It’s an honour to rise this afternoon to debate the 2024 budget.

Madam Speaker, blessed are our children because they will inherit this government’s massive debt. Our kids will be paying for this government’s record, massive spending and deficits likely for the rest of their lives. This Conservative government is now projecting a deficit of $8.8 billion. Never in the history of Ontario has a government borrowed so much money to achieve so little.

In fact, the Premier is about to become the biggest-spending Premier in modern Ontario history. That’s right; he’s spending money and running deficits that would make Kathleen Wynne and Bob Rae blush. When compared to GDP, program spending will be higher than it was during any of the years that Kathleen Wynne was Premier. It will be even higher than 2010. Remember what happened in 2010—2010 was during the global economic financial meltdown. This was when governments of all partisan colours from one side of the planet to the next side of the planet were spending money to stimulate the economy. And this year’s spending will be higher than that.

Remember, Madam Speaker, during the economic crisis that started with the failure of those big American financial institutions—let’s remember that crisis, something that was affecting Ontario greatly. Something that the government of that day was spending money on, to save Ontario jobs, was the auto sector. We remember how bad the auto sector in North America, how bad the auto sector here in Ontario was affected during that great recession of 2008 and 2010, the last time spending got anywhere close to this high.

The reason I raise that as an important point is that, at that time, when Canada and Ontario came together to invest $3.3 billion to save the auto sector in Ontario, to save tens of thousands of jobs here in the province—when program spending was that high to save those jobs and to save the auto sector, who was against it? It was the Ontario Conservative Party. They were against program spending that high. They were against saving the auto industry.

Lo and behold, 15 years later, now that they’re in government, they’re spending even more money. They’re spending so much money that they don’t know where it’s all going.

So they voted against saving the auto industry. They voted against the spending to save the economy after the massive financial crisis of 2008 and 2010. And now they’re spending even more money than they ever did back then. Frankly, they’re making it rain across Ontario, and everyone is getting wet, because we don’t know where the money is going.

I’d like to just suggest, Madam Speaker, that I will be sharing my time with my good friend from Ottawa South this afternoon.

This government is spending money like never before. They’re spending money like it’s going out of fashion. They’re spending money like it’s water. And what are we getting for it? Some 2.2 million Ontarians don’t have a family doctor or primary health practitioner. Emergency rooms are closing across the province, sometimes for a couple of hours, sometimes for a day, sometimes for a weekend. You never know when the emergency rooms are closing—emergency room closing soon in your neck of the woods, Madam Speaker.

We remember a Conservative Party that was against high hydro prices. Well, now, hydro prices are higher than they’ve ever been, and this is despite the fact that this government is using billions of dollars of income taxes to try to keep them low.

So they’re running massive deficits, taking income taxes that could be hiring doctors, income taxes that could be hiring teachers and building schools and building highways, and they’re using that to save a couple of bucks a month on your hydro prices. And your hydro prices are still the highest they’ve ever been.

The cost of rent is going up. The cost of buying a home is going up. The cost of buying groceries is going up.

You can’t even go to the Beer Store and buy a beer for the price the Premier said he would have.

You can’t drink a beer without looking down your nose at another broken Conservative promise. That’s how far off the fiscal cliff these guys have gone.

They’re spending money like no government has ever done in Ontario. Some 2.2 million people don’t have a family doctor. Hydro prices are higher than they’ve ever been. The budget is not doing anything to provide relief for families. So where is all the money going? Well, we know that some of it is going to the Premier’s office because, lo and behold, the Premier, who decried the length and depth of the sunshine list in 2017 before he was Premier, has seen a massive, enormous, and some might say historic jump in the number of people on the sunshine list, and a bunch of them work for the Premier. His office budget has gone up; it has doubled since last year. His office went from 20 staff to 48 staff now, I think, in a year, and every single person who works for the Premier makes more as an individual than the average Ontario family does in a year—some of them make double the average, some of them make triple the average, some of them make quadruple the average Ontario family.

That’s not a government that’s concerned about minding their purse. That’s not a government that’s watching the pennies or the dollars. That’s a government that has lost all fiscal responsibility. They are out of control, and our kids are going to be paying their deficits for the rest of their lives.

It’s a great pleasure to rise and speak to the budget measures act for fiscal year 2023-24 this afternoon.

Although the province faces skyrocketing costs of living, unaffordable housing and a health care system in crisis, budget 2023 offers no relief as more and more Ontarians struggle each and every day just to get by. It’s a budget that tells Ontarians that they’re on their own.

I want to start by discussing how the residents of Ottawa are once again being forgotten by this Conservative government. In the 2023 budget, there was announced $202 million per year in new funding for supportive housing and homelessness projects, but the city of Ottawa’s allocation is disproportionately small. Ottawa is, of course, the second-largest city in Ontario, only after Toronto. Although the city of Toronto has a population three times the size of Ottawa, it’s receiving 60 times more funding than the nation’s capital. It’s absolutely unacceptable that Toronto has received over $40 million for the same program, while Ottawa is set to receive a comparatively measly $845,100. The Premier ignored Ottawa during the occupation, he abandoned farmers after the derecho storm left them in crisis, and he is now, once again, abandoning the city as we have people who need affordable housing options and are living on the street. This insufficient funding could force the city of Ottawa to cancel 54 supportive housing units that were expected to become operational over the next 18 months, and it will severely compromise Ottawa’s 10-year housing and homelessness plan to build between 570 and 850 new affordable housing options. According to Ottawa’s mayor, based on Toronto’s allocation, Ottawa should be getting in the range of at least $16 million, but they’re only receiving $845,000. Ontario’s second-largest city should be treated fairly and should be provided with sufficient funding to meet the needs of its residents.

The 2023 budget also does not include any funding for the victims of the 2022 derecho storm in Ottawa—one of the most notorious storms in Canadian history. In fact, the storm was ranked as the sixth-costliest natural disaster in Canadian history, amounting to over $875 million in damage. The storm caused widespread damage to residential and commercial property, farms and public utilities, killing 11 people and leaving 1.1 million without power. To put it in context for some of the members from the GTA, the derecho surpassed the damages incurred during the devastating 2005 flooding here in Toronto. Buildings in these Ottawa-area communities like Navan and Carlsbad Springs still have holes in the walls or are without roofs because of the lack of disaster relief from this government. We’ve heard a lot from this government about how they support small, rural communities, but when it comes to rural communities in Ottawa, that support is non-existent. And let’s not forget: In addition to denying homeowners and farmers the opportunity to apply for provincial disaster relief funding, the Premier has yet to fulfill his promise to the city of Ottawa or to Hydro Ottawa to help with the costs of cleanup. The city and hydro have spent upwards of, if not more than, $50 million to recover from the storm, without any provincial support. Despite the Premier stopping in to station 53 in Orléans during the election to thank firefighters for their cleanup efforts, he still hasn’t put a single provincial dollar behind it. So what’s the message being sent to first responders? “I’ll come for the photo op, but I won’t deliver the goods.”

The cold shoulder being shown to Ottawa doesn’t stop there. It’s even bigger. Ontario is facing—and Ottawa is facing—a massive shortage of family doctors and a high demand for primary care.

Just to list a few challenges that family doctors are facing across the province and in the nation’s capital: human resource challenges; shortages of nurses and administrative staff; a rise in the severity of illnesses due to deferred procedures or delays in seeking treatment throughout the pandemic; and ongoing financial pressures as commercial rents go up and up and up.

These problems, in addition to many other factors, are affecting the quality of care for patients and contributing to emergency backlogs in our hospitals, and the government continues to do absolutely nothing to support primary care in Ottawa.

Instead of addressing the lack of family doctors, the government has announced their plan to increase private, for-profit medicine. And while the long-term impacts of this are not yet clear, what is evident is that it will not help address the shortage of family doctors or the decision many of them are making to close their practices. There is nothing in the budget to help family doctors continue to do what they do and what they love to do, and that’s help us stay healthy.

Un autre échec important dans le budget de 2023, c’est le manque de financement pour le MIFO, le plus grand centre culturel francophone de l’Ontario. Le MIFO offre des programmes artistiques et éducatifs à la communauté francophone, et le bâtiment actuel est extrêmement obsolète, madame la Présidente, et ne répond pas aux besoins de la communauté. Le MIFO a un projet d’expansion audacieux qui lui permettrait de fournir des services plus efficaces à un plus grand nombre de personnes dans l’est de la ville et, vraiment, tout partout dans l’Ontario. Ce projet est essentiel à la croissance de leur organisation et au succès de la communauté francophone d’Ottawa. Le MIFO a fait de nombreuses demandes au gouvernement pour les fonds nécessaires pour cette expansion, mais jusqu’à date il n’y a aucune réponse positive de ce gouvernement.

The government is also failing Ontario’s municipalities by leaving them high and dry with Bill 23. Last fall, when the government introduced Bill 23, experts and planners warned the government that there would be consequences with removing development charges without compensation for municipalities. Development charges are what municipalities use to build complete communities. They help pay for new roads and new sidewalks and new parks and new rec centres and new fire stations and police stations. It’s what helps cities build complete communities.

And once again, the government didn’t listen. The government, in November, said that they would be conducting audits in municipalities and, based on those results, may step up and help support them financially for their loss. But six months later, the only audits announced are those in—guess what?—Toronto and Peel region. Once again, Ottawa is ignored, and there’s no indication whether or not municipalities, including the city of Ottawa, will get their audit in order to evaluate the loss of revenue as a result of provincial policy.

So as you can see, Madam Speaker, budget 2023 will not make life more affordable for anyone. Ontarians are in desperate need for support during these challenging times of runaway inflation and the affordability crisis that we’re all facing, but this government is turning a blind eye. With the cost of groceries going up, with the cost of hydro going up, with the cost of gas going up, with the cost of everything Ontarians buy each and every day going up, the government has done nothing. They’re saying you’re on your own, and that’s what getting it done looks like, Madam Speaker.

What’s clear is that middle-class families are feeling the pinch. Under this government, their hydro rates have gone up, not gone down. Their grocery prices are higher. Rent and housing is more expensive. In the last five years under this government, the costs for families are higher, and in this budget, there was an opportunity for the government to present targeted measures to help families, to help individuals deal with the rising costs that they’re facing, and the government chose not to do those things.

We’re seeing a government in Ottawa that’s choosing to make targeted tax measures in their budget, Madam Speaker. I’m not sure why this government here in Toronto chose not to do the same thing.

It’s clear that, as you said, this budget doesn’t meet the moment. It does nothing to make life a little bit easier for middle-class and suburban families that are struggling every day to pay the basic costs of utility bills and groceries and all the other costs in their lives that have gone up.

When we talk about rent, we have a government that removed rent controls on new builds after 2018. That’s something that’s affected me. My rent for my condo here in Toronto went from $2,100 to $2,600. That’s outrageous. And I’m fortunate: We have an allowance that pays for that, and I’m a person of means and can afford to absorb that. Most families couldn’t absorb a 20% or 25% rent increase.

Imagine if you’re, then, amongst the lowest-income earners in the province, those who are on ODSP and other social supports. How are they supposed to get by? This budget does nothing to make life a little bit easier for those individuals and others who are struggling with high costs as inflation is running rampant.

It’s an honour to rise tonight to speak to the budget measures act for fiscal year 2023-24.

As we know, budgets are important because they tell us and they tell the people of Ontario, the people we represent, what our government’s priorities are. Now, when it comes to this budget, what we can tell, both from the budget itself and from the minister’s speech, is that the government’s priority is everywhere other than Ottawa.

During the speech, you will all remember, the minister took us on this little travelling trip across the province. It was an impressive tour of the province, stopping off in this community and that community. They talked about all the things they’re planning to do. But the minister, on this little fictional trip that he took us all through, didn’t come to Ottawa. In fact, the furthest east the minister got on his little fantasy trip, I think, was Oshawa. He completely ignored all of eastern Ontario and the second-largest city in the province.

The minister did not tell us how his government is going to support the city of Ottawa or Hydro Ottawa recover from the tens of millions of dollars spent on disaster relief from violent windstorms last spring. What’s even more surprising is that the government recently announced a small amount of funding for weather-related disaster relief and left Ottawa completely out of the list of cities to get support.

Residents in the rural communities of Navan and Sarsfield in the riding of Glengarry–Prescott–Russell and in the community of Carlsbad Springs and Orléans and other parts of Ottawa are still being left out in the cold by this government—literally left in the cold, Madam Speaker, as their farms and their barns still have holes in the walls or holes in the roof from the violent windstorm, the derecho last spring, as a result of not receiving supports from their government.

We’ve heard a lot from this government about how they recognize the importance and the value of our Franco-Ontarian communities.

C’est certainement très important pour les résidents d’Orléans et les résidents d’Ottawa et de toutes les autres communautés francophones en Ontario. Et le gouvernement parle beaucoup de leur respect pour la communauté franco-ontarienne, mais on ne le voit pas dans le budget. Dans le budget, il y a une réduction pour le ministre des services francophones, madame la Présidente.

On sait que le Mouvement d’implication francophone d’Orléans est un centre communautaire essentiel pour les résidents d’Ottawa et pour tous les francophones et francophiles de l’Ontario. Construit par la communauté, le MIFO est un endroit où les francophones et les francophiles peuvent se rassembler pour participer aux arts, à des activités physiques, et à leur programmation pour les enfants. Et c’est clair que le MIFO a besoin d’une expansion de leur centre communautaire pour offrir plus de services pour une communauté franco-ontarienne qui a grandi à Orléans et tout partout en Ontario et à Ottawa.

Et ils ont demandé plusieurs fois pour une subvention de ce gouvernement, en participation avec le gouvernement fédéral et la ville d’Ottawa, pour les fonds nécessaires pour construire ce nouveau centre, et cette subvention n’est pas dans le budget. Le gouvernement parle beaucoup de leur affection pour tous les bons programmes que le MIFO offre, mais il n’offre pas l’argent pour accommoder l’expansion du MIFO.

As I said, Madam Speaker, a budget is an opportunity to see what the government’s priorities are. It’s time for all of us, as leaders, to demonstrate to the people that we’re putting their money where the government’s mouths are.

The government claims that the budget is about a path to balance. But for middle-class families, for families in the suburbs who are facing higher grocery bills, higher hydro rates, higher housing costs, for these families, I don’t think that they would say that they’re feeling the balance. For middle-class families, all of their costs are going up. None of their costs are going down.

For Ontario’s families, simply getting by has gotten harder and harder. They’re facing skyrocketing cost-of-living increases, unaffordable housing and a health care system that is in crisis. And yet, this budget offers nothing in terms of relief for these families who are feeling the pinch every day when they go to buy groceries, these families that feel the pinch every day when they go to pay for their basic expenses.

As my colleague from Ottawa South mentioned, there are no immediate supports in the budget that will help Ontarians get by. There is nothing in the budget to make life just a little bit easier. Where are the targeted tax credits? Where are the fee reductions? Sometimes, it’s not always about reducing costs. I know lots of people who are willing to pay a little bit more to get a little bit more. So where are the service enhancements? None of that exists in this budget.

When Ontarians are feeling the pinch, they should know that their government has their back. But in this budget, that’s non-existent. There’s nothing in the budget that will help the bidding wars that are going through the rental market. We need this government to bring back the rent control on new builds that they cancelled when they were first elected. That would provide immediate relief to tens of thousands of people who are just trying to put a roof over their heads. With the skyrocketing housing prices right across the province, that would make life just a little bit easier for all those families and those individuals that are struggling to make ends meet.

Now, Madam Speaker, I truly believe that a budget is one of the most important ways that a government demonstrates to the people that it’s aware of what’s going on, it’s aware of the pressures that people are facing. And it’s an opportunity for the government to present their priorities to the people. We get to see their actions, their spending, their priorities; we get to see that those things match their rhetoric, match the things that they’re saying, match the things that they’re trying to convince Ontarians they believe in. But what we’ve seen with this budget is that the government’s rhetoric is writing cheques that their treasury just isn’t willing to cash. Ontario families deserve better.

I appreciate the minister’s endorsement of the great work MIFO does and I look forward to having the Minister of Finance provide funding in the budget later this afternoon.

Mr. Speaker, as it relates to the budget, middle-class families have been struggling with higher food prices, higher hydro rates, higher transit passes and higher property taxes. In virtually every aspect of life, costs are up. Some might say costs are through the roof. Even the Premier’s $15 haircut cost him 26 bucks, Mr. Speaker. Rising costs are adding up. Summer is just around the corner. That means gas prices are about to go up. Families will soon be facing summer camp and sports registration, increased hydro bills—

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker, why are so many middle-class families falling further and further behind under this government?