I’m going to go to the Premier with this one. It now clear that government officials in the Premier’s office and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs knew specific details about the greenbelt removal plans much earlier than the Premier and the minister have claimed.

There is also evidence that certain landowners were tipped off about the greenbelt plans long before the general public learned about them. The NDP and journalists have filed more freedom-of-information requests for documents that might shine more of a light on who knew what about the greenbelt plans and when they knew it. We know these documents exist but the Premier and the minister are keeping them secret.

Why are these documents being kept from the public, and will the Premier release them now?

This next question is to the Premier. The dissolution of Peel is an unprecedented change that will affect the daily lives of millions of people. It’s going to be complicated and it could get very messy. If this is going to work, then the people of Peel need to be at the centre of the process. They need to be consulted. They need to be heard. So why won’t the Premier consult the public and conduct committee hearings to ensure that Bill 112 will deliver the best possible outcome for Peel residents?

People in Mississauga, in Brampton and in Caledon have a lot of questions about what’s going to happen to them, what’s going to happen to their municipal services, what’s going to happen to their tax bills or their utility bills. These questions are to be answered, apparently, by a transition board, whose mandate—and also who’s on it—remain completely unknown right now, with no guarantee that this process will be any more transparent than the last regional governance review, the findings of which, I’ll remind everyone, remain a complete government secret, right?

Who will serve on the transition board, and will their findings be released to the public well in advance before the government makes a decision about Peel?

Mr. Speaker, through you to the Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity, who is also the member for Brampton Centre: Why did she move the motion that blocked her Brampton constituents from being heard on Bill 112?

I just want to talk for a moment this morning; I’m looking forward to speaking a bit about our health care system, because we in Ontario cherish our public health care system. The right to health care for everyone regardless of income or where they live is part of our identity as Canadians. So it’s no surprise Ontarians are reacting to this government’s recent attack on public health care and seniors’ care with growing fear and anxiety.

I want to take the few moments that I have here this morning to speak to something very specific, which is this government’s decision to table a time allocation motion on their government bill, Bill 7, on long-term care. This is the bill that would deny seniors and their families the right to consent to where they want to be sent for long-term care. I wanted to raise that because the government has tabled a time allocation motion that would prevent committee hearings, prevent this bill from going to committee, which means that the people of this province who care about these issues, which are most Ontarians, will not have an opportunity to speak, to present and, frankly, to outline their concerns or arguments around this legislation.

I think it’s really unfortunate. I think that we need to do better here in this place. This government was elected with a majority. They can do whatever they want, pretty much, at this point. I encourage them, please, to provide an opportunity for people to speak to this bill, for experts to come and express their concerns, and maybe we can actually create some good legislation in this place.

Thank you to the member from Barrie–Innisfil. I think maybe the member missed my speech because I would say that in fact what I was doing was proposing solutions, just not the solutions this government wants.

I have to say, on this point about making it happen faster: Well, first of all, the piece of legislation that we’ve seen since then, Bill 7, which takes away consent from seniors and families, that’s a piece of legislation—yes, this government wants it to move fast. They sure do. They don’t even want it to go to committee, where it will have public hearings, where they can hear from the families that will be impacted by this legislation, and that is shameful. And so I would say, no, I don’t want to see bad legislation sped through this place without an opportunity for debate.

Again, this government may have elected more members, but have a little humility and think about the people that you are here to serve. It isn’t just the people—what, the 41% of people or whatever. It is not just those people. You represent everybody in this province. Those families will be impacted and they deserve a say.

It’s a really good question, because I think about it now, and I mentioned it in my comments, that the work I had to do to help my children when they had struggles with learning—and they did, like many kids out there, and they are not even kids who struggle the way that some do. When I think about what advantages I had as somebody who could navigate a really complicated system to get them the supports that they need, so many families do not have the time or the ability, quite frankly, and the time and access to that information to be able to assist their kids.

Right now, our system is starved for support. Educational assistants are exhausted. Teachers are exhausted. ECEs are exhausted because they are overwhelmed. And this government chooses instead to give money that, frankly, most parents will never be able to take advantage of, even figuring out how to access those private tutoring services. It would be so much better spent in classrooms right now.

I want to use this opportunity in particular to thank my sister from the east coast of this country, Lana Payne, for her successful election as the national president of Unifor. We’re proud of you, sister. We know that you’re going to do a great job representing so many of the workers and this sector, and working together with us and with government to make sure that we provide more opportunities for the workers of this province and boost our economy at a time when the government people opposite are unfortunately driving down wages and increasing the cost of living.

I want to also thank the member for mentioning that privatization of health care was not something that this government ran on in the election. We know that. We suspected it; we told people that this was what was coming. But I’ll tell you one of the things that really upsets me right now is that when I talk to people in my community, they will tell you that they never expected—especially grandparents—that they would have a situation in this province—

I would say I would differ with the member on his characterization of the kinds of jobs this government is creating. What we’re not seeing in this province are decent wages, are decent jobs being created. What we’re seeing is a government that is freezing the wages of the hardest-working people in our province—