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.

Good morning and thanks so much for the question. Mr. Speaker, I’m very appreciative of the Premier and our government and our partners who are doing great work with Community Living across the province here, which is why we backed them up with support.

We are investing more than $3.4 billion on developmental services this year. That, Mr. Speaker, is over a billion dollars more than the previous government was doing. Now, why do I mention that? It’s because the NDP held the balance of power for three years. You’ve been here long enough to know what you can do when you hold the balance of power. They could have forced the Liberals to invest more in amazing partners who are doing great work across our province. They didn’t. They failed the people of this province. It took this Premier, it took this caucus to stand up for people with developmental disabilities across the province and say, “We will have your back,” just as we have since we formed government.

Interjections.

In fact, I will tell you what they have done. They have voted against every single measure that we have put forward to make sure that the service providers have the tools and resources to serve the people of Ontario. This member has been here long enough, but of course, when the cameras are running, you’ll hear the NDP get up and talk a big game, Mr. Speaker—

Interjections.

Interjections.

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 the honourable member for the question. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, through Ontario-STANDS, we have a proposal in place where in every single community, they can put forward proposals for support during the duration of the national action plan, of which we’re in the second year now. That is backed by investments. As I mentioned to you, there are localized solutions that community partners are aware of. We want to hear from them. We want partners on the ground to come forward with ideas and submissions for us to be able to support. That is what the call for proposals is about.

We invested in our partners in the first year. In the second year, we are looking at working with them on localized supports—supports that in rural, northern communities might be different than it is in downtown Toronto. We want to hear from the partners on the ground. We’re ready to work with them to make sure that we combat violence against women in all its forms, in every corner of this province.

I thank my colleague for the question. Mr. Speaker, I will tell you, no government in history has stood up for Ontarians more than this government. When we raised the Ontario Disability Support Program by 5%, tied that to inflation and as a result saw an increase of an additional 6.5%, the opposition was not supportive of that.

Mr. Speaker, we went a step above and beyond that: We removed and changed the earned income threshold from $200 to $1,000 so that people can earn more income, and we’re seeing the results.

Now, the opposition unfortunately has not supported any of these initiatives to help Ontarians. At a time when life is unaffordable, you have heard time and time again, Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Energy, every single member on this side get up, stand up from their seat and say, “Stand up for Ontarians. Your counterparts in Ottawa control—they are able to make sure that they wipe the federal carbon tax and make life more affordable for—”

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.

I just want to remind every single Ontarian of the decisions that have been made by this government. We have made the largest increase to ODSP rates in decades. Further than that, we have increased the income threshold from $200 to $1,000 so that more Ontarians can keep more money in their pocket.

Every single decision that we’ve made—you’ll hear, time and time again, the members opposite from both parties talk about affordability for Ontarians, yet when it comes to actually supporting doing something about it, they vote against it. It’s always when the lights are on and the camera is rolling, they’ll say one thing—but when it comes to action, this is the lights, camera, no action party.

We will stand up for every single Ontarian. We will make sure that no one is left behind in this province.

That now means the NDP has to stand up and tell the people of this province why they continue—

I just want to remind the member, here is what they have voted against: the increase to support for Ontarians on ODSP, the largest increase in decades—they voted against it. Aligning it to inflation, which, as of July 1, will further increase supports for Ontarians—they voted against it. The $200 limit, which was increased to $1,000 so that more Ontarians who can and are able to work can get out there and earn more—what did they do? They voted against it.

Again, every single measure that this finance minister has put forward, not just in this recent budget, not in the fall economic statement or the budget before that—every single measure that we put forward to make life more affordable for Ontarians, the NDP votes against. They’ll say one thing here in the House—but I’ll assure Ontarians: You have nothing to worry about. This side of the House, and the majority, will continue—

I thank the member for the question, Mr. Speaker. When we formed government in 2018, we saw an Ontario Autism Program that was broken. Families and children and youth were not receiving the service. That was under that government, and it was always supported by the NDP. Only 25% of the children were receiving services.

This may have been okay and acceptable by them and the previous government. It isn’t acceptable under our government, which is why we doubled the Ontario Autism Program, which is why we created a program that was developed by the community for the community. Now, children, youth and families have access to more services than ever before. Before, they had access to one service.

I’m happy to announce that this year we are increasing the support in the program by an additional 10% so that we can get more children, more youth, more families service—no thanks to the NDP.

Mr. Speaker, I can assure the member that not a single child or youth will ever be forgotten under this government—that’s why.

I’ll be very clear: Under the previous government, the Student Nutrition Program was just receiving support and investment of over $8 million; today, that amount is $27.9 million.

The member is asking for action. I told her from day one that I will work night and day to make sure that every single program that’s being offered to the people of this province is at its best, and every day we’ll make sure that it’s improved. I ask the honourable member to join us.

The cost of living is rising. Why are they supporting a carbon tax that adds a cost to every single thing in this province?

Interjections.

I just want to correct my record from earlier. In response to my honourable colleague from Thunder Bay–Superior North, I indicated that there was an increase of $2.2 million in supportive housing—in fact, it’s $202 million of increase. Thank you very much—

Interjections.

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.