You know what are facts, Madam Speaker? Let me actually talk about facts, okay? The facts are, Madam Speaker, that we have increased funding—I just mentioned that: $170 million over three years to support children and youth. Maybe that’s not important to the opposition; it is to us.

We want to make sure every child, every youth is set up for success, which is why we backed that up by investment. We wanted that support to start as early as 13 all the way up to their 23rd birthday with incentive and support so they can get post-secondary education, they can be connected to the trades, whatever it is they want to explore, because we want to make sure every child and youth in this province is set up for success.

Whether you’re in care or not, your circumstances matter. We’ll keep fighting for you to make sure you have a chance to succeed in your community.

Speaker, I’d like to correct my record in Hansard for yesterday’s question on the developmental services sector. In fact, we are investing approximately $3.4 billion this year, which is over a billion dollars more than 2017-18. Of that investment, it’s $2.2 billion of funding towards supportive living, services and support, which is an increase of—

I thank the honourable member for the important question. As I said earlier, when we formed government, 75% of the families were waiting with no prospect of support at all. Today, because of the supports and services under the leadership of this Premier, we have increased the funding to more than double, $600 million, and this year, as a result of the budget—which, unfortunately, so far you’ve voted against, and I hope you vote in favour of it when you have the next opportunity, because in the budget there’s an increase of $120 million more to support families. That will help us more with getting tens of thousands of families enrolled in core clinical services, like the member alluded to.

Unlike before, when families had one route to service—IBI—today, they have multiple opportunities through family foundational services, through urgent response, through entry to school and through care-mediated therapy, and tens of thousands of families are accessing these services because of our decisions.

In our most recent budget, which I hope the member and all my colleagues in this House support, we increased funding by $310 million for the sectors who are doing—

Interjection.

The member talked about supportive living. We increased supportive living funding by more than $2.2 billion. Journey to Belonging is our long-term vision, but we’re making the process easier and more streamlined for families so that they can access services and supports digitally, regardless of where they are in the—

I thank my honourable colleague for the question. We have been listening to the families from day one, when I became a minister in this portfolio, in this very important file for the government and for the Premier. I reached out to the families, to everyone who’s involved, to listen to them, to get that feedback from families, from service providers, from experts and from those with lived experience. That’s why this government doubled the funding of the Ontario Autism Program moving forward.

At that time when we formed government, there were 8,500 families receiving supports and services. Today, thousands and thousands, tens of thousands, are receiving supports and services through multiple streams. The family foundational service, the urgent response, the entry to school and the caregiver-mediated programs are programs that families can have access to the second they reach and register with AccessOAP. None of these programs were available before. Even core clinical service—

Mr. Speaker, I 100% back the program. Do you know why? Because this program was developed by the autism community. It was members of the autism community, those with lived experience, family members, clinicians and experts who are the ones who put this program—and even the implementation team was made up of those from the autism community.

So, yes, I’m absolutely supportive of the program that we have in place. I will continue to meet with families. And I said this from day one, that we will come to work every day to make sure we improve their lives and go home to do better the next day every time we come to work.

I thank my honourable colleague for the question. I’d be more than happy to address it. Unfortunately, this member would have to also communicate to her constituents that when their party was in power, they failed the families and people of this province. Under the previous government, 8,500 children and youth were receiving services. Today, 40,000 are receiving services. Why is that? Because while they neglected families, under the leadership of this Premier—he doubled the funding of the Ontario Autism Program. This year, we increased that funding by an additional 10% to make sure more children and youth continue to receive these services. More children and youth are now receiving not just one service, as under the previous government; they have multiple pathways to services.

We will continue to make sure those families are supported so that no one is left behind under the—

I think my colleague would know that since being honoured and appointed to this role, I have met with families, I have met with groups and organizations every single opportunity I have gotten. Why? Because we said from the beginning that we’re not going to leave people behind, which is why we doubled the funding.

The Ontario Autism Program was developed by the community for the community. That’s the program that we’ve implemented. Some 8,500 children were receiving services under the previous government. Now more than 40,000 children are receiving services—and not just one service. Children, as soon as they’re transitioned and they have registered on AccessOAP, have multiple pathways to service immediately, like foundational family services, caregiver-mediated early years support, the entry to school program—

I thank the honourable member for the question.

To Weston and every single child, youth and family in this province: We told you from day one that we’re not going to leave anyone behind, which is why—again, the member referenced the wait-list. Mr. Speaker, 8,500 children were receiving services before, under the previous government, supported by the NDP. Today, more than 40,000 children and youth are receiving services. Why? Because we doubled the funding, and we’re further increasing that. Why? Because we want to make sure that children, youth and families are receiving the supports and services they need. Again, the NDP, under the previous government, had the opportunity to expedite this. They didn’t do it. It took this Premier, it took this government to say, “We’re not going to leave anyone behind.”

We will continue to make sure that the programs—families, as I said, only had access to one program; now there are multiple pathways to service. And there’s more work to do. We’re going to get—

This is a government that has increased investments in all levels, in every corner of this province to make sure that every single person is receiving this support. That means that, in the member’s region and all across the board, the funding has increased under our government. We’ll make sure those preventative measures are there to support and also to make sure that every single victim is receiving the support that they need throughout the process.

We have invested in a 24-hour hotline across the province in over 200 languages to help ensure those affected by violence or sexual exploitation can access the support they need anywhere, anytime. Also, to support shelters, we have invested $18.5 million over three years through the Transitional and Housing Support Program.

Once again, under this government, we’ll make sure no one is left behind.

Mr. Speaker, we have invested more than $1.2 billion towards helping communities through the Social Services Relief Fund—$1.2 billion to help with food, to help with the cost of housing; investing $83 million through the Ontario Trillium Foundation to support non-profit organizations, including food banks; $8 million in support for funding Feed Ontario. Mr. Speaker, every single measure that we’ve taken to help Ontarians during the cost of high prices everywhere, the NDP continuously votes against. They will never support lowering costs in this province. You’ve seen them; you’ve heard them. They’ll say one thing here in the House, but as soon as it comes to actions, they’re MIA. They don’t exist.

It’s this Premier and it’s this government that says we’ll make sure that every single Ontarian is supported and no one is left behind, and we’ll put—

Interjections.

I thank the honourable member for the important question.

The Student Nutrition Program that the member is referring to is receiving annual funding of $27.9 million.

We’ve said from the beginning that we will make sure that student and youth who deserve all of the supports get it in every way, shape or form.

If you look at the support that we provided to the municipalities, the $1.2 billion, that helped them with food, with housing, with shelter—the $8 million towards Feed Ontario; and then $83 million towards the Ontario Trillium Foundation, to provide grants to help food banks across the province.

Once again, we will be there for children, for youth and families across this province, and we will not let them down—every day.

I want to thank the wonderful and hard-working member from Oakville North–Burlington for the great question and the great work that she does for her riding.

Our government’s new Youth Leaving Care policy and program, Ready, Set, Go, is the most bold and innovative approach ever taken by any government to support youth leaving care. It is an evidence-informed investment in bright futures for youth. As heard on budget day, our government is investing $68 million with continuing funding. This investment will provide greater financial support so youth can find safe housing; a longer runway for youth until the age of 23; incentives for youth to participate in post-secondary, with an additional bursary of $500 a month; and future economic stability through employment savings of up to 40 hours per week without clawbacks.

Many of these youths have traumatic personal histories and disrupted family lives. That’s why they deserve a fair chance at adult life. And we’ll help them get there.

Through the Ready, Set, Go program, as early as age 13, we will prepare children by developing life skills, their unique cultures and identities, and relationships with peers and adults. By age 15, youth will be offered a conferencing option, including a mediator, if they choose, to plan for their futures. By 18, social workers will be accountable for ensuring youth have the basics, like identification, banking needs, professional supports, and communications technology. For example, ages 18 to 23, youth will be supported with pathways to post-secondary training, trades and employment. Now, to really ensure this program delivers on its promise to support these youth in building the lives they want and they deserve, we are also measuring its impact through its implementation. You can only change what you can measure.

Once again, we will not let these youth down.

I thank my honourable colleague for the question again.

I wanted to mention that we’re also backing that strategy up with real investments, with funding over $2.9 billion in developmental services, including more than $1.8 billion for residential supports.

Mr. Speaker, thanks to the great work of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and thanks to the Minister of Finance, you saw that, in the budget, $2.2 million will be invested for supportive housing. The minister has said many, many, many times that we are in a housing supply crisis in the province of Ontario—one that affects every single person, one that we’re trying to address, one that the opposition continuously votes against, doesn’t seem to understand. So in order to get housing right for everybody, we need to address the supply crisis that we’re in, and I thank the minister for his leadership on that.

I thank my honourable colleague for the question.

Here’s what I’ll tell my colleague across: I’m asking you for your help and support. Come by and actually support us so that we can help the people of this province, instead of continuously objecting and opposing—

Interjections.

I thank the honourable member and ask her once again to come help me, to work with us to make sure that we support every single youth and child in this province—

Mr. Speaker, here’s the difference. Once again, I’ll go back and I’ll just remind the members that the NDP had the opportunity to make a difference in people’s lives. The NDP had the balance of power. They failed the people. They weren’t able to deliver. When the previous government didn’t do enough, they continuously supported them. It’s not going to continue that way.

As I said before, we not only doubled the funding; we made sure that more people are receiving support—better support. This is a program that was developed by the community for the community.

When it comes to this side of the House and the majority middle over there, we will continue to fight for every single child, youth—every single person in this province—with or without the help of the opposition.

When our government took office, it is important to note that we saw that adults with developmental disabilities and service providers across the province were continuing to face many of the same challenges that they were facing 10 to 15 years ago. We’re changing that.

We’re ensuring people with developmental disabilities can fully participate in their communities, and we’re doing that with our 10-year developmental services reform strategy, Journey to Belonging.

I thank my honourable colleague for the very important question.

What we did is, we brought three older legacy programs and combined them into a new program, the Homelessness Prevention Program, to streamline the process so that service managers spend less time on paperwork and more on helping the people of Ontario who need support. We also increased the funding of this program by $25 million annually across the province.

Mr. Speaker, on our side, we’ve been very clear: We’ve said that we are in a housing supply crisis in our province and it hurts our most vulnerable. It hurts everyone across the board. We’re working towards solutions to make sure that we increase the supply across the province.

It’s only the opposition that continuously opposes housing in this province—well, it depends on what time at question period. They’re for housing at some points during question period and—

I want to thank my honourable colleague from Carleton for the question and also for her strong advocacy when it comes to housing on behalf of her constituents.

I was in the member’s city last week, alongside my federal and municipal counterparts, to announce a $90-million housing investment across the city of Ottawa to support the construction of more than 270 units. These units will meet a variety of accessibility and affordability needs, ranging from studios to three-bedroom apartments.

I look forward to continuing our partnership with all levels of government, as well as the non-profit and private sectors, to ensure that all Ontarians, including the most vulnerable in our communities, have a safe place to call home.

To add to my previous answer: The funding will support five projects across the city of Ottawa, including the project that our government is supporting which is located at 159 Forward Avenue. This will be a four-storey building with a total of 49 units, 30 of which will be designated as affordable, and the remaining 19 will have rents that are on par or below average market rent. As I’ve said from day one, we’ll continue to do everything we can to support projects like this one, because they prioritize and support the most vulnerable.

With lack of supply and housing prices out of control for many Ontarians, we’ll continue to work, again, with all partners, all levels of government, to increase supply and support housing in every corner of our province.

Thank you to the honourable member for the follow-up question. Not only are we investing the funding to make it possible to build supportive housing, we’re cutting red tape that’s blocking developers, non-profits and community partners from getting shovels in the ground. With our latest bill, we address concerns related to development charges. But I must emphasize all the supportive housing units that we’ve built thus far, Mr. Speaker, whether it’s investments in St. Thomas, where we built 20 units, or the $2.9 million in Thunder Bay for 98 units, $5.5 million in London to build 30 accessible modular home units—and there is much more to come.

This is a government that doesn’t leave anyone behind in this province. We will always make sure that every Ontarian is not only housed but has a home where they feel safe and supported.