 It is now time for a question period, the leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. Minister, last week we learned about an Ottawa man by the name of Eric Law. Mr. Law is 63 years old and has been diagnosed with multiple cirrhosis, diabetes, cancer behind his right eye, and a serious thyroid condition. Yet the Community Care Access Centre in Champlain that once treated Mr. Law has told him that they are no longer able to provide services to him because of an 11.3% increase in new and sicker patients. I don't know how much sicker you have to get. Minister, how many people across Ontario are being refused care by their local CCAC because your government wastes money on scandals like e-health, orange gas plants, and Mars? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I of course both appreciate the question and I'd be happy to follow up with this individual case that has been referenced by the Leader of the Opposition. And certainly, Mr. Speaker, it's important that we do whatever we can to ensure that particularly individuals, patients with complex needs it certainly seems that this individual fits into that category are able to provide or receive the services that they require. You know, it's our CCACs, there are 14 of them across the province and they are the primary mechanism through which we provide those services particularly home care but also community services with many, many transfer payment agencies and individuals that are providing that support. It's important to note that this year, in fact, in the budget we significantly increased our funding to home and community services by $260 million, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Back to the minister, Mr. Speaker. It's only going to get worse, as you know, the Conference Board of Canada recently reported that even without a single new program, a single new drug, or a single new health service your government will have to increase health funding each year by 4.7% just to accommodate population growth and inflation. That's twice of what you've budgeted for so far. So minister, how can you possibly accommodate the needs of an aging population when you're paying $11 billion in just debt interest payments alone this year? $11 billion when interest payments are at a 20-year low? What happens when they go up? How many more people won't be able to get frontline health care services? Thank you, minister. Well, Mr. Speaker, the reality is that we are providing more care to individuals like the one referenced by the leader of the opposition, and partly because of that $260 million increase to home and community care, which actually represents a 6% increase in funding for that sector. And it's allowed us to do many things, including setting that target of a five-day wait time for individuals from point of assessment to get their first treatment through home care. And in fact, as the member opposite, I think is well aware, we've dramatically increased our funding for CCACs. In fact, we've doubled it in the last decade from just over $1 billion to $2.4 billion where it stands now, and that's an increase of a significant increase that makes a difference and can translate actually very specific to there are more than a quarter of a million people that are receiving home care through our CCACs, Mr. Speaker, than were a decade ago. So we continue to make those investments. We're seeing the results, the improvement in the quality of care is so important to those individuals. Final supplementary. Well, Minister, you're already firing healthcare workers and cutting frontline services. The Timmins and District Hospital is feeling the full brunt of your inability to budget properly and your wasteful spending and inability to set priorities. They currently face a $4.5 million deficit and they're being forced to make tough decisions. They're cutting jobs and cutting services. They're actually laying off 40 healthcare workers, including nurses, and removing 26 hospital beds. So will you admit to the people like Mr. Law and the people of Timmins that this is just the first of many cuts that you'll be making to healthcare in Ontario over the next four years because of your fiscal mismanagement? Thank you, Minister. Well, Mr. Speaker, I can only imagine how serious the cuts in personnel in healthcare might have been had the party opposite actually won that last election. The reality is that the transformation that we've made in healthcare through the healthcare, the action plan for health, through the mechanisms that we put in place to improve the quality of health through our hospitals and through our home and community care have already had significant impacts in terms of the delivery of health services and to get back again to the original component of the members' question on the CCACs, half of patients with complex care needs referred through the hospital had their first service visit within one day, Mr. Speaker. They can't get any better than that. And in fact, 90% of patients had their first visit between one and five days. So we are making a difference. We're improving quality of care we're doing on budget. New question. Leader of the opposition? Mr. Speaker, again, my question is to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care. It's obvious your government's poor fiscal management is affecting front-line healthcare, whether you want to admit it or not, Minister. As of August, the Hamilton, Niagara, Haldeman and Brant Linn's wait times were worse than the provincial target in areas like MRIs, CT scans and knee replacements. And this Linn had the highest overall wait time for cancer surgeries in Ontario. My colleagues and I in the Progressive Service Caucus believe that the dedicated healthcare workers in those regions work hard day in and day out to help Ontarians who need their help, but, Minister, you're not giving them the resources and the tools they need to do their job. Do you really think that cutting 58 registered nursing positions, the equivalent to 110,000 hours of care each year at St. Joseph's Hospital in Hamilton, is going to help improve times in that region? Thank you, Minister. And thank you, Mr. Speaker. I appreciate the question again. And, Mr. Speaker, again, I get back to their commitment to fire 100,000 workers. Many of them in the healthcare sector, many in the education sector that I can only imagine what our healthcare system would look like now had they won the last election earlier this year. But, Mr. Speaker, in fact, when that government was in power, they didn't even measure wait times in our hospitals for important surgical and other procedures. We decided to change that. And when we came into government, we began to measure wait times. In fact, we're now investing $83 million specifically to address the issue of wait times so that people can get their important procedures, including surgery procedures and cancer treatments earlier. And when you look at in our hospitals, we lowered wait times. The ER wait times for the sickest patients have been cut, Mr. Speaker, by 29.3 percent. While at the same time the volumes in our ERs have increased by 39 percent. So we're making progress because of those investments. Well, Minister, these cuts are happening again, whether you want to admit it or not. There are results of wasted money, inability to set priorities. The billions of dollars wasted on your gas plant, e-health, orange and Mars scandals. And Ontarians are seeing the effects of your fiscal mismanagement on the front lines of healthcare. And it's not just in Hamilton and Timmins. Nurses are being fired across the province. 27 in London just recently, 22 nurses fired in Muskoka. 40 laid off in Oshawa, 40 in North Bay and another 90 in Ottawa. And I could go on. Minister, can you tell this assembly how many more registered nurses positions your government will cut throughout the province over this term of office? Mr. Speaker, I can certainly assure the member opposite that we won't be cutting the 10,000 nursing positions that you cut when you referred your government, referred to them as out-of-date like hula hoops in the 1990s. We're actually increasing the nursing positions. Stop the party. I'm noticing a trend that I'm going to stop on both sides when questions are put and when answers are put. Bring it down. Minister. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And it's true. The truth demonstrates that- Senator, please. A member from Bruce Gray-Oh, and Senator will come to order. And the member from here on Bruce will come to order. Kerry. So, Mr. Speaker, it is a fact that over 24,000 more nurses are working in Ontario since we took office, including more than 4,000 new nurses in 2013 alone, Mr. Speaker. So I don't know where the member opposite is getting his information. In fact, we've added on our ends alone, we've added more than 10,800 RN positions since 2013. And we have programs in place that support, including the guarantee that they'll get a job coming out of graduation so that gets them on that path for an urgent career. Thank you. We're continuing to invest in our nurses. Final supplementary. Mr. Speaker, it's interesting when the members talk about nursing cuts. When we were in office, they forget to mention the tens of thousands of nurses that we hired. There was a net increase when we expanded telehealth that was started by the Adelaide Community Care Access Centers across this province and shifted billions of dollars into frontline community home care, which no other government prior to us dared to do. Max, well, the president of the Terrell Nurses Association, Linda Haslam-Straut, said recently, Ontarians have lost millions of hours of registered nurse care from their hospitals in the past two years because of flat-lined hospital funding. She said your government has cut 1,600 registered nursing positions. Mr. Speaker wants to know where we get the facts. I'm quoting the president of the Nurses Association herself. Is she telling the truth? Is she not telling the truth, minister? 1,600 positions. Thank you. How many more are you going to cut? Thank you. The member from Chatham-Candescence will come to order, and I didn't get everyone quiet so that everyone can get their last shots in. Minister. Well, Mr. Speaker, perhaps I should start by saying Linda is not the president of the RNAO. She's the head of the Ontario Nurses Association. Mr. Speaker, and when I met her last week, and quite frankly, Mr. Speaker, the week before, to continue our work with our front-line nurses, with the represent, the organizations that so aptly represent them, we are working together to continue to make progress on important issues with our nurses as we are with our healthcare professionals. Mr. Speaker, the member opposite neglects to say that we've opened 25 nurse practitioner-led clinics in this province as well. So we're not only expanding the use of our nurses, but we're also expanding their scope of practice, Mr. Speaker, so they can do more so those well-trained RNs and RPMs, that they can actually provide the care that they're trained to do in our community, in our hospitals, right across this province. They're doing a fantastic job. I don't know why the member doesn't realize that there's always more work to be done. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. New question from the Leader of the Third Party. Thank you, Speaker. My question is for the acting Premier. Selling off our hydro system didn't make sense when Mike Harris did it, and it doesn't make sense when the Liberals are doing it. We've seen this movie before, Speaker, and we know how it ends. If this government wants to ensure that Ontario can pay the bills, will they say no to privatizing hydro and say yes to closing HST loopholes that will cost us billions of dollars? Deputy Premier. Well, thank you, Speaker. And what I can tell you that on this side, we are saying yes to building transportation infrastructure. We are saying yes to building highways and bridges and transit. Speaker, these are important public assets that we have to pay for. So we have engaged with experts to see how can we recycle the assets that we hold so we can build that transportation infrastructure that Ontarians so desperately need. So, Speaker, I think that we need to maximize the benefit for Ontarians. We actually laid out this plan in the budget. We laid out this plan in our platform, Speaker. And what's interesting about this is that the Leader of the Third Party actually ran on our fiscal plan, which included maximizing assets. Thank you, Supplementary Speaker. The Liberal Government Plan is one that gives the wealthiest corporations a brand-new loophole so that they can write the HST off of the company car and box seats for the leafs. Well, at the same time, Ontarians will have to add private hydro profits to their monthly bills because the Liberals are privatizing local hydro utilities. Both schemes, Speaker, help out those who need the help the least and leave Ontarians falling behind. Now, is this the Liberals' definition of progressive, Speaker? Thank you. Mr. Finance. Mr. Finance. Speaker, you know what was progressive? The budget that we introduced in this House twice, Mr. Speaker. That talked a lot about investing in our people, investing in infrastructure, investing in public transit, investing in our children's future. The opposition, the third party, recognized the opportunities that had existed in that budget for the benefit of all Ontarians and they chose not to support it. Ontarians did choose to support that budget. They did realize and recognize that we need to optimize our assets in order to contribute into those investments that are going to that better returns, Mr. Speaker. And that's exactly what we're doing to do so. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Liberals like to say it was short-sighted when the Harris government sold the 407. But they're directing the sequel to that movie, year and now, Speaker. Stopping new HST loopholes will keep money in the provincial treasury year after year after year. Money that could be used for projects like infrastructure, Speaker. Selling our local hydro utilities short-term money, but leave us all paying more in the long run. Liberals used to oppose privatization, Speaker. How did they lose their way? That's rich. Well, Mr. Speaker, the NDP did the following. They did nine private power deals when they were in office. We have made it clear that we are not going to sell off our assets. What we are doing is maximizing the opportunities to generate more revenue, more dividend for those investments that we're making in transit. And that is all we're doing. And it would be irresponsible, I believe, for someone not to look at the opportunities that exist within government. They choose to turn a blind eye and yet they did exactly what they said that they're threatening us to do. They, in fact, made private power deals. We are saying we're going to protect the public interest. It's the priority of what we do and what we said to the council. That's exactly how we're going to proceed. Thank you. Sorry, a new question. Speaker, we didn't sell off public utilities. My next question, Speaker, is for the acting premier. Auto sector jobs are at the heart of the Windsor economy and are critical to our provincial recovery. Now, I know firsthand what an auto sector job means. I know that it can raise a family in the room. No, my father was an auto worker, so I know what that means. And that's why, like so many people in Windsor, I was pretty frustrated to learn that Ford's new engine line is going to be located in Mexico and not in Windsor. This isn't good enough for the people of Windsor, Speaker, nor for the people of Ontario. Does the Deputy Premier get that? Well, Speaker, our government is absolutely committed to partnering with the auto sector. We have a very strong track record. In fact, I think there is no government in the history of this province that has done more to support the auto sector. Speaker, we will do that. We will invest taxpayer dollars, Speaker, only when there is a strong return for Ontarians. I do want to say a thank you to Jerry Diaz and to Unifor really working hard to seek out some possibilities. And I want to say thank you to Ford for their ongoing investments in Ontario. So, Speaker, since 2003 we've made strategic investments with five auto assemblers in Ontario, as well as numerous auto plants across the province. Speaker, Ontario's unemployment rate has been above the national average for years. The province still has not recovered the 300,000 manufacturing jobs lost during the recession. Windsor has been one of the hardest hit communities in this province. After almost a dozen years in government, don't the Liberals think it's finally time for a comprehensive auto strategy in this province? Well, Speaker, our government is proud of the progress we've made. And we acknowledge there is more to do. We have created over half a million, 514,700 to be exact jobs since our recessionary low in 2009. The unemployment rate, Speaker, has dropped to 7.1% still too high down from the recessionary high of 9.4%, Speaker. Net new jobs since October 2020. So, Speaker, the member opposite, the leader of the third party, is working to make sure that she's trying to create the idea that we're not getting the job done on this side. In fact, we are. And we will continue to work hard and we have a strategy to do that, Speaker. Thank you. Final supplementary. Speaker, the fact of the matter when it came to bringing Ford's engine plant to Windsor, the Liberals got caught flat footed. This won't be the last time that an opportunity for new auto sector jobs comes along. We need a comprehensive strategy, Speaker, that puts us on the front foot. When is this government going to get serious about auto sector jobs? Just to repeat, no government in the history of this province has done more for the auto sector than this government. Speaker, so let me just remind the member opposite of some of those investments $100 million for the Oakville Assembly complex in 2004. $98 million for the Essex plant in 2010. Almost $70. $9 million for additional investment in Oakville in 2013 to modernize and provide a global platform in that plant for decades to come. Speaker, there is a long list. Those are just the Ford investments. We have made other investments where they make sense for the people of this province. We will always work hard. We will always do our due diligence because we really believe in this sector. We believe in Ontario's leadership in the auto sector and we will continue to make investments where they make sense. Thank you. New question? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Deputy Premier and the concerns of the Mars bailout. We now know that the government changed the rules for infrastructure Ontario loans so that it could cut a special deal for Mars after Alexandria real estate couldn't finish the phase 2 parking lot, let alone the upper floors, throwing more good money after bad. Since 2011, the government has known about the details of the Mars phase 2 loan agreement yet has not been open and transparent about it. If no bank or conventional lender was willing to back the Mars project with only 10% of it pre-leased 30 to 40% lower than conventional industry standards why did the minister change the rules the infrastructure Ontario rules so that the government could bail out Mars with money we don't have? I think we have to start with what Mars is and what Mars does. It is a world-renowned centre of excellent innovation and technology it's an important part of the association that's even Ontario. I would love in the supplementary to hear exactly what their plan would have been would you have left that hole in the ground to just surrounded by those construction hoarding speakers is that your plan? Our plan we had a problem to address the problem the entire loan will be repaid speaker this is a very good deal for Ontarians. I know you don't like it but I'd love to hear what you would have done in the same circumstances. The government has a problem and continues to have a problem and the government continues to lose credibility by the day when it comes to their promises on openness and transparency they're not being upfront about the cuts to their promises as we learned this morning due to their years of fiscal mismanagement going back to 2003 and they're continuing to hide relevant facts on the $224 million bailout to Mars. The deputy premier should explain why they're breaking their promises to be open and transparent and my question to her is this if indeed the Mars documents the government refuses to release have commercially sensitive information as they claim what you're not going to hear from the opposition but what I think the people of Ontario need to know is that the value of the Mars building is greater than our total investment in that building. So this is no bailout speaker. This is an investment. We have an asset that's worth members and give them a warning and you know what that means that's enough carry on please We have an asset speaker that's repeatedly been valued at or above the amount that has been invested we have established a panel led by two eminent Ontarians Michael Nobrega and Carol Stevenson to give us advice, independent advice on what we do going forward we will ensure that what we do is in the best interest of the taxpayers Thank you very much my question to the minister of finance the interior government directly employs more than 3600 qualified IT professionals however the last 5 years the portion of the government's IT budget has been outsourced to the private sector has increased by 63% during the 2013-14 fiscal year alone the government spent $703 million on private sector IT services. This includes hiring almost 1500 fee-for-service consultants at a total cost of $131 million why is the government expanding its use of private sector consultants when a 2012 consultants report commissioned by the ministry of government services found that several key IT services cost 2-3 times more when provided by the private sector Thank you Minister of Finance Thank you Mr. Speaker we are investing in a number of areas to try to ensure that we procure appropriately we have a number of IT consultants in contract works that we put out we use RFP and procurement practices that's open and transparent and we will continue to invest in those matters that will improve our overall productivity I know that we're managing our use of consultants through a 3-prong approach by transferring work to government staff by creating an essential pool of IT staff to work with government-wide projects and by centralizing the acquisition of IT consultants we do invest a tremendous amount of money and we want to make sure that it's appropriately invested and we will continue to take precautionary measures to ensure that it's spent appropriately Thank you Mr. Speaker The problem is minister is that IT outsourcing ends up costing taxpayers more money and they don't get value for that with eHealth the auditor general at the time found that the eHealth program branch alone was engaging more than 300 private IT consultants compared to fewer than 30 full-time ministry IT employees even a number of senior management positions were held by consultants why is this government continuing on the wasteful and expensive path of outsourcing the government's IT services when it has thousands of highly competent IT professionals already in its employ you are looking to save money if you want to save money contract in stop contracting out Thank you Mr. Speaker we have a strong record of reducing the use of consultants across the government in fact we have churned IT consultants when we need to gain external advice and specialize expertise and since 2003 a total of 18 consultant positions government-wide have been approved for conversion into OPS staff positions resulting in ongoing savings of approximately $60 million per year and of those converted positions 1,335 were IT consultants and we recently approved to convert an additional 90 IT consultant positions to full-time equivalents this will result in a further $3.6 million in the annual savings budget Mr. Speaker we're continuing to hire we recognize the importance of that sector and it's essential that we have the good people who are doing it and save money all the while Thank you Mr. Speaker it's important that you understand why your lack of transparency around healthcare cuts and bad Mars bailout deals makes people nervous your government recently issued new directives on Ebola preparedness requirements for internal hospitals these new Ebola initiatives and directives will come with costs that need to be absorbed by the existing CAP funding folders Minister can you confirm that even with your government's huge deficit your ministry of health will reimburse hospitals for the cost of these preparations Thank you Mr. Speaker Yes I can confirm this and Mr. Speaker it gives me the opportunity to talk about the preparations that Ontario is made with regards to preparing for the possibility that an Ebola case may arrive within this province and Mr. Speaker we've been working for a number of months now with our frontline healthcare providers with our hospitals with our community agencies with our public health specialists with public health Ontario with the interim chief medical officer of health Mr. Speaker to ensure that we have put into place the protocols and the procedures and measures at every level of this province that we are protected and have taken sufficient measures to ensure that again should a case arrive on Ontario shores that will be prepared to deal with that effectively and Mr. Speaker I have to say that we're focusing specifically and particularly on the health and safety of our healthcare workers Thank you supplementary Thank you Mr. Speaker again to the Minister of Health long term care there may be many other costs associated with the Ministry of Health's new directive but I'm going to pay for training staffing increases due to the need to increase rotations for exposed workers Minister it's important our patients and our frontline workers are safe but your plan is incredible without knowing how you'll pay for your cutting nurses and yet we're wondering where this funding will come from the hospitals in my region are asking me these questions Minister with your Liberal government spiraling deficit and a healthcare budget that is already strapped to the max how will you pay for Ebola emergency well Mr. Speaker I just told the member opposite how we would pay for that and we've asked our hospitals our frontline facilities or acute care centers to actually keep record of those additional costs so that we can then at a later date that we can come back and ensure that those costs are covered I'm not sure what the member opposite is suggesting if we somehow shouldn't be doing that or providing the level of preventive care that we are given the current risk the potential for an Ebola case arriving here but I want to assure the Ontario public that we are taking those measures it's important that Ontarians understand as well that cost is not a factor when it comes to the health and safety particularly of our frontline healthcare workers that are working so hard to keep Ontarians safe and so in fact I believe the way that we keep Ontarians safe and secure is by keeping our frontline healthcare workers safe and secure that's why we're working so closely with them on this Ebola emergency Thank you Thank you Mr. President my question is also my question is for the Health Minister in long term services some of the paramedics in the GTA were prepared to do a work refusal to refuse work because they had no training to deal with Ebola first responder had no information on the disease no idea how to use their protective gear and no guarantee that the gear was even fluid resistant and up to the job or paramedics are on the frontline each and every day they can only do their job if they receive the support from the Ministry of Health why was this government prepared to put our frontline healthcare worker in harm's way without doing everything possible to keep them safe Mr. Speaker I disagree we are doing everything possible to keep our frontline healthcare workers safe just as I mentioned in the answer to the last question and that includes our first responders our EMS emergency medical services as well and we've in fact Mr. Speaker as a result of my commitment to work closely with all frontline healthcare workers including EMS I committed to setting up a table specifically a Minister's advisory table of those frontline healthcare workers including EMS in fact last week we had our first meeting and members representing the EMS and ambulance community were there present for that discussion that we had we're going to be meeting on a regular basis as we've designated hospitals within the EMS system precisely how that aspect of this challenge will be managed and Mr. Speaker I have to say as well that we will as we issued a directive focused on our hospitals we will be issuing through the Interim Chief Medical Officer a directive specific to our frontline EMS ambulance and emergency first responders Supplementary Speaker our paramedics our first responders are called on to do the tough work but they should not be forced to do this at a risk to their own safety or the safety of their family from nurses to emergency responder or health professional are worried about our Ebola preparedness and this does not match what the Minister is talking about how can you explain the disconnect between what you are saying regarding Ontario preparedness versus frontline workers seeing the exact opposite thank you minister well Mr. Speaker due to the the close collaboration and coordination with our frontline healthcare workers we are getting prepared and we're taking what's known to public health as the precautionary principle to make sure we're doing everything possible to ensure that our frontline healthcare workers are safe and to the point where Doris Grinspun who is in fact the CEO of the Minister of Nurses Association of Ontario last or 10 days ago approximately said I'm feeling very comfortable that we have a minister that listens and a minister that responds and in fact the federal health minister Ronna Ambrose as well indicated as a result of the measures that Ontario has put in place this really sets the bar for the country Mr. Speaker so this table that we've set up the minister's advisory table of healthcare providers of those frontline healthcare staff I'm listening to them because I know that they're the best place to be able to provide us with the advice that we need to know to ensure that we're keeping those frontline healthcare workers safe and secure thank you thank you Mr. President my question is for the Minister of Security thank you Mr. Speaker my question is for the minister of the community's safety and correctional services the duty of a member of the provincial parliament is to attend the funerals of young men who have been mercilessly murdered I had to perform such a duty not long ago while attending the funeral of 19 year old Hamid Aminzada a young man who was fatally injured while trying to break up a fight of Naki North Albion Collegiate Institute on behalf of the premier and indeed all members here I offered the father Mr. Sawer Aminzada as well as the principal of Naki Mr. Naim Sadiq both a figurative as well as a physical embrace as well as a pledge of support people in my riding of Etobicoke North and beyond deserve better safe communities without fear of violence or gang reprisals speaker on behalf of my community I look to the minister of community and safety and correctional services for help and direction in this matter thank you minister of community and correctional services thank you speaker I want to thank the member from Etobicoke North for a very important and pertinent question first of all speaker our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of the victims of the recent acts of violence in Toronto speaker our government is firmly committed to helping at risk youth achieve a brighter future through a wide range of programs and initiatives our recent youth action plan provides young people with supports and services to help them thrive and succeed speaker we're investing over 8 million dollars through safer and vital communities grant focusing on community engagement community mobilization prevention and of course education we have also provided over 100 million dollars to combat guns and gangs under the provincial anti-violence intervention strategy commonly known as PAVIS and the Toronto anti-violence intervention strategy TAVIS these programs speaker help communities target illegal gangs, drugs and weapons activities in communities of course speaker we need to do more to protect our young people in our communities thank you speaker thank you minister I'm actually for your response I know that you and I are both fathers of sons so you no doubt can sympathize with the staggering loss that these families feel unfortunately it seems that violence of many motivations seems to be now part of our society and that there's of course no simple solution quick fix or instant remedy we all appreciate to this complex issue of youth violence and perhaps focusing purely on fighting gangs and guns will not fully achieve our goal of making our streets safer and more welcoming initiative nevertheless speaker I want to know on behalf of my community and others that are affected what is our government doing regarding youth crime prevention thank you minister minister of children and youth services thank you speaker and thanks again to the member from October go north for raising this very serious and important question as far as I'm concerned as the minister of children youth one child or youth death in Ontario is one too many our communities are safer children we want to focus on prevention in terms of these tragedies and that they don't happen again we want to provide youth with opportunities so they can succeed in 2013-14 we increased the number of youth outreach workers by one third from 62 to 98 these workers support over 13,600 hard to reach youth province our government also established the premier council on youth opportunities for the youth to give their voice on how to improve the delivery and design of government programs and services as mentioned before we have the youth action plan we must work together and invest in our youth to ensure we stop this violence before it starts thank you thank you speaker to the minister of health and long-term care your government came to power with a promise to focus on home care and deliver more of it to Ontarians instead Ontarians are seeing quite the opposite many residents of my riding in stormount dundas in south clungary have seen their services either reduced or dropped altogether the funding formula has been changed so the seniors that were on waiting lists just a few months ago no longer qualify due to new president restrictions our seniors population is growing and your government refuses to fund the CCACs to demand minister will you commit to sufficient and predictable funding for the Champlain CCAC or will you continue to let our seniors down good question thank you thank you Mr. Speaker and I appreciate the question again at our CCACs I know we all acknowledge the important work that they do and the health care workers and non health care workers but the field of individuals that provide that important care and Ontarians most need it and of course ideally in their home as close to home as possible but Mr. Speaker we actually made a very strong commitment in the last budget that was passed earlier this year of an increase of $260 million which is roughly a 6% increase in the funding provided for home and community care and in a more general sense as well apart from the fact that the party opposite and member opposite actually did not support that budget but since 2003 we've virtually doubled the amount of support financial support that goes through our CCACs to assist people in home care thank you supplementary Mr. Speaker in this current fiscal year the Champlain CCAC is experiencing a 12% increase in demand for its services yet has been allocated less than half of that amount to meet the demand and patients are suffering experts agree that money spent on home care not only saves the health care system money but allows one to enjoy the comfortable surroundings of their home at the same time Champlain CCAC has experienced a 130% increase in the number of employees on the sunshine list since 2010 Minister when demand for an agency services increases you don't double the high earners you double the front line workers and the services they provide Residents to storm on Dundas and south Hungary agree if the minister does too thank you Mr. Speaker there's no question that there's always more work that can be done and we all acknowledge the important work and the priority that we must pay to providing those services at home as close to home as possible by providing that home care it actually lessens the burden on our hospitals and our ER so that has an impact throughout the health care system but Mr. Speaker I mentioned the $270 million commitment in this year's budget for home and community care that commitment actually increases to over $750 million Mr. Speaker by 2017 so we are making these investments we are recognizing just how important and from a cost benefit perspective as well it's not only better in terms of quality of care and quality of life for the individuals that can benefit from home and community care but it also from a cost effective perspective it makes sense to invest these health care dollars in providing that quality of care as close to home as possible when and where they need it Thank you Mr. Speaker to the Minister of Transportation Mr. Speaker Highway 105 is the only highway serving the communities of Ear Falls and Red Lake in my riding this past summer the Ministry of Transportation replaced every culvert along the route but instead of paving over the cut sections they left gravel because the ministry did not place adequate warning signage these gravel sections often catch people off guard drivers can often lose control and some vehicles have been damaged winter is coming and these risky gravel sections need to be properly maintained and repaired but the ministry and the private contractor can't seem to agree on who is in charge of paving these sections each time the ministry gave me a repair date the date came and went and nothing happened snow plows have already been out along this highway and snow is expected again in revenue tomorrow will the minister tell us for certain when highway 105 will be completed Thank you Mr. Transportation Thanks very much Mr. Speaker I appreciate receiving that question from the member officer I know that we had a chance to exchange correspondence last week here in this legislature I also know that staff in my office have been in touch with that member's constituency office I certainly understand and respect her coming from and I know that she's doing a job to represent her community I know that my office will continue to work closely with her office and her community to make sure that this can be addressed the member officer mentioned the matter or the issue of winter maintenance speakers it's why I was very happy to stand in my place in the house last week and discuss the significant additional resources that we're bringing to bear this year to anticipate and deal with and be prepared for the upcoming winter season speakers especially with that member and her community to make sure that we can be prepared for the upcoming winter season and I look forward to the ongoing conversation Thank you The people of Ear Falls and Red Lake depend on highway 105 They can't simply take another route if the road conditions on highway 105 are unsafe and it shouldn't be the case that only the squeaky wheel gets the grease and people will only receive action after I literally hound this government is building corners when it comes to maintaining highway 105 this highway has been classified as a low priority for snow clearance and now the ministry has left this culvert repair job unfinished with winter fast approaching there will be accidents this winter if the ministry does not properly manage the gaps between the MTO and its private contractors will the minister personally make sure this job gets done within days and not weeks Thank you Speaker as I said in my response to the initial question I'm very happy to be able to continue to work alongside this member to deliver positive results for her community again it's one of the reasons I was so happy to answer a question in the house last week from the member from Newmarket or are very happy to participate in an announcement the week before where we talked specifically about the new resources bringing to bear both in southern and northern Ontario our government launched or put 55 new pieces of equipment on the roads in northern Ontario to help make sure that as the season last year finished that we were prepared to deal with the weather we're doing the same thing again this year's speaker not only in the north but also in the south again I undertake to continue working with this member and speaker all members in this legislature to make sure that our roads and highways across Ontario that we're prepared for the upcoming winter season because road safety is one of my most important priorities thanks very much thank you speaker my question to the minister of natural resources and forestry mr. Speaker no matter what time of the year it is parks provide great opportunities for families and visitors to enjoy recreational activities and learn more about conservation and our environment in my town Prescue Provincial Park is open for day use all year round over 10 kilometres of trails that travel through the several habitat and fantastic vantage points along Lake Ontario Prescue also provides natural heritage education programs which include curriculum based children program for schools in the spring and fall and I'll be remiss if I don't plug the Christmas of Prescue Arts and Craft show which is coming up November 2nd 3rd, 5th, 8th and 9th Mr. Speaker through you to the minister could the ministers please explain to the house what our government is doing to ensure that Ontarians from all parts of the province have the opportunity to enjoy our provincial parks thank you and I want to thank the member from Northumberland Quinney West for his question and for drawing attention to a very important part of Ontario's social and natural heritage our parks are a great way for families to be active and learn more about wildlife in Ontario's environment Ontario has 109 operating parks across the province from Quiddical Provincial Park in Atacocon to Wheatley Provincial Park in Southwestern Ontario these parks see over 8.5 million visitors each year supporting jobs and strengthening local communities residents and tourists from around the world come to our parks and enjoy spectacular views and to take part in unique outdoor activities in fact Ontario Parks is the largest provider of outdoor recreation opportunities in our province our government remains committed to ensuring that all Ontarians in the North or the South have access to provincial parks I would encourage everyone in this house and families from all parts of Ontario to visit one of our provincial parks this fall and take advantage of the more than 2200 km of trails through some of the province as well as spectacular scenery supplementary thank you Mr. Speaker and thank you to the Minister for his answer as of 2014 campuses in Comstock Close in many of our provincial parks we are inviting and anticipating next summer and are looking to reserve their campsites for 2015 Speaker I understand that two years ago our government was faced with difficult decision regarding the operating status of Hoshimi Lake, Rainey Brunel and Ivanhoe Lake Provincial Parks and I am pleased that this government has been planning a pilot informed partnership of local municipalities to maintain the camping for the past two years the pilot program of these three parks has expanded Mr. Speaker through you to the Minister could the Minister please update the house on the status of these parks and confirm that they will be open for the 2015 camping season I want to thank the member from Northumberland, Quinney West for this very timely and thoughtful question and I am pleased to inform the House that our government will be operating in fact Ivanhoe, Rainey Brunel and Hoshimi Lake Provincial Parks Mr. Speaker I really want to take a moment as I did last week and in my phone calls to the local folks to thank the municipalities the broader communities, the mayors everybody who really took this issue to task and they did a great job in putting us in a position as local municipalities whereby we are in a position to actually make this announcement and move forward with an extension of this particular pilot program the partnerships with Hearst Moonbeam and Timmins were key to providing Ontarians with recreational opportunities in our beautiful parks. So Speaker this is a fantastic news story we are very pleased as a government to have entered into a partnership where now we are taking full responsibility for the next year on these provincial parks and hopefully looking forward to more positive news in the years to follow. Thank you Minister with each passing day the effect of your flawed energy policies will become more and more apparent from exasperated seniors to struggling small businesses to manufacturers leaving the province the results are the same Ontario's rates are making it uncompetitive in the world market now some more bad news on Saturday rates are going up again it will be up to 14 cents a kilowatt hour which is more than triple what it was when your party took power and finally hydro-hydro rates have become a second tax on manufacturing and small business which kills jobs or sends them to Mexico yet you're still signing expensive contracts for intermittent unreliable power Minister is it not time to reverse the policies that have made a few liberal insiders very rich at the expense of everyone else Taxes Mr. Speaker I appreciate the question from the Minister although I'm a bit surprised by the scope of it and how raw the question is because he did attend my speech to the Ontario Energy Association about two weeks ago which was a 20 minute speech Mr. Speaker and afterwards he told me he agreed with everything that was in it he couldn't disagree with anything However Mr. Speaker as he knows the new price will increase does the rating for prices in the province of Ontario and as of November 1st 2014 the new prices will increase average monthly time of use bills by about 1.7% or 2.3 cents on the average household Our government modernized electricity system that needed significant upgrades the current price results in electricity bills that are below the forecast we set in the 2013 long-term energy plan and when I get to the supplementary Mr. Speaker I'd be very happy to speak to the industrial rates that he referred to Supplementary Mr. Speaker the Minister did deliver a good speech unfortunately his policies are delivering jobs to Mexico Minister you know that by continuing to sign new expensive energy contracts Ontarians will continue to endure higher prices You know that new intermittent energy when it comes online you will have to sell more power at a loss to our competitors at a time when we don't need it You know that peak and off-peak Hydro rates rise Ontario's ability to compete falls Minister I'll ask you again will you stop exporting jobs and place affordability as a cornerstone of Ontario energy policy Thank you Minister Mr. Speaker the member knows that we had significant price pressures because we converted to a clean system and we went from deficit to surplus In those price pressures Mr. Speaker we have over a period of the last several years created very significant price mitigation measures including in the industrial sector expanding the IEI program so hundreds of newly eligible companies can qualify for electricity rates among the lowest in North America Mr. Speaker In Pembroke his hometown Mr. Speaker the MDF paper board plan has reopened after being accepted into the program creating 140 new jobs for the area There are significant companies across the province accessing that and he will also know that in our budget Mr. Speaker we had two provisions to mitigate prices further for the industrial sector I'm very happy to arrange a briefing for the member so he will learn about how we have taken significant steps to mitigate electricity in the province of Ontario Mr. Speaker thank you Mr. Speaker my question is for the Minister of Health over the hundreds of Ontarians have tweeted the premier about the value of midwives to the family of this province Midwives Mondays as the campaign is known have shown an outpouring of support for the services that midwives provide yet this Liberal government is refusing to engage in fair negotiations with midwives allowing expire contracts and pay inequity to undermine this much loved healthcare professions it is time for this government to change course and I think that this Monday is a perfect time to do it after all of these tweets from all of these family my question is quite simple did the minister get the message to the Minister of Health long-term care well Mr. Speaker I'm really feeling the love this morning for both parties I appreciate that and as a government we value our midwives fortunately I'm also on the receiving end of those tweets that go to the premier and I have to say it might surprise some I look forward to Mondays when I receive 400 or 500 tweets coming from not just from midwives but from many individuals and are benefiting from our midwives Mr. Speaker we are so committed to ensuring that our midwives have the support that they need to carry out their work effectively we have increased their compensation on average by 33% since we took office in 2003 but we are working closely with them to ensure we're providing them not only on the financial side but in terms of the other supports that we provide to them that is able to make a difference Mr. Speaker I would like to give you an idea of the government's record with midwives first liberal government is refusing to negotiate in good faith and forcing midwives to work without a contract for month on end then liberals are refusing to recognize the gender gap that leaves the midwives being paid less for work of equal value for what they deserve and the liberals are refusing to meet meaning that many many families continue to be turned away from the care they want it makes no sense to deny midwives the respect that they deserve how can the minister explain his stubborn refusal to resume negotiation with midwives and his indefensible opposition to pay equity Mr. Speaker we've doubled the number of midwives in this province from 2003 to 700 now the funding for the midwifery program has increased fivefold Mr. Speaker from 23 million in 2003 to 125 million dollars in 2003 8,000 women families were able to benefit from midwives now that figure is 22,000 I would say not unimportantly Mr. Speaker I had the honor and privilege with my wife Sam at home our first and only child born at home with two midwives it was an incredible experience I understand firsthand just how important this resource is and quite frankly Mr. Speaker a resource that worldwide delivers most of the babies that are born on this planet so we are committing to continue to work closely with our midwives I'm committed to that and we will continue to grow this important profession Thank you Mr. Speaker my question is for the minister of children and youth services and responsible for women's issues minister first of all I would like to thank you and the minister of Aboriginal affairs on behalf of my caucus colleagues for participating in the national Aboriginal women's summit last week I think it is imperative that we as a government stand alongside Ontario's first nations Métis, Inuit and urban Aboriginal communities I would also like to thank the member from Kingston and the islands for introducing a private members motion last week supporting the national Aboriginal organizations call for the federal government for a national inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls question I would also like to I was wondering minister about your work at the summit and what work the Ontario women's directorate has been doing on this issue Thank you minister Thank you Mr. Speaker and thanks to the member from Berry for question as we talked about in the house here last week during the member from Kingston and the islands private members resolution the Aboriginal affairs working group and the national Aboriginal women's summit steering committee are leading the development of the Ontario economic plan for Aboriginal women and girls the discussion last week at the summit began the development of this plan I was very pleased to be there representing our wonderful province along with my colleague the minister of Aboriginal affairs we met with leaders, provincial ministers senior officials Canadian provinces, Ontario to discuss the approach unfortunately the federal government wasn't their speaker our budget speaker for this year includes $2 million over two years to support our joint work here on violence against Aboriginal women this includes five Aboriginal organizations and ten ministries it's the only committee of this kind thank you speaker we look forward to getting to the results of that plan in about 18 months Thank you Mr. Speaker and thank you to the minister for her response Aboriginal women are 2.5 times more likely to experience spousal violence than non- Aboriginal women according to self-reported data between 2001 and 2011 at least 8% of all murdered women age 15 years and older were Aboriginal double their representation in the Canadian population the RCMP reports police recorded incidents of Aboriginal female homicides and unresolved missing Aboriginal women total 1,181 as of November 2013 so this is very important work and I'm happy to follow the progress of the Ontario women's sector there is no question thank you minister sir sir minister of Aboriginal affairs my visit to the national Aboriginal women's summit with minister McCharles was very productive the forum provided an excellent opportunity to share expertise and knowledge and to work on initiatives including the socioeconomic action plan and the national round table I was very pleased that all parties agreed that the next round table would take place in February 15 in the Northwest Territories the issues we talked about affect all Aboriginal women all Ontarians indeed all Canadians and we need to get everyone working together to make progress on this issue but it is unfortunate it is inexcusable that the federal government chose not to send any representation to that summit the federal government has a role to play I urge them to contribute to the upcoming meeting in NWT to the federal government I say come to the next meeting and do your duty the third votes this house stands recess until 1pm this afternoon