I’m so pleased to introduce the Young Politicians of Canada, who are joining us here today, and students from the model Parliament of St. Francis Xavier secondary school in Mississauga—a group I’ve met with many times—and their accompanying teachers, Mark Saad, Carol Ann McQuaid and Abbie Elsie.

Thank you so much for coming, and welcome to your House.

It’s hard to think of an announcement that this government hasn’t had to reverse in shame.

My question to the Premier is, has his government considered talking to people who actually use transit to get to work instead of their million-dollar man, Phil Verster?

There are 82 Metrolinx vice-presidents on the latest sunshine list—82.

The Premier gave the Metrolinx CEO a 65% raise while he was still fighting to keep teachers and education workers and other public sector workers at 1%. He went to court over that.

Even with all of these highly paid executives, Metrolinx still can’t say when the Eglinton Crosstown P3 is going to open.

So my question is, why does the Premier keep rewarding Metrolinx for failing to deliver for the people of Bloor-Weston?

My question is to the Premier.

Any dissolution of Peel region will require serious thought and care from this government. There are a lot of moving parts and billions of dollars at stake for taxpayers in Brampton, in Mississauga and in Caledon. But as we’ve seen, whether it’s with Bill 23 or the cancellation of Peel chair elections or the ending of regional planning responsibilities, this Premier has a record of imposing sudden, massive changes on municipalities without consultation or careful review, leaving municipalities and taxpayers to deal with the resulting chaos. How can the people of Peel trust the Premier to get this right?

But the minister seems to forget all about his promise to make municipalities whole. The Premier even compared Peel municipalities to beggars seeking a handout.

How can Peel residents have any confidence in this restructuring process when the Premier and the minister have shown them such disrespect?

In 2019, the government announced a regional government review—three months of consultations, and the review received over 8,500 written submissions. But then the government suddenly dropped the whole idea, and the report and the recommendations have been kept secret ever since.

Just so Peel residents and other Ontarians have access to all the relevant information, will the Premier order the release of the 2019 report?

Interjections.

On September 15, 2022, a company controlled by Michael Rice of the Rice Group bought 687 acres of protected farmland in King township. Less than two months later, the government announced that this property would be removed from the greenbelt. But now we have learned that Mr. Rice discussed the development of this land with King township and Southlake health officials in June, before he bought the land, and perhaps even as early as January of last year.

It makes no sense for Mr. Rice to propose the development of protected greenbelt land he did not even own yet, unless—and my question is to the Premier: Did someone in the government tip him off about the greenbelt plan?

Yesterday, my colleague the member for Sudbury stood in this House and told us that a hospice in his riding is having to rely on a food bank and fundraisers in order to feed its residents. This government responded by bragging about generous individual donations. It’s almost as though this government wants Ontarians to think that it’s perfectly normal for a hospice, where people go for end-of-life care, to have to rely on a food bank so its residents don’t go hungry in their final days. Speaker, my question is to the Premier, and it’s a simple one: Does this government think that is acceptable?

I’ve been travelling around this province listening to ordinary Ontarians, and what I’ve been seeing is shocking—people working full-time jobs who can’t get by, people visiting food banks for the first time. One in 14 families in the Waterloo region—in Vaughan–Woodbridge, 36% of food bank visitors were children; in Kawartha Lakes, it’s 50%. In Mississauga, food bank use is up 400% over the last eight years.

Speaker, food banks have asked this government to tackle the root causes of food insecurity, yet the most recent budget provides almost nothing.

Will this government bring in measures like real rent control to make life more affordable for ordinary Ontarians?

Interjections.

I wish this government would spend less time in the backrooms and more time talking to real people in this province who are really struggling right now.

I was recently in Northumberland county, where a single person on Ontario Works has to spend as much as 50% of their very limited income on food, at a time when housing costs there and across this province are going through the roof.

Food banks were created as a temporary measure. They’re supposed to be a band-aid solution, and now we have way too many people relying on them just to be able to survive.

To the Premier: Will this government immediately double OW and ODSP rates to get people the relief they need, so people do not go hungry in the province of Ontario?

Interjections.

Good morning, Speaker. It is an honour to rise today to pay tribute to the remarkable life of Mayor Hazel McCallion. Everyone in this House knows of the no-nonsense Hurricane Hazel, who served as the mayor of Mississauga for 36 years, ushering the city into a new era. Indeed, under her tenure, Mississauga transformed into Canada’s sixth-largest city.

For 101—just short of 102—years, she lived a dynamic and colourful life. Born in Port Daniel, Quebec, Hazel McCallion moved to Montreal as a child. In the early 1940s, she played professional hockey, one of the first women ever to do so, and that spirit stayed with her. Into her eighties, she carried a hockey stick in her car trunk on the off chance she came across a game. Hazel’s passion for hockey led her to do great work with the Ontario Women’s Hockey Association, advocating to grow women’s hockey as a sport.

Hazel also supported politicians of all different stripes with her singular goal of bringing prosperity to the city she loved. She once joked that she never considered running provincially or federally, because she’d wear out the carpet crossing the floor—not a problem I have, Speaker, but it speaks to her ability to work with everyone, regardless of political stripe.

Her straightforward approach led her to being a sympathetic ear to Prime Ministers, Premiers and mayors alike, and no matter her age, Hazel burst with energy. She rarely missed a local event, and even in political retirement she was an adviser to the Ontario government, first chancellor of the Hazel McCallion Campus of Sheridan College, and oversaw the Greater Toronto Airports Authority.

While we in this House may not agree on everything, we can all agree that Hazel left behind an extraordinary legacy. She was a trailblazer, an innovator, and she inspired many women to enter politics. She was small in stature, but she was a giant.

On behalf of Ontario’s official opposition, we are profoundly grateful to her family for the sacrifices they made to share her with the people of Mississauga and with all of us. Mayor McCallion will never be forgotten.