consistent growth of Ontario’s population. In 2018, our government promised to get people moving and better connected to communities across the province. We’re keeping our promise and building new highways, roads and transit, but at this time, these projects just can’t come soon enough.

Speaker, can the minister please explain what steps he is taking to build infrastructure faster?

Speaker, we know that in order to ensure Ontario remains the best place to live in Canada, to work, to raise a family, we also need to ensure that costs remain low for Ontarians. People in my community and across this province need stability and certainty. Can the minister please explain what steps our government is taking to make life more affordable for communities and businesses?

The member from Thornhill is absolutely right: After 15 years of previous governments neglecting their duty to build infrastructure, transit and highways across this province, our government is getting it done. Our population is growing rapidly—over a million people in the next two years—and we need to build that infrastructure now. That’s why, in 2019, our government made it a priority to introduce the Building Transit Faster Act to ensure that we can better connect the people in the GTHA, and faster.

Speaker, we know that more transit is needed today, and it couldn’t come soon enough. Whether it’s highways or transit, our government is committed to building Ontario, which is why later today our government will introduce legislation that tackles unnecessary delays and makes it easier and faster to build. We are the only party working to save Ontarians money while fighting for fast and reliable infrastructure.

We’re also giving commuters more certainty by permanently banning tolls on provincial highways. We know we are the only party standing up for Ontarians. We are the only party focused on making life easier for people and building our future. That is why we have removed vehicle val tags. That is why we have reduced taxes by over 10 cents per litre at the gas pumps and that is why we will also continue to fight for the people of Ontario and keep costs down.

Speaker, through you to the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery: This month, 11 small business people in Ontario were told they would lose their business. Their ServiceOntario contracts were ripped away without a tendering process and handed to Staples, a big box American corporation that is in the process of laying off staff. These businesses were then sent a threatening email telling them not to speak to the media.

What followed was an interview between this minister and Richard Southern, from CityNews, that can only be described as a dumpster fire inside a train wreck. This minister couldn’t produce a business plan and was not aware of the costs or basic details of the sole-source contract.

When will this government stop pandering to big box corporations and apologize to small business owners who feel they’ve been slapped in the face?

Interjections.

But she told CityNews she feels she’s been treated like garbage and said, “I’ve been a PC member my entire life. I’ve stuck by them my whole life. I’m finally done.”

Did the Premier have prior knowledge that small business owners like Klaudia were going to be used and abused in this manner, or is this yet another example of incompetence in the offices of the Premier and his cabinet?