This Conservative government talks frequently about how it’s working for the people of Ontario, yet in the last three quarters, the expenditure monitor report from the FAO indicates that the government is underspending on the people of Ontario: on their health by $1.25 billion, on their education by $844 million, on children’s and social services by $458 million and on post-secondary education by $175 million.

Speaker, the government is asking us to vote for its supply bill even after they have failed to spend what they said they would. And with a record-level contingency fund that they’ve made a cabinet secret, as I sit here today in opposition, it’s hard to think about voting for any of the good things that may be in this act. The government is refusing to adequately fund critical services that the people of Ontario rely on by refusing to pay nurses and other health care workers what they are worth. Refusing to spend to keep the people of Ontario healthy isn’t financial prudence; in fact, it’s the exact opposite.

While the government talks of record investments, they also have record contingency funds. And we may have record levels of taxpayer money being spent by this government to defend their losing battles around their unconstitutional laws in court. As the President of the Treasury Board accurately pointed out just this afternoon, every dollar they spend comes from the taxpayers of Ontario. But we don’t know if this spending is at record levels because this government has not been transparent about how much taxpayer money they have been spending to fight in court. We do know that they budgeted $30 million to fight the federal government on their carbon tax, only for the Supreme Court to uphold the federal climate policy. They made private businesses put up their political notices, and the court found that unconstitutional. Now they refuse to disclose how much they’re spending on two further appeals: hiding their ministry mandate letters, and on the continued, ill-conceived and damaging Bill 124.

Fighting to hide their mandate letters has been going on since 2018—five years of wasting Ontarians’ hard-earned tax dollars. I’ve spoken about Bill 124 many times and its damaging effects on our health care and education systems. But to add insult to injury, the government continues to waste taxpayer money—money they could be paying those health care workers—to keep fighting what the courts have called unconstitutional; to keep fighting market-interfering, wage-capping legislation that’s driven away health care workers, nurses and other public sector workers.

And while the government decides to limit health care workers and nurses’ wages to a 1% increase and decides to spend taxpayer money to fight that illegal law in court, it speaks to the priorities of the government that they decide to create a record number of parliamentary assistants, effectively giving many of their MPPs a 14% raise.

Let’s talk about transit, Speaker. This government talks about getting it done. Well, the Eglinton LRT, which goes through my riding of Don Valley West and was started under the previous Liberal government, under this government is over budget by millions of dollars. The tab is still being run up, and the government will not tell the people of Ontario when it will be completed or how much their errors have cost.

The previous Liberal government started to get the work done on the Hamilton LRT. This government spent money to cancel it, only to decide the previous Liberal government was on the right track and then decided to bring it back. Had they not cancelled the project, it would have been completed earlier and for less money.

Similarly, the Liberal government started the work on GO expansion, which would include electrifying trains, making them more energy efficient and faster. Unfortunately, this government delayed that project when they came into power, and now they boast about bringing it back. While building these transit projects is critically important, the government will not accomplish what these projects are intended to when the government does not spend the money needed to help cities operate their transit systems.

Because the member for Mississauga–Lakeshore raised it, let’s talk a little more about Highway 413, the Conservative government’s unnecessary project that they claim will save commuters 30 minutes. Data from the Ministry of Transportation, their own ministry, as reported by the Toronto Star, refutes this, and says that by using the existing 400, 401 and 407 highways, commuters could cross the GTA 16 minutes faster than they could using the proposed Highway 413 alone. Perhaps the government should tell the taxpayers of Ontario if it might be more prudent to buy back the 407 that a previous Conservative government sold off, rather than to build a new highway that does what the 407 is supposed to do.

We need a government that’s willing to provide the services that people need, that’s willing to invest in children’s education and to build an economy that works for all. The government announces long-term investments while at the same crippling our health care system in the here and now by not funding it, and this is hurting the people of Ontario and our economy.

A recent article from CBC said 50,000 young people are leaving Ontario because they see better opportunity elsewhere. Building new subdivisions in the greenbelt is not going to address the housing crisis. Paving over agricultural land will not help food affordability. Underpaying our educators and health care workers until they quit is not going to give those same 50,000 young people the education system they need so their children can have a brighter future.

Health care, education, transit, protecting the environment and helping build opportunity for a brighter future are indeed the business of government. Ontario needs a fiscally responsible government that is fully transparent about what it asks its ministries, that treats its health care workers with respect so they can do the work needed for the people of Ontario, a government that manages all parts of our economy, including implementing an affordable daycare system that works for families in Ontario. Ontario needs a government that is fully transparent about our finances instead of artificially inflating projected expenses by squirrelling away billions in contingency funds. That is why, sadly, I will be voting against this supply measure.

I’m disappointed today. I’m disappointed that the Conservative government was not able to get an update done of this important budget document, first issued four months ago, when so much has changed around us. Interest rates have gone up. Inflation is soaring. The cost of food is soaring, and families are feeling the pain of that. There is an ongoing war in Ukraine, and many economists and individuals are worried about how we will weather these challenges. This budget document has few mentions of climate change and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples, two of the many great challenges facing our province and our country.

Ontario’s economy has weathered COVID quite well, thanks in large part to federal transfers for health care spending and growth in personal taxes from the revenues that federal programs like CERB and CEWS provided to workers. But we also need to prepare now for how a possible economic slowdown based on global supply chain challenges, rising interest rates and the cost of living could affect Ontarians. This means spending more now to prepare for transitioning workers to new jobs in new industries. This government has a history of underspending on education, including post-secondary education, and that is not a fiscally responsible approach to making sure that our workforce and our workers are prepared for the economy of the future.

This government also has a history of underestimating its overall financial results. While prudence and fiscal responsibility are admirable features of a budget, underspending on priorities—like health care and protecting our kids, our seniors and our most vulnerable—is not.

Take the latest year of 2021-22. The FAO projects that the 2021-22 budget will be $8.1 billion, versus the government’s deficit projection of $13.5 billion. That’s a difference of $5.4 billion. That money could have gone a long way if it had been spent on treating health care workers with respect and paying them a fair wage by repealing Bill 124 and not cancelling the 10 paid sick days implemented by the Liberal government that would have helped to relieve the staffing crisis our health care system is facing.

This Conservative government talks frequently about how it is working for the people of Ontario, yet in 2021-22, the Expenditure Monitor report from the FAO indicates that the government underspent from its plan: On children’s and social services, it underspent by $662 million; on K-12 students, it underspent by $284 million; and on post-secondary education, it underspent by $289 million. That money could have been spent to better support our students and education workers by providing better mental health supports, which were, and continue to be, much needed during the pandemic.

Given this underspending and strong revenue growth projections in the budget, I believe it is the responsible and moral thing to do to increase ODSP rates by 20%. It is within our fiscal ability, and it would greatly improve the quality of life some of our most vulnerable citizens are facing.

This budget still focuses on building a new highway, the 413—this government’s pet project—which paves over more than 2,000 acres of some of our most precious farmland, not to mention over 400 acres of the greenbelt, at a time when Ontario should be preparing for ongoing global food supply challenges. We’ve seen the cost of food rise in response to the war in Ukraine and many other global factors. The government has proposed the creation of a food security strategy, but is also proposing to build a highway which will pave over that fertile farmland and spur development on that critical land. So we see billions of dollars for highways, but a mere strategy for food security. That, to me, is not fiscal responsibility.

Let’s talk a little more about this highway. The Conservative government likes to say this project will save commuters 30 minutes per day and get them home to their families sooner, but data from their own ministry says otherwise. In May 2022, the Toronto Star reported, “That’s the promise that appears right at the top of the official website for the proposed Highway 413: The new highway will save commuters as much as 30 minutes each way when crossing the Greater Toronto Area.

“It’s an appealing message for commuters—and voters—but a Ministry of Transportation analysis obtained by the Star suggests it’s not true.

“That’s because the calculation doesn’t take into account the existing 407 ETR, a major toll highway commuters can already use. If that highway is factored in, according to a briefing note prepared Sept. 16, 2021, by a team of Ministry of Transportation officials ... as of 2041 commuters using the already-existing 400, 401 and 407 highways could cross the GTA 16 minutes faster than they could using the proposed Highway 413 alone.”

Madam Speaker, this highway will hurt our environment by adding greenhouse gases. It wasn’t fiscally responsible of this Conservative government to not pursue $1 billion in penalty payments from the 407 during 2020 and 2021—$2 billion that would have added to the treasury—and it’s not fiscally responsible to spend $10 billion on the proposed Highway 413.

Let’s talk about energy. We need sufficient capital investment to address our growing energy needs related to the thousands of new electric vehicles we’re building to go on those highways, especially as the Pickering nuclear plant is to begin decommissioning in 2024. The government is proposing turning Ontario into a green vehicle and clean steel powerhouse, but does not have a robust plan to produce the energy needed to see that transition through and is not committed to ensuring the energy that we create remains green. Expanding the use of electric vehicles will require an estimated 26 million megawatt hours by 2042. The Pickering nuclear plant is 14% of our energy supply. The government plans to replace electricity from Pickering with emitting sources. New energy that is not clean energy is not good for the air we breathe, nor is it good for attracting companies that are looking for clean energy sources.

Education and innovation: In 2019, we saw a decrease in funding to post-secondary education of over 13%, or $1.5 billion. This was compounded by a further cut of $1 billion in 2020. We’re not projected to return to that funding level even in 2024. There is an opportunity cost to four years of cuts to the development of an educated and innovative workforce. The government understands the concept of vertical integration—their plan for electric vehicles does just that—but the most important thing that will help grow the economy of Ontario is education. Without strong, continuous and innovative primary, secondary and post-secondary education, we will not be able to attract and retain the innovative workforce and companies of the 21st century, the high-tech industry that we also need.

Madam Speaker, I’d like to also talk about transparency. Like Bill 7, which violates long-term-care patients’ rights, the budget bill has not gone to committee for review, but is being rushed through to a final vote without giving stakeholders and other experts the opportunity to speak to what’s in the budget and what is not. As the legislated budget deadline of March 31, 2022, was looming, the government changed the rules and passed legislation to allow it to present the budget a month later, by April 30, allowing it to follow the new rules it had set for itself by issuing the budget on April 28. We also have not yet seen estimates—that is, more detail on how the government will spend the money included in this budget.

The Auditor General, in her Review of the Pre-Election 2022 Multi-Year Fiscal Plan, made some statements of note that should be taken seriously: The “supporting documentation prepared by ministries was not as detailed as the information used to support the previous pre-election report in 2018.”

More importantly, she reports on some exceptions. Exceptions from an auditor are a big deal and should be taken seriously. Her report says the government’s multi-year fiscal plan “understated estimates of provincial revenue from corporate tax in each of the three years” by $1.5 billion to $3.4 billion in 2022-23 alone. It should be noted that she was right on this point for 2022. The government’s budget for corporate taxes was $14.4 billion, and the actual amount spent was $22.2 billion. This government could be spending that money, almost $8 billion, now to pay our health care workers a fair wage instead of asking the federal government for more.

Ontario is a wealthy province. We are rich in resources and rich in talent. We need to ensure that we deploy our vast resources wisely by protecting our environment, building a clean energy supply, investing in our future in a way that is environmentally and fiscally sustainable, by supporting our younger generations with an education system that allows them to grow and develop to the best of their ability, by working towards reconciliation with the Indigenous communities.

Instead of building unnecessary highways, let’s spend that $10 billion to build up our public health care, our public education, our environment, clean industry, social and mental support systems, to ensure we have a healthy, strong and vibrant society and economy in the years ahead.

The Conservative government often talks about the need to be fiscally responsible. As a chartered accountant, I completely agree. The residents of Don Valley West completely agree.

Could the Minister of Health please tell us why she believes it is fiscally responsible to limit nurses’ pay to a 1% increase per year, contributing to them leaving the profession in record numbers, to only then have to desperately try to fill those vacant positions and possibly hire back those same nurses through private agencies at an estimated cost that is three times higher than what the hospital would pay if that same nurse were on staff?

The Conservative government often speaks about how it is fighting for Ontario workers.

Could the Minister of Health please tell us why more taxpayer dollars are being shifted to private agencies, giving those agencies a healthy profit, instead of repealing Bill 124 and paying that money directly to Ontario’s health care workers in our public health care system?