Back to the transportation minister: 16 months ago, the transportation minister said she would investigate consultant Brian Guest and his firm, Boxfish. Mr. Guest was a key adviser to Ottawa’s LRT, a former vice-president of Metrolinx and the key leader in most of Toronto’s LRT contracts, including the Eglinton Crosstown. Boxfish earned millions for contracts in LRT systems that are failing or don’t work. The minister at the time said she was “extremely concerned about any perceived or potential conflict of interest” with Mr. Guest and pledged to investigate him and Boxfish.

Speaker, we have done our own investigation, and we have confirmed that Mr. Guest has never been investigated; neither has Boxfish.

If the Minister of Transportation was truly extremely concerned, why did she break her promise to this House and the people of Ontario and fail to investigate Mr. Guest or Boxfish for any of these contracts?

So, very clearly, to the minister: The investigation that she claims to have done—will you make that internal investigation public? Will accountability be brought to the Eglinton Crosstown, to stage 1 of Ottawa’s LRT, and to every other transit project being done under this government?

Interjections.

My question is for the Premier.

It’s Halloween and Ontarians are accustomed to seeing and hearing about spooky things today, but nothing prepared me for a video I saw this weekend. I saw a video of Tyler Russell, an organizer with the hate group Canada First, receiving a call from what sounds like this Premier on February 11, 2022. After our exchange, Speaker, I’ll be posting this video to my Twitter account. This happened on February 11, in the middle of the convoy. If it is in fact the Premier taking this call from Mr. Russell, promising Mr. Russell, as you will see, that it was about ending vaccine mandates and COVID restrictions—that was his priority.

Can the Premier confirm if this in fact was him and why this conversation was even happening when my city was under siege?

The people of Ottawa need you, Premier—Speaker, through you, we need him to come clean on whether this in fact was a conversation he had in one of our worst moments of the convoy occupation crisis. I want to know if there were other members—did the Premier talk to Pat King? Did the Premier talk to Tamara Lich? Did the Premier talk to some of the people who were organized at a high level, infiltrating our city, blocking our city, harassing residents? It is a matter of public interest.

The Premier has been silent beyond talking about policing and jurisdiction. Other members of Parliament, other political office-holders who are not members of federal jurisdiction have had the courage to come testify in Ottawa.

Again, is this the Premier in this video? Will he come to Ottawa to testify?

My question is for the Premier.

A public inquiry into the use of the federal Emergencies Act during recent convoy protests starts within weeks—the occupation that hit our city last February and March and that also impacted the good people of Windsor.

The deadline has passed to seek standing in this inquiry, and Ontario is not participating. Simple question: Why?

Back to the Premier: Our downtown streets, as the government knows, were choked with diesel fumes and trucks and horns blaring for weeks, and it took three weeks for this government to do anything declared by this federal Emergencies Act.

I know that participating in this inquiry requires disclosure of documents. Is that why the government is a no-show? Three other provinces are participating. Does it have something to hide, and is it prepared to tell the people of Ottawa and Windsor why it is refusing to participate in this disclosure process? Why are you not showing up?