Good morning, Speaker. It feels good to be back. Colleagues, it’s good to see you all.

Last Thursday, I had the honour of joining the member from Eglinton–Lawrence and the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health in announcing that the Grand River Community Health Centre in Brantford will receive $1.7 million; the Six Nations of the Grand River Family Health Team will receive $1.8 million; and De dwa da dehs nye>s Aboriginal Health Centre will receive $264,700.

This combined $3.8-million investment will allow over 14,000 new patients to be connected to primary health care in the province of Ontario and in my riding. These annualized investments will allow primary care teams to connect people to a range of health professionals, including doctors, nurse practitioners, registered and practical nurses, physiotherapists, social workers and dietitians, among others.

Timely access to primary care helps people stay healthier for longer with faster diagnosis and treatment, while relieving pressures on the emergency department and walk-in clinics. These investments into the Brantford–Brant community are keeping in line with our government’s other historic investments to expand medical schools and take down barriers so highly skilled medical professionals can practise in the province of Ontario.

I am proud to represent a government that prioritizes the health of Ontarians and is working to provide 98% of the province with primary care over the course of the next few years. I will continue to advocate for the resiliency of Brantford–Brant and will keep working to ensure that Ontario’s primary care system is more robust, public and accessible than ever.

Mr. Speaker, it’s great to be back at the Legislature.

Every February, people across Canada participate in Black History Month events and festivities that honour the legacy of Black people in Canada and their communities. In Orléans, we are fortunate to benefit from the diversity that a vibrant Black community has and the leadership that its members offer us.

The Global Community Alliance is a community-based organization, established with a mission to bring members of various communities together to organize and facilitate events that highlight diversity and inclusion, and to recognize the efforts of individuals, associations, businesses and others that are making a difference within our diverse community.

This year, Global Community Alliance is celebrating its 12th annual gala and awards ceremony in recognition of Black History Month. The brainchild of Orléans residents Kelly and Yomi Pratt, this annual event brings to a close Black History Month celebrations in the nation’s capital. Over the past 12 years, the gala has been one of the most sought-after events in Ottawa’s social calendar, and this year’s gala, the first since the pandemic, promises to be no different.

Proceeds will be donated to the Children at Risk association, an Ottawa-based community organization that provides services and programs to families of children diagnosed with autism. I’m very much looking forward to attending the event this weekend.

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.

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—

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?

It’s so nice to be back here with everyone, and thank you to the member for that important question.

Speaker, I think, yesterday, on Family Day, many people likely spent a lot of time with Ontario’s fantastic restaurant and hospitality workers. I’d like to thank Kelly, Tracy and the incredible team at Restaurants Canada for the work that they do. In fact, it’s 400,000 diligent workers in Ontario’s service sector who get up each and every day, working hard, and that’s why we’ve tackled to implement significant measures to support them.

In our latest Working for Workers bill, we’ve introduced measures that, if passed, will disclose salary ranges in job postings, ban unpaid trial shifts and prohibit wage deductions in instances like dine-and-dash. These are important measures we’re taking to ensure that we stand with these great workers who help make our precious time with friends and family worth it. I want to thank them for the great work that they do. This government will always have their backs.

Thank you, Speaker, for the question.

I want to touch on two other measures we’re taking. One, we’re ensuring the disclosure of policies related to sharing of pooled tips in restaurants—that’s another important measure we’ve heard from workers is important—and empowering those workers to take home more of their tip pay. We’ve seen in many restaurants they use apps on your phone now to access your tips, and that’s taking deductions off of the hard-working pay of these workers. That’s why we’re empowering them to select where and how those tips get deposited into the bank accounts of these hard-working workers.

But I will just close saying, for these workers to work, you actually need to create the conditions for jobs. That’s why our government has worked so hard. You’ve heard from the Minister of Economic Development the incredible conditions we’ve put in place to attract these high-paying jobs in Ontario that support our hospitality and service workers—

I want to welcome everyone back, especially my new colleague from Kitchener Centre.

My question is for the Premier. Your government is not getting it done when it comes to the housing crisis. Instead of building homes ordinary people can afford, you’ve wasted time and money on backroom deals for speculators.

I’ve put forward a common-sense bill to quickly build more homes and lower costs without expensive sprawl onto farms, forests and wetlands. Speaker, will the Premier say yes to legalizing housing by ending exclusionary zoning, so we can build as-of-right fourplexes and four-storey homes that people can afford in the communities they know and love?

Speaker, will the Premier say no to speculators by saying yes to homes people can afford, by legalizing fourplexes and four-storeys as of right in neighbourhoods across this province in the communities people love?