Back to the Premier: Global News has just reported on the chaos and confusion that surrounded the Premier’s reckless decision to restructure and dissolve Peel region and then his—of course, we’ll all remember this—partial reversal, another giant flip-flop just months later. Billions of dollars in taxpayer costs were at stake, and the Premier either didn’t care or had no clue.

It seems like neither the transition board nor anyone in the ministry had any idea where the Premier was going with his plans for Peel. So when it comes to the restructuring of Peel, does this government have any idea what they’re doing?

Is the government solving problems for the people of Peel, or just insiders and land-hungry developers?

Interjections.

Ontario has the workers, we have the expertise and we have the energy to power a strong EV sector here. It used to be a signature policy of this government, but now they’re throwing it in reverse, with a weak commitment to electric vehicles and sustainable infrastructure. In the process, this Premier is jeopardizing sales and production by not making our new homes EV-ready. It is so short-sighted.

The people of Ontario want to know—and I’ll go back to the Premier again—is the government backing away from plans for a sustainable auto sector in Ontario?

Interjections.

Speaker, the stench of this scandal has seeped into everything this government touches. That’s the truth.

The Information and Privacy Commissioner has already warned the government, I’ll remind them, about deleting emails and concealing information through the use of personal emails and personal devices after we uncovered that government officials were already doing that.

Deleting emails related to this massive government policy, using personal accounts or not, is in contravention of the law. When the Liberals did that, someone went to jail.

So back to the Premier: Why did your staff delete emails related to the greenbelt grab?

We know it wasn’t just emails. The Premier has admitted to using his personal phone for government business. He says it all the time, every day, and yet he refuses to share his phone records. Why? What is he hiding?

Brown envelopes, coded messages, burner phones, Speaker—at every turn, it looks like the Premier’s office took deliberate steps to cover their tracks. We’re going to get to the bottom of it. We sure will, or the RCMP will, because this government is under criminal investigation. But they could come clean right now, and they might help themselves.

Speaker, I want to ask the Premier again: When will he finally own up to his role in this scheme, or do we have to wait for the RCMP?

Interjections.

Just consider for a moment, Speaker, how many times this government has let Ontarians down. We are starting this session with another example of that, another policy reversal.

Here’s the thing, though: There are consequences. Because of Bill 124, the privatization of health care and the growth of these for-profit nursing agencies has absolutely exploded. Ontarians want reliable, publicly delivered health care, not a publicly funded revenue stream for private companies.

Back to the Premier: If the government is going to continue backing up the policy train this session, can they make reversing their privatization of health care their next signature policy reversal?

Interjections.

Speaker, the government has had to backtrack on almost all of their major policy decisions because they met with tremendous public opposition: the greenbelt grab, unilateral municipal boundary changes, the dissolution of Peel, licence plates you can’t read, cuts to public health during a pandemic—all bad ideas that we warned you about. At this rate, they’re going to spend more time reversing their own legislation than taking the actions that would make life better for the people of Ontario, the people that they were elected to serve.

Speaker, back to the Premier: How many reversals, how many flip-flops, how many backtracks does he have to be forced to make before he realizes that his insiders-first agenda is failing Ontario?

Interjections.

I want to take, for a moment, the plan to sell off our critical services at ServiceOntario to yet another American big box corporation, like Staples and Walmart. Ontarians are so on to you. They are so on to you, and they can tell that this is another privatization scheme, Speaker, that is going to make corporations richer and not serve the people of this province.

My question is for the Premier: How exactly did Staples get a sole-source contract to open ServiceOntario kiosks?

Speaker, to the Premier: Since the Legislature was last in session, Ontarians want to know, how many government officials, including ministers’ staff and staff in the Premier’s office, have spoken with the RCMP as part of their investigation into the greenbelt scandal?

The greenbelt grab was an $8.3-billion scheme intended only to carve up vital resources in the province of Ontario for wealthy developers with connections to this government. And I will remind everyone in this room again: They are being criminally investigated by the RCMP for that scheme. It has cost this government at least two cabinet ministers. An RCMP investigation, I will remind you again, is under way. And we are still no closer to improving access to affordable housing in this province.

Today in Ontario, housing starts are down from last year, the cost of housing is skyrocketing and rents are worse than ever. Encampments have become the norm in most cities. Will the Premier finally act, support our proposal to build the affordable, non-market housing that people desperately need and bring back real rent control?

Interjections.

Thank you, Speaker. I stand today and seek unanimous consent for the House to call upon the federal government to immediately enact special immigration measures to facilitate the evacuation and reunification of extended family members of Canadian citizens and permanent residents from Gaza.

As we head into the holiday season, Ontarians are stretching every single penny to try to provide for their families.

When I talk with people, their frustrations are very clear. They’re frustrated that they have a government that isn’t putting their needs first on housing, on health care, or on the rising cost of living. They see a government captured by insiders and too mired in scandals and an RCMP criminal investigation to help them.

To the Premier: People expect so much more from their government. When will he start to deliver for them?

A new report by the Auditor General that was just released leaves absolutely no doubt about the utter failure of this government to live up to what they were elected to do on health care, on public infrastructure, on support for northern Ontario. The auditor’s report shows that people are being left behind while this government is being run out of the backrooms.

My question is again to the Premier: How many times does he have to get caught? How many policies will he have to reverse before he starts to put real people ahead of his own ambitions?

Interjections.

The only thing that the Premier and his cabinet have done in this last year is manufacture a housing crisis, a health care system on its deathbed, and a cost-of-living crisis that has Ontarians on the brink. What a shameful moment in—

Interjections.

What a shameful moment in Ontario’s history that this Premier has put us in. And what for? His insider friends?

Back to the Premier—I hope he will answer: Was it worth it?

Interjections.

Now we have reports that show the dissolution of Peel region is going to be another extremely costly boondoggle for the people of Brampton and Caledon and Mississauga—and as I pointed out yesterday, tax hikes as high as 256%.

To the Premier: Are you going to reverse this decision too?

Speaker, I’ll tell you, the legacy of disrepair is on this government and the previous government.

But I will give them some advice for free here: They can save $650 million right now by cancelling the public subsidy for their luxury spa. How about that?

The Ontario Science Centre is a crucial cultural and educational hub as well as an employer for people in East York, including in the Thorncliffe Park and Flemingdon Park neighbourhoods. Instead of making the necessary repairs, the Premier wants to spend twice as much to build a new science centre that’s half the size and located an hour farther away for anybody who doesn’t already live in downtown Toronto.

So, to the Premier: Why won’t the Premier listen to the people of Thorncliffe Park, Flemingdon Park and many other communities served by the science centre and keep it where it is?

To the Premier: Why is this luxury spa so important to him that he is rewriting the laws of the province of Ontario to make it happen?

Interjections.

Speaker, to the Premier: What does it tell Ontarians about this government’s secret 95-year-long deal that they have to rewrite the laws to protect themselves?

Here’s another thing that Bill 154 does: It would give another minister, the Minister of Infrastructure, the power to issue MZOs. I asked the Premier yesterday why he would do this, and he answered, “Why wouldn’t we?” Well, I’ll tell you why they shouldn’t. They’re under a criminal investigation already by the RCMP and the Auditor General for abusing MZOs to benefit their insider friends.

To the Premier: Is this government expanding MZO powers to make it easier to grease the wheels for more of their insiders?

It’s bring-your-kids-to-work day, and for some of our staff too. I’m really happy to introduce Nivine Zaher and her son, Moe, and Heather Douglas with her daughter, Evangeline. Welcome to your House.

Speaker, we don’t have time to waste. We should be doing everything we can to prevent even one more death from intimate partner violence.

Advocates have been sounding the alarm, calling for a clear and urgent strategy.

Last year, you’ll recall that a coroner’s inquest on the murders in Renfrew gave the province 86 recommendations, 68 of those under provincial jurisdiction. But this government rejected many of those recommendations, including choosing not to declare gender-based violence an epidemic.

To the Premier: Will the Premier stand with advocates and survivors and declare intimate partner violence an epidemic?

Interjections.

And the rates, the demand—under the pandemic, it skyrocketed. It hasn’t gone back down yet, and your government has not kept up.

Back to the Premier: Will his government commit today to call this an epidemic and adequately fund survivor services?

Interjections.

Anyway, my question is to the Premier: On September 25, the government House leader tabled a motion to accept the report of the Integrity Commissioner into the former Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and to approve the recommendation to reprimand that former minister. The motion is still sitting there on the order paper.

To the Premier: When will this motion be debated?

Speaker, this government is under criminal investigation by the RCMP. The RCMP has now even appointed a special prosecutor to investigate this case, including talking to witnesses this government muzzled by confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements.

But the Premier is just ignoring the commissioner’s recommendations to officially reprimand that minister for his well-documented misconduct. They are doing whatever it takes to avoid having this conversation in the public realm and in this House.

To the Premier: Why has this government refused to hold the former minister accountable for his misconduct?

Back to the Premier: Will the Premier allow a full debate on that reprimand motion so he’ll finally understand why giving his friends preferential treatment is wrong?

Interjections.

Good morning, Speaker. Government members have applauded the Premier’s frequent use of his personal phone to conduct government business, a flagrant disregard for the Information and Privacy Commissioner’s recommendation that government members and political staff only use government devices and platforms. This government should know the rules. In fact, that guidance came after the Premier’s own staff were caught using personal email accounts to arrange for his souped-up van.

My question is to the Premier. Did the Premier intentionally use his personal phone to communicate in secret with people who have business before the government?

But the Premier has been singularly focused on hiding records of these phone calls and text messages. He is even appealing freedom-of-information requests to avoid sharing those records. Will the Premier withdraw his appeals of these FOI requests?

What we do know is that a Global News investigation found that the Premier didn’t use his government phone once during a whole one-week period in November, the exact period when the government decided to carve up the greenbelt.

To the Premier: Did he use a personal device instead of an official government device to avoid access-to-freedom-information laws?

This government is under criminal investigation by the RCMP for trying to enrich their friends and donors to the tune of more than $8 billion in the greenbelt grab. One of the most important questions that requires further investigation: What did the Premier know? When did he know it?

My question to the Premier is, what is he hiding on his personal phone about the greenbelt grab?

I’m going to ask again of the Premier, what is he hiding on his personal phone about these suspicious land deals?

Interjections.

And Speaker, I submitted a new Integrity Commissioner complaint yesterday about what appears to be an inappropriate relationship between a former government minister and a land speculator.

But it begs the question: Is this the standard operating procedure for this government? Did the member from Mississauga East–Cooksville just get caught?

Mr. Speaker, the public deserves to know: What would we find on the Premier’s personal phone about this government’s secret backroom deals?

The public accounts were published last week, and we got to see a detailed overview of the government’s revenue and expenses for the year. Public agencies are supposed to publish their financial statements at the same time, but, strangely, Ontario Place did not. In fact, Ontario Place has not published a single annual report since the Conservatives took office five years ago.

Speaker, to the Premier—can the Premier explain why his government is hiding the financial statements of Ontario Place?

The government doesn’t want to admit they’re hiding these, but journalists had to file freedom-of-information requests to get the 2022 financials. This government wants Ontarians to believe that Ontario Place is derelict and abandoned. The Minister of Infrastructure even told this House before that it is “not enjoyed” by Torontonians or Ontarians. But these newly released documents reveal that Ontario Place actually attracted 2.9 million visitors last year alone, just in one year, and they made a record profit. That 2.9 million visitors is almost as many visitors as the Statue of Liberty—so it doesn’t sound like tumbleweeds to me.

Back to the Premier: Why is the Premier hiding the facts about Ontario Place?

Interjections.

The NDP believes this government should be investing to get people the health care and education and housing they need, not spending $650 million on luxury spas.

Will the Premier stop the transfer of public funds into private pockets and cancel the Therme deal?

Interjections.

As the truth leaks out about this Premier’s secret 95-year deal with Therme, the worse it smells.

Normally, with a large procurement like this, Infrastructure Ontario would appoint a fairness monitor to ensure fairness and integrity. The NDP submitted a freedom-of-information request to get the fairness monitor report for the Ontario Place procurement. It turns out no such document exists.

Back to the Premier: Why wasn’t there a fairness monitor for this particular procurement?

Speaker, the circumstances around this government’s paving-over and carve-up of the greenbelt and this continued lack of transparency by the Premier means that every land use decision by this government is tainted by suspicion. That’s the fact. When the Premier muses about massive changes to provincial institutions with no evidence at all, not even pretending to have community involvement, it raises questions.

So I have to ask, Speaker—to the Premier, again—are any developers with ties to the Conservatives pushing to move the Ontario Science Centre?