SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
April 11, 2024 09:00AM
  • Apr/11/24 10:30:00 a.m.

Well, of course, the answer is no. We look forward to the opportunity to move forward on a number of key infrastructure projects, especially with respect to those isolated, remote First Nations communities.

This member knows that we have met in the past couple of weeks alone with key leadership in communities and on behalf of Indigenous organizations in NAN territory about road access—road access that would allow and provide for the province to develop other legacy infrastructure into the north: electrification, getting communities off diesel, building bridges so that we can have communities access places like Red Lake and come down to the southern part of northern Ontario for other programs and services and create better access into the north.

Those are the things that we’re interested in working on, and I’ve heard from Indigenous leadership in northern Ontario that this is the right way to go.

The question is, will the member support those initiatives?

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  • Apr/11/24 10:40:00 a.m.

It’s unfortunate that the federal government has not lived up to its infrastructure opportunities in those communities. This isn’t about jurisdiction; this is about a commitment from the province of Ontario to build the kinds of roads that can create an opportunity to build state-of-the-art infrastructure in those communities. That’s what this is always about.

Every time we’ve tried to have those kinds of discussions with the member opposite, the answer has been, “I’m not sure if we can support that.”

They’re in the budget.

We’ve had conversations with Indigenous leadership about building roads. Our winter roads have been compromised—this winter, in particular. It’s very clear that First Nations leadership understands that in order to have state-of-the-art waste water infrastructure and other essential infrastructure in their communities, they need road access. We’re prepared to move on that. The Premier has said that explicitly to Indigenous leadership in the north.

Will the member opposite support those initiatives?

We have some very capable partners across northern Ontario, in particular—including here in the city of Toronto—who have done a fantastic job of creating off-reserve housing and working in full partnership so that we can accommodate for what is a serious trend, and that is First Nations people moving off reserves into towns and cities across this province, across northern Ontario and here into Toronto.

Again, these are pieces that have been in our budget, and every single time that we advance that, that member opposite and the NDP have voted against it.

Do they stand for off-reserve housing or not?

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  • Apr/11/24 11:30:00 a.m.

As the former Liberal MP Bonnie Crombie stood resolute with Prime Minister Trudeau as the carbon tax received royal assent, that would make her the queen of the carbon tax.

The NDP’s position has been a little bit more higgledy-piggledy. It’s not clear. They support it; they’re against it. We don’t really know.

I went on a zetetic exploration to understand from the people in Sudbury how they felt about this. One owner of a roofing company said that the carbon tax has made its way into every aspect of building materials, making it more expensive to repair homes and making it more difficult for people to decide to repair those homes.

Another fellow, Richard Diotte, the owner and president of Barné Building, said the cost for residential upgrades and repairs has gone out of control. He puts it squarely on the carbon tax. That’s not good for families, as the member for Kanata–Carleton said—

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