My question is to the Minister of Citizenship and Multiculturalism.

During the 2022 provincial election, the minister said Pearen Park would be a priority as construction on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT extension takes place. In fact, I’ll quote from a letter the minister wrote to the community: “If elected as your representative at Queen’s Park ... I will be in the best position to bring your concerns forward to Metrolinx and will work with you directly on this issue.”

Speaker, members of the Mount Dennis community are here today, and they haven’t heard from their minister in two years despite their countless appeals to get his ear and to have meetings.

So my question is a simple one: Minister, why did you break your promise to your community?

Our friends from Mount Dennis here today can affirm this is true. Mount Dennis residents face an opaque and arrogant Metrolinx bureaucracy that would rather rip up 1,500 trees and bulldoze parkland than listen to community concerns.

Speaker, we can have great public transit and urban forests right here in Ontario, but we need leadership to help get that done.

My question is back to the minister: Will you keep your promise and fight for the people of Mount Dennis, Minister of Multiculturalism and Citizenship?

Interjections.

Recently, it was announced by government agency Metrolinx that staff must meet a monthly quota for fare evasion tickets. Evidence-based research points to the harm fare quotas have so long as systemic barriers remain in place that disproportionately impact people with disabilities, mental health challenges, low income, the unhoused and BIPOC folks—folks who experience more “differential treatment” from authority due to outright discrimination and “unconscious bias.”

For instance, Sam, a racialized constituent, years back was fined 240 bucks for fare evasion simply because their Presto card didn’t work—a system malfunction that’s happened to me too, Speaker. She wasn’t believed, and the question is, why?

My question to the Premier: Why is this government implementing fare evasion quotas that may additionally harm communities, certain ones more than others, especially during an affordability crisis, instead of boosting revenue by properly funding transit to improve service and ridership?

This is also while Metrolinx’s Eglinton Crosstown is three years delayed and billions of dollars over budget. Many communities across Ontario, including mine, have been left stranded when it comes to transit infrastructure. Fixing that should be the priority of this government, not propping up discriminatory practices on the backs of folks who feel it the most.

My question is back to the Premier, if he’d actually answer his own questions: Will you put an end to problematic fare-evasion quotas and put your focus on making sure Metrolinx finishes what they started so our communities can actually travel from point A to B?

Businesses in my riding of Toronto–St. Paul’s and the community they serve have suffered because of delay after delay of the Eglinton Crosstown P3 project. These businesses have not been compensated for these delays—although we’ve asked many times of this government. But the P3 contractor has been rewarded with hundred-million-dollar bailouts paid by the public. Metrolinx CEO Phil Verster has been rewarded with huge raises and just had his contract extended. We might as well call him the million-dollar man.

My question is to the Premier: Why are the people responsible for this fiasco getting rewarded while business people in Toronto–St. Paul’s and, frankly, elsewhere are left to suffer by this Conservative government?

Interjections.

The Metrolinx board won’t hold Mr. Verster accountable. Instead of firing him, they want to give him another raise and pay him over $1 million per year.

The Premier won’t hold the Metrolinx board accountable. Instead, he keeps stacking the board with cronies and PC donors. Where is the transparency and the accountability in that?

Again, back to the Premier, if he’d only answer the question: Who will finally hold the Premier accountable for the Metrolinx gravy train? The RCMP, maybe?

Last weekend, CityNews shared documents obtained via freedom of information revealing that the Premier and the Minister of Transportation are directing Metrolinx to withhold information from the public about what has gone wrong with the Eglinton Crosstown P3 project. Little Jamaica and midtown business and residents have endured over 11 years of construction disruption in Toronto-St. Paul’s, and now this P3 project is delayed yet again and this government refuses to tell us why.

My question is to the Premier: Will the Premier and the Minister of Transportation stop keeping secrets from the public, stop gaslighting my own community and tell us why the P3 project is once again delayed and when it will finally be completed?

The Ontario Line is 75% over budget. That’s why we said no.

Accountability isn’t all we need. For 10 years, small businesses in midtown and Little Jamaica have been devastated by the LRT’s construction, with more businesses shutting down for good than I can count. Small businesses are a community. The latest LRT delay, pushing the open date to late 2023 at the earliest, will be the last straw.

While many of our small businesses didn’t get help during the pandemic, this Premier gave nearly $1 billion—$1 billion—to corporations and businesses that didn’t need it or didn’t qualify. Some of them weren’t even in Ontario, Speaker.

My question is back to the Premier. Will you be providing substantial financial support for our small businesses so that they can weather this storm that this government has created?

My question is to the Premier. Last week, the Auditor General reported that the P3 contracts used to build Ottawa’s LRT resulted in more problems and less accountability. The same companies contracted in Ottawa through these shady P3s are responsible for the expensive Eglinton Crosstown P3 mess that has frustrated my community in St. Paul’s for over a decade. My community needs accountability from this government more than ever. They need assurance that the Ottawa LRT fiasco won’t repeat itself on Eglinton.

My question is to the Premier: Why are the Premier, the minister and Metrolinx choosing to conceal, instead of answer to the public—the people paying for the actual project—how long this latest Eglinton LRT delay really is going to be?