I’m going to be sharing my time with the members from Ottawa South and Kingston and the Islands.

C’est un peu ridicule que le gouvernement a décidé d’annuler la session d’été une semaine avant le « schedule ». Puis, maintenant, on ne retourne pas à la législature qu’après la journée de l’Action de grâce en octobre. Cela veut dire qu’on a une vacance d’été plus longue que nos étudiants, que nos enseignants; que la législature est fermée plus longtemps que nos écoles ici en Ontario, et qu’on n’a pas la possibilité d’avoir un débat ou une discussion pour améliorer la qualité de notre système d’éducation pour nos enfants qui retournent en septembre à des écoles qui agrandissent, à des écoles sans le système de chauffage nécessaire pour une bonne qualité d’éducation.

It’s a little ridiculous that this government has chosen to not only end the spring session a week early, but now, not return the Legislature into session until after Thanksgiving. This, of course, means that the Legislature will be closed for almost 50% longer than our schools. We’ll have a summer vacation that is significantly longer than our kids and teachers—teachers this government far too often decries for not having the same kind of work ethic that they do. And yet, they’re extending their own summer vacation by months—not just weeks, but by months. Of course, this is time that Ontario’s elected officials, the members of this place who are chosen by the people, could have used to debate important issues that are before us.

I’m reminded that the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, who is also the House leader, promised us legislation this session on improving integrity issues across our 400-plus municipalities across the province. As we know and we’ve heard far too often, staff members in our cities and our towns, elected officials in our cities and our towns are going to work at city halls and town halls across Ontario and facing really egregious levels of harassment and abuse. We’ve had serious cases in Ottawa, in Brampton, in Barrie, in Mississauga, and undoubtedly in communities right across the province. This is a government that said they were going to address this issue. They’ve had legislation drafted for almost two and a half years. We have a minister who promised to bring this legislation forward before the end of this session. Of course, this session is ending a week early, and no such legislation has been tabled. I fear it hasn’t been tabled because a week after the minister said he would bring legislation forward this summer, the Premier was in Ottawa saying that he would never support that kind of legislation at all. So I have to question who is actually in charge. Is it the Premier or is it the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing?

Of course, we could have been using this next week and the six weeks in the fall that we’re going to miss to talk about the doctor shortage across the province. We have over two million Ontarians, two million of our neighbours and our friends, who don’t have a family doctor or a front-line health professional. This is a number that is getting worse and worse, and it has gotten particularly worse in the last six years under this government.

Just yesterday, I was speaking to a constituent of mine, Christie, who, like many parents this spring, received the thrilling news that their child has been accepted to university and their child is going to be going away to university. It is a thrill for many families to get to that stage in their life. As a result of being accepted to university, as a result of going away to school in the fall, her daughter was dropped by her family doctor. Her family doctor dropped her from her list of patients because she thought that she would be too far away to provide adequate continuing care. That’s ridiculous. If we allow our kids to be dropped by their family physician simply for being accepted and deciding to go away for college or university, we are going to have a tsunami of students who are going to be losing out on primary health care. That is an issue that is worth discussing and debating in this place, and it’s an issue we won’t be able to talk about again now until after the Thanksgiving break.

Small businesses in Ontario are suffering. They’ve been suffering for years as a result of the pandemic, and they continue to suffer. So this would have been a perfect opportunity to debate my colleague from Don Valley West’s proposal to cut small business taxes in half, saving small business owners up to $18,000 a year. That’s real money—real money that they could reinvest into their business, real money that they could use to pay off some of the lingering debts from COVID, real money that they could use maybe even just to keep the lights on and doors open and ensure that small business continues in their communities to serve their neighbours, friends and residents, and that’s a debate that we won’t be able to have now until after Thanksgiving.

Of course, as the largest city in the province, as the largest city in the country, which is in the midst of a potential devastating and crippling transit strike, we could have spent six or seven weeks we’re not going to be sitting here talking about adequately funding transit operations in Ontario. It’s possible that while the Premier and his cabinet are taking a summer vacation that transit in the largest city in the country might actually shut down the city. That is something that we could be debating, that we could be discussing. We could be sharing stories of those who are going to go through that pain and suffering as a result of a potential transit strike, but unfortunately, we won’t be here to do that, because, I presume, the Premier is going to be at his multi-million-dollar cottage in the Muskokas.

So, there is absolutely no need to extend the summer vacation well past Thanksgiving. It’s going to simply take away the opportunity to share stories from our constituents. It’s going to take away the opportunity to debate important legislation. It’s frankly going to take away the opportunity from the government to introduce important legislation. We know that they haven’t used the opportunity so far this year to introduce a heck of a lot of important legislation. I presume that’s why they don’t think they need these five or six weeks, is because they’re just bereft of ideas and don’t have anything else to bring forward.

So, with that, I can’t support this motion. We need to be here in the fall to debate these important issues.

And now, I’m glad to pass it on to my friend from Ottawa South.

My question is for the Premier.

Mr. Speaker, over the years, I’ve received numerous emails, phone calls and letters about the state of our education system. Recently, Catholic teachers reached out to articulate concerns about the teacher shortage, the billions in repair backlog, and the lack of per pupil funding. But what I’ve rarely been asked about is greater access to the sale of beer and wine.

I don’t mind selling beer and wine at the corner store, but as a fiscal conservative, I do mind the billion-dollar price tag that comes along with it. I wonder how this government is going to make up the billion-dollar shortfall, already having ballooned the provincial debt by nearly $100 billion. Taking on more debt is not a fiscally responsible approach.

My question: To avoid taking on massive amounts of new debt, why won’t this government auction licences to sell alcohol and beer, like Conservative governments in Alberta and Saskatchewan, and use that money to better fund our education system?

How can they justify two million Ontarians going without a family doctor? Imagine, Mr. Speaker, every resident of the combined cities of Ottawa, Windsor, London, Kingston and Guelph—no family doctor.

Is the price tag of a billion dollars really worth the opportunity to go buy a six-pack at the corner store? Is that really what’s going to solve our problems? How about a billion dollars to reduce the surgical backlog that a quarter-million Ontarians are facing?

Auctioning the licences like true conservative governments in Alberta and Saskatchewan have done would raise hundreds of millions of dollars, money that could be invested—

Residents in Orléans and across Ontario are asking if the convenience of buying a beer at the corner store is really worth $1 billion. The answer, of course, is no. So why the rush?

We have a teacher shortage, Ontario schools need billions in repairs, and this government has cut $1,500 in per-student funding since they were elected in 2018. But there is $1 billion to accelerate corner store beer sales by a year.

Two million Ontarians don’t have a family doctor. Imagine: Not a single person in these combined cities of Ottawa, Windsor, London, Kingston and Guelph have a family doctor, but there is $1 billion to accelerate corner store beer sales by a year.

Instead of cutting education and health care further, perhaps this government will do what they always do, which is just take on more and more debt. Madam Speaker, it’s not what we need.

If this government were to auction off the new liquor licences, it could net nearly $300 million in additional value to taxpayers. This is what the Conservative governments in Alberta and Saskatchewan did, netting a small fortune to fund education and health care.

And since this government is refusing to follow the lead of fiscally conservative governments, I have to ask: Which friend, supporter or crony is going to benefit at the expense of students, teachers, nurses, doctors—at the expense of all of us?

In the end, this government cares little about fiscal responsibility, having increased the debt by over $100 billion under their watch, the largest debt of any subnational jurisdiction in the world. This—

I’d like to thank my colleagues from Humber River–Black Creek, from Don Valley West and from Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas for their remarks this evening.

I think it’s clear that the academic, the mental health and the physical health benefits of playing sports, of participating in extracurricular activities, are clear. The opportunities to improve academic results and test scores as a result of kids being more active after school, whether that’s in sports or other extracurricular activities, is clear. The health benefits of kids who play sports, who become adults who play sports and stay active, should be abundantly clear. When we’re trying to deal with a health crisis, when we’re trying to deal with a crisis in our schools, when we’re trying to ensure that we have the workforce that we need for the future, everything that we can do to enhance academic success, everything that we can do to enhance health outcomes and health benefits, should be a no-brainer.

The member from Oakville criticized the bill because not everyone will benefit, or it won’t be exactly $1,000. Well, if the litmus test to legislation in this place was that it was perfect, nothing would ever pass. I would like to propose a refundable tax credit. The rules of Parliament don’t allow me to do that. I would prefer to have the government create a fund to directly help parents pay for sports registration so you can get those families that can’t afford to pay it on the front end into sports. But I’m not allowed to do that, Madam Speaker.

I would encourage the government to consider those kinds of options for their budget next year. And if they actually had real measures in next year’s budget that would provide real relief for middle-class families, that would provide opportunities for families of all income levels to put their kids in more sports, then maybe they would get my support.

But tonight, I’m asking for their support to help some families keep more of their kids and put more of their—

Interjections.

Good afternoon, colleagues. Promoting Leisure Activities for Youth Act, 2024, PLAY: It’s very simple. We all remember the joys of playing growing up. Over time, we’ve learned more and more about the physical, mental health and academic benefits of play. For our kids, it can be as easy as running around outside or picking up a ball and bouncing it with their friends. But participating in sports and extracurricular activities as a child can help set you up for a healthier lifestyle as we age. And while it is sometimes harder for us old guys to play, it remains a critically important life skill and health habit, one that is much easier if it’s developed at an earlier age.

As a dad, one of my greatest joys is seeing the important life lessons my son takes away from his participation in sport: important lessons about fitness, about teamwork, leadership and commitment, the ability to persevere through difficult moments, to remember that it’s never over until it’s over.

In fact, Madam Speaker, one of the important benefits of sports was recently brought to my attention, and I think it is particularly important and poignant given what’s happened in the Legislature this week: 94% of women in the C-suite played sports, including 52% of them playing high-intensity university sports. Three quarters of women in leadership surveyed said that a background in sport can help accelerate their careers.

En tant que père, l’une de mes plus grandes joies est de voir les leçons de vie importantes sur la condition physique, le travail d’équipe, le leadership et l’engagement que mon fils apprend grâce à sa participation aux sports.

During the pandemic, too many of our kids were forced to put the ball down. They were forced to stop playing. Recess was nonexistent; organized sports were cancelled or seriously watered down. Many kids were stuck indoors, and their physical and mental health suffered.

Coming out of the pandemic, families are facing an affordability crisis not experienced in a generation. With higher grocery prices, higher mortgage payments, higher energy costs, families are tightening their belts. And while we could debate until the cows come home the cause of the affordability crisis, one thing is for certain: It’s impacting our kids, and it’s making it harder for families to afford many of the extras. Families of all shapes and sizes, of all income levels, are looking for ways to save. For some, this means cutting out the little extras. For too many, it means cutting out essentials. But we must do everything that we can to ensure that our kids’ physical and mental health doesn’t suffer as a result.

Fee inflation is pushing too many kids out of sports. Too many families can no longer afford to participate in organized sports and extracurricular activities.

Nous devons faire tout ce qui est en notre pouvoir pour que la santé physique et mentale de nos enfants n’en souffre pas. Trop de familles n’ont pas les moyens d’inscrire leurs enfants à des activités sportives et extrascolaires organisées.

In Ontario, the richest province in the country, one in four kids from middle-class families don’t participate in any organized activity or sport—one in four. That number gets worse as income levels go down. Think about it: One in four middle-class kids don’t participate in any organized activity or sport. What could be more middle class than waking up Saturday morning, getting the kids to the rink with a hockey bag in one hand and your Timmy’s in the other, or heading to the field on Friday night to see the human cluster of kids surrounding a soccer ball as it criss-crosses the field? That, for many, is the Ontario dream, and one in four middle-class kids can’t participate. With skyrocketing fees, too many families can’t afford to keep their kids playing.

Moreover, in a recent report by ParticipACTION, only 39% of children and youth ages five to 17 in Canada met the recommendation of 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity of physical activity every day—39%. We need to get more of our kids playing. Making it easier for mom and dad’s pocketbook is a great place to start. Giving parents some financial relief, making it financially more viable to put their kids or to keep their kids in sports and extracurricular activities can make a real difference in their lives. It will make our kids healthier. Healthier kids mean healthier adults; healthier adults mean reduced burden on our health care system.

We know the strains that our health care system is facing at the moment. We have 2.2 million Ontarians without a family doctor. That number is going to double in the next three years. We have emergency rooms that are closing, sometimes for a couple of hours, sometimes for a couple of days, sometimes for a couple of weekends, sometimes, we fear, maybe permanently. Everything we can do to create a healthier population we should be doing.

We need to start to view children’s sports and physical activity as a critical and integrated part of our health care system, because if we can be healthy and stay healthy, we can stay out of the doctor’s offices and we can stay out of the hospital.

Nous proposons de permettre aux parents de choisir plus facilement de faire participer leurs enfants à des activités de loisir. Nous voulons que le choix soit un peu plus facile. Si elle est adoptée, la loi sur la promotion des activités de loisir pour les jeunes créera un crédit d’impôt non remboursable de 1 000 $ pour les activités extrascolaires pour les enfants.

What does this bill do? This bill proposes to make it a little bit easier for parents to choose to keep their kids in leisure activities. We want the choice to play to be a little bit easier. If passed tonight—and I hope the government will join us in voting for this—the promoting leisure activities for youth act would create a $1,000 non-refundable tax credit for children’s extracurricular activities. We want this to be as inclusive as possible. These activities would range from anything from hockey and football to drama and art. Our goal—and as I mentioned, it’s a goal that we hope the government will join us in—is to help families to keep their kids playing.

Over the last number of months, Ontario Liberals have proposed an array of affordability measures to help families. Before Christmas last year, we proposed removing the HST from home heating. That proposal for a common-sense tax break was rejected by the government.

We are debating here tonight a proposal to create a $1,000 tax credit for families to keep their kids physically fit and engaged in extracurricular activities. We hope the government will join us in that.

Earlier this week, we proposed a massive tax cut to small businesses, a small business tax cut that could save those businesses up to $18,000 a year—over $1,000 a month, Madam Speaker, to help small businesses, which are the heart of our economy, to continue to invest in their communities, to continue to invest in human resources and skills development in our communities across the province, to ensure that we have that workforce that we need to ensure that those services are being provided in our communities, and to ensure that the economic benefits are achieved from all of their hard work and their creativity as entrepreneurs.

Ontario Liberals are proposing common-sense tax measures to help Ontarians during these difficult economic times, and we hope that the government will join us in that common sense approach. Cost, Madam Speaker, should not be the barrier to the academic, the mental health, the physical health and the social benefits that extracurricular activities provide.

Last year, to help Ontarians through the winter, Ontario Liberals proposed removing the HST from home heating. This Conservative government said no.

This spring, Ontario Liberals have proposed a $1,000 tax credit for parents who put their children in extracurricular activities and sports.

And just this week, Ontario Liberals have proposed a massive tax cut for small businesses that will save them up to $18,000 a year.

What have we seen from the government? The Conservative gravy train getting longer and longer—bigger budgets for the Premier’s office; a sunshine list of six-figure salaries that eclipses all others in history; sole-sourced contracts and special access to greenbelt lands for their friends, donors and insiders. While Ontario Liberals propose concrete measures to help families with the affordability crisis, this Conservative government is focused on adding passengers to their gravy train.

When will this government vote for common-sense Liberal tax cuts and start putting Ontario families first, over their friends, their donors and their insiders?

When campaigning for office, the Premier promised a 20% tax cut for the middle class—six years later, nothing.

The Premier campaigned on reining in spending and cutting the deficit. Six years later, his government is breaking all records for spending, and the province’s debt has increased by $90 billion.

The Premier famously promised buck-a-beer, and while Ontarians prepare for the May Two-Four weekend, they know that a two-four in Ontario has never been more expensive.

While the Premier has broken all of his promises to the middle class, he has done his best for his friends, his donors and his insiders. The passengers on the Premier’s gravy train are treated to first-class patronage, sole-sourced government contracts, greenbelt giveaways and special access, all leading to an RCMP investigation.

Why does this government continue to put the interests of highly paid insiders, lobbyists, friends and donors over the interests of Ontario families?

I’d like to welcome a good friend and my political assistant from Ottawa who is joining us here in Toronto today: Dave Williams.

You should be ashamed of yourself.

Interjections.

I wanted to ask my question to the political minister for Ottawa, but I realized he’s not elected to this place, Mr. Speaker. In fact, he has never been elected. So my question is to the Premier.

The person the Premier recently named as his political point man in Ottawa is the newest passenger on the Conservative gravy train—a former lobbyist and executive with Shoppers Drug Mart, and, of course, the failed candidate in Kanata–Carleton. The announcement was met with near universal criticism. Some people thought that hell froze over, because even the member from Nepean agreed with me on that one.

Ottawa is Ontario’s second-largest city, with over a million people. We deserve an elected voice around the cabinet table; not a political appointee dispatched as if we were some far-flung place in need of an ambassador.

Will the Premier explain why his defeated candidate from Kanata is up to the job, when he clearly believes his three MPPs from Ottawa are not?

Interjections.

Let me quote the Sun—“Reports were coming in of a rare sighting of an Ontario Premier in Ottawa last week, like an errant booby bird accidentally blown in from the faraway tropics of Lake Ontario.”

Let me further quote: “The mayor rolled out the welcome mat for the Premier ... but his announcement while in town suggests he still sees us as a doormat.”

The Ford government ambassador to Ottawa was so committed to representing the voices of the people that he failed to attend all-candidates meetings during his own election in Kanata. If he wasn’t willing to show up for the residents of the riding he was trying to represent, why should we believe he’ll show up for the rest of us in Ottawa?

It’s grasping at straws, Mr. Speaker, but the rest of us know better. This is just another gravy train appointment putting a lobbyist and a Conservative insider in a highly paid position of power and authority over top of his three MPPs from Ottawa. When will the Premier recognize Ottawa as an important place in Ontario and designate—

Again, my question is for the Premier: The Premier and his government and too many politicians in Ottawa are grasping at straws if they think that a fake deal to upload Highway 174 that won’t happen for years is going to convince anyone.

Just about two years ago, the government published the transportation plan for eastern Ontario. It’s 35 pages on how the government plans to prepare for the future, connect people, improve safety etc. And you know what, Mr. Speaker? You know what there’s no mention of in that transportation plan for the future of eastern Ontario? Highway 174. Highway 174 and 17, which connect eastern Ontario from Hawkesbury through Alfred and Wendover and Rockland and Cumberland and Orléans and all the way into Ottawa—not a single mention in the master transportation plan for the province.

Since the Premier won’t commit to uploading the highway before the next election, will his government commit to updating the plan to ensure that the improvements that are needed for 174 actually happen?

Interjection.

My question is for the Premier. Ontarians know all too well that the Premier’s gravy train is running down the tracks, and it’s filled with his friends, his family and his insiders. In an attempt to make some more friends, the gravy train stopped in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago, where the Premier promised to re-upload Highway 174 to the province. The problem, Mr. Speaker, is that the communications department said things like “potential provincial ownership of the road” and that the deal would “explore and assess the considerations related to ownership.”

Further, Mr. Speaker, the Deputy Minister of Finance signed an agreement that says, relating to Highway 174, “in the event that an asset transfer is considered”—that sounds like a lot of wiggle room for the gravy train to backtrack.

Ottawans know that the Premier often likes to say one thing while his government does something else. So will the Premier commit—yes or no—to re-uploading Highway 174 back to the province before the next election?

Interjection.

I want to extend my heartfelt congratulations to the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport—not simply as a fellow Ottawa U alumnus, or because of his remarkable athletic achievements, but for his securing of $200 million in the Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund, a fund that will invest in new and upgraded sport, recreation and community facilities across the province.

Mr. Speaker, as the parent of a very active teenager, a former community football coach and an elected official, I can definitely say that investment in sport and recreation is paramount to the future of our society.

The lack of sport and recreation facilities is one of the reasons I ran for city council in 2010. With the support of Ottawa’s greatest mayor, Jim Watson, we were able to turn an empty field into the much-heralded François Dupuis Recreation Centre, now one of the focal points of our community. We built 12 new parks in Orléans. We expanded Millennium Park to include a stadium that would rival our local universities. We added a cricket pitch and splash pads and came very close to adding a dome—a dome that our community still needs.

Now more than ever, Millennium Park needs to keep pace and is ready for further investment and expansion. It could include a track and field complex that will benefit many segments of our community, from seniors walking around the track on its grippy surface to avoid falling to helping the future success of track and field athletes and athletes from all sports who will use the facility to train and hone their skills, such as the athletes with Gridiron Academy.

Ottawa is a hotbed of athletics. I’d invite the minister to come to Orléans and meet some of the coaches and athletes who would benefit from this investment.

It’s great to be debating this legislation here this morning.

Recently, it has come to light that there are some 48 members of the Premier’s office on the sunshine list, and his gravy train is getting bigger and bigger and bigger as every year goes by.

I’m wondering if the minister can explain to the House how many Ontarians who are not on the Premier’s gravy train sunshine list, making over $100,000 a year, which is more than the average family in Ontario—how many Ontarians who aren’t on the Premier’s gravy train will actually be able to afford to buy a home as a result of this legislation?

I think that proves the point: They’re spending massive amounts of money and getting nothing in return; 2.2 million Ontarians don’t have a family doctor.

You’ve increased spending. Where is it going? You’re running up deficits, you’re charging the credit card, and there’s nothing to show for it—

I’d be happy to talk about the raw deal the city of Ottawa is getting from this province.

Let’s break down the numbers. Last November, the city of Toronto signed a deal with the province to get $1.2 billion over three years; Ottawa is getting $197 million over three years. Basically, Toronto is going to get $396 for every resident; Ottawa is going to get $181 for every resident. That’s per capita funding. That’s corrected for population.

I guess my question back to the member for Nepean is, why does she think her constituents in Nepean are only worth 46% of the Premier’s constituents in Etobicoke?

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 an honour to have the opportunity to speak to this important and historic motion in the Legislature this morning.

When I was asked if I would like to speak to the motion, I said, of course, yes, but it wasn’t without a little bit of trepidation I have to admit, because both the Minister of Indigenous Affairs and, of course, our friend from Kiiwetinoong are much more well-versed in this issue than I, but are also both much better speakers than I am. So it was with a little bit of trepidation.

As someone who grew up in the 1980s and 1990s in the suburbs of Ottawa, I have to say that I was not exposed to people from our First Nations communities, to the issues that they have faced throughout our history and continue to face. I was not taught about these issues in school like probably most of us, or the education we did receive was from a very specific point of view that did not, I think, even begin to touch the true nature of the issues that our country has very recently started to confront. So it is coming from a very isolated and, admittedly, somewhat ignorant point of view that I try to do my best to learn about the issues that members of our First Nations communities continue to confront and the history they have dealt with, and that history continues to impact their communities to this day. While I am not at all well-versed in those issues and need to do much more work on myself and my own reflections to help move those issues forward, I am familiar with assimilation of a different culture here in Ontario and Canada.

Comme fier francophile et député d’Orléans, je connais les obstacles à la protection de la langue et de la culture minoritaire ici en Ontario.

Members of my own community have had to deal with the challenges and the obstacles of trying to protect their own culture, to protect their kids from assimilation, albeit in a much different form.

Mais la lutte contre l’assimilation, bien que sous une forme différente, est un combat auquel ma propre famille a été confronté, et qu’on a perdu.

My family lost our connection to its francophone heritage and history two or three generations ago, and so we have confronted our own challenge of assimilation and efforts to regain that connection. I’m very hopeful that efforts that the member for Kiiwetinoong and all of us are trying to push forward—this effort today from the government—will be a small step to ensuring that that stops as it relates to our First Nations people and that progress can be made to continue to protect their language and their culture.

Sol, there’s one thing I disagree with, with your statement. Near the end, you said that you will be the only member impacted by this motion today, and I disagree. I think we were all impacted by your speech, and I very much look forward to seeing you here with your mom. I hope you’ll let us know ahead of time so we can all be here. And thank you very much for your work on this.

Yes, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The bill, the Promoting Leisure Activities for Youth act, or PLAY, would provide for a $1,000 non-refundable tax credit for children’s youth activities in sports and other extracurriculars.

I agree: Seniors have worked their entire lives to stay in their homes and stay in the community where they raised their families. These seniors in Orléans are being kicked out of their home, away from their families, away from the community where they raised their families and are trying to grow old.

The owner of the Promenade retirement home is the same developer in Orléans who failed to build homes for three years, holding onto deposits, and then finally cancelled those contracts and immediately put the lots back on the market at an increased fee. Now seniors living in his retirement home are subject to scare tactics and enormous pressure to agree to massive fee increases, some of which are $1,000 a month or more.

Seniors at the Promenade are reporting unclear documentation from the provider, incomplete information on what the fees are and are not and pressure to sign documents without full explanations.

The government continues to reward their friends and supporters while seniors in Ontario are paying more.

As his friends record record profits from his friendship, what will the Premier say to these seniors in Orléans who are being forced to leave their homes because of his government’s failure to act?

My question is for the Premier. The Premier often speaks about how important seniors are, calling them the backbone of our province, and I agree. But once again, his words are writing cheques the actions of his government simply can’t cash. Facing fee increases of up to $1,000 a month, dozens, if not hundreds, of seniors living at the Promenade retirement home in Orléans are facing eviction or are being pressured to move. Shady business practices and poor consumer protection, lack of government regulation on fee increases and removal of rent control on new buildings have all led to a toxic environment, undue anxiety, stress and fear for these seniors losing their homes.

Mr. Speaker, how can the Premier call seniors the backbone of our province when his government fails to offer even the most basic protections to help them age gracefully?