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March 20, 2019

42nd Parliament, 1st Session

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Hansard Transcripts

Votes and Proceedings

Orders and Notices

Hansard Transcript 2019-Mar-20 (PDF)

L079 - Wed 20 Mar 2019 / Mer 20 mar 2019

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

ASSEMBLÉE LÉGISLATIVE DE L’ONTARIO

Wednesday 20 March 2019 Mercredi 20 mars 2019

Orders of the Day

The People’s Health Care Act, 2019 / Loi de 2019 sur les soins de santé pour la population

Introduction of Visitors

International Day of la Francophonie / Journée internationale de la Francophonie

Oral Questions

Education funding

Government accountability

Government accountability

Hunting and fishing

Government accountability

Sexual violence and harassment

Subventions destinées à l’éducation / Education funding

Government accountability

Economic policy

Curriculum

Highway safety

Assistance to farmers

Visitors

Nowruz

Introduction of Visitors

Report, Integrity Commissioner

Members’ Statements

University funding

GO Transit

Student assistance

Nowruz

Education funding

La Francophonie

Alcohol addiction

Autism treatment

Attack in New Zealand

Harry Watts

Introduction of Bills

Prohibiting Hate-Promoting Demonstrations at Queen’s Park Act, 2019 / Loi de 2019 interdisant les manifestations fomentant la haine à Queen’s Park

Election Fundraising Transparency Act, 2019 / Loi de 2019 sur la transparence du financement électoral

Good Fortune Corporation Act, 2019

All Trade Quantities Inc. Act, 2019

Respecting Property Taxpayers Act, 2019 / Loi de 2019 sur le respect des contribuables fonciers

Statements by the Ministry and Responses

Down syndrome

La Francophonie

Down syndrome

La Francophonie

Down syndrome / Trisomie

La Francophonie

Petitions

Veterans memorial

Animal protection

Automobile insurance

Toronto Transit Commission

Veterans memorial

Employment standards

Veterans memorial

Arts and cultural funding

Toronto Transit Commission

Orders of the Day

Safe and Supportive Classrooms Act, 2019 / Loi de 2019 pour des écoles sûres et axées sur le soutien

The House met at 0900.

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

Prayers.

Orders of the Day

The People’s Health Care Act, 2019 / Loi de 2019 sur les soins de santé pour la population

Resuming the debate adjourned on March 19, 2019, on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

Bill 74,

An Act concerning the provision of health care, continuing Ontario Health and making consequential and related amendments and repeals / Projet de loi 74, Loi concernant la prestation de soins de santé, la prorogation de Santé Ontario, l’ajout de modifications corrélatives et connexes et des abrogations.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): When we last debated Bill 74, the member for Whitby made his presentation and had concluded his presentation, but it is now time for questions and comments related to the speech given by the member for Whitby.

Questions and comments?

Ms. Teresa J. Armstrong: It’s always a pleasure to stand in the House and talk about legislation, and in particular the health bill, probably the most significant piece of legislation that’s come before us in a very long time, because health care is something that affects everyone. Everybody is going to access health care in their lifetime.

Our concern with this bill is that it opens the door to unprecedented privatization of health care public services. I’ve talked about this before, that this government has not yet been able to say—and maybe the member today can reassure me—that this bill will not allow our public health care system to be privately health care delivered. So we want to make sure that our public health care system is intact. As we know, they keep using those words, so that’s good, but then we want to have it a publicly delivered health care system, not a private, for-profit service delivery in health care. That’s our biggest concern with regard to this bill because it is an enabling legislation.

Some of it is not clear, when it talks about the entities that the minister can have—the “my health care” groups. They say that it’s only about Meals on Wheels but they won’t actually state it in the bill. Sometimes what you don’t say says a lot.

So, it would be good to hear that we’re going to have our public health care system be a public, not-for-profit health care service delivery. I ask the government side, whoever speaks on this bill, to say those words and get on record so that we all can put our concerns to rest that it’s not going to be opening up this legislation to have a massive, unprecedented privatization in our health care system.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further questions and comments.

Mrs. Robin Martin: Good morning, everyone. I would like to comment on Bill 74. I think it’s a really important piece of legislation.

We haven’t ever suggested that this is about privatization. I believe this is something the NDP are suggesting because they’re trying to scare people, frankly—and they are, because I get little old ladies phoning me, telling me that they’re afraid that they’re not going to have home care anymore. I say, “Why are you afraid of that?” Well, it’s because the NDP is suggesting in the House that we’re taking that away from them. We’re not taking that away from anyone. Our point is to make the system better.

We’re working very hard to make a comprehensive and connected system so people have a continuum of care in, as the minister has said many times, our publicly funded system. That is not what we’re talking about at all.

I just wanted to read a little bit from the CEO of Alberta health, who was talking about the amount of money that is spent on administration in health care. Across Canada, the number is 25% in all of the jurisdictions overall. In Ontario, it is 30% spent on health care administration. Alberta health spends 3.3% of total expenses on administration. So I do think there are learnings that we can find. We can do better.

What we’re focused on is making sure that we put the money into front-line patient services so that patients get services when and where they need them in a timely way, so they’re not stuck in hallways, as the minister has said many times. That is really the focus of our attention: to make better service for the people of Ontario, for the things that matter most to them, like health care, which is very important.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further questions and comments. We have the member from—oh, for heaven’s sakes, sorry—Spadina–Fort York.

Mr. Chris Glover: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’m glad you got that location.

It’s an honour to stand up in the House today and speak against Bill 74. The Conservative Party in this province and in the colony that preceded this province have a long history of fighting against progressive change. In the early 1800s, Bishop Strachan, who was the leading Tory of the day, fought against public education and he fought against the creation of democracy in Upper Canada. In the 1930s, the Conservative government under Mitch Hepburn gathered together a gang of goons to go beat up workers in Oshawa who were daring to unionize.

John Robarts was generally a Progressive Conservative and one who actually did make some progressive change, but in 1965, he fought against public health care. And this government here is rolling us back all the way.

Bill 74 is an assault on our public health care system. The premise is that it’s going to reduce administrative costs, which of course would be a good thing, but it’s actually opening the door to private, for-profit health care, which we know will cost more and deliver less. This government recently—just last week, actually—introduced changes and a huge funding cut to our public education system. Last summer, they cancelled municipal elections.

And in this House, four months ago, the Conservative Party voted to suspend the Charter of Rights and Freedoms of the people of this province—again, an assault on democracy. And Bill 66 that this government is passing is an assault on unionized workers.

This government is rolling back all the progressive changes that have happened in spite of the fact that they fought against them as they were rolled out over 200 years. So when we say this government is taking us backwards, they’re taking this province backwards to the early 1800s.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further questions and comments.

Ms. Effie J. Triantafilopoulos: It’s my pleasure as well to provide some comments this morning on the debate. I think that the member opposite needs to remember that our government was elected on a commitment to ensure that we would end hallway health care. We are fully committed to delivering on that promise.

The fact is that our Ontario health care system is currently on life support. Patients are forgotten on waiting lists. More than 1,000 patients are receiving care in hallways every day, and the average wait time to access a bed for long-term care is 146 days. That is completely shameful and just not good enough in the province of Ontario.

I believe, and our colleagues on this side believe that patients and families have been getting lost in the health care system, falling through the cracks and waiting far too long for care. This has had a hugely negative impact on the health and well-being of patients, but also on their loved ones, both physically and mentally. Our health care system has been facing capacity pressures for many years. It does not have the right mix of services, beds or digital tools to be able to grow and rapidly help the aging population, which has increasingly had more complex and acute needs.

So our commitment is to ensure that, going forward, our public health system actually puts patients at the centre of their care and to make sure that our services are better and more connected services, with the patient at the centre of care.

Speaking specifically to Bill 74, never once has there been anything in the bill that says that we are going to be privatizing health care. There is not one single word in the bill to that effect—

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Thank you very much. We will now return to the member from Whitby for final comments.

Mr. Lorne Coe: Bill 74 speaks to building a connected, public health care system for the patient—despite the fearmongering that we continue to hear.

When I spoke about the bill yesterday for about 10 minutes, I made several key points at the time, and I just want to reiterate them as part of my windup here today.

We envision a public health care system where patients and families will have access to faster, better and more connected services—a system where family doctors, hospitals and home and community care providers work in unison as a team. Those who served in opposition on this side of the House last term will know what we heard from the Liberal government on the Patients First piece, and it didn’t have those features at all. With these teams, providers can communicate directly with each other, creating a seamless care experience for the patients and the families.

You know from your experience—you know this too, Speaker—in your constituency offices that that’s what your constituents want: a seamless, unified health care system.

Modernizing the health care system is going to take time, but there’s a continuum of the public engagement—as recently as a week ago, when I sat with the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care and several health care providers in the region of Durham. We’re continuing that process of engagement.

The people of Ontario have been and always will be the government’s priority and focus.

Speaker, and those watching here this morning, be assured of this: We will create a public health care system that works for everyone—a public health care system.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further debate?

Ms. Bhutila Karpoche: It is an honour, as always, to rise before this House on behalf of the people of Parkdale–High Park, especially to debate a bill on health care. Health care is an issue that is very important to my constituents. I have to say, as the MPP for Parkdale–High Park and as a public health professional, it is my duty to strongly oppose this bill, Bill 74. This is a bill that is making sweeping changes to our public health care system for the worse. This bill proposes the largest restructuring of Ontario’s health care system since medicare.

Speaker, make no mistake: This restructuring is all about privatization. This bill does not mandate any improvements to existing care. It does not add or expand any health care services. It does not address any of the glaring issues our health care system is currently facing.

The Conservatives like to say that our current system is broken. It’s not broken, Speaker; it’s underfunded. It’s underfunded because of successive Liberal and Conservative governments that have failed to make health care a priority. We now have a system where, over time, public dollars are continuously being siphoned off from patient care into private profit, and that is making our health care system itself sick. What it needs to be well is better funding and protection from private profits at all costs. Breaking down the system is not the answer.

Here is what our health care system needs right now, which is nowhere in this bill:

—increased spending to hire more front-line workers—not in the bill.

—a plan to reduce wait times in order to get rid of hallway medicine—not in the bill. In my riding of Parkdale–High Park, we have St. Joseph’s hospital. St. Joe’s serves people from 15 urban neighbourhoods. The emergency department is one of the busiest in the province. It’s designed for 65,000 visits, but manages over 100,000 visits annually.

—a solution for painfully long wait times for mental health and addiction services—again, not in this bill.

There’s also no plan for caring for our aging population in terms of addressing the crisis in our long-term-care facilities and in home care. As has been mentioned by the other side, the wait-list for a long-term bed is at over 33,000, and yet this bill does not address that problem.

Finally, I have to say this as a public health professional: There is absolutely no strategy or program focused on prevention or health promotion, on the social determinants of health, the upstream factors that impact health the most, the factors that can keep people out of hospital in the first place.

There are so many issues with the bill, from the creation of a super-bureaucracy to the complete and utter lack of consideration on health equity issues to the lack of consideration of the labour disruption that is going to impact patient care, and also the cuts to the front-line health care workers.

As the Ontario Health Coalition, the defenders of our public health care system, have clearly stated, “This legislation itself is terribly written, with no principles and no public interest protections while the government has given itself unprecedented powers to order mega-mergers, amalgamations, transfers of our local health services, closures of our local health services, privatization of significant portions of our public and non-profit health care services and closures of entire health care providers. It takes away the last vestiges of local control over our health care.”

This bill amends 30 statutes, which itself is like having 30 different bills in one omnibus legislation—and, mind you, Speaker, with no public consultation. And there is no evidence to support the 30-plus amendments they’re making to our health care system. The only thing that is there is that we see public dollars going into private sector pockets, and the consolidation of powers into the minister’s hands rather than in public hands.

And as we’ve seen and witnessed with all government bills so far, like all bills, this will be rushed through the Legislature at a reckless pace. It’s going to become law before the people of this province have had a chance to really engage in the process on a piece of legislation that is going to impact every single Ontarian. This is truly undemocratic.

Speaker, as I mentioned, this bill was problematic from the very beginning. If you will recall, this legislation was leaked by a whistle-blower, a public servant, and when the NDP flagged the problems with this bill, the Minister of Health went on record to say it was “a very early draft of legislation.” It was completely dismissed. Now we have the bill in front of us, and it’s 80% identical to the leaked bill.

On March 8, 2019, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care announced the board of directors for the Ontario Health agency. The board members are people with investment backgrounds. It also includes a member of the Premier’s Council on Improving Healthcare and Ending Hallway Medicine. What about front-line workers? Is anyone who is on the board a front-line health care worker? Front-line health care workers are the people who are in the system. They work day in and day out in the system; they know what’s working, what’s not working and how to fix it—someone who is actually on the ground, interacting with the patients. But no; no front-line health care worker.

In fact, this proposed legislation was not only created behind closed doors without public input; there are no public consultations being done currently that allow people to still have a say.

Also, Speaker, among the members of the board in this new super-agency are people like Shelly Jamieson, formerly of Mike Harris’s Health Services Restructuring Commission, which, let me give everybody a reminder, forced all mergers and closures in the Mike Harris era. She was involved in ordering the closures of thousands of chronic care public hospital beds and the creation of thousands of private, for-profit, long-term-care beds. We have folks like them in the agency.

Also on the super-agency board are corporate people from the chamber of commerce. Let’s not forget, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce is campaigning for the privatization of health care, folks from banks and financial institutions who have been pushing for P3s, public privatization, from which they are taking exorbitant profits, and others.

This super-agency has extraordinary powers over our local health care services to order restructuring, closures, transfers and privatization. Health care is a $60-billion portfolio and we have only 15 people who are part of the super-agency that is focused on reviewing the bids from private companies for health care projects. The focus, of course, will be on profit, not on care. I can’t see how this system will be beneficial to any Ontarian.

Despite this bill only being on second reading, the board has already held its inaugural meeting with, again, no public announcement, and again, behind closed doors. The LHINs were required to hold public meetings. If this is truly “The People’s Health Care Act,” why is the government hiding this bill from the people of Ontario? Again, because they know that what is in the bill is not supported by the people of Ontario.

Not only has the government not conducted any public consultation on this sweeping new health care restructuring law, it is making now a travesty of the public legislative process in our province, and has appointed a board that is dismantling the public, non-profit health care sector in order to privatize them for the profit-taking of the industries in which they are involved. So, essentially the government is already putting this law into force before it has even completed the parliamentary process and debates.

Speaker, I don’t have too much time but I do want to say that, at the end of the day, free and equal access to health care is a fundamental Canadian right. More than that, it is part of our identity, and it is something that we hold very dear. The government knows that what they’ve done is not right. They’re misleading Ontarians about the benefits of the bill.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Excuse me. I will ask the member to withdraw.

Ms. Bhutila Karpoche: Withdraw.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Thank you.

Ms. Bhutila Karpoche: Finally, Speaker, as I have said many times in this House, we have a mantra in public health which holds true for every issue: Prevention is better than cure.

If the Ford government truly wanted to make transformational health care changes, then today we would be discussing how we can end the crisis in affordable housing and homelessness, how we can ensure food security for every Ontarian, how we can end systemic racism, how we can implement universal pharmacare and dental care for all, and how we can provide mental health care and addiction supports for every Ontarian, especially children and youth. All of these measures would have a much greater impact on our health care system and prevent hospitalizations and hallway medicine, and save money in the long run.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Questions and comments.

Mr. Sam Oosterhoff: It’s a pleasure to be able to stand and speak to the member from Parkdale–High Park’s interesting contributions to the debate around Bill 74 this morning. I fear the member may suffer from some terminological inexactitude with regard to some of the concepts that she brought forward to this legislation.

It’s clear that this legislation is in fact legislation that addresses 15 years of not just Liberal waste and mismanagement, but let’s be very clear, the Liberal government that was propped up by a New Democratic Party for a great deal of that time. I believe the number is 97% of the time that the New Democrats voted with the Ontario Liberal government. Dalton McGuinty and Kathleen Wynne’s legacy is clear. Frankly, this is the mess we have to clean up. It’s the mess that Ontarians sent us here to fix. On June 7, 2018, they decided to elect a strong majority government for the PCs, and one of the big reasons they decided to do that was to end hallway health care.

This is a key part of that commitment to ending hallway health care, to finally creating a system that breaks down the bureaucracy, the burdensome growth of LHINs, sub-LHINs, CCACs—I believe there are 14 different local health integration networks that are now being subsumed into the Ontario health teams. This is really about streamlining services. It’s about providing better levels of care in ways that put more money into front-line care.

I’m so disappointed in the opposition that they fail to recognize this, that they fail to see the benefits that this will bring to patients, who finally will be able to make one call, to have one care provider, to have someone who will be able to take care of them through that journey.

I’m excited about the continuum of care that our government is passionate about. We’re finally focusing on the patient. We’re not going to focus on special interest groups, like the members of the opposition. We’re going to make sure that we’re focusing on the best needs of all Ontario patients.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further question and comments?

Mr. Sol Mamakwa: When we talk about the provision of health services in Kiiwetinoong, health equity and health equality—it does not exist. I’m not sure, when we talk about health services for First Nations, for Indigenous peoples in the province of Ontario and improving them—it’s very important that the way the system treats our people, it’s almost as if we do not exist, that we are not people. I know that my friends across the floor, if they were in my community, they would not allow that. They would not allow their children, their parents, their grandchildren, to live under those conditions.

I know, dealing with Cat Lake the last few months and dealing with Grassy Narrows, when these communities are asking for help, there’s no help. Is it because we’re First Nations? Is this because we’re on-reserve? I hear, “It’s everybody. It’s a public system,” but because we’re on-reserve, we get played into this jurisdictional Ping-Pong with our lives and with the health of our people. That’s not acceptable, and we have to understand that.

One of the key things in our territory, in the Nishnawbe Aski Nation—they had this tripartite agreement with Ontario and Canada back in 2017 called the Charter of Relationship Principles, which is to transform the health care system in the territories. There has been no word from the province on that process to bring back the accountability, the funding and the responsibility to the communities. That’s what we need for our First Nations: to bring back those three things. Meegwetch.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further questions and comments?

Mr. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria: It’s a pleasure to speak to this in the comments, because this bill really speaks to strengthening our public health care system, exactly what we needed to do. When we got elected, when we were campaigning in June, we promised to fix the health care system, and that’s exactly what this piece of legislation is doing. It’s going to put the patients first, which, for whatever reason, the previous government—which was propped up by the members opposite 97% of the time—failed to do for Ontarians, and that’s exactly why we were elected. The system was on life support, and that’s unacceptable. Change was needed.

One of the stats that sticks out to me in this debate and which recognizes why this was so important is how much the province spends on administrative costs. If we look at the provincial average, it’s approximately 25%, just like the member from Eglinton–Lawrence had noted in her comments. Twenty-five per cent is the average; Ontario spends 30% of its budget on that. If we look at provinces like Alberta, they’re spending 3%. And that’s unacceptable, when we have families, we have patients spending days in hallways of our health care, waiting over 140 days to get a bed in a long-term-care facility.

That’s unacceptable. That’s exactly why we got elected. It’s exactly what this piece of legislation is going to do: It’s going to make sure that our health care system focuses on patients. It puts the patient first and ensures that every single person in this province has access to good public health care.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further questions and comments?

Ms. Sandy Shaw: I rise on behalf of the constituents of Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas. I will say that the number one priority for those residents is health care. We heard it on the doorstep. I continue to hear it.

In fact, what I will agree with with the members opposite is that this health care system is on life support because of the chronic underfunding of the current Liberals. In fact, this system is the least funded per capita in all of Canada. We have the least per capita funding. This is something that needs to be addressed—the actual funding in this system.

Really, this is being held together, as we said, by front-line workers. They are the ones who, day in and day out, with their heroic efforts, are keeping this system going. I’ve seen it this week. My father was in emergency this week, and in addition to the overcrowding in emergency, they had a code silver, which is an active shooter warning. So they have their hands full, and they are doing their best to keep that system running. But, currently, under this government, people are being laid off at hospitals. We are losing front-line workers, we are losing nurses, when we need more front-line workers, not less.

The people of Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas, in their concerns about the health care system, didn’t ask for a super-bureaucracy. They didn’t ask for a super-bureaucracy to be packed with people from the investment community, insiders, and people who have nothing but benefit to get from this system in terms of its not-for-profit status.

This government says that they were elected to fix this health care system, but they’re in for a rough ride when the people of Ontario see precisely what it is that they are trying to foist on them—which is a system that is not for profit—in fact, our public health care system is in the health care act, and it says all administration of provincial health insurance must be carried out by a public authority on a not-for-profit basis.

So if this is not-for-profit, put it in the bill, because it is not currently in the bill.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): I now return to the member from Parkdale–High Park for final comments.

Ms. Bhutila Karpoche: I know that members on the other side are insisting that it is a public health care system, and I would say, then, why are the members afraid to say “publicly delivered health care system”? There is a difference. Public health care, we know, means public dollars. But where are the public dollars going? Who is providing the service? If it’s public dollars that are going to private companies that are delivering the services, then it’s not a public health care system. Public dollars going to for-profit is not a public health care system.

Also, in this legislation, the super-agencies and the Ontario health teams—there is a clause in the legislation that allows them to “generate revenue.” What is the purpose of a health care system—to generate revenue? There is nothing in this legislation that explicitly mentions not-for-profit.

Again, if the members on the other side are insisting that there is no private profit role to play in this legislation, why is it not clearly stated in this bill? It has to be explicitly stated so that Ontarians can rest assured that this government is not moving our public health care system into private hands.

Finally, I want to end with the message around prevention, because that is one of the key things that the government can do in terms of preventing hallway medicine. If we had universal pharmacare, for instance, people would be able to take their medicines on time, people would be able to afford the medicines, they would be more productive workers, they would be healthier, and it would be less likely for them to end up in the hospital. So you’re spending a little bit up front, yes, but in order to save—

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Thank you very much.

Further debate? The member from Kitchener South–Hespeler.

Mrs. Amy Fee: Thank you, and good morning, Speaker. I’m pleased to rise today to speak to Bill 74, our plan to modernize our public health care system. It is a plan that is desperately needed. We inherited a health care system from the previous government that was in absolute crisis, and it’s going to take years to get things back on track. Quite simply, as our health minister and Deputy Premier has stated, our current level of care is not patient-centred. Care is being driven by system demands and not by what is best for a patient overall. We’ve also seen years of costly inefficiencies in our health care system.

That’s why I ran on a commitment, along with our entire PC team, to ensure that we work towards ending hallway health care. And since we can’t seem to stress this enough this morning, we’re working to fix our public health care system.

We’ve been talking continuously about the daily struggles of front-line workers, patients, and their loved ones, as 1,000 people a day are still being treated in hospital hallways and in storage rooms across this province. Mr. Speaker, that is something that needs to change. It’s a number that I’ve watched continue to grow under the Liberal government, even as they continued to spend more money on health care. Over the last five years, our province has spent 30% more than the Canadian average on administration costs in health care. That’s money that could be getting to the front lines, and focused, again, on patient-centred care.

Mr. Speaker, people in my riding are thrilled with the direction our health minister and our government are heading with this bill. As an example, I received an email from Phil, a constituent in Kitchener:

“I have been an active in-patient/outpatient of the Grand River Hospital since November. I am absolutely thrilled with the announcement about overhauling the miserably out of date and out of touch system your government inherited from the Liberals. Their eHealth was a failure before it even started. The amount of repeated information a patient has to emit is staggering. One feels as a broken record with constant retelling of symptoms and the timeline involved, what meds you are taking and what you have taken in the past. The ‘hallway medicine’ aspect is totally accurate, unfortunately.

Only the worst-off get a treatment room. There must have been at least 15 patients in the hallowed halls of the ER. I had to endure two nights waiting for admission and a hospital room.”

That is why these changes are so desperately needed, and I’m thrilled that they are being directed by the Minister of Health, who was Ontario’s first Patient Ombudsman. She worked tirelessly for months meeting with patients and their families, and fully understands the realities that they’re facing trying to navigate the system. Her overall goal is to fix our public health care system, ensuring that it is focused around the needs of Ontario’s patients and their families.

One thing that is constantly being raised also in my riding of Kitchener South–Hespeler is the long waits for long-term-care beds. And it’s no wonder people are worried and stressed about their loved ones needing long-term care. Since 2003, the average wait times to get a spot have increased by 300%. The provincial average wait now is 146 days. That’s why we’re committed to continually adding more long-term-care beds right across the province, including the more than 140 that have come to my riding in both Kitchener and Hespeler.

Mr. Speaker, my mom and our family a few years ago were trying to get support for my grandparents through their last few years. It was extremely challenging for my mom. She lived several hours away from her aging parents, and that certainly complicated things for her. She watched her mother deteriorate from dementia, and my very proud grandfather just struggled to keep up with her care. My mom spent hundreds of hours on the phone and in meetings and appointments trying to sort out home care and several long-term-care issues that eventually came up. The stress that I saw my mom endure was just unbearable. It was clear that the system was broken and failing my family.

Every family in Ontario deserves to have a health care system that puts our loved ones first. We deserve to know that our public health care system is sustainable now and for generations to come. We also deserve a system that supports patients with adequate supports, no matter where they live in this province. That’s why Bill 74 is so important for the future of our health care system.

We want to work towards a health care system that has better connected care, so our loved ones can get the care they need in a timely matter while being treated with dignity and respect, and not being cared for in hallways and in storage rooms. Having a more connected health care system will also lead to better supports for people right across the province. We’ll take proactive steps to address their health care needs before it becomes an emergency or a crisis.

Let’s think for a moment what that future could look like. With this proposed legislation we could have improved access to secure digital records like online health records and virtual care. Just having both of those will mean less gaps in the system, less waiting and not having to tell your story over and over like Phil from my riding did—simply a more seamless system that will really focus on a patient’s needs. This is why our Premier and our government are working so hard to improve our public health care system, because we know what it can be and what it needs to be for the future.

Ontarians also deserve a system that respects their tax dollars. Currently, we’re spending 42 cents out of every tax dollar on health care services and yet we rank poorly on critical factors such as wait times, quality of care and system integration, compared to our provincial counterparts. Constituents in my riding have made it clear that they want our government to fix the health care crisis that the previous government left us with, while respecting their tax dollars. That means we need to do what Minister Elliott is proposing in this bill.

She is working towards making our system more sustainable and accessible for years to come. We all know we want to have reliable health care well into the future. In order to ensure that this can happen, we need a system that is connected, one that doesn’t leave my constituents struggling to access the next steps in care that they need.

This legislation, if passed, will also work towards modernizing and reorganizing our health care system, and removing multiple layers and agencies. Instead, we would see Ontario Health. If this legislation passes, it would provide better wraparound care across the province as Ontario Health would bring the expertise we see in agencies like Cancer Care Ontario into other critical areas of our health care system. Under our proposed plan to put patients first, having that one agency will help decrease confusion for not just the patients but their families as well as our front-line workers.

We owe it to our amazing nurses and our doctors and our PSWs in our system to make sure we have that wraparound care, that we have the patient-centred care, so that they know how to navigate the system as well.

Mr. Speaker, with the minister’s proposed legislation, we’ll be breaking down the unnecessary silos that we see today in health care. Patients will become part of an Ontario health team and they will not need to take

part in any extra administrative processes. We have health care that is funded in silos right now, and when we have care that’s funded in silos, that’s exactly how it gets delivered: in silos. We need a more integrated system that looks at the whole person, what’s going on with them, and not just their illness.

With the minister’s plan, it will mean patients in the future will not just have greater access to care, but also support from a broader network of providers, all working together in that wraparound model, to ensure the best possible outcome. This broader network will include local health care providers, hospitals, home care providers like nurses and PSWs, all working connected together.

It will mean that aging seniors who are in our lives will also be able to stay at home longer with the support and care that they need, and it means that that patient’s team will have access to their history, their medical needs and be able to connect with them on various types of care without, again, the patient having to retell their story over and over again.

As I end off, Mr. Speaker, I would just like to say thank you to the health minister for all the work that she’s done on this bill, and as well to her two parliamentary assistants, who have been absolutely amazing working and supporting the minister to get this bill through.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Questions and comments?

Mr. Sol Mamakwa: The Meno Ya Win health centre is a hospital in Sioux Lookout that serves about 33,000 people in northwestern Ontario, and which is in my riding. It’s a facility that has 47 beds but also runs 20 long-term-care beds.

When we talk about long-term care, I remember being involved in the hospital and the waiting time to get a long-term-care bed was four and a half years. Last year, there was an announcement to build 76 new long-term-care beds. When there was a campaign in May, the Premier showed up at the hospital and promised that he’d be there to shovel, to break the ground to build a new facility. To this date, there has been no response from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care on those beds.

Also, I just want to mention quickly that I know during the Cat Lake housing crisis, one of the things I asked for from this government was to have a specialized medical assessment team in the community; specifically, a dermatologist, for example. Within the system that exists today in the region, to access a dermatologist specialist can take months to years to get an appointment. So when we talk about our kids in Cat Lake, it could take five to 10 years just to get all the kids assessed.

Anyway, when we talk about health care, think about First Nations people, Indigenous people. We are people too. Meegwetch.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further questions and comments?

Mr. Ross Romano: I want to thank the speakers from Kitchener South–Hespeler and Kiiwetinoong for their comments.

I want to say also that yesterday I learned something new, and I’m willing to acknowledge that: when the member from Haldimand–Norfolk spoke yesterday in the House and referred to how public health care in Ontario actually started under Premier John Robarts’s Conservative government. I know there’s often a lot of discussions around the public health care system, but we all believe in a public health care system, and I think we all, across all parties, believe in a public health care system and the importance of having that for the people of Ontario.

I think sometimes where we differ is with respect to how we best deliver it and how we get there. But certainly, we all see the necessity for a strong public health care system that serves our constituents and all the people of Ontario in the best possible way.

There’s no doubt that over the last several years there have been problems with our health care system. It’s struggled greatly. I’m not going to cast against anybody. At the end of the day, ultimately, our system is not working efficiently; it’s not working in the best possible way. And what we are trying to do as a government I think is really quite simple when you break it down: to look at the amount of money that is in administrative offices as opposed to front-line services. That’s what we want to do.

We want to take the money out of those administrative offices and we want to move that money to the front lines. We want more doctors. We want more nurses. We want more specialized care devices. No one out there is ever going to suggest, I don’t think, from any party, that we don’t want more nurses, that we don’t want more doctors. We want to make sure that the money is invested where it matters the most, to make sure that our loved ones get the care that they deserve, the care that they need and the care we all want to give them.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further questions and comments?

Ms. Bhutila Karpoche: I’d like to focus my time on the health equity issue that is completely lacking in this bill. This bill fails to ensure equitable access to health services across this province, because one of the criteria to become an Ontario health team is based on service delivery of three services from the list, but it does not require a core basket of health services per Ontario health team. In order to receive a designation, if they only require three services from the list, then it is very likely that the health teams will provide services that they have capacity built for.

We know very well that in this province mental health and addictions is a sector where we need capacity building, where there need to be significant improvements and investments. So providing mental health care and addiction services becomes a serious challenge and, therefore, would likely fall low on the priority list in terms of the services that a team is able to provide. The result could be health care services that vary depending on where in Ontario you live. For example, in Toronto, you might be able to access mental health services because there is some capacity here.

But if you are in the north, particularly in many of the Indigenous communities, it is going to be very, very difficult to access mental health services, because your Ontario health care team does not provide it. Then, members of the community have to leave their community to travel all the way to places like Ottawa and Toronto just to receive a service, and that is not right.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further questions and comments?

Mr. Vincent Ke: It is my pleasure to stand up to speak on Bill 74.

In Ontario, we are blessed with a health care system that people can access when they need it. Unfortunately, our health care system is broken now. Patients are forgotten on waiting lists. More than 1,000 patients are receiving care in hallways every day, and the average wait time to access a bed in a long-term-care home is 146 days.

As a government, we must ensure that our health care system improves and provides the best service to everyone. We promised that we would end hallway health care, and we are fully committed to delivering on that goal. Bill 74 will work towards this end.

We need to build a public health care system focused on the patients and that will direct money to front-line services. By doing this, we will improve the patient experience and provide better and connected care.

We need to build a system where family doctors, hospitals, home and community care providers work together as a team to provide a seamless health care experience for the patients and their families.

Modernizing the system will take time, but we will do this by listening to the people who work on the front lines. This includes consulting doctors, nurses and other care providers as we implement our public health care strategy.

Bill 74 will create a public health care system that works for everyone.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): I return to the member from Kitchener South–Hespeler for final comments.

Mrs. Amy Fee: Thank you to the members from Kiiwetinoong, Sault Ste. Marie, Parkdale–High Park and Don Valley North for responding to my debate this morning.

Certainly, when we’re talking about this bill, long-term care is a big part of it, because we can’t have those waits. We know that we can’t have people sitting in hallways waiting for treatment or waiting to be admitted to hospital. We need to be looking at a system that is focused around that patient, that is focused around their families and making sure that we have health care that is connected, so that Phil from my riding doesn’t have to repeatedly tell his story over and over again. It has been months since he first went into Grand River Hospital, and yet he is constantly still having to go through his story.

One thing I didn’t say earlier that was in his email to me: He said he could go on and on about the fragmented care—again, the silos that I was talking about earlier. If we have health care that is funded in silos, it ends up being delivered in silos. He said, “It is pathetic that a patient has to deal with their illness on top of complaining about their treatment.”

It is statements like that that are the reason why the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care and our Deputy Premier knows how important this bill is, why her parliamentary assistants have been working so hard on this bill. It’s because we want to ensure that we do have a publicly funded health care system that wraps around a patient and their family to help get them through the most challenging times in their lives and to make sure that they have what they need—again, as Phil likes to stress—without having to tell their story over and over again.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further debate?

Miss Monique Taylor: Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to be able to speak to Bill 74, The People’s Health Care Act, but I have to tell you there are a number of things I find troubling with this bill. Some of these issues have definitely been raised by my colleagues, but for such a large piece of legislation that is moving very quickly through this House with a lack of consultation, there is definitely a lot wrong with it.

The first thing that I find troubling, of course, is the opening of the doors to privatization of our most prized public health care system that is in this legislation. Our public health care system is a source of national pride. Other jurisdictions around the world look to us for leadership. I cannot understand why the PCs would undermine our public health care system instead of strengthening it. While the members opposite are careful to always say that this bill does not threaten publicly funded health care, they will not say that health care services will be publicly delivered.

They will not say “not for profit.” That’s because this bill deliberately opens our health care system to private, for-profit service providers. This bill has no restrictions that will prevent for-profit organizations from becoming Ontario health teams or from delivering front-line health care to patients.

We spend over $50 billion on our health care annually. These private, for-profit companies want a piece of the action. This government is opening the door for them. And we know how the private sector works. Private businesses, of course, want to make a profit, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. We wouldn’t fault a business for behaving as businesses should. But when it comes to essential, publicly funded services like health care, there is a serious conflict.

Interjections.

Miss Monique Taylor: I see the members opposite cannot stand it. They can’t say the words “not for profit.” Just say it: not for profit. Do it.

In health care, patient outcomes should be the number one concern. We don’t want a system where our health service providers are looking at their books and trying to figure out how to improve profit margins. Usually, this will result in poorer quality service. We don’t want a system where public health care dollars from OHIP line the pockets of owners and shareholders. And we don’t want a system where certain types of health care are more accessible than others because there is a bigger market for them.

Opening up to private business creates the opportunity for market failures. Health care services of all kinds should be provided even in locations where unprofitable services are still needed. We heard very clearly from the member who is sitting next to us what the services are like for First Nations in the north. People will have a choice out of their list of how to be a health team. Will they choose the hard choices on First Nations? Probably not. They’re going to be looking for profit.

The Canada Health Act outlines the conditions of our public health care system. The very first of these conditions is public administration.

Interjection.

Miss Monique Taylor: You should pay attention to this, the Canada Health Act.

To quote the legislation, it says: “The health care insurance plan of a province must be administered and operated on a non-profit basis by a public authority appointed or designated by the government of the province.”

Bill 74 intentionally opens the door to privatization. This flies in the face of the first principle of our public health care system. Tommy Douglas must be rolling in his grave watching you dismantle our public health care system.

The government must commit to both publicly funded and publicly delivered health care so that patient outcomes are the top priority, not profit. Ontario knows there is a problem with our health system, but no one in Ontario voted for for-profit health care delivery.

Interjections.

Miss Monique Taylor: It’s amazing. When I was speaking—I was being called to order previously, but these guys just go on and on.

Ontario knows there’s a problem—

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Excuse me. I’m doing what I feel I need to do in order to maintain order on both sides. I will ask that both sides have the respect for whoever is speaking. As I said, that goes both ways. So I am doing what I’m called to do. I don’t need to be reminded.

Thank you very much. I’ll turn it back to you.

Miss Monique Taylor: Thank you, Speaker. It’s okay. I can speak over them anyway.

As we all know, this legislation will establish a health super-agency. Several great organizations will cease to exist if this legislation passes. Cancer Care Ontario is a world-renowned agency. It’s not broken. It has nothing to do with hallway medicine. It will be dissolved for no reason. It should be allowed to continue its great work. Trillium Gift of Life is another example of a best-in-class agency. It is also being dissolved for no reason. It should also be able to continue its work in organ donation. Cutting these agencies has nothing to do with solving the hallway medicine crisis.

The oversight, or lack of oversight, of this new super-agency is also troubling to many. This bill gives the Minister of Health broad powers to amalgamate many existing health service providers or cease their operations. This gives us a flashback to the former PC Premier who closed 28 hospitals and laid off 6,000 nurses.

Further, the Patient Ombudsman will become part of the super-agency. We need a Patient Ombudsman that is independent, one that can actually scrutinize the health system without fear that they’re biting the hand that feeds them. But that’s a wasted opportunity with this government, because we knew how they felt about oversight when they cut the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth, they cut the Environmental Commissioner, the francophone commissioner—this government doesn’t like oversight or scrutiny from anyone.

Even further, the super-agency won’t be accountable to or guided by the local communities that it’s supposed to serve. Bill 74 actually reduces the requirement to engage in public consultation. The LHINs were at least required to engage the public as part of their local planning. This minister will keep the Patient and Family Advisory Council, but that group has absolutely no teeth. Instead of community-based care, we now have a bloated, centralized super-agency that will be making long-distance decisions about the health needs of a province.

And the transition to this new system will be a complete mess. This government has undertaken a massive change, and very rapidly. People aren’t going to stop needing health care any time soon. The ministry will not have a quiet time to restructure the entire system. No, this will be chaotic, and the quality of health care in Ontario is going to suffer during this transition. Health care workers, who are already working under difficult conditions, will have the burden of managing this change, and patients will have to figure out how to navigate a system that is moving quickly.

This government underestimates how difficult it will be to implement—and hastily—a redesigned $50-billion system and how much the quality of care will suffer at the time.

Lastly, I find it very disturbing that the super-agency met in secret last week. We saw that in a Star report. They were meeting while we were actually debating the bill in second reading. There have been no public consultations. This bill has not been given royal assent, and yet the committee is already meeting. How is this absolutely possible? Nothing should be happening before this legislation passes in this House, and yet this government is taking it upon themselves to move ahead, to have meetings in secret, and not make sure that the public is involved. That is an absolute disgrace.

But this is nothing new that we have seen come from this government since being elected. We have seen things that I probably shouldn’t say coming from this government, because it is a slam against our democracy. The people of the province voted for something different, something that they could count on, some kind of hope, and this government has given them nothing but despair.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Questions and comments?

Mrs. Robin Martin: It’s interesting to listen to the member opposite. Sometimes I feel like we’re having a debate on two different subjects entirely.

I have to talk about the point that she raised about Cancer Care Ontario. We all know Cancer Care Ontario is a great organization that has done great work in this province and, frankly, it is the shining example of what we’re trying to do with this bill. Not only are we not getting rid of Cancer Care Ontario, we are consolidating Cancer Care Ontario into the single agency. It is the model for what we are trying to do. And if the member opposite had read the Select Committee on Mental Health and Addictions in 2010 that our Deputy Premier and the Minister of Health was the Vice-Chair of, she would recall that the minister said Cancer Care Ontario is the model that we should use.

This is exactly what we’re doing. We’re consolidating the best we have in the system. We’re going to learn from the best that we have in the system how to make the rest of the system work equally well, so here is a model that we are using to build on. You would think that the members opposite would think that is a good idea, because Cancer Care Ontario successfully put the patient at the centre of cancer care, and that is exactly what we want to do with the rest of our health care system. We will build on this model and learn from it and scale it up so that we can use it across the system.

I think this is a very important example of where there may be some misunderstanding. I don’t understand why the members opposite are looking at that as something negative. It’s a positive, because we have seen that this is an example of how we want to operate, to have a careful, coordinated system that puts the patient at the centre of care, and that is exactly what we’re trying to do.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further questions and comments? The member from Spadina–Fort York.

Mr. Chris Glover: You got it this time, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much.

It’s an honour to stand in the House and speak against Bill 74 today. All of us on this side of the House recognize the importance of a public, not-for-profit health care system. We recognize that Canada has benefited from this system for over 50 years and that it is providing us with the lowest-cost health care, far lower than in the United States. The United States, per capita, spends almost three times what we spend on health care and yet their health outcomes are much less. They have shorter lives, they have fewer healthy years of living and their infant mortality rate is higher. We actually have healthier outcomes and we spend less money.

I was puzzled by the comments from the member opposite, because she was praising Cancer Care Ontario as the shining example of how a system should be run. We would agree on that fact, because Cancer Care Ontario has a stellar record of providing excellent cancer care for the people of this province, but this bill destroys Cancer Care Ontario. It folds it into this megalithic organization.

If you read the text of the bill, there’s not one place in this bill where it says that public health care will be delivered on a not-for-profit basis, and that’s of deep concern because we know there are lots of for-profit companies that are itching to get at the $60 billion that we in Ontario spend every year on health care. The vultures are circling. We’ve already seen that they are so anxious to get involved that the board has already met this past week to discuss how they’re going to divvy up the profits that they’re going to be making from our public health care system. This is happening.

That the board is actually meeting before the legislation has passed is certainly a concern and it speaks to the kind of backroom deals that are inherent in this government’s operation.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further questions and comments?

Ms. Effie J. Triantafilopoulos: I’d also like to provide some comments to the member opposite from Hamilton—

Mrs. Robin Martin: Mountain.

Ms. Effie J. Triantafilopoulos: Hamilton Mountain. I think that what’s really important to remember here is that the people of Ontario, after many, many years, have agreed that what we need is a connected health care system—and that this puts the needs of patients first. Our minister has made it very clear, in introducing Bill 74, that Ontario deserves peace of mind that this system is sustainable and accessible for all patients and their families, regardless of where they live, how much they make or the kind of care they require.

Ontario’s new plan will improve access to services and patient experience by organizing health care providers to work as one coordinated team focused on patients and specific local needs. Patients would experience easy transitions from one health care provider to another; for example, between hospitals and home care providers, with one patient story, one patient record and one care plan.

We’re going to be able to allow patients and their families and caregivers to navigate the public health care system 24/7, integrating multiple provincial agencies and specialized provincial programs into a single agency, to provide a central point of accountability and oversight for the health care system.

If we expect real improvements that patients will experience first-hand, we must better coordinate the public health care system so that it’s organized around people’s needs and outcomes. That is at the centre of what we’re trying to do with our Bill 74.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further questions and comments.

Ms. Sandy Shaw: I just learned this morning in the House that this super-agency has already met; the board of directors has already met. The thing that I think is one of the two most concerning things about this bill is this unaccountability. We’ve seen time and time again in the House that this government treats democracy like a formality. Clearly, this super-agency is not waiting for the people of Ontario and for this Legislature to decide whether or not this is a bill that will help the people of Ontario.

The very fact that this is not in any way what people want—nobody asked for a super-agency—and the very fact that the profits in this $60-billion industry, which is very lucrative to people, the fact that the people who are in charge of this are unelected—they’re not responsible to the people of Ontario. They are unelected. This bill also gives the minister extraordinary powers. That’s a very concerning thing for the people of Ontario—not just for the term of this Legislature, but going forward.

We are creating a super-bureaucracy that is unelected and unaccountable to the people of Ontario, and that is very chilling for the people of Ontario.

The second thing is, we hear again and again—you can say it as much as you want, but until you put it in the bill, it means nothing. We are asking that you ensure that the people of Ontario do not have to worry that you are introducing big box health care to Ontario. The people of Ontario want not-for-profit delivery.

If that’s what you’re saying, and if you would like to reassure the people of Ontario that our health care system is not up for sale to the highest bidder, that we’re not going to go back to the era of Mike Harris, when he privatized our long-term care and he privatized all of it—and we see the evidence of that now, with the Premier who is now on the board of directors for Chartwell, a very lucrative, profit-driven agency—if we are not going to go to that end—

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Thank you very much. I return now to the member from Hamilton Mountain for final comments.

Miss Monique Taylor: Thank you to all of the members who have had their input into my 10 minutes.

There are so many issues that are happening in our health care system. There is a ripple effect that creates the backlog in our health care system, and this bill does not address that. It does not address the 18,000 children who are waiting for mental health services, who end up in emergency rooms and in hospital rooms when they shouldn’t have to be there. There is nothing to address the lack of long-term-care beds. It’s not in the bill that they’re going to build more long-term-care beds—yes, they’re building 6,000, but that’s not near enough.

The Ontario Health Coalition summarized this bill very well: “This legislation neither directs the health system to meet the population’s need for care, nor does it improve any single service. It opens no new hospital beds. It does not make more surgeries happen. It does not provide a single new unit of mental health services, or home care or any other kind of care.”

So, Speaker, we know that the rippling effects in our system, the mental health that is being caused by this government, the anguish that is being caused by this government—just think of the parents with autism alone and the mental health that is being created by this government’s plan. None of that is addressed in this bill. The lack of oversight, removing the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth, making sure that the Patient Ombudsman is—

Interjection.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Point of order: I recognize the member from Whitby.

Mr. Lorne Coe: For a better part of the

summary, the highlighting from the member opposite has been nothing to do with Bill 74—not the focus of it at all. I would ask for your indulgence please, Speaker, in directing the speaker accordingly.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Thank you very much. I’ve been listening closely and I’ve been seeing a tie-in.

Second reading debate deemed adjourned.

The Deputy Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): It is now 10:15, and this House stands recessed until 10:30.

The House recessed from 1015 to 1030.

Introduction of Visitors

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Could I have the House’s attention? I wish to start off the introduction of guests by informing the House that we have a former member in the Legislature. The member for Brantford in the 32nd and 33rd Parliaments, Phil Gillies, is here today. Welcome to the Ontario Legislature.

In the public galleries today, we have students from across the province participating in the first annual Legislative Assembly of Ontario Post-Secondary Model Parliament—or they’re on their way. Please join me in welcoming them as well. I would invite all members to the event that we’re having tonight in the dining room to welcome them.

In the Speaker’s gallery today, there are a few more students who are participating in the job shadow program run by the Association of Former Parliamentarians: Mei Ling and Ashia Bak. They are joined by former Speaker and chair of the Association of Former Parliamentarians, our good friend David Warner. Welcome to the Ontario Legislature.

I would ask all members to keep their introductions as brief as possible.

M. Guy Bourgouin: Il me fait plaisir de souhaiter la bienvenue à Carol Jolin, président de l’Assemblée de la francophonie de l’Ontario; Aidan Auger, école Saint-Charles-Garnier, conseillère élève; Évangéline Cowie, école Monseigneur-de-Charbonnel, conseillère élève; M me Danielle Laflamme; et M me Laflamme-Millette, qui sont venus ici pour la Journée internationale de la Francophonie. Bienvenue à Queen’s Park.

Mr. Toby Barrett: People who love horses are out front at Queen’s Park today. I welcome Brenda Thompson with Whispering Hearts Horse Rescue and also with Animal Welfare Watch.

Ms. Jill Andrew: Good morning, Mr. Speaker. I would like to give a warm welcome to Olivia Karp, a student from my riding visiting today and participating in the Ontario Post-Secondary Model Parliament. Welcome, Olivia.

M me Nathalie Des Rosiers: Ça me fait, moi aussi, grand plaisir d’accueillir Diane Laflamme-Millette, qui est d’Ottawa–Vanier. Alors, bienvenue à Queen’s Park.

I also want to welcome Brian Hopkins, who is from Ottawa–Vanier as well, who will be participating in this year’s Legislative Assembly of Ontario Post-Secondary Model Parliament. Welcome.

Mr. Daryl Kramp: Today, I’m really, really pleased to welcome, from the Woodbridge Agricultural Society, vice-president John Schell and director Clara Schell, and my legislative assistant, Bill Daverne. Welcome, folks.

Ms. Jennifer K. French: As I look over in the gallery, I see that Arnaldo Beni has joined us. He is one of our constituents. Welcome to Queen’s Park, Arnaldo.

M me Marie-France Lalonde: J’aimerais, moi aussi, saluer et accueillir M lle Sophie Beach-Vaive d’Orléans, qui est avec nous. She will be participating in the 2019 Legislative Assembly of Ontario Post-Secondary Model Parliament.

Aussi, ce matin, nous nous sommes rassemblés pour la Journée internationale de la Francophonie. J’aimerais dire un beau bonjour et saluer tous les membres de la communauté franco-ontarienne qui sont ici aujourd’hui pour célébrer cette belle journée. Bienvenue.

Hon. Merrilee Fullerton: I would like to welcome to the gallery today Muhammad Zaman, a student from my riding, who is participating in the 2019 Legislative Assembly of Ontario Post-Secondary Model Parliament. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

M me Andrea Horwath: Bienvenue à tous les membres de la communauté franco-ontarienne et de l’Assemblée de la francophonie de l’Ontario. Nous sommes très fiers de vous accueillir ici pour célébrer la Journée internationale de la Francophonie.

Mrs. Gila Martow: I want to recognize Celia Lewin, who is here from my riding of Thornhill. She’s my youth association president, and she’s here for the Post-Secondary Model Parliament.

I also want to welcome everybody who’s here for the Post-Secondary Model Parliament and wish everybody here in the Legislature—et à tous les Franco-Ontariennes et Franco-Ontariens—une bonne Journée internationale de la Francophonie. Bienvenue à tout le monde.

Mr. Percy Hatfield: I see at least two model parliamentarians up there from my riding: Evan Tanovich and Suzie Sawicki. There may be a third one, Ms. Ruuth, up there somewhere, as well. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Hon. Victor Fedeli: I want to welcome Andrea Stoppa, my executive assistant from the riding of Nipissing, who is here with us today.

M. Michael Mantha: Je vois que j’ai deux amis ici aujourd’hui : M. Carol Jolin, qui nous joint, et puis, mon ami Ralph Palumbo. Bonjour.

Mr. John Fraser: I’d just like to welcome all the post-secondary students here for the Ontario model parliament, especially those from Ottawa. I look forward to speaking with you this afternoon.

Mr. Vijay Thanigasalam: I welcome youth riding association president Heylaanaa Annesly, who is part of the model Parliament. I also welcome all the students to the Legislature today.

Mrs. Robin Martin: I’d like to formally welcome Martine Taylor, who is here from the riding of Eglinton–Lawrence and in the members’ gallery.

Mr. Dave Smith: I’d like to welcome two residents of my riding, Paul and Carol Dietrich, to the assembly; as well as Morgan Carl and Sophie Williams, here for the Post-Secondary Model Parliament. Sophie also was here as a page in 2013 and for the Post-Secondary Model Parliament in 2016. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

M. Gilles Bisson: De la part de notre chef, M me Horwath, et le caucus NPD, on aimerait accueillir tous nos amis du parlement modèle qui sont ici. On behalf of Andrea Horwath and the New Democrats, we want to welcome all of the model Parliament students who are here today.

Hon. John Yakabuski: Joining us in the members’ gallery this morning are three gentlemen who always take a keen interest in Ontario politics. Mark Holmes, Ralph Palumbo and Kelly Mitchell are joining us today. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Mr. Kaleed Rasheed: I would like to welcome Syed Ayub, a student from my riding of Mississauga East–Cooksville, to the Legislature of Ontario Post-Secondary Model Parliament. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Mr. Amarjot Sandhu: I would like to welcome Varshil Bhagat, a student from Brampton West, who is also participating in the Post-Secondary Model Parliament.

Mr. David Piccini: I’d like to echo everyone’s sentiment and welcome the students who are here for the model Parliament—and a special shout-out to Chloe Craig from Northumberland–Peterborough South.

Mr. Sam Oosterhoff: Speaker, I don’t wish to sound like a broken record, but as probably the only current undergraduate student here in the Legislature, it’s nice to be joined by so many of my peers today. It has changed the look of the Legislature, and I want to welcome them all to the Legislature.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): That concludes the time we have available today for introduction of visitors.

The member for Thornhill on a point of order.

International Day of la Francophonie / Journée internationale de la Francophonie

Mrs. Gila Martow: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I just have a very quick point of order. I see a lot of people are wearing their official Franco-Ontarian flag pins. Today is the International Day of la Francophonie. I want to wish everybody une bonne Journée internationale de la Francophonie, and I hope we have unanimous consent to wear our pins. Thank you.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): We don’t need unanimous consent. I thank the member for Thornhill for her intervention, and I’m glad that members are wearing the pins.

It is now time for oral questions.

Oral Questions

Education funding

Ms. Andrea Horwath: My first question is to the Premier. The Premier is removing 10,000 teachers from schools and cramming more students into crowded classrooms. High school students could be stuck in classes with as many as many as 40 students, and that’s when they’re not forced to take classes by YouTube.

How will removing thousands of teachers from classrooms and putting students into online courses actually help students learn?

Hon. Doug Ford: Through you, Mr. Speaker, I just can’t believe the Leader of the Opposition can be untruthful and—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I’d ask the Premier to withdraw.

Hon. Doug Ford: Withdraw.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): And conclude his response.

Hon. Doug Ford: Mr. Speaker, we all know in this chamber that there’s not going to be any layoffs in education whatsoever. There won’t be 10,000 teachers—that’s scaremongering. That’s going back to the old tactics of what we’ve seen the last 15 years: 15 years of ignoring teachers, 15 years of ignoring parents and 15 years of ignoring students.

We’re going back to the basics, Mr. Speaker. We’re going back to make sure our grade 6 students aren’t on the bottom tier of the whole country when it comes to math. One third of our teachers are failing the same math test. We’re going to support our teachers to make sure—

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

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Stop the clock. Members please take their seats.

Restart the clock. Supplementary.

Ms. Andrea Horwath: The government says high school students will be required to take four classes online instead of getting in-person instruction. Under the Ford government, regardless of what the best learning environment is for students or if they need any one-on-one attention, students will be spending more time learning from Google. Is that how the Premier thinks he will boost student achievements?

Hon. Doug Ford: Through you, Mr. Speaker, you see how out of date the Leader of the Opposition is. It’s already happening. We’re focusing on technology as well. We see it in our colleges’ and universities’ online courses, and we’re going to keep up with technology. It’s about making sure our students are taught properly and not taught like in the last 15 years, in the lowest tier. When it comes to arithmetic, when it comes to reading and writing, we’re going back to the basics, Mr. Speaker. We’re going to be making sure our students have a proper education.

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

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Well, Speaker, here’s the Ford government plan for our kids: fewer teachers, larger class sizes, more Googling. The Premier says he consulted with parents. Can he tell us how many of those parents asked for larger class sizes and learning from YouTube?

Hon. Doug Ford: The largest consultations in the history of this country, in the history of this province, took place. They took place—

Interjections.

Hon. Doug Ford: Some 72,000 parents spoke out. That includes teachers, students and parents. We’re doing something that no other government has ever done, and that’s actually listening to the teachers. We’re listening to the parents. We’re focusing on education, making sure our students are ready to get into the workplace, because we’re going to need them. Do you know why, Mr. Speaker? Because we created in the last three months almost 100,000 new jobs. That’s why we need them.

Government accountability

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Ma question est pour le premier ministre. This week, the member from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston, a veteran Conservative MPP, made disturbing allegations that the Premier’s hand-picked chief of staff, Dean French, and other senior operatives within his government were engaged in “illegal and unregistered lobbying” by friends of the Premier.

Was the Premier or anyone in his inner circle engaged in “illegal and unregistered lobbying” by friends of the Premier?

Hon. Doug Ford: Through you, Mr. Speaker, here goes the ironic situation that we face every single day in the Legislature here, telling stories. We aren’t asking for cash-for-access. The NDP were putting out cash-for-access: Pay $800 to have the luxury and have a reward and meet the Leader of the Opposition. That’s $800, and that’s unacceptable.

We don’t ask for $800. We ask for $25 for spaghetti dinners. We ask them to pick up the cellphone and give us a call. We don’t need any lobbyists, like the Leader of the Opposition does. She sits there and talks to the heads of the unions every day. They support her. They fund her. That’s what it’s all about: making sure they continue to stick their hands in the taxpayer’s pocket. They don’t worry about taxpayers; they worry about themselves.

Interjections.

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

I’m going to caution all members, in terms of intemperate language. It’s so loud in here already that I can hardly hear. Of course, the Speaker has a responsibility to try to maintain order, but I need the co-operation of the members in order to do that. If necessary, I will warn members, and if they continue with this sort of behaviour, I’ll have no choice but to begin naming members. I would ask all members to keep that in mind and ensure that their language is parliamentary and not intemperate so as to inflame other members. This is the provincial Parliament of Ontario. Let’s remember that.

Start the clock. Supplementary?

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Thank you, Speaker. It is the provincial Parliament where this government actually brought cash-for-access back to Ontario, so it’s pretty rich that the Premier is now complaining about the very legislation that he brought forward, one-upping the Liberals.

Did the member from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston ever speak to the Premier, his chief of staff, Dean French, or any members of the cabinet about his concerns with possible illegal activities?

Hon. Doug Ford: Through you, Mr. Speaker, you know and everyone knows that there’s no illegal activity outside of posting a fundraiser four days before it takes place—

Hon. Victor Fedeli: Which they did.

Hon. Doug Ford: —which the NDP did, Mr. Speaker. You’re supposed to post it seven days before. They broke the law. They know they broke the law. It was four days—$800 access. I wouldn’t pay eight cents to have access to the NDP, not to mention $800.

Interjections.

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

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The House will come to order.

Start the clock. Final supplementary.

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Before I actually ask the next question, I want to remind the Premier that he is in a room full of witnesses here. Has the Premier heard any complaint from any source whatsoever about possible “illegal and unregistered lobbying” against members of his senior team?

Hon. Doug Ford: Through you, Mr. Speaker, the only illegal lobbying I’ve ever heard about is through the NDP. When they meet with the heads of their unions, the public sector unions—and as I said yesterday, Mr. Speaker, I feel sorry for the front-line public sector union members who totally disagree with the socialist mentality that the opposition has brought to this chamber. They don’t want their union dues going there. They want their union dues making sure that they are taken care of, not to a political party. They respect the work that we’re doing.

They respect the work—that we’re reducing gas prices, reducing taxes, making sure that we put more money in their pocket. We’re fighting against the terrible, terrible tax, the carbon tax, that could possibly put us into a carbon recession as of April 1. That’s what their members are worried about, not supporting the leader of the NDP to celebrate her 10 years of being leader.

Government accountability

Ms. Andrea Horwath: My next question is also to the Premier. Maybe I’ll get an answer this time.

A veteran Conservative MPP made disturbing allegations about the conduct of the Premier’s senior staff team and described the chill the Premier’s team has put on dissent within the government. Was the member from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston expelled from the PC caucus because he disagreed with the Premier’s chief of staff’s lobbying practices?

Hon. Doug Ford: Through you, Mr. Speaker, this is just gutter politics right now that we see in this chamber. They’re wanting to fight, but since I’ve been in the chamber for the last eight months, I have yet to hear one idea the opposition has come up with to save the taxpayers money. They believe in one mentality: It’s spend, spend, spend, tax, tax, tax. That’s what they believe in.

We believe in saving the taxpayers money, putting more money back into their pocket, making sure that we create an environment, that this province is going to thrive, that the people in the province will thrive and be more prosperous and grow. And we’ve proved it. Companies around this province are so excited that they’re able to reinvest in this province and hire, again, 100,000 new people in the private sector. That’s more than the United States. This province is on fire right now, and we’re going to continue—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Stop the clock. Members take their seats.

Start the clock. Supplementary.

Ms. Andrea Horwath: If the Premier is confident that his hand-picked chief of staff, Dean French, and his senior staff team have not engaged in any “illegal activity,” will he order them to fully co-operate with any investigation into the matter?

Hon. Doug Ford: Through you, Mr. Speaker, do you know what the province is terrified about right now? April 1. April 1—

Interjections.

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

Hon. Doug Ford: They’re terrified about April 1. Mrs. Jones is worried about driving her kid to school, back and forth to the sports facilities because—guess what, Mr. Speaker? Mrs. Jones is going to be paying a lot more. Mrs. Jones, when she goes to the grocery store—that’s going to go up in cost. Everything is going up in cost for what? A fake carbon tax? It’s a tax. They put the word “carbon” in front of it. It does nothing for the environment.

What we’ve done for the environment—the Minister of the Environment has done an incredible job—is we’ve reduced emissions by 22%. We’re leading the entire country in emissions reductions. That’s true leadership.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Stop the clock. The House will come to order. I need to be able to hear the member who has the next question.

Start the clock. The member for Perth-Wellington.

Hunting and fishing

Mr. Randy Pettapiece: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I’m certainly looking forward to this answer.

My question is for the Premier. By cancelling Liberal fee increases on hunting and fishing licences, removing the $2 service fee and doubling the number of licence-free fishing events, we are making these great sports more accessible and affordable for all Ontarians. We have also honoured our heroes, the veterans and serving members of the Canadian Armed Forces, by giving them the option to fish for free in Ontario.

Like many of my constituents, there’s nothing better than enjoying Ontario’s beautiful outdoors. That’s why it was great to see the Premier attend the Toronto Sportsmen’s Show last weekend.

Mr. Speaker, can the Premier update the Legislature on how our government for the people is continuing to make life easier for hunters and anglers?

Hon. Doug Ford: Through you, Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the great MPP from Perth–Wellington—an absolute champion.

Mr. Speaker, as you can see, we have taken a different approach to government. We’re actually putting more money back into people’s pockets. When it comes to the fishermen, the anglers and the hunters, we froze the fees. When it came to car registration, we froze the fees. When it came to beer and alcohol, we froze the fees. That’s actually saving the common person money. Our great veterans and the people who serve to protect this country: They’ll have zero fees. They won’t have to worry about getting a licence. They put their lives on the line every day; it’s about time we start respecting these people. I know the opposition doesn’t respect them, but we respect them, I can assure you.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Supplementary?

Mr. Randy Pettapiece: I want to thank the Premier for that answer. I know that my constituents in Perth–Wellington will be pleased to hear that under the leadership of the Premier, our government is on their side and committed to making life easier and more affordable.

Hunting and angling is a part of our culture in Ontario, but it is also an important part of our economy. After 15 years of out-of-control spending by the past Liberal government, it is great to see that Ontario is finally open for business and open for jobs.

Can the Premier speak to the important role that hunting and angling plays in our economy?

Hon. Doug Ford: You know, Mr. Speaker, myself and a numerous amount of MPPs from our caucus ended up going to the sportsmen’s show. I call them the real people. You get out of the bubble, you get out of the downtown elites and the bunch of lefties downtown—all they want to do is tax and spend. You get to the real people. That’s the outdoors people, the rural folks we met at the sportsmen’s show.

There were thousands of people there. I couldn’t walk an inch, I couldn’t even take a step without people coming up to me and saying, “Doug, keep going. You’re doing a great job. We thank you for doing what you’re doing: protecting the real people of this province, the hard-working people that like to go out once in a while and do a little bit of fishing and a little bit of hunting.” Those are the real folks.

Get yourselves out of the bubble and listen to the folks of the rural areas.

Government accountability

Mr. Taras Natyshak: Ma question est pour le premier ministre.

Interjections.

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

Start the clock. The member has the chance to place his question.

Mr. Taras Natyshak: Thank you very much, Speaker. My question is to the Premier. The member for Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston has raised serious concerns about the way that this government conducts business. He alleges that, once the Premier and his insider friends came to Queen’s Park, many newly elected MPPs were taken advantage of by “backroom operatives.” He also raised concerns about “illegal and unregistered lobbying by close friends and advisers employed by the Premier.”

Speaker, the member is a veteran PC MPP with over a decade of service in this House. I don’t often agree with that member, but he has always struck me as an honest person. Why should Ontarians believe the Premier when he says that this member is making it up?

Hon. Doug Ford: Again, I find it ironic coming from the MPP from Essex, when I got a call from one of his buddies saying—they watched the show, as we call it, yesterday. He says that he finds it ironic when he got a call from the MPP from Essex pushing an $800 illegal wine-and-dine with the leader.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I’m going to caution the Premier on his use of language. You can’t say that.

Hon. Doug Ford: Withdraw.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Complete your answer, please.

Hon. Doug Ford: What the people are worried about is their taxes. They worry about the pocketbook issues. They’re tired of being gouged by all three levels of government. They finally see some light at the end of the tunnel with our government. Right across the board, we’re reducing taxes, we’re creating good jobs, we’re creating an economy that is just absolutely booming right now. And it’s not a coincidence it’s booming. We’ve created an environment to thrive and prosper and grow in this province.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Supplementary.

Mr. Taras Natyshak: I’ll try to be a bit more gentle with the Premier because it seems to be a little bit of a sensitive issue for him.

The member for Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston has raised serious concerns about the way this government conducts its business. If the Premier is so confident that he has done no wrong and it’s his former caucus member who’s making these inaccurate claims, will he call the OPP now and invite them to investigate? Will he do the right thing and call the OPP?

Interjection: Open the door, Doug. Open the door.

Mr. Taras Natyshak: Open the door to truth and transparency.

Hon. Doug Ford: Through you, Mr. Speaker, I can’t wait to the call the OPP on the illegal fundraising that the NDP are doing.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I ask the Premier to withdraw.

Hon. Doug Ford: Withdraw.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): And complete his answer.

Hon. Doug Ford: Through you, Mr. Speaker, as I was saying, I have no problem calling the OPP to investigate how the fundraising is going with the NDP. That’s what I’m concerned about. You can’t be going around saying, “Here’s $800 to have access to the leader of the NDP.”

Again, we’re a little different. Unlike yourselves, all you have to do is pick up—

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

Sexual violence and harassment

Ms. Lindsey Park: My question is for the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities. Yesterday, the minister released the results of the 2018 Student Voices on Sexual Violence survey. The results of the survey are heartbreaking and disturbing. They show that far too many of our students are experiencing sexual violence on our campuses. One instance of sexual violence, harassment, stalking or assault on our campuses is one too many.

The results of the survey show that we need to do more. Can the minister tell us more about the results of this important survey?

Hon. Merrilee Fullerton: Thank you to the member from Durham for that question and for her good work.

Our government takes the safety and well-being of our students very seriously, and I want to thank the thousands of students who had the courage to share their experiences. As the member notes, the results of the survey are heartbreaking and disturbing. We know that of the over 116,000 university students who completed the survey, roughly 63% experienced some type of sexual harassment; and, in the college sector, of the over 42,000 students who completed the survey, just under 50% experienced sexual harassment. This is not acceptable. I want to work with students, institutions and all Ontarians to improve campus safety.

I am looking forward to sharing the immediate steps our government announced yesterday in the supplemental.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Supplementary.

Ms. Lindsey Park: Thank you to the minister for your transparency in sharing the details of this survey. It’s clear that the status quo is not good enough and we need to take more action. This is an opportunity to have an honest and open discussion about how we can do better. I know that the minister and, in fact, all members of the chamber will agree that we need to work together as legislators and as Ontarians to make our campuses safer.

Can the minister tell us what immediate steps our government is taking to improve campus safety in light of this survey?

Hon. Merrilee Fullerton: The member is absolutely right that the status quo is not good enough. That is why, yesterday, I announced various measures to improve campus safety. We will double the Women’s Campus Safety Grant—double it—to support universities and colleges in preventing incidents of sexual violence on campus. We will require every university and college to report annually to their board of governors on sexual violence on their campuses, and to have a task force devoted to tackling sexual violence on campus and reviewing their sexual violence policies by September 2019.

Speaker, I believe that these measures will help address sexual violence and harassment on campus. I am committed to working with students, universities and colleges to prevent sexual violence on campuses across Ontario.

Subventions destinées à l’éducation / Education funding

La ministre a-t-elle considéré l’impact que ces coupures auront sur les conseils francophones?

Hon. Lisa M. Thompson: Merci beaucoup pour la question, but I’m going to speak—parler—en anglais, out of respect for our French-speaking Ontarians.

Interjections.

Hon. Lisa M. Thompson: They’ll appreciate that. They know what I mean.

Speaker, in all seriousness, I find the game of the opposition party to be very offensive. This game they’re trying to play, the narrative they’re trying to create, is absolutely wrong. We stand by our francophone students. We stand by our francophone teachers. I can tell you, the organizations lobbying and advocating on behalf of our francophone education system in Ontario do a wonderful job. We’ve got a great relationship—not only myself, but the Minister of Francophone Affairs, her PA, my PA, and our absolutely diverse caucus that we have sitting in the PC government.

We know what’s needed to get francophone education secure in this province, and that—

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

M me Marit Stiles: Monsieur le Président, ça ne suffit pas. This plan to cut a billion dollars and 10,000 teachers out of our school system doesn’t make sense for francophone students. It doesn’t make sense for francophone schools. It doesn’t make sense for any student.

This morning, the minister on CBC Radio was asked how taking teachers out of classrooms would help students. She said that she was doing this to build “resiliency.” I guess that’s a tough-love approach.

But anyway, does the minister actually believe that she is doing students a favour by taking away their teachers?

Hon. Lisa M. Thompson: To start off, I have to say that I think somebody needs two minutes for fake laughing, because really and truly, this is ridiculous. The narrative the opposition party is trying to create is absolutely ridiculous.

Let me tell you, Speaker, that we’re investing in education, and I feel good about the plan that’s going to work for you, your kids, your grandchildren, our teachers, our students, our employers, everyone in Ontario. Because we’re getting back to the basics and we’re going to be funding and investing in math qualifications, additional qualification courses for our students. We’re investing in a top priority, which is always the learning environment in a perfect classroom scenario. We’re going to be standing by our teachers.

Again, I stand today and correct the member opposite in full clarity. Not one person will involuntarily lose their job. We’re going to be investing in school boards to—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Stop the clock. Members take their seats.

Start the clock. The next question.

Government accountability

Ms. Mitzie Hunter: My question today is for the Premier. I think it’s an appropriate question, given we have so many young people here today. It’s a question of ethics.

Speaker, through you to the Premier, two days ago, Mr. Hillier made us aware of some of the outrageous actions your government has taken behind closed doors. He describes the back door that big corporate interests have into the Premier’s office through Dean French and Chris Froggatt.

Has the Premier done anything since taking office to make sure that his staff and ministry staff have the information that they need to ensure they are not breaking the law? Do they have the training, the knowledge that they need to be able to urge corporations to make sure that they are registered lobbyists and that their lobbyists are registered appropriately? What is the Premier doing to make sure that his office operates within the limits of the law?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I look to the Deputy Premier to respond.

Hon. Christine Elliott: To the Minister of Economic Development.

Hon. Todd Smith: Speaker, I can assure you and I can assure the House and I can assure everybody watching that the claims that have been made by the member from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston are completely unsubstantiated. There is no truth to any of these. As a matter of fact, the member has not provided any evidence whatsoever other than making some claims in a letter. There has been absolutely no evidence that anything occurred. I can tell you that the Premier, the Premier’s office and our government are acting with complete integrity.

We knew that when the member from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston was initially expelled from the caucus for some comments that he made, there were other issues as well that we needed to look at. As a matter of fact, the Premier really wanted to give the member a larger voice in our caucus, but the member chose to go in another direction. I think it’s very harmful to government in general.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Supplementary.

Ms. Mitzie Hunter: Back to the minister: He talks about no evidence. What I would ask this government is, if you have nothing to hide, why not provide us now with a list of all the meetings the Premier and his staff have had since taking office? Will the Premier tell us where he and his staff have been? Would you co-operate with the Integrity Commissioner to have a full review of all meetings by you and all members of your staff, including Dean French and Chris Froggatt: yes or no?

Hon. Todd Smith: It’s unfortunate that these claims, which are completely unsubstantiated, absurd and categorically false, continue to occupy space here in the Ontario Legislature.

Let me remind the member opposite that it was actually her government that had not one, not two, not three, not four, but five OPP investigations while they were in government—five OPP investigations. There actually was evidence, Mr. Speaker. There was evidence—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I remind the government members that the Minister of Economic Development and Job Creation has the floor—stop the clock—and I can’t hear him, and we’re very close. I don’t know why they’d be heckling their minister as he responds, and interjecting.

Please start the clock, and let the minister conclude his response.

Hon. Todd Smith: Mr. Speaker, I would say that if there was anything in the letter that Mr. Hillier sent that was true, why didn’t he act earlier? Clearly, he was expelled from the PC caucus for a reason, and that was because he just didn’t want to be a part of the team. He didn’t want to show up to work, and I can see a similar thing occurring—

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

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I will remind all members, in case they have forgotten, that it’s inappropriate to make reference to the absence of another member at any time. All of us, from time to time, have been away from the Legislature during a sitting day, generally for a good reason, in most cases, I think. That’s why we don’t do it. For anybody who needs a reminder, there’s a reason why we don’t do that: because any of us individually might be away on any given day. I shouldn’t need to keep reminding people of that.

Start the clock. Next question.

M me Natalia Kusendova: Ma question est pour le ministre du Tourisme, de la Culture et du Sport. Nous célébrons aujourd’hui la Journée internationale de la Francophonie. Je sais que pour les francophones et francophiles dans mon comté de Mississauga-Centre et partout à travers la province, cette journée a une importance très particulière. Nous soulignons aussi les contributions et l’histoire riche de la francophonie ontarienne qui compte plus de 400 ans.

Depuis notre élection, nous avons exprimé en maintes occasions notre volonté de promouvoir les droits des Franco-Ontariens et des Franco-Ontariennes. Est-ce que le ministre du Tourisme, de la Culture et du Sport pourrait nous faire part de la vision de notre gouvernement pour la population de l’Ontario en ce qui a trait aux intérêts des francophones?

L’hon. Michael A. Tibollo: Je remercie la députée de sa question. Premièrement, je veux dire et souhaiter à tous les francophones de la province de l’Ontario une bonne journée de la Francophonie.

Plusieurs rencontres avec divers intervenants clés du milieu des affaires nous ont permis de commencer à identifier les obstacles auxquels sont confrontées les entreprises, et à récolter des idées en vue de dynamiser l’entrepreneuriat francophone en Ontario.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Supplementary?

M me Natalia Kusendova: Je remercie le ministre pour sa réponse. Je remercie, aussi, au passage la ministre des Affaires francophones pour son travail diligent et attentif, à l’écoute des milieux francophones et de leurs aspirations et besoins.

Monsieur le Président, mes électeurs dans Mississauga-Centre, tout comme la majorité des francophones de cette province, souhaitent que le gouvernement fédéral redonne sa juste part en services aux citoyens et aux entreprises de l’Ontario.

Le président du Conseil du Trésor peut-il nous parler de la lutte que notre gouvernement mène pour faire valoir le bon droit des contribuables ontariens en ce qui a trait aux affaires francophones?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Minister?

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): You have to refer the question if you’re going to refer it.

Interjection.

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

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Merci beaucoup. Next question.

Que doivent faire de plus les Franco-Ontariens et Franco-Ontariennes pour que vous compreniez ce que nous voulons?

Hon. Doug Ford: Minister of Tourism and Culture.

L’hon. Michael A. Tibollo: Je pense que c’est au sein d’un gouvernement que nous pouvons avoir le plus grand impact, et le ministère continuera à travailler pour faire avancer les dossiers importants. Nous savons que la prospérité et l’épanouissement des communautés francophones passent, avant tout, par l’économie. Alors nous travaillons pour assurer la croissance économique et la réduction des formalités administratives dans les communautés francophones.

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

M. Guy Bourgouin: Il est un peu décevant que pour cette Journée internationale de la Francophonie—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I’m going to ask the member to withdraw the unparliamentary comment.

M. Guy Bourgouin: Withdraw.

Encore une fois, ces gens-là ne sont pas venus à l’Assemblée législative par courtoisie, pour vous rendre visite. Au contraire, ils sont ici dans cette journée de la Francophonie pour vous rappeler du fait que le gouvernement conservateur a tourné le dos à notre communauté.

Nous avons entendu dire à plusieurs reprises que le transfert du commissaire au bureau de l’ombudsman n’était que pour une raison financière, mais l’ombudsman lui-même a avoué qu’il aura besoin de l’argent neuf pour accueillir l’équipe du commissariat. Vous n’avez même pas promis que personne ne serait licencié.

Allez-vous, une fois pour toutes, écouter ce que les Franco-Ontariens vous demandent, oui ou non?

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Members, please take your seats.

Economic policy

Mr. Aris Babikian: My question is for the Minister of Finance. Our government has been taking definitive action to put more money in people’s pockets and open Ontario for business and for jobs. We are cutting red tape, reducing the regulatory burden businesses face and providing relief to families and individuals. At the same time, we are cleaning up the financial mess left behind by the previous Liberal government. Our government is taking—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Please stop the clock.

I apologize to the member for Scarborough–Agincourt. I’m going to ask the member for Waterloo to come to order, the member for Essex to come to order and the Minister of Education to come to order.

Start the clock. I apologize to the member. Please conclude your question.

Mr. Aris Babikian: Our government is taking bold action. Yesterday, we hoped to find a federal partner committed to restoring Canada’s business competitiveness and protecting jobs. However, we were once again disappointed by the federal government’s inaction.

Could the minister please inform the House how yesterday’s federal budget will impact Ontario?

Hon. Victor Fedeli: Thank you to the member from Scarborough–Agincourt. Yesterday’s budget confirms that the federal government does not share our vision for making Ontario open for business or open for jobs.

The federal government is threatening manufacturing and small business jobs in Ontario and hurting families with their job-killing carbon tax. On April 1, the federal government will reverse the relief that our government has brought to families and businesses. The federally imposed carbon tax will immediately raise the price of gasoline by 4.4 cents a litre, and it will make it more expensive to heat your homes and buy food for your families.

We had hoped the federal government would have taken note of the success that we’ve had in Ontario and maybe followed suit. But despite their lack of action, our government will continue to restore our province’s finances, cut red tape and make Ontario open for business and open for jobs.

Interjections.

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

Start the clock. Supplementary.

Mr. Aris Babikian: Thank you to the minister for his response. It is disappointing to see the inaction of the federal government. Time and time again, Premier Ford and our government have raised the alarm over the federally imposed carbon tax coming on April 1. However, the people of Ontario can be sure that this government and this Premier will not stop fighting for them.

We know our plan is working. For the past nine months, our government has been working hard to reduce Ontario’s deficit, cut red tape for businesses and create a pro-job environment, and we are seeing the results.

Could the minister please explain to the House the successes our government has seen and why the federal government should follow suit?

Hon. Victor Fedeli: In just nine months, our government has added 132,000 new jobs. Once again, we are seeing Ontario businesses investing again, creating jobs and growing our economy. The inaction of the federal government fails to build upon the success of the province of Ontario.

Speaker, we have concerns with the package of concessions the federal government accepted under the Canada-US-Mexico agreement in our agricultural sector. We continue to call on the federal government to oppose the new Buy American provisions that would negatively affect Ontario business and workers, and we expect the federal government to continue to press the US for immediate and permanent removal of tariffs on our steel and aluminum.

We will continue to build on our government’s success and make Ontario open for business and open for jobs.

M me France Gélinas: J’aimerais, moi aussi, vous souhaiter à vous, à tous les parlementaires, aux Franco-Ontariens et Franco-Ontariennes qui sont ici et aux membres de l’AFO, une très bonne Journée internationale de la Francophonie.

Ma question à la ministre : quelle garantie peut-elle nous donner que les entités vont continuer dans le même nombre, qu’elles auront des pouvoirs décisionnels, et où seront-elles dans la nouvelle structure administrative?

Hon. Christine Elliott: Thank you very much for the question.

The services that Franco-Ontarians receive in health care are not uniform across the province. We know that. We know that there is a lack of people who are trained and in service right now in several areas; in particular, personal support workers and registered nurses, in certain parts of the province.

We are conducting a human resources review with a particular emphasis on making sure that people are able to communicate in their first language with the people who provide them with health care services. I know that is a particular concern for people in the Franco-Ontarian community, especially with respect to mental health services, because communication is vital in those areas. It is an area that we are working on right now within the ministry, to make sure that we have the proper human resource mix in each of the areas—hospitals, long-term-care homes, and in home care.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Supplementary?

M me France Gélinas: La ministre a raison : nous avons une pénurie criante de préposés aux soins personnels, tant dans le nord de l’Ontario que dans l’est de l’Ontario. Cette pénurie affecte les Franco-Ontariens et Franco-Ontariennes de façon disproportionnée.

Ce que j’aimerais savoir de la ministre : c’est où dans le projet de loi 74 qu’on voit la stratégie concrète pour remédier à la pénurie de travailleurs personnels? Parce que, moi, je ne le vois pas.

Interjections.

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

Minister?

Hon. Christine Elliott: Well, the member will know this has been an issue for quite some time. In fact, when we served together on the Select Committee on Mental Health and Addictions 10 years ago, we did note that this was a particular concern for Franco-Ontarians not receiving services in their first language. We are continuing to work on that. Nothing much, I’m sorry to say, has happened in that time, but we are going to work on that.

In the new Ontario health teams that are going to be developed at the local basis—those teams will be responsible for making sure that all of the people who live within the geographic region that they serve are going to be able to receive services in their first language. That will be French; it may be other languages.

We want to make sure that every person in Ontario will be able to get the right services for them when and where they need them—and that includes speaking French, as it is the first language of many Ontarians, particularly for seniors, because they often revert to only their first language as they get older. It is going to be critical that we provide those services, and the local Ontario health teams will have that responsibility.

Curriculum

Mr. Vincent Ke: My question is for the Minister of Education. Last week, I was so pleased to hear the minister outline a new vision for education in Ontario. I know that after years of failed ideological programs, students in my riding of Don Valley North are falling behind. They are leaving school without the basic skills they need. Ontario was once a world leader in education, and I believe with this plan it can be again.

Can the Minister of Education tell us what our government is doing to ensure that Ontario students will once again be global leaders in subjects like math, science and technology?

Hon. Lisa M. Thompson: I’d like to thank the member from Don Valley North. You’re doing a great job. Speaker, this member from Don Valley North is doing a great job staying connected with his constituents, and I really appreciated receiving a positive reaction and response from his riding about our plan for education, to getting back on track in Ontario. So thank you for that.

I can tell you what we’re doing in terms of getting Ontario back on track with regard to STEM—science, technology, energy—engineering and math. But there’s so much energy, I can’t even begin to tell you, Speaker, for the plan that we have, because 15 years of failed ideology that the member mentioned and the experiments that the previous Liberal administration chose to do on our students absolutely failed our students.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Response?

Hon. Lisa M. Thompson: What we’re doing is, we are going to be investing in a four-year strategy where we’re going to be rolling out math that’s going to get back to the basics and focus on arithmetic, multiplication and making sure our students—

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

Mr. Vincent Ke: Thank you to the minister for that response. I’m so pleased to hear you mention how we are going to be preparing students for the future. I am confident that this plan we have brings our education system into the 21st century. I also know that we need to be providing our students with the best approach inside and outside our classrooms.

Can the minister explain how the government will continue to involve parents and to support teachers in providing quality education?

Hon. Lisa M. Thompson: Again, thank you to the member from Don Valley North for the question. I want to share with you that we are embracing a team approach to make sure our students are supported in math.

We recognize that parents are the primary educators, and we’re going to make sure that they have all the resources they need to make sure that they can support their students at home. We believe very strongly that parents should be teaming up with teachers to make sure, again, that our students are getting back to the basics and focusing on the competitiveness and the knowledge that will help them be global leaders. We feel that when we combine parent support with some of the best teachers in the world whom we have right here in our Ontario classrooms, we’re setting our students up for success.

To that end, we want to see our teachers succeed as well, and we’re going to be investing in them. Any teacher who wants to take additional qualification courses in math—we’re going to be investing in them and working with them. Our government is getting education back on track in Ontario, and we’re going to get it right once and for all.

Highway safety

Mr. Paul Miller: My question is to the Premier. Hamiltonians are demanding answers about why a scathing report was buried for five years, showing that the Red Hill Valley Parkway was not constructed properly. Hamiltonians also want to know why the provincial government never said anything about its own reports, which showed that the asphalt on the parkway was steadily getting less safe, year after year. Between 2012 and 2015, there were twice as many crashes on the Red Hill Valley Parkway compared to the nearby Lincoln Alexander Parkway. Seven people lost their lives.

Will the Premier apologize to the people of Hamilton on behalf of the province for failure to raise the alarm bell about the Red Hill Valley Parkway problem?

Hon. Doug Ford: To the Minister of Transportation.

Hon. Jeff Yurek: I would like to thank the member from Hamilton East–Stoney Creek for asking that question. I have great respect for that member. I consider him one of my friends in this Legislature. I appreciate that.

Mr. Speaker, we’ve looked at this situation, and I do have to remind the member opposite that the study that he’s speaking of, which is lost, is a municipal study that somehow—you’d have to ask the municipality for that answer on where that study is and why it has not been released yet.

The MTO has collected data, and we released that information we collected between 2007 and 2014 on four lanes in the four-kilometre stretch of the Red Hill Valley Parkway. The data collected in the four-kilometre

section showed the pavement friction met MTO’s satisfaction and was typical of other stone approved to be used in asphalt placed on busier highways in the province.

Mr. Speaker, the member is asking a question to the municipality. I refer him to the municipality for those answers.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The member for Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas, supplementary?

Ms. Sandy Shaw: Mr. Speaker, my question is back to the Premier. I would say that the people of Hamilton do not want to get caught in this being bounced back and forth. They deserve answers. They deserve to know who knew about the problems with the Red Hill Valley Parkway, who did they tell and what did they do about it. This is a very serious matter.

Above all, Hamiltonians need to know why they were kept in the dark all those years when there are reports showing that the roadway was getting slipperier each and every year. We would like to ask: Will the Premier do the right thing and pick up the tab for the cost of a judicial inquiry, so the people of Hamilton can get the answers they deserve?

Interjections.

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

The question has been referred to the Minister of Transportation.

Hon. Jeff Yurek: Thanks again for that question. MTO had no role in Hamilton’s 2013 study. The Hamilton study was completed by a consultant using a British friction-testing methodology that isn’t used by MTO.

Friction testing is one of many considerations when identifying a

section of highway for additional monitoring or potential remedial measures. The ministry, when they’re doing their testing, looks at the layout of the highway, pavement age, traffic conditions and collision data. MTO’s approach is to achieve friction by selecting an appropriate pavement type for the surface layer and allowing pre-approved, high-quality, durable aggregates to be used in that layer.

Mr. Speaker, I don’t know what went on with the city of Hamilton with regard to that study or why that study hasn’t come forward. We weren’t a part of that consultant study as the ministry. Again, I refer the member opposite to please contact the city of Hamilton and request the information that you’re asking for. They should be presenting that data that you’ve been requesting to you.

Assistance to farmers

Mr. Robert Bailey: My question is to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. This past fall was a particularly challenging harvest season for farmers in Sarnia–Lambton and across Ontario due to the unprecedented levels of vomitoxin mould on last year’s corn crop.

The impact of DON was both hard-hitting and far-reaching. I heard from many farmers who not only struggled to sell their crops, but were also concerned about not having enough feed for their livestock.

Yesterday, the minister attended the Grain Farmers of Ontario’s March Classic. He got to hear from farmers who are growing momentum for the Canadian grain industry, its reputation and their own businesses. However, he also got to hear about concerns facing the grain industry, such as the possible reoccurrence of vomitoxin in the future.

Could the minister please tell the House about the work the