Thank you to the member from Toronto Centre for their presentation today.

Listening to the questions back and forth, children are our most valuable resource. Yet, we do not see them reflected in this budget whatsoever. We have over 60,000 children on a wait-list for autism services—I believe the last number I saw was 67,000. We have a budget that says $120 million was going into that budget. Quite frankly, it’s actually only $60 million that’s going in. The numbers are ridiculous for them to think that they’re going to pull this off.

Then we talk about the schools. We have all of these children in schools without a day of service.

Can the member tell us what she has been hearing from her constituents about children and how they’re struggling within our school system and teachers who are just not able to keep up?

We know people on OW, ODSP, had been put into legislated poverty years ago. This government says that it has made the biggest revelation in giving people an increase. They just increased further poverty. They did not do anything to help the situation. There are so many ways that they could improve people’s lives.

Maybe the member would like to talk about her experience in Toronto Centre of people who are literally living in legislated poverty.

It’s always interesting to be in the House, watching the moon eclipse the sun and leaving the people of Ontario in the dark because the Conservatives are constantly benchmarking the Liberals for what’s appropriate. We watched the Liberals let people of Ontario down and now the Conservatives have continued on that same trend, because we still have legislated poverty. We have a housing crisis that we’ve never seen. Our health care system is in shambles and being privatized.

This is the state of what we see in Ontario, and it is so unfortunate for democracy because what it does is, it continues to show people that they don’t want to be involved, and that’s how we get a super majority government with 18% of the eligible electorate.

Does the member think that they could actually do better than just thinking they do better than the Liberals—because it’s not really a great benchmark.

I’m pleased to have an opportunity to join today’s lively debate and to speak on behalf of the people of Hamilton Mountain, who I am always proud to serve here in the Legislature.

I just want to set the stage for people at home that this is a $214.5-billion budget. It is actually the largest budget in history in Ontario—

Interjections.

Once again, this is a $214.5-billion budget, the largest budget in history. It goes against everything Premier Ford had said coming into office. There is a net debt of $439 billion, which is up $100 billion since 2018. We have a $9.8-billion deficit.

It’s truly unbelievable to watch this government spend money out the door as quick as it can and yet see people fail in every direction.

Every ministry that I see, that I hear about, is on fire. We hear from people on a regular basis who are struggling each and every day. They are shuffling money out for highways that are going to save 60 seconds for a commuter when we could actually put the 407—

Interjections.

Interjections.

Have an opinion. Use your time wisely and stand up and use it, not mine.

That’s just how we start here in the Legislature.

We are seeing children at record numbers who have severe mental health—we are watching children die by suicide at alarming rates.

We are seeing children enter a school system that is completely under-resourced and who have not had a day of service for whatever ailment they may have.

Sixty-seven thousand of them on wait-lists for autism services—that says a lot about this government’s record. When they came into power in 2018, I think the number was about 23,000 kids on wait-lists, and we just thought that was absolutely—the Conservatives were standing over in these desks; they were pounding on their desks, going after the Liberals, for 23,000 kids on wait-lists for autism services, and now we see 67,000. They can say what they want over there, but their program is a huge failure. They can talk about the number of kids that they believe are enrolled in services, but they’re not core services.

Interjection.

The common sense that we see come out of that government is zero—zero—when it comes to actually helping children, our truly most valuable resource. They are our future, and yet they are left without resources; they’re left without services; they’re left without enough adults in the classroom to ensure their safety.

I’ve heard parents tell me that the safety plan for their autistic child is bells on the door, so that if the door opens, an adult will hear it if they’re going to run. That’s the solution. Let’s put bells on the door.

I put forward a missing persons bill to help with these children who do flee, to help with dementia. The member opposite talks very clearly about her support for people with dementia. Why doesn’t she want to help them when they go missing? Bill 74 is an additional tool in the tool box. Is it the only resource? Absolutely not. Is it something that could be implemented at the snap of a finger by the OPP if they think it’s appropriate? Absolutely. Why this government has taken that bill and shelved it in the justice committee, I will actually probably never know. People are still asking for that bill; they’re still calling for it to be called. There are over 100,000 signatures out in public, asking for that bill to be passed.

What they did do, and what they did mention in their bill, was that when they buy the four helicopters for Toronto, it’s also to help find the missing vulnerable people. This is where they found the ability to actually talk about missing vulnerable people—for four helicopters that they’re going to give to Toronto. I don’t know. Maybe it will work. I think it’s kind of far-fetched.

There are so many things—

Interjection.

In Hamilton, our Hamilton health teams have worked so hard to put together a plan that was recognized by 67 of our Hamilton health care providers. I just want to find the notes so I get the actual, true numbers. There’s a lot to say. I really wish that they would just listen to actual, real stuff that happens in our communities that they could learn something from.

Greater Hamilton Health Network—they put in this detailed proposal for $20 million. They worked for seven months, I believe it was, to actually have the opportunity to bring—and I think it was 67 organizations. As you can all imagine, that’s a lot of organizations to bring together under one program and to get everybody to agree with it. They worked really hard to make that happen.

That proposal would have cost $20 million to set Hamilton up, to ensure that we had nearly 170 additional health care providers, to ensure that we had family doctors in the area. The 72-page plan involved a wide range of innovative strategies to connect 55,000 residents who have no family doctor in Hamilton, Haldimand, Lincoln and West Lincoln, which also includes Grimsby, Vineland and Smithville. Out of the $20 million, they received $2.2 million. What a slap in the face to the people they put in positions to actually find solutions to get this done. What could they possibly pull together with that $2.2 million instead of the $20 million that they asked for? How could you possibly expect them to come together? People who didn’t really want to buy in were then convinced because they saw the brilliance of the plan and they showed up and they actually got involved and they got excited—they are now walking away, saying, “Why bother? This government doesn’t want to listen to anybody.” The $2.2 million is not going to solve the doctor shortage in our city, when we had a plan, we had the experts on the ground who submitted that plan.

There has been money that has gone out across the province that doesn’t make sense. Peterborough got, I think, more money than Hamilton. I think I heard Peterborough got 32 or something—they got more money than Hamilton, anyway, which doesn’t even make sense. And nothing against Peterborough—Peterborough deserves it. People across this entire province deserve it. But our needs in Hamilton and our population are much greater—our needs are much higher. We have a homeless situation that is completely out of control. There are tents in every direction. There are mental health and addiction issues in every direction. We have people standing on every main corner, asking for money, and we have no solutions.

This budget did absolutely zero—zero—to help our communities. What they actually did was, they downloaded more responsibilities onto the municipality, who can’t—oh, and that was one of the richest things, this morning. The minister was talking, during question period, about the fact that there were no new taxes for the people of Ontario; they did their best to keep it all down. I wish I could have written it down in his actual words because it was pretty good.

When you think about it, there is only one taxpayer. It doesn’t matter what level of government those people are paying taxes to; they’re still paying taxes. And when our municipalities had to increase taxes due to their legislation, that is still their tax.

They can spin it off any way they want, but under Bill 23—and they took away those development charges from municipalities and then went back and gave them peanuts. I believe Hamilton got half of what it lost for building all of our houses and exceeding our targets, which is fantastic. And thank you to the people of Hamilton—those city hall department folks who really worked hard to make sure that we hit our benchmarks and that we did that within our boundaries, regardless of what this government tried to push our community to do. We did it without touching the greenbelt. We kept it within our urban boundaries that were already existing. We exceeded those targets and they gave us half of what we lost.

So that other $17 million of infrastructure costs has to go somewhere. So what happened? Our property taxes go up. Is that not your government still downloading more taxes onto the municipality, which has no choice but to filter down to us?

They can talk all they want about no tax increase, but it’s the same taxpayer who’s footing the same bill that you just downloaded to somebody else’s responsibility to try to make yourself look good, and that’s exactly what happened.

Developmental services—Community Living was begging. They’ve been here. You were all down there taking photos: “La, la, la, I’m so happy they’re all here.” They were begging for 5%. They haven’t had an increase in over 10 years—in over 10 years. Community Living, taking care of our most vulnerable residents, who again are left behind by this government—and they gave them 2.2%. What the heck is that? That’s not enough to keep the doors open.

We’re already actually hearing from folks who are caught up in the—uh, something journey. I don’t have it with me.

Oh, yes. Jeez. If only she had an opinion that she could use, but she doesn’t. She has to just sit over there and heckle me on mine.

Journey to Belonging is the program that is now seeing privatization. We’re seeing Community Living homes—

Journey to Belonging is now seeing Community Living homes being sold off for profit—

Interjections.

I understand that they hate my opinions, but my opinions come from real people. They come from real stories. They come from seniors who have adult children who have lived in community homes for 40 years, and now those homes are under threat of privatization and nobody will answer their questions. Nobody knows what’s happening. Everything is a veil of secrecy.

And these families are stressed. These parents have advocated. Imagine: They’re in their seventies; their children are in their forties, and they’re high-needs. And so they’re in these homes that they have been in for all of these years, these beautiful homes that they have relationships with, and this government is allowing them to be privatized. They have no idea what’s happening, and the ministry refuses to answer their questions. If the government would have seen fit to ensure that the 5% increase that Community Living had been begging, begging, begging for—they all showed up for the photo ops, and refused to give it to them.

My heart sank when I heard that they didn’t get the 5%. I couldn’t believe it. I thought there was no way that they’re not going to get it. They were at every pre-budget consultation throughout this province, making sure members clearly heard their plea for that 5%, and they got 2.2%. It’s just an absolute disregard for human life, for vulnerable human lives that count on a system to care for them, for senior parents who finally thought that they were going to be able to just rest and not have to advocate their entire lives, because you know these families have been fighting the system and advocating their entire lives just to keep their kids safe.

Interjections.