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March 7, 2022

42nd Parliament, 2nd Session

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Hansard Transcripts

Votes and Proceedings

Orders and Notices

Hansard Transcript 2022-Mar-07 (PDF)

L040 - Mon 7 Mar 2022 / Lun 7 mar 2022

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

ASSEMBLÉE LÉGISLATIVE DE L’ONTARIO

Monday 7 March 2022 Lundi 7 mars 2022

Members’ Statements

Health professions

Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program

Long-term care

International Women’s Day

Anti-racism activities

Invasion of Ukraine

International Women’s Day

Invasion of Ukraine

Pamela and Harry Harakh

Health care funding

Visitors

Question Period

Health professions

Home care

Government appointments

Personal protective equipment

Public transit

Child care

Release of public accounts

Health care funding

Gaming control

Mental health and addiction services

Gasoline prices

Health professions

Small business

Social assistance

Affordable housing

Correction of record

Supplementary estimates

Introduction of Bills

Getting Ontario Connected Act, 2022 / Loi de 2022 pour un Ontario connecté

Climate Crisis Health Action Plan Act, 2022 / Loi de 2022 sur le Plan d’action sur la crise climatique et la santé

Long-Term Care Homes Amendment (Till Death Do Us Part) Act, 2022 / Loi de 2022 modifiant la

Loi sur les foyers de soins de longue durée (Jusqu’à ce que la mort nous sépare)

Petitions

Anti-racism activities

Land use planning

Municipal planning

COVID-19 immunization

Gasoline prices

Injured workers

Health professions

Curriculum

Injured workers

Injured workers

Injured workers

Opposition Day

Home care

Answers to written questions

The House met at 1015.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Good morning. Let us pray.

Prayers.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I want to acknowledge that we are meeting on lands traditionally inhabited by Indigenous peoples. We pay our respects to the many Indigenous nations who gathered here, and continue to gather here, including the Mississaugas of the Credit. Meegwetch.

This being the first sitting Monday of the month, I will ask everyone to remain standing for the Canadian national anthem, followed by the royal anthem.

Playing of the national anthem / Écoute de l’hymne national.

Playing of the royal anthem / Écoute de l’hymne royal.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Members may take their seats.

Members’ Statements

Health professions

Ms. Jill Andrew: I’m rising on behalf of my community members in Toronto–St. Paul’s who work as acupuncturists and traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. There are significant portions of the government’s Bill 88, Working for Workers Act, that are not working for workers; namely,

schedule 5. According to my constituents, this jeopardizes not only the careers of acupuncturists in Ontario, but also endangers the general public’s health and safety.

Section 2 essentially deregulates the profession and takes it backwards by decades. Nearly 40,000 folks have signed a Change.org petition in the last seven days and are against this government’s plan to deregulate traditional Chinese medicine. If that isn’t a dissenting voice, I don’t know what is.

My community wants to remind this government that dismantling their regulatory college paves the way for just about anyone to take up the profession regardless of their training.

Schedule 5 will remove the safeguards, standards of practice and professional competencies required by the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists of Ontario.

Members have also flagged what they have reported as the “distinctively discriminatory nature of

schedule 5,” as it singles out traditional Chinese medicine, of which many practitioners are racialized. They’ve also flagged potential conflicts of interest between this government and its pseudo consultation process around

schedule

Section 7 allows for the termination of all unresolved investigations, inquiries and proceedings related to fitness to practise or discipline that were being conducted by the college. How does this protect someone who may have a current investigation related to sexual harassment, clean needle techniques and so forth? How does

section 7 promote accountability and protections for both practitioners and clients? It simply doesn’t.

As one of our clinic owners in St. Paul’s told me in an email, regulatory colleges are created to protect the public, not to create barriers for people who want to practise the medicine.

Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program

Mr. Toby Barrett: Good morning, everybody. I’d like to inform this House of what is, in my estimate, one of Canada’s best foreign aid programs. It’s a program that involves people who want to work to temporarily come to Canada, work at remuneration that, given exchange rates, is quite lucrative, bankrolling them to return home each year with significant savings. Speaker, I’m referring to the Temporary Foreign Worker Program and the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program that contributes so much to Ontario’s and Canada’s agribusiness prosperity.

This year, something like up to 6,000 offshore workers will be arriving in Haldimand–Norfolk, primarily Norfolk county, initially early in the year for orchard pruning, then harvesting asparagus, and then on to planting and nurturing and ultimately harvesting and packing the plethora of fruit and vegetable crops, ginseng, tobacco and greenhouse products.

Quite simply, in my view offshore labour has been a welcome addition to our area’s labour-intensive agriculture. It’s a great, long-standing program and we cannot farm without it. All of Ontario’s farm workers are a vital part of Ontario’s food supply chain system. We’ve got a good system going here and we have to do everything we can to maintain this program in a safe and secure way.

Long-term care

Ms. Catherine Fife: Later today, my colleague from Brampton Centre and I will reintroduce the Till Death Do Us

part legislation. I first became involved with reunification of couples in long-term care back in December 2017, when I learned that Don and Patricia Deighton were forced to live apart against their will after 64 years of marriage. He made a promise to her that he would never leave her alone. But so few options existed, they were never able to live together on the same care campus. It was never a priority. His lovely wife passed away. Ontario failed them.

Jim McLeod and his wife, married 60 years, have been separated for four and a half years. He travelled here to listen to the debate in 2019 and he wasn’t impressed that that bill sat in committee for three years before prorogation. He delivered petitions for almost three years. He’s not going to give up, and neither are we.

I’ve raised this issue with successive health ministers, including Eric Hoskins, Helena Jaczek, and the outgoing Minister of Health as well as the Minister of Long-Term Care. Five long years have passed. The pandemic revealed how broken the caring of seniors has become under successive governments. Dignity and integrity are at the heart of reuniting seniors in the last years of their marriage or partnership—one could also argue compassion and humanity. One bureaucrat at the former Waterloo LHIN said it’s just not their policy—there are other priorities.

If we can agree that separating couples in their last years is wrong, let’s change that. Let’s make it a priority.

International Women’s Day

Mr. Stephen Crawford: Today I’m honoured to rise in the Legislature to bring attention to International Women’s Day. Tomorrow, on March 8, we recognize International Women’s Day. This day is significant because we reflect on the incredible achievements of women.

There are incredible organizations in Oakville that are empowering women in business, education, politics, and every part of our society. The Zonta club of Oakville was founded in 1973 and, since its creation, has been empowering women by providing resources, advocating for change, hosting fundraisers and establishing education projects. They are supporting women in my community and breaking barriers. Additionally, Zonta Oakville is celebrating International Women’s Day with a beautiful archway in downtown Oakville. I encourage everybody in Oakville to go and visit and take a picture underneath to celebrate.

I would also like to bring attention to the Women of Halton Action Movement that is promoting women’s advancement by developing and supporting social, political, cultural and economic strategies to achieve gender equality municipally, regionally, nationally and internationally. I’ll be proudly joining their International Women’s Day party that is raising funds for SAVIS of Halton and Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan-Halton.

International Women’s Day also reminds us that we need to continue to work towards creating a society that is free of discrimination, stereotypes and harassment, with equal opportunity. Being a father of four daughters and a husband to my loving wife, Najia, women’s issues matter greatly to me.

Anti-racism activities

Mr. Faisal Hassan: On Wednesday, February 23, we marked a historic day in Ontario as the Ontario NDP officially introduced the Our London Family Act in the Legislature. Created in close collaboration with the National Council of Canadian Muslims, this new legislation will fight back against Islamophobia, hate and white supremacist groups.

On June 6, 2021, three generations of the Afzaal family were killed in an Islamophobic attack in London, Ontario.

In September 2020, Mohamed-Aslim Zafis had his life taken while volunteering his time at the IMO mosque in Toronto.

No one should be fearful of walking our streets, attending their places of worship and simply being a part of our society, based on their religion, their clothes or the colour of their skin.

The Our London Family Act takes bold and concrete action to tackle Islamophobia and hate in Ontario. This is not a partisan issue; it is a moral one.

Last week, the government, with no community consultation, took unprecedented action by moving the bill to committee before second reading debate. Words are not enough, Mr. Speaker. I urge the government to act in good faith and ensure that the Our London Family Act passes into law before the coming election, and I ask the government directly to provide assurances, a timeline and a plan to make sure this legislation becomes a reality. Our communities deserve no less than that.

Invasion of Ukraine

Mr. John Fraser: Last weekend, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in Ottawa held a donation drive for the people of Ukraine. Volunteers prepared boxes of donated priority medical and shelter-related items food, diapers, clothes and other desperately needed items. There was an outpouring of support to send much-needed humanitarian aid to the Ukraine, so much so that the donations had to be stacked outside the church. Ottawa came together, united, to support the people of Ukraine.

On Sunday, I attended the rally at Parliament Hill that was organized by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress. People from across Ottawa came to protest the war, call for peace and call for more action by their governments.

What is happening in the Ukraine is a horror, and in the face of this grievous suffering, we are all compelled to act, to help in any way we can to reduce that suffering.

It’s important that governments take a leadership role in these efforts. While the province’s contribution of $300,000 was a welcome start, Ontario needs to do more. We need to do more to support communities that want to host refugees. We need to do more to match Ontarians’ contributions to the humanitarian effort, and we need to do that quickly.

International Women’s Day

Ms. Goldie Ghamari: Mr. Speaker, tomorrow is International Women’s Day. It’s a day to celebrate the achievements of women everywhere, to raise awareness, and to support equality.

I’m always inspired and supported every day by the wonderful women in my life, including my amazing mom, my sister and my grandmother, who are constant reminders that women can do anything.

International Women’s Day is an opportunity to tell your family and friends how important they are.

I want to wish all of the amazing women and girls here in the Legislature and in my riding of Carleton, the ladies on my staff, and all of the women across the province a happy International Women’s Day.

I especially want to highlight that even though our politics might be different and we might not see eye to eye when it comes to policy, it’s always a pleasure to see former Premier Kathleen Wynne, who was Ontario’s first woman Premier, here in the Legislature. I also want to take a moment to recognize Jackie Gordon. Jackie Gordon is the first woman in Ontario to become Sergeant-at-Arms here in the Legislature.

Once again, thank you to all the amazing women, young girls and girls everywhere in my riding of Carleton and across the province. I want to thank everyone for being such a great inspiration. Happy International Women’s Day to everyone.

Invasion of Ukraine

Mr. Jamie West: On February 24, Russia launched a wide-ranging attack on Ukraine. In Sudbury—just like every member of this House—we stand with Ukraine.

I’ve often said that Sudbury is a community that cares, and I want to give you a few examples. Last week, the Ukrainian Seniors’ Centre began sewing Ukrainian flags as a fundraiser for those impacted by the war. Demand for the flags grew so quickly that they ran out of material.

The seniors are also fundraising by selling their handmade perogies and their cabbage rolls. Within two days, they were completely sold out. Similarly, places like the Beef ‘n Bird and the Caruso Club have also started fundraisers to stand with Ukraine. Sudbury is a community that cares.

Yesterday, on Sunday, I joined hundreds of Sudburians outside of St. Mary’s Ukrainian Catholic Church. We had bad weather yesterday. Freezing rain filled our streets and our sidewalks with slush. It was a day where you could make an excuse about why you couldn’t make it. But Sudbury doesn’t make excuses. We are a community that cares. The sidewalk along Notre Dame, from Lloyd Street to Louis Street, was filled with Sudburians of all ages holding banners and waving blue and yellow Ukrainian flags. Before we left, we stood outside of St. Mary’s. We surrounded a giant blue and yellow Ukrainian flag as Halia Buba led us in chants of “Stand with Ukraine” and “Slava Ukraini.”

In Sudbury, we are community that cares. We are a city that stands with Ukraine.

Slava Ukraini.

Pamela and Harry Harakh

Mr. Michael Parsa: Good morning to all my colleagues here in the Legislature.

On Saturday, I joined my colleagues from all levels of government—federal, municipal and, of course, myself and my colleague from the other ridings represented here in the Ontario Legislature—at the monthly meeting organized by two absolute champions in our area, Pamela and Harry Harakh of the Caribbean North Charities Foundation.

Every month, Pamela and Harry organize monthly meetings to be able to bring our community together to celebrate the history and arts and cultures of the various backgrounds that we are representing, making our community of Aurora–Oak Ridges–Richmond Hill so rich and unique.

On Saturday, it was an opportunity for us to celebrate and learn more about Nowruz. As you know, in a couple of weeks, it will be the beginning of Nowruz, which is Persian New Year. In the past, Pamela and Harry have brought all of us together every month to celebrate the lunar new year, Black History Month and many, many other celebrations.

Pamela and Harry Harakh are absolute giants in our community. The Caribbean north foundation’s work is not only incredibly important in our area, but Pamela and Harry go above and beyond Ontario and Canada. Their charity supports many initiatives in Guyana.

I cannot thank them enough. These two tireless volunteers always go above and beyond to bring us together. Thank you very much. You make our community much better.

Health care funding

Mr. Kevin Yarde: It’s estimated that up to a million Ontarians have been forced to postpone surgeries, including cancer surgeries, heart bypass surgeries and knee and hip replacements. Many of these folks will have to wait almost three years before receiving care, and yet this government has failed to adequately fund our health care. Their 2021 budget promised less than half of the funding identified as necessary by Ontario’s Financial Accountability Officer and the Ontario Medical Association.

Brampton has been struggling with a surgery backlog as well. Brampton Civic Hospital continues to be overcrowded and suffers from chronic hallway medicine. The people of Brampton and our health care continue to be neglected by this government. We have just one hospital for over 600,000 people, and this government’s expansion plan to turn Peel Memorial into a hospital doesn’t include an ER, and it doesn’t even come close to the 850 new beds that Brampton urgently needs. Our urgent care centre at Peel Memorial has been closed for most of the pandemic due to capacity and staffing.

The staffing crisis in our health care system could be addressed if this government were to scrap Bill 124. This would return thousands of health care workers to the sector. Speaker, I’m calling on this government to repeal Bill 124 and immediately provide the funding necessary to address the 850 beds needed in Brampton, build a new emergency room and beds at Peel Memorial, and build a third hospital to appropriately address Brampton’s health care needs.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): That concludes our members’ statements for this morning.

Visitors

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I’m very pleased to inform the House that page Tanisha Hossain, from the riding of Scarborough Southwest, is one of today’s page captains. We have with us today at Queen’s Park her mother, Nawshin Rumman Hossain, and father, Abdullah Hossain. We’re also joined by the family of page captain Owen Shen, from the riding of Willowdale: his mother, Li Lei, and friend Ying Du; as well, the parents of page captain Lucia Wei, from the riding of Richmond Hill: her mother, Jing Yu, and her father, Xiaoning Wei.

Welcome to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. We’re delighted to have you here.

Question Period

Health professions

M me France Gélinas: Ma question est pour le premier ministre.

The Premier’s plans to deregulate traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture face strong opposition. Today, a large group of people are rallying against this move right here at Queen’s Park, right now, in the pouring rain.

Let me be clear, Speaker: The NDP oppose this move and have committed to reversing it if we form government.

More than 2,700 health care professionals are registered with the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists of Ontario. These practitioners help Ontarians live healthier lives. They help them cope with pain without drugs or medication. Yet it’s clear that the Premier did not consult with any of them.

The Premier’s plans to reduce the oversight of this important field of health care and undermine the profession and the status of their health care professionals were wrong. Why did the Premier try to deregulate traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture in Ontario? People deserve to know why this government tried to do this.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): To respond, the government House leader.

Hon. Paul Calandra: I appreciate the question from the member opposite. As you know, Mr. Speaker, the goal of this was to eliminate the barriers that had existed since the inception of the college, I believe back in 2006. In fact, Cantonese- and Mandarin-speaking Canadians were virtually eliminated from being able to provide traditional Chinese medicine, something that they brought to this province. They were virtually barred from participating in it. What we wanted to do, of course, was to eliminate those barriers. That is why last Thursday we sent the bill directly to committee, prior to second reading.

Schedule 5 will be removed from the bill, and the college will be ordered to provide tests in both Mandarin and Cantonese so that we finally remove those barriers.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The supplementary question.

M me France Gélinas: Speaker, this move was reckless. Heather Kenny, president of Traditional Chinese Medicine Ontario, said that “there has been no consultation whatsoever on the part of the government that they were even considering this move.” Dissolving the college and deregulating traditional Chinese medicine would have hurt the patients of Ontario, the standards of care and the reputation of all of those health care professionals. Small practitioners would have suffered, as the insurance companies would not cover treatment from a non-regulated health care professional.

There were always options to improve the college. Like every other health care college in Ontario, the government has many tools to help them, many tools at their disposal. So why did the Premier not consider helping the college, rather than threatening to close them and remove this important oversight from traditional Chinese medicine?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Government House leader.

Hon. Paul Calandra: Again to be clear, that section,

section 5 of the bill, will be removed. Again, it’s why we sent it to committee in advance of second reading.

But let’s be clear: What the real challenge was is that back in 2006, when this college was created, it virtually banned people who spoke Cantonese and Mandarin from practising traditional Chinese medicine, and that was the case in the province of Ontario until we started to make these changes. That is why we are going to be removing those barriers. We’re going to be re-inviting Chinese Canadians back into the medicine that they brought to this province and ordering the college to provide tests in both Cantonese and Mandarin.

This will bring more people back into Chinese medicine. It will still remain a regulated profession, but as I said, we will, once and for all, remove those barriers that have kept Chinese Canadians, those who speak Mandarin and Cantonese, out of the very same medicine they brought to this province.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Final supplementary.

M me France Gélinas: Tens of thousands of Ontarians were engaged in this issue with over 37,000 signatures on one petition alone in just a few days. Ontarians deserve to know that the health care services they receive are professionally delivered and regulated, but this government would have taken all of that away: the professional certificate, the oversight and the accountability that patients need to receive quality care.

Ontarians deserve treatment from practitioners of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine who are fully regulated by a health care college, not simply checked for sanitation like this government was planning to do.

I’m glad that the Premier fixed his own mistakes. But now, will he apologize to the thousands of practitioners for the disrespect he has shown traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture professionals?

Hon. Paul Calandra: Mr. Speaker, I think the disrespect that the member should be talking about is the fact that when this college was brought into place, those very same people who brought traditional Chinese medicine to this province were virtually banned from participating within it. That is what should be apologized for.

The Liberals brought in a program that didn’t allow Chinese-speaking Canadians to participate in their very own traditional Chinese medicine. We’re fixing that once and for all. If anybody should apologize, it should be the opposition that supported a college that took away so many people from being able to participate.

We’re fixing that. That is why we moved very quickly to ensure that the bill went to committee. We’ll remove that

section and we’ll guarantee Chinese Canadians access to the very same traditional Chinese medicine that they brought, once and for all.

Home care

M me France Gélinas: My next question is also for the Premier.

Ontarians all know that the home care system in this province is broken. It fails more people than it helps. Seniors and people living with disabilities want to live in their own homes longer, supported, respected. People want to go home from the hospital, but far too often they cannot access the home care services they need. After years of big cuts and privatization by this government and the Liberal government before them, the system does not work. When patients are referred to home care, the services should be available, but way too often they are not.

Speaker, why hasn’t this government fixed home care to be the public service Ontario needs and deserves?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The parliamentary assistant and the member for Eglinton–Lawrence.

Mrs. Robin Martin: We’re committed to building healthier communities, strengthening our public health care system and ending hallway health care, and we’re committed to saying yes to home care, which is what we’ve been doing for many, many years now, since we’ve been here in Queen’s Park.

The health system response to COVID-19 has reinforced how important working as an integrated team of health care providers is. That’s why we passed the Connecting People to Home and Community Care Act, or Bill 175, last year—over opposition from the New Democratic Party, the opposition here—which set the groundwork for integrative, responsive home care and made sure that we can provide home care to all those people who would like to stay at home.

As you will recall, we removed service maximums in that legislation and we are making investments, including an additional $548.5 million over three years invested in the home and community care sector, which will expand home care services, support additional staff—including personal support workers—and connect patients to the services they need, when and where they need them.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Supplementary.

M me France Gélinas: Home care is a relationship between the care provider and somebody who needs care. There are not enough home care workers to deliver those important services. Vacancies in home care leave providers scrambling to fill over one quarter of nursing jobs as well as thousands and thousands of personal support workers’ jobs.

The pay barriers of Bill 124 make it almost impossible to recruit and retain professionals and caregivers. The only idea that this government comes up with is to further privatize home care, which they did with Bill 175.

We should be investing in public home care, because these investments reduce overcrowding in our hospital and long-term-care facilities and treat people where they want to be: at home. Why would the government refuse to make much-needed investments in public, not-for-profit home and community care services?

Mrs. Robin Martin: The Del Duca-Wynne Liberals, supported by the opposition NDP all the time, have failed Ontarians when it comes to health care and certainly when it comes to home care. A report from 2015 from our Auditor General details the dire situation that the Liberals left in regard to home care, so much so that the Auditor General said that an entirely new delivery system was needed. That is what our government did by passing the Connecting People to Home and Community Care Act, or Bill 175.

Last year, during the pandemic, we were proceeding on this home and community care reformation, which is making great strides. The member opposite will know that we have embarked on the largest health care health human resource initiative for recruiting and retaining more health care providers, PSWs, RPNs and nurses in huge numbers. We’ve already hired over 12,700 health care providers during the pandemic, and we will continue to hire more to make sure that people get the care they need, where and when they need it.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The final supplementary.

M me France Gélinas: In the north, where I live, home care services are even more difficult to find because of the vast geography and the long distances that home care workers must travel between clients. Most home care workers are not paid for travel time. They have to absorb and often subsidize from their own pay the increase in the price of gas.

Will the Premier support our motion today to make much-needed changes and investments in home and community care so that we commit to transform to a public, not-for-profit system that puts care first?

Mrs. Robin Martin: Our government is committed to our public health care system and to improving home care in that system. That’s why we have taken all the initiatives that I mentioned before.

The investment of $548.5 million over three years in the home and community care sector will expand home care services, support additional staff including personal support workers and connect patients to the services that they need.

The funding would support an estimated 28,000 post-acute surgical patients and up to an estimated 21,000 patients with complex health conditions every year by providing 739,000 nursing visits; 157,000 nursing shift hours; 117,000 therapy visits, including physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and speech language pathology; 2.118 million hours of personal support services; and 263,000 other types of home care visits. These are all important investments. We want to make sure that the home care is there for everyone who needs it, and we will deliver that to them.

Government appointments

Mr. Taras Natyshak: My question is to the Premier. The Premier’s hand-picked appointee to the Ottawa Police Services Board was fired last week after he helped occupy his own city. When Mr. Swaita was asked if he was there, he said, “I’m not sure what you’re talking about.” A day later he admitted it, but said, “I did nothing wrong.”

The Premier still doesn’t seem to know how Mr. Swaita, a long-time PC donor, made it on the board in the first place. He told the media last week, “I’ll be able to get the answer on who recommended these, and” to “tell you the truth, I didn’t look into every single appointment.”

Speaker, who recommended Mr. Swaita, and what qualifications did this guy have other than his long history as a PC donor?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The Solicitor General.

Hon. Sylvia Jones: I think it’s important to remind the member opposite just how the process works for police services boards—which, of course, are independent oversight of the individual police services boards. With the Ottawa Police Services Board, there are seven members, three of which are provincial appointees. Last week, those three provincial appointees made a determination after the city of Ottawa had said they are going in a new direction with their leadership, and they have submitted their resignation.

We’ve accepted it, and we will work to ensure that those three positions are quickly filled, to make sure that the Ottawa Police Service has the proper oversight that they continue to need.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The supplementary?

Mr. Taras Natyshak: The Premier won’t explain why in December he reappointed one member of the board for another three-year term. In late January, the Ottawa police briefed the board on the convoy’s plan to occupy the city. Mr. Swaita skipped that briefing, instead making plans to actually attend the occupation—not once, but twice. This kind of action undermines the police services board. There were still protesters there this past weekend in Ottawa, but the civilian board to oversee the police is down to just three members, with no provincial appointees.

Speaker, will the Premier admit that he and his team didn’t vet Mr. Swaita for the job? Will he also admit that by appointing his PC buddy, he has damaged the reputation of the Ottawa Police Services Board?

Hon. Sylvia Jones: Respectfully, Speaker, the member opposite is wrong. There is a very thorough process for people who apply to be provincial appointees in any number of Ontario boards and agencies, including police services boards. They have to apply, they go through an interview process and they have to go through a thorough police record check, all of which happens every single time we appoint a provincial member to a police services board, including in the city of Ottawa. That has happened.

As I said, the city of Ottawa made a determination that they were going in a new direction with their police services board. We accepted those resignations when they came forward, and we will go through another complete and thorough process to make sure that we get appropriate people sitting on the Ottawa Police Services Board.

Personal protective equipment

Mr. Randy Pettapiece: Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Government and Consumer Services. Ontario was faced with an immense problem at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Years of mismanagement and reckless spending in the wrong places by the Liberals left us exposed and vulnerable, particularly in our front-line sectors, which lacked the proper equipment to keep themselves, their colleagues and the people they serve safe.

Ontario has no shortage of procurement firepower, and Ontarians are counting on our government to unleash it. Through you, Speaker, I ask, what has the Minister of Government and Consumer Services done to strengthen our province and keep Ontarians safe?

Hon. Ross Romano: Thank you to the great member for Perth–Wellington for the question. Over the course of our pandemic, our ministry has procured millions upon millions of pieces of PPE, Mr. Speaker.

I really think it’s important to go back in time to March 2020, when the pandemic’s first wave struck our borders. Our Premier had to go into our warehouse, and he legitimately saw rotting PPE, expired PPE. He stood before this entire province and he said, “Never again will we be beholden to any other jurisdiction.”

This PPE that we had in our warehouse was not only expired, but it was all purchased from foreign jurisdictions. Now I can tell you, Mr. Speaker, that we have purchased over 282 million masks, over 270 million gloves and 4.7 million litres of hand sanitizer. I look forward to chatting a lot more about this in the supplemental.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Supplementary question?

Mr. Randy Pettapiece: I thank the minister for the answer. This government has unequivocally made the health and well-being of Ontarians from all walks of life and all sectors a top priority through our massive procurement of protective and critical care equipment.

That being said, there are many people out there who are asking a rather simple question: Where is all this PPE coming from? Through you, Speaker, I ask the minister the same: Could he please share more with Ontarians about where it is we’re getting these millions and millions of pieces of equipment from?

Hon. Ross Romano: Thank you again to the member for the question, and thank you, Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity to respond.

Simply put, most of our PPE is now coming from Ontario—outstanding news. Of 722 million pieces, to be exact, that we have purchased, as indicated earlier, 282 million masks are all coming from Ontario. Recently, we had a purchase, just before Christmas, of 79 million masks from Brockville’s 3M plant—79 million N95s, and an additional 200 million cloth and other types of masks, all procured locally within the province of Ontario.

And we stood up Supply Ontario and delivered over nine million Ontario-made N95s and nearly 16 million cloth masks for children and staff in our schools just at the start of this most recent wave. We did all of this to ensure that we were keeping our Ontario people safe, making sure that our government can gradually ease our public health restrictions. We have been able to do so because of the work that we have done. And it is in fact the case that never again will we be beholden to any other jurisdiction.

Public transit

Mr. Faisal Hassan: My question is for the Premier. I’m a big supporter of the Toronto Community Benefits Network. Its formation had roots in my community. Important agreements with Metrolinx were made, including, “Meeting employment thresholds for under-represented communities including Black, Indigenous and people of colour, and women.”

The government recently announced removing equity hiring targets, local procurement and community consultation from transit agreements. This of course was met with much outrage, and the government has appeared to change its mind and will respect those clauses. How can my community trust this government to keep its word on this agreement, and what steps will be taken to ensure these important initiatives are not only met but tracked and measured?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Associate Minister of Transportation, responsible for the GTA.

Hon. Stan Cho: It’s an important issue the member opposite raises, so I want to be clear that the project agreements still require contractors to submit their own apprenticeship and workforce development plans maintaining a 10% threshold for a diverse workforce.

I am the proud son of immigrants, immigrants who faced incredible difficulties and discrimination, sometimes at the hands of the members opposite, unfortunately, in this country.

Nobody takes diversity more seriously than this government. That is why we are looking beyond thresholds. The Liberals, when it came to the Eglinton Crosstown, wanted a 10% threshold for a diverse workforce but only achieved 5%, when you look at the data. Claiming a threshold is simply not good enough; you have to look at the system and make sure our workforce looks like the diverse community in our province. That’s exactly what we’re going to do.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Supplementary.

Mr. Faisal Hassan: Thank you. I agree with the member. Racism is real, absolutely.

Back to my question to the Premier: Public dollars channelled through Metrolinx to build transit quite rightly involve community benefits agreements. Even under the original community benefits agreement, I have concerns that the initiatives were not being met. The equity hiring goal of 10% was sitting at less than half that target.

In my community of York South–Weston, the Mount Dennis community ecoNeighbourhood Initiative recently wrote a letter stating their concerns that included that “there has been no public engagement or information shared about Metrolinx’s plan for community benefits agreement as part of its Eglinton Crosstown West extension project.”

The community is losing faith in this government and needs to know exactly how these important initiatives are met and measured. Will the government give us more than words this morning?

Hon. Stan Cho: Speaker, let’s talk about more than words, because that’s a really ironic question coming from the opposition this morning. More than words means not saying no to creating more job opportunities for our workers, not saying no to recognizing the diverse talent of Ontario. It’s the NDP and the Liberals who said no to $11 billion in the construction of the Ontario Line; who said no to every single measure we have taken to build transit, to build a workforce, to create 5,000 jobs during the construction of the Ontario Line alone and to contribute $11 billion back to local economic growth.

When will the NDP show more than words and vote in favour of building transit and diversity in this entire province?

Child care

Ms. Kathleen O. Wynne: Speaker, tomorrow is International Women’s Day, and members of the government will be waxing eloquent about the supports they have put in place for women, whether the supports are adequate or not.

What we know is that, rhetoric aside, this government has actually rolled back supports for women over the past four years. Labour laws that provided for transparency and pay equity in workplaces, that required employers to provide rational scheduling in many female-dominated workplaces, that mandated sick days—all of those have been repealed by this government.

Young women living in poverty and single moms were among the groups who benefited the very most from the free tuition program that was cancelled by this government.

We know that COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on women, and there has not been any targeted support for women getting back into the workplace.

But the single most important support that women and families need is affordable child care. With more than $10 billion on the table from the federal government, will the Ontario government use the opportunity of International Women’s Day to finally, as the last jurisdiction in Canada to do so, announce a child care agreement with the federal government?

The question—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): To reply, the Minister of Education.

Hon. Stephen Lecce: We appreciate the member opposite’s question.

We do agree that affordable child care could help enable greater labour market participation of women. We understand that the consequence of 15 years of rising costs is that it created a great burden on working parents in Ontario. It’s why the Premier, in his first act, in his first budget, introduced a tax credit to reduce costs on moms and dads in this province, and enriched it during the pandemic and expanded support directly to parents through the support for parents fund—$1.8 billion, over $1,000 on average per family.

In each and every example, when our government stood up to help working parents get through this pandemic, the opposition, led by the Liberals, opposed it.

The Premier of this province is standing up to Justin Trudeau. What we’re going to continue to do is to get the best deal, a longer deal, with more investments. And yes, we can get to $10-a-day for the people we serve.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Supplementary?

Ms. Kathleen O. Wynne: Speaker, the Premier is failing the children and families of this province.

The Premier has said publicly that the deal is so close. I trust the Premier will tell the people of Ontario whether they have even shared that detailed plan that the federal government was looking for. Has that even happened?

But even if the government announces an agreement tomorrow, that will mean that the delay caused by this government will have cost families an average of $25 a day. That’s a cost of $1,000 per child this year alone.

Ontario Liberals have committed that should we form government in June, we will get a child care deal with the federal government as a first order of business, and that the average family paying child care costs would receive a retroactive payment of $2,750 per child.

If the government does announce an agreement tomorrow or in the next few days, will the Premier commit to the same retroactive payments to compensate families for their delay?

Hon. Stephen Lecce: We’re absolutely committed to landing a good deal, a better deal, for the people of Ontario. That would ensure 50% savings would be realized in the first year of that deal. The Premier of Ontario and the mandate of our government is to make sure, in a constructive tone with the federal government, that we can get a better deal than the original one offered. I think we should all be aspirational in a negotiation to get the best possible deal for Ontario families.

If we took the lesson from the Liberal Party, as you’ve said on the public record in this House, you would have taken the first deal available to Ontario. You would have left, potentially, billions on the table and thousands of spaces that wouldn’t have been funded. I just think that’s irresponsible.

We’ve taken the time to get this right, to land the best deal for Ontario families to ensure we deliver $10-a-day for moms and dads in this province.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I remind the members to make their comments through the Chair.

The next question.

Release of public accounts

Ms. Goldie Ghamari: This question is for the President of the Treasury Board.

My constituents know supports like the Ontario Small Business Support Grant and the Support for Learners program have been essential in our fight against COVID-19. However, they also know these programs come at a cost to the province. Members of my riding would like to know more about Ontario’s public accounts and how the government’s response to COVID-19 has impacted the province’s finances.

Can the President of the Treasury Board please tell the House about this government’s financial reporting commitments during the pandemic?

Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria: Thank you to the member from Carleton for that important question. The release of Ontario’s public accounts builds on this government’s commitment to transparency and accountability, even amid the unprecedented financial planning challenges faced by governments worldwide as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, Ontario was the first jurisdiction in Canada to release a fiscal plan that reflected the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The public accounts are audited by the Auditor General, who provides an opinion on whether the financial position of this province is presented fairly. I am proud that for the fourth year in a row the Auditor General has given our public accounts a clean audit opinion, reinforcing this government’s commitment to restoring transparency and accountability in the province’s finances.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Supplementary?

Ms. Goldie Ghamari: Thank you to the minister for his answer. It’s comforting to know that this government has delivered on the commitment to restore transparency and accountability to the province’s finances after years of disastrous Liberal mismanagement.

This government also committed to sparing no expense while protecting the businesses and families of Carleton and Ontario during the COVID-19 pandemic. Can the minister please tell this House about the historic investments made by this government in the 2020-21 fiscal year?

Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria: Thank you again to the member for that excellent question. The 2020-21 public accounts outlined $19.1 billion in additional investments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These investments created real and measurable results for the people of Ontario, including:

—over $3 billion in urgent and unprecedented support to over 110,000 small businesses;

—over $3 billion in provincial investments to support 444 municipalities and 110 transit systems across the province;

—over $1.6 billion in investments for the 2020-21 school year to support the safe reopening of over 4,800 schools; and

—$1.5 billion in investments to support Ontario’s 627 long-term-care homes.

Mr. Speaker, the health and safety of Ontarians is our number one priority and we will continue to deliver on that commitment.

Health care funding

Mr. Gurratan Singh: My question is to the Premier. Brampton is facing a health care crisis, and it’s because our health care system was underfunded and neglected under 15 years of the Liberals. But after four years under the Conservative government, instead of things getting better, they’re getting worse.

Our city of over 700,000 people still has only one chronically underfunded and overcrowded hospital. People are still being treated in the hallways, and for the past few months our health care system has been at its lowest because our only urgent care centre has been shut down because of the Conservative government’s neglect.

My question to the Premier is this: Will he admit that he chose to not act, that he chose to neglect Brampton’s health care crisis? He had four years to end our health care crisis. He did nothing, and he failed Brampton.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The parliamentary assistant, the member for Eglinton–Lawrence.

Mrs. Robin Martin: Thank you to the member opposite for the question. I want to start by thanking the President of the Treasury Board—the member for Brampton South—and the member for Brampton West for all of their advocacy for Brampton. They are really great advocates for their community.

Our government is the government that is making investments in Brampton health care after 15 years of the Liberals, propped up by the opposition, making no investments in better health care in Brampton—and ignoring them, frankly. It is this government that is saying yes to a new hospital that will provide over 250 new beds and include a 24/7 emergency department.

As part of our comprehensive Keeping Ontarians Safe plan, William Osler also received more than $17 million to fund an additional 87 net new acute medical/surgical beds to alleviate surge pressures.

Let me be clear: It is this government that is funding Brampton hospitals. We will continue to do so. We will make sure that people who live in Brampton get the health care they deserve.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): And the supplementary question.

Mr. Gurratan Singh: Back to the Premier. The Conservative government can say whatever they want, but this is the reality: The Conservative government had four years to end our health care crisis, and when you talk to people in Brampton, they’ll tell you that things are getting worse; they’re not getting better. People are genuinely afraid to go to our city’s only hospital, because they don’t want to be treated in the hallway or face hours of waiting. So many people have had their medical procedures cancelled or delayed, and we have seen across the board that people are struggling because our only urgent care centre has been shut down for months.

Will the Premier admit—will he finally admit—that he failed to end Brampton’s health care crisis and that he failed Brampton?

Mrs. Robin Martin: This government has made unprecedented investments in health care and support for the health of all Ontarians through the pandemic, including $16 billion in COVID-19 investments, $5 billion specifically in hospitals. That includes $1.8 billion we dedicated to surgical backlogs, and of that, $300 million and another $200 million last fall to clear the surgical backlogs. We’re working very hard to do that with Ontario Health, and we’re making great strides in that regard, with many people getting those things scheduled right now.

The opposition just opposes, but we are making tons of investments—I can list some of them for you—including in diagnostic imaging recovery, providing $81.6 million in funding supports for hospitals, to extend OR hours into evenings and weekends and catch up on surgeries; providing $16.9 million for MRI and CT imaging, adding 107,000 MRI additional hours and an additional 167,000 CT hours to the system, on top of already over 500,000 hours and 550,000 hours—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Thank you.

The next question.

Gaming control

Mrs. Belinda C. Karahalios: My question is for the Premier. In 2020, the Toronto Star company, Torstar, which owns about 70 papers, was sold for $52 million, and it seemed like they were on their way to going out of business. So in stepped this PC government, to grant the Toronto Star our province’s first online gambling licence, for a market that could be worth more than $500 million in revenue and also a market that is going to decrease government revenues in the hundreds of millions.

The owners of the Toronto Star have said this venture will be used to fund their struggling journalism business, which focuses on pushing left-wing, high-tax, big-government journalism they disguise by calling it “social justice” and “progressive.” Does this government think it is ethical and healthy for journalism integrity and the free press that the largest left-wing newspaper distributor in the country fund its operations through the revenue generated by online gambling, based on a licence provided by one of the very governments they’re supposed to write about?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The parliamentary assistant, the member for Brantford–Brant.

Mr. Will Bouma: I really appreciate the question on iGaming from the member from Cambridge. Indeed, the province of Ontario is moving forward on opening up an iGaming framework, and I would like to thank my predecessor, now the Associate Minister of Transportation.

We are very excited to be bringing somewhere between $1 billion to $2 billion into the gross domestic product of the province of Ontario without job losses. We are very, very excited about this, and I’m looking forward to being able to say more about it in the follow-up.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Supplementary?

We know that last year the member for Chatham-Kent–Leamington gave this province an A- grade, calling their performance excellent. I wonder, what grade does this government give itself in the rollout of an online gambling market in Ontario, with this government issuing the first such licence to operate an online casino to the Toronto Star? An A+; a B; a C? A passing grade? Let us know.

Mr. Will Bouma: Again, I can’t say enough good things about the plans we have going forward to have a responsible iGaming framework in the province of Ontario. Indeed, for land-based casinos, we have had the best responsible gaming platform in the world for many, many years. It’s been so gratifying to see the work being done with the Responsible Gambling Council so that we see equal and even better.

Right now there’s at least a billion dollars of grey-market and black-market gaming that happens in the province of Ontario with absolutely zero responsible gaming being put in place. To bring that into a regulated framework so that Ontarians can be kept safe and that they can have a very good experience is very good to see. Thank you again for the question.

Mental health and addiction services

Ms. Effie J. Triantafilopoulos: Speaker, my question today is for the Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions.

Minister, studies have shown that opiate-related deaths have surged during the pandemic by as much as 79% during the first two waves of COVID-19, with northern regions of the province seeing three times the number of deaths. We know that thousands of individuals have lost their lives due to the ongoing opiate crisis and polysubstance crisis seen in our province.

Constituents in my community of Oakville North–Burlington have been worried about the impacts of COVID-19 on their mental health and especially around substance use increasing in their communities and across Ontario. We know the problem extends far beyond the GTA.

Minister, could you explain to the members of the Legislature what our government is doing to address substance use across the province?

Hon. Michael A. Tibollo: Thank you to the member from Oakville North–Burlington for that excellent question. Mr. Speaker, addictions and substance use is something I have a very deep and personal connection to, having worked in the sector for a decade prior to becoming its minister.

After years of previous governments saying no to expanding addictions treatment in the province, our government has said yes by recently announcing a historic $90-million investment through the province’s new Addictions Recovery Fund that is expanding addictions treatment services across the province and adding almost 400 new addictions treatment beds in the system. This is truly a historic investment in addiction treatment in the province of Ontario, and it will help thousands of Ontarians access the supports they need.

After so many years of previous governments neglecting our mental health and addiction system, our government is taking real action in ensuring all Ontarians are fully supported.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The supplementary question.

Ms. Effie J. Triantafilopoulos: Speaker, I would like to thank the minister for his response. I know that constituents in my riding will be pleased to hear this news, and I know that our government is continuing to take addiction, overdose and the ongoing opioid crisis seriously. It is clear that our government is taking real and meaningful action to ensure the people of this province have access to the addiction supports they expect and deserve.

Minister, we know that more still needs to be done to protect and support Ontarians living with addiction challenges. As the minister has mentioned in this House before, we know that the mental health impacts of the pandemic will exist beyond COVID-19 itself.

Minister, what other actions is the government taking to ensure Ontarians have access to high-quality addiction care, when and where they need it?

Hon. Michael A. Tibollo: The new Addictions Recovery Fund is truly the first of its kind in Ontario. It’s the first time a government in this province has taken the important step to build a continuum of care in communities across the province, including northern, Indigenous and rural communities.

On Friday, I was in Sudbury to announce $2.5 million for 15 new treatment beds that will help hundreds of Ontarians in accessing the support they need. This is just one of many investments we’re making across the province to address the surge in demand for addictions services.

In addition to adding almost 400 new beds, the new Addiction Recovery Fund is adding six new youth wellness hubs, supporting new Indigenous-led, land-based healing services and funding three new police-partnered mobile crisis teams.

Mr. Speaker, our government is doing whatever it takes to finally build a connected mental health and addictions system that meets the unique needs of all Ontarians no matter where they are in the province.

Gasoline prices

Mr. Jamie West: My question is for the Premier.

Ontario is already dealing with the high cost of living. We have higher food costs, higher rent, higher hydro rates and more. My constituents in Sudbury are dealing with another rising cost: gas prices. Peter says that high gas prices are eroding his pension. Leanne and Nancy wrote to my office about having to choose between getting gas or getting groceries. Stacey can barely afford to get to work every day, and Christina is a single mom who has had to take on a second job just to make ends meet.

The north has always seen higher gas prices than southern Ontario, but recently the difference has been astronomical. There is always a 10-cent difference between Sudbury and gas stations that are only 45 minutes away, and that number jumps to 20 cents or more the further south that you drive. That’s gas gouging, Speaker. For years, the Conservative government said they’d bring gas prices down, and the previous Liberal Minister of Energy also promised to fix this issue, but nothing was ever done.

When will the government require the Ontario Energy Board to regulate the retail price and wholesale markup of petroleum products in Ontario, protecting drivers from being gouged at the pump?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): To reply, the member for Oakville and the parliamentary assistant.

Mr. Stephen Crawford: Thank you to the member opposite for the question, but I must admit, I cannot believe what I’m hearing coming out of the mouths of the opposition. The opposition is trying to pretend that they care about affordability for Ontarians. We know they are advocating for carbon taxes. When elected, our government took immediate action to make life more affordable for Ontarians by scrapping the cap-and-trade, which lowered gas by 4.3 cents a litre. We continue to fight for Ontarians, to scrap the federal carbon tax, to which the NDP is quiet.

Now, what has the NDP done?

(1) They’ve been supporting the carbon tax, which penalizes everyday working Ontarians and Canadians; (2) they are against pipelines to get ethical, safe oil delivered within our country; and (3), when the NDP was previously in power, they increased Ontario’s excise tax and it went up by 15%, from 11.3 to 13 cents a litre.

I’ll have more to say in the supplementary.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Government side, come to order.

The supplementary question.

Mr. Jamie West: Speaker, the minister wants to talk about four cents; gas today in Sudbury is over $1.80—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The government side will come to order. Allow the member for Sudbury to ask his question. I have to be able to hear him.

Please start the clock. I apologize to the member for Sudbury.

Mr. Jamie West: Thank you, Speaker. They’re frustrated because they haven’t done anything.

In Sudbury and in the north, we don’t have access to the same kind of transit opportunities because our geography is vast and our winters are tough. Most of us need our vehicles just to get to work. It’s the only option.

Shannon and her family live outside of Sudbury. Both she and her husband commute to work every day and are forced to budget close to $1,000 a month for gas. If most of your paycheque goes towards gas, how do you survive? Life has become unaffordable. Gas prices shouldn’t be another burden to Ontarians. It shouldn’t keep people like Shannon from their job. It shouldn’t keep people like William from going to camp to visit their family. It shouldn’t be a hardship for Mitch to drive his daughter to daycare in the morning.

Speaker, gas gouging can end by implementing predictable and consistent retail pricing of petroleum products so that we don’t see the steep fluctuations that are currently happening. When will the Conservatives implement this plan?

Mr. Stephen Crawford: Thank you to the member opposite, but, again, I want to look at the NDP’s track record and where they stand: The member from Ottawa Centre is in favour of a tax increase and carbon tax of 35 cents a litre. That would make it so painful for everyday residents to drive to soccer practices, to have business here in the province. We have stood up to the federal government’s carbon tax. I would love the opposition to join us against that.

With respect to regulation that you’ve talked about, there are a few provinces in this country that have regulation: Newfoundland, for example, where it’s currently $1.92 per litre, 10 cents more expensive than Ontario. And in NDP-led British Columbia, the price is $1.91 per litre. So my question to you is, will you join us and fight the federal government on this carbon tax?

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Stop the clock. If the outbursts continue, I’m going to start calling you out by riding name or ministerial title.

Start the clock. The member for Ottawa South.

Health professions

Mr. John Fraser: My question is for the Premier. We learned this morning that the government has moved to strike

schedule 5 from Bill 88. That was good news for the people rallying outside, but they’re nervous. Why? Because they don’t trust the Premier. They know the college protects patients. They know that the college of traditional Chinese medicine elevated it from a practice to a profession. And they also know the Premier wanted to eliminate all that, treating practitioners more like tattoo artists than the healers they are. The community knows that they can’t trust this government, because they were willing to make this change without any consultation, and they might very well do that again.

Speaker, through you to the Premier: Who whispered in the Premier’s ear and told him this was a good idea?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): To respond, the government House leader.

Hon. Paul Calandra: Mr. Speaker, do you know what the people out on the lawn know? They know that for over 12 years, because of Liberal legislation that set up this college, Chinese-speaking Canadians were virtually forbidden from participating in the very medicine that they brought to this province.

What we’re doing is fixing the Liberal mistake so that more people can participate in traditional Chinese medicine. We’re going to fix the college to ensure that happens. As the member acknowledged in his question, we are eliminating

schedule 5. That is why we took the step of moving it to committee before second reading. Ultimately, we are going to fix the problems that the Liberals set in. I don’t know why they did it. Frankly, I don’t know who would bring forward legislation, back in 2006, that took so many people out of the traditional medicine that they were practising.

Thankfully, the member for Markham–Unionville, the member for Richmond Hill and the member for Don Valley North were, of course, on top of this, working with us. Ultimately, we’re going to have the best solution in place for more people.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The supplementary question?

Mr. John Fraser: Thanks to the House leader for bringing it up—the Premier said making this change was all about language as a barrier to practice. But the Premier and the cabinet members know that this change could have easily been done in regulation in five minutes at the cabinet table. He could have done it in five minutes and solved the problem that he said he was trying to solve.

Instead, without any consultation or any forewarning, the Premier was going to eliminate the college. It took the community standing up and telling the Premier that he was wrong for the government to backtrack. That’s the only reason that happened. Otherwise, we’d still be going ahead with

schedule 5.

The community is right not to trust the Premier or this government.

The question really is, if making this change wasn’t going to benefit patients or the profession of traditional Chinese medicine, just exactly who was it going to benefit?

Again, Speaker, through you: Who whispered in the Premier’s ear that this was a good idea? And will the government commit today to strengthening the college of traditional Chinese medicine and never threatening it again?

Hon. Paul Calandra: Let’s look at the question the member just asked. He said that it could have taken five minutes at the cabinet table to make that change. So in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, the Liberals could not find five minutes to allow Chinese Canadians to practise their traditional Chinese medicine in the province of Ontario. It took a Conservative government to fix the mistake that they made—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Stop the clock.

The House will come to order. I had to cut off the government House leader because I couldn’t hear what he was saying.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Order.

Start the clock. The next question.

Small business

Ms. Jill Andrew: My question is for the Premier.

The last two years have been absolutely devastating for small businesses across Ontario and also in my community of St. Paul’s. This last lockdown was the breaking point for many.

That was the case for Karina, a wedding planner in our community who had four winter weddings cancelled—income that would have helped her get through some of the hardest bumps until business picked up again. Despite receiving the first two rounds of the Ontario Small Business Support Grant, after many, many, many emails and hours and calls to our office, she was not eligible for the Ontario small business relief grant and got no explanation as to why.

Speaker, my question is to the Premier. After two years of these programs being flagged with problems that left small businesses to shutter, how is it that this government still hasn’t gotten this right, to support Ontario entrepreneurs like Karina? Why is there no appeals process to support small business owners who need help if their grants applications have been denied—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction.

Hon. Nina Tangri: I do want to thank the member from Toronto–St. Paul’s for her question. It was this Premier and this government that recognized that small businesses impacted by public health measures required immediate support so they could continue serving their communities and employing people across our province. It was our goal to get money to businesses quickly. Through the new COVID-19 small business relief grant, we’re providing $10,000 for eligible businesses. This builds on the nearly $3 billion that we provided last year through the Ontario small business program to over 110,000 businesses across the province.

Speaker, I’d like to give you our updated numbers from March 4: We have currently given out to over 9,800 applicants a total amounting to over $98 million, with another 8,500 applicants that are currently in progress.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Supplementary question.

Ms. Jill Andrew: Back to the Premier: Karina’s situation is not a solo situation. She is joined by many hundreds of businesses in Little Jamaica. She’s joined by many of our local BIAs and other businesses that cannot access funding from this government. For some, they’ve applied and were told that they would receive confirmation, which never comes. It’s impossible to follow up when you don’t know if there’s a status on your application. Others have been waiting well over a month, and when calling to inquire, they’re simply told to keep waiting.

This is in a climate where this government, the Conservative government, gave out over $200 million to businesses that were ineligible. Some weren’t even in Ontario.

The Ontario small business relief grant program is closing this Friday, when evidently it hasn’t worked for the people it was supposed to work for, by no fault of their own, of course—all systems. My question to the Premier: Given this reality, will he extend the deadline of this program to ensure that every business owner eligible to receive support is able to?

Hon. Nina Tangri: I’d like to remind the member opposite that it was this government that provided $300 million to help offset fixed costs, including property taxes, hydro, natural gas bills, for businesses impacted by public health measures—who provided a one-time grant of $1,000 for eligible businesses for PPE.

But sometimes it becomes, unfortunately, very comical. Let me remind the member opposite: They voted against doubling the employer health tax exemption that allows 30,000 businesses—employers—to no longer pay the payroll tax. They voted against reducing the business education tax by $450 million. They voted against $680 million in broadband infrastructure. They continue to vote against.

But one thing I will say is, Speaker, I do want to thank the members opposite for supporting Bill 84, because that helps small businesses—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Stop the clock.

Once again, I had to interrupt the minister because I could not hear what she was saying, even with the earpiece in, because of the volume of the clapping and the shouting.

The next question.

Social assistance

Mr. Mike Schreiner: Good morning, Speaker. My question is for the Premier. People living on the Ontario Disability Support Program live well below the poverty line. The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in the province is over $1,000. The average rent for an apartment in Toronto is over $1,800. Yet the basic needs and shelter allowance for ODSP is just $1,169, an amount that has not kept up with the rising levels of inflation, nor has it been increased since the planned 3% increase was cut in half in 2018.

People with disabilities are hurting, and it’s not right. Speaker, will the Premier double the rates for ODSP in the spring budget?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): To reply, the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services.

Hon. Merrilee Fullerton: Thank you very much to the member opposite for the question. To be clear, our government raised ODSP and OW rates when we took office. Knowing the challenges posed by the pandemic, we invested more than $1 billion in social services relief and expanded access to temporary emergency assistance for those in financial crisis. OW and ODSP clients continue to have access to the government’s discretionary benefit program to assist with exceptional expenses.

These investments back up our transformation of social assistance to build a more responsive, person-centred, effective and efficient system that will get people back to work and help the province recover from the COVID-19 crisis.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Supplementary.

Mr. Mike Schreiner: Let’s be clear: According to the Financial Accountability Officer, the government underspent on social services by $1.2 billion. People on ODSP are forced to live on $1,100. You ask anywhere in Ontario where you can survive on that kind of money. That’s exactly why over 50% of the people on social assistance, surveys show, go days without eating. This is the province of Ontario. People on social assistance can’t afford rent, can’t afford food. We can do better, because we are better.

I ask the government through you, Speaker, will they increase ODSP rates above the low-income cut-off line in the spring budget?

Hon. Merrilee Fullerton: Thank you once again to the member opposite for that important question. To be clear and to clarify the issue with the underfunding, as you term it, I say that this is an application-based program. It requires people to apply. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw a lot of people using resources from the federal government, and the applications did not come in in the same amount.

To be clear, MCCSS’s budget saw an increase in the third quarter to over $18.1 billion as a result of a $9-million increase as part of the COVID-19 response fall preparedness plan. Our government spends roughly $8.3 billion annually on our programs for ODSP. In addition to that, we have a micro-credential strategy that I’m working on with the Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development; as well as on the mental health aspect, with the Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions; as well as working with the Minister of Education for the $1 billion to build thousands of new—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Thank you very much.

Next question.

Affordable housing

Mr. Wayne Gates: My question is to the Premier. In Niagara, one of the most concerning things we are seeing is housing costs—it’s a full-blown crisis. The median price for a home in Niagara has increased by 33% in four years, and a recent report shows housing costs are set to rise another 14% next year.

Under this government’s watch, young working-class Ontarians don’t have a chance of owning a home in Niagara. I hear it from young people in my community. They tell me they can’t picture owning a home in the future. The government’s own task force showed that the housing price average in Ontario has increased from $329,000 to nearly $1 million, a 180% increase, while at the same time wages only increased 38%. This government said hydro rates would go down by 12%. They have actually gone up 5%.

Again, my question to the Premier: After four years of the cost of living skyrocketing, four years of your broken promises, how can young families and seniors afford to live in this province of Ontario?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): To reply, the member for Stormont–Dundas–South Glengarry and parliamentary assistant.

Mr. Jim McDonell: The province has a shortage of housing. Since we got elected, under the leadership of Premier Ford, we are saying yes to building more homes, yes to expanding more long-term care and yes to building more transit. We have been using MZOs, which have helped accelerate the creation of over 4,000 long-term-care beds and 30,000 new or renovated long-term-care beds. Also, MZOs have helped the construction of over 54,000 housing units and well over 600 supportive housing units. MZOs have helped create more than 50,000 new jobs by getting shovels in the ground sooner.

Speaker, in 2021, two years after More Homes, More Choice was announced, Ontario had over 100,000 housing starts, the highest level of housing starts since 1987 and the highest level of rental starts in 30 years, since 1991. This government has said yes to more housing units, and that side has said no.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): That concludes our question period for this morning.

Correction of record

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The member for Ottawa South has informed me he has a point of order that he wishes to raise.

Mr. John Fraser: Yes, Speaker. I’d like to correct my record. This morning, in my member’s statement, I said, “What is happening in the Ukraine is a horror.” What I meant to say is, “What is happening in Ukraine is a horror.” It’s an important distinction—I got it right earlier in my statement—and I want to thank the Minister of Northern Development and Mines for pointing that out to me this morning.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): This House stands in recess until 1 p.m.

The House recessed from 1141 to 1300.

Supplementary estimates

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Point of order, the President of the Treasury Board.

Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria: I have a message from the Honourable Elizabeth Dowdeswell, the Lieutenant Governor, signed by her own hand.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The Lieutenant Governor transmits supplementary estimates of certain sums required for the services of the province for the year ending March 31, 2022, and recommends them to the Legislative Assembly.

Introduction of Bills

Getting Ontario Connected Act, 2022 / Loi de 2022 pour un Ontario connecté

Miss Surma moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 93,

An Act to amend the Building Broadband Faster Act, 2021 and the Ontario Underground Infrastructure Notification System Act, 2012 / Projet de loi 93, Loi modifiant la Loi de 2021 sur la réalisation accélérée de projets d’Internet à haut débit et la Loi de 2012 sur un système d’information sur les infrastructures souterraines en Ontario.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

First reading agreed to.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Would the minister care to briefly explain her bill?

Hon. Kinga Surma: Absolutely, Speaker. The proposed Getting Ontario Connected Act, 2022, would amend the Building Broadband Faster Act, 2021. The proposed changes would make it easier for Internet service providers to build their high-speed Internet projects. Completing projects faster will help government meet its goal of bringing high-speed Internet to everyone by 2025.

The Getting Ontario Connected Act, 2022, would, if passed, also amend the Ontario Underground Infrastructure Notification System Act, 2012, to, among other things, help improve the processes and requirements related to determining the location of underground infrastructure. This will benefit broadband project proponents and other infrastructure sectors.

Climate Crisis Health Action Plan Act, 2022 / Loi de 2022 sur le Plan d’action sur la crise climatique et la santé

Ms. Karpoche moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 94,

An Act to provide for the development of a strategic action plan respecting the impacts of the climate crisis on health, as well as the establishment of the Climate Crisis and Health Secretariat and a science advisory board / Projet de loi 94, Loi prévoyant l’élaboration d’un plan d’action stratégique contre les effets de la crise climatique sur la santé et la constitution du Secrétariat de l’action relative à la crise climatique et à la santé et d’un conseil consultatif scientifique.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

First reading agreed to.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Would the member for Parkdale–High Park care to briefly explain her bill?

Ms. Bhutila Karpoche: Yes, Speaker, thank you. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the devastating costs of failing to prepare for a crisis. We must be prepared for the health impacts of the climate crisis. As such, the climate crisis health action plan requires the Minister of Health to take action to address the health impacts of the climate crisis by:

(1) developing and publishing a strategic action plan to prepare Ontario’s health systems for the health risks caused by the impacts of the climate crisis;

(2) establishing the climate crisis and health secretariat; and

(3) establishing a science advisory board to advise the minister with respect to climate change science and health sciences and the impacts of the climate crisis on public health.

The act requires that the strategic plan be reviewed and, if necessary, be updated at least every four years.

Long-Term Care Homes Amendment (Till Death Do Us Part) Act, 2022 / Loi de 2022 modifiant la

Loi sur les foyers de soins de longue durée (Jusqu’à ce que la mort nous sépare)

Ms. Fife moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill 95,

An Act to amend the Long-Term Care Homes Act, 2007 to provide spouses with the right to live together in a home / Projet de loi 95, Loi modifiant la Loi de 2007 sur les foyers de soins de longue durée afin d’accorder aux conjoints le droit de vivre ensemble dans un foyer.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

First reading agreed to.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Would the member for Waterloo care to briefly explain her bill?

Ms. Catherine Fife: The bill amends the residents’ bill of rights set out in

section 3 of the Long-Term Care Homes Act, 2007, by adding the right of residents not to be separated from their spouses upon admission but to have accommodation made available for both spouses so that they may continue to live together. I’m hoping that this bill moves forward this time.

Petitions

Anti-racism activities

Mr. Faisal Hassan: “Take Action on Islamophobia.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas three generations of a Muslim family were killed in an Islamophobic terror attack in London, Ontario;

“Whereas Islamophobia, white supremacy and hate crimes are on the rise in Ontario;

“Whereas no one should be scared to go for a walk while wearing a hijab, or fear worshipping at their masjid;

“Whereas we must take urgent action to eradicate Islamophobia, white supremacy and hate crimes;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to take urgent action against Islamophobia, white supremacy and organized” crime “and unanimously pass the Our London Family Act.”

I give it to Kristian to take to the table.

Land use planning

Mrs. Belinda C. Karahalios: It’s big congratulations to the good people of the village of Blair, who prepared this petition and got signatures in less than 24 hours—hundreds of signatures.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing approved an MZO requested by the city of Cambridge and Broccolini real estate group to develop a 1.3-million-square-foot fulfillment centre in the Blair heritage conservation district; and

“Whereas local residents have raised concerns over the lack of public consultation, and specifically that the newly proposed 1.3-million-square-foot fulfillment centre is completely different and has a 300% larger foot print than the previously agreed 2012 plan for a 14-unit prestigious business park; and

“Whereas the Minister of Municipal of Affairs and Housing stood in the Legislature on November 15, 2021, and stated that the city of Cambridge must complete their due diligence before requesting the MZO and that he would revoke the MZO unless the city of Cambridge demonstrated meaningful public consultation; and

“Whereas the Cambridge Municipal Heritage Advisory Committee, a group of independent volunteers, consulted with nearly 30 concerned residents on February 17, 2022, in its largest public delegation ever and responded by denying development of the 1.3-million-square-foot fulfillment centre in the historic Blair village;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“That the assembly ask that the minister confirm that the city of Cambridge has failed to meet its obligations to complete public consultation and that the Blair MZO be revoked.”

I affix my signature to this petition and hand it to page Julia.

Municipal planning

Ms. Doly Begum: I have a petition here entitled “Metrolinx Train Tracks Construction.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas households within the vicinity of the north side of the Metrolinx train tracks in the Danforth and Oakridge area are faced with construction and removal of mature trees, which increased noise and vibration, caused a loss of beauty and privacy, and raised many environmental concerns for residents;

“Whereas the construction of an additional train track will not bring direct benefit to the community members but is instead causing a loss of natural space, increasing noise/air pollution and may result in a decrease in property valuation;

“Whereas there has been no community consultation about train tracks being placed closer to residential houses and addressing concerns about risks to houses in the area through vibration of tracks and other environmental concerns;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario demand Metrolinx of the following:

“

(1) Provide a noise barrier and/or tree replacements to supplement the removed trees;

“

(2) Consider building the train tracks on the south side of the existing tracks (which consist of vast undeveloped lands compared to the north side);

“

(3) Consult with the community to provide transparency on timeline and plans;

“

(4) Ensure the community receives fair treatment and benefits from transit construction.”

I fully support this petition. I thank the members of the Oakridge community who have worked together to get these signed. I will affix my signature to it and give it to the Clerk through page Zane.

COVID-19 immunization

Mrs. Belinda C. Karahalios: “To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas unprecedented COVID-19 vaccine mandates have disrupted the lives of many Ontarians, causing lose of livelihood and loss of access to facilities; and

“Whereas many injuries and even deaths have been documented by official Canadian, US and European adverse-event reporting systems; and

“Whereas

article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (medical experimentation) and

article 6.1 of the Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (all medical interventions) require consent; and

“Whereas Ontario’s Health Care Consent Act ... states that treatments (including “preventive” ones) shall not be administered without consent and that the consent “must be” “informed,” “given voluntarily,” and “not be obtained through misrepresentation or fraud;”

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“That existing laws and treaties protecting us against assault, abuse, and intimidation, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Criminal Code and the Health Care Consent Act, be enforced by all officials at all levels;

“That all vaccine mandates in the public and private sectors be ended immediately.”

I affix my name to this petition and hand it to page Kristian.

Gasoline prices

M me France Gélinas: I would like to thank Mr. Djuro Vojnovic from Levack in my riding for these petitions.

“Gas prices....

“Whereas northern Ontario motorists continue to be subject to wild fluctuations in the price of gasoline; and

“Whereas the province could eliminate opportunistic price gouging and deliver fair, stable and predictable fuel prices; and

“Whereas five provinces and many US states already have some sort of gas price regulation; and ... jurisdictions with gas price regulation have seen an end to wild price fluctuations, a shrinking of price discrepancies between urban and rural communities” as well as “lower annualized gas prices;”

They petition the Legislative Assembly as follows:

“Mandate the Ontario Energy Board to monitor the price of gasoline across Ontario in order to reduce price volatility and unfair regional price differences while encouraging competition.”

I support this petition, will affix my name to it and send it to the table with page Benjamin.

Injured workers

Ms. Jill Andrew: This petition is entitled “Petition to Fix Broken WSIB System.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas 50% of injured workers end up living in poverty;

“Whereas 50% of the homeless population have suffered a traumatic brain injury;

“Whereas the WSIB is designed to discourage claimants, forcing many injured workers to give up on their legitimate applications;

“Whereas workers with complex injuries are often treated unfairly by the WSIB and have their claims denied unfairly;

“Whereas the process of ‘deeming’ has forced injured workers from Ontario to take their cases to the United Nations for violating the human rights of workers;

“Whereas injured workers are only entitled to 85% of their date-of-injury income if they’re awarded full loss-of-earnings ... benefits;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to call on the WSIB to:

“—immediately review their policies to ensure that injured workers are treated fairly, regardless of their type of injury;

“—ensure that the experts are listened to and that their analysis is not disregarded;

“—immediately end the practice of ‘deeming’;

“—increase WSIB rates to 100% of lost income, index benefits to inflation, with an option for communication, and ensure acknowledgement of loss of future earning potential.”

Thank you to the residents of St. Paul’s, especially Steve and Jana, who have done considerable work on trying to advocate for better through the WSIB. I have affixed my signature and will pass it over to Leah.

Health professions

Ms. Jennifer K. French: We have all been receiving these petitions in our office. While the government has promised to repeal

schedule 5, I’d like to congratulate and acknowledge the efforts of so many to pressure the government to make this change, but as we know, until it is done, it hasn’t been done. So I’ll read this petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas we, the members and stakeholders of the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists of Ontario, the undersigned, respectfully request and petition that:

“

(1) The Legislative Assembly of Ontario reconsider and remove

schedule 5 of Bill 88, Traditional Chinese Medicine Repeal Act, 2022 from the Working for Workers Act, 2022;

“

(2) The Legislative Assembly of Ontario allow public hearings with input from stakeholders and experts during the review-by-committee phase after the second reading;

“

(3) The Legislative Assembly of Ontario investigate and answer the question of why only the TCM Act and the members of its self-governing professional body are targeted in Bill 88, Working for Workers Act, 2022;

“

(4) The Legislative Assembly of Ontario investigate the legality of the proceedings that led to

schedule 5 of Bill 88, Traditional Chinese Medicine Repeal Act, 2022 from the Working for Workers Act, 2022 and bring to light the conflict of interest and failure of the CTCMPAO to fulfill their fiduciary duties to their members due to infiltration of known associates of the FOTCMA.”

I will affix my signature and send this to the table with Tanisha.

Curriculum

Mr. Terence Kernaghan: This week, we’re recognizing International Women’s Day. I’d like to thank Effie, Eunice, volunteers with the Safe Campus Coalition and the Western University Students’ Council, as well as all the students at Western who signed and are working so hard on this issue. It’s titled, “Support Survivors of Gender-Based and Sexual Violence.” It reads:

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas upstream prevention education and prioritizing the voices of survivors are vital; and

“Whereas prevention work should be progressive, evidence-informed, and survivor-centric in order to proactively mitigate sexual and gender-based violence before it happens; and

“Whereas post-secondary students should be equipped with campus and community sexual- and gender-based violence response resources; and

“Whereas institutions’ sexual violence policies must take a trauma-informed and survivor-centric approach;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly as follows:

“Immediately amend

section 17 of the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act and the Ontario curriculum to:

“—require that post-secondary institutions participate in a gender-based and sexual violence campus climate survey administered every three years;

“—require post-secondary campuses to employ an appropriate and proportional number of gender-based violence educators;

“—require that all staff and faculty be trained in how to respond to disclosures of gender-based and sexual violence in a way that is survivor-centric and trauma-informed;

“—include sexual health in all subject areas of the K-12 curricula and, specifically, amend the health and physical education curriculum to include research-based education about consent and safe relationships.”

I fully support this petition, will affix my signature and give it to page Elya to deliver to the Clerks.

Injured workers

Mr. Jamie West: This petition is called “Petition for an Official Statement of Apology on Behalf of the” Government “of Ontario to the McIntyre Powder Project Miners.” These were all mailed in to me. I want to thank Judith Jaeger from Whitby, Serge Bastien from Iroquois Falls, Karan Larabie from North Bay and Ms. Laforest, who mailed her petition in from Florida. She is a resident of Nepean. It says:

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas over 25,000 Ontario mine workers were subjected by their employers to mandatory, non-consensual inhalation of finely ground aluminum dust known as ‘McIntyre Powder’ between 1943 and 1979, as a scientifically unproven industrial medical treatment for the lung disease silicosis; and

“Whereas the government of Ontario supported and sanctioned the McIntyre Powder aluminum prophylaxis program despite the availability of safe and proven alternatives to effective silicosis prevention measures such as improved dust control and ventilation, and also despite expert evidence from the international scientific and medical community as early as 1946 that recommended against the use of McIntyre Powder treatments; and

“Whereas the miners who were forced to inhale McIntyre Powder experienced distress, immediate and long-term health effects from their experiences and exposures associated with aluminum inhalation treatments, as documented through their participation in the McIntyre Powder Project;

“We, the undersigned, petition the” government “of Ontario to provide an official statement of apology to the McIntyre Powder Project miners.”

I support this petition. I’ll affix my signature and give it to page Julia to provide to the table.

Injured workers

Ms. Bhutila Karpoche: This petition is titled “Petition to Fix Broken WSIB System.” It reads:

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas 50% of injured workers end up living in poverty;

“Whereas 50% of the homeless population have suffered a traumatic brain injury;

“Whereas the WSIB is designed to discourage claimants, forcing many injured workers to give up on their legitimate applications;

“Whereas workers with complex injuries are often treated unfairly by the WSIB and have their claims denied unfairly;

“Whereas the process of ‘deeming’ has forced injured workers from Ontario to take their case to the United Nations for violating the human rights of workers;

“Whereas injured workers are only entitled to 85% of their date-of-injury income if they are awarded full loss-of-earnings ... benefits;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to call on the WSIB to:

“—immediately review their policies to ensure that injured workers are treated fairly, regardless of their type of injury;

“—ensure that the experts are listened to and that their analysis is not disregarded;

“—immediately end the practice of ‘deeming’;

“—increase WSIB rates to 100% of lost income, index benefits to inflation, with an option for communication, and ensure acknowledgement of loss of future earning potential.”

I support this petition and will affix my signature to it.

Injured workers

Mrs. Jennifer (Jennie) Stevens: This is from a signature that was mailed into my office from Dave Musgrave from South Porcupine, hometown of Councillor Kushner from St. Catharines.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas over 25,000 Ontario mine workers were subjected by their employers to mandatory, non-consensual inhalation of finely ground aluminum dust known as ‘McIntyre Powder’ between 1943 and 1979, as a scientifically unproven industrial medical treatment for the lung disease silicosis; and

“Whereas the government of Ontario supported and sanctioned the McIntyre Powder aluminum prophylaxis program despite the availability of safe and proven alternatives to effective silicosis prevention measures such as improved dust control and ventilation, and also despite expert evidence from the international scientific and medical community as early as 1946 that recommended against the use of McIntyre Powder treatments; and

“Whereas the miners who were forced to inhale McIntyre Powder experienced distress, and immediate and long-term health effects from their experiences and exposures associated with aluminum inhalation treatments, as documented through their participation in the McIntyre Powder Project;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to provide an official statement of apology to the McIntyre Powder Project miners.”

I affix my name and hand it to page Pania.

Opposition Day

Home care

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Speaker, I move the opposition day number 2 motion, which is as follows:

Whereas over 90% of Ontario’s seniors and people living with disabilities report that they prefer to receive care at home instead of entering institutionalized long-term care, and many Ontarians would benefit from culturally relevant home and community care; and

Whereas 85% of doctors surveyed by the Ontario Medical Association believe that increased access to home care would improve health outcomes for patients and allow people to stay in their homes longer, and the Ontario Hospital Association estimates that lack of access to home and community care costs the province hundreds of millions of dollars each year; and

Whereas home care providers have seen their ability to meet service requests cut in half since the start of the pandemic, leaving thousands of frail Ontarians without care due to underfunding and massive health care staffing shortages; and

Whereas cuts to home care and community care by successive Conservative and Liberal governments have failed patients, PSWs and nurses in home and community care even before COVID-19, with jobs that pay anywhere from 10-30% less than those in hospitals and long-term-care settings while forcing some support workers to pay for the cost of travel between clients out of their own pockets; and

Whereas the Protecting a Sustainable Public Sector for Future Generations Act, 2019—previously Bill 124—has made it nearly impossible for the home and community care sector to support hiring and retaining PSWs and nurses in full-time work, and has contributed to soaring vacancy rates for nurses and PSWs across the province; and

Whereas, despite the hard lessons of the pandemic, the Ford government failed to provide adequate funding for hiring and retention of home and community care workers in both the 2021 budget and the 2021 fall economic statement;

Therefore, the Legislative Assembly calls on the Ford government to make much-needed investments in public, not-for-profit home care via a strategy that increases access to affordable, high-quality, culturally relevant home and community care services throughout the province; establishes provincial standards for the delivery of care across Ontario; commits to a public, not-for-profit system; and ensures adequate staffing levels for nurses, PSWs and other care providers in the sector by closing the pay gap and repealing Bill 124.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Ms. Horwath has moved opposition day number two. I look to the Leader of the Opposition to lead off the debate.

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Thanks to my caucus colleagues, our fantastic team here. I’m really glad that we are talking about home care today, because it’s very, very clear that home care is what people prefer, rather than being institutionalized in long-term care, once they find it more difficult to meet their own personal needs and health care needs or have other disabilities and conditions that prevent them from having those kinds of services or attempting to fulfill their own need for service.

Family members have said for some time now that they want to keep their loved ones at home receiving long-term care, as opposed to sending them into an institutionalized setting like long-term care.

In fact, I’ve been on many tours of this province over the years talking about home care and talking about long-term care, and I can tell you that virtually every person I’ve spoken to has said either their parent or loved one begged them—begged them—not to send them into long-term care; or they felt guilty, felt badly about the decision that they finally had to make to send a loved one unwillingly into long-term care because there were no other options. There was nothing else they could do to make sure their loved one got the services they needed.

We all know that services in the home are the healthiest kinds of services, or the services where people feel the happiest. They are in your home surroundings that you’re accustomed to, that you know very well, that make you feel confident, that are close to your community. There’s just no doubt that that’s exactly where you should be able to spend the vast majority of your life, including as you begin to age or as conditions deteriorate and you require some extra help.

Ninety-six per cent of seniors prefer to be at home instead of in long-term care; 85% of doctors say home care access improves health outcomes. People deteriorate more quickly when they’re in long-term care, but when they’re receiving home care, they’re able to maintain their well-being for longer amounts of time. People deserve that service. People really deserve to have adequate, quality home care, fully funded, accessible, provided in the home or in the community, to make them comfortable and keep them well for as long as possible.

Lois Frazier-Blakeney, an 85-year-old home care recipient, describes it in this way, Speaker: “I wish people were more informed about the importance of home care, what it means to the” person “they’re helping, what it means to society in general.... No one wants to go to long-term care if they can avoid it. No one.”

As I said, I’ve heard this for many years now across Ontario. It’s a sentiment that is broadly shared, and it’s obviously something that we need to move on, that we need to act on here in Ontario. We can actually give people the quality of care, give our loved ones the quality of care they need and deserve, that protects them, that improves their quality of life. But for the longest time, we’ve been doing the exact opposite. We’ve been taking away that freedom, taking away that quality of life; eroding their well-being much more quickly by putting them into long-term care, and in some cases people end up in hospital when they don’t have the care they need.

Shamefully, in Ontario, things are getting worse and not better. We’re eighth in the provincial pecking order in terms of per capita spending on home care, so we spend less than eight other provinces. In the last five years under the Premier, the current Ford government, as well as under the Del Duca Liberals, the share of home care spending in the last five years, in terms of the overall health care budget, has actually decreased. That is something to say, Speaker. How do you actually improve a system when you’re reducing the amount of resources that you’re putting in that sector?

What that means is that far too many folks who are seniors, people with disabilities, who can’t get enough home care—as I said, they end up in long-term care or they end up in our hospitals. The Canadian Institute for Health Information says that one in nine newly admitted to long-term care could have been kept at home if quality home care was accessible.

I can say that years ago, Speaker, the Auditor General did a report on how our hospitals operate, and one of the things that came to light was an estimation that up to as many as 25% of people who are leaving hospital don’t need to be going into long-term care. Of the people in long-term care that came from hospital, 25% of them didn’t have to be in long-term care, but there was just no option.

They were in hospital for an extended period of time and when they were discharged they either had no more home or apartment to rent, or they didn’t have the home care that would have kept them in their home, or in a home with their loved ones. So it’s really, really apparent that this is a piece of our health care system that has been woefully ignored by this government and the previous government, and we need to address it.

But, instead, we’ve had cuts and privatization and bad decisions, starting with the Harris government’s privatization of our home care system, the competitive bidding model that was then supported as the Liberals took over, and it just continued to privatize the system and create situations where profits were the motive, profits were the impetus, and the care of people is what suffered. Already dwindling government investments were diverted into the pockets of big corporations instead of being utilized for the provision of care. That’s a problem.

Now we’re left with a system—even before the COVID-19 pandemic, and I think some MPPs who are here, perhaps those who have served for many years, will know that every single January, from January to March, the calls would come into the constituency office from people whose home care hours were being clawed back or were being squeezed or being reduced. Why? Because it was the end of the fiscal year; there wasn’t enough money. The Liberals weren’t going to cough up any more, so people had their services reduced or appointments missed. That’s happened for years and years.

We know that that continues to happen now. Appointments are missed at the last minute. People absolutely don’t get the services that they need, and of course, on top of that, with the staffing shortages that we now face as a result of COVID-19, the pandemic, what we have is that the staff—not dissimilar from what we’ve seen in long-term care—just don’t have the time to give the patients the kind of supports that they need.

I have to say that the member for Nickel Belt shared a constituent’s story in question period the other day. A woman from Whitefish, partially blind, with several amputations, who lives 40 minutes away from a hospital and doesn’t drive, had her home care opportunities denied. She could not get home care because the service couldn’t find a nurse to go to her. There were no funds available for that to happen. So that woman from Whitefish had to actually get to the hospital three times a day to get the services she needed. That’s just not acceptable in a province like ours, Speaker.

We know there are far too few staff in our home care system, and the ones who are there are run off their feet, they’re underpaid, and they therefore are not able to provide people with the help that they need.

We lost 4,000 nurses in our home care system, hundreds of skilled therapists, thousands more PSWs. There was a 421% increase in vacant RN positions and a 331% increase in vacant PSW positions. Instead of turning things around and stepping up for seniors and disabled folks, this government didn’t increase the amount of budget allocation in the 2021 budget when they should have.

We know that the disrespect, the attack on our health care workers continues to be in existence with Bill 124, and that affects nurses, of course, and PSWs and others, which just feeds into the cycle of burnout and the exiting of people from these kinds of positions. We know that that bill is an insult. It adds insult to injury. It’s an insult to all home care workers—in fact, to all workers who are covered by that legislation, but in home care it is even that much more challenging. Why? Because the wages are even lower than in other settings.

Home care has some of the lowest wages of all of the health care positions. PSWs in home care make 19% less than PSWs in a hospital. RNs make 32% less than hospital RNs—that’s $11 an hour less, Speaker. It’s significant.

Dr. Samir Sinha, policy research director for the National Institute on Ageing, says this:

“Wage parity can solve some of the problems.

“A nurse working in an acute-care hospital makes far more than a nurse working in a long-term-care home who makes far more than a nurse working in home care.

“What we’ve” seen “is a huge cannibalization of our home care workforce, especially when it comes to nursing.”

We’ve had decades of increasing staff shortages in our health care system here in Ontario, and it has led to a number of things—lower acceptance rates on home care referrals. In fact, right now, 50%—half—of all referrals to home care are denied. That’s because there’s no capacity in the system. Rising alternative-level-of-care rates continue to plague our system—folks in the hospital beds, of course, as we’ve already mentioned, because there’s simply no other alternative. That’s not where those folks belong. It’s not good for them, and it’s not good for our hospitals, and it costs way more money.

Moving people into long-term care, of course, is the other thing that happens, and again, as I mentioned, that is happening far too often, simply because people have no options. We’ve also seen, of course, the burnout of our caregivers.

What we really need is significant investments in our home care system. We need home care and community care to be a much, much bigger part of our seniors’ care—and that’s what they want. That’s what they want.

In fact, I met a PSW today who works in home care, and what she said is, “Home care is where it’s at.” And she’s right—Janet Stokes, today, this morning, in Scarborough. Home care is where it’s at. She is reflecting the voices of not only seniors, but of their family members as well.

We can fix this, though. That’s what this motion is all about. We can fix the home care system by making sure we prioritize it and we fix the problems that are inherent in that system. Every dollar that we invest in home care needs to go to the care of people—not to profit margins, not to return on investments and shareholders, but to the actual care of people. And we don’t have to wait for the election to change these things around.

We can start right now—start by getting the profits out, start by making sure that folks don’t have to wait for endless hours or weeks or months to actually get the home care they need, make sure that people are removed from long-term care and have services at home.

There’s just no doubt that when people have the services they need at home, it will help us solve other huge problems in our health care system, like our ALC concerns, like our long-term-care system, where people wait for years and years for a bed they don’t even want to be in. So let’s do that. Let’s give everybody more affordable access to home care. Make sure it’s universally available. Make sure it’s properly funded. Make sure it has proper standards. Make sure we have the proper resources through the whole calendar year, and make sure we respect the people who work in that system.

Make sure we’re respecting the PSWs, the nurses, the other care providers. We can do that by retaining staff, by recruiting staff, by returning staff who have left the system.

That’s what this is all about, Speaker. It’s about saying to the government: Work with us now. We have a plan to fix the home care system. That’s what people deserve, and we have an opportunity to give it to them. We don’t have to wait till the next election.

The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Lisa Gretzky): Further debate?

M me France Gélinas: I would like to give some real-life examples of what it means that our home care system is broken. The first one is my constituent Simone Mathieu, from Gogama. She’s a tough lady. She had to be emergency-transferred to Health Sciences North in Sudbury, and now she wants to go back to Gogama. Her daughter, who is a nurse, wrote to me:

“Bonsoir France, hope this message finds you well. Just reaching out to you out of curiosity....

“Naturally my mother is quite eager to get back home to Gogama but the nursing services are not available to meet her needs. My question is why remote communities are deprived of health care services such as community nursing?

“Well all know that CCAC and Bayshore have funding to serve this communities but are cutting back on services to gain financially.

“I would love to see my mom in the comfort of her own home receiving nursing care from Monday to Thursday.

“I would be more than able to change her dressing on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.” Her daughter is a nurse. She would go see her mom on her days off.

“Can you steer me in some direction to possibly make this happen.

“My mom’s dressing will likely take months to heal.

“She has a 45-centimetre packing dressing which requires daily changing at the moment.

“Merci France. Hope you are able to look into this and help us. Take care.”

There is no way for Mrs. Mathieu to go back to her home, to her own bed, where she will feel better, because the home care system is failing her.

I have Deborah Burke: “I am writing to you because I have a growing concern for home care (Bayshore) not being provided for days at a time to the French River area. My husband is terminally ill and requires daily nursing for checkups and ... meds. On October 29 ... I received a phone message from Bayshore telling me that there was no nurse for the weekend that they would be doing a virtual visit on the phone. I called back to Bayshore ... and left a message this was not acceptable as my husband needs meds drawn up daily.”

Then she called her case coordinator to report this. The case coordinator said that she would look into it. She called Bayshore and told them that this was not acceptable, that this patient needs to have daily care. Bayshore assured the case coordinator that her husband would have a nurse. No nurse showed up. She goes through many, many other days where no nurses showed up. She ends by saying, “If Bayshore has a contract to fulfill they need to fulfill it.” I fully agree, Speaker.

This is Ontario. We know how to provide home and community care services. We know how to recruit staff. Give them permanent, full-time, well-paid jobs with benefits, sick days and a pension plan, and they will show up. There are hundreds of PSWs in my riding that are just dying to go back to doing what they do well, looking after people, but they cannot make ends meet. They cannot pay their rent and feed their kids when they work for home care as PSWs. We need to change this. The NDP will change that.

The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Lisa Gretzky): Further debate?

Ms. Sara Singh: It’s an honour to rise here today and contribute to the debate and support the opposition day motion here, because as we’ve heard and as we know, the home care system is broken here in Ontario. We have a plan to fix that, and I hope that this government is going to listen and help support this, because seniors and people with disabilities are languishing and falling through the cracks because of Conservatives and Liberals cutting and privatizing our home care system.

I have spoken with many seniors across my diverse riding of Brampton Centre from the Tamil Seniors Association to the international seniors’ association as well, who have all said—and, as we know, 96% of seniors want to stay at home. They want to age in place. They want to live with dignity and be surrounded by their families. But the current system does not allow them to do that.

This is not just something that I hear from my constituents; it’s something that I personally experienced when my grandfather had a stroke and needed 24-hour care at home. We got 12 hours of support. That meant that my dad had to become his primary caregiver and had to provide him support 24 hours a day, to the point that he burned himself out. When I hear from constituents and they share these stories of what they’re experiencing—the burnout, the fatigue, the exhaustion—I understand that the system is broken and this government is failing them.

When people need 24 hours of care and they’re provided maybe 10, maybe 12, someone else has to pick up the pieces or those seniors languish in their beds, not getting the appropriate care they need. When their appointments are cancelled, that means a senior is not getting support, not getting the feeding or the changing that they need. How can we allow this to continue on in our province when we all know that the system is broken and needs to be changed?

We need to take care of the caregivers and we need to take care of the people who take care of our elders and our vulnerable community members. As the member from Nickel Belt clearly articulated, if we provide people with proper pay, proper benefits and the supports that they need they will continue to thrive. But the system has continued to cut their wages, denied them benefits and kept them precariously employed, which means they cannot make a decent life out of taking care of others. That should not be the reality in our province.

As we’ve heard from people like Deborah Simon, the CEO of the Ontario Community Support Association, “Our member organizations can no longer maintain current service levels without adequate resources. These are non-profit organizations that rely on government support and fundraising. Many have long wait-lists and no staff to service the clients. The shortage has led to longer wait-lists, triaging of clients, and the current trajectory will lead to cancellation of programs or services and with it, increased caregiver” burnout “as well as added pressures on long-term care and hospitals across Ontario.”

It not only makes economic sense to invest in home and community care; we can save money in the system because people are getting the supports they need. We don’t need more warehouses and large-scale institutions. What we need is to value elders in our community and create community supports so that they can live with dignity. That’s what New Democrats are fighting for and we’re not going to give up, because we know that change is possible. You as the government have an opportunity in your upcoming budget to fund and support home and community care. I urge you to do the right thing. Stop letting vulnerable seniors fall through the cracks. They are worth every single dollar.

The Acting Speaker (Mrs. Lisa Gretzky): Further debate?

M me Lucille Collard: I’m really pleased to have the opportunity to rise this afternoon in support of this important motion. I think that we can all agree that what we’ve seen in long-term-care homes across the province during this pandemic has shaken the confidenc