I’d like to thank my colleagues for their presentations today on the budget bill.

My question is for the member from Thunder Bay–Superior North. I was very interested in your comments about front-line health care workers who have been recommending a health care human resources strategy that focuses on recruitment as well as retainment. Most importantly, one of the things that has been recommended is the need for wage parity across health care sectors. Specifically, actually, the finance committee’s own report on the pre-budget consultations mentions the need for wage parity. I’d like to ask the member: How important is this, and would you like to see this reflected in the government’s budget?

My question for the member for Parkdale–High Park: This government seems to have ignored the crisis that is going on, and I’d like to know: Would you like to see further investments in education and education being brought back to the cuts that they’ve made since 2018 to address what’s going on in schools?

During pre-budget consultations, the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs had the opportunity to hear from a number of different post-secondary institutions who were deeply concerned about this government’s cuts. I believe that when we look at Bill 166, it really is masking some of the cuts this government has made. In fact, this government would talk about the billion dollars it has put within the system, but that is nowhere near enough to make up for the cuts that they have made.

Would the member agree that this bill is an example of yet another distraction from this government’s disastrous anti-education agenda?

During pre-budget consultations, the finance committee had the opportunity to hear from people across the province who are struggling. Despite living in the richest province in Canada and during a cost-of-living crisis, our provincial government skimps on paying for the services that people need right now.

Educators in my community are running their classrooms on as little as $100 per year. How does that set kids up for success? Boards are running massive deficits while the government refuses to cough up money for legally mandated increases to CPP and EI. Conservatives are failing.

Education is an investment. Decades of Liberal and Conservative disinvestment and cost-cutting targeting Ontario’s youth have resulted in an education system on the brink. Remember when a Conservative minister admitted on a hot mike they were deliberately creating a crisis in education so they could cut, destroy and privatize? Here we are again.

Children are our greatest resource, yet governments reward their rich buddies while Ontario’s kids go without. School violence is at an all-time high and kids aren’t getting mental health supports. Conservatives pretend there are supports in schools, but no one across the province said they could access them. Ontario is dead last when it comes to post-secondary funding—dead last. Conservatives are getting an F grade in education.

Stabilize the system. Give kids the tools to succeed. Reverse the $1,200 cut per elementary and secondary student you’ve made since 2018. Help post-secondary institutions make young people’s dreams a reality by increasing funding with annual compounded increases of 11.75% for the next five years.

You have the money. Spend it on kids. It’s their future. You can do it in budget 2024.

I want to thank the member from Hamilton Mountain for her excellent presentation about the COAST program. It is something that has also been implemented in the London area. It’s a partnership of the CMHA, the London Police Service and the Elgin-Middlesex paramedic services. It’s absolutely brilliant. It was something that was brought forward, as well, during the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs 2023 budget consultations. And yet, this government has chosen not to allocate the funding that has been requested for this program. There’s no dedicated funding for this in the budget. Unfortunately, in the London area, this is a program that is not available at all hours of the day. My question to the member is, why is this government not listening to front-line officers who know the incredible value this program provides to our community?

To the member: This government, through their budget, has calculated disinvestment in many sectors. They’ve said no to students. This government has said no to hospices. This government has said no to wage parity. This government has said no to paid sick days. This government has said no to families of children with autism. They have said no again and again and again. They have chosen to ignore many of the issues that families face across this province, and it is glaringly apparent. The fact that autism doesn’t show up once and that school violence doesn’t show up once in this budget should really be a concern. It is, in fact, a message to all of those families who have these concerns. The fact that seniors right now are being evicted from their properties through renovictions that this government refuses to stand up for should be a concern to us all. That is a crisis, and this government has chosen not to support those seniors.

We also stand for wage parity so that people working within community support services—home care and long-term care—are paid as much as workers in acute care. It costs less for seniors to remain in their homes than it does to institutionalize them. It was proven by the community support services who presented at committee. A 2020 study estimated it costs $103 per day for a long-term-care-equivalent person at home in community care. It costs $201 for a person in long-term care and $730 per day in the hospital. That is cost savings and a wise fiscal investment. Make sure seniors can stay at home, where they’re healthier and happier.

It’s a pleasure for me to add my comments on Ontario’s 2023 budget bill, Bill 85. As it turns out, I had the opportunity to travel with the pre-budget committee. We went to many places. We heard from many people. I got the opportunity to know many of the committee members, and I have a great deal of respect for everyone who shared this journey.

In terms of the people who presented at committee, I heard and I felt what they said, and I believe in my heart that committee members did as well. But this budget is as exciting as a three-pair of tube socks. At best, it missed the moment; at worst, it deliberately ignored the issues. We heard time and again at committee that Ontario, despite being the richest province, spends the least amount on services. We spend, in fact, $2,000 less per resident in Ontario than other provinces. It is a shame.

When we look at many of the decisions that have been made in this budget—and let’s face it, they are decisions—there are many which are bad business decisions, ones that do not recognize the value of upstream investment, ones that do not recognize or do not pay any heed to a cost-benefit analysis, and ones that simply don’t have any consideration of return on investment. Many of these decisions include the Therme spa, the proliferation of losing court cases that this government seems hell bent on engaging in. In fact, I’ve lost count at the number; I think it’s 14, 15, perhaps even 16 by this point. We also see decisions about the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., where this government is undermining its own revenue streams.

We have seen Bill 124, a losing battle, time and again, that this government keeps throwing public money at. They’re having a party with the public purse to simply attack nurses. We heard again at committee that nurses felt humiliated, they felt demeaned, and at the time when this legislation was passed, this government claimed that there was a need to be fiscally prudent and to be restrained. Yet through this budget, they have claimed how excited they are to return the province to the black, but it’s on the backs of nurses and public workers.

We also see a government that refuses to release its mandate letters. What’s the return on investment on that? What is being hidden?

Further, rather than not abiding by economic principles, we, in fact, see disinvestment from some of the things that Ontarians require. We see disinvestment in health care. We see disinvestment in mental health.

I had the opportunity to attend a mental health round table hosted by the MP for London–Fanshawe, Lindsay Mathyssen, and MP Gord Johns, and I’d like to quote Dr. Andrea Sereda. She indicated that when we consider our mental health crisis, we also should consider that this is a consequence of a lack of investment in housing, because housing is health care. Housing, food and warmth are medicine. The government has not done its part to make sure that people are adequately housed. Poverty has a cost.

Further, if one looks at poverty as being the root cause and housing being something that the province and the federal government have denied people, that causes mental health exceptionalities. Dr. Sereda pointed out that organic mental health exceptionalities such as schizophrenia account for 5%, whereas these mental health exceptionalities have been brought upon by the conditions that have been created—deliberately created—by provincial disinvestment.

Also, I’d like to echo the voices of many of the dedicated harm reduction workers who we had the opportunity to meet on that day, who have indicated that harm reduction workers can’t afford rent and groceries because they are not being paid nearly enough. The people who are providing services to our most vulnerable can’t afford to look after themselves. They’re in jobs that don’t pay enough. They don’t have pensions. They don’t have benefits. So once people find themselves trained within these positions, they have to leave for something else, even though their heart might be in that role.

If we take a look at an economic development lens towards this budget, we also need to consider that many different organizations and different global companies consider Ontario as a wise place to invest because of our public health care. They know that they are going to have a workforce that will be healthy, that will be looked after if they become injured, if they become ill. And yet, this government chooses to disinvest from health care and continues to privatize, making it on the path towards the United States. We cannot compete with the United States in terms of their fiscal opportunities, so we have to look at the things that make Ontario unique, look at the things that make Ontario desirable—and that is our publicly funded and publicly delivered health care.

Furthermore, through education—education is an investment, not a cost. We need to make sure that we have students who are trained and understand the importance of the skilled trades, not simply in high school, but also in elementary school. Let’s remember that it was a Conservative government that removed shop classes and home economics classes from elementary school. Sometimes high school is too late. We need to give students that opportunity as soon as possible. Put shop classes back in elementary school.

As well, we look at Ontario as a viable place for investment because of the trust that Ontario has built as a partner. We’ve seen volatility from this government. We’ve seen bizarre statements. We’ve seen things that do not hold up to fact, like the claims that the greenbelt is a myth. We see these strange, bizarre performances. That undermines trust in Ontario as a place to invest.

We have also seen a culture of unfairness. We see a culture that does not recognize the importance of honest competition. We see favours for insiders. There was the 407, OLG. We’ve seen Tarion turn into yet another agency, HCRA, which is not working. This government talked, when they were in opposition, about how they would reform Tarion; they have chosen not to. We also see the favours that are being done right now for Therme, a private spa that has a lease that this government won’t release. We also see government appointments—we know that in these hallowed halls, many people who used to be Conservative candidates are now walking these halls in paid positions. Is that a culture of competition? Is that a culture of “Did that the person with the greatest experience and aptitude gets the position?” I’m not certain about that. I also would like to ask who’s benefiting from all of the housing decisions that this government has made, with the parcelling off and the sale of the greenbelt. That’s not a culture of fair competition.

Also, as we look towards some of the things that this government has done, they have not made the investments that we heard about, like making sure that nurse practitioners are able to practise across the province. They will alleviate some of the strains on our health care in the north—but across the province.

We also see a lack of investment in housing. Speaker, $124 million was cut from municipalities—and then they’re re-announcing $202 million, but that’s nowhere near enough to address the crisis. Housing is health care.

Furthermore, this government would pat itself on the back for the paltry 5% increase to ODSP and the fact that they’ve indexed legislated poverty. Congratulations. You’re going to keep people in poverty for many years to come. That’s not a success.

The 5% raise to CMHA was not the 8% that they requested.

I’d like this government to understand the importance of upstream investment, the importance of looking at all of their decisions with a cost-benefit analysis. And for heaven’s sake, look at the return on investment.

We need to make sure across this province that there’s wage parity among sectors. Whether it is in the community support services, home care, long-term care, as well as acute care, people should be paid accordingly; they should be paid appropriately. People should not be jumping between sectors because they can’t afford to pay the bills.

Furthermore, this overreliance on agency nurses is fiscally imprudent. It’s not fair to our health care system, it’s further privatization and it’s not effective use of the public purse. The party is over. Please stop. Please make sure that you’re making financial decisions which benefit all of Ontarians, not the insiders who are in the backrooms. Make sure that you’re investing in people. Invest in health care. Invest in home care. Invest in long-term care. Invest in education.

Last but not least, the opportunity to re-establish rent control, as recommended by so many stakeholders, is not found in this budget. We saw that autism was not mentioned once and we saw that school violence—an epidemic in our schools right now—was not mentioned once.

To this government: You can do better. I know you can do better.

I’d like to thank the member from Kitchener–Conestoga for his question. I also have a great deal of respect for that member.

I would like to remind the member that in my discussion, I was talking about the pre-budget consultations. In the pre-budget consultations, we heard from numerous delegations, all of whom were deeply, deeply disturbed by Bill 124. They cited the labour shortages that it created, how it was humiliating, and how it also caused a great deal of disparity in certain hospital departments. This government has thrown good money after bad. They are really disinvesting in our public system by allowing this focus on temp agency nurses. Within the same department, there will be a nurse who is paid twice as much as a nurse who has been there for many years.

We also had the opportunity within this budget to address wage parity between home care, long-term care and acute care, and it’s something that this government has ignored, because they don’t care about nurses.

We also know that, in London, one in four children live in poverty. With so many people waiting on an endless list for supportive housing, it is unconscionable. The government has it within their power to address this by making sure that there is a public builder, by actually creating these units and not leaving it up to private industry to create them themselves. There are many great people who are doing wonderful work within the space of providing those supports, but this government has chosen not to fund it properly.

We also heard from CMHA across the province, who are calling for an 8% increase to their services. This government blinked and gave them 5%.

It’s an honour for me to rise today and provide the voices of the great people of London North Centre, as well as offer to debate many of the submissions to our pre-budget consultations that this government has chosen to ignore. I had the opportunity to travel the province with the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs, hearing many of the stories that affect Ontarians the most, and what we see, unfortunately, with this budget is a budget that has missed the moment. It’s a budget that could have been truly progressive. It could have been forward-thinking. It could have shown that this government has listened to stakeholders across the province. And yet, we see a budget that shows this government is only listening to certain groups.

People are feeling the crunch at this time, and the government has done scarce little to address the affordability crisis and the stresses on families, seniors, people living with disabilities and students.

We often hear words in this chamber such as “transparency” and “accountability,” yet this budget really seems to lack those aspects.

Transparency is a matter of being open. It’s a matter of being frank. It’s a matter of being clear and being less subject to interpretation. This government would like to use folksy, homespun language, and yet that does not mean their actions are transparent.

In terms of accountability—it should show that one can easily understand and explain what is happening within this budget. This government instead engages in pretense. They engage in a very complicated shell game in order to hide where they are cutting as opposed to where they’re pretending to invest.

Within municipal affairs and housing, they have cut $124 million, yet on the other hand, they talk about the money that they are investing in supportive housing. When we had the opportunity to travel to Kingston, the mayor of Kingston explained how the municipality had a very forward-thinking approach to the model of supportive housing that they provided within their city. That city spent $18 million in one year to provide that continuum, that wraparound model of supports. And yet, this government would pat themselves on the back for investing scarce little across the province in supportive housing.

I’d also like to turn my comments to education.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to question the Minister of Education about why this budget did not mention violence in schools. Curiously—with this lack of transparency and lack of accountability—my question was not addressed in a really logical or fulsome way. Instead, the minister decided to talk about federal responsibilities on bail reform. Again, even in his answer, he never mentioned school violence and never mentioned why it was absent from the budget.

In my area, the ETFO Thames Valley Teacher Local reported that in June 2022, there were 463 reported acts of violence; in September 2022, 687; in October 2022, 982; in November 2022, 693; in December 2022, 490; and in January 2023, 502. And this government has chosen to ignore it.

It’s shocking to think of the lack of investment that we have seen within schools. Again, with this very complicated shell game that this government would play, they’re claiming to invest in schools while they’re hiding the fact that what they are calling their investments is actually federal money in terms of child care.

I wanted to add the voices in the pre-budget submission of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association. They recommended that there would be an update to the Grants for Student Needs, that there would be funding that reflects the specialized needs of students who receive special education services. We know that the funding model has been broken for a number of years. We know that it is a mathematical model based on enrolment, not based on student needs. The government had the opportunity to stand up for families, to stand up for students living with disabilities, and they chose not to. Instead, in terms of the funding model—as I said, it is a statistical model whereby the government provides an arbitrary amount of money to school boards with the hope that they spend it on students who need it, yet there are no guarantees within this. There is no guarantee that school boards will (1) spend the money on students who need it, and (2), even if they do spend it on students who need it, there’s no guarantee that it will be spent in a way that is developmentally appropriate or addresses their needs properly. They’ve chosen not to do it.

What we also see in this budget is an increasing focus on privatization. We see the funneling of public money for publicly delivered services into the hands of private, for-profit health care providers.

I wanted to add the voices of OPSEU, who recommended ending privatization: “Public services and privatization simply don’t mix. That’s because public services are based on the core principles of equality, accessibility, transparency, and fairness. These principles stand in stark contrast to the goals of privatization—namely the ability to reward shareholders with profits by selling services only to those who can pay. Not only are quality and accessibility harmed, privatization costs more—especially in terms of the greater cost of borrowing and corporate profits.”

And yet, this government has ideologically tied their star to the concept of privatization, and it is going to erode our services across the province.

No one was in support of this government’s wage-suppression, humiliating legislation, Bill 124, yet this government is still engaged in the costly appeal. They had the opportunity within the budget of 2023 to step back, to admit they were wrong, to follow the courts and admit that they are going to continue to lose. I think it’s up to 14 or 15 cases that this government has lost in court now, and yet they are blindly and blissfully spending public money to appeal their losing court case.

Within the budget, we also saw submissions from community support services, who indicate—they do wonderful work. They are to be understood as also separate from home and community care. They cite that in 2020, the province estimated that it would cost $103 per day to provide care for a long-term-care equivalent client at home with home and community care. This contrasts with $201 per day to provide comparable service in long-term care and $730 per day to support ALC patients in hospitals. I don’t see the investment.

We heard from folks from Meals on Wheels, from the Alzheimer’s Society, and from folks with hospices.

We don’t see any funding where it needs to be to keep people in their homes, where they’re happiest, where they’re healthiest, and where it is the best place for them to be. Instead, we see funneling into private, for-profit enterprises.

As well, we see this government which has really neglected and rejected seniors. We see that they are going to provide $1,000 more per year per senior, which is nowhere near enough. If you divide that out over 12 months, that is not nearly enough money that seniors need in order to address the cost-of-living escalation.

They’re also withdrawing money from the unhoused, claiming that they are no longer going to provide them with health care services and a funding program that the government says is no longer necessary. It’s as though the unhoused and their health care needs and people who are new to Canada only counted because of COVID, and now the government is prepared to simply ignore them.

What about seniors, who are going to have to wait 18 months in order to get an eye exam? It’s reprehensible.

This government talks a lot about respecting seniors, about respecting students—and yet this budget fails to do so.

I wanted to add the voice of professor emeritus of public management at the University of Toronto, Sandford Borins. Sandford was talking about the budget consultation survey that was available online. He wrote:

“What is Missing.

“What is most remarkable about the choices” within that public survey “is that they never include the following words or phrases: climate change, environment, renewable, sustainable, conservation, green, or greenbelt. The environment is not the only priority that isn’t mentioned. The word culture also doesn’t appear, not even in the question about making Ontario an attractive destination. Higher education appears only in that question, but not in questions about improving health care, filling labour shortages, or improving community services.”

Sandford went on to talk about plausible deniability. He said, “The Ford government has often been secretive, for example”—

Thank you to the minister from Kenora–Rainy River. I listened intently to his presentation.

My question is with regard to this budget: It’s a budget that has failed to meet the moment because across Ontario, students have struggled as a result of the closure of schools, the COVID pandemic, and school violence is something that is not addressed. It’s not even mentioned within the budget, yet we know the numbers are staggering and the numbers are on the rise.

My question to the member is, why is this government sticking their heads in the sand when it comes to the safety of students in our schools?

It’s my honour to rise today to speak in regard to Bill 36. A budget is a statement of values. A budget is also a moral document. A budget outlines the priorities, the principles, the values. It addresses inequities. It provides a road map to the future.

Now, Speaker, if you listen to this government, they would spin it and claim that there is no crisis in hospitals, that there’s no need to be concerned about the greenbelt being auctioned off to the biggest Conservative donors. They claim that their meagre Band-Aids were helping families being crushed under the increasing cost of living, and that they weren’t deliberately putting students and education in peril with their cuts and underfunding.

This road map, if you can call it one, does not invest enough in people and public services. This bill does not offer people hope and help. We face unprecedented challenges in the cost of living, housing, health care, education, seniors’ care, autism and so many more. But since this was drafted, we’ve seen very little change. We’ve seen that they didn’t change this. They didn’t adjust to the new circumstances.

Since this was drafted, children’s hospitals are cancelling surgeries. Wait times have ballooned to over 20 hours before you’ve even been seen. Can you imagine taking a child who is sick and in pain and having to wait almost a day? How do you explain that to that child? How do you make that okay? That’s on this government. But worse than that is that it’s 20 hours until you’ve first been seen; that doesn’t mean that you are guaranteed a bed after those 20 hours, Speaker.

It’s not a surprise, because we warned this government, with their imposition of Bill 124—nurses have worked so incredibly hard throughout the pandemic, and then to be kicked in the teeth again by this government after they kept our families safe—nurses have not had an improvement in their wages in over 10 years.

Despite numerous calls from health care professionals, this government refuses to address the health care human resources crisis that we have across our province. As His Majesty’s official opposition, we brought forward a collaborative plan to get Ontario’s hospitals back on track, but this government simply does not want to do the work, or they would much rather deliberately sit on their hands as hospitals crumble. This government is not listening to health care workers.

While Bill 36 does provide licensing for internationally educated nurses—something I’m very thankful for, because that’s something His Majesty official opposition has been calling for for a number of years—the NDP would also put a stop to privatization, which I believe should be called US-style health theft. We would like to see the bridging programs that are available expanded and compressed so that those who have years of experience in the health care sector may upgrade their skills and enter a new job field.

Ontario’s last Minister of Health told the media that private hospitals would help clear the surgery backlog. Our current Minister of Health scratches out parts of her speech where there is a promise not to continue the Liberal privatization of our public health care system.

If you believe this government, they will claim that they’re investing. But they’re not investing in people. They care about the furniture; they do not care about the people on the front lines. Hospital beds are of no use when there isn’t a caring, talented and respected health care worker to provide care.

Bill 36 does not address health care in a way that is responsible, effective or responsive to the struggles of Ontario’s public health care sector. This government is doing this on purpose, paving the way for privatization. Privatization means the most important consideration is profit. It’s the antithesis of our public health care system, in which the most important consideration is care.

According to the Financial Accountability Office, Ontario will be short $6.2 billion in health care spending through 2024-25. Yet this government have shown that they’re willing to violate the charter. When the Supreme Court tells them that they’ve made a mistake, that they’re guilty of overreaching and undercutting nurses with Bill 124, what do they do? They get ready to launch an appeal. They’re going to lose this, likely, yet again, but this Conservative government never gets tired of throwing taxpayer money at losing legal battles—losing legal battles which are based on a flawed, problematic ideology. It’s not only fiscally imprudent, but it’s an insult. It’s an embarrassment. Health care workers deserve our respect. This government has no right claiming they have anything but disregard for health care workers with this routine pattern of treatment.

The Red Cross again having to come to this government’s rescue is, quite frankly, unconscionable. I’m glad that there are good people out here who recognize that this is a crisis and they’re willing to help. But, Speaker, I’m not quite certain that those who donate to the Red Cross are doing so because this Ontario Conservative government has cut and underfunded hospital care so much. I don’t think that the Red Cross should have to use their resources to mitigate a crisis the Ford government has wilfully caused.

It’s like the situation with COVID. This government promised an iron ring for seniors, and yet the reality was that the military had to rescue seniors who were malnourished and dying of dehydration, while trays of food scattered across the floors gathered vermin, and people covered in their own urine and feces languished on beds with no sheets, crying out for help—crying out for anyone to help them.

The fact that this government routinely requires panic-mode assistance should make us all wonder why they simply can’t seem to get anything right.

Ontario deserves a budget that takes powerful action to end the hospital crisis.

Stop the appeal to Bill 124, lift wages, fix working conditions with a health care human resources strategy, and listen to front-line health care workers, who have great solutions and should be treated like partners by this province.

Re-tabling this tired budget will only make things worse—and making things worse seems to be all according to plan for this government.

When we look at the cost of living, inflation is at an all-time high. Grocery and energy prices continue to escalate, while this government refuses to step in and stand up for families. People are working harder than ever, but the cost of everything is going up, and wages are falling far, far behind. We see some tinkering around the edges with Bill 36; we see some small band-aids. But band-aids won’t stop the bleeding that many families are feeling. Bill 36 does not deliver any relief from inflation whatsoever.

I remember back when our Premier claimed that he would be an 800-pound gorilla—but that comes up as pretty weak and stuffed with fluff.

This bill does nothing to hold to account the corporations that gouge people. Inflation is never an excuse to make money off families who are already struggling. We’ve seen new words coined, such as “shrinkflation,” “greedflation” and others. This should show that this is a crisis across the board. Is it too much to ask this government that they finally do what they’ve promised and make companies that gouge people accountable?

With wage suppression tactics like Bill 124—we also see Conservative attacks on education workers recently. They used the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as an escape hatch. They have continued their attack on female-dominated professions by trying to impose a contract on education workers.

Further, if we want to look forward to solutions, 28 times His Majesty’s official opposition has brought forward legislation for 10 paid sick days—something everyone can agree will help mitigate crises like the COVID-19 pandemic—yet 28 times this government has told workers that they don’t deserve it. This Conservative government does not respect workers. When you stay home, others aren’t put at risk. Concerns of regular families don’t matter to this government. They’re disconnected—and by voting that down, they’re uncaring.

Another crisis that we are facing right now, which we see many words on but few real concrete actions, is the housing crisis. The dream of owning a home has become yet more unattainable over the last five years because of this government’s actions. They play pretend with measures that they call affordable, but then they cut up the environment for their wealthy donors. The reality is, this government cannot hide their love affair with wealthy developers.

This Conservative government cut rent control for buildings that were occupied after November 2018. What did that do for the affordability crisis? What did that do for people who lived in a new place for a year and then found that their rent was going to go up astronomically? Was that affordable? Did that help people? That was on this government. It’s completely ridiculous that their excuse at that time would be that that would somehow create more affordable housing. It created a gigantic loophole for people to be exploited by landlords and property owners. It’s not more affordable if people’s rent can go up without any restraint.

Much of the Conservatives’ entitlement shows through in their legislation. We see so much that is pro-developer and against working people.

Furthermore, when we consider the incursions on the greenbelt—the earth is everyone’s home, and we cannot go backwards. People across Ontario are furious that Premier Ford broke his promise about not touching the greenbelt. We’ve heard them try to excuse this environmental destruction by saying, “This will be affordable housing.” Nobody believes this ridiculous, posturing, bait-and-switch nonsense.

If you follow the money, the Narwhal and the Star showed how developers purchased one parcel of greenbelt land for $100 million—I believe it was in September—at 20% interest, and then the parcel became suddenly developable. It would have been really painful for that developer, at that punishing rate, if the government had not done them a solid by opening up this protected land. What is this government’s claim on that score—that this developer made a good guess? I don’t think so. This absolutely stinks.

This government could address affordability by actually creating the homes that people need. They could listen to the working people and families who need a safe place to call home by implementing NDP plans to build and deliver new affordable and non-market housing. They could stand up for working families by ending exclusionary zoning. They could protect tenants from gouging and stabilize the market. But instead, they choose to help their wealthy buddies.

Wetlands are interconnected, and they help filter water. They’re like the kidneys of the Great Lakes. Conservatives have actually fallen for the line that you can pave over a wetland and make up another one somewhere else. You cannot re-create a wetland with the same rich biodiversity and environmental significance. It’s like a chain; if you compromise one of the links, it compromises the entire chain.

Ontario is losing 320 acres of prime farmland every year. Overall, Ontario has lost one fifth of its total farmland.

I call upon this government to listen to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture’s Home Grown campaign. They said, “We can continue to develop Ontario without paving over our most precious natural resource—fertile farmland.” The OFA also pointed out that $47 billion is contributed to the provincial economy and employs nearly one million Ontarians through skilled labour, trades, technology, innovation and more. Ontario’s farmland must be protected. I call upon this government to join the 50,000 people who have signed on.

In terms of health care understaffing, the RNAO has made recommendations which I’d like this government to consider and implement: Stop the appeal of Bill 124 and refrain from extending or imposing future wage-restraint measures; increase the supply of RNs by expediting the process for IENs; increase nursing school enrolments and corresponding funding; compress RPN to bachelor of science in nursing bridging programs; support nursing faculty retention and recruitment; develop and fund a “return to nursing now” program to attract RNs back to the nursing workforce; support nurses throughout their careers by expanding the Nursing Graduate Guarantee program and reinstating the Late Career Nurse Initiative; and finally, have a task force to make recommendations on matters related to retaining and recruiting RNs.

I met recently with some local nurses in London, and they explained to me that graduates who are sometimes only in the field for two months are becoming the heads of departments. They’re also having to mentor students themselves, after two months. It’s ridiculous.

Before the pandemic, Ontario was 22,000 RNs short compared to the rest of Canada. This is something that needs action immediately.

My concern, as well, with this government and their decimation of our public health care system is the move towards privatization as being the only option.

When we take a look at the Auditor General’s report, private, for-profit in the home care sector has destroyed the sector—it’s somewhere where nurses and PSWs make far less, because the care isn’t there. It’s simply looking at making as much money as possible.

In Bill 36, as well, we see few measures for small businesses that have struggled so much with the disastrous Ontario small business support program that left so many people out in the cold.

Here’s a comment from the Toronto Star: “They are always saying that small businesses are the backbone of the economy, so the fact that they did nothing here to help small businesses like restaurants was really surprising.”

And then, “‘Coming out of the pandemic and into the middle of massive construction products could be lethal for some of our members....’

“Groups including the CFIB and Restaurants Canada had called for the government to either forgive the deferred taxes or let them be paid in instalments.”

This government could also take action on the predatory third-party delivery apps that take far too much out of an already lean sector. The margins in restaurants are already so low, and those organizations are, quite frankly, predatory. This government could take action. Will it? That’s a good question.

Further, we don’t see any solid investments into mental health. There has been historic underfunding in the community-based mental health and addictions sector. I think this government has a lot that they could do.

I’d like to mention, of course, for the record, that the London Health Sciences Centre is currently discussing creating a new emergency room where people who are suffering from a mental health episode can enter in a different location. This is a brilliant plan that’s going to be finalized in 2023—in July, I believe—and it’s going to cost $3 billion. But this government is already downloading the cost onto the municipality, onto the city of London. They’re asking the city of London to pay $300 million, and they haven’t even seen the plan yet. That is the worst thing.

We don’t see any supports for students.

We see very little supports for the justice system.

There are so many more things that I could discuss that this government has not been responsive to, that it has not listened to.

Ultimately this bill, Bill 36, is a statement of values, a statement of morals. It was an opportunity to course-correct. It was an opportunity to address all of the rampant needs and concerns of families and workers across this province, and I would say they have missed the mark.

I think it’s important to mention, as well, the Auditor General’s report—an absolute bombshell—where it was discussed that $3.5 billion of the $7 billion spent on COVID-19-related contracts was for non-competitive procurements. They didn’t even try to hide the fact that they were rewarding their friends.

There’s so much that needs to be done.

I’d also like to mention that on September 8, the estimates were made available to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. On September 20, I wrote a letter to this government, suggesting that we meet. That letter was never answered. So from September 20 all the way up until the second week in November, the standing committee had never met to publicly look at and consider those estimates. Normally, there are 15 hours of consideration given; we received 20 minutes of questions, total—out of 15 hours, 20 minutes. That’s not accountable. That’s not transparent. That is a deep concern for the people of Ontario.

It’s an honour for me to rise today on behalf of the great residents of London North Centre to discuss Bill 2, the Plan to Build Act, for its third reading in this House.

Last time, I discussed some items that were good in the budget—I’m very much in support of moving WSIB to London—but today I would like to discuss some of the elements that are missing. It’s often been said that if we do the same thing again and again and expect different results, it’s the definition of madness. But also, in nature, the tree that is unyielding will eventually break, whereas the one that will move with the wind is the one that will thrive and persevere. This budget is an example of unyielding, of unchanging, of not learning the lessons over the past number of months.

You see, Speaker, we have a budget that was tabled in April that has not undergone significant modifications. We’ve seen the affordability crisis explode—inflation at 8.1%. We’ve seen ERs closing across the province. We’ve seen nurses walking away from their jobs, retiring in droves. And this government has not done enough to address that in this budget.

The budget, as well, is a statement of priorities. We discuss values often in financial terms, but a budget also includes a government’s values in terms of principles. In short, the budget is a statement of values as guiding principles; it is both an ethical and a moral document.

In this Legislature, we ought to enforce equity to ensure those who are pushed to the margins are heard, respected and strengthened. We have to affirm as a Legislature that those at the beginning of their lives and at the end of their lives, with some exceptions, need more support than the rest of us in between. We ought to ensure as well that every single dollar that is spent by this government achieves its intended result. If expenditures are ineffective or compromised by outside forces, we should similarly adjust our approach.

We have this opportunity to learn the lessons from COVID, and we have the benefit of retrospection and clarity to see what worked and see what did not. Seniors, children, those living with disabilities, social services and small businesses were all pushed to the brink. At the same time, we saw others profiting from these disastrous conditions. We have yet to see this government stand up to pandemic profiteering and do the right thing, do the honourable thing.

As I mentioned, inflation has hit a staggering 8.1%. In this budget, the government has 2.5%. It’s less than half the current level of inflation. It’s even been called wishful thinking by some. It’s delusional. It’s unresponsive. It’s unrealistic to our current fiscal climate.

Additionally, the budget’s $1-billion rainy day provision is far, far too low. That amount is just one half of 1% of the total spending. If there are going to be spending hiccups, overruns or any other difficult or problematic decisions, this government is going to be in grave difficulty. And I worry that it’s going to be an excuse for further privatization and further cuts to our public spending if this government doesn’t do the right thing.

Furthermore, we hear a lot about this ridiculous and unnecessary highway, Highway 413, which is going to benefit many wealthy developer friends of this government, but in this budget there is no detailed costing for it and other highway spending. It’s not itemized. That’s disturbing, Speaker.

As well, with inflation being as high as it is and not being addressed thoroughly by this government, it means working people and families have lost almost one tenth of their buying power. It could mean taking on more household debt to put food on the table. People are having to make difficult decisions. To actively combat this affordability crisis, the government could raise minimum wage. They could focus on ensuring good jobs have equally good pay.

In health care, we’ve seen that Ontario has 5,400 fewer nurses than one year ago. They could repeal Bill 124 and show some respect for our front-line heroes, who have worked tirelessly, made tremendous personal sacrifices, put their families at risk. Instead, we see them plowing forward with this cut to nurses’ wages, because 1% is a cut with inflation being at 8.1%.

We also do not have wage parity across sectors. The Victorian Order of Nurses cannot respond to the number of requests that they have for service, and part of that is a direct result of wage parity, because in the community care setting, PSWs earn $3.57 per hour less, whereas nurses earn $11 less per hour. That’s a gap that needs to be addressed by this government.

I also am deeply surprised that, in terms of seniors’ care, this government has not yet learned that—having profit off of someone’s ill health or someone’s old age is something that they’re content with. When we saw that the army came in and saw the conditions that they did, this government should have been incentivized to act to make sure seniors were treated with respect and dignity, but instead we see rewards going to the worst of the worst, multi-million-dollar contracts, 30-year contracts going to homes that do not deserve to care for yet more seniors. It is a moral horror and one that is on this government’s conscience. I wish they would listen to their conscience.

As well, when we look at young people, students do not have enough supports. We see that this government has frozen tuition, but they’ve cut from the university sector. We also need to see greater further mental health supports for students, as referenced by OUSA and Eunice Oladejo. Unfortunately, we don’t see enough investments in mental health, either for the province or for children. The two-and-a-half-year wait time for children for mental health supports is unconscionable and something that needs to be acted upon.

There’s so much to discuss in this budget. Ontarians with disabilities are hardly even mentioned. We take a look at this government and their investments in hospital infrastructure, but not in the people who support that infrastructure. There’s no mention of the AODA whatsoever. It doesn’t mention the goal or the fact that they’re not going to achieve it by 2025 as promised.

I see that I’m running rather low on time, Speaker, but I also wanted to mention something that the last Liberal government let southwestern Ontario down on for a number of years, and that would be rail connections to southwestern Ontario. It’s something that was promised, and we still have yet to see shovels in the ground.

This crisis that we have in health care and long-term care and privatization should be a wake-up call for us all that privatization steals money from the public purse. It siphons tax dollars into the pockets of insiders, and how Conservative governments can justify not spending the entire health care dollar on front-line care is beyond me. It goes against the fiscally prudent values which they claim to espouse. No one should profit off of someone’s ill health or old age.

I cannot accept this budget as written. It needs to be improved.

I’d like to thank the member for providing a personal story, for showing their strength and providing a human face to social assistance. I also want to thank the member for their thoughtful discussion of issues that are facing the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, which are completely ignored by this government and their budget.

In their discussion, they mentioned that budgets should have universal participation, and that’s missing from this discussion and this budget. Why is so much detail in this budget left out?