To reply for the government, the Minister of Finance.

I have a constituent here from the town of Oakville, David Blackmore. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

It’s my pleasure to introduce two of my constituents and wonderful supporters, Adnan Khan and Daoud Yaqoob, otherwise known as Dave, who represent the Wright and KW Towing group of companies. Welcome to your House, and thank you so much for coming.

It is my pleasure to welcome Ms. Karen Chow from Markham–Unionville. She is the mother of page Tyler Chow. Welcome to Queen’s Park, and thank you for coming.

I want to welcome Taline Dorna and her family, who are here with us today. Taline has gone to great lengths to support her son following her cancer diagnosis, and in an effort to raise awareness of this disease, she penned a book, The Extraordinary Eye. She has been a great source of inspiration in our province, and I want to welcome her here to Queen’s Park.

I want to take the opportunity to introduce one of my staffers that is here today, manager of stakeholders, Giancarlo Da-Ré. He’s also joined here by his father, Errol Da-Ré, so I’d like to welcome both of them to this House and hope they enjoy question period.

It is my pleasure to welcome to the House the board of directors from the Richmond Hill Board of Trade that are with us this morning. I’m happy to introduce George Vasilache, the chair of the board; Errol Da-Ré, first vice-chair; Jaclyn Zhang, second vice-chair; Payal Bhardwaj, director; Jason Colterman, director; Amin Panjwani, director; and also Monique Dennison, the executive director. Welcome to Queen’s Park

Today is Ontario Waterpower Association day here at Queen’s Park. There’s a reception at 5:30, and some of the people that you will meet there are up in the gallery: Paul Norris, the president of the Ontario Waterpower Association; Janelle Bates, director of communications; Jan Fonseca, communications and community outreach; Ryley Gutoskie; and Jessica Worosz.

It is my pleasure to welcome the new executive committee members of the Tibetan Women’s Association of Ontario. They are Tsela Wangmo, president; Yangchen Dolma, vice-president; Tenzing Yangchen and Yeshi Choedon, secretaries and program coordinators; Migmar Lhamo, accountant; Lobsang Dolma, treasurer; Kyipa Tsering, religious coordinator; Dolma Dolma and Rinzing Wangmo, cultural and Lhakar coordinators. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Good morning, Speaker. This question is for the Premier. If you’re one of the 2.3 million people in Ontario without a family doctor, if you’re a young family looking to find an affordable place to call home, if you’re a parent feeling deflated for having to cut back on your child’s extracurricular activities or if you’re someone who is shuffling between two or three jobs to keep up with the rising cost of everything, the Conservative budget is not for you.

So I want to hear from the Premier: Why didn’t the budget contain any new measures to help make life more affordable in Ontario?

The government voted down our plan to take away the administrative burden on family physicians that would have delivered on care for millions of people. The government’s plans will barely cover a fraction of the 2.3 million people who don’t have a family doctor.

Why has the Premier spent so much more but failed to address our doctor shortage?

So my question back to the Premier is, how does his government justify spending so much more to deliver so much less?

Interjections.

I’d like to welcome to the House Julie Barnard and her mother, Carole Desborough. Welcome to the people’s House.

Members will please take their seats.

Minister of Finance.

Minister of Finance.

The supplementary question?

I’m going to go back to the Premier again. The budget doesn’t just lack a vision for health care, it also lets people down when it comes to addressing the housing crisis. Last week, the federal government warned Ontario we are about to lose $357 million from the National Housing Strategy because of this government’s failure to meet the conditions of the agreement.

My question to the Premier is, did the government submit an updated action plan to ensure that Ontario isn’t left with a $357-million hole in our housing budget?

There is no use blaming the federal government for this government’s failure to meet the demand for housing in our province. Ontario’s record on affordable housing has been an absolute embarrassment. The Premier has ignored the recommendations from his own Housing Affordability Task Force. He’s even ruled out affordable housing options that would bring so many people closer to the dream of home ownership.

So back to the Premier: Why has this government let Ontario fall so far behind on housing?

I had to read this a couple of times to make sure I was right because it’s so astonishing—Ontario is expected to have added just 1,100 affordable units since 2018. It’s an embarrassment: less than 6% of the province’s housing target under the National Housing Strategy. With only a few years left to deliver on the agreement, we are further and further behind.

My question is, what will this Premier do today to ensure Ontario doesn’t lose the $357 million in federal funding due to his failures?

Interjections.

This weak budget shows that the Conservative government is out of touch and out of ideas. For a government that prides itself on fiscal responsibility, they projected a $200-million surplus and instead delivered a $10-billion deficit.

In the health care sector, the government is planning to spend $1 billion less when 2.3 million Ontarians do not have a doctor and there have been 203 emergency room closures.

In the justice sector, the words “tribunal,” “bail” and “backlog” are not mentioned in the budget at all. The court system is literally crumbling in this province. So much for that tough-on-crime bluster.

Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Finance. How is this government failing so miserably to address the needs of Ontarians?

In education, there is no mention of the word “teacher” in this budget. This budget fails to keep up with spending on the repair backlog—and investing nothing in student transportation. Parents care about student transportation in this province, and they’ve been begging for support, and they did so at pre-budget consultations.

This budget is spending more and delivering less. This is the truth of the matter.

To the Minister of Finance: When will this Conservative government listen to the people of Ontario and ensure that funding goes where it is needed, to the people we’re elected to serve?

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker, we’re not an island here. Maybe the NDP lives on an island called “their world,” but in our world, we’re dealing with the economic environment that we’re in globally. We’re dealing with higher interest rates and inflation. In that environment, Mr. Speaker, you have two choices: You could cut spending and put on the brakes or you could keep going. Well, this government chooses to keep going.

We are choosing to invest in workers and the people of this province by increasing the Skills Development Fund so we can train our workers to build those hospitals that this Minister of Health is building. This Minister of Transportation is building highways right across the province, public transit—that’s what a government does when it has options in front of them.

Mr. Speaker, this government has a plan. It’s got a vision. It’s executing against that plan, and we will continue working on behalf of all 16 million Ontarians.

This is about all types of housing, working with our municipal partners, working provincially for affordable housing, for student housing, for seniors’ housing, for front door and back door, for condos etc.

I can tell you this: One thing we learned, when we work together, when municipalities and provinces lock arms, we can do a lot. But do you know who else has to lock arms with us? The federal government. We are hitting all the targets they put in that commitment, and it is this Minister of Housing, along with the head of the association of municipalities, who wrote a letter to the minister saying, “We’re hitting the targets. We need you to step up. Join us to build housing right across the province.”

I was listening to the head of the Green Party over there. He said, “You know, I want to see the priorities in the budget be housing, housing and housing.” And do you know what the priorities in the budget are? Housing, housing and housing. Come on over to our side.

We are putting in place so many measures. Let’s talk about the Building Faster Fund: $1.2 billion to help reward and incent municipalities who hit their housing targets.

Mr. Speaker, the Premier was in Hamilton just recently, handing out a cheque. The Premier and his colleagues were in Pickering—and that colleague happened to be me—to hand the cheque to the mayor of Pickering. We are working with municipalities.

With the Building Faster Fund, we’re building infrastructure, putting that in place. We’re even helping on purpose-built rentals and getting the federal government to join us on rebating the HST for purpose-built rentals, Mr. Speaker. This government is focused on housing, housing and housing.

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker, we are not only getting affordable housing built, but we’re also investing more in supportive housing. Again, through the leadership of the Minister of Health, we’re investing another $150 million in supportive housing. But it doesn’t stop there: student housing, senior care housing, long-term-care housing. It’s this Minister of Long-Term Care who made a great announcement in the budget yesterday to support more building of long-term-care housing.

I’ll come back to it again, Mr. Speaker: It’s this government that’s getting things done. It’s getting shovels in the ground, working with our municipal partners, working as a team. I would ask the members opposite to join us in building all of Ontario and helping us get municipalities, the federal government and the province aligned so we can all build those 1.5 million homes.

This is a budget that decides to invest in Ontarians, invest in infrastructure, invest in the economy, invest in the people—the health care workers, the teachers, the skilled trades—right across this province. Because through not spending money and not investing, this is the situation we have. We’re investing.

These deficits will pass. You know the revenues are down because of the global economy. But those long-term investments will last a—

My question is to the Premier. Yesterday’s budget showed that this government’s completely inadequate funding for post-secondary education, coupled with a 50% decrease in international study permits, will mean a $1.4-billion revenue loss for colleges in 2024-25 and an additional $1.7-billion revenue loss in 2025-26.

Not only that, the government’s inadequate funding ends after three years, which will mean even deeper losses for colleges and universities down the road. Why is this Premier choosing not to increase post-secondary operating grants and deliberately allowing colleges to fail?

Why did this budget not include the permanent, significant increase in operating grants that would move Ontario out of last place in the country in per-student funding and that is desperately needed to keep the sector afloat?

Interjections.

Thanks to the great member from Chatham-Kent–Leamington, who’s doing a fantastic job in southwestern Ontario.

There has been a lot of conversation this morning about the budget, Mr. Speaker. Do you know what’s not in the budget that was delivered yesterday by Minister Bethlenfalvy? A carbon tax, or any kind of new tax, or any increased fee.

The number one issue that the people of Ontario are talking about when we go door to door—we’ve got a couple of by-elections coming, in Milton and in the area west of London, where Monte McNaughton used to serve. Do you know what the number one issue at the door is? Affordability—the carbon tax. It’s the number one issue that’s coming up for the people of Ontario.

Yet, Justin Trudeau, in four days’ time, supported by Bonnie Crombie, the queen of the carbon tax, is going to increase the carbon tax by a staggering 23%. That’s not what you should be doing in an affordability crisis.

This tax is supported by this Liberal caucus in the Legislature. They’ve stood up and time and time again and said that the people of Ontario are better off than they would be without a carbon tax. Who in their right mind thinks that? Certainly not the PC government, led by Premier Ford.

Our budget delivered yesterday indicates what’s important for our party and our government. That’s making life more affordable. That’s building the infrastructure that we need. That’s connecting people to primary care. It’s all in the document delivered yesterday and the opposition party should support us.

My question is to the Minister of Energy. The impact of the carbon tax is devastating to my riding of Chatham-Kent–Leamington, and throughout Ontario.

Last year, the carbon tax cost the average family around $710, even after the rebates. That’s why it’s ironic to hear the Liberal and NDP members in this House talk about affordability and the rising cost of living when they continue to support this disastrous tax.

Unlike the queen of the carbon tax, Bonnie Crombie, our government has opposed the carbon tax from the very start, and we’ll continue to oppose it until it’s removed.

Speaker, the people of Ontario deserve far better from their elected representatives. It’s clear the members opposite are more interested in playing politics instead of standing up against the federal government’s unjust tax rules.

Can the minister please tell this House why it’s necessary to eliminate the carbon tax altogether?

The carbon tax is the worst tax you can put on the people of Chatham-Kent–Leamington and anyone in Ontario. It’s useless. It’s a tax imposed by elites and activists who are hurting the hard-working people across our province. And, yet, the federal Liberals are still proceeding with a 23% tax hike next week.

Speaker, over the next year, the carbon tax will add over $360 to an average household’s annual natural gas bill. That’s not right. The people of Ontario should never have to choose between eating and heating their homes.

Can the minister please explain why the federal government must scrap the carbon tax in order to give our hard-working families much-needed relief?

Mr. Speaker, I heard a bunch of things in there. I heard “education.” It’s this Minister of Education who is building more child care spaces and making it more affordable for child care.

I think I heard “colleges and universities.” It’s this Minister of Colleges and Universities who is freezing tuition, making it more affordable for students and families.

I think I heard the word “transportation.” It’s these ministers making it more affordable to take One Fare, saving $1,600 a year for the daily rider.

While we’re at it, why don’t we talk about the gas tax that we’re cutting, continuing to put more money in the pockets of the hard-working people of Ontario?

And why doesn’t that opposition and that Liberal Party over there march down the road in Ottawa and tell the federal government to cut or freeze the carbon tax next week and help the people of Ontario?

What I can tell you is this: It’s an economy that is firing on all cylinders in Ontario. We’re investing in infrastructure, housing, hospitals, highways, transit, you name it. We’re investing in schools. We need the people to build those schools, those highways, those roads and those public transit systems. That’s why we need international students. That’s why the federal government should step up and help us build Ontario.

We’re not going to let the people of Ontario down. We’re not going to let the students of Ontario down. We’re not going to let families down. We’re not going to let the great people who are building this province down. We’re getting it done, and we’re going to do it together.

Members will please take their seats.

Minister of Finance.

Minister of Finance.