This question is for the Premier. I have asked this government multiple times to clear up their relationship with Atlas Strategic Advisors and the Premier’s former principal secretary Amin Massoudi—the same Amin Massoudi who was on the infamous boys’ trip to Vegas. Massoudi was paid through his private company Atlas nearly a quarter of a million dollars to do the same job as when he was the Premier’s principal secretary, yet this government has refused to answer questions on just exactly when that contract started.

So I’m going to try again: My question to the Premier is, can you finally clarify when the contract with Atlas Strategic Advisors started?

That’s a two-month overlap between when Mr. Massoudi started billing the taxpayers through his company and while he himself was still on the government payroll. So back to the Premier: Was the Premier’s close friend paid twice to perform the same work?

This is how out of touch this government is. If they actually got out of the backrooms and talked to the people on the front line—the nurses, the health care workers—they’d know the mess that they have created already in health care staffing.

Ontario’s nurses have been chronically overworked, underpaid and undermined by this Conservative government, and now nurses are currently without a contract. This week, we’re going to be tabling petitions with thousands of signatures calling on this government to present a fair and meaningful offer to their negotiations.

Speaker, to the Premier: Will his government give Ontario’s nurses a contract that shows how much we value them?

Speaker, that response does not give me a lot of hope, because while this government says one thing in this House, they say quite another thing to Ontario’s nurses. And their actions speak louder than their words.

This government continues to take our nurses to court. It’s a fact. They’re fighting with them and with other public sector workers over their unconstitutional wage restraint law.

Speaker, to the Premier: Will he celebrate National Nursing Week by ending his campaign to take Ontario’s nurses to court?

I was in Thunder Bay last week, and like many communities across the north, they’re worried that the local hospitals that they proudly support and rely on are going to be closing their doors as staff are forced out by low wages and private sector competition in the south.

Speaker, to the Premier: Why is this government putting private profits ahead of the needs of patients in the north?

As these for-profit corporate clinics set up shop in more lucrative urban locations, it’s going to be even harder or even impossible for smaller rural hospitals to recruit and retain the staff they need. That is what we are hearing from the front lines. You should listen to them.

Northern and First Nations communities know that this government’s plan to replace community-based care with private, for-profit clinics is going to make their access to health care even worse.

Speaker, to the Premier: Why are you making it even harder for people in the north to get the care they need?

Let me introduce a concept to you: highway health care. Highway health care is what happens when this government forces northerners to travel long distances, sometimes thousands of kilometres, away from their families to receive the health care that they need. The Northern Health Travel Grant Program gives them $100 for a hotel. Well, good luck finding anything for that price anywhere. And worrying about that when you’re sick? Just great.

To the Premier: If he’s focused on destroying our health care system and more northerners are going to have to travel even further to get the care they need, will he at least enhance these supports?

I’m very pleased to welcome in the member’s gallery today Lourdes David, who is my constituency assistant holding down the fort in Davenport, but also Delilah, a Western Technical-Commercial School co-op student who has been helping us out at our constituency office. Welcome to your House.

My question is to the Premier. When will they provide Ontarians with a copy of the contract that now involves more than a billion dollars?

If it is a standard lease, then this government should have no problem providing details to the people of Ontario. We’re talking $650 million in public subsidies and a 95-year lease. Back to the Premier: What are the details of this contract?

This isn’t just about Toronto. I’ve been travelling around the province and I’ve heard people from every corner of Ontario express concerns about this government’s backroom deals and their lack of transparency. They’re alarmed by this government spending as much as $650 million on a subsidy for a private luxury spa and a massive parking lot. Now they’re alarmed that this government is committing to a backroom 95-year lease with absolutely no details.

This government has failed to show Ontarians what value this deal has for the people of this province. They’ve failed to produce the contracts. They’ve failed to provide the business case. Speaker, Ontarians deserve to know—I’m going to go back to the Premier again: When will this government come clean about this backroom deal?