I rise in the House to join in on the debate today on opposition day motion number 3.

Madam Speaker, since we were elected, we—I bet you every member here in this House can agree that we inherited an absolute mess and mismanagement of this province. The former government chased away 300,000 jobs.

Over the past six years, our government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, has invested back in the people of Ontario. To that end, Ontario is becoming a world-class province that is now being taken seriously on the global stage. We are competitive with all 50 states, creating more manufacturing jobs than all states combined. As the Premier has said many times over and over, we are eating their lunch.

Toronto continues to grow, and that’s why we here in Toronto are focused on building infrastructure and promoting amenities that realize the vision of Toronto as a world-class city.

When we talk about advertising, the former Liberal government advertised, and they were told that they advertised inappropriately. But we, this government, have cut advertising spending by 75%, from $62.6 million in 2017-18 to $16.4 million in 2018-19. I guess when you’re the Liberal government and you’re driving away jobs and when you’re driving away the economy; when people are struggling to do anything; when you’re not building schools; when you’re actually closing 600 schools; when you’re not building any roads, so people can’t get from A to B; when you’re not investing in infrastructure, the only thing you can do is advertise.

But we are not advertising like the Liberals. As the Auditor General said, they did not provide viewers with useful information; they were actually misleading. On the other hand, when we are advertising, we’re talking about the great things that are happening in Ontario.

I’d like to share a couple of examples of some of the great things that we can showcase about our province.

I know not everybody in this room may agree with Ontario Place, but I am so excited about the future of Ontario Place for this province. It is going to be such an amazing place.

Interjections.

Thank you. It is. It absolutely is.

I remember, as a kid, going there in the 1970s, and it was this wonderful place. My dad took us, and we went to this water park and swung on some ropes. I’m excited for the future and for the next generation to see this great place and enjoy it as we did as kids.

And it’s not just about Toronto; that’s about everywhere. That’s not just about the people who live and breathe in Toronto; that’s about people who live in Windsor, people who live in the States—people who live all around the world can come to this beautiful province and see what we have to offer. And that’s what advertising is all about. Let’s see what we have in Ontario. It is an amazing province.

And we are investing. What are we investing in?

We’re investing in housing. We hear about that every day—the money we’re investing in housing. We are building houses in our province.

We are investing in our hospitals. In my riding alone, the Queensway health care centre is building a new nine-storey patient tower. And at St. Joseph’s hospital, we’re also building.

Do you know what? It is an amazing time to be living in Ontario. I am extremely excited.

Schools: We are rebuilding schools. In my riding alone, we are rebuilding four schools. Thank you to the Minister of Education. And in September of this year, we’re going to have two brand new schools open—Holy Angels and St. Leo—which are going to be first-class, all with child care spaces for those parents, so it makes an easy drop-off when you have to drop off two little ones versus driving around town. So I thank the minister for those investments. I can’t wait to get shovels in the ground for our Bishop Allen school. It’s going to be a high school in our riding for 1,400 students. Those kids at Bishop Allen certainly deserve a new school, so we’re very excited.

We have investments in our schools, our universities, our colleges.

We are creating economic growth, jobs, as I mentioned—700,000 jobs. We need to be promoting those. We want people to come to Ontario to live. If they don’t know Ontario is a much better place than it was when the Liberals were in power, how are they going to come here? So we need to advertise to let people know that we are building our province. We have the best province, and why would we not share that with the world?

I had the opportunity to drive this weekend. It was a beautiful, sunny weekend, and I was driving east along the 401, and then I drove west along the 401. While I was driving, I heard some of the ads on the radio—and I don’t want to say too much because I don’t want to take away from my colleague from Niagara West. It talked about taking the GO to Niagara. I never thought about taking the GO to Niagara. I have some American cousins coming up for Easter weekend, and I was trying to figure out, how do I go to work and how do I let them enjoy—because they want to go down to Niagara Falls. Well, now I can tell them they can take the GO, thanks to the government ads. So this was good news. And it’s always good to hear the great things that we’re building.

And when you’re stuck in traffic, isn’t it nice to know that the government of Ontario has our back and we are going to be building more roads so we can actually get from A to B even quicker? I can’t say that about this morning—the one lane is cut off from the Gardiner, so I was a little bit later than I had hoped this morning. But investments in the Gardiner and the DVP, investments in the city of Toronto will help eventually get that traffic moving. I’m a driver. I like to drive my car, and I know many people here do like to drive their cars. We need solid roads to drive on.

I thank the government for investing—and I appreciate hearing that we are investing in our communities, not just here in Toronto but all across the province.

Every year, I always take a drive to Thunder Bay, which is where my family resides. We like to go to camp—we call it camp—up north. There is a beautiful drive to Thunder Bay. If you haven’t taken that drive, I really highly recommend that road. You just have to make sure that there isn’t a flood across Wawa—I’ve been stuck there a couple of times and had to take Sultan road. It’s a great drive, and it’s beautiful scenery.

We want people to come to our province and see these beautiful sights.

Northern Ontario is such a beautiful place to go and drive, especially in the summer. I’m not sure about the winter—I’m not a big fan of winter driving—but in the summertime, it’s such a great place to go and visit.

I highly recommend for all those viewing around the world, come to northern Ontario, come to Toronto. We have great things to offer.

Something else we’ve been talking about is One Fare. I had a little interview with one of my students from Humber College. Our college students are thrilled with One Fare. It’s going to save them money. And that’s for everybody. If you do come to Toronto and you don’t have a car, you can hop on a GO bus, you can hop on transit and go around the GTA with one fare. Our government is saving not just Ontarians but other people from around the world who visit us can also save money with One Fare.

Congratulations to the government on the One Fare program. It is amazing for students, and it will be amazing for tourists so they can get around this community.

I want to highlight a couple of other things that I love about my city.

I already talked about Ontario Place because I’m extremely excited about the future for Ontario Place.

Do you know what? You can take the GO downtown. I don’t know if anybody here is a Raptors fan. I know we had the number one fan—the super fan—here on Thursday. You can go to a Blue Jays game, taking the GO train. You can enjoy our diners—places for lunch and dinner. You can go see the Leafs. Hopefully, when you go see the Leafs, they are winning—often they are not, but we certainly always love our Leafs. It’s something certainly to see in Toronto—making a stop at the art gallery and see KAWS that’s there right now, and the CN Tower, the Rogers Centre, Casa Loma.

What about Casa Loma? I don’t know if anyone has ever seen Casa Loma. It’s a great old building, a nice castle, and you can grab a snack there.

Advertising our cities is something that’s important—not just about places to go, but events and festivals such as the Pride parade. Let’s advertise. Let’s get people from all around the world. They come here for the Pride parade and celebrate our diversity and our culture. We’re very proud. I’m a very proud Torontonian. I go to the Pride parade every year, and I just think it’s an amazing opportunity for all.

We also have Caribana coming up. I know they showcased an event here at the Legislature not too long ago so we could see a little bit about what that’s going to be about this year. We certainly want people from all around the world to come and celebrate Caribana the week of August 1 to 5.

What else do we have here? We’ve got tons of multicultural events.

Come on down to Toronto if you love to eat.

We have Greektown. We have Chinatown. We have Little India. We have the Latin and Spanish community.

Madam Speaker, we have so much to see and do here in Ontario. I am so proud of living in this province.

I was with the Premier on Friday. I heard him talk about this province, and I left there with a smile on my face, saying, “I am so proud to live in this province, with a government that cares—investing in health care, investing in our schools, investing in our students, investing in people. We are making a difference.”

Because I live in the riding of the largest food terminal—I’m running out of time—and I know the agriculture minister is here, I have one last thing to say: Good things grow in Ontario.

Further debate?

I’m glad to talk about partisan advertising and how much it costs the taxpayer.

I want to quote the Auditor General, who said, “We documented concerns about one campaign” submitted by the government, called Building a Better Health Care System campaign. “Our office concluded that the primary objective of” this campaign “was to foster a positive impression of the government.”

The Auditor General went on to say that of the 443 ads submitted, 181 would have been classified as partisan for their content.

This campaign represented $20.8 million in advertising spending.

Let me quote the Minister of Health from when she was in opposition. She said, “These millions of dollars on these ads could have been spent on other causes” like “how to deal with the fentanyl crisis. This information could have saved lives, but instead it is helping the Premier’s re-election campaign. That is unacceptable, and it must stop.” I fully agree.

She went on to say, “It is clear that these ads ... are not about the well-being of Ontario, but the well-being of the Ontario Liberal Party.”

I agree with all of this, but it is a repeat—exactly the same thing that they were against when they were in opposition and the Liberals were doing it, they now think that it is all good.

That $20.8 million: If this would have been invested into northern Ontario, into our interdisciplinary primary health care teams, everyone in Ontario would have had access to primary care. It would be a game-changer. If that money would have been invested in northern Ontario, the safe consumption sites, supervised consumption sites in Sudbury and Timmins would stay open. The one in Sault Ste. Marie would have the money to open. It would save lives. But no, $20.8 million of the $33.72 million in advertising spending from this government went to partisan advertising—so the Auditor General told us. We know that it is wrong.

Let’s do something good for a change. Let’s make sure that taxpayers are not paying for partisan advertising. Vote for this NDP motion.

Further debate?

I’m very grateful to be able to rise this afternoon and participate in debate on a motion from the Leader of the Opposition—and for their participation this afternoon. I’ve listened very intently to a number of different colleagues speaking passionately about the motion before the House, and I want to thank all those members for adding their voices to debate.

I want to pose a question to the members who are here in the chamber this afternoon, and my question to you all is: When? When did the New Democratic Party become a party that failed to aspire for better? When did the New Democratic Party become a party that believed in opportunity for the people of Ontario? When did the New Democratic Party of Ontario become a party that no longer believed that if you could see it, you could be it? I want to build on that theme in relation to this motion this afternoon, because we’ve all heard that phrase, and I think it’s an important one. It’s an important aspect of all of our roles in this House—to lift up those voices who aren’t always lifted up; to ensure that the people we have the privilege of representing understand that there are opportunities that exist here for them in the province of Ontario. I look at the almost a million people who came to this province last year from so many corners of the world, because they believed that better was possible when they made their home here in Ontario. Aside from those who are in this chamber who are Indigenous, all of us came from somewhere—we all came from somewhere, to this province, from another land, believing that we had the opportunity to grow a life for our family, to build a career, to build opportunities for our children, because we saw that potential in the lives of those who had come before us. We saw it and we believed it, and we knew that if we saw it, we could be it.

And yet, when we see the New Democrats, the party who I know will often stand in this chamber and say, “It is the New Democrats who were the party of advocating for primarily government-paid health care”; who have a long history of standing for not just workers’ rights, but farmers’ rights, standing for those who work hard to build strong products that we can be proud of in every corner of this globe, I have to ask the question: When? When did the NDP lose their way? When did they fail to see that supporting these workers, supporting the incredible products that are grown here in Ontario, that are exported from this province, means that we all have a responsibility, as legislators, as members of the legislative branch, but also, in the government, in the executive branch—wanting to make a little bit of a distinction between those two here. The executive branch and the government also have a role in promoting that opportunity, so that those who see what happens here in Ontario, those who see those opportunities, understand that that is also an opportunity for them.

Speaker, I know I don’t have that much time, so I’m not going to be able to dig into all the examples of that, but I think of those I’ve met in my constituency, who came here with very, very little—family members, neighbours, those I’ve had the opportunity to meet, from church basements to town halls and chambers of commerce—who said that they came to this province with a dream and a belief in what was possible if they worked hard, if they followed the rules, and if they were able to bring forward good ideas that could grow the economy, grow their community and grow a better home for their children. And now they are the same people I had the opportunity to speak with, who come to me in my constituency office and say, “What we are seeing in the province of Ontario, finally, is a government that dares to dream big, that believes in the potential of this province, and that is giving us the tools to succeed.”

And there are a few different areas to that. One of the reasons is that—I think it’s important that we’re seeing the government promote made-in-Ontario and Ontario opportunities, and one of the advantages that we have in comparison with every other jurisdiction of the world is our manufacturing strength.

In Niagara, we have a long, proud, rich history of manufacturing. It stems from our ability to capture the incredible power of Niagara Falls. If you have the opportunity, go through the Niagara Parks station and see that incredible site, where, for over 100 years, the power of the Falls has been harnessed to drive big machinery. And we have many, many people working with that machinery to produce incredible products.

In Ontario, it’s a legacy that we saw, under the former Liberal government, go by the wayside. We saw the former Liberal government abandon labour; we saw them abandon the hard-working men and women in places like Niagara and across Ontario who build incredible products—from our auto parts sector to our advanced manufacturing sector, in aerospace engineering to the mining sector, and everything in between. Ensuring that along every part of that supply chain continuum, there were those who were not just saving a little bit of money to be able to put food on the table—that’s important, too—but who were able to put more than that away, to be able to ensure that they have something in the bank account for a rainy day or to put their kids through university. Those are the dreams that the province of Ontario is upholding and is uplifting by the investments that have been made in things like the electric vehicle space; by ensuring that strong manufacturing is coming back in a way that we have never seen in the province of Ontario.

Speaker, I don’t know if you’ve had the opportunity to hear the statistic—it was something that, when I first heard it, frankly, made me surprised but also understand now why I’m seeing that amount of growth in the Niagara region. Last year, in the province of Ontario, more manufacturing jobs were created than not one, not two, not 10, not 20, not 30, but all 52 US states combined. That is a dream and an opportunity that is a reality for so many men and women who are now able to work good jobs in those areas.

Speaker, it’s about ensuring that there’s clean, affordable energy, so that people aren’t worried about having to choose between heating and eating but are able to ensure that when they look forward to the future, when they dream about what is possible, they are able to know that, whether it’s next year, this year or five or 10 years from now, when they come home and they plug in their electric vehicle made in Ontario, they are able to have clean, affordable, reliable energy being produced because of the nuclear investments that this government is making.

It means that when they have a child or they have a loved one they have to take to a walk-in clinic, or whether it’s someone they have to take to a local hospital—like the two new hospitals going up in Niagara. It’s not just the new West Lincoln Memorial Hospital that we saw cancelled by the Liberal government, with the support of the NDP, in the 2012 budget—when the NDP propped up the Liberal government and cancelled the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital. It’s not just the new South Niagara Hospital that’s going up. It’s work on other sites—for example, the new Hotel Dieu Shaver site that’s being worked on as we speak; the planning for an expanded rehabilitation hospital in the Niagara region. Not one, not two, but three hospitals are coming to the Niagara region.

It’s incredibly important, though, that we have the people to do that work. That’s why, when I go and I visit the students, so many of them, again, from across this world—not just Canadian-born, but those who come from every corner who see the opportunities that exist in this province and believe that, if they come here, they will be able to leave a better life for their children than those who came before them. They’ve seen the advertisements; they’ve seen the important work that’s already being done here, and they believe that they have a government that has their back. That’s why, when I go to Brock University and I go through their nursing program and I speak with the students who are in that nursing program—they tell me, “A couple of years ago, there used to be 300 spots, and we were all competing for these 300 spots in this nursing program at Brock University.” Today there are 760 students in that nursing program at Brock University—well over double the amount of training spots. Those are people who have the opportunity now to give back, to earn a good wage, to be able to earn a good salary for their family, but also who are able to provide incredible care in a time with aging demographics, when we need people to provide that care.

So I look at my history and my family’s history, when we came here after the Second World War because we saw Canadians who dared to dream big. We saw Canadians who were willing to go overseas to put their lives on the line—men and women like those from the Lincoln and Welland Regiment, who I had the opportunity to join at their officers’ mess over the weekend, in St. Catharines—who believed in freedom and opportunity so much that they were willing to put their lives on the line and, by doing so, to go overseas to liberate my grandparents in Holland, in the Netherlands, and to be, in fact, a form of a walking advertisement for the best of what Canada is.

Those people, when they came here and they saw the incredible opportunity that was happening in the post-World War II era here in Canada, saw a national dream that was being created.

And who was part of that dream? Who was part of the national conversation that was happening? Of course, I know they’ve never formed government, at least at the federal level— and it took another 40 years for them to form government here, provincially. The New Democrats, or the CCFers, I guess they were called at that point. They might not have been people who, again, my ancestors always philosophically agreed with. My ancestors were farmers. My family are farmers. They’re hard-working people. They’re people who believe in the importance of community, of building things and of leaving a better future. I believed, growing up, that that was, again, a party that believed in those things. They believed in dreaming big. They believed the old line that you may as well shoot for the moon, because even if you miss, you’re going to land among the stars. That was something that I’d always thought the NDP believed in—that they shot for big things, even if often poorly thought out and naive in the way that they designed a lot of their programs.

So I go back to that question: When did the NDP lose their vision? When did they believe that better wasn’t possible? When did they believe that it wasn’t important for a national people, for a people here in Ontario or Canada, to believe in themselves and their potential, in their skills, to be proud of the things that they’re doing? When I hear them stand in this place and—I don’t want to be rude, but—complain, as they do, about the investments that are being made and the way that we’re working to build that pride in the people of Ontario, it makes me sad. This is a party that has a long history—a history in agricultural communities in southwestern Ontario, and Prairie roots among the Baptist preachers and those who continue to inspire me. It has its roots in people who believed that better was possible and that they could bring forward a positive vision of what Ontario could be. It was a party of people who believed that if you could see it, you could be it. But now this is a party who seem to think, “No, no. We don’t want you to see it, because we don’t want you to be it. We don’t think that the people of Ontario deserve to have a government that is investing in a national, in a provincial, in a forward-looking vision that they could be part of.” They don’t want to see people who are encouraged to know that we have some of the cleanest steel in the world. They don’t want to be part of bringing forward opportunities for people in skilled trades. They don’t want to be part of building up an incredible system of health care, where you have staff being trained in levels they’ve never seen before, opening up brand new facilities that they’ve never seen before. They don’t want to be part of the solution.

Again, Speaker, I go back to my question, and I want to leave you with it: When did the NDP lose their way? When did they fail to learn and when did they fail to understand that providing a vision for the future for the people of Ontario is crucial to continuing to grow, to bringing more people here to this province, to continue that legacy that each and every one of us who is in this House believes in? I would leave that question with you in hopes of an answer, because this motion doesn’t answer it. All this motion says is, “We don’t like things that the government does.”

I’ll be candid. That’s what I hear regularly from my constituents—they say, “We know what you’re doing. We see what you’re doing. We have your back in what you’re doing in building up this province, in providing opportunities, in getting homes built and in ensuring young people have good careers, good-paying careers in Ontario.”

But all we ever hear from the opposition is negativity, negativity, negativity, and today, unfortunately, they continue that trait.

So, Speaker, regrettably—I love supporting the members of the opposition when they have good ideas—I will not be supporting this motion.

It’s my pleasure to rise to speak to our opposition day motion. The member from Niagara West kept repeating, “If you see it, you do it.” That’s their motto. They saw the Liberals doing partisan ads, pretended like they didn’t support it and have now gone on to do it themselves, so I guess he’s accurate: If you see it, do it.

Speaker, I would like to rewrite some of the ads that the government has put out. It starts with, “What if we told you there’s a place where it’s all happening? And what if we told you, you already live here?” Between those lines there’s a lot of fluff about the government.

Well, Speaker, what if I told you there is a place where over 800,000 adults and children accessed food banks last year, an increase of over 38%; a place where food banks were visited nearly six million times; where 2.3 million people don’t have access to primary care physicians; where emergency departments are being closed, all around the province; where for decades we have First Nations communities that are still on boil-water advisories?

What if I told you that there are 588-day wait-lists in my community for children to access mental health supports and parents are being forced to surrender their children to the children’s aid society, hoping for their children to get help?

What if I told you that 200,000 Ontarians are waiting years for access to social housing, more than 7,000 people in Windsor-Essex on our wait-lists for affordable housing?

This is the reality of the province of Ontario. And what have we, the people of Ontario, told the government? That you already live here, and the people of the province need you to stop spending tens of millions of dollars on advertisements to say that you’re doing great when the reality is the people of the province need you to spend that money on the supports and services that they need.

Further debate?

Some things don’t age well, like my old flip phone, last week’s bananas, and the 2018 election promise from this government.

Back in 2015, the Liberal government weakened the Auditor General’s oversight on advertising, allowing millions in taxpayers’ dollars to fund partisan advertising about unverified claims. Ontario was outraged about using taxpayers’ own money to lie to taxpayers. This government’s caucus reacted by tabling a motion to reverse these changes, and the Premier pledged to take action on the motion, if elected, to end this misuse of funds—except, once elected, this government broke that promise and they doubled down on partisan advertising, using taxpayers’ funds for self-promotional ads, like advertising a housing plan that decimated the greenbelt during the scandal that tried to sell it off, and the Building a Better Health System campaign, which, as the Auditor General noted, lacked evidence and context.

Ironically, the same member who tabled the 2018 motion to stop partisan ads now heads the ministry that blew $20 million, two thirds of Ontario’s ad budget, on a partisan campaign. This has been a slap in the face of all front-line health care workers who know better.

Speaker, it’s more than just the ads; it’s about the government’s self-promotion at taxpayers’ expense.

When criticizing the Wynne Liberals’ use of public funds for partisan ads, Doug Ford said, “We’re the only ones to protect the people.”

Ontarians are tired of leaders who promise to protect their interests only to abandon these principles once in power. It does not have to be this way, and it never should have been this way.

It’s an honour today to rise in support of accountability, transparency and fairness—principles that this government seems to have forgotten since they formed government. Rather than holding virtues and values that they loudly claimed prior to 2018, they have lost their way.

Today, the official opposition is giving the government the chance to stand up for their values again, to remember who they were. It’s not too late.

It’s clear that the government has gone astray, twisting themselves in knots trying to pat themselves on the back. But today, Conservatives can get back on track by supporting their own legislation. It’s never too late to do the right thing.

The official opposition will always fight for more for people, while the Conservatives want Ontarians to settle for less, to settle for a bait-and-switch, where they’re pretending to spend money on things that people care about when, in actual point of fact, they’re not doing the right thing.

The media has had some really interesting lines about what this government has done. David Moscrop said that it has been “inept and dodgy....

“In essence, the Ford government devoted millions of dollars promoting itself while emergency rooms closed, homeless residents froze in the streets,” ODSP “recipients struggled to make rent and feed themselves, and the province’s infrastructure crumbled.”

He also stated that the campaign pushed “the boundaries of the human capacity for cynicism.”

Robert Benzie from the Toronto Star said, when he mentioned—the Toronto Star headline on the print edition: “Our Money, More Lies,” also blasting the ads as “spectacularly misleading.”

“Doug Ford’s Feel-Bad Movie of the Summer....

“It’s misdirection worthy of a Las Vegas illusionist....

“An unapologetic partisan ad” that “erases the line between party and government,” was the Globe editorial’s line.

Now is the government’s chance to stand up for itself, to support its own legislation.

Prove that you have not lost your way. Prove that these values mean something to you. Make good on your promise. It’s never too late to do the right thing.

This government is spending money hand over fist to brand itself as a good government instead of being a good government. Spending money to convince people of the good work that they should be doing does not fool people into believing these nonsense ads.

The government has spent nearly $25 million on partisan ads, including $20.8 million to promote the Ministry of Health, desperately trying to paint a positive impression of this government, but it isn’t working, because it isn’t real. These partisan ads are not political reality, and people sitting for hours in hospital waiting rooms, or who are desperately trying to get medical care, are not fooled and they’re not fools. They don’t appreciate the wildly out-of-touch, rosy health care picture being painted by these government commercials.

The Premier stood in this Legislature and talked about how good his government is at marketing and branding. Well, imagine if this Premier thought governing was even a fraction as important as branding. And, Speaker, between buck-a-beer stickers that don’t stick and disappearing licence plates, I don’t know how much this government should brag about branding.

Regardless, our motion is to support the official opposition Bill 176, to end the public funding of partisan government advertising. Interestingly, it is a bill we’ve introduced, identical to a bill tabled by the now-Minister of Health, who was a voice then against the behaviour that she is responsible for now.

As the critic for infrastructure, transportation and highways, I was shocked at the terrible ads that Metrolinx ran to admonish and condescend to transit users in the GTA. Folks who have been waiting for 13 years for transit had to endure these “see beyond” ads that gaslighted and diminished real concerns of the public. People thought that they were snarky, sanctimonious and shocking, and these Metrolinx ads were rude and disrespectful to real people who rely on dependable transit to get to work, school and medical appointments.

Worse, Speaker, it was recently reported by the CBC that Metrolinx spent $2.25 million of the public’s dollars to be rude to them—$2.25 million of our own money to condescend to us—rude and inappropriate, but encouraged, because this government loves advertising, even if what they’re selling is stuff and nonsense.

So stop spending public money on partisan advertising. This government needs to be a good government, not just play one on TV.

Further debate?

I want to rise this afternoon and speak to a particular concern I have with this bill. My colleagues have talked about it. When we spend $20 million-plus on advertising that is not persuasive, that does not reflect the government’s record, what are we missing an investment on? Well, Speaker, I spoke this morning in question period. I asked a question that was not answered about the fact that Metrolinx, a public agency of this government, is following their example. They spent $2.5 million on an ad that insulted transit riders as Metrolinx continues to fail in its record to build transit. I think that’s because the government set the example.

But what could we have done with $2.5 million? Well, Speaker, back home, primary care clinic founders in the market for folks with mental health and addictions and their families, they proposed a clinic that would cover 10,000 people, that would help some of our most struggling neighbours in need. They got $2.5 million. That’s the amount of money we’re talking about.

But if I were to say in this moment we’re living in right now—because I think there’s a role for government advertising—what kind of government ads do we need right now? I am hearing consistently from neighbours back home about their heartbreak and the heart-rending situation they are seeing in Gaza right now. They would like this government to affirm, like the federal government did last week, that the Geneva Conventions are being broken right now, that a million and a half Gazans are starving in Rafah as they are awaiting a military invasion. I would like to see billboards, I would like to see ads from this government, saying they see those people suffering, they support the fact that we need an immediate ceasefire, we need to help those people in the region. That is the billboard Canadians are waiting for, not some self-congratulatory message.

Human rights is core to the province of Ontario. It should be something we all care about. That’s the ad that we want: a ceasefire right now.

I want to talk about what’s happening in my riding of Ottawa West–Nepean right now. At the Queensway Carleton Hospital, which is one of the busiest emergency departments in the province, we have people who are sitting and waiting 14 to 16 hours just to see an emergency room physician. Unfortunately, the government has cut funding for the ER at the Queensway Carleton, so starting next week, there’s going to be 10 fewer hours of ER physician funding every single day, which means these people are going to be waiting even longer.

We are seeing day surgeries being cancelled so that they can expand the number of people who are sitting in the ER waiting for care.

While this is happening, rather than investing in the services, in the health care that people desperately need, this government is investing in partisan ads to tell people “Everything’s fine. We’ve got a great health care system. I don’t know what you’re seeing around you, but everything is just perfect here.” These are ads that the government has spent millions on and that the Auditor General has said were partisan and intended to foster a positive impression of the government. That’s what they’re doing instead of fixing the health care system.

And then these people’s kids in school don’t have EAs. They don’t have teachers. They don’t have social workers and counsellors, and that’s if they can get to school at all, if the school bus is actually running. This government has been running taxpayer-funded partisan ads saying everything is great in schools, and the Auditor General has said these are partisan and that there is no evidence to back up these ads.

This is deeply insulting to people in Ontario, who are struggling with many challenges right now, who want to see their government actually take these challenges seriously and fix the concerns that they are facing. That is why I’m asking the government today to support the NDP’s bill to end the public funding of partisan government advertising. Stop wasting taxpayer dollars on patting yourselves on the back and actually do something to help the people of Ontario.

I want to rise in the Legislature today to speak to our bill to ban the government from spending millions of dollars of our money on advertising that is just designed to make the Conservative government look good.

Let’s just give the Minister of Health a round of applause; she was the one who wrote the bill in the first place.

Interjections.

We’re not talking about ads that are designed to help Ontarians learn about important programs like driving safely in winter or vaccination programs. That is not what we are talking about today. What we’re talking about are ads that provide no useful information but instead just provide a general positive impression, using tag lines like “it’s happening here,” or “building a better health care system,” or the crazy Metrolinx ads that criticize transit riders for saying, “Hey, why is it taking so long to build a transit line and why are you millions of dollars over budget?” Those are ridiculous ads. No, we are talking about ads that are essentially propaganda and are puff pieces. Ontarians do not want their money spent on unnecessary partisan ads. What they do want is for that money to be reinvested in services that they all depend upon.

We are talking about investing funding in our hospitals so that we have the staff that we need to provide the surgeries, the testing and the care that people are desperately waiting for. We’re talking about investing in our schools, so we have the educational assistants and the vice-principals and the teachers who can provide high-quality care to our kids. We are talking about investing in affordable housing, so we can solve one of the biggest issues of our generation, which is the affordable housing crisis.

We are not seeing any of that here with this government. What we are seeing is partisan ads. It’s time for it to stop. Ontarians want it to stop. Stop telling us that everything is fine and start investing our money in services and programs that people are asking you to invest that money in.

Further debate?

The member from Sudbury is reminded about the rule of using—

Interjections.

I want to talk about a quote that was done by Laurie Scott from Haliburton–Kawartha Lakes–Brock when the Liberals were bringing in partisan ads. This is what she said: “Why is it that this government cannot find the money to fund advertising that can raise an awareness campaign that could actually help save the lives of human sex trafficking victims today, instead of finding money to fund self-serving hydro ads?” That’s who said it—Ernie Hardeman, same thing; Lisa MacLeod; Vic Fedeli.

And I want to say that they’re spending over $30 million on advertising. Why are they not advertising the fact that we had 6,000 people die in long-term-care facilities? Why isn’t that up there? Why aren’t they talking about my urgent care centre that you’re not funding, that they’re closing after 7 o’clock at night, as people who live in my area in Fort Erie don’t have an urgent care centre? Why is that not being there? Why is the fact that you don’t talk about Bill 7, where you’re forcing 300 seniors, without consent, to go live 150 kilometres away from their families there? Why isn’t that there? Why is it not talking about the poverty that we have right here in Toronto? The one member is proud to live in Toronto, where they’re dying on our streets in Toronto today as I’m standing up here.

Why would we advertise in the Super Bowl, the Grammy Awards, the NHL All-Star Game—instead of taking that, why not take that money and reinvest it into health care, reinvest it into education, reinvest it into our seniors in our communities? That’s what we should be doing with these tax dollars. They should support this bill. They should stop partisan ads and support the NDP. For the first time, my friend over there Sam Oosterhoff from Niagara West was absolutely correct. He should support this bill.

Point of order.

Speaker, in 2017, the Liberals changed the rules, and the Auditor General found that they spent $17.4 million on partisan ads. In 2018, the Conservatives brought forward a bill by the now Minister of Health and Deputy Premier. They brought forward a bill called the End Public Funding of Partisan Government Advertising Act. That’s the opposition day bill that we’re debating today, word for word. It’s their Conservative bill.

However, in 2023, the Auditor General found the Conservatives had spent $24.89 million using the same Liberal loopholes—Liberal, Tory, same old story. We hear it all the time, and it’s proven again today. So today, our opposition day debate really is about stopping this loophole. Freedom of information showed that there was $24.89 million. The CBC’s latest report has $38 million, plus $7.9 million for the “It’s Happening Here” ads, plus $2.5 million for the Metrolinx ads. We’re just shy of $50 million set to trick people, to confuse people, to tell them things. This isn’t right.

I’ve got to tell you, the Conservative brand, Doug Ford’s brand, is that the party with the taxpayers’ money is over, and it continues with this member—

I want to just finish that the ethics of using taxpayer dollars on partisan advertising is questionable, but what about the ethics of using taxpayer dollars to attack the livelihoods of some of Ontario’s most precarious workers, by using ad agencies that use underpaid, non-union performers who have no standards for health and safety, decent work conditions and fair pay? The CBC reported on the debacle of the $2.5-million Metrolinx campaign that was used to gaslight the very taxpayers who are funding the work. Those ads were produced by Leo Burnett—

Prior to 2015, there were clear rules forbidding governments from using taxpayer dollars for self-promotion; however, in 2015, the Liberals changed the law so that the definition of “partisan advertising” was so watered down as to be useless, and in 2017 the Liberals got away with spending $17.4 million to promote themselves on the taxpayers’ dime—shameful.

In 2018, while in opposition, the current Minister of Health introduced a bill entitled End the Public Funding of Partisan Government Advertising Act, which is what we are reintroducing today.

Here we are now in 2024, and I’m getting furious phone calls from people watching the Super Bowl, asking me why they are being subjected to partisan political ads promoting the Ford Conservative government. That was just the beginning. When my constituents found out that $25 million of our taxpayer dollars were paying for these partisan ads, their fury changed to rage. What we are seeing is partisan and self-congratulatory government advertising.

What these ads tell me is that the Conservatives are so worried about the damage their government has done to public education and public health care; the fact that food banks can’t keep up with the demand; the fact that low-wage, precarious workers make up the majority of people teaching at universities and colleges; that arts institutions are crumbling; that the wages of forest firefighters, highway inspectors and conservation officers are so low they can’t attract and retain staff; that private, for-profit health care is popping up everywhere; and that schools are so underfunded, special needs kids are left by the wayside—what this tells me is that the only way the Conservatives can overcome their dreadful record is to use our money to convince us of the opposite.

You have a chance to rediscover integrity as a concept and a reality. Support our bill to end partisanship in taxpayer-funded advertising.