On behalf of the official opposition, I want to welcome guests from the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, who are here today for their annual advocacy. Welcome to Queen’s Park. I look forward to seeing you at your noon reception.

Liberals and Conservatives always say that the whole point of public-private partnerships is supposedly to avoid cost overruns and risks to the public, but the Eglinton Crosstown P3 has been a total fiasco for the public, for small businesses, for Ontario.

How much more will the public be forced to pay before this government accepts that P3s are riskier, take longer and cost more than publicly procured projects?

In her 2018 report, the Auditor General said Metrolinx should not have paid Crosslinx $237 million to settle its first lawsuit. But Metrolinx did pay. Then Crosslinx sued again. And Metrolinx paid again. And, now, Crosslinx has sued again. Not only that, the P3 project has been delayed until 2024 at the earliest.

Back to the Premier: How many lawsuits and how many delays will it take before this government abandons its costly and risky obsession with P3s?