SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
April 25, 2024 09:00AM
  • Apr/25/24 9:00:00 a.m.

I’m so happy to be saying this today. This past Friday, I was pleased to announce almost $2 million in new funding to support primary care in Windsor–Essex. This—

Interjections.

This funding will connect almost 8,000 more in our community with new services in primary care much closer to home.

Part of this funding will create new practitioner positions at the community health centre based at the Canadian Mental Health Association Windsor-Essex branch. More health human resources will mean more patients can access the roster of services available.

Part of this funding is also expanding the mobile medical support team, a mobile health care clinic that can truly go anywhere in the moment. Through episodic care, preventive care or wraparound services, our vulnerable, high-risk, underserved areas can more easily be helped.

Building on the $424,525 in support of the Essex County Nurse Practitioner-Led Clinic just announced a few weeks ago in Kingsville, bringing more care to 1,200 county residents; the Windsor-Essex regional acute-care hospital; the mental health in-patient bed expansion at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare; among many, many other investments, our government is investing deeply in health care in Windsor and Essex county.

Under the leadership of Premier Ford and Minister Jones, our government’s additional $546 million over three years for inter-professional primary care teams will connect 600,000 people with primary care closer to home.

239 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
  • Apr/25/24 10:50:00 a.m.

In fact, we’re not cutting funding for affordable housing.

Do you know who’s cutting funding? The Liberal-NDP government in Ottawa. That is who is cutting funding, by billions of dollars, for the people of Ontario. It’s an agreement that they signed in 2018 with the previous government, that we have honoured. We have overachieved, thanks to the actions that we have taken and our partnership with municipalities across the province of Ontario. Speaker, 426% of renovations have been completed under this government—because we inherited a mess from the others—11,000 of the 19,000 units that had to be built over 10 years were already there. But unilaterally, the NDP-Liberal government in Ottawa has decided to cut billions of dollars from the people of the province of Ontario for affordable housing.

I ask the member opposite—they have an opportunity to call their federal cousins in Ottawa to say that they will not support the federal budget unless the federal budget includes the restoration of the billions of dollars in funds that were unilaterally removed from affordable housing in Ontario.

There’s one—one—government that is opposed to affordable housing funding, and that is the federal Liberal and NDP government, who unilaterally decided to cut funding to the province of Ontario. They didn’t cut funding anywhere else, just Ontario. And do you know who’s staying silent? It is the NDP in Ottawa. They have an opportunity to vote against the federal budget or to say, “Add the funding back in for the province of Ontario and then we will support the budget.” But they’ll stay silent, because they’re just like the NDP here: irrelevant.

286 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
  • Apr/25/24 10:50:00 a.m.

My question is to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. New government documents obtained by Global News reveal that this government continues to underfund affordable housing. The Conservatives have cut funding to community housing programs even though the wait-list for an affordable home has ballooned to well over 65,000 people.

My question to the minister: Why is this government cutting funding to affordable housing at a time when the homelessness and housing crisis has never been worse?

80 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
  • Apr/25/24 11:00:00 a.m.

It was the previous Liberal government, propped up by the NDP, that cut half a billion dollars in education funding while calling it savings. This included special education funding.

For the 2023-24 school year, we’ve invested over $3.4 billion for special education, the highest investment ever in Ontario history. This represents $125 million more compared to the 2022-23 school year and nearly $541 million more than the 2017-18 school year.

We are the government that is ensuring equal access to top-quality education in Ontario. Under this Premier, our government continues to make record investments to support the next generation of Ontario leaders, including those with special needs.

113 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
  • Apr/25/24 11:10:00 a.m.

It seems the Minister of Education wants kids in this province to use their imagination when it comes to improvements and funding for their own schools.

The TDSB has been left far behind in this government’s recent budget. The largest school board in Canada is facing a deficit of $26.5 million for the upcoming year, and this government has no interest in helping them with capital funding.

Sensational Secord Elementary School in East York is in desperate need of the new build promised ages ago.

Parents are coming to me, wondering how their Premier is doubling the salaries of his staff and ballooning his office budget while their public schools are crumbling under the pressures of overstuffed classrooms, dilapidated infrastructure, and a complete lack of priorities by this government.

My question is, why is the TDSB getting shortchanged, and when can the Secord community expect their long-promised new school?

There are 7,200 residential units—

Currently, Secord is 200 students beyond capacity.

Speaker, when will this government put their money where their mouth is and actually get the shovels in the ground and build Secord’s new school?

191 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border
  • Apr/25/24 11:30:00 a.m.

Speaker, I’d like to correct my record in Hansard for yesterday’s question on the developmental services sector. In fact, we are investing approximately $3.4 billion this year, which is over a billion dollars more than 2017-18. Of that investment, it’s $2.2 billion of funding towards supportive living, services and support, which is an increase of—

61 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
  • star_border