My question is for the Premier. Yesterday, I asked why the government was suddenly ruling out missing-middle housing options like fourplexes and risking losing billions in federal funding in the process. In response, the minister told us that they needed more details—more details before they would decide if they would accept the money.

The research has been done. The studies are clear and there’s no time to waste. So I have to ask again: Why is the Premier risking billions in badly needed federal funding by ruling out higher-density options?

Why is the Premier ignoring the experts, ignoring the people of this province and standing in the way of getting housing built?

Speaker, people don’t want padded housing numbers. They want a decent place to live. If the Premier can’t get housing built, will he at least get out of the way so somebody else can do it?

Speaker, every Ontarian should also be able to see a doctor. They should absolutely be able to see a doctor when they need it, but right now, 2.3 million Ontarians do not have a family doctor, and that number is expected to nearly double in 2026. That’s going to be more than a quarter of the population in Ontario.

Despite the need, community health clinics haven’t seen a base budget increase in 15 years. They were forgotten in this year’s budget, too. While local clinics are being left to scrape by, the Premier’s budget for his office has somehow doubled since 2018. Does that seem right to the Premier?

This question again is for the Premier. Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Canada Health Act, which enshrined into law the principle of universal public health care in this country.

Interjections.

Can the Premier tell us what directives he has issued to prevent unfair billing for primary care?

Speaker, here’s the thing: The impact of Bill 124 was felt in communities right across this province. And now, even without Bill 124 hanging over us, hiring and retention has become nearly impossible. Without dedicated funding to incentivize workers to stay in hospitals and long-term-care homes, in home care and primary care, our public health care system will continue to suffer.

So back to the Premier: Will this government finally pay workers what they’re owed in the upcoming budget?

So back to the Premier: Why does this Premier have such contempt for the hard-working people of Ontario?

Interjections.

Maybe the Premier will answer this question. Back when his government announced that they were opening the doors to health care privatization, the NDP warned that people would be forced to use their credit card to get health care. The government said this would never happen—never. But here we are. We’re hearing from more and more people who have been charged $70, $90 for a single visit, and in some cases, several hundred dollars just to get an annual membership at a private clinic.

So to the Premier: Do you agree that these patients were not able to use their health card and did, in fact, have to pull out their credit card?

Speaker, this government is creating a two-tier health care system where you would only get care if you can afford it, and that’s the truth. It’s absolutely unacceptable. These private clinics are preying on the most vulnerable: 2.2 million Ontarians without a family doctor. Dozens more clinics are expected to open in the coming months.

So back to the Premier, I hope he answers this question: Why are you starving the public community-based primary care system in our province in favour of private clinics that are charging patients?

Interjections.

Our system is under enormous strain because of this government’s failures and their bad decisions. So back to the Premier of this province: When will he stop putting the private needs of for-profit providers ahead of the needs of patients?

Interjections.

Doctors, nurses, administrators, allied health professionals have all been very clear about the solution: funding a team-based approach to primary care. That’s why I tabled our motion today to get this government’s commitment to fully funded, integrated primary teams across the province, not just in some towns, in every town. Every Ontarian deserves that access.

So to the Premier: Will you support this motion?

The post-secondary sector is at a breaking point, with decades of chronic underfunding. Now, as we all know, Ontario’s colleges and universities are bracing for the impact of a 50% reduction in international student permits. Under this government, provincial operating grants have been cut by 30%, and at least 10 universities are projecting dramatic deficits. At the same time, international student recruitment has shot up. It has been outpacing, unfortunately, supports and housing. That’s happened since this Premier took office.

This government’s plan seems to be to always break it and then privatize it, and it’s us who pay for it. This time, it’s the international students too. To the Premier: Wasn’t it the government’s strategy all along to underfund colleges and universities, and rely on the exploitation of international student tuition to make up the difference?

These aren’t just numbers. These students came to Ontario with the promise of a better future, with good jobs and a safe place to live. We need those skilled workers here, but they were sold a bill of goods and given false hope by this government. What does the Premier have to say to those students who have had their dreams dashed because of this government’s terrible decisions?

Interjections.

Interjections.

So my question is for the Attorney General: Do you endorse the Premier’s comments on who gets appointed to the judicial appointments committee?

My question, back to the Attorney General—maybe the Premier will let him answer the question: Does he stand behind this Premier’s undemocratic agenda or will he stand up for the integrity of our legal system?

Interjections.

Good morning, Speaker. Our public colleges and universities are nearing the breaking point after decades of underfunding, while for-profit career colleges have been seeing a massive expansion under this government.

Yesterday, we got a hint about why in a report that was done by Trillium. They found out that government members have raked in more than $151,000 in political donations from private college operators since 2018. One of the biggest beneficiaries? The local campaign of the Minister of Colleges and Universities herself. That’s thousands of dollars in donations from the very same insiders who stand to benefit directly from her decisions as minister.

To the Premier: Is it acceptable for the Minister of Colleges and Universities to take donations from people lobbying her office on behalf of private colleges?

Interjections.

Private colleges have existed for years, but under this government, they have exploded, so much so that even the Auditor General flagged it. Speaker, is this really how things are going to be done in today’s Ontario?

Interjections.

This question is for the Premier.

After five years of Conservative rule, our schools and our students are struggling more than ever—overcrowded classrooms, fewer in-school supports, and a school repair backlog that gets bigger and bigger every year.

Now, after three years of start-and-stop learning disruptions, this government has tabled a funding package that fails Ontario kids yet again. It won’t stop pending layoffs, and it won’t give students the extra support they need to graduate as skilled and engaged citizens.

To the Premier: Why should families believe this government’s promises on education when they’ve continually shown just how out of touch they are?

Again to the Premier: When will this government stop shortchanging students, restore funding, and get kids the support they need to succeed?

Teachers, education workers, parents do not have faith that this government will fix the crisis in our education system, because they all know that there are four fewer high school teachers per 1,000 students now than there were five years ago, even with their additions. I’d like to encourage this government to do the math. That is a net reduction in the teacher-student ratio—not to mention the planned upcoming layoffs of thousands of education workers.

To the Premier: Is this the legacy you want to leave Ontario?

Interjections.

Our students are struggling. Underfunding of our education system is impacting our kids directly with oversized classrooms, with fewer in-school supports, and anxiety levels are at an all-time high. None of this is normal.

Would the Premier explain how a measly $66 per student is going to address the massive problems their chronic underfunding has created?

So if they’re not investing in our students and their future, what are they doing? They’re micromanaging school boards, they’re labelling community schools as real estate assets, and they’re introducing new fees. That’s what they’re doing.

Back to the Premier: If he isn’t going to invest in schools, will he at least not stick them with the bill for ministry responsibilities?

I don’t know a parent or a teacher in this province who trusts this government to deliver quality education to our children. Just look at the state of education in this province right now.

Interjections.

Back to the Premier: His plan is going to force the layoffs of teachers and education workers across this province. Will he reverse course and invest in the supports that students need to thrive?

Interjections.

So my question is very simple: What does the Premier plan to do to act on the important recommendations of the Ombudsman?

Misty went missing seven times while she was in the care of Johnson Children’s Services. At one point, the staff waited to report Misty missing to the police for more than four hours, and that resulted in her disappearance for 19 days—19 days, Speaker. I want everyone in this House to imagine a child going missing for 19 days.

What’s worse, Johnson was being paid to provide her with one-on-one support. The Ombudsman found they failed to provide this level of care. He also found significant gaps in documentation, record-keeping and training practices.

Speaker, Johnson Children’s Services failed Misty.

To the Premier: Why are private providers with documented negligence still allowed to operate in Ontario?

I want to thank all the members for participating in the debate this afternoon on this opposition motion. And I want to be clear: Really, what this motion does is just simply ask the government to come through on funding that they haven’t covered for costs that boards had to take on during the pandemic just to keep up—just to barely keep up. Nearly five years into this government’s tenure, and I’ve got to tell you, everywhere I go around this province, life is not better for people. People are struggling. They really, really are. Whether you look at the situation in health care or in the workplace or—it’s just not better.

But for people with school-aged children right now, boy, that struggle has been so deep and so long. And it is our very littlest kids that are struggling the most. They’re struggling with really basic things like playing nicely together and sharing and learning to read, and we’re hearing this from those experts on the front line. And what this government is doing by failing to come through on this funding request by the school boards is going to mean that those little kids get less and less support, because it will mean cuts. And we heard members of the government caucus here today basically—I would consider it threaten boards.

And I’ve got to say, I want the government to show some responsibility here. I would really, really request and beg the government to please come through with this funding. Our kids need all the support you can provide right now. They don’t need excuses. They don’t need spin. They just need to make sure there are enough teachers, educational workers and educational assistants in the classroom to help them with the very most basic things. Thank you, Speaker. I hope I can count on their support.

I move that:

Whereas the independent Financial Accountability Office found that the government failed to allocate $600 million in COVID-19 response funds and underspent its education budget by $432 million in the 2022-2023 fiscal year; and

Whereas the funding provided to school boards has been inadequate to cover pandemic-related expenses; and

Whereas this has resulted in an estimated budget shortfall of at least $100 million for school boards across the province; and

Whereas school boards are proposing hundreds of staff layoffs due to this budget shortfall;

Therefore, the Legislative Assembly calls on the government to cover all pandemic-related expenditures for school boards, including the programs and infrastructure needed to support students following three years of learning disruption.

Speaker, on Thursday, this government failed students. Their budget failed education workers, and it failed parents. The Premier and members opposite failed Ontario’s public education system, and with that, they snatched away a bright and prosperous future from thousands, indeed, millions of kids across this province. This government gave us a budget with nothing meaningful for the public education system, its workers or its students.

It has been a really tough few years for schools. I think we all know that. The pandemic caused serious disruptions in learning. So many students across this province face learning difficulties and mental health challenges. But where was this government? They were missing in action—missing in action just when our kids needed them most. I was the education critic during the pandemic, so I know that school boards had to dip into their own reserves to meet expenses. The Premier and the education minister sat on $600 million in COVID-19 response funds. They underspent the education budget by $432 million in 2022-23.

And now that kids are finally back in school, we needed this government to ramp up those supports, not cut them down. But do you know what they did, Speaker? They took an axe to them. In fact, I’m going to quote Press Progress here. They say that the Premier made “a sneaky move to quietly cut education,” leaving school boards with a gaping hole of millions of dollars.

This government would have us believe that they’ve increased funding for schools. They’d really like us to believe that, but the truth is, they’ve shortchanged students, shortchanged teachers, shortchanged parents by $47 million.

Thanks to this government, more school boards are looking at funding shortfalls again this year. According to the independent Financial Accountability Office, this year alone there is a $400-million shortfall, and over the next six years that gap is going to grow by $6 billion. That’s $6 billion less for students, less for schools and for the workers who keep them running. This government is leaving kids without the supports they need to get back on track, and we all know what that means: It means cuts to staff, the education workers and teachers and educational assistants, the admin support our students and staff so desperately need. The repair backlog is going to continue to grow. It grew so much—a billion dollars under this government—poor ventilation, classrooms sweltering hot in warmer months and cold as ice in the winter, crumbling schools. It means no financial or human resource support to address the growing issue of violence in schools, no new investments in early childhood educators or mental health professionals. They say they plan to recruit more math coaches in schools, but they’re struggling to hire any educators whatsoever because they can’t compete when it comes to wages. And this means no new funding for base investments in education supports.

Without proper funding, schools are going to be forced to make really tough decisions, and they’re looking down the barrel right now of staff cuts and layoffs.

Here in Toronto, the Toronto District School Board is projecting the elimination of 522 staff positions, including 65 teachers, 35 special education workers, 35 child and youth workers, and 40 school-based safety monitors. I’ve got to tell you, Speaker, if I go to the doorstep and talk to parents in my community about that, they’re going to say, “What are they thinking?”

The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is looking at cuts next year of between $9 million and $39 million.

Last year, school boards were already forced to make cuts due to underfunding. The Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board cut 65 support workers, including educational assistants. The Trillium Lakelands District School Board cut 77 educational workers, including EAs.

I’m going to say it again: All these cuts are resulting and will result in bad and worse, and worse still, outcomes for our kids and for the future of Ontario.

This government seems to have no issue finding public money when it comes to their insider friends, but when it comes to students in our province, they always seem to come up short.

School boards need the government’s support to give our kids a good education. It really is that simple. It’s a cliché for a reason that today’s youth are the future of tomorrow. What Ontario are we heading towards when we aren’t investing our highest dollars in students right now?

This government talks a lot, and they did in their budget, about the need to attract and recruit new workers, newcomers into Ontario. But how are we going to convince families to come to Ontario and to stay here if they see that we have a public education system in crisis? We talk a lot on both sides of this House about the situation in health care right now. The health care situation is absolutely a staffing crisis; it is a human resources crisis. But that’s what we’re seeing in education, as well.

I’m hearing from boards in the north who are saying that they can’t—small boards, and they’ve got 40-plus positions opened up for educational assistants. That means that our kids are not getting that support that they need—the kids who are struggling the most. We have kids in our public school system across this province still struggling with the challenges that they faced during the pandemic. We know that they’re having trouble, in many cases, catching up. We know that education workers are really struggling with the stress of the day-to-day work, because they face those struggles of those kids every day when they can’t help them. How heartbreaking is that? We’re hearing increasingly about boards going out and hiring unqualified staff because they can’t find qualified staff who will work for these wages in this situation.

There’s only one solution: You have to stop squirrelling away those dollars for a rainy day. The rainy day is here right now.

Speaker, this is why we put forward this motion today. I want to also acknowledge our amazing education critic, the member from Ottawa–Nepean, for her incredible work on this. That’s why we put this motion forward—to help our kids get back on track, to help all those families out there who are struggling.

I want to say to those families who are watching this today: We have got your back. We’re not going to let this government get away with this.

Do you know what they want to do, Speaker? Do you know where they want this to go? This government wants to do the same thing they’ve done with health care. They want to manufacture a crisis, where things get so bad that—what’s the solution? “Oh, yes, I’ve got this buddy over here. He’s got this plan. He’s got this private company that can come in and ride in and save the day.” They’re going to come up with some kind of voucher system. We’ve called it; I know it’s coming. That is not the answer. Look at the research. Look at what has happened around the world.

We have a public education system in this province that we are proud of. I moved to this province 30 years ago from Newfoundland. I stayed here and I raised my family here because we had a public education system that my kids could believe in, that I could believe in, that would be there when my kids were struggling, that would help lift them up when they fell down. We cannot afford to lose that system. We will be the laughingstock of the world.

This government needs to and should absolutely cover all pandemic-related costs for school boards. Parents across this province are looking at the Premier and they’re looking at the Minister of Education to step up; our children sure need them to.

I move the following motion:

Whereas there is a mental health crisis in Ontario; and

Whereas demand for services provided by the Canadian Mental Health Association has significantly increased, including demand for Assertive Community Treatment teams, court diversion services, and behavioural support services for seniors; and

Whereas base funding for the Canadian Mental Health Association has fallen significantly behind the rate of inflation since 2014; and

Whereas the Canadian Mental Health Association is experiencing high staff turnover and staff vacancy rates due to uncompetitive salaries, staff burnout, and wage suppression under Bill 124, Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, 2019;

Therefore the Legislative Assembly calls on the government to increase the base funding for each branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association by 8% as an immediate emergency stabilization investment.

It’s long overdue that we recognize mental health care as part of health care, that we make it part of medicare. Right now, anyone seeking mental health supports is met with few affordable options, long wait times, underfunded community health organizations, and underpaid, burnt-out staff. The reality is even more stark in northern Ontario, in Indigenous and rural communities. Stagnant operational funding over the last decade prevented community mental health and addictions organizations from keeping up with demand for those services.

We’ve all seen in our families and in our communities the impact of the pandemic on mental health, on kids and youth particularly, but we also know that BIPOC folks were deeply and differently impacted.

CAMH, in a 2022 survey, found that more than half of young Ontarians reported feeling depressed about the future. Some 39% said the pandemic had made their mental health worse. And 18% reported they were seriously contemplating suicide in the past year. That’s one in five young people saying that. Let that sink in for a moment. That’s difficult to hear.

As a result of all of this, more and more Ontarians are seeking out those mental health supports—in fact, one in four Ontarians today. Requests for mental health support have increased over 50% for adults and over 100% for children since the pandemic began.

Years of underfunding have decimated the mental health sector. They are struggling to meet the growing demand for services and supports, and they are losing staff to exhaustion and burnout. Everything that we hear about this government’s wage-suppression legislation for pay and about working conditions pushing health care staff away is also true about the mental health sector. In fact, over the last two years, those Bill 124 salary-based issues resulted in 66% of resignations at CMHA Ontario, resulting in nearly 250 community mental health and addictions jobs left unfilled.

Staffing issues have devastated the community mental health care sector. I heard first-hand about this just a couple of days ago, when I was in London–Fanshawe, from nurses working on the front line in community mental health. And I’ve heard it in Sault St. Marie and in Timmins and in Hamilton and in Toronto and in Welland and in Ottawa—in every part of this province.

We know that addressing the staffing crisis is absolutely key to providing adequate patient care and community support, and that people seeking support for mental health don’t want to be shuffled between staff members, which means often reliving trauma or repeating their personal stories to new people multiple times. We know that permanent, full-time staff can offer continuity and improve overall quality of care.

We know that mental health care is life-changing, but it’s also costly. So I want to mention this to this government, because it’s a concern of theirs: I want them to remember that mental health care in our community—community supports free up hospital beds. They mean less 911 calls. And, ultimately, it saves lives.

People in Ontario can’t wait any longer. The impact of this crisis on our families and our communities is devastating.

This government needs to wake up and open their eyes to the suffering that’s happening around them. They’re sitting on, again, $6.4 billion in unspent funding—unspent dollars that were supposed to go to education, health care, mental health, and all kinds of things that public money was supposed to be spent on. Instead, they’re squirrelling it away. Our motion calls for something very, very small and simple, to be honest, and that is an investment that would come to only $24 million for the Canadian Mental Health Association. That’s just 0.375% of that unspent funding—just to give you a sense of that. It would dramatically improve Ontarians’ access to mental health care now.

Again, I want to call on the Premier and the government to support this motion, to increase funding for community mental health and addictions organizations, to make up for the decades and decades of underfunding for mental health, to provide better pay and working conditions for staff, and to give people the services they so desperately need.

Honestly, Speaker, how can we expect Ontario to thrive and progress if this government continues to abandon a growing group of people who are suffering from poor mental health?

The minister talks about the Roadmap to Wellness. It’s a road map to nowhere right now, I’ll tell you. We are in a mental health crisis in every community in this province, but in Indigenous, northern and rural communities, the government is not even trying to pretend; they’re just failing, miserably. We’ve got epidemic rates of suicide, homelessness, addiction.

The Canadian Mental Health Association shows skyrocketing demand for their services, but in Algoma they’re only getting a 2% increase in base funding over the past 10 years—2%. In Kenora, they got just 2% over the last 22 years. They need an 8% emergency stabilization investment today.

My question, again to the Premier—you’re sitting on $6.4 billion, unspent—will he support our motion this afternoon to provide that 8% emergency funding?

Mental health care is life-changing. It’s also a cost savings. It frees up hospital beds. You have less 911 calls, and do you know what? It saves lives. That’s why today we are going to go all out on this issue: because people in Ontario cannot wait any longer, and I’m sure there’s not one of us in this entire room that hasn’t seen the impact on our families and in our communities. So let’s do it: 8% emergency stabilization investment into CMHA. That’s $24 million.

My question to the Premier today: Premier, please, will you take just half a per cent of that $6.4 billion that has been squirrelled away unspent, to help people get the mental health care they so desperately need today?

Good morning, Speaker. This question is for the Premier. Today, the public galleries are full of people who have come here to advocate for core services for autistic kids. They have come here to remind the government that right now, there are over 60,000 autistic children on the growing wait-list. They have come to hold the government to its promise to clear the backlog.

Speaker, my question is to the Premier. Will this government finally provide the funding needed to get these kids off the wait-list and into the services they need?

Interjections.

Back to the Premier: You promised to fix the autism program. Will you make good on your promise and clear the wait-list?

You want to know the real story? Here’s the real story: By last August, this government had registered fewer than 900 kids for support. At this rate, it’s going to take 66 years just to clear the existing backlog. None of us are going to be here in 66 years. The families here today have come to Queen’s Park from across the province to tell their stories, to be heard, to demand change after this government’s shocking failure to support autistic children. They deserve real accountability. But only one Conservative MPP has agreed to meet with them. Thank you, Speaker.

My question is to the Premier and to his government. Will you meet with these families?

Under this government’s watch, the mental health crisis facing Ontario has also only gotten worse. We’ve proposed a solution that would make a real difference in people’s lives: reduce the wait-list for children’s mental health care, invest in improved crisis response, expand therapy access and boost community mental health care. We’ve put forward an opposition motion for debate this afternoon for an 8% emergency stabilization investment in community mental health care.

My question is to the Premier: Will he support our motion?

I also welcome all members of the RNAO here into your House, but especially, I want to acknowledge Dr. Claudette Holloway, president, and of course, Dr. Doris Grinspun, CEO.

I also want to acknowledge a former member of Parliament for Beaches–East York, Matthew Kellway, who is here in the gallery.

Thank you so much. We look forward to seeing you all today.

Can the Premier explain to Ontarians why he doesn’t deem their communities worthy of the investments his government promised?

Now people from Oshawa to Thunder Bay are facing massive increases in their property taxes as municipalities are scrambling to make up for that lost funding. In Waterloo region alone, taxes are going up 8.55% at a time when people are already hurting.

Go out there and talk to homeowners. Their heating bills are up. Their grocery bills are through the roof. Can this Premier explain why he’s making everyday Ontarians pay his developer friends’ bills?

That is just typical of this government. When people need help, all they get from this government is rhetoric. Out there in the real world, people are tired of it. They’re tired of it.

The fact is things are far from normal in a lot of places in this province. The services and supports that build strong and caring communities have been watered down, whittled away or just allowed to collapse altogether. Now, the finance minister is warning them to prepare for more “restraint” in this budget.

I would love to hear from the Premier on this question. I would really like to hear from the Premier on this question. Will the Premier tell Ontarians which services they rely on will bear the brunt of this so-called restraint?

Back to the Premier of this province, who I hope will answer our questions: At pre-budget consultations, MPPs heard ideas that would make a real difference in people’s lives. So many people in this province don’t have a family doctor. MPPs heard from the Ontario College of Family Physicians that Ontario could add the equivalent of 2,000 family doctors to our health care system and serve two million more patients simply by providing funding for around 19 hours a week of administrative support.

Will the government include administrative support for family doctors in the next budget?

The committee heard a proposal to create a Peterborough community health centre—a very specific proposal—to ensure that people receive the wraparound health care they need to achieve their goals. That means people can keep their jobs, kids can focus on learning in school and families can spend more quality time together.

Access to this kind of comprehensive health care is a priority for Ontarians. Is it a priority for this government? Will you be funding the proposed Peterborough community health centre in the upcoming budget? My question’s to the Premier.

Speaker, the committee heard from the Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre who told us that they are serving the Owen Sound community, along with two sizable Indigenous communities, with only one physician working part-time. They have over 100 people on their wait-list, which is 12 to 24 months long. They are severely backlogged for cancer screenings, and 45% of their diabetic clients have not seen a doctor in two years.

They’re doing the hard work and all they’re asking for is an increase from half a doctor to two. Will you fund Indigenous health services in the upcoming budget, including the proposals from Southwest Ontario Aboriginal Health Access Centre? To the Premier.

Back to the Premier: It’s not just about private health care. The same government poll asks people whether they agree that the government should allow more private and/or charter schools in Ontario—charter schools. That is public funding of private education, let’s be clear.

Does the Premier agree that public money for Ontario’s education should be diverted to private and charter schools?

Why is this Premier so determined to divert public money from our schools and our hospitals at such a great cost to Ontarians?