Thank you to the member for Burlington for the question. Simply put, there is nothing more important than the safety and the well-being of our families and our loved ones. Our government, through Emergency Management Ontario, supports emergency preparedness and mitigation, and we coordinate response and recovery with our partners, keeping the more than 15 million people in Ontario safe. This is a 24/7, 365-day-a-year job, and I am so proud and grateful to all the dedicated emergency responders and personnel who do it.

I’m pleased that our government has earmarked a $110-million investment to strengthen emergency management and to make Ontario even more safe and more prepared. And I’ll have more to say about those investments in the supplementary.

One of the ways our government is ensuring that Ontario is safe, practised and prepared is the Community Emergency Preparedness Grant. This new grant will help communities purchase critical emergency equipment and supplies, such as sandbagging machines or generators, or could be invested in emergency management training. This grant is a prudent and responsible investment that gives communities the tangible resources that they need to keep people safe when the next flood, wildfire or severe storm impacts our province.

I look forward to continuing to work with local levels of government, First Nations communities and organizations to prepare for emergencies now and in the future.

I’ve made it very clear that our government is focused on making sure that the Eglinton Crosstown LRT opens, so that it is ready for commuters as soon as possible. But our number one priority is that when it opens, it is safe for commuters and it is safe for transit operators. Mr. Speaker, that is the number one lesson that we learned from the public inquiry into the Ottawa LRT.

I have made my expectations clear to Metrolinx. I expect them to get a credible schedule from CTS as soon as possible. But Mr. Speaker, safety is our number one priority, and we will not waver from that. It is essential that the service is safe for everyone to use. We are focused on getting it done, and we will.

Mr. Speaker, our plan was endorsed by city council, by York region and by the federal government, who recognizes our plan as so nationally significant that they agreed to fund 40% of the cost of our GTA and Hamilton transit plan.

The members opposite stand up in this House and claim to be defenders of transit, but when it actually comes to voting in favour of it—whether it’s for operational support during the pandemic, which they couldn’t bring themselves to support, or if it’s new lines that are—

I thank the member opposite for her important question.

Since we were elected in 2018, road safety has been a top priority for our government. I just want to underline the fact that road safety is not a partisan issue. Our government has worked closely with members of the opposition caucus on these important measures because we want to do everything we can to protect our vulnerable road users.

Since September 2018, we’ve implemented important changes that will protect vulnerable road users. We’ve increased penalties for drivers who fail to yield for pedestrians at crosswalks, at crossovers and at school crossings. We’ve increased the maximum fine penalty for all general offences under the Highway Traffic Act.

And we’ve introduced a new offence for careless driving causing death or bodily harm, with penalties that include fines, licence suspensions and imprisonment. This offence carries the longest prison term of any penalty in the Highway Traffic Act.

But this is not a one-and-done issue. It’s an ongoing priority, and we’re going to continue to work with Ontarians—

Our government introduced community safety zones around schools for this specific issue, to make sure that drivers take extra care when they are driving around our most vulnerable, our children. We have allowed municipalities to introduce this around schools, and we’re doing everything we can to support community safety zone implementation across Ontario. We understand that in 2021 alone, over 250,000 tickets were issued to vehicles that were captured by speed cameras that were noticing speeding in these community safety zones.

We’re going to continue to support our municipalities as they take the measures that they can to protect vulnerable road users, especially around schools, and we’re going to continue to do what we can to make sure that our roads are among the safest anywhere in North America.

I thank the member for the question. The violence that we are seeing on the TTC is unacceptable. Transit riders and transit workers deserve the right to feel safe as they’re working and riding on the TTC.

But, Mr. Speaker, we have been there for the TTC. For the last few years we’ve provided over a billion and a half dollars’ worth of funding. In the last year alone, through the Safe Restart phase 4 program, we provided almost $350 million to the TTC, and through our gas tax funding, over $180 million. These are dollars that go directly to the TTC to spend in any way they need to, whether it is on operational issues or on safety issues.

What the people of Ontario need to know and what the TTC riders and TTC workers need to know is that when our government put forward the funding to support the TTC throughout the pandemic and beyond, the members of the opposition voted against it.

I’m glad to hear that the member opposite understands that this is also a public safety issue. There’s a mental health component and a public policing and public safety issue. When the cameras are on, the members opposite get up and do a great job of grandstanding, but when it comes time for voting for the measures that will actually help, like Safe Restart funding, like gas tax funding and like funding our police services, the members opposite consistently vote against it.

The member from Ottawa Centre—not the TTC, but to support funding in his own city—supported a motion at Ottawa city council to defund the police. The member from Toronto Centre moved a motion when she was city councillor—

I thank the member opposite for his question.

I agree; we have to make sure that all precautions are taken to preserve the safety of the playground at Pape Avenue Junior Public School, and I want to assure the parents there that my ministry is well aware of their concerns and the issues.

To date, all work around the school has focused on ground and on soil investigation, on utility locating and on surveying, but we have full confidence that Metrolinx will be able to ensure that all safety standards are followed. Metrolinx is actively working with the TDSB, with the principal of the school and the parent council to create a construction safety management plan, and it has been conducting regular site visits and safety reviews.

Mr. Speaker, a construction liaison committee—a CLC—has been created and has held two meetings to date to discuss upcoming construction activities, safety and any additional community concerns that have been raised. We are taking these concerns very seriously.

We want to make sure that the environment around the school is safe, and we will be working closely with community leaders and parents on this issue.

We have prepared a draft health and safety plan that was distributed to the CLC in advance of the last meeting, on March 28, to allow the school and attendees time to review the plan that we’ve put forward and to discuss it at that meeting. To further mitigate noise concerns, we’ve committed to placing a noise barrier around the school, and upcoming work has been detailed to the school’s parent council.

I want to assure families that Metrolinx is committed to ensuring that the highest levels of safety standards are maintained throughout construction.

We all agree the Ontario Line needs to be built. It will take 28,000 cars off the road each and every day. That is essential for future generations, and we will get it done.

Mr. Speaker, let me be clear: Our government will never compromise when it comes to the safety of our travelling public. As per Transport Canada regulations, all ferries must be staffed with qualified and properly trained workers, and our goal is to make sure that all ferries are safely operational as soon as possible. That’s why we’re working so diligently towards it.

We have new ferries coming on board. The new Wolfe Islander IV and the Amherst Islander II ferries will be in service as soon as possible. As I said, our government is committed to working across the country with our partners, but also within government, with the Ministry of Colleges and Universities, to make sure that we have training programs in place so that we can have workers operating our ferries as soon as possible.