Thank you so much for the opportunity. I want to thank the member for his question. Honestly, I wish this were the type of dialogue that we could have because we need to have a public park, a public space that is serving the people of this province, that is accessible, that won’t cost the people money and actually give profit to a private company that is not even Ontarian.

And not to mention, one of the things that’s really difficult for me is understanding—has the government actually done research on Therme? We’re giving $650 million to a luxury spa. Have we done—like, what their financial track record is? They have a very problematic track record in the UK. Have we done our research to see what they have done, what their track record looks like and what it will mean when we have a 95-year lease for Ontario? Because that’s a defective sale—

Interjection.

That means we need to make sure that people don’t go hungry, don’t go homeless. That is the most important part when we talk about budgets because then you’re prioritizing things like housing, you’re prioritizing things like the amount you need for ODSP and OW. We’re not keeping up with those things. We’re not keeping up with the inflation rate of any of these needs, and that’s what the result is. We’re seeing thousands of people lining up, and some people who have never gone to a food bank are now getting food at a food bank.

I rise to speak to Bill 85, and I want to thank the House for the opportunity to speak to this on behalf of the good people of Scarborough Southwest—to debate the budget bill.

As we heard in this House many, many times—and I know my colleague from Waterloo talks about it—budgets are about priorities, about the investments that we make to care for the people of our province, about the choices that prioritize the needs of the people.

This budget that is in question here, according to members opposite, is the biggest budget in the history of this province—and this is actually a quote from government members—the biggest spending, which seems like a great start, when you look at the current reality of so many people in our province.

I know my government colleagues will heckle me, so I’m ready for that. Go ahead.

I want to start off by saying what happened during the pre-budget consultation. Let me just read a quote from the pre-budget consultation, from economic affairs. This is what the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario and the Association of Municipalities Ontario, who have, all together, summarized and highlighted in this report—which is, a number of wit-nesses expressed uncertainty about the financial impact of the changes on municipal budgets. Some witnesses asked that the province ensure financial support for municipalities to mitigate potential negative outcomes. And they went on to talk about some of the needs.

We know that municipalities are dealing with the post-COVID crisis right now and what’s going on and the reality that we’re facing in our province. This is a dire situation. People are struggling, people are suffering, and we need to do anything and everything possible to support them.

There were many people who came during the pre-budget consultation, and we thought that there would be a lot of hope—to make sure that we support them.

Right now, we’re facing an affordability crisis. When we talk about the cost of food, the cost of living, housing, rent, it’s impossible—especially with the lack of rent control. The dream of home ownership seems very far away. We’re talking about social housing wait-lists, which is about 85,000 right now—families waiting, people waiting. The LTB has about 38,000 people waiting for hearings. The cost of bills like hydro, gas etc.—everything has gone up. A health care crisis, especially with staffing—recruitment, retaining of staff, especially with Bill 124. The needs in our schools—the amount of infrastructure and staffing that we need in our schools. OW and ODSP—just to keep up with inflation. All of these asks were in the pre-budget consultation. And we hear it from our constituents every single day, and I know members opposite hear that as well.

Many Ontarians tell me about how they wake up at 5 a.m., they work hard, they work and work and work to pay the bills and to put food on the table for their family, and yet it’s just not enough. People are losing hope.

When we look at a budget that the province comes up with—we are hoping that this budget will address those concerns that I just highlighted.

So when we talk about the biggest spending ever—but then I look at this budget. And when the budget was released, as soon as people took a look at it, one of the first things I heard was how cruel this budget is, because it is the biggest spending, and yet the budget missed the mark in addressing so many of the issues that people are facing across this province.

Let me tell you what the Toronto Star editorial board said—and not my words; this is the Toronto Star’s editorial board: that this government is spending, but it’s not getting to the people in the province. From the education sector, to the health care sector, to the community services, to the people, to our children, this budget completely misses the mark.

Instead of a budget that pulls people up when they’re drowning, you have a budget that actually pushes people further into poverty and leaves them behind. Goods and services cost more and more. And this budget does nothing to support those people. When we talk of price gouging, for example—it does nothing.

I want to talk about what happened after the budget was introduced. We were sitting in finance committee and we heard—I have a very limited amount of time so I’m trying to rush through everything that I have here, and I know I won’t get to everything. So let me just start off with one of the organizations that I thought was really interesting in the way they kind of put together the holistic summary of what they’re facing. This was actually Vista Centre Brain Injury Services that came to the deputation for the budget hearings. This is what they said: “In Canada, every 3.5 minutes, there is a brain injury. I will repeat that: In Canada, every 3.5 minutes, there is a brain injury.”

And he went on to talk about what the needs are and how to effectively address this, which means investing in our health care system. What they asked for was an increase in their budget. And Speaker, let me tell you what the government has done so far. Over the last 10 years, they have only received a 2% increase in their budget.

What was really interesting is that from a health care perspective, the Vista Centre Brain Injury Services talked about housing, and I was really intrigued by this because they actually brought it back and said: “Do you know what the number one issue our clients tell us? Housing.” This is what he said: “The number one issue that has been identified in my area is housing, and when I talk about housing, I mean specialized housing not only for people” who are facing “a disability, but people who have an acquired brain injury” as well. And guess what the number of years they wait for it? From 15 to 20 years, they wait for housing.

We heard from other organizations, like non-profit organizations. One of them was Earth Education League, and I want to quote Jodi, because I think she does a fantastic job about Bill 85. She said, “Bill 85 includes funding for school boards for the next academic year at a mere 2.7% increase; 2.7% is significantly below the rate of inflation and won’t meet the students’ needs. Critics have indicated that when accounting tricks are set aside, we are seeing a decrease in per-student funding of nearly $1,000 as a result of this budget. We need to invest in classrooms, in educators and adults in the room, not on online learning, not on TVO and D2L, not on privatization through back doors.”

I thought Jodi just did a fantastic job talking about the needs of our education system and how this budget fails to address that as well.

Speaker, I wish I could share some of the other organizations that talked about their disappointment as well, because not only did the budget not address some of this, they did not even keep up with inflation. They did not even keep up with inflation for our needs in our education, in our health care system, in housing. And yet we have the biggest spending ever in a provincial budget. That’s what the government is bragging about. But it does not go to the people who are struggling, who are suffering, who are hurting right now.

So let’s look at what this government is actually spending the money on, and I hope I can address this in the next few minutes that I have.

Bill 23, which is the result of this government, a bill that they brought forward: What’s happening is that municipalities are losing money and now they don’t have the ability to keep up with a lot of the expenditures that they have. And now that will actually cost taxpayers more money because a lot of municipalities are concerned that they have to raise property taxes.

We also have Highway 413. This government won’t even talk about how much Highway 413 will cost. We’ve got report after report, article after article that talks about how the Premier fails to talk about the exact cost of Highway 413—another idea brought by this government which will pave over wetlands, protected lands. Not only that, it’s going to cost taxpayers a lot of money and the government won’t even tell us exactly how much it’s going to cost. And you know, my colleague the NDP critic for finance and the member from Waterloo, during her presentation, went on about some of the other ways the government is losing revenue for this province as well.

The FAO reported that this government—$6.4 billion didn’t even go where it was supposed to. We have Bonnie Lysyk, the Auditor General—and I want to thank her for her service to this province—who talked about how this government is losing money on the OLG. So not only does the government not have the amount of revenue they’re supposed to be getting, they have a smaller share of revenue coming in and then they’re spending it on the 1%, the 2%, the select few that they choose, and not the people of this province, Speaker. And where—I’m almost out of time.

Ontario Place: You’ve got $650 million that’s going to go to a luxury spa, an Austrian spa—not even a business of this province—$650 million. And then there is a $450-million parking lot that’s supposed to be an underwater parking lot, I think, like the biggest car wash, I guess, that this province has ever seen—the costliest—but this is where the money will be spent.

Then, if you think about Highway 407—this is a comparison I can make because that’s the result we’re facing right now, where we have a 1,200% increase of what the cost of this—

I want to thank the members for their presentation.

Budget 2023 is one of the biggest budgets that we’ve seen in decades; I agree with the members on that. However, it is still one of the cruelest budgets, that fails to reach individuals, people, families or communities. In fact, we heard from so many people who came to present and talk about how this budget will actually increase suffering for so many people. One of those groups includes those who live on reserves.

My question to the members is, why is this government failing to spend or put any money, any investment, on infrastructure on reserves for services like clean drinking water?

My question is to the Premier. We’re facing some extremely challenging times for the people of this province. Today’s budget is an opportunity to address these challenges and provide the support Ontarians need.

My question is very simple, Speaker: Will this government take this opportunity that the budget provides and chart a new, hopeful course, one where the needs of everybody in this province—every single person—are met?

Speaker, budgets are about priorities. Time and time again, this government has shown that it doesn’t share the priorities of folks who aren’t the insider friends of this government. A recent FAO report found that the Premier’s plan for health care falls $21.3 billion short of the funding needed for hospitals, home care and long-term care. We have seen underinvestment in social services, education and infrastructure.

My question is, will budget 2023 reverse course and make up for the shortfalls this government has manufactured?

Groceries, gas and rent are through the roof. The people of this province deserve better. They deserve a government they can trust to follow through with their actual funding commitments. So this time my question is, will this government actually invest the money that they budget for in 2023?

I want to thank the member from Waterloo for her very informative speech. It didn’t even feel like an hour, because you were so good at explaining exactly what’s happening. You mentioned the troubling trend this government has with all their budgets, really, in terms of really underestimating their revenue and overestimating its deficits.

Would you be able to explain a little bit more in terms of the damage that it does, especially when we look at health care spending, education spending and some of the more dire needs that we have in our province, especially right now?