 It is now time for Question Period. The Leader of Her Majesty's Board of Opposition. Mr. Speaker, to the acting Premier, I've noticed a startling trend from this government when responding to the Auditor General's report. The Minister of Energy said the Auditor General didn't understand the energy file despite her work in at Manitoba Hydro for over 10 years. Next the Minister of Economic Development claimed he created thousands of jobs despite the AG saying he couldn't prove a single one. Next the AG revealed the problems with SAMS, the Liberals' new computer system responsible for processing disability and welfare checks. The Auditor said the Liberals knew about the glitches in their social assistance computer system before it launched. But the Minister shrugged and said nobody told her about the problems. Mr. Speaker, can the acting Premier tell us is the Auditor General correct or is your Minister once again misleading what the Auditor General said? The member will withdraw. Thank you. Deputy Premier. And you know what's interesting is that the Auditor General herself has commented on government's response to her recommendations. And I was very, very pleased to read what she had to say because I can tell you on this side of the House we take the Auditor General's reports very, very seriously. The Auditor General herself acknowledged that we are taking action. In fact she said that she was pleased and I want to say that's her word not our word. She was pleased to report that 76% of the actions have either been fully implemented or were in the process of being implemented. She also used the word exemplary performance. Now the Leader of the Opposition might not want to acknowledge the Auditor General's comments, but the Auditor General called exemplary the performance of, I will refer Thank you for supplementing. Mr. Speaker, again to the acting Premier and let me just say I will trust the Auditor General again and again over the liberal talking forms. The problem with the computer systems overpayments and underpayments are well documented by the Auditor General. But I want to bring to attention one particular story the Auditor General shared. She referred to a story where Sam, the computer system overpaid a client with mental disabilities. The individual didn't realize the benefit was too high, so the person spent the money with no means to repay it. The Liberal government's response was to use debt collectors, freeze the poor individuals bank accounts, you left the individual without even able to pay for day-to-day living expenses. That is sickening and it's your fault. It's this minister's fault, it's this government's fault, and so I want to know Mr. Speaker, will the government apologize to those on social assistance for their incompetence? The Leader of the Opposition says that he respects the opinions of the Auditor General. So let me quote the words from the Auditor General. These are not our talking points. This is a direct quote from the Auditor General. I want to, I want especially to note the exemplary performance of the Ministry of Education, Ontario Power Generation, Service Ontario, and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in implementing recommendations from the Audit two years ago. The Auditor General does not use those words lightly, Speaker. I think it is incumbent upon the Leader of the Opposition to acknowledge that we have made significant progress. We, as I said earlier, respect the advice and act on the advice of the Auditor General. Thank you. Final supplementary. Mr. Speaker, again for the acting Premier and once again, I wonder if the acting Premier has even read the Auditor General's report because you have a different interpretation than everyone else in Ontario and every media report that said it was an indictment of your government, a 773-page indictment. But let's go back to SAMS. Not only did the SAMS cost millions of dollars in over and under payments, but the system was broken from the beginning. SAMS, the computer system, was supposed to cost $200 million. We now know it cost $290 million. That doesn't include the $140 million in incorrect payments. The AG said the government knew about the problems. The Minister said she didn't know a thing. So Mr. Speaker, who knew? Did the Premier know about the problems with their computer system in advance? Did the Minister, did the Deputy Minister, did anyone in the government know or are they saying the Auditor General is wrong? Yes or no? Deputy Premier. Chair of Community and Social Services. Minister. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And as the Deputy Premier has said, of course, as soon as we became aware of the challenges with SAMS, we acted decisively. We brought in PricewaterhouseCoopers with 19 recommendations. These are all part of our transition plan. The Auditor General made five recommendations. These are all being taken very seriously. I would like to remind the Leader of the Opposition that the system that they brought in, SDMT, cost in $20.15, $451 million more. Mr. Speaker, to the acting Premier, since I can't get an answer on the overpayments from the computer system, today I want to ask about the government's perspective. The government closed 65% of the investigation and nursing homes without proper explanations. We referenced that yesterday as part of another pattern. There is a disturbing pattern emerging from the government when it comes to investigations. According to the Auditor General, not one child protection investigation she reviewed was done within the required 30 days. Not a single one met the requirement. The AG said it took on average of more than seven months to complete an investigation. Seven months for children that were suffering, for seven months these children were at risk. Mr. Speaker, why isn't the government providing resources to keep our children safe? I'm not entirely clear about this question. I thought it was about nursing homes, but it sounds like investigations in the child welfare sector, so I'll focus on that. I can ask another question about long-term homes later. Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned in the House earlier this week, we have a plan. It's called the Quality Improvement Plans that I will be requiring all children's age societies and boards to report on length of time for investigations, a number of cases that are being reopened, plan a care and checks the Yanks and Child Abuse Registry. This is part of our broader plan to implement the recommendations of the Auditor General. But I'm going to go much further than that, Speaker. We're going to have an action plan for child welfare that focuses on accountability, compliance, governance and transparency for residential services care, and I'm happy to provide more information. Mr. Speaker, again to the acting Premier, the Minister's response to the AG report was that she was disappointed. She should be outraged at the province's failure. All she can muster in response was to issue a second directive, but it takes more than a memo to protect children. It takes action. It's been 13 years since the death of Jeffrey Baldwin. It has been seven years since the death of Caitlin Simpson. It is time to step up. It is time to actually do something. Mr. Speaker, why won't this government protect the children in our child welfare system? No more spin. What will you do to clean up your mess? Mr. Speaker, please. Mr. Speaker, please. Thank you. Minister? So, Speaker, we are moving on the Auditor General recommendations, and we've accomplished much good work in this sector with frontline staff, our partners, the child advocate. We'll continue to do that, Speaker, but as I just said, we have an action plan that's based on accountability, compliance, governance and transparency for residential care, and one of the tools that we will be using to support this is what we call our cyclical reviews, end-to-end reviews. So, let me tell the member how this works, the leader of the opposition. We will evaluate which children's aid societies are not performing well enough, then a team from our regional offices will go into the CESs for a period of time to do a comprehensive review. That looks at things like data management, case files, investigation, how they do their investigatory processes, and looking at the Board's oversight of the society and overall evaluation of the performance. So, we'll continue to do more. Thank you. Final supplementary. Thank you. The government's response is hollow and sad. You know, I would give the minister the benefit of the doubt if this was the first time they were warned by the AG, but the fact is they keep on ignoring the Auditor General's report, so I'm going to specifically refer to what the Auditor General warned the government on before. In 2006, yes, in 2006, the Auditor General wrote, said that one in five cases reviewed, safety assessments were late by an average of 15 days or never even completed. Now, that's one third of the cases that you weren't doing your job on. In 2006, the Auditor said that in about half the files reviewed, the full investigation was not completed within the required 30 days. This year, the Auditor said not a single investigation was completed on time, not a single one. Not one who deserves to have their life at risk because the government won't fix this broken problem. Mr. Speaker, in 2006 you were warned that there was a problem. Now you have a bigger problem. Instead of thanking the Auditor General, will you actually listen, will you actually act and help the children in our problems? Can you see this, please? I wanted to deal with a couple of things that I heard. I'm going to ask the member from Lanark to let the leader put the question quietly. And the member from Renfrew, when I stand, you said you don't wait for me to get quiet so you can heckle. Thank you. Minister? Thank you, Speaker. As I was saying, it's important to note that the Auditor General I think was overall very pleased with the progress we've made. And let me talk about that progress in our child welfare sector. And we've made a number of investments and the most important thing, Speaker, is that many kids are doing better. Fewer kids are coming into care. More kids are being placed in permanent homes. We've increased transparency and accountability for CESs. We have new accountability agreements. And I would just say, Speaker, prior to the last election, the PCs introduced a white paper, much more comprehensive than anything in their election platform. And they outlined a plan to eliminate the ministry's responsibility for children in care altogether. They voted against the Ontario Child Benefit Program, which provides direct financial benefit to about 1 million children in the age of 18 and over 500,000 low-income and moderate families. So I'm not quite sure where they're coming from on this issue, but I can tell you... Thank you. New question? The member from Germany is going home. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the acting Premier. Last week, the Auditor General reported that Ontario doesn't actually have a plan for energy. She said the Liberals were not, quote, protecting electricity consumers' interests. Protecting families and businesses that pay a hydro-bill is a basic fundamental... Minister of tourism. ...that people expect the government to get right. How is the government getting it so wrong? Well, Speaker, you know, for just a moment I had hoped that a question... We would get a question from the opposition that reflected the conversation that's taking a place around the world. The conference in Paris on climate change, Speaker, it's just unfortunate that there had this question that we're not talking about what's happening in Paris. You know, the sad reality is, though, we should have expected that because not one word in your nine-page platform in the last election, you didn't even mention climate change. So, Speaker, we would hope that the people get back to their roots and ask about those important global issues. But I tell you, when it comes to energy, Speaker, we are, in fact, making significant progress. And we're taking cars off the road. We are closing our coal-fired electricity plants with the equivalent of taking 7 million cars off the road. We have an energy plan. We're acting on that energy plan. And it's working in concert with the really important work that's happening in Paris. It's pretty clear to Ontarians that this government doesn't care about their concerns with that response. Ontarians expect the government to be able to get the fundamentals right. Instead, liberal choices have meant that Ontarians pay nearly half a billion dollars to not generate electricity. And the Auditor General says that rape payers are paying more to generate less. This is the trend. It's completely backwards. Paying more for more hydro is one thing. But paying more money for less hydro is something completely different. Can't the Premier explain why in this system, through the Liberal's leadership, they're getting it so backwards? Speaker, the member does have it right. The Auditor General indicated we were investing too much in conservation. Two weeks earlier, Mr. Speaker, one of the best conservationists we have in this house, the official critic for the opposition stood twice in his place and asked us to invest more in conservation. What he is, Mr. Speaker, conservation has many faces. For example, our industrial conservation initiative program is a program that basically takes 20% off the price of electricity for large industrial consumers. In our last budget, Mr. Speaker, we expanded that to cover more than a thousand more companies, Mr. Speaker. So now we have getting that benefit of that reduction. Six auto-part manufacturers in Guelph, two food processing plants in Brampton, ten assorted manufacturing plants in York Region, a textile plant in Woodstock, a printing plant in Owen Sound, a building products manufacturer in Burlington, all getting lower prices. Every time the opposition, the NDP, raises the concerns about Hydro-1 being privatized, gouging people, the responses that the OEB will protect people. Well, the Liberals insist that the OEB will stop a privatized Hydro-1 from gouging families and businesses. Page 218 of the Auditor General's Report says, and I quote, the minister has effectively cut the Ontario Energy Board out of the picture, end quote. She says it's the OEB's mandate to protect consumers, but, quote, it's been difficult for the OEB to meet that mandate in any meaningful way. How does the acting premier expect the OEB to protect ratepayers from being gouged from Hydro-1's for-profit shareholders when the government undermines the OEB every turn? Mr. Speaker, the member should know that there's a bill before the House about to be passed called Bill 112. That gives additional authority to the Ontario Energy Board, Mr. Speaker. So much so, Mr. Speaker, that they are mandated to ensure that all of the LDCs, and Hydro-1 is an LDC, Mr. Speaker, have to have reliable service, effective service, efficient service. We've increased the fine, Mr. Speaker, for non-compliance to a million dollars a day, Mr. Speaker. So if Hydro-1 or any other LDC is not performing, they're not reliable, they're not treating their customers properly. If they're not in compliance with what the OEB is asking them to do, the OEB has the authority to find them a million dollars per day, Mr. Speaker. 112 actually has passed, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. New question? Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. New question is to the acting Premier. Last week, Ontario's ombudsman closed their last investigation into Hydro-1. But it's not because they were actually done their work. It's because they were forced out by this Liberal government. Why have the Liberal government, why have the Liberals chosen to force the Ontario ombudsman out of Hydro-1 and no longer provide public oversight of Hydro-1? Thank you. Mr. Energy. Oh, so we passed legislation requiring Hydro-1 to have an internal ombudsman, Mr. Speaker. Not only did we do that, we engaged Denny Dezotel, former Auditor-General of Canada to oversee the implementation. We have already... Hydro-1 has already appointed... Finish, please. Hydro-1 has already appointed a very well-known ombudsman, Mr. Speaker, the former ombudsman for the City of Toronto. She's on the job, Mr. Speaker. She's setting up the office. And Denny Dezotel is still overseeing that process, Mr. Speaker. It's a very, very responsible way to move forward, Mr. Speaker. We have an ombudsman. That ombudsman will make a decision. If that decision is not satisfactory to the complainant, Mr. Speaker, they have a right to appeal to the Ontario Energy Board, Mr. Speaker. There's very, very strong protection, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I have a very simple question. And the acting Premier explained why she thinks that the public Ontario ombudsman should no longer have oversight of Hydro-1. Simple answer, Mr. Speaker. We've gone from being a Crown Corporation to being a trading company on the TSX, Mr. Speaker. So there needs to be a new governance regimen in place, Mr. Speaker. Order. The official parliamentary officers, Mr. Speaker, do not govern or manage private sector or stock trading companies, Mr. Speaker. We do have an ombudsman who is in place with the right to appeal, Mr. Speaker. And there are other protections there, Mr. Speaker. Under the Ontario Securities Commission, if they're non-compliant with any of the rules, Mr. Speaker, it's very, very transparent. They have to disclose the senior management salaries, Mr. Speaker. We disclose it in the preliminary perspective. Mr. Speaker, that's very transparent. They were accusing us of creating a non-transparent process. And as a matter of fact, in order to become a private Hydro-1, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Well, Mr. Speaker, there are other jurisdictions in this world that do it completely differently. In fact, in Australia, a public ombudsman oversees all water, hydro and gas. In Spain, a public ombudsman oversees private companies that render public services. Can the acting premier explain to Ontarians why, as of last week, Ontario families will no longer have the ombudsman on their side when they have any issue or problems with Hydro-1? Thank you. Minister? Mr. Speaker, there's a new CEO and a new chair of the board and a new board at Hydro-1 at the present time, Mr. Speaker. Their priority is to be customer-focused. Mr. Speaker. I tried to do it calmly if you want me to get upset. I will. Let's just get through this. Very obvious. Mr. Speaker, they have a priority of focusing on customer service, Mr. Speaker. The chair of the board, David Denison, issued a report several weeks ago referring to the ombudsman's report. And his response was that the number of customers currently experiencing delayed billing has been reduced to 340 as of June from a peak of over 50,000 during the height of the billing issues in 2013-2014, Mr. Speaker. He's also indicated the timely issuance of accurate bills is the highest that has been in the history of Hydro-1 at a success rate of 99.8%. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Children and New Services. In the auditor general's report, she highlighted that the initial cost of the Child Protection Information Network was announced to be $150 million. The auditor actually believes that C-PIN will in fact cost $200 million once implemented across all 20, 47 children's aid societies. Mr. Speaker, we need assurances that the cost of C-PIN will not continue to balloon out of control so that money that should be going into child protection services is not being used on computer programs and training. Will the Minister tell us what the final cost of C-PIN will be and ensure us that child protection operating funds will not be used to set up C-PIN? So I thank my critic from the opposition for the question, and I've talked about C-PIN, the Child Protection Information Network before in this House Speaker, and it is all about safety and protection of our most vulnerable children in this province. And I'm very pleased that it is built and it's currently online in five children's aid societies. That represents 20% of the caseload speaker. That's one file per child to enhance safety and protection, especially when CESs have to work across their geographic areas. And by the spring, I hope we'll have 30% of the case files online. And I am very committed to getting C-PIN fully on board as quickly as possible, but I will not compromise the safety and well-being of children in care. I will, as I said in the media, expect that the financial project will be on time and it will be on budget. 47 children's aid societies online and five years late is nothing to brag about, Minister. To quote the Auditor General's report, although the ministry has provided 14 early adopter societies with about 2.8 million in additional funding to help support C-PIN, the early adopters indicated they have in fact incurred significantly higher costs, totaling 18.7 million, which were funded through the society's own operating funds and may have impacted funds available for providing child protection services. When the CAS has to use operating dollars to fund C-PIN implementation, it hurts our most vulnerable children. Will the minister commit that all costs relating to setting up C-PIN in child protection agencies will not impact protecting children and youth from harm? So, Speaker, I have to respectfully disagree with my critic because I think getting 30% of the case files on by the spring is very good progress. That actually represents 17 million child welfare files that are successfully transferred to the system, Speaker. And C-PIN is largely funded by my ministry and it is about protecting the well-being of our children so that we don't have unfortunate incidents, so that our frontline workers who do a great job every day can have the information on their fingertips. This is a gradual process. This is a very specific tool, Speaker, that needs to be rolled out in time. It needs to be perfect, Speaker. We cannot have any mistakes in the implementation of C-PIN. As I said, I am committed to making sure that this remains on time and budget and we can get progress faster and work for that, Speaker. However, I will not compromise the safety of that children again. Thank you, Speaker. My questions to the Deputy Premier today is yet another day in the court case concerning Mr. Lougheed in regards to the Sudbury bribery scandal. I have a very simple question. If the Premier was to be... If the Premier was called to testify, would she vote and testify at trial if she was asked? Thank you. To the Government House Leader. Government House Leader. Well, Speaker, clearly the leader from the...the third party must be running out of questions to ask. They usually ask this type of question about 15 minutes to remaining to the question period, but midway through it's quite telling on their part that they don't have much pressing government business to talk about. Speaker, the member opposite clearly knows the answer. The matter is before the courts. It's up to the courts to decide as to who they want to hear and from whom and what time and it's not the place of this House or this legislature to intervene in that matter and I think it will be highly inappropriate to intervene. What we know, Speaker, right now that the Premier is in Paris participating in the Climate Change Conference making sure that Ontario doing its part to build a strong, healthier and sustainable future for our province, for our country and for the entire planet and we very much appreciate the Premier's leadership on the Climate Change issue along with the Prime Minister. Well, I assure you there are extradition treaties between France and Canada that I do know. I just have to say this. Two things to the answer to that question. The first part is that the Government tries to make light of what is a very serious issue. There is nobody who has been charged with a criminal offence having to do with the by-election and Sudbury on behalf of the Liberal Party. The Government can try to make light of this all that they want but this is such a serious matter that the OPP laid charges and it's before the court. The very nature of this says it's serious. The question I ask you and there's no sub-judice rule that applies if the Premier is called to testify will she yes or no Thank you I very much agree with the member opposite that this is a very serious matter and the seriousness of the matter requires speaker that you don't speak about it in this house. That you talk about it in the course where it belongs speaker. The speaker is the member from the opposite end that's making a mockery of the whole process by continuing to ask questions that do not belong in this legislature. Let's get back to the business of the people. People want to talk about how we're building a province up, not about a court case that may be going on in some other part of the province. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Community and Social Services. Minister, this Government has prioritised transforming the developmental services sector with an historic investment for developmental services over the past two years. In Kitchener Centre I have heard from agencies, community leaders and families about the positive impact that this investment has had. In fact, just this past weekend I dropped in on KW habilitation for their first annual Christmas bazaar which was a huge success and Mr. Speaker, I even got some Christmas shopping done. This transformation is not just about the investment but we are creating a more inclusive Ontario through innovation. Mr. Speaker, could the Minister please inform this House of some of the innovations that are helping to create a province where people with developmental disabilities can live as independently as possible in their communities. Thank you Mr. Speaker and thank you to the member from Kitchener Centre for the question. My ministry works very diligently to ensure that people with developmental disabilities have every opportunity for dignity and inclusion through other ministries including the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure. We are working across government to ensure we are providing the right employment opportunities. Included as part of this transformation is a shift from a sheltered workshop model towards individualised community participation supports and training and support for competitive employment. As a approach, developmental services agencies will not fill any vacancies that arise in sheltered workshops however no program will be phased out without appropriate alternatives in place. This will be a well considered appropriate time transition. We recognise that it is vital for the shift to be gradual and person centred so there is a smooth transition for the individuals participating in this setting. Thank you Mr. Speaker for her answer. This shift away from sheltered workshops towards a more individualised experience for people receiving day programming supports is something that agencies have been doing for some time and in my riding of Kitchener Centre, agencies have been making this transition for a number of years and it's the parents and the dedicated workers who are helping to drive this change. The Executive Director of KW Hibilitation, a wonderful woman by Billidow, says that she and I quote, appreciates the government's intention to work with people individually and the promise that no one will be left behind. Mr. Speaker, could the minister please explain how the ministry is pursuing this transformation and how local agencies are moving toward the goal of inclusivity in the province of Ontario for everyone. Thank you Mr. Speaker agencies will work closely with individuals and families to offer inclusive supports and programming that best meet their needs and goals. As I've said no sheltered workshop program will be phased out without appropriate alternatives in place. The shift away from sheltered workshops is not only about employment, it is ultimately about inclusion. Jobs are only one of the options an individual can choose to pursue. They may prefer to focus on community participation such as volunteering opportunities. The ministry will be engaging with clients, families, agencies, unions and frontline workers to carefully plan this transition over time. Last fall we launched the employment and modernization fund providing approximately $4 million for projects across the province to help development services agencies enhance their employment support programs. A number of projects involved shifting away from sheltered workshops and we are happy to share this with you. Thank you Mr. Speaker. My question is for the minister of community and social services. In last year's estimates the minister stated Sam's would have a seamless roll out. She said that no one would know there was a change taking place. Obviously it wasn't so seamless. We raised many concerns on behalf of social assistance recipients and case workers. How did the minister respond? And I think that clearly the opposition is trying to make a mountain out of a very small Mohill. Her very small Mohill is now $90 million over budget and a year behind schedule. My question is simple. Why did this government sign off on a project knowing it wasn't ready for prime time? Thank you Mr. Speaker and as we've said many times in this house we have acknowledged the challenges that emerged with Sam's. I immediately went to the front line workers and saw for myself exactly what was going on and at that point we brought in Pricewaterhouse Coopers to do an independent overview of how we should move forward. I think it's worth remembering that of course we on this side of the house do take the Auditor General very seriously. In 2009 she detailed a number or the former Auditor General detailed what the auditives brought in in 2002. That was the SDMT system. It was at risk of failure. The Auditor General made it very clear that we needed on this side of the house as a government to move forward with new technology that was appropriate and that could be sustained in the long time to have vulnerable people. Thank you Mr. Speaker. The Auditor General was very clear. The government was flawed from the get go but their testing was inadequate. They didn't fix the defects and yet they proceeded blindly with a big bang implementation and now that the big bang has blown up in their faces but as far as we know no one in this government has faced any consequences. Meanwhile the most vulnerable have found their bank accounts frozen and their privacy breached. Speaker where was the minister? Where was the oversight? For that matter the minister failed miserably. Speaker will she do the right thing and resign immediately. Thank you Mr. Speaker and I do take ministerial responsibility very very seriously and as soon as I became aware of the issues I took action. We now are working the plan to transition to full functionality of SAMS. We're listening to our front line and I've been so useful in terms of helping us with some of the technical issues that they face. We have adopted all of the Auditor General's five recommendations from her most recent report. In fact these are all part of our transition plan. We understand that there have been issues for our clients and for our workers but we will end up with a system that will serve the people of this province including our most vulnerable people. Thank you Mr. Speaker Thank you Mr. Speaker Mr. Speaker my question today is to the minister of transportation Minister yesterday I asked why the government allows so many unsafe trucks on the road. We know that nearly 30% of the trucks fail their inspections but all we got from the minister was denials. We now know that when it comes to truck safety our roads are now more dangerous not less. Accidents involving trucks are increasing not decreasing. Injuries are up not down. When families are driving home for the holidays they deserve to know that they won't be hit by a truck tire or a metal spike through their windshield. When will the minister stop endangering the lives of Ontarians and take truck safety seriously? Minister of transportation Thanks very much I thank the member for the questions that came yesterday and the question he is asking today and I do accept that there is a great deal of sincerity on the part of that member with respect to this issue and I know it is an important issue. I will repeat today what I said yesterday over the last 13 years the province of Ontario should be proud of the fact that for road and highway safety we have ranked first or second across all of North America what I said a number of months ago here in the legislature as it relates to truck driving for example there is a need for mandatory entry level training for truck drivers and what I said yesterday over 110,000 or approximately 110,000 truck inspections on an annual basis and that is why we are seeing that the number of fatalities involving large trucks has been dropping dramatically. Thank you Mr. Speaker Minister in 2012 the government closed appeal inspection station at Dixie and the 401 now there are no truck inspection stations when 40 kilometres of this house think about that when you are driving home a trucker can drive 100 kilometres across the GTA without seeing a single inspection station and if that trucker does not happen to pass one of the four inspection stations on the outskirts of the GTA the privately run stations are closed most of the time when families our kids and our grandkids are driving home for the holidays how will the minister assure them that the big rig ahead of them have been inspected and are safe Thank you Thanks very much I heard clearly that he was referring specifically to inspection stations what he neglected to include in the appeal region and across the system that the number of actual inspections that are taking place has not changed whatsoever I think for the people we are talking about the GTA we are talking about the entire province what people are most interested in that the Ministry of Transportation is conducting the appropriate number of inspections to make sure that that record I referenced in the initial response 13 years running first or second across North America for road and highway safety that we are doing the job to make sure that track record continues we conduct over 110,000 or approximately 110,000 truck inspections on an annual basis it doesn't mean that our work is done mandatory entry level training we will keep working hard to make sure we get it right and I thank the member for his question New question Thank you Mr. Speaker my question is for the Minister of Labour our government continues to make strides to build our province up we often speak about our commitment to renew and expand our infrastructure in other projects that will continue to improve Ontario when I hear about these plans I often think of the men and women who work on these projects the skilled people across the province and in my writing of York South Weston work hard to make these projects a reality we often talk about the importance of safety but as we continue to build up Ontario it's important that the people working on these projects get paid a fair wage Mr. Speaker the Premier recently spoke about Ontario's fair wage policy and the changes that she hopes they can be made to it in the future Can the Minister please explain to the House how we are moving forward Thank you Mr. Speaker Thank you to the member for that very important question the government is committed to building a very strong workforce and we want it to be fair, we want it to be balanced we want it to have very progressive policies for Ontario workers and for employers what a fair wage policy attempts to do is create that level playing field for bidders on all government contracts and it minimizes the conflicts between organized and unorganized labour in competitions for work under a fair wage policy contractors must agree to adhere to the fair wage schedules and the labour conditions however when the party opposite was in power for some reason they halted any updates to Ontario's fair wage policy as a result Speaker it's not been updated now since 1997 we know that after 20 years simply it needs updating some wages are now well below the minimum wage as the member mentioned the Premier committed to updating our policy on this I've been working with my colleague Speaker to keep that promise Thank you Mr. Speaker and thank you to the Minister for that answer I'm glad that both the Premier and the Minister are looking at this policy with earnest intent many of my constituents in Ontario's fair wage policy will be pleased to know that we will be moving forward on this Mr. Speaker the Minister brought up the fact that this policy has not been updated for 20 years 20 years is a long time and a lot has changed there's a lot of work to be done and we have to make sure that we get this right we must ensure that these men and women have a fair wage policy that ensures fairness Mr. Speaker can the Minister explain how he plans to achieve this Minister Thank you again to the member for this very important question it affects working people in this province Speaker in a very very important way because as we renew and we expand the infrastructure in the province it's very important I think we all agree in this House the people that are working on those projects should get paid fairly we've had a fair wage policy in place Speaker historically that ensured the workers on these projects received the prevailing wage of the day as I said Speaker it hasn't been looked at in 20 years addressing this is something people across Ontario are concerned about we've established a working group it includes contractors it includes labour it includes individuals who have a very balanced expertise in this regard we're reaching out to other ministries in this regard Speaker with the help of these parties I hope we can move towards some very positive changes bring forward an Ontario fair wage policy that meets the needs of today's workplace Thank you Thank you Mr. Speaker my question is to the Minister of Northern Development and Mines Speaker the auditor general revealed in her annual report that the Ring of Fire Secretary established in 2010 really hasn't accomplished much it's created a bureaucracy of 19 staff and three regional offices and it spent $13.2 million however there are no performance measures to gauge and report on the effectiveness of the activities it has undertaken and it has continually missed milestones for the development of the Ring of Fire that the development would start in the Ring of Fire by 2015 so Speaker can the Minister explain why the Ring of Fire Secretary has been such a failure Thank you Mr. Speaker thanks for the question I'm actually grateful to have an opportunity to respond to the member across the way the fact is that the Ring of Fire Secretary has been doing actually very remarkable work and working clearly with First Nations working with industry there's no question that there's been challenges relating to the timelines that I actually got an opportunity to speak with the Auditor General in advance we're releasing the report so that we can actually discuss the fact that indeed setting precise timelines factors such as commodity pricing factors such as the extraordinarily important word we do at First Nations which I know you would consider to be an absolute priority as well as just the reality of the infrastructure needs and us being able to work with a positive and cooperative federal government on the timelines in place so the Ring of Fire Secretary continues to do extraordinarily important work that I know that they want to continue to carry on and we're very supportive of that Speaker thank you I'm glad you mentioned relations with First Nations communities in the Ring of Fire because in 2014 you formed the Ring of Fire Development Corporation to accelerate infrastructure development in the region and it's operating budget is $4 million a year part of its mandate is to bring relevant stakeholders to advance the entire project the auditor reports quote at the time of our audit there was no representation on its board of directors from any stakeholder group such as First Nations industry or the federal government she goes on in addition there were no set timelines and stakeholders would be engaged no wonder you missed your target of development of the Ring of Fire in 2015 through the speaker minister how do you explain your failure to meet your own target again Mr. Speaker I really am grateful that I had the opportunity to have the kind of conversation that I had with the auditor general we're very grateful for reports and really strong recommendations we're working close to the audit in terms of the Ring of Fire Infrastructure Development Corporation their key task is to bring the partners together that certainly includes very much of the nation includes industry and may I say includes also the federal government they've also been crucial to putting in place some key technical infrastructure studies which again are crucial in terms of us making decisions through the partnerships on the transportation infrastructure we recognize how crucial it is in terms of a resource development project that's in a remote part of the province that's never seen development before those are big decisions but we also are very keen to make clear it's not simply about building a corridor to a mine site this is about having the opportunity to open up the north community access to first nations and that's the work I've been done with the Ring of Fire Infrastructure Development Corporation by the way it really doesn't matter where the member from Prince Edward Hastings or the member from Bruce Gray Owen Sound Sit I can still hear you there are four other people I can add to that as well new question the member from to Mr. Meek Akra to the acting premier on Saturday thousands of people will be rallying in North Bay to bring attention to your government's cuts across the north cuts to healthcare cuts to bus service and basic mismanagement of labor relations throughout the north a particular example is the lockout at ONTC we've got 200 workers who want to work there's lots of work out there yet they are prevented from working by this government will this government end the lockout and actually enter into meaningful negotiations thank you to the Minister of Northern Affairs the Minister of Northern Development and Mines well thank you very much Mr. Speaker I'm grateful to have an opportunity to actually speak about this with the member we've had a number of discussions and certainly you know how strong we feel about the bargaining process and indeed there aren't some very important discussions going on excuse me a reminder you're speaking to the chair carry on please certainly I think it's very important for all members of the House to know how important we view the collective bargaining process and it's one that certainly we are engaged in as we speak the important thing that needs to be noted and I think I know the member understands this is that indeed when we made the decision four of the five of the lines of the Ontario Northland Transition Committee in public hands that was a huge step forward in terms of our commitment to northeastern Ontario and a sustainable long-term economy that means we need to get into collective bargaining agreements in place we're working very very hard to do that and I'm certainly optimistic that's indeed that will be the goal at the end of the time thank you supplementary thank you speaker once again to the Minister since the decision to maintain four of the five lines in the commitment to LNTC we've seen train state bus stations closed we've seen cuts to bus service actually people who aren't permitted or aren't offered the opportunity to move where they used to move and now we've got at the shops of North Bay people who want to work there's work out there and the government has decided to close the doors please at this point when the government needs to do is enter into meaningful negotiations so the people of North Ontario can get back to work thank you that's exactly what we are going to do and we are in fact in the process of doing out to our collective bargaining process and the member is right there are some tremendous opportunities particularly in the refurbishment shop and what is clear based on the work that we did leading up to the decision to keep for the five lines of public hands was recognizing that there needed to be a fair and helpful collective bargaining agreements in place in order for us to be truly competitive in the markets that indeed we're competing with and along in the short is we have reached a number of agreements we've reached one recently with the IBEW just this past weekend several other agreements as well there's no question that indeed this process is still ongoing but we are very keen to find a resolution to it and keen to move on because indeed there are these great opportunities for refurbishment shop as well as the other lines of the ONTC and our government Premier Nguyen is committed to keeping them in public hands thank you Minister of Education close to 800,000 adults in Ontario do not have a high school diploma in currently an estimated 44,000 adult learners with diverse needs are enrolled in ministry of education adult education programs across the province I know that's important to constituents in my writing of Etobicoke Lakeshore that we continue to improve and contribute to adult education through facilities like the Mimico adult centre in the past year the ministry of education led six regional consults and one francophone session to learn first hand about the challenges and opportunities that exist for adult learners in Ontario Speaker through you to the minister can the minister tell the house the important role adult education plays in Ontario's prosperity and well being Minister of Education yes thank you speaker and thank you to the member for Etobicoke Lakeshore and he's right the world is changing rapidly and for our province to remain competitive we must respond to ongoing social and economic realities helping adult learners succeed is part of our governments and economic plan for Ontario our challenge is to ensure that our adult education programs serve an increasingly diverse population of adult learners a population that has multiple and complex needs that are difficult to address through our traditional models so that's why last year my parliamentary assistant the member from Glen Gary Crestcott Russell conducted consultations on adult education all across Ontario and the good news speaker is that our many school boards across the province are already providing innovative and flexible programs for adults I want to thank the minister through you for that answer I believe the ministry local school boards and partners have done a tremendous job working alongside key stakeholders and with partner ministries to support this commitment of adult education strategy Mr. Speaker through this strategy school boards are being encouraged to build on their innovative work to help more adult learners get the high school education they need to succeed in a recent announcement the minister noted the need for increased professionalization of adult education with professional development opportunities for administrators and teachers Mr. Speaker could the minister please tell us more about the recent announcement regarding the adult education strategy and what it means for the people of Ontario thank you minister last week I indeed was pleased to announce that Ontario will invest up to nine million dollars over the next three years to help more adult learners across the province get the high school education that they need to succeed and be part of a skilled workforce so to help ensure that adult learners have access to the same high quality programs and services regardless of where they live in Ontario the new funding will help school boards to create partnerships with other boards at the regional level to build on the creative initiatives that are already currently underway to do research and develop and share best practices and opportunities to ensure that high school programs for adults are responsible to adult needs and goals and to strengthen the school board's ability to recognize the prior learning and experience of adult learners to facilitate their graduation from high school new question the minister of energy the Ontario electricity support program is a rebate program for the 500,000 lowest income households in the province today we learned from the cbc news story that only 34,000 households have applied that's less than 7% uptake despite this the government will still collect nearly $145 million from rate payers to pay for the program if that money isn't claimed I would ask the minister where will it go will the minister return that money to the rate payer if the program doesn't use that cash the minister of energy Mr. Speaker we're very pleased to have worked with the Ontario energy board to create the program the Ontario electricity support program and the Ontario energy board has been done doing very very extensive promotion and advertising to get enrollment in the program they've had radio commercials they've had billboards they've had advertising in newspapers and community newspapers across the province there's no time limit for them to apply Mr. Speaker we would have hoped that the take up would have been larger at this particular point but they still have as much time as they can to move forward with it the funding for that through the Ontario energy board is based on the basis of estimating the take up for a longer period of time so it's not possible to answer this question at this particular point because in fullness of time Mr. Speaker we'll have a before the supplementary the bantering back and forth stops carry on please Speaker his answer proves that this is just another one of their shell games they had no idea what they were going to get when they instituted this and now they're caught there if the enrollment stays low they won't need the money they've collected for the program but if they hang on to it that's the definition of a cash grab it's not just the lowest Ontarians that can't afford electricity every Ontarian is taken aback when they open their hydro bill businesses and middle class families are struggling day in and day out to pay their hydro bills in Liberal Ontario you even have to think twice before plugging in your Christmas lights the auditor already showed that the minister is overcharging Ontarians by $170 billion if enrollment in this subsidy stays low will the minister see the error of his ways and return the money not used by the program simple question yes or no Mr. Speaker I'd like to ask the critic for the opposition why he just voted against a bill that would have taken the debt retirement charge off-residential and accelerated the withdrawal of it from industry Mr. Speaker he voted against that Mr. Speaker I thought he would have learned more from his father you know his father was an MPP and I have something from the the Eganville leader they did a 50 years ago repetition of some of the stories that appeared Mr. Speaker and there was the issue of hydro rates by the Eastern Ontario Development Association and the MLA for Renfrew South had to account for the government his name was Paul Yacobusky the member was 8 years old at the time Mr. Speaker and so he comes by the subject matter of rate increases very very well but there was no answer from Paul Yacobusky from Renfrew South as to why the consumer rates were escalating thank you the member from Hamilton Mountain transportation the member from Prince Edward Hastings and the member from Renfrew Nipissing Pembroke those of you that I just mentioned I'm asking you to come to order and the member from Renfrew Nipissing Pembroke is warned new question the member from Windsor to come see thank you Speaker my question this morning is to the acting Premier good morning Speaker last month the Minister of Government and Consumer Services announced a review of the Tarion warranty corporation to be conducted by Judge J. Douglas Cunningham the review was long overdue coming after years of complaints and concerns raised by individual new home buyers consumer groups young budsmen and MPPs from all parties but then the Minister called the review in a question by saying quote I anticipate that Justice Cunningham will find Tarion's processes validated as good consumer protection measures the Minister didn't even wait for the review to be completed he already said he thinks everything is just fine over there the Minister is unwilling to take consumer concerns seriously perhaps this would be cause one of Tarion's Vice Presidents as the immediate past president of the Ontario Liberal Party the review should be about protecting the public the member from the Minister I wouldn't mind if you allowed me to carry on the member from Hamilton Mountain second time the Minister of Economic Development will come to order Minister of Government Deputy Premier Thank you very much Speaker I'm pleased to respond to the question from the member opposite I think if the member opposite had taken into consideration all of my comments with respect to this review we're launching the first review the legislation was created in 1976 and I'm committed to getting to the bottom of all of the issues with respect to Tarion that have been raised if the members taken a look at all of the terms of reference that have been laid out it is a very broad scope everything is on the table for Justice Cunningham and I am not prejudging or presupposing what Justice Cunningham will find but I did also suggest because of a number of the improvements that Tarion themselves over the last decade have made in terms of the builder registry in terms of doubling warranty coverage for residents in Ontario they have made some positive steps and I assume that the Justice will find that they've made some improvements but that's not to say more can't be done and I'm certainly interested in looking forward to his recommendations we have a deferred vote on the motion of second reading of Bill 132 enact to amend various statutes with respect to sexual violence sexual harassment, domestic violence and related matters calling the members this will be a five minute vote all members please take your seats all members please take your seats on December the second 2015 Ms. McCharles moved second reading of Bill 132 enact to amend various statutes with respect to sexual violence sexual harassment, domestic violence and related matters all those in favour please rise one at a time and be recognized by the clerk Ms. McCharles Mr. Bradley Mr. Shirelli Mr. Sousa Mr. Matthews Mr. Hoskins Mr. Sandoz Mr. Dugud Mr. Quinter Mr. Cole Mr. Tecar Mr. Delaney Mr. Dillon Mr. Bravel Mr. McMeekin Mr. Audrey Mr. Balkasin Mr. Manga Mr. Crack Mr. Hunter Mr. Sergio Mr. Moro Mr. Dalduca Mr. Darmela Mr. Frazer Mr. Anderson Mr. Baker Mr. Ballard Mr. Darm Mr. Cadu Harris Mr. Rinaldi Mr. Tebow Mr. Scott Mr. Arnett Mr. Hardin Mr. Wilson Mr. Jones Mr. Brown Mr. Clark Mr. Fidelli Mr. Hillier Mr. Miller Mr. McNaughton Mr. Bailey Mr. Walker Mr. Smith Mr. Harris Mr. Nichols Mr. Marteau Mr. McDonnell Mr. Pettipies Mr. Sackler Mr. Singh Mr. Bisson Mr. Bantow Mr. DeNovo Mr. Miller-Hamilton-Estony Creek Mr. Hadfield Mr. Gretzky Mr. French All those opposed, please rise one at a time. You're recognized by the clerk. Mr. 97, the nays are zero. The ayes being 97 and the nays being zero I declare the motion carried. Second reading of the mill. Mr. Lepcher, please read it out. Third reading. Minister of Children and Youth Services Referred to the standing committee on social policy. Good. There are no deferred votes. This house stands recessed until 3pm this afternoon.