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June 4, 2013

40th Parliament, 2nd Session

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Hansard Transcripts

Votes and Proceedings

Orders and Notices

Hansard Transcripts 2013-Jun-04 (PDF)

L049 - Tue 4 Jun 2013 / Mar 4 jun 2013

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

ASSEMBLÉE LÉGISLATIVE DE L’ONTARIO

Tuesday 4 June 2013 Mardi 4 juin 2013

ORDERS OF THE DAY

ORDER OF BUSINESS

INTRODUCTION OF VISITORS

ORAL QUESTIONS

USER FEES

USER FEES

LONG-TERM CARE

LONG-TERM CARE

PHYSIOTHERAPY SERVICES

TAXATION

ABORIGINAL ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT

USER FEES

PHYSIOTHERAPY SERVICES

ELECTRICAL SAFETY

DRIVE CLEAN

HOSPITAL SERVICES

AGRI-FOOD INDUSTRY

USER FEES

TENANT PROTECTION

USE OF QUESTION PERIOD

WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

INTRODUCTION OF LEGISLATION

MEMBERS’ STATEMENTS

PHYSIOTHERAPY SERVICES

MILES NADAL JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTRE

NORTHERN ONTARIO HERITAGE FUND

LYDIA ADAMS

HISTOIRE D’ORLÉANS

HFI PYROTECHNICS

HEALTH CARE

MALVERN BIKE RACE

GREEN POWER GENERATION

REPORTS BY COMMITTEES

STANDING COMMITTEE ON

PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

STANDING COMMITTEE ON ESTIMATES

INTRODUCTION OF BILLS

RESIDENTIAL TENANCIES

AMENDMENT ACT (RULES RELATING

TO RENT INCREASES), 2013 /

LOI DE 2013 MODIFIANT

LA

LOI SUR LA LOCATION

À USAGE D’HABITATION

(RÈGLES RELATIVES

AUX AUGMENTATIONS DE LOYER)

PROTECTION OF PUBLIC

PARTICIPATION ACT, 2013 /

LOI DE 2013 SUR LA PROTECTION

DU DROIT À LA PARTICIPATION

AUX AFFAIRES PUBLIQUES

MOTIONS

HOUSE SITTINGS

REPORT, INTEGRITY COMMISSIONER

STATEMENTS BY THE MINISTRY

AND RESPONSES

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

ABORIGINAL HERITAGE

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

ABORIGINAL HERITAGE

ABORIGINAL HERITAGE

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

PETITIONS

PHYSIOTHERAPY SERVICES

EMPLOYMENT PRACTICES

CHILD CUSTODY

FISHING REGULATIONS

PHYSIOTHERAPY SERVICES

PHYSIOTHERAPY SERVICES

PHYSIOTHERAPY SERVICES

AIR QUALITY

SERVICES DE PHYSIOTHÉRAPIE

ORDERS OF THE DAY

ORDER OF BUSINESS

The House met at 0900.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Good morning. Please join me in prayer.

Prayers.

ORDERS OF THE DAY

ORDER OF BUSINESS

Resuming the debate adjourned on June 3, 2013, on the amendment to the amendment to the motion to apply a timetable to certain business of the House.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Further debate? The member for Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry.

Mr. Jim McDonell: Thank you, Speaker. I’ll continue.

Let’s look at the textbook cases of lack of oversight by this government on numerous files, like the $2 billion in eHealth and the $1 billion wasted on Ornge; they continually do what they can to block the people of Ontario from getting to the truth.

The Ornge file is particularly disturbing, as the minister repeatedly ignored warnings from the opposition that did not pass the smell test; warnings that were screaming of misappropriation and corruption. The minister’s response: Trust me. I’ve checked out the concerns, and I’m comfortable with what’s going on at the Ornge air ambulance agency.

What a boondoggle, as revealed by the Auditor General. He was able to identify, without the co-operation of Ornge, at least 12 affiliated for-profit corporations created with money from the people of Ontario and beyond his mandate to investigate, with many off the board of directors, including the CAO, on many of them.

It was only after the story broke in the Toronto Star that this minister cared to show any interest in the issue. It begs the question: How deeply did she check out the allegations, if at all, or was it just a ploy to get beyond the pending 2011 election?

Then there were the delay tactics and the refusal to establish the select committee to review the file to get to the bottom of the issue. Everything that could be done to block the opposition from getting the information that they legally and morally and rightfully are entitled to was done and continues to be done on that file today.

The stories continue, as we see once again that the government is desperately pulling out all the stops to see that the people of Ontario do not get to the truth of the now famous billion-dollar gas plant cancellations: the delay tactics in committee; refusal to release documents ordered by the standing committee of this House, until under threat of contempt and with the minister facing potential incarceration; then to partially release heavily redacted documents whited out, clearly against the Speaker’s orders; then more redacted documents and the prorogation; and now, Liberal Party staffers with severe amnesia and destroyed email accounts.

Speaker, the Wynne-McGuinty government has stretched its credibility well beyond believability. Now they are asking us to trust them with $2 billion in extra taxes to fund Toronto transit. This government, with a huge, huge spending problem, does not consider the possibility of looking for a mere 2% in savings in their budget to fund this very important project that they have ignored for almost 10 years. They have refused our offer of a select committee to review government spending to find this small 2%—truly shameful.

With the government borrowing over $1 million per hour, one can put in perspective the importance of ridding this province of the NDP-Liberal coalition government. In a democratic system, the people decide who governs them. Yes, there is a cost to elections, but it’s well worth it. As we look around the world at different systems and the quality of life they afford their residents, I believe the cost of an election is worth well it; a cost that many Canadians have paid for with their lives to ensure that we have the right to elections and to choose our leaders through the election process.

People did not elect this leader. She was not the choice of the members of the current Liberal caucus. The people of my great riding of Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry have told me they can’t afford not to have an election. They must get rid of this corrupt Liberal government.

The NDP has always howled about the importance of full debates in the House. Instead, today we have a motion to limit debate before us and the NDP is supporting it wholeheartedly.

We are elected to serve the interests of the people of Ontario and our constituents. If we look at this budget, the government is continuing its spending addiction to the tune of an extra $3.6 billion this year. The interests of the people of Ontario lie in ensuring that our children can live in a province that is governed by its Legislature, rather than its creditors. We’ve had three credit downgrades on this government to date, and a warning has been issued in the last few months.

Our former finance minister, Dwight Duncan, has recently called the situation “a ticking time bomb.” How interesting it is that when somebody leaves the shadows of the Liberal Party, their perspective on life so quickly changes.

Already today, in 2013, each man, woman and child owns $20,000 of debt that he or she has not chosen to accumulate. Dalton McGuinty spent like a drunken sailor on shore leave to buy the support of the Working Families Coalition, and the current Premier is following in his footsteps—regulations that are put in place without debate that appear solely for the benefit of the Liberal Party and their donators. There’s nothing new in this government. It’s just the same old spending and tricks. It’s time to put the people of Ontario first and change the leadership of this province.

This time allocation motion and the amendment by the member from Simcoe–Grey call upon us to debate the very fundamental principles that drive the members of provincial Parliament. It is a duty of this House to hold the Liberal government to account for its mismanagement. This duty cannot be subordinate to the convenience of a government desperate to survive, or to a third party so desperate to avoid an election that they’re willing to set aside their oft-stated principles.

We often hear the $92-million figure tossed around by the NDP and the Liberals as the cost of an election. The government has cost Ontario $1 billion at Ornge, $2 billion at eHealth and close to $1 billion in the cancellation of the gas plants. For all their holier-than-thou howling, the New Democrats have failed to grasp the essential truth: If you believe the government is corrupt, you must change the government.

Our amendment to the time allocation motion gives the assembly a chance to do for constituents what they have been demanding of me more and more frequently: throw this exhausted, wasteful and unaccountable Liberal government out of office and allow the people of Ontario to pass judgment upon the Liberal failures, the NDP sellout and the only credible plan to bring Ontario back to its rightful place as an economic engine of Canada: the PC Paths to Prosperity.

There is no real strategy to get Ontario back to work—600,000 people woke up this morning without a job and 300,000 manufacturing jobs lost. Reams of regulations and red tape are blocking our entrepreneurs from doing what they do best: start or extend businesses, hire new people who will make wages—

Mr. Paul Miller: Yeah, eight bucks an hour.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Okay, member.

Mr. Jim McDonell: —pay taxes and help support the important services our government must provide.

The Wynne government’s solution: hire more people to the already bloated public sector with no plan on where we get the money or how we pay their wages and benefits. Times are tough, and I have had a steady stream of people in my constituency office asking for help against the policies of the Wynne-McGuinty government, now with the firm support of their NDP farm team.

Two weeks ago, a retired couple came in asking for help. They showed me their property bills and their hydro bills. They told me how they were tired of time-shifting their activities and how they had done everything they could to try and reduce their hydro bills, up almost three times since this government came into power. They were getting desperate: fixed incomes, a very modest lifestyle, but they just couldn’t make it work anymore.

It’s hard to tell this hard-working couple, who have lived within their means all their lives, never overextended themselves, looked after their affairs with fiscal responsibility for their children and grandchildren—it’s embarrassing to tell them that this very high-priced government did not do the same.

The Green Energy Act was designed for short-term public opinion wins, but was not good for the province—no evaluation of the economic impact on jobs and the economy. Now we waste billions—and I said “billions”—each year to pay many times the market price for power that we don’t need, forcing us to spill power over our dams, shut down the nuclear plants—Bruce 10 times last summer, I believe—still surplus power we must get rid of; pay our neighbours, our competitors, to take it off our hands, and it makes no sense, absolutely none.

Our once major competitive advantage is gone in just 10 years of this Liberal government. I listened to one of our suppliers demanding that we intervene. We asked him if he had talked to the government. His answer was, “Of course we have.” We said, “What was their response?” I’ll quote; he says, “Nothing. Nothing. They’re just paralyzed. They don’t know what to do.” But you know, we can no longer do that. We can no longer pass the decisions off to the next government that will come along and have to clean up the mess. This is not responsible government. This is not the government that the people of Ontario deserve.

The government did not make the tough decisions that would have been in the best interests of the people of Ontario. Instead, they took the easy way out. They made decisions that would not stand the test of time, decisions that were good for them and their friends with donations. They used their majority to mask the issues from the people, but they failed to calculate one thing: What happens when you lose your majority. The 2012 fall by-election seems now to be no accident, a failed attempt to win that elusive majority so that they could again push the truth away from the people. As we saw and as they say, the rest is history. Now we see the mess they’ve created.

Speaker, there is more. Small businesses in my riding are asking for help. They talk of the TSSA and how it discriminates against Ontario businesses. Equipment all over North America is essentially blocked from installation in Ontario. Yes, there is a process, but one so onerous that it’s just easier to set up business somewhere else. They are starting to fight back, but they are tired of the intimidation and the unfair labour laws. As one desperate business told me, “We need you to tell the people how bad it is, for if we speak out we get targeted. They would rather see us out of business than to have us tell our story.”

It’s time for a change. It’s time to put a government in place that will do the right things, and to make the tough decisions to put Ontario back on track—the economic engine of Canada, what it was when the Dalton McGuinty government took over.

There are many cases of people coming into our constit offices who just can’t do it anymore. We have businesses that come in. We talked about them being afraid to speak out. I had a meeting last summer; we had 10, 15 businesses. They walked out the back door because the press was out front and they didn’t want their pictures in the paper. They were afraid to be seen. Under these current laws they get targeted—they get certified without a majority of their employees having a say.

Whoever heard—we had one company in our riding—40 people working for the company, two people on a holiday but working; they certified the company. It took them almost $1 million to get out of it—because he had 38 employees; they were furious with what happened—and four years. This is the province of Ontario that has lived by democratic principles all our lives. These are regulations put in by this Liberal government that this House has never seen, done through the back door, and now we’re seeing the results.

But there’s one thing for sure: These regulations have garnered huge donations, but unfortunately—with the power we have in committees in a minority government, we’re starting to see some of these things and we’re starting to act. It’s time to act and change the leadership of this province.

Speaker, I think that there are many more stories like that around the Legislature, and I think it’s time that we heard some of them as well.

The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Julia Munro): Further debate?

Mr. Rosario Marchese: I’m happy to speak to the motion and the amendments the Tories have made.

We agree with the Conservative Party on quite a number of issues. The member from Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry mentioned them, and we have attacked the Liberal Party with the same vigour. When we talk about the scandals—

Interjection.

Mr. Rosario Marchese: I beg your pardon?

Interjection.

Mr. Rosario Marchese: I’m going to speak to that.

The problems, the scandals around eHealth have been big and have caused much consternation in Ontario. The scandals around Ornge have caused a great deal of anger against the Liberal Party, and the scandals around the gas plants have been worse. When people think about the $600 million that we are aware of, so far, wasted on the gas plants on the basis of the government saying, “We are going to build those gas plants there no matter what and we will fight NIMBYism no matter what,” until they’re faced with a possible election and they believe that they’re about to lose three or four seats.

Then, all of a sudden, those principles around, “We will build those gas plants no matter what, no matter what NIMBYism may exist in those communities,” just were thrown out the window. Then the Liberal, who wanted to have it both ways, would say, “Well, you, the Tories, wanted it eliminated as well, and you, NDP, wanted it gone as well,” trying to hide the fact that they were going to build those gas plants no matter what. They knew there were children and families surrounding those gas plants when they decided to put them there.

And when they finally decided to change their minds, the ex-Premier and the current government says, “Well, we made a mistake. There were communities there. There were kiddies there,” as if they didn’t know that in advance.

New Democrats have attacked this government for the mistakes they have made and the blunders and the scandals around all of these things with vigour, and they deserve the criticism and the attacks that many Ontarians have levied against them. How do we deal with—

Ms. Sylvia Jones: You thank them by propping them up—

Mr. Rosario Marchese: Ah, Sylvia, Sylvia. I will get to that.

Here are the two possible responses: One is the Tory response: “Let’s get them all out; let’s get these Liberals out. We’ve lost confidence in them.” I understand; I understand the argument. It’s plausible. It’s cogent, even. The problem around that is that there are a whole lot of people in Ontario saying, “I’m not sure that’s the answer.” A whole lot of people are saying, “Make government work.” A whole lot of people want opposition parties and governments to work for them. It’s not about political parties and their interests; it’s about making sure governments work no matter what.

In spite of the scandals, still many of them out there want governments to work together to get some results that better their lives, and I happen to be in that camp.

There is a small group of Ontarians out there saying, “Throw the bums out today.” The question is, who do you want in their place? Which brings me to the Conservative Party solutions. What are those solutions? Well, they would freeze wages in perpetuity on all civil servants because they deserve for their wages to be cut and frozen forever. That is the solution of the Conservative Party. I understand that, because they’re picking up on a lot of sentiment out there that says, “Civil servants are absolutely not good. Civil servants don’t work.

They provide no service to anyone, and freezing their salaries or even cutting them is a good thing.” They pick up on that. They pick up on that populist, anti-civil servant sentiment. And I understand it; I just don’t agree with them. I just don’t agree with that sentiment.

They are picking up on anti-union rhetoric that’s out there, and so they promote anti-union, anti-worker kind of stuff. They promote it. Why? Because within their Conservative base, there’s a whole lot of people who hate whatever accomplishments unions have given to working men and women.

It’s a beautiful dilemma we face—not dilemma. It’s an interesting thing. I’ve known a great deal of non-unionized workers who love the fact that unionized workers go out and fight it out and get attacked for organizing themselves so that they can get better benefits and wages—better pensions even, God bless—and those who are non-unionized get the direct benefit of those who go out and fight it out. Those who get the blame for fighting for better benefits are out there being attacked by, mainly, Conservative-type politicians.

I remind you that those who are not part of the union get the same benefits, the same wage increases, that unionized staff get without doing a thing. What a beautiful thing it is to allow the unionized workers to go out and fight it out while they get the same benefit of the dirty work that the others guys do. I always found that ironic, always ironic.

You don’t see the non-unionized workers going out organizing with union workers, you don’t see that, but they love the concurrent consequential benefits they get from those who wage a fight for better wages and better benefits. It’s funny how that works.

So do we attack wages? That’s what the Conservatives want to do. Do we attack unions? That’s what the Conservatives want to do. Do we attack pensions? That’s what the Conservatives want to do, because they say we can’t afford pensions anymore.

What else do they promote? What else have they promoted for the last 20 years? Cutting corporate taxes as the way to create jobs in this province and in this country. That has been their motto; that has been their modus operandi. That has been their ideological insight into how you make the economy work. What evidence do they have for job creation by cutting corporate taxes? There’s absolutely none except that ideological fervor to cut corporate taxes. Under the Tories, we lost—in eight and a half years of their governance—$13.4 billion, gone forever.

If you elect another Conservative government, God forbid, they would cut corporate taxes some more. Governments are broke. Governments have a deficit, and the Tories would cut corporate taxes some more.

Interjection: Hear, hear.

Mr. Rosario Marchese: The “hear, hear” party on cutting corporate taxes, and they actually believe it. They smile when they say it. They are true believers in the market and in the corporate sector and in their belief that somehow, magically, if you cut their taxes, the jobs will be created. It’s not true. The jobs have not been created in the way that they have envisioned.

I remember Mulroney in the old days saying, “When you have a free trade agreement, prosperity will follow.” Do you remember his voice? He had such a lovely, honeyed voice. “Prosperity will follow, and jobs will follow.” Jobs didn’t follow nothing; jobs didn’t follow anywhere. I didn’t see jobs coming there from that free trade agreement. I didn’t see any of that. But the Tories, in their blind pursuit of a North American free trade agreement and globalized trade agreement, they said, “We do this, and the jobs will follow.” Jobs followed nothing. That prosperity never came; the jobs never came.

Do I believe that kind of stuff, that kind of ideology? Absolutely not, but that’s what we have in store for you Ontarians should you decide to get rid of the Liberals and put the Conservatives in their place. God bless, indeed. That, to me, is the scariest thing that one could imagine, having witnessed eight and a half long years of that Mike Harris regime. That’s something that I just can’t imagine.

But in the same way that Mulroney said with the free trade agreement that prosperity will come and jobs will come, the Liberals said, “If we impose an HST”—remember that? Tories remember that—“600,000 jobs will be created.” That was the Liberal mantra of the HST. So I have to remind them of Mulroney, and I want to remind the Tories of the Liberals’ promise of having an HST and the creation of 600,000 jobs.

Do any of the Tories, or those who are here in the Legislature, remember seeing those 600,000 jobs come as a result of the HST imposition on the public? I haven’t seen a thing. Maybe Liberals have seen it, but I suspect Tories will say, “We didn’t see them.” Is that correct?

Mr. Jeff Yurek: We’re talking about Bob Rae over here.

Mr. Rosario Marchese: Yes, I know; I know. I’m talking about both of you. I love to talk about Liberals and Tories as well, just because I’m an equal opportunity kind of person.

So you’ve got to take all this stuff with a grain of salt. The jobs didn’t come with the HST.

But you remember Dwight Duncan—somebody mentioned Dwight Duncan in their speech; the member from Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry mentioned him. He’s now a fine Liberal-Tory out in some firm, making good pecunia as a result of his consulting abilities.

The Conservatives have it right: Now that he’s out there, he’s quite happy to attack Liberals in terms of what direction they’re going in. But I remember Dwight Duncan at the time saying, “The jobs will follow.”

Hon. Tracy MacCharles: He’s allowed to have opinions.

Mr. Rosario Marchese: Oh, sure he is. He’s allowed to have opinions indeed, just for a second.

Here’s the point: The reason why we have supported this government is because we were able to get some changes that make life for Ontarians a whole lot better. We know that the unemployment in Canada is pretty bad. About 1.3 million Canadians don’t have jobs. That’s a huge number. Another million are underemployed or have given up looking for work, and the unemployment rate for the young is twice the national average. Things are tough; things are bad.

When we think about how governments spend money, we have to worry about how they’re doing that. This is why, in addition to—in addition to—making sure that we reduce the auto insurance rates, because they’re the highest in the country, in addition to making sure that we protect seniors who are desperately looking for and need home care help, in addition to making sure that the young who are unemployed get the support they need for jobs, which is what we got out of this government—in addition to all these things, we also got a Financial Accountability Office that we believe is going to bring some rigour, some controls on governments that we have not seen in a long time.

So when we talk about the scandals around eHealth and around the gas plants and around Ornge, having a Financial Accountability Office that we have fought for, that Liberals have agreed to, is something that will bring responsibility back to governments, will bring greater accountability of governments to the people and might bring back some respect of the people toward politicians in governments.

This Financial Accountability Office is one of the most important things that we could have brought to this Legislature. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Liberals in power or Tories or New Democrats; we will all be bound by such an office in a way that will bring credibility, accountability and honesty back to government. This is a good thing. This is important for politicians and important for the people of Ontario.

So when the Tories say that the NDP have lost their principles, I don’t know what they’re talking about. I don’t know what they’re talking about. When the Tories say that the NDP have sold out, I don’t know what they’re talking about. We’ve got gains for the people of Ontario that are good for the people of Ontario, something we have fought for to get from the Liberals. The Tories have got absolutely nothing. They have absolutely got nothing from Liberals in terms of making sure that this budget is a better one for the people they’re defending.

The Conservatives are the new “no” Conservative Party. That is what they are: the new “no” Conservative Party. They fight everyone. They’re absolutely negative. All they want to do is bring things down, bring governments down so they could get right back in where they were, because they miss being in government. I understand that. But for New Democrats, it’s not about us. It’s about making sure we get important changes that make their lives just a little bit better, and if we can do that this is a good thing.

I know that some Tories might say we have an Auditor General. But the Auditor General takes a retrospective look at what might have gone wrong. They do value-for-money audits, which is good, but it’s retrospective. Our Financial Accountability Office looks forward. This is important. We have called for bigger powers for the Ombudsman to be able to have oversight over hospitals. The Liberal government has refused.

We support the work he does, he or she—at the moment it’s a he, but in the past it was a she in that position as well. We support the work they do because they investigate individual and systemic problems, and he brings forth recommendations that make for better policies. What the Ombudsman does is important. But he responds to issues on the basis of complaints.

Our Financial Accountability Office would not just do value-for-money, would not just investigate, but would make sure that when governments are about to spend something we have an officer there to say, “You are making a mistake,” or “You’re about to be spending so much money. In spite of what you are saying, you are overspending on this,” or underspending, even. He or she would have the power to say, “Hold on,” before you engage in some activity that is about to waste millions of dollars of Ontarians’ money.

This is an important office we are establishing here. It’s an office that would be independent of political parties, independent of ministers and independent of cabinet. This is an office where, if a member has a complaint or a committee wants something investigated, we have the power to do that. This is good. Unlike what we have at the present, where you ask for information that possibly has been hidden for years and it really is difficult to get at the root of the problem, our Financial Accountability Officer would be able to get that information in a very, very short little while and get to the root of the problem quickly. We want that. We need that.

And it’s not just me as a New Democrat; it’s me as a citizen. Citizens want the power to be able to hold governments accountable, and that’s what this position does. We are absolutely proud of this accomplishment. We believe, as New Democrats, that this is an accomplishment for people. This isn’t about political parties. This office would hurt New Democrats as much as it would hurt Liberals as much as it would hurt Conservatives if they do the wrong thing. We should be happy to support a motion that contains within it such an officer, such an ability that makes us all accountable.

Speaker, this motion takes us to a place where we have made gains for people. This is what we really want. This is what people want. Ultimately, the people will be able to hold government accountable when the election is held. If they don’t like the party in power, they will throw them out. The opportunity to throw out a party is during an election. That day will come, and it will not take that long. I guarantee the Premier will take us into an election next year; that will bring us in two and a half years to an election and that, in my mind, is plenty of time to hold the government to account and judge them on the basis of what they did or did not do.

The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Julia Munro): Further debate? The member for Middlesex-Elgin-London.

Mr. Jeff Yurek: Thanks, Speaker. It can go in any order; it works either way.

I’m pleased to stand here and discuss this motion. I have to say, Madam Speaker, that I have some déjà vu here. I’ve only been an MPP for about a year and a half, and I feel like I’m watching a rerun again. We have the Liberal government here trying to stay in power and they’re pandering to the NDP for support. Unfortunately, it’s driving away what we should be talking about here in the Legislature and in Ontario. Ontario has a spending problem, plain and simple. We spend more than we bring in. What happens when we spend more than we bring in is that you have to borrow the difference to make up for that extra spending, and in any borrowing arrangement we have to pay interest on that debt.

I’ll go to Jeffrey Simpson, a columnist for the Globe and Mail. He had an interesting quiz for his readers a few weeks ago. He asked, what will be the fastest-rising cost for the Ontario government in the next three years? Is it health care? No. Is it education? No. Is it post-secondary education? No. Is it justice? No. Is it community services? No. The answer, of course, is plain and simple: It’s our interest charges. The third-largest expense in this government’s budget is interest charges, at $10.6 billion. Interest charges are expected to rise by about $4 billion by 2017.

Talking about the debt and interest charges may not seem like an exciting conversation. However, it has deep implications for the province of Ontario. That $4 billion represents a 36% increase in interest charges. By 2017-18, Ontarians will see over $14 billion of their money going to pay foreign bondholders. Just think of all the long-term-care beds we could buy, the schools we could renovate, the roads we could build and repair with $14 billion. Sadly, that money will go towards foreign nations who hold our bonds, so they can invest in their own health care, their own schools and their own roads.

How did we get to the point where the third-largest expense in Ontario’s budget is interest? It’s pretty easy to figure out. Every household in this province knows that the more debt you have on your credit card, the more interest you pay. The only simple solution to this is to reduce your spending. Unfortunately, this government seems to have a compulsion to spend taxpayer money. Never once have they demonstrated restraint in the last 10 years. In fact, they have increased spending by $48 billion since they took power.

The McGuinty-Wynne Liberals, with their tax-and-spend ways, are the sole reason Ontario finds itself where it is today. We now have a debt for every man, woman and child equal to $20,000. That means my nine-year-old daughter is on the hook for $20,000 of this government’s debt. Each and every one of these pages here today is on the hook for $20,000 of debt because of the spending of this government.

Despite the knowledge that you know how much debt we’re in, the government continues spending unabated. What’s worse, in their desperation to maintain their power they have added $1 billion in spending initiatives to get NDP support. This is the danger when you have two tax-and-spend parties trying to exert their influence. The real problem gets swept under the rug in favour of more spending. Mind you, throwing taxpayer money away to hold onto power is not a new theme to this government. We only need to look at the gas plant scandal, where the government threw away over $585 million to save a few seats in the GTA.

The abuse of the tax dollars needs to stop. We need a new team, one that will actually rein in spending and reduce the debt burden, for the sake of our children and grandchildren. This budget shows me that the Liberals can’t, and the third party’s demands on spending shows me the NDP won’t.

I’d like to turn for a minute to the RBC to see what they had to say about this budget. The expert RBC economists have put together a helpful briefing note evaluating this government’s budget. The report relies on some economist talk, so I’ll take the liberty and do some translating.

The first thing our friends at RBC felt the need to point out is that the budget “did not represent a departure from budgets of the past four years in terms of the general fiscal plan.” In other words, we’re stuck with the McGuinty brand of fiscal management, or lack thereof.

Whatever this government tries to say about how they are different from the tax-and-spend McGuinty team, the devil is in the details. The details are a 3% increase in spending this year, or $3.6 billion more in total. While we’re at it, we should note that spending last year increased by only 0.9%. So not only is this government not decreasing spending, it’s not even reducing the rate at which spending grows. When you’re speeding towards a cliff in a car, you hit the brakes. Unfortunately, this government has hit the accelerator.

The other interesting thing the RBC economists said of the Liberals’ approach to this year’s budget is that they’ve “left the back end of the plan—fiscal years 2016-17 and 2017-18—more ‘aspirational’ in nature.” What exactly is meant by “aspirational”? Quite simply, it means the government is putting off the real spending restraint for another three years. That is, of course, if you believe they have the ability to do it at all. The problems in this province are not difficult to figure out, but they are hard to do.

The Liberals continue to kick the can down the road and hope for the best, but we have to restrain spending today, not tell people that we’ll get to it tomorrow if we feel like it.

In any case, this government can deliver platitudes about challenges Ontarians face and our need to work together to solve problems, but the fact remains that they don’t even know what the problem is. Their budget proves it. Despite the fact that we’ve been telling them for the past year that spending is a problem, they continue to leave the floodgates open to fund inefficient programs and, of course, to cover scandalous blunders like Ornge, eHealth and the Mississauga and Oakville gas plants.

When I talk to my constituents, they are upset, and rightly so. Constituents of mine from all walks of life are making decisions every day to live within their means. They’re paying down credit card debt, making mortgage payments and sacrificing nice-to-haves so they can meet their obligations. They don’t understand why the government behaves differently. Why should the government continue to live beyond its means, particularly when it’s on the taxpayer dime?

In my riding, the situation has been compounded by the exodus of jobs over the last few years: 6,300 in total, with another 300 that occurred at the end of May. Our Timken plant has closed. People are struggling to find work and as a result are tightening their belts, and yet the government continues to drive up our debt and drive business out of this province. That is the second major deficiency of this budget: It has no job plan.

Sure, the government will talk circles as it tries to explain what it has done for the economy and employment. The bottom line is, our debt continues to go up, hydro rates are skyrocketing, excess bureaucracy hampers business, and our young tradespeople can’t find apprenticeships. The budget does not address any one of these things.

I’d like to use an analogy that my colleague from Thornhill said when he talked about the government’s role in job creation. It’s actually an analogy he modified from Martin Regg Cohn’s editorial piece. It goes like this: If you set the table properly, your guests will want to come to dinner. In order to set the table for the dinner that is job growth and economic prosperity, you need to address the issues I’ve highlighted earlier: balancing the budget and paying down the debt. It’ll bolster one crucial factor at the foundation of the economy: confidence.

It signals to potential investors that our government’s house is in order and can provide all the things a government is expected to, like health care, education and infrastructure. It also increases the capacity of a government to offer tax breaks in the future, which factors largely into a company’s decision to invest.

We’ve all seen in Greece what happens when you lose confidence. There’s not an investor or a business who wants to take a risk and put their money there.

Another factor that drives business investment decisions is the cost of hydro. There is no one else responsible for skyrocketing hydro rates than the Liberal Party. Thanks to them, economist Ross McKitrick has calculated, Ontario’s hydro rates will soon be the highest in North America. If you want to locate a factory somewhere, why would you do it in a province with prohibitive hydro rates?

The government also needs to realize that every piece of regulation they create is more time a business owner has to spend filling out paperwork than working on his or her business. Bureaucracy adds to the business’s direct cost, but it also costs in terms of lost economic activity, a cost equal to $11 billion, according to the CFIB.

Speaking of bureaucracy, this government refuses to acknowledge what a terrible idea the College of Trades is. The College of Trades has raised fees on small business owners in my riding, all to fund an $87-million bureaucracy that remains committed to keeping our trades ratios as restrictive as possible.

It is really is a shame. I see too many of our young adults leaving Elgin county for Alberta because they can’t get apprenticeship jobs here. The great irony is that at the same time we’re also experiencing a skilled trade shortage, yet the government refuses to do the sensible thing, which is to reduce the apprenticeship ratios to 1 to 1, where they should be. The bottom line is that this government’s budget neglects these issues. Going back to the analogy, they are refusing to set the table at all.

Madam Speaker, if you’ll let me, I have a quick fable I’d like to discuss here, and I think it really talks about what’s going on in this government.

Interjection: Aesop?

Mr. Jeff Yurek: I don’t think it’s Aesop. I don’t have from who it is. I’ll get it to the House, though.

One day, a scorpion looked around at the mountain where he lived and he decided that he wanted a change. So he set out on a journey through the forests and hills. He climbed over rocks and vines and kept going until he reached a river.

The river was wide and swift, and the scorpion stopped to reconsider its situation. He couldn’t see all the way across. So he ran upriver and then checked downriver, all the while thinking that he might have to turn back.

Suddenly, he saw a frog sitting in the rushes on the bank of the stream on the other side of the river. He decided to ask the frog to help him get across the stream.

“Hello, Mr. Frog,” cried the scorpion across the water. “Would you be so kind as to give me a ride on your back across the river?”

“Well, now, Mr. Scorpion. How do I know that if I try to help you, you won’t try to kill me?” asked the frog hesitantly.

“Because,” the scorpion replied, “if I try to kill you, then I would die too, for you see I cannot swim.”

Now, this seemed to make sense to the frog. But he asked, “What about when I get close to the bank? You could still try to kill me and get back to the shore.”

“That is true,” agreed the scorpion, “but then I wouldn’t be able to get to the other side of the river.”

“All right, then. How do I know you won’t just wait till we get to the other side and then kill me?” said the frog.

“Ah,” crooned the scorpion, “because you see, once you’ve taken me to the other side of this river, I will be so grateful for your help that it would hardly be fair to reward you with death, now would it?”

So the frog agreed to take the scorpion across the river. He swam over to the bank and settled himself near the mud to pick up his passenger. The scorpion crawled onto the frog’s back, his sharp claws prickling the frog’s soft hide, and the frog slid into the river. The muddy water swirled around them, but the frog stayed near the surface so the scorpion would not drown. He kicked strongly through the first half of the stream, his flippers paddling wildly against the current.

Halfway across the river, the frog suddenly felt a sharp stinging pain in his back, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the scorpion remove his stinger from the frog’s back. A deadening numbness began to creep into his limbs.

“You fool,” croaked the frog. “Now we shall both die! Why on earth did you do that?”

The scorpion shrugged, and did a little jig on the drowning frog’s back. “I could not help myself. It’s in my nature.”

They both sank into the muddy waters of the swiftly flowing river.

Madam Speaker, it’s in their nature, and I believe this totally tells us what’s going on. It’s in the nature of this governing party, it’s in the nature of the third party: Tax and spend. I don’t know who wants to be taxing and who wants to be spending, but they go along. It’s in their nature to spend. It’s in their nature not to understand that they’re sending Ontario down a path that is going to be tough to get out of. They’re sending us down a path of no jobs. They’re sending us down a path where we’re going to cut services.

We’re going to end up having to cut health care and education, because they’ve spent so much money that we are so far in debt. It’s in their nature. We can see from examples that have come up in the last few days. We’ve got the Drive Clean program, which the NDP supports; we’ve got the idea of bringing red light cameras to ticket people faster, which the NDP supports; we’ve got photo radar they’ve talked about, which the NDP supports; they want to add 75 cents on phone bills, which the NDP supports; they want to increase the HST on our bills because the NDP supports that as well.

I’m saying the NDP supports that because whatever this government does from this day forward, with their support on the budget, they support everything that this government is going to be doing and they’re taking half the ownership of all the scandals that have occurred in this province over the last 10 years, because to them, if you give them a billion dollars, everything’s okay.

I think the Ontario people have had enough of this problem in Ontario. The best way to hold this government to account is to put them to the polls, to the people, and let them decide. But instead, they’re saying give them a billion dollars and they will support them from here on out. So anything, these new taxes, this new spending that this government is going to come forward with, the NDP is for that. The continuation of lost jobs in this province, the deterioration of our services, our health care, education: The NDP is fully supportive of anything this government does.

Madam Speaker, I think it’s time that the NDP realize what they’ve done to this province by propping up this government.

I don’t understand why the NDP were so high in the polls, and since their leader decided to prop up this government, they’ve disappeared. They had it; they had the election, I think, where they could have possibly become the official opposition. They lost it. I don’t understand why they made that mis-leadership.

Sorry, I digress, Madam Speaker. I’ll get back to my speech here.

Interjections.

Ms. Sylvia Jones: That was part of the fable—

Mr. Jeff Yurek: Yes, the fable is over. We have over half a million people out of work across this province, and this government doesn’t even acknowledge the basic economic fundamentals that drive job creation. No spending restraint, no jobs plan: These are the biggest problems facing our province, and this government refuses to address them.

These problems are not difficult to figure out; they are hard to fix. Perhaps that’s why this government does not act. They would have to make tough decisions that not everyone would like, but these decisions are necessary for the future of our province. True leadership involves making decisions for the betterment of the community, regardless of how unpopular the decisions may be. We have not seen any kind of leadership from this current government. It’s time for a change.

There has only been one person showing true vision and true leadership through these trying times in Ontario. There has only been one person who has laid out a vision for Ontario that would return us to our rightful position as the economic leader of Canada. That person is Tim Hudak, and I’m proud to stand with him and the rest of my colleagues in the PC Party to reject this government’s spending bill.

The best way to fix this scandalous government is to bring them to the polls, this government propped up by the NDP for a billion dollars and a Financial Accountability Office. The best way to hold this government to account is to defeat this government and this budget and take them down to the polls and let the people of Ontario decide, because the way the province is headed down this path, it’s going to be hard to get out. I think we’ve had this experience back in the 1990s when Bob Rae was the Premier of Ontario. It took a man like Mike Harris to turn this government around, create over a million jobs and return to its prosperity.

What this government has done in the last 10 years to this province is disgraceful. All we need to look at is, in the last three years, what we’ve dug up, with scandalous government. The gas plant scandal, in order to save four seats, to spend $585 million plus—just imagine what the Auditor General in August is going to find out, at the end of the summer, about how much more money. When that number comes out, we all know that the NDP is supportive of that government that’s spending that half a billion to a billion dollars in order to save members’ seats.

Madam Speaker, I’d like to take this forward.

Interjections.

Mr. Jeff Yurek: I’d like to hear more about this accountability office. They keep yelling at me. I don’t know how someone could predict that this government is going to waste $2 billion in eHealth. I’m not sure how someone could decide how that could occur in that system. I can see where you’re taking this plan forward, and this is how you’re going to spend the money, but you can’t control what these people do, once they get into power, how they can do that. You can’t control that.

I think this budget shows nothing for jobs. My riding needs jobs. There’s nothing in this budget that’s going to help create an environment so that we can have investment back into this province, so that we can bring jobs back in. I have too many friends who have lost their jobs over the last six years due to this government’s inability to govern: 6,300 jobs lost in my province.

Interjection.

Mr. Jeff Yurek: Well, there are lots of things to stimulate jobs.

Mr. Rosario Marchese: Name them.

Mr. Jeff Yurek: Well, first of all, we’d cut regulations. We would ensure that hydro rates are done being skyrocketed. We’d make it affordable; we’d make it—competition in the marketplace.

The main thing that I can’t believe people don’t agree with: The apprenticeship ratio down to 1 to 1 is the quickest job creator. I talked to the Ontario Electrical League two weeks ago, and they said they’d hire immediately if they had 1-to-1 apprenticeship ratios. That’s stifling the job growth, and I can’t believe the NDP can’t figure that out. I thought they were better than that. But a 1-to-1 ratio is the way—out west, it’s 1 to 2. How can you compete with that? I’ve got people’s friends heading down out west to get jobs. My own nephew had to leave this province because he couldn’t find a job.

This is Ontario. This is the best province in Canada. We should be much better than we are. Why can’t we take simple steps from being the government and get this economy rolling again? Step one: apprenticeship ratios, 1 to 1.

Madam Speaker, we don’t support this budget. We don’t support the NDP-Liberal budget, and we’re going to vote against—

Interjections.

The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Julia Munro): Further debate?

Mr. Steve Clark: I’m pleased to join in the debate this morning. We’ve had a lot of debate on the amendment and the motion, so I want to take people back to exactly what we are debating today, and then also do as some of my colleagues have done, and that’s put some of their constituents’ comments on the record, because I know that when we go back to our ridings—certainly when I was back in my riding on the weekend, I got to attend a lot of events, and I heard loud and clear from the constituents of Leeds-Grenville how disappointed they are in this government’s budgetary policy, how disappointed—

Interjection.

Mr. Steve Clark: You know what? I’m glad the minister mentioned Senator Runciman because Senator Runciman did a tremendous job last night. Unfortunately, because we are in a minority Parliament, we all can’t rush back to our ridings. My riding’s about three and a half hours away. But my wife, Deanna, was at an event that the good senator hosted last evening. It was a fundraiser for Community and Primary Health Care in Brockville that is building a new facility with the help of the province.

The province kicked in probably—I think it’s about $3.7 million; the federal government, roughly $3 million, and there is a local fundraising campaign for about $2.9 million. One of his special guests, I’m sure the minister will be happy, was—

Hon. James J. Bradley: Mike Duffy?

Mr. Steve Clark: No—Dr. Wilbert Keon, who is chair of the Champlain LHIN. He was there. As well, Speaker—through you to the minister—Max Keeping, the former CTV anchor—

Interjection: Newscaster.

Mr. Steve Clark: —newscaster at CTV Ottawa, was also there.

It was a wonderful fundraiser for that great organization. Unfortunately, I don’t have the amount that was raised last night, but I know that certainly that centre of excellence will provide exceptional health care, not just for the people of Brockville, but for other clients that they serve within Leeds–Grenville. I believe—

Hon. James J. Bradley: Give him my best—

Mr. Steve Clark: I will. Minister, I’m glad that you asked. I will extend your best wishes to the senator, and I’m glad that the minister brought that up this morning, because it just happened last night. It was perfect timing. Thank you very much.

Today, the amendment that my friend from Lanark–Frontenac–Lennox and Addington amended the motion with actually was to deal with the fact that the House prorogued. As we all remember, with this terrible gas plant scandal—I believe it’s the worst scandal that’s happened in the history of Ontario. It was a horrible scandal. The government prorogued Parliament. They ran and they hid for four months on the scandal.

Even yesterday, we had revelations in this House of documents that were part of a—I think it’s a fourth or fifth—document dump that the government set forward that they’re contemplating more revenue tools, more taxes. It just seems that this government continues its tax-and-spend ways as we continue to spiral out of control. I’ve said it here in the House many times that we used to be the economic engine of this country, and now we’re the caboose under this Liberal government.

So the member for Lanark–Frontenac–Lennox and Addington tabled an amendment that, in the event that we do prorogue—and that’s always a possibility with this government—Mr. Wilson’s want of confidence motion would still stay on the books and be dealt with at a certain point down the road.

I think, again, if a government has confidence in their governance and their budgetary policy, I don’t know why they would be so concerned about a want of confidence. You would think that the government would welcome setting that vote aside and having a vote between the opposition and the New Democrats. Again, they’ll have to speak for themselves, whether they agree or not, but I certainly agree with the amendment. I think the member has tabled an exceptional

section to be added to this substantive motion, and I hope that members will support it.

The New Democrats—my friend from Trinity–Spadina mentioned this morning the accountability office. On the main motion that the government House leader and the New Democrat House leader dreamt up without my House leader’s input—

Interjection: Dreamt up?

Mr. Steve Clark: Well, they did; they concocted it in one of the backrooms at the Legislature; certainly, our House leader wasn’t involved.

I’m reading the document about the Financial Accountability Officer. You know, I said to one of their members this morning, I think I’m a member of the Financial Accountability Office; it’s called the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. There are 107 members, and we don’t need to start another office or hire more employees or create more bureaucracy. We in this Legislature, the 107 members, to me are the ultimate accountability office. We continue in this House to take away our responsibilities, to take our responsibilities and give them to an appointed position.

Again, I’m not sure why we continue to take powers away from elected members of the Legislature, when ultimately it’s our responsibility to act in a responsible way in this House. Certainly, constituents believe that in a minority Parliament situation we should be doing that. Speaker, I just wanted to put those comments on the record.

I also want to acknowledge that we have some physiotherapists here today. They had a breakfast this morning. Many of them will be meeting with members of the Legislature throughout the day. Last week, during the budget debate on the budget motion, I had put some comments on the record from Gary Rehan, who is a physiotherapist. He provides services at Rosebridge Manor. Gary is here today; I got to talk to him. Certainly he’s very concerned about what’s happening on August 1, when the government’s proposed changes take place. I put them on the record last week, and I hope that other members, during debate today, will take the chance to put forward some of their ideas.

They’re very concerned about the delisting of physiotherapy services. Members who attended the breakfast this morning agreed that they obviously were very concerned. They wanted to get their message out. They wanted us to know about services in not just retirement homes but long-term-care homes, and as well in other settings. I had 20 members from a seniors’ exercise group at the Executive Condominium call my office with concern about their twice-a-week programs.

When you hear about an exercise program—I asked the physiotherapists this morning, “Just what does that mean?” I was pleased to note that there’s also one-on-one physiotherapy being done at that time. Certainly they told me that the work that they do in those home settings helped prevent those residents from ending up in a retirement home. As well, there have been cases that Gary mentioned to me this morning, where he’s worked at the long-term-care home, been able to provide his physiotherapy services, and people have then transitioned back into retirement homes, some even back into their own homes.

So I think it’s a very important service that they provide. I appreciate the fact that they came to the Legislature today and had the breakfast. I commend them for the information they gave members. I know the minister was here this morning during prayers, and we had a bit of banter back and forth with her. We sort of joked that she should go downstairs and have breakfast with the group. She obviously articulated what her position was, and I appreciate that. But one of the things that rang clear this morning at this breakfast was that these physiotherapists were not consulted. They felt shut out of the process, and I think we all agree that in a minority Parliament that shouldn’t happen.

We should be able to take a step back from some of these announcements and have some meaningful dialogue with people who provide physiotherapy services in our communities. We owe it to them. They look after the most vulnerable in our community, and I think we shouldn’t move ahead on this without taking a step back and consulting the people who provide this front-line physiotherapy service. I wanted to put that on the record, Speaker.

I also wanted to make sure I spoke about a family in my riding of Leeds–Grenville. One of the areas where I think this government has let down people is in the area of health care. We’ve heard the minister boast from time to time that, in her opinion, she’s doing a wonderful job. But the reality is that individual MPPs like me hear from constituents dealing with the health care system, and they have something entirely different to say.

As I mentioned just a few moments ago, seniors in Leeds–Grenville have been contacting me every day to speak out about the dramatic cuts they see to physiotherapy services. As many members found out this morning, the clock is ticking on that August 1 implementation date, and again, I want to thank them for coming.

What disturbs Ontarians when they read about either these physiotherapy cuts or the lack of inspections at long-term-care facilities is the contrast we have in the stories like eHealth and the gas plant scandal. You’ve got billions of dollars that are being poured down the drain on the gas plant scandal and eHealth. I think what we need to say is, we need to look after some of our people who are vulnerable.

In Leeds–Grenville, the people I want to talk about today, who are very concerned that there’s money for those types of scandals, and there’s no money for health care, is a family called the Smith family. Duane and his wife, Christine, have been forced to raise $200,000 to pay for surgeries for their son, Charlie, and their sister, Jessica, who have had surgeries within—she certainly had surgeries over the past six months. They suffer from Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, or EDS. They require a life-saving treatment that is provided by a leading-edge surgeon in the United States in Maryland.

I can remember going to Charlie’s house just close to Athens and seeing him prior to his surgery in December. He was in his bed, which was a place he had basically been in for most of that year. Despite an ailment that left him bedridden, doctors here essentially looked at him and said there was nothing they could do for him. Specialists the family visited earlier that year said that it was either in Charlie’s head, or his family should basically put him in a long-term-care home. The doctors didn’t really care to learn about the new methods that were provided in the US.

In fact, one, when they knew they had contacted their member of provincial Parliament, actually tried to get him to sign a form saying he wouldn’t share his file or any of the conversation they had with the doctor. Without that signature from that specialist on that OHIP out-of-country form, there’s definitely no coverage for his surgery in Maryland. That was a change the government ushered in quietly some time ago without much fanfare.

But I want to tell you, Speaker, that the community did come through for Charlie. He got that first surgery, despite the minister’s or this government’s policy. After 14 hours of surgery, he was up and walking for the first time in months. I can tell you, it was a pretty emotional time when Charlie walked into my constituency office just after New Year’s. I couldn’t believe that here was a gentleman who had been bedridden, who surgeons had basically written off and, like I said, said it was in his head or said there was nothing in Canada we could do for him.

To have him walk through—first of all, I didn’t know he was that tall; he’s about six foot four. He really had a smile on his face and was very, very happy.

Now it’s his sister, Jessica, who has recently had two EDS-related surgeries in Maryland. She has basically gotten the same response from doctors and specialists here, even though she was able to show them the videos of Charlie and what happened to him before his surgery and what he’s like today.

Again, thanks to the minister’s policies, there’s no specialist sign-off. The Smith family can’t even plead their case for out-of-country coverage with OHIP, and it’s because of that change and the fact that no specialist will sign that form that they can’t even plead to try to get their money.

But I am happy to tell you that Jessica is doing very well. She’s on her way back home to Leeds–Grenville, but certainly the family struggles to pay for her treatment. It will go on and on, probably for years.

I can’t say it any better than Jessica did. She made a posting on her Facebook page over the weekend and I promised her that I would read the posting into the record this morning.

This is from Jessica:

“I am noticing improvements every day, and I am just so happy and thankful to have been able to come here once again for this doctor to save my life, after being let down so badly by doctors in Canada. I know I wouldn’t be here without all of your love, generosity, and support, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. Since I began suffering from EDS almost eight years ago, dealing with doctors here has always been a struggle—I often say that sometimes it is more painful and exhausting than dealing with EDS itself.

Every time I have to plead with doctors to believe me, or believe in EDS, it breaks me just a little more inside. These encounters where I have to fight for my dignity with the ones who are responsible for caring for me, is itself one of the biggest barriers to me improving my health. But when I am here in Maryland, where EDS patients are seen just as often as non-EDS patients, there is no more struggle. We are believed, accepted, and treated with dignity and respect by the entire medical profession.

The work these doctors are nurses are doing here for people with EDS is healing in every way imaginable ... they aren’t just healing my joints, they are truly healing my soul. They treat me like a real person, they really ‘get’ my disorder, and sincerely care about my well-being. Someday, Canada will get there too, but right now our system right now is broken in so many ways. What we can do for now is raise awareness, and hope that the people that need to listen, will listen.”

As we debate the motion today and consider whether this government has the confidence of Ontarians, I’m thinking about Charlie and Jessica. I’m hoping that the health minister and her staff will listen not to me, but to Jessica’s heartfelt words.

I’ve talked to the minister a number of times. I think the last time we had a substantive conversation about this was back in November on a conference call. I wasn’t particularly happy with the response that the minister had given not to me, but to the EDS community, so I’m hoping that if she won’t listen to me she’ll at least listen to Jessica and Charlie. How many like them could get the treatment they need without having to rely on the kindness of neighbours and strangers if we had a government that put the people’s interests ahead of their own?

If someone wants to know why I am debating the motion today, it’s because the last thing we need is to speed the budget through. This is our opportunity as members of the Legislative Assembly to hold the government to account and to explain how their reckless mismanagement of Ontario’s finances is dealing with the people we represent.

I promised the Smiths that I would make sure their words were on the record. I could have brought them here and put them in the west members’ gallery and put a question to the minister during question period. I don’t think the family—they’ve travelled enough, to go to Maryland, and I don’t think we need to bring them up here. What we need is we need the government to act. I wanted to make sure that I used the opportunity this morning to represent them, I hope in a respectful way.

I really would hope that the government would look at what the opposition has been saying. Some of my colleagues have talked about some of the policies that we’ve developed over the last year. I think we’ve shown time and time again that we’re not just objecting; we’re also proposing some ideas. I hope that I’ve been able to do that this morning. Speaker, I just want to thank you for giving me this opportunity.

Debate deemed adjourned.

The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Julia Munro): It is 10:15. This House stands recessed until 10:30.

The House recessed from 1016 to 1030.

INTRODUCTION OF VISITORS

Mr. Ted Chudleigh: I’m very pleased to welcome 25 physiotherapists from my riding who are in the House today. I’m not able to name them all individually, but they join us in the gallery in opposition to the government’s upcoming cuts physiotherapy services. I support them and the excellent care that they are providing for seniors and families in Halton. I was pleased to read their petition last Thursday.

Hon. Eric Hoskins: I am pleased to welcome members from CJPAC, the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee, to Queen’s Park today. Hi guys. With us in the House today are Laura Sohinki—the associate director of outreach—Rachel Devon, Michelle Gordon, Alon Sone, Aidan Fishman and Shir Barzilay.

Mr. Monte McNaughton: I would like to welcome to Queen’s Park today the family of page Andréa Franche: her mother, Christine; her father, Gino; sister Alyssa; brother Nicholas; grandmother Eileen; and grandfather William. They’ll be in the members’ gallery this morning.

Mr. Gilles Bisson: I would like to welcome all the physiotherapists who are here in great numbers in order to highlight their cause, and hopefully the government is going to mend their ways.

Hon. Teresa Piruzza: I would like to echo the welcome to page captain Andréa Franche’s family, who is with us here today. We have Eileen and William Burke, the very proud grandparents from Windsor, as well as the rest of the family: Nicholas, Alyssa, Christine and Gino. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Mr. John O’Toole: Welcome to the physiotherapists, but more specifically, Tony Melles, as well as Meagan Mabady and Patricia Kimmerly, all providing services to seniors in Ontario.

Mr. Taras Natyshak: I would like to welcome, in the members’ west gallery, my constituency assistant from Essex, Jody Percy, who is here for his first ever live viewing of question period.

Mr. Michael Harris: I’d like to welcome a good friend of mine, and president of Arvan Rehab, Bill Arvanitis, who’s joining us in the members’ gallery. Enjoy.

Mr. Jack MacLaren: I’d like to introduce guests who are physiotherapists: Gary Rehan, who’s from my riding—Gary, do you want to stand up?—also John Fragis, Judy Wong and Beth Tsai, and all the other physiotherapists who’ve joined us today.

Ms. Catherine Fife: I would like to recognize today our page captain, Jeffrey Lin, a grade 7 student from Laurelwood Public School in Waterloo. As well, Jeffrey’s mother is here with us today, Lily Lin. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

M me France Gélinas: I would like to introduce Tony Melles, the executive director of the Designated Physiotherapy Clinics Association; Toula Reppas, the president of the Designated Physiotherapy Clinics Association; Tina Bishai; Karen Fisher; and Bill Arvanitis. Fellow physiotherapists, welcome to Queen’s Park.

Hon. Charles Sousa: I wish to welcome in the members’ gallery three individuals, officials from Portugal, from the island of Madeira: Doutor Conceição Almeida Estudante, who’s a minister and a regional secretary of Madeira; as well as Mr. Gonçalo Nuno dos Santos, also an advisor to the regional secretary; and the Consul General of Portugal in Toronto, Doutor Júlio Vilela. Welcome to Queen’s Park. Bemvindo.

Mr. Frank Klees: I also want to welcome representatives of the physiotherapy profession who are here today. I want to thank them for the valuable services they provide, especially to seniors across our province. We wish them well in their lobbying of this government today.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I’m going to take a moment to address the issue of introductions. It was designed by the previous Speaker to introduce individuals who have come to visit us. No other comments were asked to have been made, and I’d appreciate it if members would always stay to that process. You have members’ statements and everything else to do that. Thank you.

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. I’m not seeking any dialogue on that either.

It is now time for question period.

ORAL QUESTIONS

USER FEES

Mr. Tim Hudak: My question is to the Premier. Premier, I call your attention to your treasury board—Management Board of Cabinet—document called 2013-14 Non-Tax Revenue Proposals. Initially when I raised concerns about the $270 million in proposed Wynne-Liberal tax grabs, your finance minister said I was making it up. Then he proceeded to say, when I presented him with a copy of the document, that, “Okay, you weren’t making it up, but the bureaucrats made this up.” I guess the bureaucrats made him do it.

Premier, frankly, I don’t think that’s probably true. I guess my question for you is, who ordered the government-wide increase in user fees? Was it you or was it your finance minister? Please tell us: Whose bright idea was this from the get-go?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: You know, I appreciate the question from the Leader of the Opposition. I know that the Leader of the Opposition has sat in cabinet, and I know he understands that what responsible government does is look at a range of options in discussing policy development, in discussing a budget. So I know that the Leader of the Opposition understands that the document that was circulated was an early draft. It contains ideas that were actually rejected in the planning process.

But what it demonstrates is that this government looks at a range of options. Civil servants bring forward information; they bring forward possibilities. Then that discussion happens, and the politicians make decisions about how they’re going to go forward.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Tim Hudak: Back to the Premier, who seems to be following this line of reasoning that the bureaucrats suddenly came up with this: I think what it clearly demonstrates is an insatiable Liberal appetite to increase taxes across the board. If there is a pocketbook out there that has not yet been fleeced, you’ve got a big target on it.

Let me give you some examples of your more than 50 fee increases across the province. If you use a phone or a cellphone, you want to make it more expensive. If you drive a car or a truck, you want to make it more expensive. If you’re a family who likes to take the kids fishing or camping, the Wynne-McGuinty Liberals want to make it more expensive.

Premier, why is it that you’re always lecturing Ontarians that they need to tighten their belts when you’ve done not one single thing to tighten your own? When is enough enough?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: So, really, what the Leader of the Opposition is talking about is what I believe is a prudent planning process. It is only prudent that government would look at a range of options.

The issues and initiatives that the Leader of the Opposition is raising are things that were not included in our budget, that were not included in our planning process. But to suggest that somehow it would be prudent of government not to look at a full range of options is just not reasonable.

I was not suggesting that the civil service brought forward these suggestions without them being requested. The reality is that our government says, “Let’s look at all the possibilities. Let’s look at what we should”—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): That’s about the level it should be. I’m hearing it from both sides, those giving the answer and those asking the question, so please refrain.

Premier, wrap up, please.

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Officials across government need to plan for numerous scenarios. You cannot do that unless you have all the information. We have worked with all the information.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Final supplementary.

Mr. Tim Hudak: Speaker, respectfully, back to the Premier, she says they’re looking at numerous scenarios. It’s not true. The only scenario you look at is how to take more money out of the pockets of hard-working Ontario men and women.

Quite frankly, Premier, when we have 600,000 women and men who wake up every morning with no job, they look at themselves in the mirror and try to convince themselves that today they’ll get that job. At the end of the day, at the end of the week, they still have no job. Not a single job will be created by this increase in taxes across the board from telephones to driver registrations to the cost of taking your kids camping.

I guess the basic question to the Premier is, if you’re truly looking at a range of options, where are your options in terms of reducing spending, cancelling outdated programs and getting spending under control? Why do you always look at taxes? Why don’t you actually try to cut spending for a change?

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Be seated, please. Thank you.

Premier?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: The initiatives the Leader of the Opposition is talking about are things that were not adopted by this government. I don’t know how to make it more clear. We did not go with these options. We looked at them. We talked about them. The civil service talked about them. They were options that were brought forward. We did not go forward with them.

What’s in our budget are initiatives that are going to create jobs in this province: a youth employment process, youth employment funds that are going to create jobs for young people across the province; investment in health care, in home care, that is going to allow people in their homes to get the care they need; infrastructure investment that is going to create the conditions for the job creation that industry can do. That’s what’s in our budget. What the member opposite is talking about are initiatives that are not in our plan.

USER FEES

Mr. Tim Hudak: I’ll try the finance minister on his document, because clearly the Premier hasn’t read it yet. Your own document talks about, on page 3, that you’ve actually approved a number of fee hikes already. It says, “Proposals approved in principle.”

The others are things that you say may or may not be on the table; you said they’re not adopted. I think what the Premier forgot to say is “yet.”

So I’ll ask the finance minister: Yesterday, you said you ruled out photo radar but that basically means you’re ruling the other 49 in. Let’s try this again. The Premier says these things are not happening. Will you today say that you’re not going to put a new tax on phones and cellphones in the province? Tell us that.

Hon. Charles Sousa: If the member opposite had bothered to read the budget, he’d very clearly understand that none of those issues were adopted. We were very clear in our budget in 2012 that we would review certain items. The PCs are obviously playing games with documents that we released in good faith to them in the justice committee. We would expect them to have the responsibility—they asked us not to redact anything, so we released everything. And now they’re using various documents—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I’ll start—

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Stop the clock a moment, please. Regrettably, I couldn’t pinpoint the exact place where that word came from. But if that member knows they said that, I’ll allow them to stand and withdraw.

Now, that goes for all members, while I’m standing, that I’m making an attempt to try to bring decorum to the House.

Wrap up please, Finance Minister.

Hon. Charles Sousa: As a result of the prudent measures we’ve taken, we’ve beaten our targets consistently year over year over the last three or four years; $21 billion has been reduced from our targets, last year alone $5 billion. We’re controlling our spending. We’re taking the measures necessary to renew our economy.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Tim Hudak: Again, I don’t think the minister addressed my question. In fact, Minister, your document says you have approved $22 million in new fee increases. Again, it’s on page 3 of your document that I gave you yesterday, and I’m happy to give you another copy, if needed. The others are on the table.

Now, the Premier says that they weren’t in the budget, and if I understand that conclusion, therefore they’re not going to be adopted. So if it’s that simple, just tell us straight up today. I think you owe it to Ontarians not to have another sneaky tax increase like you did you with the eco tax. Tell us, is there a tax coming on the phone bill or the cellphone bill? It’s in your document. The Premier says it’s off the table. Yesterday, you said photo radar was off the table, so the next big thing: Please tell us, are you taking the phone tax off the table? Is it on the table? Are you going to try to sneak it in?

Hon. Charles Sousa: The member opposite—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Look, that is enough. I will be coming to individual members.

Minister?

Hon. Charles Sousa: The member opposite is taking documents—these are documents of early provisions and early ideas that were not adopted. The officials that have provided these documents have done so—and they’ve assessed a variety of risks—in the public interest and in an appropriate manner. We, however, will not be playing games with these documents, as the member opposite is trying to do. We’ve been transparent and we haven’t wavered.

More importantly, our budget in 2013 has very clearly outlined some of the challenges ahead, and we recognize that there are difficult choices to make, choices that the opposition is not prepared to make in the end. So we will continue to do what’s right in the public interest. We will consult with Ontarians, and we will take the actions necessary for their benefit.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Final supplementary.

Mr. Tim Hudak: I’m finding the finance minister’s answer, respectfully, a little slippery here. Yesterday, you said I was making this up, and then you said, “Okay, they’re in the document, but we’re not doing them.” Then you say, “Photo radar is off the list, but the other ones are still on the table.” You said they’re not in the budget; therefore, they’re not going to have them. But then you seem to be saying, “Okay, we’re maybe going to have them.”

Just cut aside all this grey area. Just stand up in your place and tell us yes or no. What’s on the table? What’s off the table? Minister, are you bringing in a brand new tax on cellphones—crystal clear—yes or no?

Hon. Charles Sousa: If the member opposite wants clarity, read the budget. That is what we’re doing.

LONG-TERM CARE

Ms. Andrea Horwath: My question is for the Minister of Health. Three years ago, the Liberal government promised to conduct thorough, proactive inspections of all 600 long-term-care homes in Ontario by December 31, 2011. Can the minister tell us how many of these inspections the ministry actually completed?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: What I can tell the member opposite is that every long-term-care home in the province of Ontario is visited by an inspector at least once a year. On average, there are 3.7 inspections per year per home.

We have changed how we conduct inspections. I think it is absolutely important—vitally important—that when someone we love goes into a long-term-care home, we have the confidence that they are going to receive nothing but the finest possible care there. If there are things we can do to strengthen inspections, then I am absolutely prepared to look at those options. But I can guarantee you that all of our long-term-care homes receive inspections every year at least.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Out of the 600 homes in this province, the government only proactively inspected 123 homes. Is this minister finally going to admit that she broke her promise to seniors?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: Speaker, what I can tell you is that we have changed how we inspect long-term-care homes. They are much more resident-focused. They begin with interviewing residents, staff members and family members, so we have a more thorough understanding of the quality of care from the perspective of the residents. That is a philosophy that we have embraced, and it influences all of the inspections.

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member from Hamilton East–Stoney Creek, come to order.

Hon. Deborah Matthews: It’s important that everyone—and I’m talking now to the public, who need to have confidence in long-term-care homes, that the homes are inspected, the standards are high. There are many initiatives under way to improve the quality of care in long-term-care homes. We have more inspectors inspecting, and the inspections are more thorough.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Final supplementary.

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Last week, in her local paper, the Minister of Health insisted that the government had never made such a commitment, saying, “The intent was never to do full inspections in all homes.” Is the minister now prepared to admit that that statement that she made to her paper last week was incorrect, that the Liberal government did promise these thorough inspections would take place, and that they have utterly failed to undertake them?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: Speaker, I did not have the correct information when I spoke to that particular reporter; I had incorrect information. I now have the correct information, and that is why I’ve gone back to my officials and said, “We’ve been conducting inspections this way for about three years. Let’s take a good hard look. How is it working? Are there things we can do to improve inspections?” I think that’s the responsible thing to do.

As minister, I take that responsibility seriously. We are taking another look at the whole inspection protocol for long-term-care homes.

LONG-TERM CARE

Ms. Andrea Horwath: The minister is quoted in her local paper saying, “Now, that I look at the documents and talk to ministry officials, I understand that initially (full inspections) were (expected).”

Yesterday, the minister claimed in this House that homes were being inspected, but that is not true, Speaker, at least according to the guidelines that her ministry set out. How is it that the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care doesn’t know the proper guidelines for the inspections that she herself promised?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: Well, Speaker, here we go again. Let’s be really clear. Every home is inspected at least once every year. So to suggest that homes are not being inspected is absolutely false. I think it’s important to understand that there are three different kinds of inspections. There are inspections that are the result of complaints or critical incidents, and we’re working very hard to increase the number of complaints that are reported so we can get into those homes and fix what’s going on.

There are other inspections that are performed. When in fact there have been no complaints about a particular home, there is a proactive annual inspection there. In addition, there are RQI inspections, which take a team of three people about 10 days. They’re very intensive. Those are the inspections that we have to look and see if there is a way to do more of them.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Speaker, it is a disgrace that this minister refuses to acknowledge publicly that they only inspected 123 of the 600 homes that they were supposed to have had inspected, and she needs to come clean on the facts in this regard. The inspection process promised by the government would mean inspectors would show up unannounced each and every year and could conduct thorough, proactive inspections so that crises could be prevented before they actually happen.

Seniors and their families have seen serious issues emerge in the long-term-care sector, in long-term-care homes, in this province, and the government had promised action on this file. Does the government have any intention whatsoever of keeping that promise to inspect every single home each and every year so that seniors can be kept safe in their facilities?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: Speaker, with respect, I think it is a disgrace that the leader of the third party is creating the impression that homes are not inspected, because they are inspected.

Let me just repeat some of the numbers from yesterday. In 2003, there were—

Mr. Paul Miller: You’re a disgrace. You should resign.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member from Hamilton East–Stoney Creek, second time.

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Northumberland, first time.

Hon. Deborah Matthews: —inspectors inspecting long-term-care homes. That includes seven new inspectors who were hired last year.

Since July 2010, there have been more than 6,700 inspections of long-term-care homes. Last year, there were 2,347 inspections. That is an average of 3.7 times per year, and every home receives at least one inspection a year.

Once complete, the inspection reports are published to the ministry’s website, so we have increasing transparency for the people of Ontario. We are also looking—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. Final supplementary.

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Speaker, this has nothing to do with impressions; it has everything to do with the fact that this ministry broke its promise to inspect these homes in a proactive way. It’s got nothing to do with impressions, just the facts.

The government promised to conduct thorough proactive inspections of 600 long-term-care homes each and every year. Three years later, 477 homes in this province still haven’t had an inspection. When the minister was confronted with this fact, she denied ever making that promise at all. For seniors and their families, I have to say it is a stinging indictment of a government that seems more concerned with protecting itself yet again than with protecting the needs of the people in these long-term-care—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Stop the clock. I’m finding that some of the heckling that’s coming from somewhere else other than the party itself is interfering with my ability to hear the question.

Wrap up, please, quickly.

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Speaker, this minister needs to stand in her place and admit that she broke her promise, that it’s a problem and she has to fix it and protect the interests of seniors in long-term-care facilities.

Hon. Deborah Matthews: Let me repeat, Speaker: I have asked our ministry officials to come back with ways to strengthen long-term-care home inspections, because I do think it’s important that people have confidence in the quality of care they receive in long-term-care homes.

The member opposite is mixing up the facts. The facts are very, very clear. There were 2,347 inspections last year alone. Every home receives at least one inspection, on average 3.7.

There are a number of other initiatives that are really focusing on improving the quality of care in long-term-care homes, whether it’s the Residents First program that is measuring and increasing the quality in various quality care, whether it’s the 10,000 more people working in long-term-care homes, whether it’s the 500 new behavioural support workers there—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you.

PHYSIOTHERAPY SERVICES

Mrs. Christine Elliott: My question is to the Minister of Health. Minister, as you know, hundreds of physiotherapists have come here today to represent seniors and to protest your government’s changes to physiotherapy services in Ontario.

After consulting with organizations that currently provide front-line services, we’ve learned that your ministry developed these changes without consulting the designated physiotherapy clinics, the Ontario Retirement Communities Association or the Ontario Long Term Care Association. There is serious concern among these organizations, and even among your LHINs and CCACs, that the proposed changes will result in significant cuts to services provided to seniors.

Minister, will you delay these changes until you’ve actually consulted with the physiotherapists and front-line service providers and seniors affected by them?

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Be seated, please. Thank you.

Minister of Health and Long-Term Care.

Hon. Deborah Matthews: Speaker, I find it passing strange that the Conservative Party is standing in the way, protesting change. They seem to call for change to get better value for money, but then when we actually come forward with a way to do that, they resist it. Whether it was our determination to reduce the price of generic drugs or whether it was our determination to control the costs of physician compensation, they talk a good talk but they do not walk the walk.

Let’s be very, very clear about this: The changes we are making to improve physiotherapy services will be able to double the number of seniors in this province who will have access to physiotherapy. I think it’s also important to acknowledge that the Ontario Physiotherapy Association is fully supportive of this change, as are more than 40 designated physiotherapy clinics who are not part of this particular organization, but have their own organization that—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. Supplementary? The member for Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound.

Mr. Bill Walker: My question is for the Minister of Health again—a little rich, Minister, after the eHealth and Ornge boondoggles.

Like most Liberal policies, this physiotherapy direction has disaster written all over it. This is just another short-sighted policy that will hurt Ontarians. Seniors are afraid your plan to provide physio services through LHINs and CCACs will result in drastic cuts to their treatments. While you’re giving us verbal assurances that seniors will not be limited to 12 treatments, the budget for physiotherapy has been set on that basis. We know you spent $200 million last year on physiotherapy for seniors; this year you plan to spend just $156 million. That’s a $44-million cut, Minister, projected in spending.

Minister, are you planning on cutting service to our valued seniors, or blowing yet another budget promise?

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Be seated, please. Thank you.

Minister of Health and Long-Term Care.

Hon. Deborah Matthews: Well, Speaker, I don’t know about you, but I find it passing strange that we could double access to physiotherapy, falls prevention programs—the fact that we could double access and increase our budget by only $10 million, I think that even Conservatives would think that that’s the right thing to do for the people of—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member from Huron–Bruce, come to order.

Hon. Deborah Matthews: As I said, there are many designated physiotherapy clinics—over 40 of them—that are actually working with us to make the appropriate changes. The physiotherapists’ association of Ontario is fully behind these changes.

The old system was broken. It was not getting the outcomes that our seniors deserve to get. Many parts of this province do not have a physiotherapy clinic. In fact, I believe the member from Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound does not have a physiotherapy clinic. Seniors will be able to access physiotherapy.

Interjection: No, they won’t.

Hon. Deborah Matthews: Yes, they will.

TAXATION

Mr. Michael Prue: My question is to the Premier. Nickel-and-diming hard-working Ontarians by imposing a province-wide HST increase and increasing user fees is not our idea of a fair and balanced approach. Why is this government so intent on hitting hard-working Ontarians with a sales tax increase and new user fees while at the same time opening up a new $1.3-billion corporate tax loophole?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: I do have to say that I am astonished by the question from the member for Beaches–East York. It really seems to me that he would understand, having been a mayor of the former East York, that there are people across the GTHA—people who live in his constituency—who need better transit connections around the GTHA. They need to be able to travel from the 416 area into the 905 area. They need to be able to travel back and forth to work, to be able to get their kids from daycare and to get their kids to school.

He would understand that investing in transit and creating a dedicated revenue stream for transit in the GTHA is an investment in the future that is absolutely critical to the economy and to the quality of life of people who live in this region.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Michael Prue: This New Democrat understands only too well that this transit has to be built, and New Democrats at all levels are prepared to do it, but hitting Ontarians with a sales tax increase, raising driver registration fees and adding another gas tax increase while Ontario families are having a tough time balancing the family budget is anything but fair and balanced.

Why is this government so determined to make life more difficult for hard-pressed Ontarians while it continues at the same time to open up new billion-dollar-plus tax loopholes for our wealthiest corporations?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: As the member opposite knows, the Minister of Finance has written to the federal Minister of Finance. This is not a loophole; this is an arrangement that was put in place when the tax regime changed. We have written to the Minister of Finance federally to say that we would like to continue to receive that revenue, but the fact is that without a dedicated revenue stream, we will not be able to make those investments that, quite frankly, should have been made over the last 40 years.

We are playing catch-up because government after government has not made the investments necessary, and investing in transit and infrastructure has to be done in an ongoing way. That’s why we need the dedicated revenue stream. We would love to have the federal government take

part in that and put in place a dedicated revenue stream of federal funding for transit.

But I say to the member opposite: We need the support of the people in this region. We need the support of the parties across the floor to make the investments that will improve the quality of life and improve the economy in the GTHA, because that’s critical for the economy of the province.

ABORIGINAL ECONOMIC

DEVELOPMENT

Mr. Grant Crack: My question is to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs. In this modern economic climate, many people, including those in aboriginal communities, are concerned about finding a good-paying job. It’s widely known that the unemployment rate for aboriginal people is higher than the unemployment rate for non-aboriginal Ontarians. With that said, our government has put in place a number of initiatives and supports to help Ontarians all across the province during these challenging economic times.

Can the minister please tell everyone in this House what our government is doing to ensure that sufficient supports and resources are available specifically for Métis individuals and businesses?

Hon. David Zimmer: Thank you for the question. I do understand the importance of sustainable economic development opportunities for the Métis Nation. The Métis Voyageur Development Fund is providing up to $30 million over 10 years to support Métis businesses. This fund will assist Métis entrepreneurs and Métis businesses and companies in the resource sector to start and expand their business. The goal of the fund is to make strategic investments that will really contribute to the prosperity of the Métis community and Ontario. By supporting Métis economic development, we are supporting economic growth across this province, creating jobs for Métis and creating jobs for all Ontarians.

Our government values and appreciates the strong working relationship we have with the Métis Nation of Ontario, and we will continue to work to improve the well-being of the Métis community, because that helps us to protect everybody’s jobs and everybody’s economic future in Ontario.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Grant Crack: Thank you, Minister. It’s good to hear that we’re moving forward to help create jobs in the Métis community. Having a positive relationship with aboriginal communities allows us to work together to maximize many of the economic opportunities.

I understand, Minister, that this fund will receive provincial support in the form of $3 million a year for 10 years. Can the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs please update us on the status of the Métis Voyageur Development Fund that he mentioned, and details on how this program is helping Métis people in Ontario?

Hon. David Zimmer: In August our government met with Gary Lipinski, the president of the Métis Nation of Ontario, and the Honourable Paul DeVillers, who is the chair and CEO of the fund, as well as his CEO, Steven Morse of the fund, to launch the Métis Voyageur Development Fund. It was impressive to see Métis entrepreneurs and business owners work first-hand with us on this project.

In March, at the Toronto Aboriginal Business Association Awards, we met Michelle Germain, a Métis shop owner who grew up in Sudbury. Michelle was honoured as the Aboriginal Businesswoman of the Year. She transformed her love for fashion into a growing business at a boutique called Shopgirls on Queen Street West. When Shopgirls opened in 2007, Michelle had to scout for designers to feature in her store. Now her inbox is full of designers who are coming to her because they want to be a part of her operation.

This is the kind of thing that the Métis development fund is going to work on. It’s a bright future for Métis—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. New question.

USER FEES

Mr. Frank Klees: My question is to the Minister of Finance. Before I ask my question, I want, on behalf of Ontario families and businesses, to thank our federal finance minister, Jim Flaherty, for standing with us in rejecting this government’s $2-billion tax increase.

But we know that that won’t stop the government either, because they’re looking to turn every government service into another revenue tool. In their non-tax revenue document, appendix after appendix is filled with creative ideas about how this government can go deeper into Ontarians’ pockets.

Schedule A: photo radar, red light cameras—and just to show that nothing is off limits, this minister’s document proposes a 466% hike in the commercial driver’s licence renewal fee for seniors over the age of 65.

I’d like to ask this question: Will anyone in the province be spared from this government’s—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Stop the clock. Be seated, please. Be seated, please. Thank you.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I’ll wait.

Minister of Finance.

Hon. Charles Sousa: I have to say, I would have expected the member opposite to take a little bit more care in the way he asked the question. I recognize the politics; I recognize the combative nature and the theatre that is being played in this House, but we have a much greater responsibility to the people of Ontario.

The member made reference to our federal minister. I appreciate the work the federal minister does. I did not, however, appreciate the fact that he came out with a letter when we’ve asked for nothing. We haven’t put forward any such increases. We have not requested any support. We’ve made clear that we would do it together with the opposition and in consultation with the public. I want to—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Order.

Supplementary?

Mr. Frank Klees: If anyone is confused here, it’s the minister. The fact of the matter is that we know full well that it’s your agency. Everyone knows that you’ve asked for a 1% increase in the HST. The Minister of Finance is simply saying, “It’s not on.” He’s joining us by saying, “It’s not on.”

What we are willing to do is to help the government find $2 billion of dedicated revenue to build our transit. We’ve offered to form an all-party select committee to help him do that so we don’t have to go into the pockets of ordinary, hard-working families and businesses who cannot afford it.

We have a $127-billion budget. Ten years ago, that budget was $71 billion. That is an increase of $56 billion in 10 years. Can we find $2 billion of waste and efficiency? Yes, and we’re willing to help the government, because obviously they can’t—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Order. At the risk of sounding too powerful, you might want to yell as loud as you can, but I have the last word, and I’ll use it.

Minister of Finance.

Hon. Charles Sousa: I think what is confusing here is that the member opposite has just said that we’re increasing the HST. You’re wrong, because that is not what we’re doing. New proposals and recommendations are being made by Metrolinx, by the municipalities, by a number of agencies, by the Toronto board of trade, by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, all recognizing that we have to look at revenues, and we are looking at our spending. That’s why we’ve reduced spending by below 1% year over year. That’s why we have exceeded our targets—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Test laid down; test passed. The member from Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke is warned.

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): And I’ll respond to the opposite side, as well.

Finish your answer, please.

Hon. Charles Sousa: The member opposite also referenced our degree of spending, our degree of our budget. More years before, it was only $27 billion. The fact is, our economy is growing. That also speaks to the growth in our GDP and the strength of our economy.

What we need is a federal government—if they’re writing to us, saying they don’t want to support—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. New question.

PHYSIOTHERAPY SERVICES

Ms. Catherine Fife: My question today is to the Minister responsible for seniors. Minister, why is your government cutting seniors’ access to physiotherapy?

Hon. Mario Sergio: I appreciate the question from the member. I am sure that the minister responsible for health wants to perhaps deal with the supplementary question.

Let me say that as far as we are concerned, 218,000 more seniors are receiving the benefit of physiotherapy. This is the kind of service that we want to provide to our seniors in Ontario. I’m very thankful that the Premier and the Minister of Health are doing everything possible to increase the services we provide to our seniors.

I hope that we’ll get the supplementary, and I will ask the Minister of Health, Speaker.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Catherine Fife: Minister, a cut is a cut is a cut. Last week, I visited residents of Clair Hills retirement home in Waterloo. Physiotherapy services are currently provided at Clair Hills, but seniors there have been told that they will no longer have services after August 1. When I asked the seniors, “Who needs physiotherapy in this room?”, every hand in the room went up.

Our office received a letter from Else Poulsen, whose 88-year-old father is a resident at Luther Village Assisted Living in Waterloo. Else described the gains her father has made in balance, strength, mobility and emotional well-being from using physiotherapy. These gains are threatened because Luther Village will be losing physiotherapy services too.

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Member from Eglinton–Lawrence, come to order—second time.

Ms. Catherine Fife: These are needed services—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Stop the clock.

The member from Eglinton–Lawrence kept talking while I was trying to ask him to stop, and the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities will stop.

Please finish.

Ms. Catherine Fife: These are needed services that improve the lives of seniors across the province.

Minister, can you explain to these seniors, who have been told that they will be losing their physiotherapy services after August 1, how your government will continue to ensure they receive the physio care that they deserve?

Hon. Mario Sergio: Minister of Health.

Hon. Deborah Matthews: Let’s be really clear: Some seniors are being told they will lose services, but it is not true. They are being told that by the companies represented here today—

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The Minister of the Environment—stop the clock. The Minister of the Environment is warned.

Finish your answer, please.

Hon. Deborah Matthews: Let’s be clear: The Ontario Physiotherapy Association strongly supports the changes. There are over 40 designated physiotherapy clinics that are working with us to ensure people get care, but the numbers are important. Because of these changes, because we believe in physiotherapy and we believe in exercise and falls prevention, 68,000 more seniors will have access to exercise and falls prevention programs. All long-term-care residents will receive the one-on-one physiotherapy they need, plus group exercise. In-home physiotherapy will be expanded by 60,000 people and clinic-based physiotherapy will be expanded by 90,000 people.

ELECTRICAL SAFETY

Mr. Steven Del Duca: My question today is for the Minister of Consumer Services. Over the last few weeks, I have heard many news reports about weather mishaps happening all over the province. Ontarians have experienced everything from numerous thunderstorms over a short period of time to large-level flooding to even reports of a tornado touching down in the province. In communities across Ontario, there have also been incidents when powerful thunderstorms have brought down power lines, leaving live wires on neighbourhood roads.

This is a concern with regard to electrical safety, so I’d like to ask the minister to please share with the House how the government ensures that electrical safety is maintained in Ontario.

Hon. Tracy MacCharles: I am very happy that the member from Vaughan has brought up this very important safety concern, and I’m very happy to inform the House. In fact, there is an independent regulatory authority to protect and educate Ontario about electrical safety. That’s called the ESA, the Electrical Safety Authority.

The main focus of the ESA is to enforce Ontario’s electrical safety code, raise awareness and educate people on how to keep safe when handling electric products of all types. In fact, in 2012, the ESA received over 5,000 customer service calls, conducted over 450,000 inspections—that’s 450,000—carried out over 2,000 investigations, and they recalled over 65 unsafe products.

This is a very important agency that is focused on inspections, supporting investigations and monitoring the marketplace to promote product safety.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Steven Del Duca: I thank the minister for her answer. I’m happy to hear more about the Electrical Safety Authority to understand that they are there to protect and educate the public with regard to electrical safety. But in situations involving stormy and unpredictable weather, like we’ve seen over the past number of weeks, I am concerned about further emergencies arising from mishaps involving electricity.

While electricity plays an important

part in our everyday lives, it can also be dangerous, and is made even more dangerous when mixed with water and topped off with other incidents arising from stormy weather.

Can the minister please share with us how people can best protect themselves from dangerous situations involving electricity?

Hon. Tracy MacCharles: I’m always happy to share with this House information to increase public safety and the issues associated with that. The ESA has a model, in fact. It’s called Look Up, Look Out. If there are downed power lines in neighbourhoods, people should take caution, of course, and stay at least 10 metres away. Downed power lines may still be energized and pose danger. Residents should wait for their local electrical utility company to either disconnect or complete repairs before going anywhere near them.

In flooding situations, people should not assume any part of a flooded installation is safe. That includes the main breaker. With regard to appliances that have been wet, you should never attempt to use them until they’ve been checked or serviced by an electrician or a service agency.

I encourage everyone to visit the ESA’s website for more safety tips involving all types of electrical situations.

DRIVE CLEAN

Mr. Michael Harris: My question is to the environment minister. Recently uncovered treasury board documents reveal that the Liberal government has been plotting to charge an additional $18.3 million in Drive Clean fees. Minister, as I’m sure you know from talking with former Environment Minister Norm Sterling, this program was supposed to be phased out 10 years after its inception, as technology and fuel standards improved. Well, that time has come and gone, yet you’re not planning a phase-out. Instead, you’re planning to make the program permanent, and you’ve even—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Complete, please.

Mr. Michael Harris: You’ve even been caught devising a scheme to impose nearly $20 million in new fees.

Minister, will you for once be honest with Ontarians and admit that you’re only continuing this program for the money and not for the environment?

Hon. James J. Bradley: Once again I say here we are in clean air week, tomorrow Clean Air Day, and the Conservative Party is launching its war on clean air. The people of this—

Interjections.

Hon. James J. Bradley: The largest source of smog in the province of Ontario at this time comes from vehicles. This program, which has been endorsed by the Environmental Commissioner, who is appointed by all members of this House, Gordon Miller; by the doctors for the environment, who have said that this is absolutely essential to have—and it’s having a profound effect on improving air quality in this province. Here the Conservative Party is, in Environment Week, launching yet another attack on a program that is having a profound effect, positively, on their—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you.

I believe somebody on this side has been warned; I’m not sure. Just a reminder.

Supplementary?

Mr. Michael Harris: Minister, your responses on this issue prove you’ll stop at nothing to continue this temporary program indefinitely.

Last December, the Auditor General reported that the government collects $30 million a year in fees for Drive Clean, but only spends $19 million to operate the program. That means there’s already an $11-million surplus. Now, recently uncovered treasury board documents reveal you want to secretly hike Drive Clean fees again to increase the surplus to $30 million. When asked about this scheme yesterday, the finance minister would not rule out these fee hikes.

Minister, will you do the right thing today and show some leadership to your tax-and-spend caucus for a change by renouncing this blatant attempt to fleece taxpayers?

Hon. James J. Bradley: As the treasurer of the province said in his response, all of these options are put forward to every government that exists out there. The government rejected those options available.

I have the advantage of having been here when a previous Mike Harris was the Premier of this province. There wasn’t a day that went by that not only did they look at implementing these increases in fees, but they actually implemented them and brought them into effect.

Interjection: Nine hundred and sixty.

Hon. James J. Bradley: The last figure I saw was 978 fee increases under the Conservative government. There’s probably far more; I could not calculate them. I’m trying to get some help from my friend the government House leader—

Interjections.

Hon. James J. Bradley: You people increased fees every day. Our government rejected those fee increases.

HOSPITAL SERVICES

M me France Gélinas: Ma question est pour la ministre de la Santé et des Soins de longue durée. Today, busloads of Ontarians have joined us at Queen’s Park. They come from small, rural and northern communities. They are here to bring attention to the deep cuts their hospitals are facing, in communities like Picton, Prince Edward county, Chatham, Wallaceburg, Perth, Smiths Falls, Iroquois Falls, Quinte West, St. Joseph Island, Manitoulin Island, and the list goes on.

Basic hospital services are being threatened. My question is simple: Does the minister think it is her responsibility to provide hospital services to all Ontarians, or only those living in urban areas?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: Our commitment to small, rural hospitals is strong, because we know how important those hospitals are to those communities, and we want people to get the same access to care, no matter where they live in the province. That’s why we’ve increased our investment in small rural hospitals by $90 million since 2003, and we’ve built four new rural hospitals.

In addition, and I think this is important, our budget—that I hope will be passed—includes a special 1% base increase only for those small rural hospitals, and it builds on something that we did last year, which was a special $20-million transformation fund for those small rural hospitals. We saw fantastic results from that fund this past year, so we are going to continue to do that, not just this year, but into the future as well. Small rural hospitals are a vitally important part of our health care system.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

M me France Gélinas: Ontarians living in small, rural or northern communities need access to hospital services. After years of cuts to their emergency departments, to their acute care services and to dozens of hospital programs, there is only so much a small hospital can take before it, frankly, ceases to function.

This government has been cutting away at small hospitals’ services for so long that most of them are at a breaking point. Is the minister going to listen to the people who are here, who made the trip from rural, northern and small communities, and finally work to protect these unique and vital small, rural and northern hospitals?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: If you call “$90 million more” neglect, then I just simply disagree with that. We do see those small rural hospitals as vital parts of their communities, and patients rely on them. We’re really working hard to bring services closer to home, and many patients can leave—if they need to go to a large urban hospital, they can come home to that small hospital more quickly with the right supports.

We really do see those small rural hospitals as vitally important. That’s why they are getting a 1% base increase; our larger hospitals are not. That’s why they are getting that special transition fund, so they can take advantage of things like telemedicine; they can take advantage of innovation to provide even more care in smaller communities.

AGRI-FOOD INDUSTRY

Mr. Kevin Daniel Flynn: I’ve got a question this morning for the Premier and Minister of Agriculture and Food. The House recently sent the local food bill, Bill 36, on to committee for further study. There are many constituents within my riding of Oakville who are truly pleased with the bill, and they’re very pleased with the support it received from all three parties in this House. The proposed local food bill is understood to be a part of a broader local food strategy, one that’s going to encourage and support agricultural communities, producers and processes right throughout this province.

There’s one question that I have, however, as to how we gauge the success of this proposed bill and how we are to measure the growth and improvement without creating that standard. Speaker, could the minister and Premier speak to the reasons why specific targets were not included in this bill?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: I want to thank the member from Oakville for his question. The local food bill is indeed part of a comprehensive local food strategy and will involve a contribution of $30 million, which was included in our budget—should the budget pass—to provide for the kind of profiling of local food, the kind of public education, and particularly the creation of a positive framework for collaboration among communities, within communities, and all of the producers and processors across the province who are involved in this $34-billion industry. This is a huge industry, and it contributes more than 700,000 jobs to the economy of Ontario.

We’re committed to working with municipalities, working with the sector to make sure that we put in place those targets, those aspirational goals to make sure that we do everything we can to advance the cause of local food across the province.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Kevin Daniel Flynn: Thank you, Premier, for that answer. I understand that encouraging and supporting the local food sector is a province-wide responsibility that’s really popular in my riding of Oakville because it’s one that incorporates into the broader strategy of our local food bill and some