The supplementary question? The member for London–Fanshawe.

Interjections.

Back to the minister: These are the facts. Schools in our riding are facing cuts, because the Conservatives are refusing to properly fund our public school system. We have 15 parents from Kensington school today. Kensington is losing two teachers. They just learned their kids will be in a grade 4/5/6 class. That means a teacher will have to explain and teach three lesson plans each and every day. That is not a recipe for student success, that is a recipe for kids being left behind.

My question is to the minister: Will you commit to more school funding so students in this province, including the kids of these parents who are here today, can succeed in school?

When you ask the people of Ontario if they’re better off now than they were six years ago, the answer is a resounding no. Patients, nurses, doctors, teachers, students—including the autism community—farmers and renters, all dealing with restrictions, slowdowns and cuts to essential services.

But I will tell you who isn’t dealing with cuts. This government has the largest, most expensive cabinet ever. This Premier’s office is also the largest, most expensive Premier’s office in history, doubling in size and salary. If this isn’t the gravy train, I don’t know what is.

Mr. Speaker, can the Premier please explain what exactly his 28 extra staff members, each earning over $100,000 annually, are doing for the people of Ontario?

Interjections.

What exactly is the Premier paying this enormous staff to do?

Thank you.

Interjections.

Start the clock. The next question.

The Premier may reply.

The member for Ottawa South, come to order. The member for Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke, come to order.

Start the clock. The supplementary question?

Interjections.

And they chirp over there. They say, “Oh, where’s your plan?” We have a plan, Mr. Speaker. It’s called Powering Ontario’s Growth, investing in our nuclear reactors at Pickering and at Darlington and at Bruce, building small modular reactors in Darlington, investing in our water power—

My question is to the Minister of Education. The Toronto District School Board is facing a $26.5-million budget deficit. This is after $17 million in cuts to programs and services for the upcoming year. The Conservative government has cut $1,347 per student since 2018. The chair of the board has written to the minister, saying programs students rely on are in jeopardy.

Will the minister address the TDSB’s structural deficit to avoid further drastic cuts?

I think the priority of parents in this province is that governments land deals that keep the kids in class, and that’s exactly what the government has done—not a peep from the New Democrats or Liberals who couldn’t do that when they were in government. We signed deals that provided stability.

The first principle of your question is that you’ve got to keep kids in front of their teachers, focused on the basics of education, which is why we hired 7,500 more education workers. It’s why we hired 3,000 more teachers. It’s why we just doubled the funding to build more schools in this province for families in Toronto and the smallest towns and villages of this province.

We are investing more in public education than at any time, but we’re doing it alone. When we brought forth a budget that added billions of investments to publicly funded schools, Liberals opposed that investment. When we hired thousands of additional teachers to help our kids get back on track, you opposed the investment.

But, Mr. Speaker, we’re not going to rely on the opposition to do what’s right, we’re going to continue to go back to basics and demand better for the people of this province.

Get off this ideological aversion to leveraging people with experience and stand up for what’s right: qualified educators in the classrooms of Ontario.

“Wow” is right. It’s a wow. I can’t believe what I just heard the member say. The people are not a little bit—they’re a thousand times better. There are 700,000 people collecting a paycheque who never collected a paycheque under them. There’s $28 billion of investment in the auto and EV sector that under their government—they ran them right out of our province. And wait until tomorrow: one of the largest investments in Canadian history in the auto sector. We’ll be announcing that.

So talk to the hundreds of thousands of people who have a secure job for years to come. Talk to the people who are in the tech sector—over $20 billion of investment. We’ve overtaken Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay area. We’re going 365% faster than that region when it comes to the tech sector.

Talk to the people who are employed with the $3-billion investment in life sciences, who have a stable job. Talk to all the businesses that we reduced $8 billion from—we have never raised a tax on the people or—

Interjections.

Tell the people who are filling up their gas tanks and looking at 17.5 cents more as we reduced gas by 10.7 cents. Talk to the kids behind me about the new schools that they’re seeing built across the province. You closed 600 schools; we’re building $16 billion of schools. Talk to the 12,500 doctors who are now registered right here in Ontario. Talk to the 80,000 nurses. When they were firing nurses, we registered 80,000 nurses.

Mr. Speaker, we have become an economic powerhouse, not just in North America but around the world. We’re going to continue growing Ontario—

My question is for the Minister of Indigenous Affairs. The Liberal carbon tax is punishing Ontario families and businesses. After this month’s 23% tax hike, Ontarians are paying 18 cents more per litre at the gas pumps, and that is just unacceptable. This costly tax drives up the price of everything, but especially in remote Indigenous communities across northern Ontario, where the cost to transport goods is already much higher compared to anywhere else in the province.

Speaker, we know the opposition NDP and independent Liberals are more than happy to see this tax nearly triple by 2030. But the people of Ontario have had enough. They want to see this tax scrapped today.

Speaker, can the minister please tell the House how the Liberal carbon tax is adversely impacting on rural, remote and northern Indigenous communities?

The carbon tax is a tax on everything: your groceries, your gas, heating your home and so much more. It’s disgraceful that the federal Liberals and their provincial counterparts are forcing this burdensome tax on individuals and families all across northern Ontario.

Speaker, the Liberal record speaks for itself. The previous Liberal government, that was propped up by the NDP, neglected the north for years and actually called it “no man’s land.” Unlike the opposition, our government will always support northern communities, and that’s why we’re the only party in this Legislature that’s standing up to the federal government and demanding that they scrap this tax.

Speaker, can the minister please elaborate on the detrimental effects that the carbon tax is having on the people, the communities and all of the businesses across the north?

Thank you for the question. Absolutely, we are ready for fire season here in Ontario. I’ve talked to this House on multiple occasions about our recruitment efforts for forest fire rangers here in Ontario, supporting those front-line workers, supporting all those that work the logistics to make sure that the system is ready, supporting those in the air, those on the ground, those at the outbases all throughout Ontario.

Mr. Speaker, this government has made it a priority to be ready for forest fire season in Ontario. In fact, we raised the budget from a paltry $69 million back in the Liberal days to $135 million today to make sure that we are keeping people safe all throughout Ontario. That is our mission, Mr. Speaker, and we are not stopping. We are going to make sure that every community in Ontario is safe and we are ready for forest fire prevention every single day.

The reality is that forest firefighting in Ontario is a proposition where we spend every dollar that is needed to get the job done, and that is our promise to communities all throughout Ontario: that not only will we have the resources, again, on the ground, in the air, wherever it needs to be, but we will spare no expense to make sure that communities stay safe here in Ontario.

Mr. Speaker, we are committed to the safety of communities, individuals and infrastructure in this province. We show it every single day with our actions. I call on the opposition to support us as we make sure that Ontarians remain safe.

Speaker, that member sits about two seats away from a Liberal member, so she had to have heard earlier, during question period, while the Minister of Economic Development was talking about all the progress we’re making in our economy—that he said, “You sure talk about the carbon tax a lot.” And he’s absolutely right.

Because we’re not milking this, unlike our dairy farmer friends. This is a major problem here in the province and it affects long-term care because Bonnie Crombie, the queen of the carbon tax, continues to support this regressive tax that’s going to triple by the end of 2028. This is a problem for long-term-care homes because we are facing the ever-increasing cost of construction, as that great member said.

We’re still going to fight back. That’s why we’ve increased the construction funding subsidy as well as doubling the Local Priorities Fund to $35 million, Speaker. We’re going to help our homes get more training, more equipment, better-quality food to our residents in our homes, Speaker, because this is the right thing to do. Our province was built by the hard-working seniors in our communities. We’re going to take care of them.

Yesterday and today, the Minister of Energy and I got a real perspective on the cost of this carbon tax. There’s a couple of isolated First Nations communities who operate their own independent power authorities, and between the shortened winter road season and the impact of the carbon tax, what would otherwise be years that they would break even—several years, in fact—they’re now running significant deficits that they don’t know how to pay for.

These are serious issues, and so far, the NDP position has been nothing short of gallimaufry. And I can’t help but wonder, when Bonnie Crombie was in the House of Commons, standing shoulder to shoulder with Justin Trudeau, whether she imagined she’d take the throne of the Ontario Liberal Party and become the queen of the carbon tax and live up to the provincial Liberal standards of their understanding of northern Ontario: that it’s a wasteland.

It’s not. We’re proud of our vast region. We want affordable living in northern Ontario, and it’s this—

This tax is expensive. The opposition needs to stand with the government, who’s working to reduce the cost to these communities and make life affordable in northern Ontario, and just scrap the tax.

Thank you.

The supplementary question?

My question is for the Minister of Long-Term Care. The Liberal carbon tax is adversely impacting every sector in Ontario. It drives up the cost of building expenses, from the cost of materials and transport to the cost of operations.

Speaker, people in my riding of Richmond Hill and across Ontario want to ensure that family members in long-term-care homes receive the best possible care. They are concerned that the regressive carbon tax is negatively affecting this vital sector.

Our government must continue to ensure that residents in a long-term-care home receive the quality of care and the quality of life they need and deserve.

Speaker, can the minister please tell this House what our government is doing to protect Ontario families, especially our seniors, from the negative impact of the carbon tax?

My question is to the Premier. NOMA municipalities are meeting this week. On their agenda: forestry, resilience and partnership with Indigenous communities. We know there will be forest fires. First Nations communities will be most impacted, and municipalities will welcome evacuees with the means they currently have. Yet we never seem to be quite ready for wildfire season.

Premier, can you tell NOMA members today: Are we ready for the fire season?

Monsieur le Président, ma question est pour le premier ministre.

Il nous manque déjà 50 équipes, donc 200 pompiers forestiers. Ce gouvernement est toujours dans l’état de réaction plutôt que de préparation.

Monsieur le Premier Ministre, les municipalités du Nord ont besoin de savoir : allez-vous envoyer du financement dès maintenant pour que les municipalités soient prêtes à accueillir les évacués des feux de forêt?

That’s the difference between the opposition and us, Mr. Speaker. What we believe that will help the challenge that people have with finding rental housing is to actually build more purpose-built rental housing. I feel that that will work, and we’re showing that it does work because under the policies of this government, we have the highest level of purpose-built rentals not in one year, not in two years—but ever, Mr. Speaker. And that is giving more people more options and that is what will bring the price of rental housing down across the province of Ontario.

I was speaking to the mayor of Oshawa, and he could not have been more supportive of the things that we are doing to help his community grow. That includes the groundbreaking investments that we’ve made in the automotive sector in that area.

So let’s see: We’re building more purpose-built rental housing than ever before. We’re getting more shovels in the ground for housing than ever before. We’re saving the automotive sector in Oshawa and making it bigger. We’re expanding the GO trains. We’re building more hospitals in that part of the region. We’ve got more jobs. We’ve reduced the cost of transit and transportation. We’re building more schools, more long-term-care homes, reduced the costs to the people in Oshawa and all of Durham region. I’d say we’re on the right path, Mr. Speaker.

Yes, Speaker, I want to apologize. I got caught up in my own excitement. Whitney Public School is coming tomorrow. I’m a day ahead of myself and I apologize. I apologize to Whitney Public School. I’ve been waiting a long time for them. And I apologize to the House for my error.

Well, first of all, I’d like to invite the dairy farmers over to my office for a cold glass of chocolate milk.

And I’d like to invite the class up there. If you have time—I don’t know your schedule—come by and say hello and we’ll get a picture in the office.

Thank you, Minister, for your response and especially for the respect and the care you give to our seniors. It is encouraging to hear that our government is taking action to ensure that seniors are able to receive the care they need and enjoy the high quality of life that they deserve within the very community they helped plan and develop.

For 15 years, the previous Liberal government neglected the long-term-care sector. Now, under the leadership of carbon tax queen Bonnie Crombie, they are turning a blind eye on how the carbon tax is negatively impacting our seniors. Speaker, they did nothing to stop the 23% hike earlier this month.

Unlike the NDP and Liberals in this Legislature, our government will continue to fight the carbon tax and protect Ontario seniors. Speaker, can the minister tell the House what our government is doing to support our long-term-care sector?

Well, Speaker, we are doing a lot and I appreciate that question. Let’s just look at the most recent budget, right? I mentioned the $155 million for the construction funding subsidy 2.0. That’s going to allow for thousands of more spaces to get online. But above and beyond that, the highest increase to level-of-care funding—this is operational support for staffing, for food for our seniors—in history of 6.6% annualized.

And Speaker, a one-year support of $202 million. That’s $2,543 per space in long-term care so that seniors can get the repairs they deserve, whether it’s a leaky faucet, new televisions, new supports, new equipment, new rec room. This is a government that said we are taking care of our seniors.

Now, the Liberals can heckle the carbon tax all they want, but their record on long-term care is clear. When they exited government in 2018, they built 611 net new beds. We have 18,000 built with shovels in the ground, well on our way to 15,000. We’re getting it done for our seniors.