Well, Madam Speaker, the member is right about that. We’ll keep voting against the privatization of health care every single time. You can be sure and you can count on that.

The government keeps repeating the same line over and over again—that people are paying with their health card and not their credit card—but it’s simply not the case. You will, as Ontarians, have to pay for this, and you’re already doing it—countless publicly reported examples of patients who are having to pay for upgrades before they’re eligible for OHIP-covered services in private clinics. Over and over again, it’s happening right now. It’s costing patients, it’s costing their families, and it’s happening at a time when the cost of living has become absolutely unbearable for most people.

So I’m going to ask the Premier again: Why is this Premier expanding pay-for-it health care?

I was in a school, last week, where I asked grade 4 and grade 5 kids what their dreams are for their school. I asked them, if they could have anything at all in this school, what would they want? Do you know what they said? They said, “Can you bring back the soap in the soap dispensers?” That’s what their dreams are right now.

That is the state of education in the province of Ontario right now—no soap; leaky roofs.

This government is failing the future of our province.

Can the Premier explain why his Minister of Education thinks the learning conditions of Ontario’s students are not his problem?

Meanwhile, Ontario is facing a whopping $16.8-billion school repair backlog. We know both Liberal and Conservative governments have left our schools crumbling. Students are left to learn under caved-in ceilings or in classrooms with garbage bins that are collecting the rain. We’ve all seen it on this side—boy, have we.

The minister can blame the school boards all he wants, but they at least are legally bound to balance their budgets. And it’s basic math—when the minister underfunds them by millions of dollars, they are forced to make cuts, and they are not going to be able to make repairs.

So I want to ask the minister again—and the Premier: When is this Premier going to make his minister take some responsibility—

The TDSB alone is facing a deficit of $26.5 million.

In Thames Valley, classroom supplies are scarce amidst an $18.5-million deficit, the largest they’ve ever seen.

Ottawa-Carleton is facing $70 million in deficits.

The minister says there’s historic education funding, but a budget that ignores inflation is a budget that ignores reality. The only thing historic is the fact that our kids are now lobbying us to fix the roofs of their classrooms, to bring back soap in the bathroom, and to keep the lights on in classrooms.

I want to ask the Premier, do we need to hire a lobbyist or reach out to you on Gmail to get some answers?

This question is for the Premier.

This afternoon, thousands of people from all across Ontario are coming to Queen’s Park to stand up for public health care. They’re standing up for seniors who are being charged thousands of dollars for cataract surgery, for patients who are being charged an annual fee just to get primary care. The minister knows that these practices are illegal under the Canada Health Act, but she refuses to investigate or take action. Instead, she’s blaming patients, saying that extra billing is their own “misunderstanding.”

So how many misunderstandings need to happen before this Premier finally stands up for patients?

There are busloads of people who are coming here to get answers from this Premier and this minister. At the same time, there are going to be rallies all across the province, in Ottawa, Cornwall, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Dryden and Thunder Bay. I hope the government has some answers, because patients and families and our overworked and overburdened health care workers have had enough. Hospital departments—closed. Emergency rooms—closed. Urgent care clinics—closed. While this government enriches their shareholder friends, Ontarians are literally paying for it.

What is this government going to do to protect public health care—or are we going to see more pay-for-it health care?

—we have barely built, get this, 1,000 new affordable homes. One way we could move that forward is building fourplexes. So I want to ask the Premier to stop blocking new housing and commit to authorizing fourplexes as of right across this province.

Interjections.

Well, Speaker, I’ll tell you what—and back to the Premier again: This is business as usual for this government. They will do anything to avoid accountability.

I’m going to give you another example. Global News has obtained through a twin freedom-of-information request a bunch of texts that were sent between Mr. Sackville and Metrolinx million-dollar-man Phil Verster.

So, Speaker, I want to see the texts. Ontarians want to see those texts. Where are the texts?

Deleted emails, contradictory testimony—

Interjections.

Does the Premier think he and his staff are above the law?

For months now—months—there has been a flood of evidence that shows deleted emails, missing texts, inaccurate testimonies, hidden text messages, a flagrant disregard for the law by this government.

I want to ask the Premier again: If Mr. Sackville doesn’t have the integrity to resign, will this Premier have the guts to fire him?

Interjections.

While this government is flip-flopping, hiding texts, losing ministers, deleting emails to enrich their land speculator friends, housing starts—which I will remind the Speaker and the government was what this was all supposed to be about, by the way—are 37% lower than they were last year. To catch up on that lagging goal—I think they had said they were going to build 1.5 million homes by 2031—the province needs to build at least 125,000 homes this year. Based on the government’s own plans and their own budget, we are nowhere near where we need to be.

So my question to the Premier is, where are the new, deeply affordable homes that this government promised Ontarians?

But again, housing starts are 37% lower right now than they were a year ago. I’ve got to tell you, Speaker, that doesn’t shout success to me. That shouts failure, after six long years of this government, after ministers resigning, deleted texts, emails gone missing.

It’s just another example of how this government refuses to treat the housing crisis with the urgency that it deserves. They promised 20,000 new homes by now. Six years into the affordable housing agreement with the federal government—

Interjection.

My question is to the Premier. Back in February, I asked the Premier about discrepancies in his chief of staff’s testimony to the Integrity Commissioner. You’re going to recall that Mr. Sackville testified that he didn’t discuss removal criteria related to the greenbelt with anyone until October 27. We now have evidence that he actually got an email with all the greenbelt removal criteria to his personal email account 10 days earlier.

Can the Premier explain why his chief of staff provided false testimony to the Integrity Commissioner?

Why did the Premier’s right-hand man apparently mislead the Integrity Commissioner on multiple occasions, and what consequences is he going to face?

This is the third senior staff member from this Premier’s office to have been caught given inaccurate testimony to the Integrity Commissioner. This is a government that has shown they have no respect for the people’s right to know.

I want to remind the government that their former minister was forced to resign when it was revealed that he lied under oath to the Integrity Commissioner about—

Interjection.

It is indeed a historic day here in the Legislature. I want to use this opportunity to raise another issue of great concern to so many people across this province. This question is for the Minister of the Environment.

Yesterday, the opposition deputy leader, the member from Kiiwetinoong, and I asked this government questions about the ongoing mercury poisoning of the people of Grassy Narrows First Nation. The Minister of the Environment answered that there was going to be a meeting today to discuss the findings. So my question is, can the minister share details with this House on the scope of that meeting?

I’m going to ask the minister more specifically: Will the Premier be in attendance at that meeting today? Will the minister? What other members of cabinet will be at that meeting and how long do the people of Grassy Narrows have to wait?

I’ve got to tell you, Speaker, if this was happening anywhere else in the province of Ontario, that kids were being poisoned by the fish they eat, the water they drink, this government, I would hope, would do something.

It has come to my attention that none of the ministers, since 2018, have even set foot in Grassy Narrows. I want to know when this minister or somebody else from this government is going to go to Grassy Narrows, is going to treat this issue with the urgency that it demands and stop the poisoning of the people of Grassy Narrows.

Interjections.

But anyway, this question is for the Premier. Yesterday, the NDP revealed that the Premier’s chief of staff, Patrick Sackville, was routinely using his personal email account to do government business. This matters because Mr. Sackville told the Integrity Commissioner under oath that he does not conduct government business on personal email.

Well, today, Global News is reporting that Mr. Sackville was using his personal email as recently as late 2023—that’s after the greenbelt scandal broke—and that means that Mr. Sackville not only gave false testimony under oath to the Integrity Commissioner about using his personal email, but he then doubled down and kept using it, knowing perfectly well that it was wrong.

So my question to the Premier is, when is he going to demand his chief of staff’s resignation for giving false testimony?

On October 17, 2022, Ryan Amato sent Mr. Sackville a list of criteria for removing lands from the greenbelt on behalf of all of their insider friends, and that was sent to his personal email. The email was dated 10 days before the date that Mr. Sackville told the Integrity Commissioner, again, under oath, that he was first briefed on the greenbelt removal criteria. He also said, under oath, that he had no knowledge of this email and that he had no idea how Ryan Amato obtained his personal email account.

Well, let me shed some light on that, because now we know that Mr. Sackville routinely uses his personal accounts for government business, contrary to what he told the Integrity Commissioner, again, under oath.

So my question, and perhaps the Premier will get up and answer it this time—I want to know: Has the Premier spoken to his chief of staff about the consequences of giving misinformation to the Integrity Commissioner?

Thank you, Speaker. Good morning. On behalf of everybody here in the official opposition NDP, I want to welcome everybody who’s here joining us from all across Ontario today for a very historic occasion. I want to particularly recognize all the First Nations leaders, chiefs, elders, young people, dignitaries and, of course, the family of our dear friend and deputy leader, Sol Mamakwa, to the House.

Remarks in Anishininiimowin.

Methyl mercury levels are now even higher—two times higher, Speaker. The chief scientist behind the study says that if the mill stopped discharging sulphate into the river, they could have prevented harmful chemicals getting into the river and into the fish.

Children, elders poisoned under this government’s watch. Studies, reviews—that’s all we ever hear from this minister. What immediate steps is this government going to take right now to stop the ongoing mercury poisoning of the people of Grassy Narrows?

Interjections.

People are struggling all across this province to find a family doctor and rural emergency rooms are closing all across the province, but this government, they have very different priorities. On Friday, we learned that the taxpayers of Ontario could be paying half a billion dollars so that this Premier can get out of a contract a year early and sell beer and wine in corner stores.

Now, I want to know, why is this Premier pouring money into the pockets of these big alcohol corporations while our emergency rooms are closing?

Families across this province are wondering if they’re going to be able to keep a roof over their heads. Families are looking for affordable child care. There’s none. They can’t find a family doctor—2.4 million Ontarians without a family doctor, people worried whether there’s going to be an emergency room open when their child is sick. These are the worries that are keeping people in this province up at night.

So, Speaker, I want to go back to the Premier—maybe he’ll actually answer the question for a change. More than half a billion dollars: Does that actually sound like a good deal for the people of this province from this Premier? Give me a break.

Interjections.

This question is for the Premier. The Information and Privacy Commissioner has confirmed that she’s going to be releasing a special report on his government’s conduct in relation to the greenbelt scandal. She’s looking into allegations that political staffers in the government regularly deleted emails related to the greenbelt, and that they used their personal accounts, in an apparent attempt to cover their tracks.

The last time the commissioner released a special report into the deletion of emails by political staffers, I think we all remember what happened. It triggered a police investigation, and that Liberal Premier’s chief of staff went to prison.

So will the Premier enlighten us: What will this latest investigative report reveal?

But there’s more. Earlier today, Global News revealed new evidence that the Premier’s chief of staff used his personal email account to conduct government business on dozens of occasions. That directly contradicts his sworn testimony to the Integrity Commissioner when he claimed, “I do not conduct government business on my personal email.” Guess what? He does.

The Premier’s chief of staff appears to have repeatedly and directedly contradicted his sworn testimony to the Integrity Commissioner under oath. So, Speaker, to the Premier: Will he demand his chief of staff’s resignation?

An FOI document obtained by the NDP has also revealed that the Premier’s director of stakeholder relations was also using his personal email to set up a meeting and discuss the greenbelt scheme with one of those land speculators, Sergio Manchia. You’re going to recall, Speaker, that Ryan Amato told his colleagues, “The Premier needs to stop calling this guy.” Well, you know what? He was calling this guy. So was his director of stakeholder relations.

So I want to know from the Premier, did he discuss this greenbelt property with Mr. Manchia, with his director of stakeholder relations or any other public official in the summer of 2022?

This question is for the Premier again. We’ve known for decades—decades—that mercury was being dumped in the Wabigoon-English River system and that it was poisoning the people of Grassy Narrows. First, it gets into the fish, which is central to the way of life there, and now, of course, devastating the community.

Last week, a new study revealed that industrial discharge from the Dryden mill site is making that mercury contamination even worse. Shamefully, Speaker, there has been no comment from this government, these ministers, since this new information came to light—crickets. Nothing.

When will this government commit to cleaning up the river of all of the mercury that’s contaminating Grassy Narrows?

I would be remiss if I didn’t welcome to the House today my uncle Robert Greaves, who is visiting from Boston, Massachusetts, USA, and my long-suffering parents, Katherine and Geoffrey Stiles, who seem to love being in this place for some reason.

Welcome to your House.

Good morning. I am so pleased today that we are being joined by representatives—presidents—representing teachers’ federations all across this country. I want to specifically welcome to this House Anne Vinet-Roy of l’association des enseignantes et des enseignants de l’Ontario; Karen Brown of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario; René Jansen in de Wal, from the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association; and Karen Littlewood of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. Welcome to your House.

Speaker, the fact is, this clinic is closing its doors to 10,000 people by the end of this month—10,000 more people in the Soo without health care, and this government has no plan.

Some 2.4 million Ontarians have no primary care right now, but for this government, for their health minister, that’s not a major concern.

We’re 350 physicians short in northern Ontario, including more than 200 family doctors. Many, many more—half of the physicians working in northern Ontario—are expected to retire in the next five years, and this government has no plan.

So I want to ask the Premier to stand in his place for once, stop making excuses, do something decisive and treat this issue like the crisis that it surely, surely is.

Interjections.

My question is for the Premier.

Survivors of sexual violence travelled from all across this province to hear this House discuss the crisis in our justice system yesterday, and their government betrayed them. They didn’t just kill the debate on an important bill; they wouldn’t even allow a discussion about the thousands of sexual assault cases that are being dismissed right now in our broken court system.

Will the Premier stand in his place and explain to survivors of sexual assault why they are not only losing their day in court, but also losing their day in this Legislature?

Interjections.

We are asking, actually, about accountability, and we are asking about clearing the backlog for sexual assault cases. Our courts are so overwhelmed that in one year alone, over 1,300 survivors had their cases dismissed, thrown out. There is no justice in that. And you don’t need to study it. It is a fact.

But once again, the government is playing procedural games on a very important issue.

So I want to ask the Premier—you are in government. You have the power. How about you be decisive for once and do the right thing?

Interjections.

Speaker, 10,000 patients are going to lose their primary care in Sault Ste. Marie by the end of this month, in just a couple of weeks, including retired steelworkers. Do you know why that matters? It’s because those retirees founded the Group Health Centre, and they took a pay cut; they took their hard-earned dollars to build themselves a world-class, world-renowned clinic in their hometown. In exchange, they were promised health care at that clinic for the rest of their lives. But now that’s being taken away, and this government has no plan to help them.

I’m going to ask the Premier: Is he going to make sure that his health minister finally acts here, or is the loss of primary care in the Soo not a major concern either?

Interjections.

Interjections.

I just want them to answer the question. They know perfectly well that they’re not addressing the current issue.

Access to primary care shouldn’t depend on where you live.

If these patients in Sault Ste. Marie lose access to their primary care doctor, do you know where they’re going to end up? They’re going to end up in emergency rooms that are already overcrowded. And there’s only one emergency room in the Soo. The next closest one is Sudbury. That’s four hours away.

So what is this government’s plan to address the urgent crisis in primary care in Sault Ste. Marie before the end of the month?

I want to welcome to the House today a good friend, Nikos Alexiou from UNICEF. Thank you for being here in your House.

Scraping the bottom of the barrel there.

Since this government won’t do anything for CHEO and their physician shortage, let’s talk about Grey county. Local residents are here today in the hope of finally getting some answers from this government. They are losing all of their in-patient beds at Durham hospital, meaning that patients can’t be kept overnight. Not only that, their emergency room is going to be permanently shut after 5 p.m.

We’ve been raising this with the government for years now. The community has experienced rolling closures in Chesley, in Kincardine, in Walkerton and Durham hospitals. For a month, their local councils have been asking the Minister of Health for a meeting—I mean, a call; frankly, any explanation for any of this. But what they got? Silence.

My question is to the Premier: Will the Premier do what the minister will not and commit to meeting with the people of Grey county today?

I’ll tell you, Speaker, no one is buying that. No one is buying what they’re selling, I’ll tell you. I cannot tell you how disappointing this is for everybody here.

Let’s talk about another disappointing issue. While the Minister of Health dismisses and minimizes the doctor shortage in this province, the CEO and president of the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, CHEO, says that their hospital has lost dozens of pediatric physicians since this government took office. CHEO is struggling to provide the early intervention that our kids need, and we know that it makes a world of difference for our children.

Does the Premier agree with his minister who thinks vacancies at children’s hospitals are not a major concern?

Interjections.

Wait times for MRIs and ultrasounds at CHEO are now the longest in Ontario. We have sick little kids transported out of the region, even out of the province, to get care; parents taking time off work; brothers and sisters taking time off school; little kids separated from their families and their friends while they’re getting treatment. Why? Because of the doctor shortage that this government and that minister refuse to even acknowledge, let alone fix.

So back to the Premier: Is this a major enough concern for his minister yet?

Interjections.

All you need to do is look at their own numbers: 3,000 physician vacancies right now across the province; a growing population; more physicians leaving the province every single day.

Here’s the problem: A child is sick. They can’t get treated because there aren’t enough doctors. Listen to the CEO and president of CHEO, for goodness’ sake.

What I and parents across the entire province are hearing from this Minister of Health is that this is not a major concern—not a major concern. If the people of Ontario cannot trust this minister to acknowledge the extent of the crisis in our primary care system, how can the Premier trust her to solve it?

I seek unanimous consent that, notwithstanding standing order 100(e), the member for Waterloo be permitted to designate private members’ notice of motion number 110 as ballot item number 13 to be debated today.

Hundreds of survivors and advocates and crisis support workers were expecting a chance to get answers on why this government has allowed so many sexual assault cases to be dismissed before trial. More than 1,300 cases of sexual assault in 2022 alone never saw a trial because the court system is so deeply underfunded and overwhelmed. Those are not just numbers, Speaker, these are survivors—survivors who are not going to get a shot at justice.

So to the Premier: Why are you silencing survivors of sexual assault who deserve justice from our legal system?

Interjections.

Speaker, I’m going to ask the member there, the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health, to really think about this: people being diagnosed with cancer, not in the comfort and the safety of their family doctor’s office, but in an overcrowded emergency room, how did they get there? Because they don’t have a family doctor. So by the time they get there—just imagine for a moment, to the member opposite, being the emergency room physician who then has to tell that patient that not only do they have cancer, but it has metastasized, because they couldn’t get to see their family doctor. They couldn’t get screening. This is not a major concern?

So I want to ask the member opposite: They’re having you answer all the questions today. Is this not a major concern for you?

It is unimaginable, Speaker, that this minister doesn’t see this as a concern; that this Premier and this member don’t see this as a concern. We are losing doctors and nurses and health care workers faster than we can recruit them.

I want the members opposite for just a moment to imagine being the mother of a newborn. You have so many questions; you have nowhere to go for answers. Imagine you’re the parent of a sick child and you live in the Soo and you find out now you have no family doctor. Where are you going to go?

Take some responsibility, own up to it.

Will this government admit that they have a problem on their hands and that it is unimaginable that their minister, who was supposed to be responsible for this, refused to live up to her responsibility?

Interjections.

This question is for the Premier. Yesterday, we gave the government an opportunity to put children, to put kids, first, an opportunity that this government passed on. We asked the government a simple question on behalf of our children: Will you fix our schools? The failure of this government to take inflation into its budget calculations is resulting in more crowded classrooms, more growing incidents of violence and more school programs that are disappearing day by day by day.

So I want to ask the Premier again: Will the Premier explain to the children of this province why he doesn’t like funding their schools?

Why is this government so determined to leave our education system worse than when they found it?

Interjections.

When the government cuts education funding it is parents who have to make up the difference—parents who are right now struggling already with the cost of living and are increasingly having to pay out of pocket for education supports, for activities and, yes, even for mental health supports. This government is cutting education funding for our schools to the tune of $1,500 per student. That’s a fact.

I want to know what the Premier thinks our children should do without. Is it breakfast programs? Is it counsellors? Is it music and sports—the things that bring joy in your life? What is it that this government expects our schools to cut and our children to do without?

Interjections.

The Minister of Health said that recruitment and retention of family doctors was “not a major concern.” I want to say that again: “not a major concern.” A quarter of patients in the Soo are without a family doctor. That’s not a major concern for this minister? Some 30,000 patients in Kingston are without access to primary care—not a major concern?

These comments are insensitive considering there are 2.3 million to 2.4 million people in this province without a family physician, but they are also dangerous. So I want to ask this government again, to the Premier: Does he really think it’s not a concern that millions of people are going without primary care?

I’m so happy to be able to welcome to the Legislature today members of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario. I know others will also be welcoming many members today, but I particularly want to mention Karen Brown, president; David Mastin, first vice-president; Shirley Bell, vice-president; Gundi Barbour, vice-president; and my brother-in-law, the president of the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board ETFO local, David Berger. Welcome to your House.