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July 15, 2014

41st Parliament, 1st Session

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Hansard Transcripts

Votes and Proceedings

Orders and Notices

Hansard Transcripts 2014-Jul-15 (PDF)

L008 - Tue 15 Jul 2014 / Mar 15 jui 2014

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

ASSEMBLÉE LÉGISLATIVE DE L’ONTARIO

Tuesday 15 July 2014 Mardi 15 juillet 2014

ORDERS OF THE DAY

House sittings

Introduction of Visitors

Oral Questions

Ontario budget

Fish and wildlife management

Ontario budget

Manufacturing jobs

Apple industry

Ontario budget

Disaster relief

Highway improvement

Small business

Invasive species

School closures

Legal aid

Rondeau Provincial Park

Property taxation

Skills development

Introduction of Visitors

Members’ Statements

Purple Turtle Art Festival

Bluesfest Windsor

Islamic Centre of Cambridge

Get in Touch for Hutch

Ralph Mayville

Eastern Ontario Development Fund

Lake Nipissing

Ottawa Lebanese Festival

Brighton Relay for Life

Pascal Goulet

Introduction of Bills

Fighting Fraud and Reducing Automobile Insurance Rates Act, 2014 / Loi de 2014 de lutte contre la fraude et de réduction des taux d’assurance-automobile

Petitions

Hydro rates

Gasoline prices

Childhood apraxia of speech

Ontario Drug Benefit Program

Credit unions

Credit unions

Ontario Drug Benefit Program

Ontario College of Trades

Home care

Agricultural colleges

Services diagnostiques

Markdale hospital

Breastfeeding

Lyme disease

Orders of the Day

2014 Ontario budget

The House met at 0900.

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

Prayers.

ORDERS OF THE DAY

House sittings

Hon. Yasir Naqvi: I move that, for the purposes of standing order 6(b), the current meetings of the House shall be considered an extension of the spring sessional period provided for in standing order 6(a).

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Mr. Naqvi.

Hon. Yasir Naqvi: Thank you very much, Speaker, for giving me the opportunity and recognizing me. I will be sharing my time on this motion with the member from Etobicoke Centre, the member from Beaches–East York and the member from Northumberland–Quinte West.

Our government believes that midnight sittings are essential to allow the Legislature to strike committees and pass the budget in a timely manner, in keeping with the Premier’s commitment to Ontarians. Speaker, as you are aware, the Premier, during the election campaign, spoke very forcefully and strongly about the need to ensure that the progressive plan that we have put forward through the budget be passed in the Legislature as soon as possible. Therefore, the Premier committed to call the Legislature back within 20 days of the election, if elected, so that we could get on with the work of the people.

In that regard, that’s exactly what she did. After the election, and after being given the opportunity by Ontarians to be their elected government, the Premier called the Legislature that came into place on July 2 with the election of the Speaker, followed by a speech from the throne on July 3 and the budget that was tabled just yesterday.

Speaker, we feel that in order to achieve the legislative agenda, and particularly the passage of the budget, the House would need to sit from 6 p.m. until midnight for a number of weeks to move forward with our progressive plan. I don’t take joy in the fact that we may all have to sit here for the next couple of weeks until midnight to get the work done. I am disappointed that we have to take this step, but it is necessary, unfortunately, because the opposition parties have rejected striking the committees in keeping with the long-standing convention in the Legislature, instead advocating for a committee structure that has no precedent in Ontario.

I enjoy a good working relationship with the other House leaders, and we’ve been in constant conversation to ensure that we can reach some sort of an accommodation. But we also need to make sure on this side of the House that, when it comes to getting things done, when it comes to making sure that the budget that was presented by the Minister of Finance yesterday gets passed—we need to take this important step because this budget is perhaps one of the most important budgets being tabled at this juncture in our economy.

This is a budget which, as you know, was a result of the election. It was first presented on May 1 in the previous Parliament. The opposition parties, as you may recall, decided to vote against the budget; hence the election that took place. At the core of that election, at least for the government, was our plan around the budget, making sure that we are making important investments in our communities across the province, be they urban, suburban or rural communities, small towns or big cities.

We’re making the necessary investments to grow our economy, to create good-paying jobs, to ensure that we are building public transit and transportation infrastructure across the province, and also protecting hard-working Ontarians who may not have a workplace pension, through the creation of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan.

All those key elements that were so central to the campaign were part of the budget yesterday. Clearly, on June 12, Ontarians spoke. Ontarians spoke by voting in support of a progressive, positive plan that focuses on building Ontario up. They re-elected 58 Liberal members of provincial parliament, elected a majority government, to ensure that that work gets done. It is a very clear mandate that has been given by the people of this great province.

If I can speak about my community of Ottawa Centre, it has been a great honour for me to represent my community for seven years now; I was first elected in 2007. I’ve had an incredible opportunity to serve my community, from Glebe to Centretown to Carleton Heights to Carlington, the great neighbourhoods of Westboro, Hintonburg and Wellington Village. All those communities have been growing and evolving over the last several years. I have been very fortunate to be part of all that incredible growth and progress, working with my constituents every day on issues that are important.

One of the things, Speaker, that I’ve doing over the last seven years, something that I took the opportunity to talk to you about, is that, for the last seven years, I have been knocking on doors almost every weekend. I’ve had the opportunity, before getting into the election, to have knocked on almost every single door in my riding of Ottawa Centre to be able to engage in conversations with constituents on issues that are important to them. Those conversations resulted in us getting things done for our communities.

When members of my community in the Westboro area told us that our schools in the urban core needed more investment, needed rebuilding, needed renovation, we worked together, and we were able to secure funding to rebuild Broadview school. Broadview school was built in 1926. There are several generations of members of my community who have gone through that school. Clearly that school needs a rebuild. We worked hard together. We were able to secure funding from the provincial government to rebuild the school, not to mention build an addition to another much older school, almost 100 years old, in the Glebe.

Similarly, one of our big focuses has been investments in community health, making sure that we keep seniors at home, making sure that we continue to invest in things that make the lives of our seniors and those who may be vulnerable in the community healthier.

There are three community health centres in my riding: Centretown, Somerset West and Carlington. All three of those community health centres are going through a major expansion. Why? So that we can provide more services to my constituents, making sure that we’re not only providing community care but we’re also focusing on things like social services.

These, Speaker, all—

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): I would remind the member to address and speak to the main motion at hand, please. Thank you.

Hon. Yasir Naqvi: Thank you very much, Speaker, for that gentle reminder. I was very much coming to that point.

I want to, first of all, congratulate you also in taking on the role as the Chair. I’m very happy to see you today in your Speaker’s attire, which suits you very well. So congratulations on that particular role.

Speaker, I was highlighting some key accomplishments in my community for the fact that they’re very much tied to the plan that we have put forward, the plan that we articulated to Ontarians during the election campaign. Those are the kinds of things that I was speaking of to my constituents, day in and day out, to make sure that we are continuing to move forward. That plan has been put forward.

When I was out in my community, knocking on doors every single day, my constituents sent me a very clear message: They wanted to see our budget approved. They wanted to see our budget passed as soon as possible so that we are making those important investments, investments like in the Ottawa River Action Plan, which is part of the budget, so that we prevent the flow of raw sewage into our beautiful Ottawa River, which is the spine of my city. That commitment is within that budget, not to mention the $29 billion over 10 years for the transit and transportation infrastructure plan.

Hon. Jeff Leal: Jim Watson will be happy.

Hon. Yasir Naqvi: Mayor Watson is quite excited. In fact, yesterday he spoke about how much he appreciates this budget. He hopes that this budget passes as quickly as possible so that those important investments start to flow, not only in my community of Ottawa but in all our respective communities, so that we are building this critically important infrastructure.

That’s why, Speaker, this motion is so important. We need to work hard as much as we can at the outset so that we can debate this budget, so that we can debate the budget motion and we are able to pass this budget before the end of summer.

Again, as I mentioned, Speaker, we could have worked together to make sure that the process was expedited, but, if not, we have to resort to evening sittings so there are opportunities for members to be able to speak about the budget, to talk about why the budget is important to their respective communities, and to talk about what they heard from their communities during the campaign as it relates to the critical investments in our hospitals, in our schools, in our community health centres, in roads and bridges and public transit, like the Ottawa light rail transit, phase one of which is under construction.

That’s why, Speaker, we have this motion in front of us: so that there is the opportunity for us to be able to debate this budget and pass this budget according to the wishes of Ontarians that they clearly articulated through the outcome of the election, because what we need to focus on, at this juncture, is to build Ontario up. We need to make sure that we are making those critical, important investments in Ontarians, in things that we value, in public services that we rely on.

I am particularly very proud of the fact that we are making investments, through this budget, in our personal support workers. These people work very hard—some of the lowest-paid workers in our community. But these are individuals who look after our loved ones, our parents and grandparents, at their homes. We need to make sure that we pay them based on their skill sets and give them a much-needed pay raise, which is very much part of this budget.

Pay increases for early childhood educators are also very important. I can tell you, I have a two-year-old son, Rafi, who goes to daycare.

Hon. Jeff Leal: Rafi’s a great guy.

Hon. Yasir Naqvi: He’s a great boy. I see the work that his child care provider does. She works extremely hard. We need to make sure that those hard-working early childhood educators get the raise so that they can continue to provide the excellent care they provide and help nourish our children, like my son Rafi—not to mention, of course, the investments we are going to make in the development sector and in that particular community. We need to make sure that our workers who work in that sector, who have a very difficult job on their hands—they look after some of the most vulnerable members of our communities—get the pay raise they deserve so much.

All these things are part of this very important budget that is going to help shape our communities, that is going to help grow our economy, that is going to help create jobs in our respective communities. Ontarians have asked us to implement this plan, and, as the Premier has said, we will deliver on that. That is why it’s imperative that we table this motion and allow the Legislature to have midnight sittings to debate and pass the budget.

I hope that we can work together collaboratively to move Ontario in the right direction and begin implementing the plan that Ontarians have entrusted to us. I very much, Speaker, with your indulgence, look forward to the debate that takes place on this very important topic and to seeing the passage of this motion so that we can start working on debating this important budget and get to the passage of this budget so that this plan can be rolled out so that every single Ontarian could benefit from it.

Thank you very much for your time.

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

M. Arthur Potts: J’ai l’honneur aujourd’hui de pouvoir remercier les résidants de Beaches–East York de m’avoir donné cette opportunité de les représenter. Et ça, pour commencer le débat sur un budget qui est très important pour eux.

Mr. Speaker, it is a great honour to be here and to have you in the chair. I was initially going to do a maiden speech or an inaugural speech, in which I’m normally afforded great latitude in the course of these debate proceedings. I understand now that the budget debate has shifted and we’re now discussing a procedural motion. I would seek latitude from you as a new member of this House that I might have an opportunity, with my family present, to commence and speak to issues that brought me here for an opportunity to speak to this motion to rise and have a debate into the wee hours of the evening.

I will not call this a maiden speech, but the motion that is now before us I believe will very much help us pass the budget that was introduced earlier yesterday by the Minister of Finance. It’s a very important document. It’s a document that was central to my campaign in running in Beaches–East York. This motion is to help us resolve the issue of the standing committees, which is of course extremely, extremely important. During the course of me speaking to this motion on the committee structure and the budget and the opportunity to speak to midnight sessions, I still would like the members to get to know me a little bit better, and what has brought me here.

But before I do, I just wanted to make note of my friend sitting behind me, from Northumberland–Quinte West—

Hon. Jeff Leal: A great guy.

Mr. Arthur Potts: A great guy, yes: Mr. Rinaldi. Mr. Rinaldi was previously known as the leader of the rump caucus. Mr. Speaker, you will remember the days when there were more members of this House than the seats could accommodate on this side of the floor, and many of the new members in that past election had to be on the other side of the floor in what was known as the rump. The member from—

Mr. Lou Rinaldi: It’s Lou.

Mr. Arthur Potts: Mr. Lou gained some notoriety as a member of the rump caucus. I’m honoured to have him beside me here giving me suggestions and direction as we go forward in this debate.

It had also been my intention to speak a little bit to this concept of the maiden speech. This is what is getting us to an opportunity to speak to this continuation motion for evening debates. But I wonder, as a 56-year-old male, whether it’s appropriate for someone like me to be giving a maiden speech, whether it’s now or sometime in the future. I don’t have any gender identification issues, I want to assure you, but as a male I wonder if “maiden” is the right term to be describing a speech in this very august House. I’m honoured to be here.

I have no issues if others want to use that expression; I’m absolutely pro-choice, and if others want to use the expression “maiden” it’s up to them, but I caution about—you know, we understand the concept of maiden voyage and how important is that first opportunity to address, even on something as unique as a procedural motion—

Mr. Lou Rinaldi: A Trojan Horse.

Mr. Arthur Potts: They talk maybe about a Trojan Horse speech. That’s very good.

But it’s very important—a maiden voyage is an interesting concept, but you have to understand that the concept of “maiden,” the whole etymology of the word, also applies to things like maiden sacrifice. We understand why we had maidens being sacrificed years ago: It was because of their virtue and their chasteness; they were pure. We’re not going to question the members’ virtues, of course, but chaste? And is that how we want to be understood?

If I were to be giving an inaugural speech at this point, I would like it to be called that—or maybe, to take a sports analogy, my rookie speech.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): I would remind the speaker that the motion before us is one with regard to debate continuing beyond 6 o’clock today. I will allow some latitude, but I would ask that he stays somewhat focused on the motion at hand. Thank you.

Mr. Arthur Potts: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will do my best to stay focused on the procedural motion that is being debated before us today—understanding, of course, that when the people of Beaches–East York elected me in what was a very tumultuous campaign, I had no idea, 75 days ago, when the budget was first introduced, that I would be in a position today of standing and speaking to a procedural motion. This came somewhat as a complete shock to me. I had seen the introduction of the budget, and as a Liberal observer I was very delighted with how the budget was playing out.

I thought that this budget brought us back to our progressive roots as a party. There were tremendous investments in infrastructure, tremendous investments in education, in health care, in transit—the $29-billion infrastructure transit fund, $15 billion of which would be invested in transit in the GTA. These were very, very important considerations. As a Liberal observer, I watched and I thought, “Great. I’m happy to support that.”

But then, the day after, the election was called because members hadn’t supported it, leading us to a position today where we’re now in a procedural motion, trying to move forward. The day after was Saturday, May 3. I was at an event with a friend of mine, Dennis Mills, a great mentor and the federal member for Toronto–Danforth. I know many here would know Mr. Mills—a tremendous mentor and a personal friend. He had a call from someone in the party, in organizing, who said that they didn’t have a candidate for Beaches–East York in the election and the writ was to be dropped imminently.

He suggested that I should run. It wasn’t something that was on my list, but he said to me, “Don’t say yes now. If you say yes and you’re elected, you may be speaking to some kind of a procedural motion when you should be doing an inaugural speech.” He said, “Please, don’t say yes now. I want you to go home. I want you to talk to your family and come back and maybe in the morning then you can say yes,” which is what I did.

Mr. Lou Rinaldi: And you said yes.

Mr. Arthur Potts: I did say yes. I actually went home and spoke with my mother. I hope to be able to recognize my mother at 10:30. She is in the gallery today with my family: my sister Roberta, my sister Diana and my sister’s fiancé, Steve, who is a good friend of mine. We play tennis together regularly, Steve and I. He’s teaching me the game and I’m hoping I’m being a good learner.

There was a Saturday—or a Sunday now—and I’ve agreed to say yes because my mother said, “Of course you should run.” “You’re genetically engineered for this,” she said, “and your father would be very, very proud.” So when I spoke with my wife, my partner, Lisa Martin, she too said, “Yes, please. You have the support of the family to run and hopefully win in Beaches–East York,” which is what I did.

Now I find myself in a position when I can speak to a procedural motion, because we have some issues here with the House leader trying very hard to work with the House leaders on the other side of the table to develop a committee structure that follows traditions, I understand, of the Parliament, traditions which would allow that the majority government of the day would have a clear majority on all of the committees. That’s a clear majority, Mr.

Speaker, that I know you appreciate, in which the Chair of the committee is considered a neutral, which means you absolutely have to have a majority of the other existing members representing the government. This is the objective, and this is what has brought us to this debate today.

I hope we can resolve this issue, and if we need to go to debate from 6 o’clock to 12 o’clock at night, I know our side of the House is prepared to do it, to stand for that, and I will be here every day, as Mr. Bisson—

Interjection.

Mr. Arthur Potts: Well, let’s stick with the principles that are traditional and not make them up on the fly. You may have your principles, but the ones that you make up on the fly don’t respect the traditions of this House, I would argue.

It hadn’t been my intention to run at the time, and there it was Sunday. On Monday, we filed nomination papers. On Wednesday, the writ was dropped, and on Thursday, I had my official nomination. On Friday, I moved into a campaign office, had a campaign manager, and there we were in a full-fledged campaign with our first piece of literature.

I can say it was an absolute whirlwind romance to get me into a position where I could stand in this House today and support the government’s motion—a whirlwind romance. It was somewhat reminiscent of how the member from Brant was re-elected as the Speaker of this House, Mr. Speaker. I remember seeing him with the member from Scarborough–Agincourt physically grabbing him, reluctant as he was, with his 6-foot-4 or 6-foot-5 frame, and she, a slight Asian woman, bringing him forward to do his duties.

He was very reluctant at first, as I recall, but slowly, as he got closer to the chair, I could see that he was warming to the responsibilities. As my father would say, he responded to the clarion call, and that is what I think I am doing and have done in running for council: responding to the clarion call.

Now, I was proud to serve as the candidate, and it was an easy transition from my consulting work. The timing was good. My kids were in university, I had the time, and I could put my consulting projects on the side.

If you would allow me, at this point I would like to pay some respect to Mr. Prue, who was a member of the House from Beaches–East York, a member of the third party. Mr. Prue was a great guy, and I had no intention when I ran of actually winning. I thought I would be waving the flag for the party, helping them out, getting their message across—because Mr. Prue was a very formidable opponent.

I had always thought that my opportunity to run would be against the member from Toronto–Danforth. The member from Toronto–Danforth and I ran against each other 20 years ago in 1994 for city council. Let me say that it was a tremendous, spirited campaign. He went on and continued on in politics and I went on to be a consultant, but I enjoyed that opportunity, I enjoyed that exercise, immensely. It was a chance to meet all the neighbours of the area where I live in Toronto–Danforth, and it set me up for an opportunity to run this time against Mr. Prue, who, as I say, was a well-liked guy.

He was first elected in 1988 as a city councillor in the old borough of East York and went on to become the last mayor of East York, and then served in Toronto council as the councillor for the megacity after the cities were amalgamated. He had been an MPP here for the last 13 years.

He was a good retail politician. I repeatedly heard people say at the door, “I like Mr. Prue. He’s helped me out. He’s a good guy. I would vote for him.” I had to convince them that I, too, was a good guy, and we had to see what our policies were, because the policy we were running on, of course, was the budget, and the budget is what we have to debate here, and we have to get it passed. Now we’re in a procedural motion in order to get this budget passed, which will keep us here from 6 o’clock until midnight in order to resolve the committee structures.

Having run, I was reminded of Stephen LeDrew the day after the election. Mr. LeDrew—I had the pleasure of running his mayoralty campaign when he ran against Mr. Miller for the mayor of Toronto many years ago. Mr. LeDrew was on TV at CP24. He interviewed me shortly after the election, and he asked me, “Were you shocked and as surprised as all of us at winning?” Frankly, I wasn’t shocked and surprised, because on the street we heard very early on that the people of Beaches–East York were looking for change.

We had already discovered—we’d had an inkling—that the NDP vote particularly was going to come to our side of the table, because they should have passed that budget. They should have passed the budget that we’re debating today. It was a good budget. It was a progressive budget. It invested, as I said earlier, in transit and infrastructure. Now we find ourselves in this position of having to debate a procedural motion in order to bring in the budget that the people of Ontario clearly spoke in favour of adopting.

Notwithstanding that the Leader of the Opposition has said publicly that it wasn’t the budget that elected our government but it was the campaign that was run by the opposition parties, well, I tell you, in Beaches–East York that just wasn’t the case. It was a two-person race. It was between me and Mr. Prue. There was a Conservative candidate and there was a Green candidate, and the other two candidates were just—well, there were a few others, the Marxist-Leninist Party and some others—but between them, they were simply going to split the vote. It was a two-horse race between Mr. Prue and myself, and who knows to whose benefit those vote splits would have gone?

The budget was the plan. It was a great piece of literature that I was able to go door to door and talk to people about. That is why I’m so confident that it’s the budget that the people of Ontario want us to pass. They want us to get through this procedural wrangling. They want us to get past these petty squabbles about committee makeup and recognize the absolutely important principles that have been established in the past about representation on committees.

What allowed me to get elected was in fact a confluence of fairly significant events. There was a tremendous change sentiment in my riding. I had the unique opportunity of running for change in Beaches–East York, change both at the provincial level—because with Ms. Wynne we had a new leader of the party that was taking us in a very progressive direction. The budget signified a significant change from the way the party had established itself in the past.

It did take us back to our progressive roots as a party that cared about people, that cared about public support workers, that cared about educators, a party that cared about trying to fix the crumbling infrastructure that over the years had been falling apart. We needed to invest in this infrastructure. That’s what the budget plan was telling us to do and that’s what was helping us at the door.

But I also campaigned on change at the local level. As nice a guy as Mr. Prue was, he had been the finance critic for the NDP in the creation of the budget. He had gone across the province, door to door, at pre-budget hearings. He had helped fashion the budget that was ultimately put forward in this House on May 1. It was a surprise and a shock to all of us that his party did not support a budget that he helped craft. It was, as I say, progressive. I know that, door to door, people talked to Mr. Prue about that: “You should not have put the funding of Toronto East General Hospital in jeopardy.

You should not have turned down increased wages for support workers, for educational workers, for working with people in homes that have children with autism.” These were important dimensions of the budget. More to the point, we were looking at a poverty reduction strategy based on the recommendations of the Lankin-Sheikh report.

Ms. Lankin also had been the representative for Beaches–East York. She’s a tremendous asset to this province and continues to be so in the work she does advocating for the poor, advocating for policies of social justice. Our government had retained her and used her and Mr. Sheikh to develop some policies that we are getting so close to implementing.

With this budget, we can implement those policies, Mr. Speaker, and we very, very much look forward to doing so. We will do everything we need to do as a government. We will come here and we will work from 6 o’clock to midnight every night until we pass the budget that we promised the people of Ontario. That’s what this procedural wrangling is all about. We want the members to recognize that the people have spoken.

Now, Ms. Lankin offered up her seat 13 years ago to Mr. Prue in a by-election; she had another opportunity to go to, and he won the seat in a by-election. I was shocked to know that Mr. Prue could not support the budget that implemented the recommendations of the person who gave up her seat so he could run and represent the people of Beaches–East York in this House. He did not support that budget. What I heard at the door repeatedly is that he should have supported the budget, and that had a lot to do with why he wasn’t re-elected, notwithstanding that he is a fantastic guy.

I’ve been drinking beer with him for 25 years, since I knew him at city hall. He’s a great guy and he did some great things at city hall and in the province.

But Ms. Wynne had been an incredible asset for us going door-to-door in this campaign.

Interjection: Yes.

Mr. Arthur Potts: Absolutely, absolutely, and she continues to be.

I’m so honoured to be in this House, listening to her as she stands up and hears these same old questions coming back and forth, as if members of the parties opposite hadn’t been listening during the course of the election. The “Trojan Horse budget”: What are we talking about? This is not Greek history; this is all about getting a progressive plan moving forward, building the province up. This is very important.

She had been a great asset to my campaign because the messages of both the opposition parties simply didn’t resonate well in Beaches–East York, but we needn’t spend time on that messaging now. We need to focus more time on these procedural matters, and I’m happy to do so.

I also had the pleasure in my campaign of being in the midst of a three-way battle for the Liberal nomination in Beaches–East York for the federal party.

Hon. Jeff Leal: Highly sought-after now.

Mr. Arthur Potts: Thank you, Mr. Minister.

Mr. Percy Hatfield: He’ll throw you off.

Mr. Arthur Potts: Don’t throw me off. Just give me a chance to have glass of water. Much appreciated.

Hon. Jeff Leal: Sorry about that.

Mr. Arthur Potts: Not at all, not at all.

The federal nomination: We have three individuals who, for the last year and a half, have been working tirelessly to represent our area as Liberals in the federal Parliament, and they were able to bring all their resources—their teams, their volunteers—into our campaign. We had a chance to outreach into neighbourhoods we otherwise probably wouldn’t have got to as early as we did because they were there, so I was honoured to have their support.

More importantly, from a strategic basis, we had the support of Ms. Maria Minna, who was the federal member for 18 years in Beaches–East York, and only three years ago was defeated in the federal election. Ms. Minna is still thought of as the local representative. People in Beaches–East York continue to come to her, and I go to her. I go to her for assistance on procedural issues and how to manage issues like the procedural debate that we’re having today. She’s a great mentor and a great support to me in that process.

But probably one of the greatest assets we had in this campaign was the weather. I know all of you out there knocking on doors and campaigning would appreciate what a wonderful, wonderful late spring it was, with lots of sun and so very little rain. This allowed us to go door to door, to get to so many more doors than otherwise would have been possible. I envision trying to do this election campaign in the dark of winter. It just wouldn’t have been possible.

What was absolutely critical is that we heard from every single resident we could in Beaches–East York about what was important to them. What we did hear was that it was the budget, and I was able to explain the budget to them in a way that they understood. They wanted it passed. They wanted it adopted.

But most important for me was the hard work of our campaign team. They worked hard. Our volunteer numbers grew. There was tremendous energy in our campaign, and I wish to thank all of them for the immense contributions they made to getting me elected.

I think I ran a marathon almost every single day. I climbed the equivalent of the CN Tower probably one and a half or two times a day because Beaches–East York is blessed with a lot of hills. I would find myself rushing up to a door, knocking, leaving a flyer and running down, only to get to the bottom and discover the resident had just opened the door at the top again, and running back up. I had the pleasure during the course of the campaign—I lost weight; I got into great shape. It has improved my hockey game. I think it has improved my tennis game—

Mr. Lou Rinaldi: It’s a win-win.

Mr. Arthur Potts: It’s a win-win all around.

As I said, I wasn’t expecting to win at first, but I was absolutely delighted. I thank very much the people of Beaches–East York for giving me this opportunity, because it’s important that they have a government spokesperson to speak to important issues like passing the budget motion—like the pleasure I felt in standing up and voting in the affirmative for the throne speech. That was a tremendous opportunity, my first vote. To be in the affirmative on your first vote is a great, great honour. I wish the members opposite would have had the opportunity to speak to the affirmative on that throne speech as well.

There will be other opportunities and other good pieces of legislation coming forward, including this motion that’s in front of us today.

On election night, Mr. Speaker, if you’ll allow me just a little latitude here, I had the pleasure of sitting with my mother, my sister, my partner, Lisa, and our kids to watch the results. It was a see-saw battle back and forth. Mom, I remember you looking at me.

Mom said to me, “Your father, when he ran in 1963 for the Liberals and again in 1967 for the Liberals”—in the area where we lived, which was south Rosedale, very much similar in many ways to Beaches–East York because it encompassed all the much poorer neighbourhoods south of Danforth, south of Bloor Street, and the more affluent neighbourhoods north of Danforth. My father ran, and it would be of interest to this House to know that in two successive provincial elections my father lost by the smallest margin of any member in the House: 220 and 285 votes, I think it was—two successive elections.

There’s my dear mother, 86 years of age—

Interjection: Hello, Mother.

Mr. Arthur Potts: Hello, Mother—looking up at me with those very supportive eyes and saying, “Oh, my heavens. I hope this is not happening again.”

Mr. Lou Rinaldi: It didn’t.

Mr. Arthur Potts: And it didn’t.

I wanted to go down to the campaign office. My mother and my sisters and my kids—we were watching it at the house, because my campaign manager wanted to know what speech I was going to read when I went down to see the rest of the people. As you all know—and I know most of you have—you always have two speeches in the bag on election night. But it was a see-saw battle.

I love a good party—particularly one that I know has been thrown somewhat in my honour, but also to honour the hard work of our campaign team—and I was chomping at the bit, Mr. Speaker, to go down to watch the results with my friends and family and the campaign workers, but they wouldn’t let me go. My campaign manager was ruthless.

But, at about 11:30, she finally relented and she said, “Yes, you can come down.” We went, and we watched and suffered together as the votes came in. Fortunately—well, unfortunately—at about 1 o’clock, I stood up to make a speech to say, “I’m sorry. It’s time to go home. It’s too close to call”—we won’t know if I will come up and speak to procedural debate motions tonight—“There could be a recount in the morning.”

As I was in the middle of making that speech, telling people to go home at 1:15 in the morning, they started to cheer, and they weren’t listening to me—unlike members of the House today, who are listening very intently, I appreciate. They weren’t listening, because we had just been declared the victors of Beaches–East York, and I was delighted for that opportunity.

Interjection: We’re delighted, too.

Mr. Arthur Potts: Thank you. Thank you very much.

Post-election, it has been just an absolute honour to be here, to participate in the debates, to introduce yesterday my first motion, the tipping bill, to honour Mr. Prue, who, as I say, is a good guy and was a good member here.

I look forward to continuing and assisting the party in every way I can so that Premier Wynne can bring in a very worthy budget, a budget that she’s worked hard with the finance minister to produce, a budget that builds Ontario up, a budget that invests in people and in infrastructure—that particularly will invest in infrastructure, I believe, in Beaches–East York, where Main and Danforth is in serious need of a lift. We can put a transit hub there, which can help connect TTC and GO and Via, and help lift up that neighbourhood, along with all of the neighbourhoods in Ontario.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for giving me the latitude that I like to think could be afforded, and I hope to do my maiden speech some day very soon.

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

Mr. Yvan Baker: It’s an honour to be standing up in the Legislature, speaking for the first time, at least for a protracted period of time.

I was told this morning that I was going to have the opportunity to deliver my maiden address, and I couldn’t have thought, until today, of anything more important than my maiden address. But this is more important. This procedural motion is important, because it’s really about whether we’re going to continue to sit here and work and do what the people of Ontario sent us here to do, which is to get this budget passed.

Now, I have to say that when I was in my community canvassing throughout the campaign, I heard about a lot of issues. I heard a lot about the need to continue to create jobs, to build on our track record. I can say that, having been out in my community, there’s a lot of support for the work that the government has done over the past 11 years, since 2003, and a lot of progress has been made. We have created over 460,000 new jobs, but, at the same time, there are many people out there in the community who are struggling to find work.

I can tell you, for example, that I met a young woman when I was canvassing, who opened her door to me. I introduced myself, and I said, “I’m the candidate for Etobicoke Centre,” and she said, “Well, tell me about your credentials.” I told her a little bit about my background, that I’m a management consultant, that I teach at York University, that I have a finance background, that I have an MBA. She said, “You know, I also have an MBA,” and she said, “I’m struggling to find work.

Can you help?” We talked a lot about some of the things that the government has done to help her find work and some of the many more things that are in this budget that will help her do that. So when I think about some of those things, I think about the investments that we’re making in infrastructure; I think about the things that we’re doing to make post-secondary education more accessible; I think about the things that we’re doing to make sure that we’re attracting businesses here to Ontario, by keeping taxes low and regulations down. When I think about this motion, Mr.

Speaker, I think about how important it is that we pass this motion so that we can get this budget passed, because when I think about this woman, I think about this budget and how important it is to her and how much she would want us to pass this budget expeditiously.

Some of the other things that I heard in the community were around health care. In my riding of Etobicoke Centre we have one of the largest percentages of seniors of any riding in the country, so we have a lot of folks in our community who rely on the health care system. Again, they appreciate the good work that we’ve done in a number of ways, in terms of improving access to care, expanding home care, long-term care.

The investment that will be made in this budget to help raise pay for personal support workers is one of the things that is particularly important in my riding of Etobicoke Centre, because so many of my constituents rely on those personal support workers every single day. The quality of care and access to care is critical. When I think about this budget, I think about how important it is. Again, I urge the members here to pass this motion.

I heard a lot in my community about education and the quality of education. One of the things that they appreciated about our platform—and that platform was built from the budget—is the work that we’re going to do to continue to keep class sizes down, the work that we’re going to do to continue to invest in education for special-needs children, the things we’re going to do to make sure that we continue to strengthen some of those core skills that young people need so they can get into university and succeed post-graduation.

As someone who teaches at a university, I know a little bit about and understand some of the challenges that young people face, very frankly. Some of those skills that I’m talking about are things like creative thinking, like math skills. Those types of skills are the kinds of things that young people are going to need to succeed in the new economy.

I can tell you that when I teach at university I often help young students who are searching for work in the private sector. A lot of times they’ll come to me or they’ll send me an e-mail or they’ll give me a call. I’ll sit down with them over coffee and we’ll talk about some of the challenges that they face in finding a job. I’ll give them advice on anything from how to write their resumé to how to network and other things like that, and where they might be able to find employment and the kinds of careers that might be a fit for their skill set.

One of the things I sometimes hear from young people is that they’ve graduated, they’ve earned a job, but they’re not working in their particular field; they’re struggling to find work in their particular field. That’s one of the areas where I know we have work to do and that’s one of the areas where our government is committed to continuing to do work, to make sure that young people have access to that quality education and that we continue to strengthen it.

So the math skills, the creative thinking skills that we’re talking about in school are some of the things that are going to allow them to succeed and graduate. I look forward to seeing those students come through as they graduate through high school into university and into my class and are then able to therefore succeed and get those jobs that we’re talking about.

Some of the other things that are important in this budget and in our platform were around expanding guidance programs for young people. I think one of the challenges that young people face, and I experience this every day in my work as a teacher, is that young people, in looking for work, sometimes just don’t know how to look or where to look. That’s an important element of this. So education is critical. There are other aspects to education that are important in this budget, but that’s some of it. I would urge the members here to pass the motion so that we can get this budget passed.

Because again, those young people, if we don’t pass this budget expeditiously, are presumably going to turn to me and they’re going to say, “What happened? You got elected on this platform.”

Some of the other things that I heard in the community were around transportation and infrastructure. Transportation affects our daily life, whether it be our economy and how it supports growth in our economy or whether it be the quality of life that we enjoy. When I think about this morning, I was able to get on a bus quite quickly and get down here in a reasonable period of time, but there are many mornings where that’s not necessarily the case for a lot of folks. Those are the kinds of things—transit and transportation—that we need to invest in, because they touch us every single day.

We’re doing that in this budget. So there’s infrastructure spending that’s been allocated, about $130 billion. Of course, about $15 billion of that is allocated to transportation within the GTA. That’s one of the things that I think is so, so critical, that we show Ontarians—all members of this House, no matter what side of the aisle you’re on—that we heard the people of Ontario. They voted overwhelmingly in support of this budget, overwhelmingly in support of this government’s platform.

So again, for the sake of my constituents in Etobicoke Centre who rely on transit, who want to continue to see gridlock relieved, that’s the kind of thing I hope we take into consideration as we think about this motion.

Another thing I heard at the doors a lot was the need to continue to manage our taxpayers’ dollars wisely. I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to be working with Minister Matthews, who’s President of the Treasury Board, as her parliamentary assistant. I think this is one of the issues that is so, so important—one of the issues that I heard about at the doors in my community. I’ve been working with Minister Matthews, and it’s a true honour to work with her, but I look forward to working with her more in the weeks and months to come as we make sure that we get maximum value for taxpayers’ dollars.

My background is in management consulting so I do this type of work for private sector clients on a regular basis. We’ll be asked to come in and identify opportunities to find more value for the dollar. That’s one of the things I’m looking forward to working on with Minister Matthews.

Mr. Speaker, as I think about this motion, it’s something that would send a strong message to my community, to other communities across the province, that, as legislators who have been recently elected, many of us here for the first time, we’re really committed to moving ahead with the agenda that Ontarians endorsed.

One of the things that I think is incredibly important as part of this is the fact that this budget has a 10-year economic plan. One of the things that it does is it helps us compete better for global investments. To help secure these investments, we’re going to maintain, as I said earlier, a competitive tax system. We’re going to work on reducing energy costs for business, and cutting red tape. We’re creating a new Jobs and Prosperity Fund, which is critical. It’s a really important strategic tool, I believe, to attract businesses to our province.

I also think that lowering energy costs is something we hear from both sides of the House on a regular basis as an issue that’s important in our communities. Again, we’re introducing a new five-point energy plan to give small and medium-sized businesses the tools they need to conserve energy, which I think is also critical. I have a lot of people in my community who are business owners; I have a lot of people in my community who are entrepreneurs. These types of things are critical to them, and I heard about them during the election campaign.

One of the things that’s also important—and I mentioned this a little bit earlier, but I think one of the things I heard in the community was that they want us to continue with the track record of investment in infrastructure, particularly in transportation. Like I said, since 2003 we’ve invested about $100 billion in hospitals, schools and other infrastructure, and I think we need to continue with that.

One of the things that’s also important is that we continue to increase support for those who are most vulnerable. There are many people in my community who rely on support, and we need to continue to do that. One of the things in the budget is that we’ll be increasing the maximum annual OCB per child to $1,310. That’s going to enhance the incomes of about half a million families. We’re also expanding low-income health benefits and developing a new program to reduce electricity bills for low-income Ontarians.

We’re also going to increase social assistance benefits and expand the student nutrition program so that more children in school have access to a healthy, balanced breakfast to start the day. We continue to make steady increases in the minimum wage, which, again, is a critical element of the budget and critical to supporting those who are more vulnerable.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the things that I heard at the doors—many members of my community are seniors, as I mentioned, but many members of the community in Etobicoke Centre are also part of that so-called sandwich generation. They are middle-aged families who are in a position where they’re caring for their elderly parents but they’re also caring for their children.

One of the things that I’m proud of in this budget is that we’re continuing to take the steps to make sure that we try to help these families as much as possible—not just help the seniors by helping them in terms of improving the quality of care and access to care, but by helping the families that are bearing the burden of caring for them.

I can tell you that my mother cared for my grandmother for many, many years, and her ability to do that was unique. She was fortunate enough to have the flexibility and the financial resources to do so, but not all families are able to do that. Continued support, particularly through home care, is critical but other forms of care as well. We’ve committed to continue to work in that area.

It’s interesting. My family was actually supposed to be here as well and, unfortunately, they weren’t here, but I know that if they were, my mother would certainly be supportive of the kind of work that we’re doing in this budget. She’s an example, but there are many people in my community of Etobicoke Centre who are examples of folks who really need that support.

When I think about some of the things we’re doing in health care—wait times, for example. Since 2003, we’re now best in Canada for surgical wait times. We’ve invested $1.7 billion to fund over three million more medical procedures. We used to have the longest wait times in the country. Now we have the shortest, and we’re going to continue that good work.

I know one of the priorities that I heard a lot about from seniors, from families, frankly, in Etobicoke Centre, was how important it is to make sure that we’re providing access to doctors and faster access to doctors. A lot of folks need specialist care particularly. So one of the things that we’ve committed to in our platform and, through that, in the budget is to continue to work in that area, to make sure people have access to specialist care.

I can tell you that a lot of my constituents have raised this issue. They appreciate the progress that has been made. Many do appreciate the progress that has been made, but there’s so much more work to do. I think we on both sides of this House would all agree to that. That’s another issue.

One of the things that I’d like to highlight also is the issue of mental health. Mental health is an issue that we’re going to continue to hear more and more about, and rightly so, because the growing challenge for us. Of course, since 2003, we launched a comprehensive mental health and addictions strategy focused on children and youth in the first three years. That’s helping 50,000 more kids and their families access the supports they need. We’ve hired more than 770 new mental health workers in schools and community, which has already helped 35,000 kids and their families. We’ve added 5,000 more doctors.

We’ve hired about 20,000 more nurses since 2003. Again, these are the kinds of accomplishments and this is the kind of track record that I think people in a community, like mine, where health care is an important issue, value, and they’d like to see it continue.

When I think about this budget and what’s in this budget for health care, I think about the increasing community services funding by 4% over the next three years, increasing front-line care by increasing the wages of PSWs—we talked about that—and maintaining critical repairs in-hospital to provide better high-quality health care to patients. We’re providing funding of almost $700 million over the next 10 years for that.

These are the kinds of things that are going to impact people on the ground, and these are the kinds of things that, frankly, Ontarians voted for when they elected us to this Legislature. I would urge members on both sides to support this procedural motion and, supporting that, help us debate this budget and move it along.

Now, if I may, I’d like to just briefly talk about education. When we think about the progress that has been made in education, it’s the kind of thing we need to continue and we plan to continue through this budget. We’ve committed to continue these investments in education. Test scores are up. Graduation rates are up. The graduation rate in 2003 in Ontario was in the high 60% range, about 68%. Now we’re in the low 80% range, and I think that’s something we can celebrate. That’s not to say that there isn’t more work to be done. There is more work to be done. That’s, in fact, why we need to continue that work and why we need to pass this budget.

We brought in full-day kindergarten, which of course gives kids the best start in education. Study after study that I’ve read has shown the value of early childhood education on outcomes later in life. Earlier in my remarks, I was talking about the importance of math skills and critical thinking skills in high schools.

Well, this is another example of the kinds of investments that we’re making strategically to strengthen our education system and make sure that young people have the skills they need, so that when they do work their way through the system, and for those who choose to pursue graduate studies and university studies and those who move on to the trades or other forms of work, that they have the fundamental skills they need to succeed. I think these are critically important. So full-day kindergarten is critical.

We’ve invested $4 billion in 23 major post-secondary expansion projects and have added 161,000 student spaces. When I think about student assistance, 370,000 students receive $1 billion annually, and our post-secondary attainment is the highest in the OECD—almost double the average. Again, as I was referring to earlier, there are individuals, certainly, who face challenges graduating, but the overwhelming majority do have access to higher education and are able to succeed and move on into their careers and prosper as a result.

When I think about some of the other things we’ve done in education—I’m a management consultant. I used to work for a company called the Boston Consulting Group. There’s a company, a competitor, called McKinsey and Company. They had a chance to appraise our education system and they said that we are one of the world’s most improved school systems and we keep getting better. That’s an endorsement, if I’ve ever heard one, of the kinds of things we’ve done in education, and we certainly want that work to continue. Minister Sandals has been doing excellent work and we want that work to continue.

So it’s important that we move this budget along and get it passed, and I would urge the members to pass this procedural motion.

As someone who has a finance background, a business background, and someone who spends a lot of time thinking about how we can grow our economy and how companies can maximize growth in our economy, I’m particularly proud of our attainment in terms of economic growth. We’re third in North America now for foreign direct investment. Forbes named Ontario the top destination for foreign direct investment in North America. Foreign direct investment is a critical measure of success because it means we’re outcompeting other jurisdictions for investment, that we’re a more attractive jurisdiction to do business in.

That’s a compliment to the people of Ontario, because they’re highly educated, they’re hard-working and they have a lot to contribute. I think we want that work to continue, Mr. Speaker.

We have the second-largest financial services industry in North America. I happened to work in financial services for some time. I think this is an area that offers tremendous opportunity, and we need to continue to ensure that that’s the case.

We’re first in Canada—a major player—in mining. I know that’s an issue not just in my community but particularly for our communities to the north. That’s a track record we want to build on.

So as I think about this budget and I think about the things we’re doing—we’re investing in infrastructure, we’re investing in education, we’re investing in people, we’re keeping taxes down, we’re keeping regulations low—these are the kinds of things that are going to continue to grow our economy. We’re going to continue to invest in education, and through those investments we’re going to be able to ensure we continue to strengthen our education system and prepare our young people for the jobs of tomorrow. The other investments that we’re making in many other areas are critical, but we’re going to do all this while managing taxpayer dollars wisely. That is so, so important.

Mr. Speaker, I would urge the members to pass the motion before us.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further debate? I recognize the member from Leeds–Grenville.

Mr. Steve Clark: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Good morning. It’s a pleasure for me to speak to the government’s motion that would consider this sitting an extension of the spring sitting. I think the government House leader has talked about why he felt that he needed to do this and the fact that this sets the table for possible night sittings.

I want at the start, before I make my argument, to say how very proud I was that our interim leader, Jim Wilson, has given me the opportunity to sit in this role as House leader for the official opposition. I had the opportunity to serve as Mr. Wilson’s deputy when he was the House leader. I actually find that the House leaders’ meetings are quite fascinating. Periodically it’s mentioned in the House that, “This matter was referred to the House leaders,” or, “This matter is a decision of the three House leaders.” It almost makes it like it’s this mystical committee that meets every week and makes decisions.

Hon. Yasir Naqvi: A good lunch.

Mr. Steve Clark: Well, the member notes publicly that he provides a nice lunch. In fact, the first meeting that I sat on as the opposition House leader, we sat, and I know that the government House leader would have preferred the meetings to be kept confidential and that the contents wouldn’t be discussed in the media. I have to admit that I did talk about my frustration when it came to setting committees. But I do want to publicly state a couple of points that I made in that first meeting.

One of the first things—in fact, the first thing—that I said was that it certainly wasn’t our intention as an opposition to unduly hold up the budget. I felt, based on the amount of sitting days that we had in July, that we should have been able to come to an agreement to have the budget go through the normal process and not unduly delay the Legislature.

I also brought up a couple of issues from the last session of Parliament. The issue of the Select Committee on Developmental Services, which, as you know, was within a whisker—probably all they needed was to hit “print” to have the committee report printed. This was a committee made up of all the three parties. It was a consensus committee where all of the groups represented from all the parties sat, had hearings and made recommendations. I felt that that report should be tabled in the Legislature without having to be delayed by the establishment of the committees.

I also felt that the report from the public accounts committee, the Ornge report—again, all it needed was for the committee to convene and ultimately the report would have been received and referred to the House. I didn’t feel that that report should be unduly delayed as well.

But what happens in House leaders’—it’s a very interesting dynamic when issues come up, because when I bring these issues up, the parties sometimes will say, “Do you know what? That’s a very interesting point. We’ll think about that. We’ll talk about that next week,” meaning that there will be a decision next week. But you know what? What happens sometimes is, the other party may say, “We did discuss it. Maybe we should defer that to the following week.”

So you have this—I call it an interesting dynamic, for lack of a better word. People think we make these decisions, that we sit and make decisions. I have to tell you—I’m sure you can hear it in my voice—it’s a bit frustrating to sit with the other two parties when I do see that, in the minority Parliament, albeit it was a rough ride in some cases for the government, there were some things that we were able to move forward, like the Select Committee on Developmental Services.

I wanted to put those on the record just at the start, as the opposition House leader, because it’s not this milk-and-honey committee where we all seem to get together and agree with each other on the rules of the House. In fact, if you read some of the words in the throne speech, you’ll realize, I think, what the government intends to do. I’m referring to the justice committee and the fact that there were witnesses that were to appear the week after the House ultimately dissolved for the election. The words in the throne speech were, “Let the justice committee write its report.” I think that that was something that struck me.

We’re here because—the government mentioned committees this morning. We’re at odds, between the opposition and the government, on the composition of the standing committees here at Queen’s Park. Again, the government House leader indicates that it’s holding up the passing of the budget, a budget that, I had indicated at our first House leaders’ meeting, I didn’t want to unduly delay.

We believe that the standing orders—and the government House leader is using the standing orders today as the reason for the debate. I think the standing orders are very clear. In fact, the standing order that we’re putting on the table regarding committees is standing order 113(a), which says, “No standing or select committee shall consist of more than nine members and the membership of such committees shall be in proportion to the representation of the recognized parties in the House,”

whereas the government believes that they should have an absolute majority. I think you heard the government House leader this morning, Speaker, talk about the Chair being separate from that. That’s certainly not what I read in the standing orders. It was reinforced by the Clerks. I apologize that I somehow dragged the Clerks into it by referencing them in my letter that I brought forward.

It is what it is, and I used the information that I had to make the decision based on the seats that the government and the opposition parties had at the end of the election. As we all know, the government had 58 seats, we had 28 and the NDP had 21. If you use that in a percentage format, it works out to 54.21%, 26.17% and 19.63%. You apply that to standing order 113(

a) about the nine-member committee, and it works out, as I said in question period last week, to five members for the government, two members for the Progressive Conservatives and two members for the NDP.

In every committee I’ve ever been on, Speaker—and I’ve been on committees since I was in my 20s—in every nine-person committee I was on, in every single one, without fail, five outvotes four every time. I can’t say it any clearer than that. I’ve never been on a committee where four members have outvoted five members. Maybe I’m wrong; maybe I just haven’t run in the same circles as the government House leader, but it seems to me pretty easy and democratic.

The government continues to argue that the impartial Chair cannot be factored into the equation, and they want the committees to be struck as six, two and one. It’s going to ensure that they have five voting members, no matter who is in the chair. I disagree, because I again go back to the standing orders. To me, based on the standing orders, if you want six seats on the committee, you’re going to need 68 or 71 seats. Maybe between your seats and their seats, that gets you your 68 or 71; I don’t know if that’s what you’re thinking.

If you look at 2003 to 2007, the government attained those percentages; they had the six seats. I was elected in a by-election in 2010, and that certainly was the case on the committee I was on, the general government committee. That was a committee that was comprised like that.

Again, there were some times, like 2011, that that didn’t happen, when the minority Parliament—in that case, the government had the minority of members, and we—in terms of “we,” I’m using “we” as the opposition—had the majority. Again, the dynamic was different, depending on who was in the chair. When we were in the chair, you had that dynamic where the Chair allowed the debate to continue. In fact, if you look at what was able to be accomplished during the minority Parliament, I think there were some great things that happened under that committee structure.

In fact, I still don’t understand—I still believe quite firmly that if the government adhered to my suggestions, the Legislature wouldn’t grind to a halt. The Legislature would not impede the government legislation to the degree that perhaps some of the members opposite would suggest. I happen to think, using our existing standing order 113(a), that we’d be able to work it out, just like we worked it out in the minority Parliament situation. I’ve never been told by the government House leader that under that suggestion—

Interjections.

Mr. Steve Clark: They can laugh all they want, but I guess I came from a different place before I was elected here. I happen to believe that we can rise to a different standard in House leaders, that we can have some discussions and make some decisions without having to kick the can down the road every single, solitary—

Interjection.

Mr. Steve Clark: I’m going to keep going, Speaker, so if you need to adjourn the House, I can come back this afternoon and finish my few moments of speech. It’s not a problem, Speaker.

Debate deemed adjourned.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): It being 10:15, this House stands recessed until 10:30.

The House recessed from 1015 to 1030.

Introduction of Visitors

Hon. Jeff Leal: Mr. Speaker, we have three interns who are with us today from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to monitor question period: Liam Nichols, Victoria Favret and Alexandra Sherwin.

I just want to make note that today is the 10th anniversary of the great Peterborough flood of July 15, 2004.

Mr. Yvan Baker: I have the honour of introducing the family of page captain Matthew Lynn. We have his mother, Jeannel Lynn, and father, Robert Lynn, and they’re both constituents of mine in Etobicoke Centre; aunts Elizabeth and Jennifer Lynn; his great-aunt Betty Lynn; and his cousin Alexandra Lynn. Welcome.

Ms. Daiene Vernile: I want to add something to the Lynn family. Although they are in Etobicoke Centre, a large contingent is from Kitchener Centre, so I want the Kitchener people to give us a wave—thank you.

I also mention that Matthew Lynn was very excited to serve when he heard he would be doing this in May, but was very disappointed when the writ was dropped and we were into an election. However, on hearing that we were back at it this summer, although the members may not be too happy to be here, I will tell you that the pages are very excited to be back serving, so thank you.

Hon. Deborah Matthews: Speaker, I am delighted to welcome Michael and Maggie Donolo, who are here watching their sister Annie Donolo, who is my legislative assistant, at work.

Hon. James J. Bradley: Mr. Speaker, I’d like to introduce people who are on their way at the present time: Councillor Bruce Williamson of city council in St. Catharines, along with his son Glen Williamson, and a friend, Malcolm Cavanagh, who will be here with us shortly in the members’ gallery.

Oral Questions

Ontario budget

Mr. Jim Wilson: Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Premier. Premier, the direction that you chose to take with this budget is one that obviously the PC Party fundamentally disagrees with. It’s obvious in how you ignore Ontario’s massive debt, high unemployment and credit rating warnings that balancing the budget is not a priority for you. The fact that you have no detailed plan to reduce costs is more proof that you’re just not serious.

But the day of reckoning is going to come when Ontario’s lenders tell you that Ontario’s credit card has maxed out. Premier, how high are Ontario’s borrowing costs going to get before you tell Ontario’s bankers how you’re going to balance the budget?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: I’m sure that the Leader of the Opposition just neglected to mention that the Dominion Bond Rating Service today has confirmed our rating and our outlook, and according to—

Applause.

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: That’s right. According to DBRS, the trend on all ratings remains stable, supported by five consecutive years of lower-than-expected deficits.

I would suggest to the member opposite that, yes, we do have a fundamental disagreement with them about what the future should hold for the people of the province of Ontario. What we believe the future should hold is a thriving economy, bolstered by and supported by a government that understands that investments are important, community by community, whether they’re in the education of the children and the grandchildren of those communities or whether they’re in their transportation infrastructure.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Jim Wilson: Premier, you often talk about building Ontario up, but the only thing that you’re building up is a tremendous debt load for future generations. If you won’t tell us where you’re going to cut, then will you at least tell Ontarians where you’re going to raise their taxes? Because it’s being said that you can’t have an activist agenda without raising taxes.

So where will those next tax increases be? Premier, are you planning on raising land transfer taxes for homebuyers? Are you planning on raising eco fees or the cost of vehicle registration? Will you raise the gas tax? Which Ontarians are you going to hit the hardest with your inevitable tax increases?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: If the Leader of the Opposition would read the budget, he would see exactly where those decision points are, Mr. Speaker. It’s very clear that we have laid out the investments we are proposing, but we’ve also addressed the revenue side of the ledger.

We’ve made it clear that we are going to ask the top 2% of earners in the province to pay a little bit more. We’ve said that we are going to make sure that the assets that are owned by the people of Ontario are working as hard as they can and that their value is optimized for the people of the province.

We’ve made those decisions; they’re all laid out in the budget. I know that the Leader of the Opposition will take a second look so he can see those measures in place.

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

Mr. Jim Wilson: Premier, you have not been honest with the people of Ontario. You have no detailed plan to balance the books within the next three years. Despite what Dominion Bond Rating has said, Moody’s and others—Standard and Poor’s has you on a watch list. Moody’s has you on a negative outlook.

Your borrowing costs are going to go up. You’re going to have to touch front-line services. In fact, in an unguarded moment yesterday, you did say, “We will cut where we must.” Even Smokey Thomas, head of OPSEU, called you out yesterday when he said, “With what they’re promising to spend and how they’re promising to control costs, the public service can only shrink.”

All we’re asking, Premier, is for you to be honest. You’ve already fired nurses in Windsor. You’ve fired nurses and teachers in North Bay. You’ve cut physiotherapy services so that they’re a disgrace now for our seniors, particularly seniors in retirement homes. What further front-line services are you going to cut? Just be honest with the people of Ontario.

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: I think the member opposite knows that there are 20,000 more nurses in Ontario today than there were in 2003, Mr. Speaker.

I’m just going to quote from the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. Allan O’Dette, who is their CEO, says, “I think the budget strikes a good degree of balance.... We recognize the significance of having the pension funds available for that cohort of Ontarians that are going to need it.”

What our budget does is invest in the transit that we know is needed in communities in our urban and suburban centres and also in our rural and northern communities, because roads and bridges and transit are all part of that infrastructure that’s necessary, as well as hospitals and schools that we know are necessary for future prosperity.

We’re going to invest in the education of our people, of the children and the grandchildren who are going to be the job creators of the future. We’re going to set up an Ontario Retirement Pension Plan because we know that people are not able to save enough, and they need that security in their retirement.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I’m just going to ask everyone to settle down.

New question.

Fish and wildlife management

Mr. Jeff Yurek: My question is to the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry. Minister, your ministry recently outlined plans to levy a number of additional fees on hunters and anglers: for instance, your plan—and this is for the first time ever—to require seniors to pay for fishing licences, something they’ve long been exempted from.

This comes after the ministry reported that the special purpose account, which is funded by licence fees and is required to be used for purposes of managing Ontario’s fish and wildlife resources, increased by 31% from 2010 to 2011.

Yet just last year, the MNR announced layoffs and reductions that prompted the Environmental Commissioner to state, “It appears that the Ministry of Natural Resources is walking away from many parts of its job to safeguard wildlife and natural resources.”

Minister, how can you justify levying additional fees when your revenues are up and, according to the province’s environmental watchdog, you’re doing less work?

Hon. Bill Mauro: I want to thank the member for the question. What I would begin by saying is that what’s occurring within the ministry today is no different than what has been going on for a very long time.

The member will know that the special purpose account has been around for a very long time. The percentage of money that flows into that account is approximately 66% from users and approximately 33% from the CRF.

On a go-forward basis, there’s an acknowledgement that there are challenges with the SPA. They’re concerned about the revenue side in terms of the revenue that will flow in there. This is being witnessed right across the country. It makes complete sense to everybody that there should be a review of the account. That’s what has occurred. No final decisions have been made. It has been posted on the registry. The results are internal, and at some point in the near future we’ll be making a decision. Nothing has been decided at this point.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary.

Mr. Jeff Yurek: Back to the minister: Minister, I’d like to ask you more about recent figures for the account, but your ministry has not released the annual report for the special purpose account for the last two years. I have the 2010-11 report sitting on my desk; it’s 10 pages long, with little to zero detail. I was told by your office that I have to wait until this fall to get the 2011-12 report and then another year for the 2012-13 report. Minister, you’re asking hunters and anglers of this province to pony up more money, but you can’t even produce a 10-page report about where the money goes until two years after it’s relevant.

Minister, with the Environmental Commissioner observing a decrease in your resource management activities and your lack of transparency when it comes to reporting the state of the special purpose account, how can you expect hunters and anglers in this province just to give you more money?

Hon. Bill Mauro: To repeat, we haven’t done that yet. The posting is on the EBR. No final decisions have yet been made.

I would give the member one example of what has been done very recently in the ministry when it comes to the sustainability of the fish and wildlife sector in the province of Ontario. We just committed—I think the number was about $5 million—for the moose aerial inventory in several wildlife management units in northwestern Ontario. That was key and instrumental in maintaining the sustainability of the moose inventory in the province of Ontario.

What that investment found was that, in fact, moose numbers had significantly declined. There is serious concern about what’s going on with moose inventory in Ontario. It was that investment of money, some of which comes from the SPA that the member is speaking to today, that is going to infuse our future decision- and policy-making on a go-forward basis. It’s necessary. If we’re serious about maintaining fish and wildlife in the province of Ontario, we need to have the means to do that. This is one of the means. No final decisions have been made just yet.

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

Mr. Jeff Yurek: Minister, if you were serious about being open and transparent, we’d have the details of the SPA fund in our hands today.

In addition to your ministry delivering its SPA report two years after the fact, there is no detail on how the money is spent. I’m concerned that you, like the rest of your government, feel it’s okay to continue to ask Ontarians to pay more without being fully accountable. Hunters and anglers are not able to see where their money goes, and yet you want to levy them with additional fees.

Minister, your government has overspent for years and now Ontario faces a $12.5-billion deficit and a possible credit downgrade. Is levying more fees on hunters, fishers and our seniors your strategy to balance the budget?

Hon. Bill Mauro: Once again, the same question—three times. As I’ve mentioned to the member already, no final decisions have been made on what will be done with the SPA. Everything is on the table. The process, the consultation, was posted on the EBR, I think sometime in April. It was there for 45 days. All of the responses are now in-house, and in the near future we will be making decisions on what we will do.

I will say to the member again: If we are serious about maintaining, in a sustainable fashion, fish and wildlife populations in the province of Ontario, we need to have the means to do that. I am not giving the member my position on this. I’m simply saying that, as a government, we all know that we need to have the means with which to do this. The SPA is one of the means—66% has traditionally come from the SPA; 33% has traditionally come from the CRF. We will make decisions in the near future. We will communicate those decisions to my critic. Again, today, I thank him for the questions, restating: No final decisions have been made as of yet.

Ontario budget

Ms. Andrea Horwath: My question is for the Premier. New Democrats have been calling this a Trojan Horse budget because it looks like one thing, but inside are all kinds of surprises that the Liberals would rather keep hidden.

Interjections.

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

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The Minister of Aboriginal Affairs will withdraw.

Hon. David Zimmer: Withdraw.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Please ask your question.

Ms. Andrea Horwath: It looks like one thing, but inside are all sorts of surprises that the Liberals would want to keep hidden.

In fact, the Globe and Mail says, in black and white, that there is a major gap between the “government’s rhetoric surrounding the budget and the actual budget.” They say: “The actual budget … is an austerity budget.”

The Liberals’ plan says that there is going to be $3.15 billion that’s coming from the sale of public assets, but the Premier won’t even say those words. Why won’t the Premier come clean with her plan to sell off public assets like the LCBO, the OPG and Hydro One?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: That plan that the leader of the third party is talking about doesn’t exist. The fact is that we have asked Ed Clark, who is the retiring CEO of the Toronto-Dominion Bank, to look at the assets that are owned by the people of Ontario. We’ve asked him to make sure that those assets are producing the highest return for the people of Ontario, because we believe that assets that were purchased and created and have worked for a number of years—that the money that we can realize from those should be reinvested, that those dollars should be reinvested in services and in assets for the future.

So, yes, we will sell real estate, Mr. Speaker. We will sell the LCBO headquarters. We’ve talked about that, and we will do that. But in terms of the other assets, that’s an ongoing process—

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

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Well, Speaker, I don’t know how the Liberals plan to find $3.15 billion. If their budget says they’re going to do it by selling off assets and the Premier says they’re not, who knows, really, what the Liberals are up to in the province of Ontario?

Another thing that is hidden in the Liberal budget is massive cuts. One editorial in the National Post said that the Liberal Party “is not being straight with citizens when it maps out its plan for the next few years.” Page 6 of the budget speech says the Liberals will “continue to cut.” Will the Premier come clean with her plan on cuts and tell Ontarians exactly what’s on the Liberal chopping block, Speaker?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Mr. Speaker, let me just frame this answer by saying to the leader of the third party that we recognize that there are challenges that we are confronting as a province. We recognize that there is a fiscal challenge ahead of us, and our budget addresses that and it addresses the need for investments right now to make sure that the economy can thrive. Those two things can exist, and do exist, side by side in our budget.

I understand that the leader of the third party wants a simplistic analysis of the situation in Ontario, because simplistic is easier for her to talk about. But, Mr. Speaker, the reality is that it is complex. There are competing priorities, and we have to address them both. That’s what our budget does, Mr. Speaker, and the investments that we are committed to are a very important part of that future economic growth.

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

Ms. Andrea Horwath: What New Democrats are looking for is the truth. What exactly exists in that budget that is going to get this government the cuts that they want? That’s what we’re asking.

It’s apparent that some of the cuts are going to be coming from public services. Ontarians just voted against firing 100,000 people, but Don Drummond says that the Liberal plan could mean 100,000 job cuts. Bloomberg News said the budget could mean the deepest cuts since Mike Harris, and yesterday the finance minister stubbornly refused to answer questions about how many public service jobs the Liberals will, in fact, cut. So I guess it’s one more thing that’s hidden in the Trojan Horse budget, Speaker.

Will the Premier give the people of Ontario a straight answer on how many nurses, firefighters, paramedics, early childhood educators and so many other public service workers are going to be fired in the province of Ontario under their plan?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: The remarkable thing about this line of questioning is that the leader of the third party based her—albeit disjointed and disparate—platform on our fiscal plan. She used our fiscal plan as the foundation and then said she would go $600 million more in terms of reductions, Mr. Speaker.

So here’s the thing: Our plan deals with the fiscal reality and lays out a path to balance by 2017-18, which she agreed with when she put together her list of platform items. But our plan also invests in the people of this province, invests in the schools and the hospitals that we know we need, invests in and sets up a made-in-Ontario retirement pension plan, increases the Ontario Child Benefit, increases social assistance benefits. All of those things, Mr. Speaker, are things that I would have thought that the NDP would have supported.

Manufacturing jobs

Ms. Andrea Horwath: My next question is for the Premier. One of the things she forgets—like Liberals love to do: tell half the story—is that our plan included significant revenues, which they don’t have, which is why they’re making cuts and selling assets. Scratch the surface of this Trojan Horse plan and you’ll find a plan that leaves Bay Street better off, but it leaves folks on Main Street out of work and out of pocket.

Last month, 34,000 Ontarians lost a job, and this is what the Premier had to say about the manufacturing sector in our province: “Believe it or not, a lot has changed in Ontario since 1976.” One thing that clearly has not changed is Liberal arrogance, and it showed in spades yesterday.

Is the Premier’s plan to abandon manufacturing once and for all in the province of Ontario?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Well, Mr. Speaker, what I’m not doing is burying my head in the sand and saying, “I wish it were 1976.” We’re not doing that. Even though I was way younger in 1976, I do not think that it is responsible for the government to say, “We wish it was like that again.”

The fact is, time has moved on. We are in a global economy. We’re in a global competition. If we don’t work with businesses to help them to upgrade so that they’re able to compete, if we don’t play to our strengths in the auto sector and in aerospace and in agri-food and help those businesses to be competitive and invest in the new high-tech industries of the future, if we don’t do that, we can wish all we want that it was 1976, but it’s not going to be, and we will not have the bright future that we want to create—

Interjections.

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

Supplementary?

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Mr. Speaker, what I would suggest is that it’s not responsible to sit by and watch 300,000 manufacturing jobs—good manufacturing jobs—walk out of this province with no plan whatsoever to stem it.

Yesterday, the Premier insisted she has a jobs plan for 2014, but it’s the same jobs plan that put Ontario’s unemployment rate above the national average in 2007 and it’s the same plan that put Ontario’s unemployment rate above the national average in 2008 and in 2009 and 2010 and 2011 and 2012 and 2013. The Premier’s plan for jobs in 2014 is more no-strings-attached giveaways. It hasn’t worked for years. Why does the Premier think it’s going to work now all of a sudden?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: The work that we have done over the last number of years—and all of those years that the leader of the third party speaks of are years that are since the economic downturn. The reality is that there are parts of this province, including the parts of the province with a high manufacturing sector, that were hit very hard.

I said on London radio this morning that there are parts of southwestern Ontario that were hit extremely hard because of their reliance on manufacturing. It is our responsibility as a government to make sure that we make the investments and work with those communities so that that manufacturing sector can be competitive with all of the global jurisdictions. It is our responsibility to recognize that we have to have a strategy that acknowledges the realities of 2014. That’s how we’ve managed to create and foster more than 460,000 net new jobs since the economic downturn.

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

Ms. Andrea Horwath: I’m hopeful about Ontario’s future. But the Premier seems to think that good manufacturing jobs are a relic of the 1970s. I’m hopeful about jobs as well, Speaker. I am hopeful about jobs, but when 34,000 Ontarians lost a job last month, our manufacturing sector hit nearly a 40-year low in terms of jobs. When our unemployment rate is stubbornly stuck above the national average for years and years on end, can the Premier explain to Ontarians exactly how her plan, which hasn’t worked for years, is somehow going to start working today?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: The recovery that has been in place and the 460,000 net new jobs that have been created in Ontario since the economic downturn, I think, are evidence that, although there is a fragility to that recovery, there is a recovery. We are coming back, Mr. Speaker. But now is not the moment to talk Ontario down; now is the moment to support the communities, to support the businesses in this province, to partner with them, to build the infrastructure that is necessary, that they need in order to be able to move their goods around and that their employees need in order to be able to move around the province. Now is the moment that those investments are important.

That’s why our budget is crafted the way it is: with up-front investment in those things that are necessary to help the economy thrive, and a recognition that, at the same time, we need to eliminate the deficit by 2017-18.

There’s no either/or there; we have to do both. That’s what our budget lays out, Mr. Speaker.

Apple industry

Mr. Bill Walker: Speaker, through you to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: Minister, as you’re aware, the apple growers in my riding of Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound and across Ontario have faced challenging times in the last few years. However, they are looking forward to moving forward to rejuvenate their $60-million-strong sector. Specifically, they want your help in facilitating a revitalization plan so they can plant new varieties of apples which produce higher yields.

Implementing Ontario’s own apple revitalization plan would ensure we’re sustaining and enhancing a key aspect of our agricultural sector across the province, and specifically in the riding of Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound and the southern Georgian Bay area, which represent a quarter of the province’s apple production.

Minister, my question to you: What are you prepared to do to revitalize and rebuild Ontario’s apple industry?

Hon. Jeff Leal: I want to thank the member from Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound. He did provide me with a detailed letter yesterday on this very important issue. My ministry now has commenced a review of this letter. It would be my commitment to get back to the member for Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound as quickly as possible.

We do know that the apple industry is a crucial part of Ontario’s agri-food business. Just a week ago, I had the opportunity to be fielding phone calls; a former colleague, Bill Murdoch, has Rock N Talk with Bill Murdoch, a phone-in show. I spent an hour on that show, and there were very detailed questions about the apple sector and other sectors of the agri-food economy in that member’s riding.

As I said, I make a commitment to that member to get back to him as quickly as possible on this very important issue.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Bill Walker: Again to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs: As you’re aware, we have a big opportunity to grow Ontario’s apple industry so that we’re able to produce enough apples to supply the market, to increase our export prospects and to create jobs while strengthening this important agricultural partner. That your budget commits $40 million to food processing but commits none to food growers is disappointing and a bit perplexing.

Minister, will you commit to utilizing a portion of the $40 million to facilitate the development of Ontario’s own apple revitalization plan and be a champion for Ontario’s apple industry?

Hon. Jeff Leal: I want to thank the member for his supplementary. He did make a very positive suggestion, and we’ll certainly follow up on that.

Mr. Speaker, later this year, the Premier and our minister of trade will be going on a trade mission to China. That will be a perfect opportunity to talk about the great food that’s grown in Ontario, to look at new markets for such things as apples that are grown in Ontario; that will be a great opportunity to do that.

I want to thank the member for his question and I want to commend all members of this House to get to your local farmers’ market and buy those Ontario apples—second to none.

Ontario budget

Ms. Catherine Fife: My question is to the Minister of Finance. Here are the facts of your so-called progressive budget: Program spending is flatlined for three years between 2014-15 and 2017-18, but given inflation and the growing population, that’s essentially a plan to cut spending by 3% each year. That’s a 9% cut in real terms in program spending over three years. You didn’t talk about that during the election. Even the Globe and Mail calls this budget for what it is: It is an austerity budget.

Will the Premier finally admit that a budget that cuts real program spending by 9% is anything but progressive? It is an austerity budget, pure and simple.

Hon. Charles Sousa: It was a real pleasure yesterday to reintroduce the budget that is progressive, that is positive, that does balance the books by 2017-18 and looks after the best interests of the people of our province—people of the province who have, in fact, reviewed the budget over the last 60 days and have endorsed exactly the plan that we’re putting forward, and it’s a 10-year plan.

We recognize the challenges that we face. That is why we have taken all the essential, necessary steps to recalibrate our spending where necessary, and we will cut where we can. We will invest where we must, because that is what’s going to enable us to succeed in the future for the benefit of our children and our grandchildren, so that we do not pass the burden of debt on to future generations.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Catherine Fife: As I was saying, this is an austerity budget. And it gets worse, because that 9% real cut to programs and services is going to cut far deeper in some areas than in others. This budget will hurt the people of this province, and you know it. Everyone in this House actually knows it.

We’re talking about a potential 10% cut or more in programs and services that everyday folks depend upon. But this government won’t come clean with the public and tell us where the cuts are going to fall.

Will this government finally admit that its so-called progressive budget is truly a Trojan Horse budget, and will it tell us where those 9% cuts are going to happen, where it’s going to hurt the people of this province, and how you are actually going to balance this budget?

Hon. Charles Sousa: We are making the necessary investments. We are doing what the people of Ontario and their priorities have brought to us, because we took over 600,000 submissions in preparing this budget and this plan. We are continuing to do what is necessary to provide a jobs fund to enable more jobs and more investment in our province. We are the top jurisdiction in North America for foreign direct investment, surpassing California, Texas, New York and every other province in Canada.

But this is what the member opposite has voted against in terms of the progressive nature of this budget. She voted against a made-in-Ontario pension plan. She voted against increasing the Ontario Child Benefit. She voted against increasing social assistance benefits. She voted against increasing employment benefits, and $810 million for adults with developmental disabilities. She voted against low-income health benefits and much more for our young people and personal support workers.

Disaster relief

Mr. Todd Smith: My question this morning is for the Premier. Premier, just after the Easter weekend in April, you visited the flood-affected areas in Belleville only to let people there know that you had no immediate assistance to provide either to the municipality or to homeowners. One of the residents on River Road, Derrick Swoffer, actually said that you could visit his property as long as you did something about it. Three months later, here we are, and the homes in Foxboro and Tweed that were hit by the flooding are still awaiting some kind of action.

Premier, why does it seem that only residents in some disaster-affected parts of the province receive immediate help from this government?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: I think the member opposite knows full well that when there is an application in terms of disaster relief, that has to go through a process. I think he knows that perfectly well. He also knows that when there is a disaster—and it doesn’t matter where it is in the province—there are emergency management personnel who are on the ground. They are at the disposal of those municipalities in every situation, Mr. Speaker.

I spoke with mayors in the region that he’s talking about. I’ve spoken with mayors and councillors in other parts of the province where there have been problems, whether it was with tornadoes or flooding. He knows full well that the emergency management response folks are available immediately. Those are provincial resources that are at the disposal of the municipalities. He knows that.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Todd Smith: Let me remind the Premier that you could personally deliver gift cards and disaster relief when it was a riding that you wanted to take from the NDP. You were there the next morning knocking on their door with a gift card, with a photo op going.

The problem is that it’s not like this kind of a delay is a one-time occurrence. This isn’t even the only municipality in Prince Edward–Hastings that is waiting for disaster relief. Prince Edward county has been given the runaround in trying to fill out its disaster relief paperwork for over a half-million-dollars’ worth of damage that it sustained during that same ice storm where you were gladly handing out the gift cards here in Toronto. In fact, your government has had to start up a special program just to deal with the issue for Prince Edward county—more red tape.

Premier, you could find immediate relief for other municipalities affected by last winter’s ice storm. Why is it that you can’t do the right thing for the people of Prince Edward county and Prince Edward–Hastings?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: That’s a question that is well beneath the dignity of any member of this House, because the reality is that it is the responsibility of government to deal with and to work with all of the people of the province, and that is what I do every single day; that is what our government does every single day. To suggest that we would treat one part of the province differently than others is simply not the case.

The Ontario Disaster Relief Assistance Program, ODRAP, helps municipalities and individuals, but the member opposite knows perfectly well that there is a process. There is a process that requires that there be a distinction between what is the municipal infrastructure that needs support and what is the personal and private property that needs support. It takes time to unravel that, whether it’s in Goderich or in Thunder Bay or in Peterborough or whether it is in Prince Edward–Hastings. The reality is that that process is in place, and we will make sure that—

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

Highway improvement

Mr. Joe Cimino: The question is to the Minister of Transportation. The people of the north have long called for the widening of northern highways as the lifeline to their communities. In particular, the four-laning or twinning of Highway 69 is a must for the health and safety of those who travel north or south along that corridor, as well as the economic development of the region.

The budget tabled in this House tells us that in the last 10 years only 50 kilometres of Highway 69 between Sudbury and Parry Sound have been widened. Right now there are 18 kilometres under construction, with another 80 kilometres left to go. Meanwhile, the government has stated that the entire project will be completed by 2017-18. Minister, will the government complete the four-laning of all of Highway 69 by 2017-18?

Hon. Steven Del Duca: I want to begin, because I believe this is the first question that the newly elected member from Sudbury has had the chance to ask, by congratulating him on his election win.

I also want to say that this government, over the last 10 years, has an extraordinary story to tell with respect to the commitments and the investments that we made in northern Ontario. That is in large part due to the fact that the members who served in this caucus and this government over the last 10 years have worked very, very hard to make sure that we are moving forward in a positive way with the kinds of projects—including the project that the member from Sudbury has just talked about.

In fact, since 2003, our government has invested more than $601 million, and we’ve spent that on expansion to four-lane and to initiate other safety improvements on Highway 69 between, for example, Port Severn and Sudbury.

We know we have additional work to do. We will continue to work hard. In yesterday’s budget, we talked about the $29 billion that we intend to invest over the next 10 years to make sure that every corner of this province is properly served with the transportation infrastructure that we need.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Joe Cimino: Minister, I understand that the last 80-kilometre stretch of Highway 69 to be twinned first involves consultations with First Nations. What guarantees will this minister make that the twinning of Highway 69 will be completed by 2017-18?

Hon. Steven Del Duca: I thank the member opposite for the supplementary question. As I said in my initial answer, we have worked very hard over the last 10 years to make sure that all corners of this province, including northern Ontario, including the community of Sudbury and areas near Sudbury, have had the investments they need.

As has been mentioned, 50 kilometres of this particular highway have already been completed and an additional 20 kilometres are currently under construction. I know that Ministry of Transportation staff are working very hard to get the needed approvals for the remaining 82 kilometres to complete the corridor.

What I also know is that in yesterday’s budget, as I mentioned a second ago, we committed to invest $29 billion over the next 10 years to make sure that communities right across this province, including Sudbury and across northern Ontario, have the transportation infrastructure they need. We will continue, on this side of the House, to work very hard to make sure that we fulfill these commitments.

Small business

Ms. Harinder Malhi: My question is for the Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure. Small businesses are the cornerstone of our economy. In fact, 99% of businesses in Ontario are small or medium-sized. Our government’s plan to create jobs and grow our economy will support small businesses by continuing to cut red tape, invest in infrastructure and make smart strategic investments that create conditions to allow businesses what they need to thrive. The minister recently reintroduced a bill that would legislate some of these objectives.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners in Brampton–Springdale are anxious to hear how this legislation will make running a business in Ontario easier. Could the minister please provide this House with an overview of the legislation and how it supports our government’s plan to create jobs and grow our economy?

Hon. Brad Duguid: Congratulations to the member from Brampton–Springdale for her first question in the Legislature, albeit with a little hesitation at first. But she’s up on her feet and it’s great to see.

Small business is critical to our economy. Their innovation and entrepreneurial spirit create jobs and drive our next-generation economy.

This government is committed to working with small businesses and the CFIB to do everything we can to make it easier to do business in Ontario. We have already removed 80,000 regulatory requirements on business. That’s a 70% cut in regulatory burden.

The Better Business Climate Act, if passed, will commit the Ontario government to measuring and reporting annually on progress made in reducing regulatory burden. It also requires ministries to undertake to measure the impacts of one burden reduction project every year. By 2016-17, that will save Ontario businesses about $100 million.

We’re proud of this piece of legislation. I encourage the members opposite to support us in moving forward on behalf of small businesses in this province.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Harinder Malhi: Thank you, Minister, for the update. It’s great to hear how small businesses are being supported across Ontario, and I am glad to see that this government recognizes the contribution that small businesses make to our economy.

In my riding of Brampton–Springdale, my constituents are looking to understand how our strategic investments and our partnerships with businesses are creating jobs and growing our economy across Ontario.

Our government is committed to partnering with industry in a fiscally responsible way through initiatives like the Southwestern and Eastern Ontario Development Funds and the Rural Economic Development Fund. These investments help them compete and expand operations. Most importantly, these funds create jobs and grow our economy.

Mr. Speaker, through you to the Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure: Could the minister please elaborate on how this legislation will help Ontario build strong clusters to sustain our thriving economic sectors across the province?

Hon. Brad Duguid: We’re passionately committed to building a more competitive business environment in Ontario. By building regional clusters and reducing regulatory burden, this legislation, if passed, will create jobs and grow our economy in all areas of the province. It will require government, in consultation with business, academia, labour and non-profit organizations, to develop plans for regional economic clusters.

We know that strong regional hubs spur innovation and collaboration, and when sectors thrive, our province is better positioned to attract new global investments. Cisco and OpenText are just two examples of global companies that chose to invest in Ontario because of our thriving tech sector.

This legislation would require government to publicly release cluster development plans with a mandate to review every five years. Combined with the measures proposed in our budget, these measures would build a stronger, more competitive Ontario economy and create jobs for our province.

Invasive species

Mr. Toby Barrett: To the Minister of Natural Resources: I raised the question of Asian carp devastation with your predecessor, and he told me to go lobby my federal cousins. So I did talk to my federal counterpart, and I’m pleased to announce that they have tackled the problem. Haldimand–Norfolk Cabinet Minister Diane Finley and Bruce–Grey–Owen Sound MP Larry Miller announced the opening of a state-of-the-art research facility in Burlington that will allow the analysis of samples in Canada, rather than waiting on American facilities to do the work. The federal government also committed to more monitoring at detection sites and collaborative research with the United States.

So the ball is in your court, Minister. My question: When is your ministry going to go a step beyond the ban on live Asian carp and require that any fish imported for food be gutted?

Hon. Bill Mauro: I want to thank the member for the question. He absolutely raises an issue that is of serious concern to those of us on this side of the House and, I think, all parties, including both opposition parties. I want to thank him for the question.

I would say the obvious response for me, as the new Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, would be to congratulate the former minister on the introduction in the Legislature of the Invasive Species Act, which in fact was introduced into the Legislature not that long ago. As a result of the opposition parties making a decision that an election was necessary, that particular piece of legislation did not have an opportunity to come forward. Obviously, it’s our intention to reintroduce that legislation at the very earliest opportunity.

Obviously, that speaks very clearly to how importantly we take this issue as well as the issue around all invasive species in the province of Ontario. We look forward to the opportunity to reintroduce this legislation at the earliest opportunity.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Toby Barrett: Certainly you know that if Asian carp do become established in the Great Lakes it will devastate our commercial fishery, our recreational fishery and our boating industry.

Minister, I travelled on my own dime to testify before the US Army Corps of Engineers on alternatives for the Chicago-area waterways. When I read the final transcripts of agencies and individuals who testified, there was no representation from the Ontario government.

Why does your government still not take this seriously enough to even provide comments, let alone redirect necessary funding? We know MNR has finally been allowed by this government to table legislation, not that the carp are going to obey it. When will government resources be reallocated to your ministry, to MNR, to help steer off this clear and present danger?

Interjections.

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

Minister?

Hon. Bill Mauro: Again, I thank the member for his question. I will recommend and commend and thank the federal government for their investment. I did receive a note on this last week or two weeks ago. Their investment—I think the lab is in Burlington—is welcomed. It’s proactive. We thank them for their investment speaking very clearly to an issue that is of great concern to us.

But I would say to the member that, as is often the case, Ontario was proactive on the issue and in fact moved on this issue far before this announcement last week about the lab in Burlington. Again, I think it was one or two years ago, a very short time ago, when, through our government, we made an investment of $15 million or so in an invasive species research centre in Sault Ste. Marie in the former minister’s riding.

In fact, I would say to the member that the legislation was there. We’ve invested in our own lab and research centre in Sault Ste. Marie on this issue. It speaks very clearly to obviously how seriously we’re taking the issue. As I’ve said, we look forward to the earliest opportunity to reintroduce the legislation, the Invasive Species—

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

School closures

Ms. Andrea Horwath: My question is for the Premier. The Liberal Trojan Horse budget contains a lot of surprises but it’s missing a lot of things, too. For years now, families in Kingston have been fighting to save their local schools and preserve their downtown, but Liberals refuse to listen. This budget does nothing to stop the closure of Kingston Collegiate and Queen Elizabeth Collegiate. In fact, it leaves even more schools at risk of closing right across the province.

Will the Premier explain why her Trojan Horse budget leaves Kingston schools on the chopping block?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Minister of Education.

Hon. Liz Sandals: I actually want to talk about some of the things that are in the budget for education. For example, over the next 10 years, we actually have an $11-billion investment in new infrastructure for schools. In particular, over the next few years we’ve got a huge investment of billions of dollars in funding to renew schools, because we know that many of the schools in Ontario were built for the baby boomer generation, and that in many schools in Ontario we actually do need to have some retrofitting and some renewal going on. We have a significant budget that is specifically targeted at renewing schools throughout Ontario that need some upgrading.

I am very proud of the fact that we have invested more in renewing schools and building new schools than any other government.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Speaker, this budget sends a pretty clear message to families. The government plans to do nothing to save local schools like the ones in Kingston. In fact, this Trojan Horse budget lays out a plan for even more school closures and consolidations in small towns and urban neighbourhoods across our province. Even more parents will be forced to fight just to keep their local neighbourhood school open.

The Liberals might call it a plan “to reduce surplus space,” but communities and families call it, plain and simple, school closures.

Why won’t the Premier listen to families right across Ontario and, instead of closing local schools, do the right thing and keep them open, including the ones in Kingston?

Hon. Liz Sandals: You know, one of the things that I found really fascinating when I was looking at their platform was that they thought it would be amazing if they spent $60 million on school infrastructure. Has anybody listened to this? Some $60 million versus billions, and they’re complaining that we’re not spending money on schools? Please, Speaker. This makes absolutely no sense.

But one of the things I was also delighted to see this year was that we’ve actually started to talk to boards about how they can make use of school space together, because there are a number of small rural communities where there are a number of schools, all of which are half empty. In fact, part of that capital funding is available to communities where the boards get together to use school spaces together and make sure they have a good learning place for children from a variety of boards.

Legal aid

Mrs. Cristina Martins: Ma question est pour la procureure générale.

Since 2003, our government has consistently demonstrated its commitment to ensuring equal access to justice for the people of Ontario. I know that the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Aid Ontario have worked together over the years to provide legal aid services in Ontario that are effective and sustainable and support our most vulnerable.

I also understand that Legal Aid Ontario, an arm’s-length and publicly funded agency, has introduced two new programs to further support community legal clinics and front-line client services. These clinics include valued agencies such as Parkdale Community Legal Services, West Toronto Community Legal Services, and Unison Health and Community Services, which together serve the riding of Davenport.

Mr. Speaker, could the Attorney General please tell us more about these programs introduced by Legal Aid Ontario?

Hon. Madeleine Meilleur: Je voudrais remercier la députée de Davenport et la féliciter pour son élection. Merci beaucoup.

Last week, Legal Aid Ontario introduced two new programs. Depending on an individual’s eligibility, the first program funds 10 hours with a family lawyer to engage in settlement discussions and finalize separation agreements. The other provides six hours of legal advice for those who have chosen mediation services to settle disputes.

Innovative legal service programs such as these two programs are made possible by commitments from our government, including the $30-million increase which we committed to in our 2013 budget. This funding is meant specifically for family law services and demonstrates our government’s belief that community and legal clinics play an integral role in Ontario’s justice system.

This is part of our poverty reduction strategy, and I was very pleased to see the announcement by Legal Aid Ontario last week.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mrs. Cristina Martins: I thank the Attorney General for that answer. I am pleased to hear of our government’s continued commitment to providing legal services to all Ontarians, regardless of their circumstances.

As the Attorney General just mentioned, in the 2013 budget, we committed to investing $30 million over the next three years in additional funding to Legal Aid Ontario. This funding will go directly to the improvement of front-line client services through family law service centres and community and legal aid, not only in Davenport but across the whole province.

Mr. Speaker, could the Attorney General please tell us how the 2014 budget, if passed, will continue to show our commitment to the delivery of front-line legal services?

Hon. Madeleine Meilleur: Again, Mr. Speaker, I’m so impressed with this member, because she really cares about constituents who are less fortunate in her community.

Mr. Speaker, I’m pleased to announce that, if passed, the 2014 budget includes a strategy to expand access to legal aid by raising the income eligibility threshold to qualify for legal aid assistance. Currently, Legal Aid Ontario’s income eligibility threshold is at $10,800 for an individual. The budget proposes an incremental increase of 6% per year over the next seven years.

Ontario’s legal aid system helps