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May 11, 2017

41st Parliament, 2nd Session

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Hansard Transcripts

Votes and Proceedings

Orders and Notices

Hansard Transcripts 2017-May-11 (PDF)

L081 - Thu 11 May 2017 / Jeu 11 mai 2017

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

ASSEMBLÉE LÉGISLATIVE DE L’ONTARIO

Thursday 11 May 2017 Jeudi 11 mai 2017

Orders of the Day

2017 Ontario budget

Introduction of Visitors

Oral Questions

Probation and parole services

Probation and parole services

Energy policies

Pharmacare

Energy policies

Public transit

Education funding

Opioid abuse

Employment standards

Indigenous arts and culture

Health care

Health care funding

Research and development

Hydro rates

Horse racing industry

Visitors

Deferred Votes

Time allocation

Introduction of Visitors

Members’ Statements

Four Counties Health Services

Club Richelieu Welland

Niagara College

Blue Umbrella Program

Paramedics competition

Volunteer awards

Dorothy Jane Needles

Nursing Week

Asian Heritage Month

Introduction of Bills

Fair Hydro Act, 2017 / Loi de 2017 pour des frais d’électricité équitables

Petitions

Long-term care

Child care

Hydro rates

Lung health

Long-term care

Grandview Children’s Centre

Hospital funding

Water fluoridation

Hydro rates

Highway improvement

Gasoline prices

Private Members’ Public Business

Housing policy

Lawren Harris Day Act, 2017 / Loi de 2017 sur le Jour de Lawren Harris

Registered Professional Planners Act, 2017 / Loi de 2017 sur les urbanistes certifiés

Housing policy

Lawren Harris Day Act, 2017 / Loi de 2017 sur le Jour de Lawren Harris

Registered Professional Planners Act, 2017 / Loi de 2017 sur les urbanistes certifiés

Orders of the Day

Stronger, Healthier Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2017 / Loi de 2017 pour un Ontario plus fort et en meilleure santé (mesures budgétaires)

Private members’ public business

Safer School Zones Act, 2017 / Loi de 2017 sur la sécurité accrue des zones d’école

The House met at 0900.

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

Prayers.

Orders of the Day

2017 Ontario budget

Resuming the debate adjourned on May 8, 2017, on the amendment to the motion that this House approves in general the budgetary policy of the government.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Further debate?

Hon. Michael Coteau: It’s a real honour today to stand to talk about the budget, government motion number 20. Mr. Speaker, I am so proud to be a part of this government, which has brought forward what I believe is probably the best budget that I have seen in the almost six years that I’ve been here in the Legislature. When we look right across the country, North America and around the world, Ontario is a jurisdiction that is positioned for real success.

This is the first balanced budget since 2008. We know what happened back in 2008-09. We had the worst economic recession since the Great Depression here in Canada. We had to make a strategic decision as a government. We had to decide if we were going to follow other governments around the world and make cuts and go to austerity measures, or to make massive investments.

I just want to say, I will be sharing some of my time today with the Minister of Housing.

We made a decision back in 2008-09 to position ourselves for success in the future by making the right types of investments into things like infrastructure, making investments into education, both JK to 12 and also post-secondary, and really investing into our economy.

Without question, we’re seeing the rewards of those investments a decade later. The unemployment rate here in Ontario is at 5.8%. This is the lowest since 2001. Our economy has grown substantially. We’re outpacing G7 nations. It’s actually quite interesting; if we look at the average annual per cent in real GDP growth from 2014-16 and compare ourselves to Italy, Japan, France, all of Canada, Germany, the US, the UK—Ontario is at 2.6%. Our closest competitor on that list is the UK at 2.4%. So we’ve done quite well. We’ve built our economy. We’ve built the base necessary to continue to grow.

If you look around the province, you don’t have to be an economist to understand that there’s growth here in Ontario. You can see it all around us.

Our employment numbers are up. Since the recession, Ontarians have created almost 700,000 new jobs. This is quite remarkable. If you compare what’s happening here in Ontario to other jurisdictions, there is no question that we’ve outperformed most jurisdictions in North America and around the world.

We’ve made a strategic decision to continue to invest—into health care, into education, into infrastructure—because we know that this is a good place for us to make those types of investments. And I just have to say—and this is an important piece—we could have made a decision to make cuts and to cut back in health care, to cut back in education. We decided not to do that.

If you compare our track record to other governments like the Harper government that made massive cuts—I was involved in the literacy and basic skills sector. The first cut was about $17 million across the country in literacy and basic skills. When you think about literacy and basic skills, that’s one of the areas that you need to invest more into, to make sure that people have the right types of skill sets in order to embrace the new economy.

Even though the Harper government went into massive debt—I believe it was a $54-billion deficit—they continued to make cuts in many, many areas. They weren’t investing in the right places. When you look at, for example, our track record as a government in comparison to previous governments, even during the worst of times we made the right types of investments in order to help continue to grow the economy, and we’ve seen many rewards from that.

So, with a balanced budget, we now have the opportunity to make even more investments into the areas that Ontarians value, areas that align with their value sets, like health care and education. We’re going to make an additional investment into health care, an $11.5-billion investment into health care over the next three years. When I was in my community and talking about the budget—the member from Willowdale and myself did a budget breakfast—this was an area that people were so proud of: the fact that, as Ontarians, we could make the right types of investments into health care. This was something that I was very proud to present to my community.

Within that health care investment, there is an area of investment that is particularly focused on young people. I know many people have called my office to talk to me about this investment because they see it as something that’s good, and it’s gotten a lot of media. I still need to mention it because I believe that this is probably one of the proudest investments I look at, as a government, that we’ve made in the last few years.

As the Minister of Children and Youth Services here in the province of Ontario and as a former school board trustee, but also as a father, as an uncle and as a neighbour to many families that have children—the fact that we’ve made this historical investment into providing medicine for young people 24 and under. To me, it’s one of those things that you do as a politician, and one day we’ll all walk out of this building and we’ll leave this behind.

It’s one of those things that I could look back at and be proud of as a government, as a politician, to make those types of investments, because it speaks to my value set as a Canadian. I’m hoping that we could leverage this and continue to build a national pharmacare system here in this country that’s aligned with our universal health care system so all people have access to medicine.

This actual investment will cover over 4,400 drugs for young people. Imagine, you have a young person—I grew up and I had a pretty severe case of asthma. My father and my mother were both blue-collar workers. My mother cleaned buildings; my father fixed washing machines. That type of medicine can add up. If you don’t have medical coverage, you can have inhalers that are over $100. Imagine a jurisdiction in the world where a young person can walk into a pharmacy with a prescription in one hand—obviously with their parents with them—and their OHIP card in the other and get that prescription at no cost.

This is something that I hope the NDP, who have always stood up for the little guy—they’re always there saying that they’re standing up for the little guy. I hope when this budget comes forward in this House and it’s voted upon, that they will stand with us to make sure young people here in the province of Ontario have the opportunity to get the medicine that they need and they deserve so they can live long healthy lives and contribute back to society and reach their full potential, because we know if you don’t have the right type of medicine, how can you perform well in school. How can you perform well in life?

I’m calling on the NDP to support this budget this year because of this big game-changer. It is a huge game-changer. This is something that is going to change the status quo not only here in Ontario, but I think is going to set a bar that other provinces and territories may look at to try to achieve.

I don’t know if the Conservatives will be supporting this. I’m not sure if they’re very supportive of this. I haven’t heard their public position on this. I’d be very interested to hear what the leader of the official opposition thinks of this particular piece within the budget. But if the Progressive Conservative Party here in Ontario believes in supporting young people, believes in supporting families, believes in building the type of Ontario that we can all be proud of, I call on them to support this budget, because this is, again, a game-changer.

We’re going to make more investments into health care. We’ve got an Ontario dementia strategy. We have a strategy to help people live at home longer and improvements in maternal care.

But in addition to those great health care investments, we’re going to make more investments into education. As a former school board trustee—and you know, what I love about this side of the House is that you’ve got school board trustees all around. I’ve got a lot of school board trustees around me. The President of the Treasury Board is a former school board trustee. The member from Guelph is a former school board trustee, and of course, we have—

Hon. Liz Sandals: The Premier.

Hon. Michael Coteau: —the Premier of Ontario. Madam Speaker, I’m not going to pull you into this debate, but I just need to mention that you and I served at the Toronto District School Board, and we know how important it is to continue to invest in education.

I’m so proud that we’re going to continue to invest in schools; we’re going to build more schools. You constantly hear the opposition talk about how we’re closing schools; we’re closing schools; we’re closing schools. Then the Minister of Education, who sits right here, has constantly reminded them that we’ve built over 800 schools since we’ve been in power. There’s an additional $16 billion over the next 10 years that will be invested into building schools—$1.2 billion for school repairs and renewal over the next two years as well.

There’s more work to be done. Yesterday I was in Timmins, Ontario. I met with the chiefs from the First Nations that are part of northern Ontario. I listened to them, and one of the issues that came up was education. We have $200 million that will be invested into indigenous education over the next three years.

We’re going to continue to reduce class sizes. People will forget that this was the government that reduced class sizes, that invested in full-day kindergarten—which on average saves a family, if they have one kid in full-day kindergarten, over $7,000 in child care. So we’re the government that keeps investing into education.

The Conservatives stand in this House like they’re the defenders of education. Well, I’ll tell you this. If you want the best indicator to compare our success with their success when it comes to education: We’re at the highest graduation level in the history of this province, over 85%. When the Conservatives were in power, do you know what that number was? One in three young people in this province did not graduate high school. Now, think about that. Think about that for one second. One in three young people in this province didn’t graduate high school.

How do you expect to build a strong economy—the Conservatives always talk about building a strong economy—here in the province of Ontario if young people are not even getting the skills they need to move forward?

This is why we have many school board trustees on this side of the Legislature. The Premier talks about this all the time, that Mike Harris, his policies and his attack on education activated something deep in the hearts of Ontarians that spoke to the values of Ontarians. It got people like Liz Sandals, the member from Guelph; the Premier; myself—and I’m not going to bring you into the debate, Madam Speaker—but someone like yourself to get involved in public education. I’m so happy that we’re going to make that investment.

Now, I’m going to talk about one more thing when it comes to investments in education before I turn it over to the Minister of Housing, because I’m taking up all the time; there are only a few more minutes left. Do you remember when I talked about being able to walk out of this Legislature one day and reflect back on what I was a part of?

One of the key pieces for me as a politician, as the member responsible for Don Valley East, but also as a parent, an uncle, a neighbour and someone who believes we need to empower young people in this province in order to continue to build a strong province is knowing that the investment we make into the young people in this province is the best investment we could make as leaders here in the Legislature.

The investments we’re making into post-secondary education and the initiatives that we have—we started with 30% off tuition because we listened to people. They said that the cost of tuition was becoming a deterrent to people actually attending school. So what we did is we said, “Okay, we’re going to cut it by 30%.” We did this a couple of years ago.

But we went further than that. Last year, we announced that starting this September—so this September will be the first group of young people entering post-secondary education without paying the tuition fee. The government of Ontario—I should say the people of Ontario will be investing in those young people, because those are the young people who will drive innovation in the future and will continue to build this province up. I believe the number, and I may be wrong, is roughly 200,000 young people this year—

Mr. Lou Rinaldi: It’s 210,000.

Hon. Michael Coteau: It’s 210,000 young people this year alone who will benefit from the free tuition and the changes we’ve made in the tuition program.

Hon. Chris Ballard: That changes lives.

Hon. Michael Coteau: It does change lives. Again, being able to walk out and leave this Legislature—not that I’m not leaving soon; I plan to stick around for a while. But to leave the Legislature and to be able to say, “I am so proud of the fact that we introduced such a game-changer, a substantial change in post-secondary education, a free tuition initiative and to make tuition affordable.” It’s scaled up, because it’s $50,000 and under, but it does scale based on income.

To be able to walk away from this Legislature and say to myself, “Michael, you were part of a government, under the leadership of Kathleen Wynne, our Premier, and to sit on this side of the House and to be able to say that we transformed post-secondary education, we transformed the health care system to benefit young people,” is something I will always be proud of. It makes me feel like my time here in this Legislature is not going to waste.

I just want to end with that, and say, again, as the Minister of Children and Youth Services, this is a budget that I am proud of. We’ll continue to make the right investments to support young people here in the province so they can have the opportunity that they deserve to reach their full potential and they can continue to grow and help support themselves and support this province to continue to be the best jurisdiction to live in anywhere in the world.

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): I recognize the Minister of Housing.

Hon. Chris Ballard: Thank you to the speaker before me because he touched on so many important reasons about why this budget is so important to Ontario.

I’ll just make a bit of a personal anecdote to begin. I never really ever thought that I would be an MPP here in Toronto at Queen’s Park. I didn’t have any plans to do that. But when I started out as a town councillor, people started saying to me, “You’d make a good MPP.” I said no a number of times, until I met Premier Kathleen Wynne. She talked about her vision for this province and, frankly, got me very excited about the potential of what this place could do for the people of Ontario from all walks of life, of all ages. I’m here because the people in my riding agree with her vision, and our vision, of where Ontario should go.

That’s why I’m so delighted with this budget. This is the seminal budget, I would say, of my time here at Queen’s Park.

The speaker before me touched on so many things, and I’m in absolute agreement with him on all of those. I’ll just touch on two things that impacted my residents.

The first is the OHIP+, the pharmacare for youth and children. Speaker, there has never been an issue in my riding where I have not been contacted, phoned, stopped on the street—I was in my local drugstore just last Saturday, and I had a druggist who I hadn’t met. One of the pharmacists actually got out from behind the counter and chased me down before I could leave, to tell me how fantastic this program was, because the worst part of her job was watching people hear the price of some drugs for their child—or youth, of some drugs that they had to pay for—and they walk away because they can’t afford it.

That is changed with this legislation, provided that it goes through. I’m assured that it is such good legislation that all three parties, obviously, will support it and we’ll get it through.

Now, I am the Minister of Housing, and there are a lot of provisions around housing here. We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the affordable housing act. I know that one of the things we hear constantly is around rent control, and that’s good.

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): Questions and comments?

Mr. Lorne Coe: Good morning. I’m pleased to enter the debate this morning. I come to it from a background as a regional councillor in the region of Durham for 13 years, but particularly from chairing the health and social services committee and as a long-term advocate of child care.

So I listened with interest to the Minister of Children and Youth Services extolling the virtues of the Ontario budget, particularly as it related to child care.

Speaker, as you’ll know—and I’ve spoken on this topic before—in the 296 pages of the Ontario budget, there is not one reference to Grandview Children’s Centre. This is despite Grandview Children’s Centre waiting for nine years for this particular Liberal government to stand up with some investment. That’s despite Grandview Children’s Centre raising $8 million themselves, acquiring the land through the city of Ajax, and building into that a wide base of support. As recently as this past weekend, I attended an event and we discussed some of the challenges that exist within Grandview Children’s Centre.

Turning to child care and another aspect—and this is an important one—the majority of the Liberal government’s promises for new child care spots won’t take effect until 2022, which is, of course, long after the 2018 election.

I also want to turn to health care. I know that the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care is going to be in my riding tomorrow at the Ontario Shores mental health centre to make a funding announcement. It’s important to note, Minister, that the facility, previous to today, had its budget frozen for four years.

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): Questions and comments?

Mr. Wayne Gates: It’s a privilege for me to rise on the budget, but I want to be clear on something: I am never going to support a budget that sells Hydro One.

Hon. Michael Coteau: Shame on you.

Mr. Wayne Gates: Give me a chance to talk here. I hate being heckled first thing in the morning.

I want to say very clearly that selling Hydro One is the biggest mistake that’s going to go down in history. You talk about history on pharmacare for young people. Hydro One is going to be your legacy, and it’s the biggest mistake. My job is to listen to the residents, listen to Ontarians: 85% are saying it’s a mistake, and they are right.

I went to Hydro One yesterday to do a video making fun of Hydro One. Mayo Schmidt is making $4.5 million—$4.5 million—as CEO of that corporation. You know what? He said that he feels our pain. Now think about that. Single moms, single dads, small manufacturers, manufacturers, small businesses: They’ve got to pay a hydro bill that they can’t afford. They’re laying off workers. They’re having to work longer hours in small businesses.

When you talk about your budget and how it’s going to help young people—I hope he’s listening. I hope he’s listening right now—who did the presentation—because he talked about young people. We all care about our young people. But selling Hydro One is going to cost us $40 billion in interest. You know who’s going to pay for that interest? Does anybody know? Our children, our grandchildren and babies that are not even born yet are going to have to pay for that debt. How can you stand up here and say, “We’re defending young people”? Then stop the sale of Hydro One. Stop it immediately. You want people to support your budget? Do the right thing.

On pharmacare—somebody talked about pharma, saying how excited they were that young people are going to get their drugs. What are you going to say to the guy who is 25 and needs those same drugs, who doesn’t have a job and can’t afford to get the medicine to make him better so he can go get a job? We have to have pharmacare, and we have to have it for everybody.

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): Questions and comments?

Hon. David Zimmer: I’ve been a member of this Legislature since 2003. After reflecting on the budget, I have to say that this is the budget I am the most proud of. Why do I say that? Well, there’s everything in the budget that the Minister of Finance has referred to and so on. But I do, on behalf of my constituents and myself, have some, if you will, personal favourites.

My first personal favourite is the core fact that the budget is balanced. The Premier made a commitment four years ago, when she became the Premier, that the challenge was going to be to balance the budget. Why was that such a huge challenge? Because not until we get the budget balanced are we able to spend on matters that perhaps we were having some difficulty with because of the financial constraints. We balanced the budget, notwithstanding that financial constraint of a deficit. We balanced it in a fair way, over a period of years, without slash and burn. We preserved essential services.

We added items that the public expected and needed. But at the same time, we drove towards the target of a balanced budget and we achieved that. Now that we’re in balance and the handcuffs are off, so to speak, we have a little more flexibility in what we can do.

The other personal favourite, on behalf of the ministry that I represent, the Ministry of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation, is the $200 million over three years that will be spent on First Nation, Métis and Inuit education. Of particular importance is the funding for the nine aboriginal institutes that are throughout the province.

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): Questions and comments?

Mr. Sam Oosterhoff: It’s always an honour to be able to stand in this House and represent the fine constituents of Niagara West–Glanbrook.

I must say that it’s absolutely fascinating for me, as the youngest member of the Legislature, to sit here in opposition and hear the government and their sanctimonious prattling about youth, their self-righteous speeches that fail to recognize the negative impact—

Interjections.

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): Okay. It’s never too early to warn people. The next time I stand up, someone will be warned.

I’m going to return to the member from Niagara West–Glanbrook.

Mr. Sam Oosterhoff: I fear that the members opposite suffer from—how shall I put it? Terminological inexactitude, perhaps, is the phrase that they suffer from. Because the reality is that when they speak about this balanced budget, when they speak about this budget that they’re so proud about, it’s enough to make one nauseous.

As a youth myself, as part of a generation that is recognizing the realities of entering the job market, recognizing the realities of the difficulty of acquiring a first home, when they sit there and they speak about this balanced budget—that we know, frankly, isn’t balanced, that we know is only the result of years and years of debt, of years and years of deficits, of years and years of interest payments that my generation will have to pay back for the foreseeable future—quite frankly, it frustrates me.

To hear them speak about their so-called investments in education when we see school closures across the province, and when they speak about health care yet again when they failed to build the West Lincoln Memorial Hospital, quite frankly, I see nothing but duplicitousness from across the aisle, and unfortunately, that seems to be indicative of their policies—

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): Thank you. I return back to the Minister of Housing to wrap up.

Hon. Chris Ballard: Just a couple of minutes to wrap up.

I agree with the ministers who have spoken before me about the importance of this bill. I’ll say again that this is a seminal bill and it’s one that makes me exceptionally happy. It touches on all the progressive things that need to happen in this province, Speaker. It deals with balancing a budget not just this year but in years ahead. It deals with pharmacare and it deals with something that is near and dear to all of our hearts, and that is around affordable housing, especially for those who rent their property.

Over the 10 or 11 months that I have been Minister of Housing, I have heard from many people, renters in Toronto—but beyond Toronto, Speaker, because it’s a problem that goes right across the province when it comes to renters who feel that they are being abused, who are facing economic eviction, who feel that certain clauses of the Residential Tenancies Act are being used to evict them so the landlord can jack rates up.

It’s so important when it comes to housing, it’s so important when it comes to rental accommodation, that we have provisions in place. We have provisions that this budget will put in place that really help young folks and young families be able to find a neighbourhood that they want to live in, be able to find secure tenancy, be able to put down roots and begin to become part of the community. That, Speaker, is how you build stronger communities.

As I said—and I’ll finish with what I started talking about at the very beginning—in my riding, what I’m hearing an awful lot about is around the affordable housing provisions within this budget. They are making people very happy. But one of the big game-changers—I’ll end with this—is OHIP+. Pharmacare for youth and children will change lives.

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): Further debate?

Mr. Patrick Brown: I’m pleased to speak to this motion. Unfortunately, it is a motion the Ontario PC Party cannot support.

It is said that a Liberal is a Liberal: They always go back to their old ways. For 14 years, this Liberal government has made life harder for Ontario families.

We see the proof in every corner of the province. Our hospitals are being starved of funding. Just yesterday, I was in North Bay hearing about, unfortunately, hundreds of health care workers who have been fired, nurses saying they can’t cope anymore because of all these cuts.

Hundreds of schools are on the chopping block. Everywhere I go, I hear about new schools being closed. Yesterday I was speaking to the northern municipal conference, and across northern Ontario we’re seeing communities having their heart taken out because of schools being closed: 600 schools closed on the watch of this Liberal government.

The dream of home ownership remains out of reach for so many because of skyrocketing housing prices, and families continue to struggle with unaffordable hydro rates. This is the legacy of this government.

Now, getting close to a year before the next election and being very low in the polls, this government is desperate. Madam Speaker, this budget is only about one thing: It’s a desperate plea to get re-elected. They’ve tabled a so-called balanced budget, which suggests all is right. But that is completely wrong.

Let’s be clear; let’s be perfectly clear: This is not a balanced budget. The government is hiding a more than $5-billion deficit. This budget shows the province’s numbers are all in decline. Economic growth is forecast to fall from 2.7% to 2.3% this year and down to 1.7% in 2020. Even the government’s own indicators suggest that we are a province that is, unfortunately, hurting.

Employment growth is falling to 0.9% in 2020, job creation will fall from 94,000 next year to 66,000 in 2020—and that is their own estimates. As you just heard, housing construction starts are scheduled to fall from 75,000 in 2016 down to 68,500 in 2018, meaning the issue of supply will be even more acute.

They have resorted to these one-time revenue sources to beef up their revenue. They’re taking money through their cap-and-trade cash grab. They sold off Hydro One in a fire sale. They’ve undermined the Auditor General’s authority on pension assets, counting millions towards their books. They’re receiving one-time and unusual revenue from government buildings and lands, and infrastructure funding from the federal government.

To summarize, Mr. Speaker, this budget is all about optics. It’s a shell game and, frankly, it doesn’t add up.

You get to the issue of the debt. I think the debt speaks to the entire shell game that the Minister of Finance is propagating. In 14 short years, since this government has been in charge of the province, they’ve doubled the province’s debt to $312 billion. Can you imagine a legacy like that? These are massive numbers. To put it into perspective, every person in Ontario, including your kids and grandkids, now owes $22,300 plus interest to Ontario lenders. What a burden to put on the next generation of Ontarians. That’s about double from 2004, when it was $11,000. That’s the Liberal record: putting an enormous, enormous weight on the backs of the next generation.

We will also pay nearly $12 billion each year in debt-servicing costs—$12 billion. That’s roughly $1 billion a month in interest costs despite historic low rates. We’re spending more servicing the debt each year than we’re spending on all transit and provincial highways; more than we’re spending on the Ministry of Children and Youth Services, which includes autism services for our children and youth; more than on care for our seniors; more than investments in our post-secondary education system.

We spend more on interest than supporting our northern communities, and that was very apparent yesterday at the northern mayors’ conference. We spend more interest than on our vulnerable indigenous populations, and that’s not right. The debt erodes the very services that Ontario families depend on, and places a burden on future generations that they don’t deserve. And when rates rise, our debt-servicing costs will rise even higher. It’s not ideology that bankrupts governments; it’s the math of rising interest costs, and this government has been oblivious to that.

Basic economic principles teach us to borrow in bad times and save in good times. We are in the ninth year of economic recovery, but Ontario has kept borrowing. This is a government that has an addiction to debt, an addiction to borrowing. There is no new policy they look at where they don’t say, “How can I borrow more? How can I get more debt on the backs of Ontarians?”

British Columbia and Quebec have balanced their budgets for several years and have set aside funds to pay down debt. Meanwhile, Ontario has used increased revenues and increased spending to record highs rather than deal with debt. It’s sad.

Once again, these calculated decisions are going to be a tremendous burden on the next generation of Ontarians. This is a government that is out of sight, out of mind, and they think that Ontarians don’t notice. But when you are the most indebted subnational government in the world, people start noticing. We owe more in Ontario than any other province or state. Imagine that.

Unfortunately for Ontarians, the Liberal government does not have a credible plan in the short term, medium term or long term to deal with debt. This was our first request for the Wynne Liberals to include in the budget: a plan for debt. And they didn’t have any plan, any notion this needs to be addressed.

Life will continue to get harder and more unaffordable with this budget, Madam Speaker. The Liberals always find a way to leave hard-working Ontarians with less.

We asked the government to finally get control of the hydro crisis they created. Remember, on the watch of this government, hydro rates have skyrocketed 400%. Instead, their hydro scheme is a band-aid solution that does nothing, that punts the problem down the road. Borrowing is not a plan. Borrowing money on the backs of ratepayers is not a plan, and this does nothing to address the root causes of the crisis.

The day after the Wynne hydro announcement—their borrowing plan—they pushed ahead with signing even more expensive green contracts. They’re borrowing money to pay for their old bad contracts. And what do they do the next day? They sign more contracts. It’s unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable.

The Wynne Liberals continue to plow ahead with the fire sale of Hydro One. One thing I hear all across the province is, “Why are they doing this?” Over 200 municipalities have passed resolutions saying that this is short-sighted. The Financial Accountability Officer has said it’s short-sighted. At the northern conference yesterday, northern municipalities were saying that this is not in the best interest of northern Ontario.

Yet, they keep on plowing ahead. It doesn’t matter about public opinion. It doesn’t matter what the legislative oversight is saying. It doesn’t matter what leaders across Ontario are saying. It’s the Liberal way or the highway. They’re actually burying, hiding the costs of their so-called fair hydro plan in OPG’s budget, so they don’t have to include it in the books this year.

What we see in this budget is that this is all about the election cycle, pushing the problems down the road. Are they dealing with any of the structural issues: the bad contracts, the over-generation, the excessive salaries? Absolutely not. I have been up many times in this Legislature saying, how is it possible that we’re paying the Hydro One CEO over $4.5 million, when everywhere else in Canada you have hydro CEOs that make one tenth of that?

In Quebec, they have hydro rates one third the rate of Ontario, and their CEO gets $450,000, but this government, this out-of-touch Liberal government, thinks it’s okay to have executive salaries that are completely out of whack. They’re not watching the dollars. And no wonder they’re not watching the millions and the billions, because they’re oblivious to what this means for ratepayers. They just keep on passing it on, signing more bad contracts, giving out more huge salaries to executives—and they pass it off to ratepayers.

That’s on the issue of hydro. It was very disappointing that the budget didn’t address any of the structural issues.

This budget also didn’t address the real crisis we have in housing. I don’t know why this budget—many Ontarians held out hope that they might address the housing crisis, because this is just another example of the Liberals only willing to talk about band-aid solutions.

Sean Speer, a Munk senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, said the scheme “will at best do nothing to address the underlying supply issues affecting affordability and at worst ... distort the housing market.” That’s in reference to the Liberals’ housing scheme.

In fact, they don’t even think the housing supply is a problem. In October 2016, Premier Wynne called the housing supply problem a myth—a myth. How out of touch are they? Their own budget shows that they’re actually reducing supply. The budget shows that housing construction starts are projected to go down next year by almost 10%.

Hon. David Zimmer: When’s your plan coming out?

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): Order.

Mr. Patrick Brown: I hear the other side heckling because they’re embarrassed of their record on this. They’re embarrassed, and when they hear those words of their own leader, Premier Wynne, saying that it’s a myth, and that’s offside with everyone looking at this housing crisis and those young families that can’t afford a home—they’re out to lunch on this. They’re out of touch with Ontarians.

The reality is—I think the reason why they actually don’t want to act on housing and why they’ve ignored the problem and tried to do solutions that are more about optics and press releases rather than tangible action is because they’re benefiting from higher housing resale prices. They’re collecting more, and not just a little bit: in the hundreds of millions of dollars more on the land transfer tax. They don’t want to address the housing crisis because they’re benefiting. The one thing we can guarantee that Liberals appreciate is more taxes. One thing the Liberals appreciate is more money for their pet projects.

We have seen no evidence-based policy to support their scheme. It’s only about more taxes. And the one thing that I try to stress to the Liberals is that the solution to every problem isn’t a new tax. Earlier this month, the Toronto Real Estate Board released research that shows the number of buyers with a mailing address outside of Canada is well below 1%. It also shows that most of these buyers have a mailing address in the US. This is in direct conflict with what Chef Sousa said in the housing announcement, when he said that the number hovers around 8%. Clearly, evidence and facts are in contradiction to what this Liberal government is pushing out there.

A day later, the chef told reporters that it was 5%. They keep on switching their numbers—left, right and centre. It is clear this government, once again, wrote this plan on the back of a napkin with no real data, and that’s typical. Any time there’s a political crisis where the public is concerned that this government is out of touch, and when there are newspaper headlines criticizing the government, they scurry and they write a plan on a napkin, and there’s no factual evidence to support the direction they’re taking. Sadly, every time they do this, it ends up hurting Ontarians. Ontarians have to pay more and they get less in return.

The other thing I wanted to talk about in this budget is cap-and-trade because we all know this is a revenue grab. They refuse to make cap-and-trade revenue-neutral. If it was really about the environment, why does it need to be a revenue grab for government?

Mr. John Yakabuski: Tax grab. It’s a tax grab.

Mr. Patrick Brown: This is nothing more than a tax grab. They’re taking advantage of Ontarians’ goodwill on the environment, goodwill on wanting to act on climate change, and they’re making it a revenue tool for government. It is a giant, $1.9-billion cash grab. They will rake in billions from hard-working families.

The Liberal scheme does nothing to actually help the environment in Ontario. If you look at where the independent legislative assessment says there will be emission reductions, it’s in California. It’s bad enough they’ve got the Green Energy Act that is sending billions in free electricity to our competitors in the US, now they’ve got cap-and-trade, which is going to be sending Ontarians’ hard-working funds. We have to buy green credits from California—$200 million by 2020; by 2030, $2.3 billion.

We don’t need small towns in Ontario and their hard-working businesses subsidizing businesses in Beverly Hills, but they have signed Ontario into that scheme, and it’s going to hurt Ontario. It’s going to hurt our ability to be competitive, but once again, they are oblivious to that fact, and they continue to make this province less competitive.

I want to get back to the issue of school closures. As I mentioned at the beginning of my remarks, this government has failed communities and families across the province. We put forward a budget request for a moratorium on school closures. When you hear the number of 600 schools and 300 more on the chopping block—and the government is clever with their lines. They said in the budget, “We’re going to open 94 new schools.” But then you read the fine print: They’ve got 300 on the chopping block, so nothing is happening to keep our schools open.

I have to say, Madam Speaker, it is heartbreaking going to a community and hearing the community leaders say, “You take the school out of our town, you’re going to depopulate our town. You’re giving up on small-town Ontario.”

When you hear what’s happening in small-town Ontario—and I can say it’s not just small-town Ontario. The government is ripping schools out of communities across the province. In my hometown of Barrie, they closed Barrie Central—in a city that has 6% population growth. So it’s not just small towns. They’re closing a school in Vaughan; they’re closing a school in Burlington. They are trying to pay for their scandals, their waste, their mismanagement by closing schools, and that’s not right.

That’s why this is yet another budget request that this government has turned down: a very basic principle that said, “Put a moratorium on school closures.” I expected this from our Premier—I expected our Premier at least to have some sympathy for that request. After all, Premier Wynne got into politics, and she said that her purpose for getting into politics was to stop school closures. Well, she has now closed 100 more schools than the previous two Premiers combined. Can you imagine that? This Liberal government has an embarrassing legacy on school closures.

Interjections.

Mr. Patrick Brown: And they can heckle and they can complain, but no government has closed more schools than this government. They are closing schools.

Now, they’re heckling because the reality is the stats—

Interjections.

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): I already mentioned earlier, the next time I stand up, someone is going to be warned, so I’m going to warn the Minister of Children and Youth Services.

I return to the Leader of the Opposition.

Mr. Patrick Brown: Thank you, Madam Speaker. The reality is, you wouldn’t see hundreds and hundreds of families and children protesting the government outside Queen’s Park if they weren’t closing their schools. The reality is that the facts speak for themselves. You go to any community in Ontario and you will hear a community complaining about school closures. This alternate reality that they pitch in saying that there’s going to be new schools—families aren’t buying that; students aren’t buying that. They wouldn’t be here protesting if that wasn’t the case.

I also want to talk briefly about health care, because the government promised record investment, and what we’ve seen is the exact opposite. They’ve cut services to our doctors by $815 million. They’ve fired an appalling 1,600 nurses. I’ve gone to hospitals this week, visiting nurses, thanking them for their tireless, selfless work. And what I can’t believe is that at every single hospital I go to, the nurses talk about the nursing cuts, saying they never expected this. This was a government that promised they were going to invest in health care, and what we’ve seen is record numbers of nurses fired.

This is their legacy. Because of their debt, their waste and mismanagement, they’ve had to make cuts in areas like education and health care. And now the only investments they’re making in health care are in the wrong areas—more bloated administration. They’re going to hire 84 new LHIN vice-presidents, more executive paper-pushers. When will they realize we need front-line care, not more administrators? They’ve got it all backwards.

The last issue I wanted to get to before I wrap up is the issue of northern Ontario. I was really disappointed, and I know a lot of northerners were really disappointed that this budget was a real rejection of northern Ontario. Northern Ontario has so much potential, and yet in this budget they cut the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines by $70 million—$70 million. Then they took out any reference to the Ring of Fire, a $60-billion project that has got a generational opportunity for northern Ontario. I don’t understand why they give up on northern Ontario.

I don’t understand why they don’t appreciate that a strong, prosperous northern Ontario means a strong, prosperous Ontario. When you create jobs in northern Ontario, it helps all of the province. I just don’t understand why this government is so out of touch with the needs of northern Ontario.

Madam Speaker, the Liberals’ budget has presented a number of shiny pitches for Ontarians to win votes, but Ontario families will not be fooled. This budget is nothing more than a patchwork attempt for a government to fix the mess they created, and they’re making it worse. A Liberal is a Liberal. If they win the next election, this house of cards will fall apart because this is all a sales pitch. It is all misleading numbers. It is the government cooking the books. The reality is, they continue to prioritize Liberal elites over hard-working Ontario families.

Ontario will continue to be the most indebted province and state in the world. Debt continues to go up. As much as they say they’ve got a balanced budget, we’re going to see $34 billion in new debt over the next three years. We cannot accept this. We cannot accept the fact, our caucus cannot accept the fact that they will continue to make life harder for Ontarians.

We need to get this province back on track. That’s why I am proud to vote against this budget. This budget hurts Ontario, this budget sets Ontario back, and I can’t support it. Our caucus will be voting against this budget.

Interjections.

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): Thank you. Please be seated.

Questions and comments?

M me France Gélinas: I don’t always have a lot in common with the Leader of the Opposition, but I do when it comes to schools.

I wanted to read this letter into the record:

“A constituent in my riding has reached out” to me “with concerns about the situation her local public school, Levack Public School, is facing. Over the last several years, the Rainbow District School Board has cut student services such as supports for children with disabilities and recently, the French immersion program at this school was discontinued. My constituent is upset by the impact this has, and will continue to have, on her community” of Levack.

“She recognizes that schools are an essential part of our communities by providing a learning environment necessary for our children to succeed in life. Schools are also a hub for socialization and opportunities that add to quality of life. She is worried that the closure of French immersion will decrease the number of students at the school and increase the risk that they will lose this school, like so many other schools” in my riding.

The Rainbow school board has informed the community that they have applied to the ministry to demolish part of Levack Public School in order to right-size the school building. The community doesn’t want this to happen. We want to know what criteria the ministry used to approve right-sizing of a school.

Does the Rainbow school board “have to consider community partnerships before it is allowed to carry out the partial demolition? If a community has a viable alternative with community partners”—such as the possibility of satellite community police services, a daycare, a post office—“which would create a revenue-generating new use for school space, what avenues does a community have if the school board is pushing for right-sizing demolition instead?”

I wanted to read this into the record because the member made it clear that we have seen 600 schools close under this government, most of them in northern rural areas. This is unacceptable.

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): Questions and comments?

Mr. Yvan Baker: It was really disappointing, hearing what the Leader of the Opposition had to say. To me, that demonstrates that he’s just not ready to govern.

My background is in finance, it’s in business. I have two business degrees. I’ve advised companies on how to invest their money. I’ve studied accounting. I’ve studied economics. I know a balanced budget when I see one. This is a balanced budget. The fact that the Leader of the Opposition and his colleagues can’t recognize that demonstrates that they’re struggling with facts and they’re struggling with finance, and they’re not ready to govern.

In their arguments for why we haven’t balanced the budget, they argue that we’re using the cap-and-trade proceeds to balance. Nothing could be further than the truth. There’s no double-counting of those carbon allowance proceeds. We’re not using those to balance the budget.

They talked about the pension assets. There was a disagreement between the civil servants in the government and the Auditor General. We brought in blue-chip experts, and they advised us that the civil servants had advised us correctly on the accounting of pension assets. That too is a false claim.

They also say we’re balancing using Hydro One proceeds. That is not correct. It is common for governments year after year to sell and buy assets, and through that, there are accounting treatments that we’ve used that every other government in this province has used for decades. We’ve done nothing different. We’re not using Hydro One to balance the budget. Those proceeds are going towards infrastructure.

The Leader of the Opposition talked about paying down debt. My question to him is, what would he cut? What would he cut? Would he cut the health care investment? Would he cut the OHIP+ program? Would he cut the new money for hospitals? Would he cut the new money for schools?

Interjections: Yes.

Mr. Yvan Baker: Yes? What else would he cut? Would he cut the money for social services and kids? What would he cut?

When he was in Ottawa, he was part of a government that ran the largest deficits in Canadian history. He added over $100 billion to the Canadian debt, and he’s standing here lecturing this government about deficits and debt? He should look at himself in the mirror.

I want to ask the Leader of the Opposition to come back out and tell us which Patrick Brown is going to stand up. Is it the Patrick Brown who is going to cut and slash, who is going to run on 100,000 job cuts and slash and burn like the Mike Harris years, or he coming in and investing? Will the real Patrick Brown please stand up?

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): Questions and comments?

Mr. John Yakabuski: I must say that I wasn’t aware that the member from Etobicoke Centre had two business degrees. Well, good for him, but he must have forgotten to tell you about the other degree he must have, which is one in fictional story writing, because that’s what we heard from him this morning: complete fiction.

The reality is that this is not a balanced budget, and they know it’s not a balanced budget. For the member to say that the Hydro One sale isn’t about balancing the books—he knows that that is not the truth at all. He knows that to be wrong. He knows that to be wrong, and the Minister of Finance, who’s there, knows that to be wrong as well.

They like to talk about the federal government having the largest deficit—and they did through that crisis in 2008-09. But they also went on to balance their budget after the biggest deficit in history, which this government has failed to do since that crisis of 2008-09—not a single balanced budget after the financial crisis of 2008-09. The federal government, under the leadership of Stephen Harper and the late Jim Flaherty, were able to do that. They were able to do that because they were determined to do the right things,

whereas this government has always been about their political future, not the future of Ontario—versus the Harper government, which was standing up for Canada. This government? Every single thing they’ve done and everything in this budget is directed at trying to send out a shiny message to the people: “We want your vote in 2018,” even if it means that life is going to get harder for Ontarians down the road.

All you have to do is look at the numbers—and I say that to the member from Etobicoke Centre—an additional $30 billion added to the debt by 2021. Some $30 billion: Where is that money going to come from but future generations?

This government doesn’t care about this generation and it certainly doesn’t care about future generations. The only thing it cares about is getting re-elected, and they’re doing that on false—

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): Thank you. Questions and comments?

Mr. Wayne Gates: This is the second time that I was able to stand up and talk on the budget this morning. I’m pleased by that.

I’ll start with hydro so there’s no confusion around hydro. There seems to be confusion here this morning. The NDP has been very clear that we were not going to sell Hydro One. We opposed it. We continue to oppose it. I’ve done presentations at those 200 municipalities where we said, “This is the wrong thing to do.” I’ve been very honest and open about that. I say it’s the biggest mistake in Ontario. People can agree with me, they can disagree with me, but that’s how I personally feel on that issue.

The Liberals said they want to sell 60%. I think it’s a mistake, and I’ve told them it’s a mistake. I’ve stood up here over and over and said, “Don’t do it. Don’t do it. We have better ways to get infrastructure funded.” That’s my opinion.

The Conservatives, in the last election, with a white paper that was signed off by Vic Fedeli—his picture is actually on the white paper—said, “We’re going to sell 100% of Hydro One.” Stand up and say what you’re going to do. When you stand up and go after Hydro One, let’s be honest about it. We’re the only party that said we’re not going to sell it.

Then they talked about CEO salaries. Our party brought forward a bill in 2015 to cap CEO salaries, which I think is a good thing. People can agree or disagree. I don’t think the CEO of Hydro should make $5 million a year. You know what? They voted against it. They voted against our bill. It didn’t make any sense.

Then they talked about protests. I get a kick out of this. I’ve been in the labour movement for over 35 years, and I’m proud to say I’ve come to Queen’s Park to protest. I’ve gone to lots of protests. I’ve stood in front of my members to support fair wages for workers.

Do you remember, when Mike Harris was in government, how many protests there were? I was going every other week. I was in London; I was in Windsor; I was in Hamilton. In Hamilton, they had 100,000 people protesting.

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): Further debate?

Mr. John Vanthof: It’s always an honour to be able to stand in the House and represent the good people of Timiskaming–Cochrane, and today, as always, represent the NDP caucus, and spend a bit of time talking about the budget motion.

Before I get into the real comments about the budget motion, I have to make one comment—I’ll make a couple further on—regarding the remarks from the leader of the official opposition, Mr. Brown, about northern Ontario and how this government is ignoring northern Ontario.

I think that has been a habit of previous governments as well. I was a councillor in a township in northern Ontario when the roads were downloaded by a Progressive Conservative government, under Mr. Harris—and not just the roads. But the roads really hurt, because we have got small municipalities now having to support huge road structure systems. We like to blame things on the Wynne government, but that one was a total Conservative idea. They balanced the books on the backs of people in rural Ontario.

But I think one of the biggest regarding the current Liberal budget—I’ve heard it described as the best budget in history. I don’t like using big words in the Legislature, but that’s hyperbole at best. There’s another word for it; there’s a word that I’d rather use. I don’t blame the government for trying to put the best light on things, but saying it’s the best budget in history is stretching it.

We’ll give an example of where our differences lie specifically. The member from Niagara Falls touched on it, and I will expand on it a bit: Hydro One. The sale of Hydro One, to us, is a mistake, and not only a political mistake but a mistake that will hurt Ontarians for generations to come if it’s not stopped.

The government likes to equate it with the sale of the 407 by the Conservatives, which was also a huge mistake. I get a kick out of this. The Conservatives will counter, “But we didn’t sell it. We leased it for 99 years.” Well, that’s not much of an argument.

But getting back to Hydro One, we have always opposed the sale of Hydro One. We have always opposed the sale of an essential service, our power system. We’ve always opposed that because we truly believe that essential services like hydro can be and should be delivered by the public, through the public. In the end, it’s much more efficient, and it’s much cheaper for people who buy the power.

Our examples are Quebec and Manitoba, and we used to have that. But successive governments have sold off pieces to raise one-time funds. Once you sell it once, you lose the ability to use the dividends for the future. That’s what this government is doing with the sale of Hydro One. They are selling Hydro One to make their books look better, which is a huge mistake because you’re selling a profit-generating asset.

Interestingly, several times the Minister of Finance has said that any new debt that the government accumulates will go towards infrastructure; it won’t go to operating, which—I don’t have two business degrees, but I ran a business for a long time—makes sense. But by the same token, you shouldn’t be able to sell infrastructure and put that towards your operating, which the government is doing in this budget. You can’t have it both ways.

Not only is selling Hydro One a huge mistake for the people; they’re playing both sides of the coin, saying that new debt will only be on infrastructure, but they are selling infrastructure to balance their books. That’s a problem.

That’s why we are pushing so hard. We have always been opposed to the sale of Hydro One. That’s why we have put forward a plan to regain control of Hydro One, for exactly the same reasons that we said before, because we believe that, in the long term, it’s better for people of Ontario.

Do you know what, Speaker? The people of Ontario agree with us. There have been polls, and 85% of the people of Ontario agree with us. A majority of municipalities agree with us that losing the power of control of Hydro One, in the long term, will cost people money.

Furthermore, coming from rural Ontario, coming from northern Ontario, there’s another reason why we’re very concerned about the sale of Hydro One, because private corporations have a different role and goal than public corporations. I don’t blame them for it. Private corporations centre on making profits for their shareholders. That’s what they are there for. So private corporations tend not to focus on areas that don’t make money. Providing an essential service in rural Ontario is not going to be their profit centre and, as a result, they’re not going to focus on it. They shouldn’t, as a private corporation. That’s why essential services need to stay public.

We have got an example of that as we speak, Speaker. The Liberal government tried to close down the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission. The people of northern Ontario and throughout Ontario rallied to stop that. But they did sell off a vital portion of it. They sold off Ontera. Ontera is the communications division of the ONTC. Ontera provided Internet service in areas where for private providers it didn’t make sense. They couldn’t make a profit doing it.

The government sold Ontera to Bell Aliant, but everything was going to stay the same. They were going to provide the same level of service because, they were telling us, “It’s not true that private will not service the same as public.” Well, guess what, Speaker? If you want to get a new Internet account in a place served by Ontera/Bell Aliant, you can’t get it. You can’t get it. They sold a public entity to a private corporation, and now people in rural Ontario who were served by that same name can’t get the service, and that is what we’re very frightened of in rural Ontario regarding Hydro One. That is a huge issue.

The difference is, we believe in public power. I have always believed in it. In previous Parliaments, we had friends who believed in public power. When the Conservatives tried to—

Mr. Wayne Gates: Sell it.

Mr. John Vanthof: When they broke up Ontario Hydro and tried to sell it, the Liberals were also believing in public power, it seemed. But the Liberals have actually never really believed in public power, because they kept saying, “The Green Energy Act”—people criticize the Green Energy Act. What’s wrong with the Green Energy Act is the privatization of green energy. That’s what is wrong with the Green Energy Act. But now they are selling off Hydro One because, deep down, they don’t believe in public power.

But the most interesting dynamic regarding Hydro One right now, I find, in this Parliament is the official opposition, who are opposed to the sale of Hydro One. They’re opposed to the Wynne Liberals selling Hydro One. But we really don’t know why, because they are in favour of privatization and have always been. That is one of their mantras. That is one of the reasons why you should vote for Conservatives, because Conservatives believe that the private sector is always better. Yet they’re not in favour of the sale of Hydro One.

Mr. Wayne Gates: Now.

Mr. John Vanthof: Now. They were before; they’re not now. And that leaves a question. We’re talking about the Liberal budget. There are big portions of the Liberal budget we don’t agree with, especially Hydro One and a few others.

The Tories don’t agree, and they don’t want to sell Hydro One. You have to wonder if they’re hoping that if they form the next government, there will still be some left for them to sell. You have to wonder, Speaker, if that’s the plan. They’re just angry that the Liberals got to sell it first.

To end this portion of my discussion: As far as I can tell, the only party in this House that has consistently pushed to keep power public and will consistently push to keep power public and has put a plan forward to start reining it back to public control, where possible, is the NDP, because we believe in public power.

I don’t know how much time I have left—a couple of minutes. We’re going to go into the second issue, regarding public sector salaries. We pushed very hard to rein in public sector salaries, because the people we represent are having a hard time making ends meet. If you look across the economy, a lot of people haven’t had an actual wage increase in years and years when you think of inflation and when you think of cost increases. And when we see some people in the administration part of the public sector, specifically the very high-level administration, getting large compensation increases, we oppose that.

The Liberals responded, “Yes, we’re concerned, and we’re developing a strategy.” The government is developing a strategy. When I listen to them saying they’re developing a strategy, in a way, that’s code for either, “We don’t know what we’re going to do,” or “We’re really”—

M me France Gélinas: Killing time.

Mr. John Vanthof: Killing time. Thank you, member for Nickel Belt.

As an opposition party, we put forward a private member’s bill to push this issue along, to cap public sector salaries at—I believe, and I’m just going off the top of my head, that the level is at twice the pay of the Premier. We don’t believe anyone in public administration should have more than twice the level of Premier, and that’s still a pretty good buck.

Hon. Glen R. Murray: And how many doctors are you going to lose? Because there are many who make four or five times that.

Mr. John Vanthof: The Minister of the Environment brings up a good point. Our rule is in administration. Doctors aren’t administrators. They have a high level of skill that is different from an administrator. And there very well may be individual cases that we’ll have, but as a guideline.

So the government is developing a strategy. Again, I hear the Conservative Party talking—ranting—about public sector salaries. Yet when we put forward that bill in 2015, with the current Leader of the Opposition, they voted against capping public sector salaries. On this side, in our corner of the world, it’s very confusing.

Specifically, as we go towards an election cycle, we have principles that we’ve always fought for, values. The Liberals, the government: We disagree vehemently with some of the things that they’ve put forward, specifically the sale of Hydro One and others which I don’t have time for. But there is one

section that doesn’t seem to have any direction at all—

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): Thank you.

Debate deemed adjourned.

The Deputy Speaker (Ms. Soo Wong): Seeing as it is 10:15, I will recess the House until 10:30.

The House recessed from 1015 to 1030.

Introduction of Visitors

Hon. Helena Jaczek: Please help me welcome three constituents of mine from the great riding of Oak Ridges–Markham: Samantha Heiydt, who was a legislative page 20 years ago, along with her children Sydney Heiydt and Kira Heiydt. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

M. Jeff Yurek: Je voudrais annoncer mes beaux-parents, Lynne et Rich Aylsworth, qui sont les grands-parents de page captain Maggie Yurek.

And, to redeem myself, my beautiful, lovely wife Jennifer is here today.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Redemption is like a fine wine. Well delivered.

Mr. Bob Delaney: I am very pleased to introduce our new constituency assistant in our Mississauga–Streetsville constituency office, who is visiting Queen’s Park for her first time. Would everyone please welcome Grace Zhou.

Hon. Reza Moridi: It is my pleasure to welcome page Rishi Thurairajah’s parents and grandparents—his parent, Vamathy Thurairajah, and his grandparents, Kandiah Kanagalingam and Vijaya Kanagalingam. Please join me in welcoming them.

Mr. Peter Z. Milczyn: There is a large group of Ontario professional planners with us today for this afternoon’s debate on Bill 22. With us today: Bruce Curtis, Cheryl Horrobin, Tracey Ehl, Adam Wright, Ann Joyner, Paul Stagl, Ian Lord, Ron Keeble, Tony Usher, Mary Lou Tanner, Lynn Morrow, Scott Plante, Mary Ann Rangam, Brian Brophey, Loretta Ryan, Sarah Snowdon, Rupendra Pant, Olivia Lintern, John Narvali and Jennifer Keesmaat. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Ms. Peggy Sattler: I am thrilled to welcome two guests from London today: Emily Bradford, my daughter, who is a student at McMaster University, and Aislinn Adams, who is a student at Western University. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Hon. Glenn Thibeault: I am pleased to introduce, along with the Minister of Labour, from Loraxian Inc., a company based in Oakville, the founder and CEO, Roland Kielbasiewicz—hopefully I said your name correctly—along with co-founders Albert Ferrer and Cary Kokkonen; also today, Frank Huang, president of SAS Sunrise Inc., a Taiwanese company. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Hon. Deborah Matthews: I am delighted to welcome two interns here. Zoe Ritchie and Sydney Reis will be spending the summer in my minister’s office.

Mr. Percy Hatfield: No one else has done this, so allow me to say that this the seventh annual Peterborough Day at Queen’s Park. There’s a reception in committee rooms 228 and 230 from 11:30 to 1:30 today and everyone is invited.

Hon. Bob Chiarelli: I’m very pleased to announce a very, very important day today. One of our own is celebrating a birthday. She is celebrating her 29th birthday. She just walked out of the chamber: Marie-France Lalonde.

Mr. Taras Natyshak: I just want to welcome students from Essex District High School, who are visiting us here at Queen’s Park today. Welcome.

Hon. Jeff Leal: I want to thank the member from Windsor–Tecumseh for doing my work for me, but we’re all encouraged to attend Peterborough Day in rooms 228 and 230.

I do have some people to introduce. We have Stuart Harrison, who is the general manager of the Greater Peterborough Chamber of Commerce; member of the board Jim Hill; and my executive assistant from Peterborough, Matt Stoeckle.

A very important person I want to introduce today—some of you remember that my son, Braden, was a page here back in 2011. Braden Leal is with us today.

Hon. Mitzie Hunter: Today I have a very special guest to introduce to the House: James Roberts. He was born in Manchester in 1930. He lived near the dockyard that was bombed out in the 1940 Blitz. He served in the British Armed Forces in the Suez Canal zone with a clean record. In 1957, he came to Canada from the UK with $50. He became a master electrician. He had three children, all university graduates. He lives in the riding of Scarborough–Guildwood. Tomorrow, May 12, will be his 92nd birthday. So I’d like everyone to please welcome James Roberts to Queen’s Park.

I would also like to welcome guests who are with him: Fred Calvert, Joe Fashion and Arthur Ewing of Ace’s Place.

I want to thank them all for coming today.

Also in the east gallery are my two interns: Jordan Chevalier and Farnaz Yaqubian.

Mr. Wayne Gates: I’m looking for my friend Steve McMullen from Unifor, who is here. I want to welcome him to Queen’s Park, wherever he is.

Oral Questions

Probation and parole services

Mr. Patrick Brown: Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Minister of Community Safety. Global National’s Carolyn Jarvis revealed a shocking number last night: 4,513. That is how many outstanding warrants there are in Ontario for probation violations—shocking. How many of these 4,513 are sexual predators, pedophiles or violent criminals?

Hon. Marie-France Lalonde: I thank the member for his question.

Mr. Speaker, I want to say to Ontarians that our government takes the safety of our communities very seriously. In partnership with our police services and our justice partners, we’ve made Ontario one of the safest jurisdictions in North America. For 11 straight years, Ontario has had the lowest crime rate of any province or territory in Canada. Also, it’s one of the safest metropolitan areas, according to the census.

We’re building on this success through our Strategy for a Safer Ontario and our plan to make our communities even safer. The strategy is the biggest transformation in 25 years.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Patrick Brown: Again to the minister: When asked that question yesterday, the minister said she had to look into it further and had this to say: “To know that number, what it means, who are those individuals?” We’re all still waiting for an answer.

Who are these individuals? Are they pedophiles? Are they sexual predators? Are they violent criminals? What offenders are walking our streets unsupervised, with outstanding warrants for their arrest?

This is a specific question; hopefully, the minister can answer this. These 4,513 individuals: Are they pedophiles? Are they sexual predators? Are they violent criminals?

This Global exposé is shocking, and we expect the government to take it seriously.

Hon. Marie-France Lalonde: Mr. Speaker, as a government, we take this very seriously. I have to say, we’ve hired more parole and probation officers in the last few years to rehabilitate and reintegrate our high-risk offenders.

Cases per officer have also decreased by 26% as a result, and many of our probation and parole officers have received specialized training on high-risk cases, such as domestic violence and sex offenders.

Mr. Speaker, the opposite party has no plan. They can say whatever they want—their rhetoric about fear and bringing that fear to Ontarians. As a member of the Harper government, the Leader of the Opposition fearmongered Canadians and increased, actually, our prison population, this mostly due to a massive surge in indigenous and racialized inmates in our prisons.

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

Mr. Patrick Brown: Again to the minister: Rather than attacking the opposition—this is a Global National exposé—a shocking response: 4,513 probation violations, criminals out on our streets.

There is a team of provincial and municipal police officers who hunt down criminals who have broken federal parole. The Repeat Offenders Parole Enforcement Squad, otherwise known as ROPE, continuously investigates and tries to find criminals in breach of federal parole, but there is no team looking for those breaching provincial probation.

My question is pretty simple. As the Global National exposé showed, if we’re looking for those who breach federal parole, why are we not doing that provincially?

I’m struggling to get an answer here, Mr. Speaker, and rather than a partisan spin line, I would like the minister to actually tell us what we’re going to do to keep our streets safe.

Interjections.

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

Minister.

Hon. Marie-France Lalonde: Mr. Speaker, let’s look at the Leader of the Opposition’s record. In his time as a Harper Conservative, he actually supported measures of—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Order. The member from Oxford, come to order.

Mr. Jeff Yurek: Do your job.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member from Elgin–Middlesex–London, come to order.

Hon. Marie-France Lalonde: Mr. Speaker, as I was saying before I was interrupted, he was part of a government that actually cut Canada’s correctional services’ budget by 10%, an equivalent of $295 million, and introduced ridiculous—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): If it continues, those banging their desks will be warned.

Finish, please.

Hon. Marie-France Lalonde: He also introduced ridiculous changes to mandatory minimums, and even supported the ending of an award-winning program called the Life Line program, which provided support for those serving life sentences and reintegrated those released on parole.

The Leader of the Opposition and his party have the big talk, but they have a record that shows definitely otherwise.

I am very proud to be part of a government that believes in rehabilitation and reintegration while maintaining community safety.

Interjections.

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

New question.

Probation and parole services

Mr. Patrick Brown: My question is for the Minister of Community Safety. Through you, Mr. Speaker, should sexual predators and violent criminals be allowed to self-report while on probation? Yes or no?

Hon. Marie-France Lalonde: Again, Mr. Speaker—and I’m going to take this note, because there’s some great work happening in our community—our parole and probation officers are doing their job. Yes, always, more can be done, and we are working with them. But I am so happy—

Ms. Sylvia Jones: So you don’t know.

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

Finish, please.

Hon. Marie-France Lalonde: We have made this jurisdiction the safest community in Canada, and we should be very proud of this, based on our actions of working with our justice partners, our community leaders and our police forces. This is why we are working through our Strategy for a Safer Ontario and our correctional reform.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Patrick Brown: Mr. Speaker, again to the minister: This is very troubling. We have a minister saying that everything is fine, that everything is safe, and yet we have 4,513—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The Minister of Education, come to order. And the Minister of Children and Youth Services, I’d like to remind you that if you’d like to challenge the Chair, please feel free.

Mr. John Yakabuski: Warnings from this morning count.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): And the member from Renfrew can stop, too.

I remind the Minister of Children and Youth Services that he has been warned this morning, and it carries through today.

Please finish your question.

Mr. Patrick Brown: My question to the minister was on self-reporting, allowing violent offenders, sexual predators, to self-report. I did not get an answer to a very clear question, yes or no, on whether the minister feels that that is appropriate, so I’ll rephrase it.

Mr. Speaker, should sexual predators and violent criminals on probation receive home visits? The probation officers want to have home visits. They want to do their job, but we have a minister who seems to have a policy that, when it comes to sexual predators, if you get them to pinky-swear to check up on themselves—we want home visits. We want to make sure we actually monitor violent criminals in our communities.

Hon. Marie-France Lalonde: I think Ontarians in each of our communities—as we showed, we have safe communities. I’m looking forward to seeing how the member will vote on our budget, because as I go through my lines, my budget is actually, within community safety, increasing. So I look forward to his ability to say anything about our increase in our budget to actually support and give tools to our parole and probation officers.

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member from Dufferin–Caledon: second time.

You have a wrap-up sentence.

Hon. Marie-France Lalonde: Again, I look forward to him actually voting against our wonderful budget, where we are increasing capacity.

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

Mr. Patrick Brown: Again to the minister: I can’t get an answer on this joke of a policy that self-reporting for sexual predators is okay, so I’m going to try a different angle. Yesterday, the Attorney General called this crisis “manufactured.” Was the story of Kyle McLauchlan luring a child on the Internet manufactured? Are the 4,513 outstanding warrants manufactured? Are the violent criminals and sexual predators manufactured?

I didn’t make up those stories, and facts matter, so my question to the minister is this, very clearly: Does the minister share the opinions of the Attorney General that this crisis is manufactured, or is this government finally going to take the situation seriously?

Interjections.

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

Minister?

Hon. Marie-France Lalonde: Again, I’m actually not surprised, but a bit disappointed, that a Leader of the Opposition who actually made a decision to cut services—I want to talk about this, because this is so important for me, about his record.

When you think about “no plan to keep our community safe,” he actually supported a funding cut for the 18 Circles of Support and Accountability programs designed to prevent the most dangerous high-risk sex offenders from repeating their crimes. He also supported, as I said earlier, the ending of an award-winning Life Line program which provided support for those serving life sentences and reintegrated those released on parole. I’m sorry; this party has no plan.

Energy policies

Mr. Peter Tabuns: My question is to the Acting Premier. Ontario families, businesses and municipalities are struggling under the weight of soaring hydro bills. Those bills have gone up 300% since the Conservatives first started to privatize the hydro system, continued under Liberal rule—in fact, a 50% increase since this Premier came to power alone.

We’ve told Ontarians’ stories in this House for almost two years now. We’ve told this Premier of the families who have to choose between buying food and keeping the heat on in winter, who have to make the heartbreaking decision not to contribute to their children’s education funds, instead paying their hydro bills.

The Premier’s response this week was to move ahead with the disastrous sell-off of a majority stake in Hydro One, a move that will guarantee that these families will continue to see their hydro bills rise. Does the Premier not listen to these stories or care about the people who are struggling to get by?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: To the Minister of Energy.

Hon. Glenn Thibeault: I’m pleased to rise to talk about the 17% reduction that families, small businesses and farms have received so far, thanks to this government’s fair hydro plan. On top of that, 800,000 families across the province who live in rural or remote parts of our province will see between a 40% and 50% reduction. On top of that, many of those families are Hydro One customers.

When we’re talking about the broadening of ownership of Hydro One, yes, Mr. Speaker, our final tranche was done this week. With that sale, we made $2.8 billion that we can invest in things like the GTHA GO regional express rail. I know that’s obviously something that the opposition party doesn’t support. What about the $5.3 billion in the Eglinton Crosstown or the $1 billion in Ottawa? That’s all great news for this province.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Peter Tabuns: Again to the Acting Premier: We’ve told the Premier about businesses eager to expand and create more jobs, if only they could get some relief on their hydro bills. No response for four years under her watch.

We’ve told her about municipalities across Ontario, which are worried about having to close valued community centres and arenas because they can’t afford to keep the lights on. No response.

The people of Ontario have said loud and clear, “Stop the wrong-headed sell-off of Hydro One,” which the Premier knows will only cause more chaos and damage to our already fragile hydro system. No response.

Why?

Hon. Glenn Thibeault: If we go back just even a few years, we can start talking about how this government pulled costs out of the system: $3.5 billion in the renegotiation of the Samsung agreement, saving ratepayers money. We cancelled the LRP II project, saving ratepayers money.

We can go back further and further, Mr. Speaker, to talk about ways that this government continued to find ways to save ratepayers money on their electricity bills. But the one thing that we had to do was rebuild the system. The system was a mess, and it was left a mess by those two governments when they were in power.

We stepped in in 2003 and had to rebuild the system, at a cost of $50 billion. When we rebuilt that system, we made it clean and reliable and we no longer use coal in our electricity grid, something that is seen as a leadership role around the world.

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member from Leeds–Grenville, second time.

Final supplementary.

Mr. Peter Tabuns: Again to the Acting Premier: The Premier ignores the 80% of Ontarians opposed to the sell-off of Hydro One. She looks away when she hears about the real and devastating impact that her mismanagement of the hydro system has had on families, businesses and local governments. She doesn’t have a credible plan to fix any of the mess that she and her government have helped create—maybe bury it in a mound of buried money; that seems to be what they’re thinking about.

Without a mandate and just a year shy of being booted out of office, she has decided to complete the sell-off of a majority share of one of the most profitable public utilities in this province. Does the Premier listen to anyone but Bay Street bankers, high-powered investors and an energy minister who just doesn’t seem to understand this file?

Hon. Glenn Thibeault: Once again, I’m very pleased to stand and talk about the significant reductions that families are already receiving: the 17% reduction that they are receiving today.

When talking about not understanding the file, Mr. Speaker, outside experts and observers agree that the NDP’s pamphlet on what they would do with energy won’t even help Ontarians. Thomas Walkom from the Toronto Star called their proposal “thin gruel” and said that it consisted of “wishful thinking” and puts off “tough decisions.”

This government is making tough decisions to make sure that we’re bringing lasting relief right now for families, small businesses and farms. So we take no lessons from a party that has no plan, that has no idea, and won’t do anything to help people now.

We are acting. We are bringing forward legislation that is bringing forward a 25% reduction. That is something we should be proud of, Mr. Speaker.

Pharmacare

M me France Gélinas: My question is for the Acting Premier. This week, New Democrats received a letter from Sarah. Sarah lives in Norwich, which is just outside of Woodstock. She works at Tim Hortons, trying to put herself through school. She wants to become a social worker.

Sarah has a chronic eye disease that causes blurred vision, dark floating spots and progressive vision loss. Sarah is 27 years old.

Can the Acting Premier explain why she thinks Sarah should have to pay for the expensive medication for her eyes out of pocket?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: I will ask the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care to respond to the supplementary.

Sarah is a perfect example of why the changes we have made to OSAP are going to transform her life. Working at Tim Hortons, I’m assuming she’s making under $50,000 a year—I expect significantly below that. Not only will she have free tuition, she will also have money in the form of non-repayable grants that will allow her to cover some of her living expenses. If Sarah happens to have a child, the news is even better for her.

Sarah is exactly the kind of person we had in mind when we took away the restrictions on OSAP that related to age. OSAP is now available to all students if they qualify financially, regardless of their age.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

M me France Gélinas: Sarah doesn’t want to get pregnant; she wants help to pay for her medication. She told us, “No person with any severe health problem should be forced to choose between paying bills and paying for much-needed medications.”

The NDP’s universal pharmacare program would help Sarah and the thousands of other Ontarians who have to make that heartbreaking decision each and every month. Why is the Premier ignoring the best advice, refusing to bring in universal pharmacare and refusing to help people like Sarah?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: To the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care.

Hon. Eric Hoskins: It gives me great pride to be able to stand up and talk about our pharmacare program, which is a great leap forward to what I think we all agree ultimately should be universal pharmacare for all Ontarians and for all Canadians; and not somewhere in the future—perhaps in 2020, as with the third party’s proposal—but actually on January 1 of next year, four million children and youth will have access to 4,400 drugs absolutely free, no annual deductible, no copay.

We continue to hear from Ontarians just how important this program is and that there are many, many families and individuals who are celebrating the fact that in many cases, expenses that can run into the thousands of dollars for them will now be covered under this plan starting on January 1 of next year.

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

M me France Gélinas: Health care is based on universal access. Our health care system is built on the principle that nobody is turned away. Sarah shouldn’t have to worry about school, about working, about trying to pay for her medication because she is 27 years old rather than 24.

Ontarians want a fair system. They want their government to implement a fair system. Why won’t the Premier bring in universal pharmacare that leaves no one behind?

Hon. Eric Hoskins: Mr. Speaker, I think the third party needs to describe their own proposal more accurately. It’s not universal; the proposal is for 125 drugs. Our commitment is for 4,275 drugs more than their program—the entire formulary. They propose to income-test access to their program as well. It’s not universal when it’s income-tested.

To give you an example, Durhane Wong-Rieger, who is the CEO of the Canadian Organization for Rare Disorders, has this to say: “We believe Ontario’s child and youth OHIP+” pharmacare program “is a bold move and a really big deal for Ontario families, coming at a time when other drug plans, including the private plans, seem to be abandoning those who are most vulnerable and in need. The Canadian Organization for Rare Disorders is committed to working with the Ontario government and calls on other provinces to follow suit.”

That’s just one of literally dozens of examples of organizations and individuals who support our commitment.

Energy policies

Mr. Todd Smith: My question this morning is for the Minister of Energy. Yesterday, I received an order paper response from the minister, but it really wasn’t much of a response. He said he couldn’t answer my question and that I should submit a freedom-of-information request.

What I wanted was documents and correspondence from January and February from the ministry, IESO and OPG that used words like “fees,” “commissions,” “broker,” “lender” and “refinancing.”

The minister knows that this House is going to have to vote on legislation that he brings forward. Why is he trying to get members to pay for information that they should have before they vote on legislation?

Hon. Glenn Thibeault: Of course, I always like to stand and address the questions that are brought forward by the opposition.

Mr. John Yakabuski: Stand in the way of a freedom-of-information request is what you want to do.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member from Renfrew–Nipissing–Pembroke, second time. Oh, yes. I’ve got a checklist.

Carry on.

Hon. Glenn Thibeault: Of course, the Ontario fair hydro plan and the relief that is coming is an important issue. Where we stand in this House on this topic is very well known.

But what’s the position of the official opposition when it comes to their plan, Mr. Speaker? It makes you wonder. It’s been almost 70 days now since the Leader of the Opposition stood and said that they have a plan forthcoming. It went from a three-point plan to a five-point plan to a zero-point plan.

I know that part of the role of the opposition should be putting forward a credible alternative. Mr. Speaker, we’re still waiting for anything credible coming from that party.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Todd Smith: If the minister would like us to do his job for him, we would gladly do it, but our job is to scrutinize the plan that they are putting forward.

The people of Ontario deserve to know if the government’s hydro plan involves millions or billions paid out in fees to brokers or bankers. It may as well be brought to you by Goldman Sachs at this point. The people of Ontario deserve to know because, by the government’s own admission, those fees will be recoverable on their hydro rates.

Will the minister turn over exactly the documents I asked for in my order paper question or will this be yet another Liberal scheme done in the backrooms by a Liberal minister who has got his hand in the pocket of ratepayers?

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): In the last minute, the member did make some statements that I am not happy with, and I would hope that he would never try to do that again.

Minister.

Hon. Glenn Thibeault: I think it’s important that I do remind the critic from the opposition party that as the critic for the energy file, he did attend a technical briefing where officials gave him all the details of our plan. We’re more than happy to share more information with him. I know we offered an additional technical briefing.

I do agree, Mr. Speaker, that it is the role of the official opposition to make sure that they question what the government is doing. I understand that role. And you know what? It also takes courage to bring forward a plan, to talk about what they would do differently. Who thinks that? Let me read a quote: “The challenge for anyone who aspires to be Premier—any party that aspires to serve in government—is to say what we would do.” Do you know who said that, Mr. Speaker? The leader of the official opposition. It’s just too bad, when it comes to energy or Ontario, they have no plan at all.

Public transit

Ms. Cheri DiNovo: My question is to the Acting Premier. Prior to the 2014 election, the Premier told Torontonians that the relief line subway was one of her top transit priorities. But since the election, she has refused to commit to funding the construction of the relief line. The mayor of Toronto and the TTC say that the relief line must be built before the Yonge line extension or else there will be transit chaos, but the Premier seems to be more interested in saving Liberal seats north of Toronto than funding a subway project that transit experts say must come first.

Why is the Premier once again putting her own political interests ahead of what’s best for Toronto transit riders?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: To the Minister of Transportation.

Hon. Steven Del Duca: I thank the member from Parkdale for her question this morning. That member and every member in the chamber will know that we are the provincial government that is investing more in public transit, in the city of Toronto and in communities in every corner of Ontario than any other government in history. Speaker, our investments in transit in Toronto are, in fact, unprecedented.

Interestingly, just a couple of days ago at the city of Toronto, there was a staff report that came out that said, among other things, that over the next up to two years, the city of Toronto staff will continue to refine and provide the public with a finalized budget for some of the projects that the member opposite is talking about, like the relief line. We look forward to seeing that information flow out of the city of Toronto, and I’ve said repeatedly, the conversation will continue with Toronto.

But in the meantime, we are the only level of government that has provided $150 million in planning money to help advance the relief line, and $55 million for Yonge North, Speaker. At the same time, we’re investing literally billions in Toronto and in the 99 communities across Ontario that have transit systems that deserve our support.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Cheri DiNovo: Back again to the Acting Premier: What Toronto wants is pretty clear on this file, Mr. Speaker. They have declared the relief line to be the top transit priority—nothing new in that. Prior to the 2014 election, the Premier said the relief line was her transit priority too. But so far, the Premier has committed exactly zero dollars to the construction of the relief line.

It’s impossible for the city of Toronto to plan the construction of major infrastructure projects when it doesn’t know if the provincial government will be a funding partner. So I’m asking again, and it’s clear: Will the Premier commit today to funding the relief line, or will she keep letting down Toronto transit riders?

Hon. Steven Del Duca: I do appreciate the passion that members on all sides of this House bring to the transit discussion and the transit debate. I sincerely hope that Andrea Horwath—sorry, the leader of Ontario’s NDP, the third party, and members of her caucus are not suggesting that it would be prudent for any level of government to confirm a contribution to a project for which there is not yet a confirmed budget. That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

In the meantime, I will say again that we are the only level of government that has provided $150 million to prepare or to help advance the planning to make sure that the relief line is shovel-ready.

Speaker, one of the other problems that I have with the line of questioning coming from that member and from that party is that they seem to suggest that we should favour one community over all of the others. That’s not how this side of the House views transit in the GTHA. We know gridlock is not a uniquely Toronto problem or a 905 problem. It doesn’t respect municipal boundaries. We need to keep investing in Toronto and in every other community that needs our support, and do so in the way that makes the most sense. That’s what we have done. It’s what we are doing and will continue to do.

Education funding

Ms. Ann Hoggarth: My question is for the Minister of Education. Minister, we all know how committed our government is to helping our kids become lifelong learners. This is a commitment as an educator that I made many years ago. Earlier this year, you announced increased funding for education to $23.8 billion, an increase of $849 million from last year. I’m also pleased to hear that 71% of elementary students are achieving our high provincial standards in literacy and numeracy, that Ontario’s grade 8 students are ranked the second highest in science and math in the country, and that Ontario students do outperform nearly every OECD country.

Speaker, I also know that the minister made a very special announcement earlier this week regarding graduation rates across the province. Can the minister please tell us about this announcement?

Hon. Mitzie Hunter: I want to thank the member from Barrie for her question and for her relentless focus on education.

Mr. Speaker, our government’s 2017 balanced budget includes an additional investment of $6.4 billion over three years in Ontario’s education system. This reflects our commitment to help learners reach their full potential by supporting them from full-day kindergarten to post-secondary education and beyond.

Ontario’s unprecedented investments in education have pushed the high school graduation rate to a historic new high. On Monday, I was joined by members of my Minister’s Student Advisory Council to announce that in 2016 the five-year graduation rate of our high school students reached a new high of 86.5%. That’s an increase of more than 18% since 2004, when it was just 68%. This is about the hard work of students, teachers and their parents.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Ann Hoggarth: I’m extremely pleased to hear this fantastic news. This is an excellent example of how committed we are to ensuring that our youngest learners become successful. Since 2004, about 217,500 more students have graduated than would have if the graduation rate had remained at the 2004 level. That’s a population the size of the cities of Kingston and Thunder Bay combined that now have high school diplomas.

Despite this great news, we know there is still more work that can be done. This includes additional funding for a number of programs our government introduced through the Student Success Strategy that are credited with helping to sharply boost the graduation rate since 2004.

Minister, please explain how these programs have helped our students achieve better results and, in turn, increased the rate of graduation.

Hon. Mitzie Hunter: We want all of our students to succeed. There are a number of students in the gallery today. We have a number of innovative programs that were introduced as part of our Student Success Strategy, and they have helped the graduation rate. These are programs like Specialist High Skills Majors, dual credits, our expanded co-op education, and our Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program so that they can one day maybe become electricians like our friend Jim Roberts here.

Instead of using a one-size-fits-all approach, students can customize their high school experience to match their strengths, their interests and their career goals, creating more engaging learning environments and better preparing them to pursue future opportunities.

As mentioned by the Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development yesterday, the new Career Kick-Start Strategy is helping students to gain even more experience from this $190-million investment.

Opioid abuse

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: Good morning, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Acting Premier.

I’m joined here today by Sean O’Leary, executive director of We the Parents, an organization dedicated to parents of youth who are struggling with opioid addiction. Sean and his 17-year-old daughter, Paige, have courageously shared her struggle with addiction to counterfeit Percocets laced with fentanyl. I’ve raised the issue many times, including requesting the Minister of Health to visit Ottawa, where the opioid crisis is claiming the lives of children as young as 14.

Can the Acting Premier commit today to provide funding to deal with the opioid crisis in Ottawa?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: To the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care.

Hon. Eric Hoskins: I appreciate the question. First of all, I want to acknowledge Sean O’Leary, who is in the audience with us. I’m not sure if you are here with your daughter, Paige, or not but—

Hon. Deborah Matthews: Yes, he is.

Hon. Eric Hoskins: Thank you to both of you for being here today.

I want to applaud his advocacy and that of Paige, who is an incredibly courageous young woman, with a courageous father as well. They have advocated, as the member opposite has indicated, very strongly about the dangers we’re facing in this opioid crisis, dangers that are found throughout this country, but are, as Sean and Paige can so eloquently speak to, particularly prominent in Ottawa and in the Ottawa region.

I know that they have advanced some very important activities and suggestions—activities and suggestions that we’re looking at very closely.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: Thank you very much, Minister. I appreciate that acknowledgement of Mr. O’Leary and his daughter, Paige.

According to Ottawa Public Health, they “have not received any additional information as to when, how or to whom funds will be allocated or whether there will be any conditions or expected deliverables associated with this new funding source” to deal with the opioid crisis. Although there has been a verbal agreement from the Premier that these funds would flow, according to public health in Ottawa, they haven’t yet.

I’m just wondering if the minister could assure Mr. O’Leary, We the Parents and Ottawa Public Health that funding to fight this crisis will indeed flow and that the answers as to when, to whom and how the resources will be allocated will be shared expeditiously.

Hon. Eric Hoskins: I acknowledge the advocacy of the member opposite. I should also reference the strong advocacy and involvement of the Liberal MPPs in Ottawa as well, who have met with many individuals who either have a concern or have a responsibility to deal with this crisis.

We announced $140 million in mental health supports. There are additional funds in the budget that we are now debating that will go specifically to opioid treatment, so I look forward to the member opposite supporting the budget and supporting those initiatives. We also invested, just last year, $1.5 million in Ottawa in the Dave Smith Youth Treatment Centre, which will provide a 30-bed youth treatment centre for individuals who are faced with addictions to opioids and other narcotics.

There are 80 pharmacies in Ottawa that are providing naloxone free of charge, which is a lifesaver. We have a very comprehensive plan that was announced last fall that we’re now in the process of implementing.

Employment standards

Ms. Cindy Forster: My question is to the Acting Premier. Sadly, polling tells us that 90% of Canadians have lost hope. They no longer believe that their children will do better than they did. When the federal Liberal finance minister tells workers across this country to get used to precarious employment, who can blame them?

That’s why DeJanai Love is left with the work she’s in. She works at GoodLife Fitness and cannot afford to take a sick day when she has a concussion from a work injury. Worse, she and her GoodLife colleagues have spent months fighting for a first contract.

Hard-working Ontarians, like DeJanai, expected improvements to labour standards in the budget last week, but, sadly, there was nothing.

Liberals have had over 14 years to improve working conditions. How much longer do workers across the province have to wait to see improvements to working conditions from the Liberal government?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: Minister of Labour.

Hon. Kevin Daniel Flynn: The short answer would be: not very long. We’ve put, I think, the right effort into this, and I hope all members of the House support the work we’ve done with the Changing Workplaces Review.

We know that since these two acts, the Employment Standards Act and the Labour Relations Act, were last looked at in 1995 and 2000, the world of work has changed under our feet. The world of work that young people, as you describe, are going into is quite different from the world of work I went into and many of the people in this House who are of my vintage.

The concerns you’re talking about will be clearly addressed by the advisers, such things as scheduling, hours of work, sick time, emergency leave and domestic violence. These are all issues that have seized the attention of the advisers. I’m looking forward to bringing in a very comprehensive report on this issue.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Cindy Forster: New Democrats value consultation, but the public has already made it clear what they want. We know what their concerns are; we’ve known for years. The final recommendations are in.

It’s unacceptable that three million workers in Ontario have to worry about losing pay if they need to take a day off because they’re sick. We believe in the minimum wage. As New Democrats, we believe in protecting workers’ right to join a union and get a first contract. We believe in the same pay for the same work, and we believe in access to sick days for workers.

The Changing Workplaces Review is in; the minister has it. And so we ask again: When is the minister planning to release the final report so that hard-working Ontarians can see some change?

Hon. Kevin Daniel Flynn: Thank you to the member for the question again. The work is done. The consultations have taken place. Organized labour, the chamber of commerce, the business community and poverty advocates have been consulted. People who have been asking and advocating for changes to these pieces of legislation have had their say to some very learned individuals who have put together a very comprehensive report. We’ve taken the right amount of time, I think, to make sure that when we bring this package forward, it’s going to address the needs of all working Canadians while keeping Ontario’s economy competitive.

What I don’t agree with is, the NDP has called this process a waste of time. It’s anything but a waste of time. It’s work that needed to be done properly, that needed to be done right, and the results, I think, are going to support everybody who works hard in this province.

Indigenous arts and culture

Mr. Arthur Potts: My question is to the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. Our government is committed to reconciliation with indigenous people through closing gaps, supporting indigenous cultures and reconciling relationships. Mr. Speaker, as you know so well, the residential school system was established and mandated to wipe out indigenous cultures, and indigenous art has stood as a testament to the resilience of indigenous communities in the face of cultural genocide. The significant influence of indigenous arts and culture on Canadian society too often goes unmentioned and unappreciated.

My father, Mr. Justice Potts, as he toured Ontario and the Northwest Territories, often returned home with glorious pieces of indigenous art, and we, as a family, were exposed to this unique cultural form early on.

I’d like to ask if the minister could elaborate and provide examples of how indigenous art and culture and their increasing significance in Canadian culture are being recognized.

Hon. David Zimmer: I’d like to reference the contribution of indigenous music culture. This past weekend, I attended the Hot Docs festival on Sunday evening for a viewing of a film entitled Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World. It won two major prizes. It won the $50,000 prize for the audience’s choice of the best documentary. Then it also won the festival’s award as the best documentary.

What Rumble highlights is the underappreciated and often unknown contributions that indigenous musicians made to rhythm and blues, rock ’n’ roll and heavy metal music. It was a splendid documentary and it showed indigenous musicians working with these world superstars in rhythm and blues and rock ’n’ roll, and the tremendous contributions they’ve made to that.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Arthur Potts: I look forward to seeing this documentary, Rumble. I want to thank the minister for the great work that he is doing, and his leadership in helping heal cultural wounds in our society.

The work that our government is doing in supporting and investing in indigenous art and culture is so important. It is in complete accord with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s recommendations to emphasize the significance of indigenous arts and culture in Canadian heritage.

I know that this is also a very important matter for the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, and that her ministry is very involved in supporting indigenous arts and culture and providing those supports so that those works of art can be seen by all Ontarians and Canadians.

Will the minister also elaborate on how our government helps support and promote indigenous arts and culture, particularly when it comes to youth, in our society?

Hon. David Zimmer: Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport.

Hon. Eleanor McMahon: I’d like to thank the member for Beaches–East York for his advocacy and his question. It’s a timely question indeed, as the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation has pointed out, not only in this important year of our 150th anniversary, but also in light of the Hot Docs festival, which is another program that my ministry and our government are delighted to support.

We are supporting, as the member pointed out, two important cultural camps as part of our journey of reconciliation with indigenous peoples: one in Fort Albany First Nation, and the other in Pikangikum. They include activities that are cultural in nature but are sport too, because we know the healing power of sport. Of course, it’s also giving them an opportunity to try out for the North American Indigenous Games, which are going to be held this summer in Ontario for the first time ever, supported by our government.

Across the board, Speaker, we’re absolutely thrilled and delighted. Our support for indigenous arts and culture is long-standing, and we look forward to continuing to maintain that robust support.

Health care

Mr. Lorne Coe: My question is for the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. Despite the royal assent of Bill 9, the End Age Discrimination Against Stroke Recovery Patients Act, in December 2016, this Liberal government continues to discriminate against post-stroke recovery patients between the ages of 20 and 64.

Jim McEwen is one of those patients, and he’s here this morning in your gallery. Because Jim is not 65 yet, he’s unable to access post-stroke recovery services that he needs and deserves.

That is why I introduced Bill 9, which provided access to post-stroke rehabilitation services regardless of age. But this Liberal government continues to deny Jim and thousands of others like him the post-stroke recovery services they need.

When will this government stop the discrimination of post-stroke recovery patients 20 to 64 years of age?

Hon. Eric Hoskins: I want to commend the member opposite for the initiative that he took last year, the private member’s bill, that we supported. I think it unanimously was supported in this Legislature, but it certainly passed with the involvement of and co-operation of my ministry—the End Age Discrimination Against Stroke Recovery Patients Act.

Mr. Speaker, we are in the process of implementing that act as a government and as a ministry. I’m proud of the investments that we have been making across the board. In fact, there’s an important investment in this budget that speaks to acute care for patients with stroke, which is a game-changer, Mr. Speaker.

Ms. Sylvia Jones: They can’t wait.

Hon. Eric Hoskins: I hope the member opposite who is heckling me right now will support this, because it’s critically important to stroke care.

But we continue to—

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): All right. The member from Dufferin–Caledon is warned.

Finish.

Hon. Eric Hoskins: The funding in the budget and the efforts that we’re making in providing publicly funded physiotherapy to stroke patients where their clinician believes that it is relevant and advantageous to their therapy—we continue to fund that in hospitals, in hospital outpatient clinics, in home care, in long-term-care homes and in community physio clinics across the province.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Lorne Coe: Back to the Minister of Health: Once again, the intent of Bill 9 has always been to provide post-stroke recovery services to patients, regardless of age. Will this minister agree this morning—yes or no—to end age discrimination in post-stroke recovery services for those 20 to 64 years of age?

Hon. Eric Hoskins: I want to acknowledge Jim in the gallery, as well, who has taken his valuable time to come and join us here in the Legislature for this question.

But, Mr. Speaker, I’m not sure what the member opposite’s difficulty is, because by working together—the ministry, myself, his office and him directly—we have actually refined and passed unanimously his private member’s bill, the End Age Discrimination Against Stroke Recovery Patients Act, 2016.

We are in the process—as we are legally bound to be, as a government, in legislation that was passed here—of implementing that act that he authored. And, as I mentioned, we are continuing to invest significant millions of dollars in funding specific to the aspect of physio, which is relevant, important and impactful for many post-stroke patients.

Health care funding

Miss Monique Taylor: My question is to the Acting Premier. Steven is a Hamiltonian who was waiting for a liver transplant. On his way to an appointment at St. Joe’s to remove fluid from his abdomen, Steven fell in the parking lot, cutting his chin and losing consciousness.

Inside the hospital, Steven waited to be seen. In fact, he waited for eight and a half hours. Finally, late that night, he was sent home, still bloody, still disoriented and still with fluid in his abdomen.

Steven’s heartbreaking story shows exactly what is happening to patients in dangerously overcrowded hospitals across Ontario due to years of Liberal cuts and layoffs. Why doesn’t the Premier see the damage that she has done to patient care?

Hon. Deborah Matthews: To the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care.

Hon. Eric Hoskins: I obviously can’t speak to the particulars of this individual, but despite what the member opposite says, we have among the shortest, if not the shortest, wait times in our emergency rooms in the entire country. There is third-party independent evidence, and reports that have been issued over the past several years, including from the Fraser Institute, including from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, that demonstrate that despite an increasing population and increasing volumes to our ERs, the wait times have continued to go down.

In fact, 85% of ER patients are getting treatment within the target if they are a complex patient, and 89% within the four-hour target for minor patients. Wait times have actually gone down by almost 30% in the last several years, despite the fact that ER volumes have gone up by 40%, and ER wait times for the most sick have gone down by 15%.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Miss Monique Taylor: I don’t know if the minister heard me, Speaker, but eight and a half hours is not within the target time—and still to be sent home.

Steven’s wife, Debbie, drove him to the hospital. Debbie has mobility problems and uses a wheelchair. While in the hospital, Debbie had to help Steven to get to the toilet. Then, on her own, she had to clean him up and get him back into his bed. When they left the hospital, Debbie had to get Steven out of the car all alone. Remember, Speaker, this woman is someone who needs to be in a wheelchair herself. Debbie and Steven deserve so much better.

But once again, the Premier’s hospital funding in this year’s budget falls more than $300 million short of what is needed. When will the Premier admit that she is failing Steven, Debbie and patients all across Ontario?

Hon. Eric Hoskins: I have to disagree with the member opposite, and I hope that she supports this budget, because it has an infusion of more than $500 million this year, a 3.1% increase to the operating budgets of our hospitals. It has over $1 billion specifically dedicated to reducing wait times throughout the hospital system. It has specific elements that add additional hours for MRIs, 2,800 more hip and knee replacements and 2,100 more cataract surgeries.

In fact, we’re investing—when you look at last year’s budget and the increases that were built in in this year’s—more than $11 billion over the next three years in the health care system, in the health budget.

So I would hope, given the concerns that she has expressed, she’ll support us and support us strongly.

Research and development

Ms. Sophie Kiwala: My question is for the Minister of Research, Innovation and Science. Over the past few years, Ontario has become a leading destination for companies interested in opening research and development branches. Ontario has one of the highest-educated workforces in the world, a low tax rate and red tape burden reduction. These commerce-friendly policies make doing business in Ontario profitable, stable and enticing for private en