I thank the honourable member for the question, and I thank all the members here in this House. Mr. Speaker, through our government, I thank the leadership of Premier Ford.

We have made this very clear from day one: This is an issue that affects all communities across the province, one that requires action, which is why, in December, Minister Williams joined me in announcing Ontario-STANDS. Mr. Speaker, it was a statement to the province that we take this issue seriously and we backed that up by investment, working with the federal government.

I’ve said this throughout the entire time that I’ve been a minister at this ministry: No woman or girl in this province should ever have to live with the fear of violence or threat or exploitation. We will stand with them. We will make sure every single provider that’s helping, in partnership with us across the province, will have a partner in our government. We will not let them down, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, through Ontario-STANDS, as I mentioned, when we work with the federal government, there are plenty of initiatives and supports in this statement and this action plan that the province has put forward.

The investments that we announced in December to all the partners on the ground—an additional $18 million for the duration of this fiscal year. That investment will increase. In budget 2024, an additional $13.5 million was added to the support.

There’s a lot of great work that’s being done underground by service providers and partners. We want to make sure they have the resources to be able to provide those supports. That needs to be backed by investments. We passed legislation to make sure that happens so that people are protected, but that needs to be backed by investments. I thank the Premier for the commitment, and I thank the Minister of Finance.

As I said, we will not let them down. We will make sure they have the supports they need on the ground to help every single person in every community.

Mr. Speaker, retired judges have warned this Premier to give up his agenda of taking away Lady Justice’s blindfold and replacing it with blue-tinted glasses. Justice doesn’t come from judges thinking like the Premier, but from judges believing they have a duty to follow the law and their conscience, and to serve the people.

For everyday disputes, people rely on Ontario’s tribunals and expect to get a fair shake. The powers that be can’t just do whatever they want. But under this government, experienced adjudicators appointed under the previous government were not reappointed, leaving many vacancies. The Landlord and Tenant Board, the Social Benefits Tribunal and the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario lost 35% of their members by 2020.

Will the Premier admit that he is taking his time to find and appoint like-minded adjudicators for Ontario’s tribunals?

Will the Premier acknowledge the grief and financial losses because landlords and tenants and victims of accidents, harassment and discrimination have had to wait too long? Will he admit that this can’t happen again whenever the government changes?

Will he support Bill 179, the Fewer Backlogs and Less Partisan Tribunals Act and send it to committee?

To reply, the Attorney General.

Not only are the tribunals independent, but so is the recruitment process.

I’m very proud of the fact that we have doubled the number of Landlord and Tenant Board adjudicators in the last little while.

It’s unfortunate that the tremendous members that we have across the 15 tribunals under MAG are being slighted by the member opposite. They are professionals who are doing the work of the people of Ontario in an independent and fair manner, and it really is unfortunate that the member wouldn’t celebrate that with us.

My question is for the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry.

Speaker, last week, when I was in my riding of Hastings–Lennox and Addington, I heard from so many constituents about how the federal Liberal carbon tax is simply making their lives unaffordable. Ontarians are already coping with high interest rates and a rising cost of living, and the last thing they need is another tax hike. With last week’s hike, the Liberal carbon tax is now forcing Ontarians to pay 17.6 cents on every litre of gas. That’s hundreds of dollars a year for an average household.

Unlike the Liberals and the NDP members across the aisle, who are still refusing to admit that the carbon tax costs all of us, our government will always speak up on behalf of Ontarians. The federal government needs to scrap this tax now.

Will the minister please tell this House how our government is keeping costs down for Ontarians while the members opposite continue to remain silent?

It’s just not fair to punish the hard-working people in our province with this carbon tax. Life has only become more challenging for individuals and families in both rural and northern Ontario, who end up relying exclusively on their vehicles for transportation. They are being hit hardest at the gas pumps and at the grocery stores. And what’s worse is that Bonnie Crombie, the queen of the carbon tax, and her Liberal cohort, want to keep on increasing your gas prices and bring back the cap-and-trade system. They’re just like the federal Liberals, who take every opportunity to add more costs to Ontarians’ bills. They’ve never met a tax they wouldn’t raise.

Can the minister please explain what our government is doing to make life more affordable for the people of rural and northern Ontario and all across this province?

First, I want to thank the member for Hastings–Lennox and Addington for being a great PA for me for almost two years. He did an absolutely fantastic job, and I know the member for Newmarket–Aurora is going to do an equally fantastic job.

Speaker, we all know that when you go to work every day, you’re paying the carbon tax in your vehicle driving on the road, but you’re also paying it off the road too. We’ve got members of the Ontario Federation of Trail Riders here today that are supporting responsible trail use all throughout Ontario with off-road motorcycles. Every time you gas up that motorcycle now, you’re paying a carbon tax. Every time you want to enjoy the great outdoors by riding your ATV, using a snowmobile, filling up your boat, you’re paying a carbon tax.

It’s almost like the federal Liberals and their Ontario cousins here do not want people to enjoy the great outdoors in Ontario, because they’re taking away a little bit of fun a little bit at a time with the carbon tax. It’s time for them to end this carbon tax. It’s time for them to support people getting out and enjoying the great outdoors in Ontario.

Let’s think about the life of a northern Ontario person. They’re going to get up in the morning. They’re going to take their kid to school. They’re going to fill up their truck and pay a bunch of carbon tax, go to the grocery store and pay a bunch of carbon tax on the food that got shipped there, go to work for a while, go home, pick those kids up again—all of this carbon tax baked into it. They’re going to want to go out for a little bit of fun afterwards, maybe take the kids to the arena or get on that off-road vehicle and enjoy it—carbon tax, carbon tax, carbon tax.

Mr. Speaker, the madness has to stop. I know April 1 has come and gone, but it’s never too late to do the right thing, as somebody once said, right on the other side of the aisle one time. Let’s get rid of that carbon tax. Our friends across the aisle know that it’s the wrong thing for Ontarians. Tell your—

My question is to the Premier.

Anne-Marie and Jasmine Ready were killed in their family home almost two years ago by a young man with a history of assault and sexual harassment. Their father, Raphael Ready, has now devoted his life to ending violence against women, and he wants this House to act on recommendations 32 and 33 of the Renfrew county inquest report so we can reach perpetrators of violence against women and people who are likely perpetrators of violence against women.

Is the government committed to implementing those recommendations today?

I want to thank the member for the question, and I want to just commend that man for the work he’s doing to make sure that the tragedies that have happened have not happened in vain.

I want to make it very clear that no woman should ever be subjected to violence. No woman should ever have to live in fear, be intimidated, and that’s why I know we are working really hard in our government to put strategies in place to ensure that we’re looking to community and organizations.

I want to encourage everybody to take a look at Ontario-STANDS. The minister responsible for community, children and social services—we went and brought this to Ontario, and we said, “We want to hear from you.” Ontario-STANDS, in their second goal, calls for community organizations to bring us the proposals so that we can fund and close the gaps to keep women safe in Ontario. So, please, if community members don’t know about it, share Ontario-STANDS, because we believe every woman has the right to be safe in Ontario.

Again, I thank the honourable member for the question. As the government House leader indicated already, we are looking at passing this and, as he mentioned, taking it a step further to make sure all members of this committee have the opportunity to contribute to the solution. All partners, who are doing great work on the ground, are contributing to this. That is what our government has said from day one.

I have said this on many occasions: This is an issue that affects every single person in every community of our province. We need to work together, which is why we signed the national action plan, an agreement with the federal government for us to be able to work together, because this is not a partisan issue. We will work with municipalities. We’re working with all partners on the ground to make sure that we end violence against women in all its forms in every community, and we need your help. You need to come together. We need to work on this committee to make sure that we hear from survivors, that we hear from community partners.

We invest over $250 million annually on violence-against-women initiatives, over $10 million on preventative measures—

And the supplementary question? The member for Niagara Falls.

Interjections.

The next question.

Supplementary question.

Interjections.

The next question.

My question is to the Premier. Just last year, a Niagara woman, a first responder, was murdered in what police called an act of intimate partner violence. The family is devastated, navigating a broken and difficult system to find justice for their loved one who was so cruelly taken from this world. One of the most heartbreaking realities for a family is the knowledge that this type of violence is far too common.

Nearly 100 municipalities have declared IPV an epidemic, including Niagara. Will the government do the right thing today and support my colleague’s bill to declare IPV an epidemic immediately? A study is not needed. The recommendations are clear. Declare it an epidemic today.

It’s really an ironic question coming from the member opposite, who was a member of a federal government who expanded the civil service by, what, 35%, and whose federal cousins’ policies are literally devastating the community that she represents.

But do you know what we’re going to do? We’re going to go back to the people of the province of Ontario two years from now and we’re going to say to them, “Look, we have put in place the climate that has seen over 700,000 jobs created in the province of Ontario.” We’ve cut red tape. We’re building subways, Mr. Speaker. We’re building hospitals. We have got over $30 billion worth of economic development and jobs created in the province of Ontario. Do you know why, Mr. Speaker? Because we’re doing the work that is necessary to make Ontario the engine of the economy of the country.

Interjections.

Interjections.

What we want to do is build an economy where all Ontarians can thrive. We don’t want a carbon tax. They do. We’ve cut gas taxes. They’ll increase them. The taxes that we reduced, they want to increase. The very first job of the leader of the Liberal Party was to beg for a million dollars to—

Interjections.

This government insists on tightening the belt for everyone but themselves. They’ve cut the salaries of nurses and health care workers, teachers and education workers, even air ambulance drivers, but a quick look at the Premier’s office, and you will see his budget has exploded. His staff are being paid $6.9 million, the most expensive Premier’s office in history—not just in total, but 48 staffers are earning more than $100,000 every single year.

When this Premier was running for office, he said he’d be the one to stop the fat cats, to stop the gravy train, but he’s worse than any of his predecessors. Spending $6.9 million every year, the Premier is the most expensive Premier we’ve ever had, more than double any other Premier. When Ontarians face austerity, how will the Premier explain his runaway and self-serving expenses to the people of Ontario?

Now, it’s not a bad thing to reverse a bad decision, but you need to learn from your mistakes rather than continuing to follow an unintelligible ideology. “Measure twice, cut once” was my dad’s advice.

Why is the Premier okay with wastefully burning through Ontarians’ hard-earned tax dollars while expecting Ontarians to scrimp and save?

My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade. There are plenty of countries around this world who have proven you can take climate change seriously without an inflationary carbon tax. Unfortunately, Trudeau’s Liberal government has chosen to implement a carbon tax that punishes the hard-working people of this province by driving up prices across the board. You don’t fight climate change by taxing citizens until they can’t afford to heat their homes, drive their cars and put food on their tables. Just look south of they border, where politicians of all political stripes are vehemently against the idea of a carbon tax.

Speaker, can the minister please highlight how, since we took office, we’ve strengthened our trade relationships with the US, who doesn’t have a carbon tax?

The federal Liberal government always touts how well the US is doing on climate change, but what they don’t mention is that the US does not have a carbon tax that raises the cost of everything.

The Trudeau Liberals continue to hike their carbon tax. All the while, their friend Bonnie Crombie says nothing. If the Liberals listened to the businesses and workers of this province, they would understand that no one supports their carbon tax. In 2019, they told everyone the carbon tax wouldn’t increase, but it’s now costing people an extra 18 cents a litre at the pump while it drives up the prices of everything.

Speaker, we know where the US stands on carbon tax, but can the minister talk about what Ontario’s other trading partners think about the Liberals’ carbon tax?

When we are in the US, companies tell us they cannot comprehend this carbon tax. They know any additional taxes are harmful.

Now, Ontario is the US’s third-largest trading partner after Mexico and China: $494 billion in two-way trade between Ontario and the US. That’s up more than $100 billion since we took office. But all the products that these companies buy from us are now more expensive because of this carbon tax. We are putting our trade at risk with our largest partner because of these rising prices. Mexico does not have a carbon tax. The US has alternatives than buying from Ontario. Scrap the tax.

My question is to the Premier. I want to acknowledge that today is a very emotional day for many of us, including the survivors who are here with us today. I’m thinking of Latonya Anderson from Whitby, Angie Sweeney from Sault Ste. Marie and Argentina Fuentes from Mississauga. They lost their lives to intimate partner violence. Their families do not need to go through another retraumatizing committee work. We have the answers to address intimate partner violence. We need to apply them.

Money, Speaker—or, rather, lack of it—has always been a major hurdle for those trying to escape intimate partner violence and abuse. Poverty often keeps women and children in unsafe situations, and without access to supportive funds, survivors face the impossible choice of living under ever-present threats of death or fleeing into poverty, homelessness and endless uncertainty. That’s why it’s more urgent than ever that we fund and build supportive housing options.

To the Premier: Why was dedicated funding for supportive housing for victims of intimate partner violence left out of this year’s budget again?

Interjections.

I have a petition that has been collected across the province and refers to over 100,000 signatures that have been collected in support of Bill 74, which is the missing persons alert. It comes on the unfortunate death of Draven Graham, a young boy with autism who went missing in his community and unfortunate circumstances left him to be gone too long and unfortunately perish; as well as the death of Shirley Love, who was a senior in the city of Hamilton who was missing with dementia.

Many organizations across the province are calling on this, as well as many municipalities, and they’re asking that Bill 74, the missing persons alert, be called to committee immediately.

I wholeheartedly support this petition and will give it to page Nate to bring to the Clerk.

People on Ontario Works have not seen a raise in decades; they’re living on a mere, measly $733. We know that this cannot even pay for the cost of housing. People on ODSP have seen very meagre increases, but again, not enough to be able to even pay the rent and to be able to buy a meal at the end of the day. So I wholeheartedly support their petition to double the social assistance rates for both Ontario Works and ODSP, and hope that the government sees fit to do so also, with all of the hard work that has been put into ensuring that this petition is on each and every one of our desks, that we’re able to read.

I support this petition. I’m going to affix my name to it and give it to page Lyra to bring to the Clerk.

This petition is specifically asking for the government to implement evidence-based recommendations to retain and recruit nurses, to ensure that there are enough nurses on the floor to be able to work those long hours, those long, stressful hours, and that they have the appropriate pay to go with it, because we know that they’ve been held back for years. Hopefully, they’re starting to see the payback of Bill 124 in ensuring that those lost wages are recouped, but it’s still not enough. We need to have a better position and program in ensuring that we’re retaining and recruiting into fair and equitable compensation for the nurses of Ontario.

I wholeheartedly support this petition, will affix my name to it and give it to page Ruby to bring to the Clerk.

This is a petition from my constituents and the surrounding communities that calls on the government to reduce the clawback on ODSP recipients who have an income-earning partner. This is about people who are poor, who are living near the poverty line. A really easy way to help them: Don’t penalize them for having a partner who has income.

I have a petition here calling for the government to raise social assistance rates. Folks who are on social assistance, both Ontario Works and the Ontario Disability Support Program, are receiving amounts that are far below the poverty line. People who are on OW are receiving rates that have been frozen for over two decades, and those on ODSP have seen a very small increase to their rates and are still below the poverty line. This petition here is calling for the government to double OW and ODSP rates.

The rent control laws did exist for all units, but under the current Conservative government, that was cancelled, and so a lot of tenants in my riding and across Ontario are currently living in apartment rental buildings that are not covered under rent control. As a result, they’re seeing, year after year, their rents increase by double digits for absolutely no reason other than that the landlord can simply do it.

This is causing, of course, a tremendous amount of stress. It is a highly precarious situation for a lot of people in terms of their housing because how much rent can increase by is unpredictable. And so, in this petition, the residents are calling on the government to pass a bill that I’ve tabled in the House called “rent control for all units,” and I fully support and will affix my signature to this petition.

Speaker, health care services are exempt from the HST—including many health care services; however, psychotherapists are still required to charge HST. It makes no sense, for such an important health care service like psychotherapy, that Ontarians should be taxed on it. So this petition simply asks that the government of Ontario take that first step in removing the HST.

I’d just like to welcome Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region, which is present in my riding.

And I want to say Eid Mubarak to all the Muslims all across Ontario who are celebrating today. I hope you have a peaceful celebration with your family, and good job with your fasting.

Deferred vote on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

Bill 170, An Act to amend the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, the City of Toronto Act, 2006 and the Municipal Act, 2001 to implement various measures respecting rental accommodation / Projet de loi 170, Loi modifiant la Loi de 2006 sur la location à usage d’habitation, la Loi de 2006 sur la cité de Toronto et la Loi de 2001 sur les municipalités pour mettre en oeuvre diverses mesures relatives aux logements locatifs.