Speaker, you know when you’re getting close to the truth, because you get a desperate response like that. That’s the truth. Multiple independent officers of the Legislature have warned this government about avoiding disclosure rules. Explosive reports from the Auditor General, the Integrity Commissioner, the Information and Privacy Commissioner and RCMP criminal investigation under way into this government—it all shows the same thing. This is a government that wasn’t just deleting emails related to the greenbelt. They were also using their personal emails to avoid detection.

The Premier himself conducts his government business on his personal devices and refuses to disclose the details of those phone records to the public, even though it’s required by law. When the Liberal government got caught covering up their gas plant scandal, you know what happened? Someone went to jail. Why is the Premier following the Liberals down the same path of code words, cover up and criminal investigations?

Interjections.

So far this year, there have already been 94—four fires just this week. But inexplicably, the budget to fight those wildfires is down 37.5%. And you know what, Speaker?—

Interjections.

Interjections.

So I’m going to ask the Premier, who’s sitting in his seat right now, if he could stand up, answer this question: Can he explain why he thinks this is enough when those who fight the fires are telling you it’s not?

Interjections.

I want to be very specific with my question to the Premier: Will the Premier assure Ontarians that there will be fully staffed crews and planes for every single region that needs it?

Interjections.

What they are is a shady government under investigation by the RCMP. That’s what they are, and we won’t forget it.

Speaker, we now know that the Premier has been secretly planning to pave over a portion of Lake Ontario for more than three years. He pushed for a secret deal to hand over public land to a private luxury spa operator for 95 years—95 years. Who does that? Then he changed environmental and integrity laws just to force through his personal vanity project. If that doesn’t smell bad, I don’t know what does.

To the Premier: What are the real plans for Ontario Place, and which of the Premier’s insider friends are set to benefit?

Interjections.

I move the following motion: Whereas the government is under criminal investigation by the RCMP for their removal of lands from the greenbelt; and

Whereas the Auditor General is in the process of reviewing whether there has been mismanagement and abuse of ministerial zoning orders; and

Whereas there are outstanding questions about an inappropriate relationship between a former government minister and a land speculator, and incorrect information provided to the Integrity Commissioner about this relationship; and

Whereas there are outstanding questions about whether there was preferential treatment given to a foreign company to build a private spa on public land at Ontario Place; and;

Whereas there are outstanding questions about whether there was preferential treatment given to a foreign company to build a private spa on public land at Ontario Place; and;

Whereas there are outstanding questions about preferential treatment given to government donors and personal friends of the Premier with respect to the building of Highway 413; and

Whereas there are outstanding questions about unqualified patronage appointments to public agencies, boards, and commissions; and

Whereas the Premier has admitted that he regularly uses his personal phone to conduct government business and those communications might be relevant to these inquiries;

Therefore the Legislative Assembly calls on the Premier to cease his access-to-information appeal and disclose the contents of his personal phone and email accounts to the Information and Privacy Commissioner.

My question is to the Premier. For weeks, this side of the House has been trying to get answers from the Conservative government on their greenbelt corruption scandal, and they’ve responded by voting down motions and standing in the way of accountability. They’re now under active criminal investigation by the RCMP.

Yesterday, I again urged the Premier to ask the Integrity Commissioner to get to the bottom of the boys trip his senior staff and former Conservative minister took to Las Vegas.

I’ll ask the Premier again: Will the Premier ask the Integrity Commissioner to investigate the 2020 trip to Vegas?

The former minister and two members of the Premier’s most senior advisers all suspiciously—

The former minister and two members of the Premier’s most senior advisers all told the Integrity Commissioner that their trip was in 2019 when it actually occurred months later. That’s three different people giving the wrong date for the same trip.

So my question, again to the Premier, is, can the Premier explain how three different people could mistakenly give the wrong date for the same trip?

The former minister and the Premier’s senior advisers told the Integrity Commissioner different things about interactions they had with greenbelt speculator Shakir Rehmatullah while on these trips. The former minister said he and the Premier’s staff only saw the greenbelt speculator in the lobby of the hotel. Now we know that they got spa services, including concurrent massages, at the same hotel, at the same time.

So I’m going to go back to the Premier, Speaker. Does the Premier agree that it’s a general rule that members of provincial Parliament should provide honest testimony to the Integrity Commissioner?

Interjections.

Interjections.

Speaker, I understand that the Premier and the government House leader don’t want to address the questions about the RCMP criminal investigation of their government.

I bet the RCMP won’t accept that the Premier can’t recall—I know that the people of Ontario and I don’t buy it.

It’s not just September 15—there were a number of meetings between the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, the Premier’s office, the Cabinet Office and the Premier’s chief of staff. The Cabinet Office booked a meeting on September 7. On September 21, there was a meeting to discuss site-specific removals. An hour-long conversation between the Premier’s chief of staff and Mr. Amato on September 23—I could go on.

Does the Premier really expect people to believe he had nothing to do with this?

Two senior members of the Premier’s staff and a minister of his went down to Vegas with a greenbelt speculator and may have “misled” the Integrity Commissioner about it.

Will the Premier use the ability his cabinet has to ask for a full inquiry from the Integrity Commissioner into the Vegas affair?

This boys’ trip to Vegas, with its massage tables and its good luck rituals and its manis and pedis, made international headlines. How embarrassing.

This government wasted no time asking the Integrity Commissioner to look into the actions of a staff member, Mr. Amato. They promised that they would look to the Integrity Commissioner to investigate the actions of someone else who was on that trip—the member for Mississauga East−Cooksville, a former Conservative minister—but they don’t seem to have taken any action.

Back to the Premier: Is his government dragging its heels because the Premier himself has something to hide?

We won’t be taking any lessons from a government under criminal investigation. The special unit at the RCMP is called the sensitive and international investigations unit. That’s who is investigating this Premier and this government’s actions in relation to the greenbelt. They investigate elected officials on “allegations of fraud, financial crimes, corruption and breach of trust”—fraud, financial crimes, breach of trust, corruption.

Back to the Premier: How can the Premier maintain the confidence of the people when he and his government are being investigated by the RCMP for corruption?

So back to the Premier: This government used to say that it’s for the people. Well, they’ve lost the people’s trust. How do they carry on when they are under an RCMP criminal investigation?

Speaker, weeks ago, the Premier stood in front of the remaining members of his cabinet and claimed he was sorry for their greenbelt grab. But now, in the same breath, he and his minister deny anything untoward happened. This is a scheme—

Interjections.

This is a scheme—I’m going to remind the members opposite—that favoured land speculators and people with Conservative connections who got preferential treatment from this government. It’s a scheme that saw provincial land use policy being decided on the casino floor in Sin City.

Returning the land is not enough to repair the absolutely colossal damage to the people’s trust. When will the Premier confirm that his personal phone records—

Interjections.

Interjections.

I get that that this minister has a job to do—he has to protect his embattled Premier—but these responses show nothing but disdain for the people of this province who have serious questions.

Even after being found to have breached the Members’ Integrity Act, the government voted against an NDP bill to strengthen it; they have refused to produce documents; they voted down a NDP call for a Speaker’s warrant because it was going to protect their friends; and they even voted against NDP legislation, weeks ago, that would have returned land to the greenbelt.

Speaker, back, again, to the Premier: Is he truly sorry, or is he just sorry that he got caught?

Interjections.

My question is to the Premier. This morning, I filed a complaint with the Integrity Commissioner requesting an investigation into the Premier’s actions surrounding their family fundraiser and his cozy relationship with developers. Will the Premier fully co-operate with this investigation?

Speaker, there is not a shred of evidence that this is going to build a single affordable home, but there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that these wealthy PC donors made a very careful bet against our greenbelt despite the Premier’s promises never to touch it.

I have written to the Auditor General to ask for an investigation, but the government could clear the air right now. Will the minister and the Premier launch an independent investigation into suspicious sales of greenbelt lands and make the findings public?