Today is Equal Pay Day, yet the gender pay gap continues to average at 32%; for Black and Indigenous women, the gap is 42%. Arab women are the lowest-paid women in Ontario’s labour market, with a shocking 47% wage gap—that’s 53 cents for every dollar a man makes.

Ontario’s public child care, education, social and community service providers are mostly women, mainly racialized women. They’re overworked, they’re underpaid, and they’re undervalued.

Since 2018, this government has cut spending to community and social services by 12.1%. Since 2022, Ontario has spent the least amount on social and community services than any province in our nation.

My question is to the Premier. Is this Conservative government okay with shortchanging women?

Instead, the Conservatives are preoccupied with funding cuts and privatization schemes, which we know will only further the gender wage gap.

While this government’s Bill 149 requires some employers to publicly post pay ranges, it did nothing to ensure these ranges are actually realistic and aren’t simply perpetuating the gender pay gap.

The government continues to block the Pay Transparency Act, 2018.

Back to the Premier: Today is Equal Pay Day. Will the Premier finally implement the Pay Transparency Act, 2018, to help narrow the gender wage gap and increase women’s economic liberation?

Interjections.

This petition is in support of a Toronto local hip-hop artist and battle rap pioneer, Bishop Brigante, who at 45 was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. He wants to lower the minimum age for colonoscopies from 50 to 30 years of age, so we can have quicker detection. He’s trying to raise public awareness around colorectal cancer. The current age, for anyone who doesn’t know, for an asymptomatic cancer screening is 50, and we want to see that age lowered so we can help save lives.

There are many people in the arts community, in the film and TV community and, of course, in the health community who are speaking out about this. Bishop, Jully Black and many other artists are coming out in large numbers. I just want to tell them thank you and also say that I agree and support this petition and I’ll be affixing my signature to it.

Back to the Premier: Over 60% of AGO workers are precarious part-time workers, and they’re kept that way—they are contract. They can’t make enough hours to meet the full-time threshold, because, they told me yesterday, the AGO puts up roadblocks. All this, while the AGO contracts out, while AGO execs have recently received salary bonuses of up to 59.6%. While there’s “no more money for wages,” we’ve got the AGO CEO making over $400,000 a year, with bonuses of $250,000 annually.

My question is back to the Premier: Does this government think this is fair? How are they prepared to work with the AGO and get the employer to the table to have these workers get what they deserve: fair wages, full-time opportunities, protection against contracting out and livable hours of work?

Premier, shelters and transition houses are bursting at the seams. Many children and women have nowhere to go. The sector is facing critical staffing shortages and turnover as wages in this sector have been brutally shut down and stifled because of this Conservative government’s Bill 124. While they should be expanding programs to meet the demand, they are struggling to keep their doors open on shoestring budgets that are not tending to the operational needs.

Yesterday, a front-line worker shared how they are fundraising for food for their clients. Another spoke of how their organization’s funding expired, reversing progress made for women and children fleeing violence.

Again, my question is back to the Premier: Will he commit to ending gender-based violence today by creating a sustainable needs-based funding model for this sector? Will he support these workers and can Bill 124?

November, as you know, marks Woman Abuse Prevention Month. Today, we were greeted by the Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses with their Wrapped in Courage awareness and advocacy campaign.

I would like to thank OAITH executive director Marlene Ham for your incredible work along with your team: Amber Wardell, learning and development coordinator of OAITH; Lauren Hancock, policy and research coordinator of OAITH; Sherece Taffe, digital office support of OAITH; OAITH board members who are here today: Melanie Ducharme, executive director of Pavilion Women’s Centre; Jessie Rodger, executive director of Anova: A Future Without Violence; Jyoti Singh, executive director of Nellie’s Shelter; Erin Baydak, team manager of Western Ottawa Community Resource Centre; Tessa Mcfadzean, director of Good Shepherd Women’s Services; Sly Castaldi, executive director of Guelph-Wellington Women in Crisis; Jennifer Chamberlin, executive director of the Red Lake Emergency Women’s Shelter; Carla Neto, executive director of Women’s Habitat; as well as some other organizations that were here today: Yasmine Youssef, executive director of Nisa Foundation; Daniela Giulietti, director of public affairs of YWCA Hamilton; Alicia Whyte, manager of programs and client services of Women’s Habitat; and finally, the fantastic team from Aura Freedom International.

I would like to congratulate Philippe Boyer, our very own page from St. Paul’s, who is today’s page captain. I also want to welcome his father, Sebastien Boyer, to the House, his mom, Shu Boyer, and his grandparents, and also say a warm welcome to every single SEIU member here. Thank you so much for your work. And a welcome to—

I beg leave to present a report from the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy and move its adoption.

I would like to thank Milan Viswanathan, who is one of our pages, from St. Paul’s, for doing a wonderful job. I understand his mom and grandfather, Karen and Ashok Gautam, are in the audience today in the members’ gallery. It’s very, very nice to see the two of you.

I also want to say hello to Ross Dixon and Joanna Dixon and their son, Silas, who is a wonderful young man, who has also been a page. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

My question is to the Premier.

According to the Ontario Equal Pay Coalition, Equal Pay Day today symbolizes how far into the next year most women must work in order to have earned what most men had earned in the previous year. In other words, women are disproportionately working for free and are not being paid equal pay for equal work. It’s even worse for BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+, and women with disabilities, as well as immigrant women.

This Conservative government widened the gender wage gap with their Bill 124 attack against women and other public sector workers.

Will the Premier help close the gender wage gap by repealing Bill 124, stopping its appeal—and while you’re at it, activate pay transparency today?

Courts ruled Conservative government anti-worker Bill 124 illegal and unconstitutional, yet this Premier still appealed, wasting taxpayers’ money—working women’s money, health care heroes’ money—during an affordability crisis, to bankroll his political power trip. Workers didn’t go silently into the night. Women clapped back and stood up against legislated bullying. This weekend, women won. Nurses won a re-opener on Bill 124, which awarded hospital nurses, predominantly women, back pay to recover some of what they’ve lost. This is a step forward towards closing the gender wage gap.

My question is back to the Premier: Will the Premier listen to the courts this time and commit to paying hospital nurses back pay owed? Yes or no?

Some 689,000 people in Ontario have eating disorders and they disproportionately impact women and girls. Sherri is one of them. Sherri has been waiting for a publicly funded adult in-patient bed since 2021. Why? Because there are only 20 publicly funded beds in Ontario. People who cannot afford to pay $30,000, $50,000, $60,000 for private care are dying on wait-lists. Last we spoke, she was still on a wait-list that was closed. I don’t want Sherri to die.

My question is to the Premier. Will this government increase adult ED beds, address the specialized staff shortage, make the temporary 14 pediatric beds permanent and create billing codes to ensure ED survivors and families aren’t paying out of pocket for the physical and mental health care they so desperately need?

Thank you to the member for Waterloo for an excellent breakdown—what a breakdown the fall economic statement is, by this Conservative government.

I’d like to ask a question with regard to children being triaged into adult care, hospitals having to turn away sick kids because there’s simply no staff or there’s a staff shortage and they cannot give them the treatment they deserve. How does this fall economic statement address this? I mean, I look at the document and I see that the health expenditures are the same now in the fall as they were in the summer, even though we know the crisis has worsened. Why is this government not paying attention to the calls from panicked parents who are seeing their children turned away from the health care they need at a time when some of these very parents in St. Paul’s don’t have paid sick days or are the very front-line health care workers who are being pushed out of nursing because of Bill 124?

It is my deepest honour to be able to congratulate my friend and colleague Kristyn Wong-Tam, on their successful campaign, their successful campaign team and their beautiful family. I think what I want to say in this moment to Kristyn—sorry; to the member for Toronto Centre—is a big thank you. I know that they have single-handedly encouraged and motivated and inspired several of us—myself, NDP federal candidate Brian Chang and many of us across the GTA—to get into politics. I also sit here in this chair because of the member’s support and encouragement.

I’d like you to express how important representation is in this House. We walk through these halls, we look on the walls and we don’t see ourselves. How important is it that you are here, and what will that do for future generations to be here too?