 It is now time for Question Period, the leader of Her Majesty's loyal opposition. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Premier. Due to the mounting public outrage, this Liberal government has admitted to doling out an additional $2.5 million in taxpayer money because of their failed two-tier burgeoning system. But that admission is not going to satisfy the thousands of enterans who have contacted us, and I'm sure they've contacted the Premier's office as well. So Mr. Speaker, my question is simple. Where did that money come from? Mr. Speaker, as I have said repeatedly, there is a cost associated with negotiations. There's always a cost associated with negotiations, and I have said quite clearly that any of the money that has been on the table has been part of the overall compensation package. Mr. Speaker, I've answered that question a number of times. I answered it in the media. Mr. Speaker, the reality is that our top priority is to ensure that our students enjoy one of the best education systems in the world. They do enjoy that, Mr. Speaker. We want to keep it that way, and we are in a process right now. It's an unprecedented process, Mr. Speaker. There hasn't been a provincial bargaining system in place before, Mr. Speaker. This is the first round of bargaining within that provincial process, Mr. Speaker, and so we will reach conclusion with all of our education partners. And at the conclusion of that, if the Leader of the Opposition would like to engage in a conversation about how to modify Bill 122, Mr. Speaker, how to modify that process, we are open and welcoming that process. I hope I don't have to start a supplementary question. Mr. Speaker, again to the Premier, and I'll be more specific. Every dollar budgeted in the Education Ministry is assigned to a specific program. In June of 2014, we learned the Minister of Education took $1.6 million in funding for an anti-bullying and autism awareness program to pay the legal fees in their lawsuit with Ontario school bus drivers. So again, Mr. Speaker, a very simple accounting question for the Premier. From which program line item in the 2015 education budget did the Premier take the $2.5 million for her mismanaged negotiations? The money that is on the table, Mr. Speaker, is all part of the compensation envelope. That's what we've said all along, because these negotiations are operating within a net zero environment. It sounds to me that my message wasn't strong enough, and if I have to ramp it up, I will stop it. Please carry on. Mr. Speaker, the Leader of the Opposition will be aware that on Friday the Education Minister and I said to our education partners that what is critical right now is that we come to an agreement. The situation that pertains in our schools right now in terms of the cleanliness of the schools, Mr. Speaker, and the opportunity for kids to take part in a full program, including extracurriculars, has to be dealt with. And so we've said that by November 1, Mr. Speaker, if there is not a deal in place, if there's not an agreement in place, Mr. Speaker, or the Labor Action has not stopped, Mr. Speaker, then there will be the potential for the terms of the employment to be changed, Mr. Speaker, and that could include docking of pay. We have not issued that permission yet, Mr. Speaker. We have said quite clearly till November 1, we need, and everyone's at the table, Mr. Speaker, that bargaining is continuing now. Final supplementary. Mr. Speaker, again to the Premier, even though the Premier has said this is business as usual last week, the Global Mails article reported that ECTFO has said they have not accepted and will not accept any government money to pay for bargaining costs. The CBC quotes Labour lawyer Howard Levitt, who said covering a union's bargaining cost is unusual and raises all kinds of questions. He said, I quote, it's counter-intuitive and antithetical to the interests of the taxpayer and employers. Mr. Speaker, if the payments were not made in the best interest of taxpayers, will the Premier tell us who other than the Liberal Party is this in the best interest of? Thank you, Premier. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I think that the leader of the opposition probably is aware of the commentary of many people on this subject, Mr. Speaker. It's not unprecedented for a party in the public or the private sector to assist unions with the cost of collective bargaining. A CAW negotiator told the Star and I quote, it is not unheard of for private companies to cover all or part of the cost of a union's expenses associated directly with negotiating a contract. I quote, Mr. Speaker, I say to the leader of the opposition, if at the conclusion of this round of negotiations, which is unprecedented, there has not been a provincial round before, Mr. Speaker, if at the end of the... The decisions have been made by those that decided that shouting people down is the answer. I will move to warnings. At the end of this process, the leader of the opposition, and I don't know what his experience with negotiating is, Mr. Speaker, but I would be happy to have him and quite frankly the leader of the third party. We can talk about input into the negotiating process. I'd be very interested to hear their concerns as we round up the after we have 100 agreements with our education partners, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Premier. The Premier told the Toronto Star last week that paying $2.5 million for union negotiations is business as usual. No one is buying that. The only reason the Liberals idea of business as usual is out is because their secret deal was leaked. Every business I know keeps receipts to justify their expenses. Mr. Speaker, does the Premier find it acceptable that she gave $2.5 million without a single receipt? Simple, yes or no, is it acceptable to pay that amount of money of taxpayers' hard-earned dollars without a single receipt? I guess somebody didn't hear what I said. Mr. Speaker, I believe what I said is that in a $20 billion... Remember, from Renfrew Nipissing, Pembroke is warned. Carry on. The education... The member from Glendier, Kurska, Russell is warned. ...is more than a $20 billion enterprise. There are costs associated with negotiating agreements in that environment, Mr. Speaker. That is what I said. And what is critical to me right now as the Premier and the Minister of Education is that we've got students in our public elementary schools, Mr. Speaker, who are not able to have the full program. Their schools are not being cleaned in the way that they should be, Mr. Speaker. And my focus is on working with our education partners to get an agreement, Mr. Speaker, in an environment where we are operating in a provincial negotiation process. That is new, Mr. Speaker. It is the first time we have gone through this formal process. And if, at the conclusion of this process, the Leader of the Opposition would like... The member from Prince Edward Hastings is warned. Finish, wrap up, please. ...to bring his experience and his knowledge of negotiations to the table. We'd be happy to hear from him on how he'd like to make the system better, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, again to the Premier, the public isn't going to buy that excuse. Business as usual to the Premier means paying multimillion-dollar organizations to negotiate, and they're making up a one-page document to justify it. If this bargaining is really business as usual, as you say, as the global mail has said, I quote, let's see an accounting down to the penny. All those zeros and a row suggest no accounting was done. The globe went on to ask, what was the money really for? Mr. Speaker, if the Premier can't produce a spreadsheet down to the penny that justifies this 2.5 million dollars, maybe the Premier can explain and tell the House what was this really for. Thank you. Education. Minister of Education. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I think it's important to understand that, in fact, this is not business as usual. This is a transformational round of negotiations that's implementing a new collective bargaining scheme for the first time ever. In fact, we have had significant discussions for the last year. We spent six months with the initial step of settling on central local split we have been in the process of literally bringing hundreds and hundreds of collective agreements into nine central collective agreements, Speaker. And that takes a lot of work and a long time. We recognize that both the school boards and the unions have unusual costs in this unique round of collective agreements. Thank you. Final supplementary. Mr. Speaker, again for the Premier. And business as usual is your government's talking point. You can run from it now, but it's what you said. This government gave away 2.5 million dollars without asking for a single receipt. The best explanation the Minister of Education can muster was the money was for hotel rooms and pizza. I'm not sure whether the minister buys for pizza, but the pepperoni must be gold-plated. Is the Premier really going to insult the intelligence of the people of Ontario and expect them to believe 2.5 million dollars was for hotels and pizza? Or, Mr. Speaker, will the Premier come clean and tell the legislature, tell the people of Ontario what this money was really for? You are not going to get an opportunity to get shots in when I'm standing. Please. Yes, thank you, Speaker. And the... The member from Leeds Granville is warned. But the process of renting hotel rooms for literally a year, not residential rooms, but meeting rooms, we have been renting meeting rooms for over a year. If I were some people who are already warned, I wouldn't be saying anything. Not an unusual practice. I can remember an occasion during the Mike Harris School. His people called in school boards and unions. And do you know who paid for the hotel? To the chair, please. Mike Harris is governed. Remind for everyone to the chair, please. New question. Leader of the third party. Thank you very much, Speaker. Here are my questions for the Premier. The Premier has been rushing to sell off Hydro-1. She's refused to allow a referendum, public hearings, or any form at all, Speaker, of public feedback. But every time that the people of Ontario have had a chance to express an opinion, Speaker, they have overwhelmingly told this Premier to stop the sell-off of Hydro-1 and to find another way to fund infrastructure. Ontario families, municipalities, businesses, all want the Premier to slow down and find another way to fund infrastructure. Does the Premier believe that the people of Ontario are wrong and that there is no other way to finance infrastructure? Thank you. Well, Mr. Speaker, I think that it is extremely important that we look at all avenues to invest in infrastructure because the fact is there is a long backlog of need in this province, Mr. Speaker. Remember, there were 10 years before we came into office where our government didn't invest in infrastructure, Mr. Speaker. We came in in 2003. We started making those investments. I've said all along, Mr. Speaker, that the money that we are putting into infrastructure, the $130 billion over the next 10 years, that is what we can do, but we've always said we need a federal partner to work with us, Mr. Speaker. So we are implementing our plan as we committed to do when we went to the people last year, Mr. Speaker. We will implement that plan. We will make those investments, but we also need a federal partner so that we can do all of the things that are necessary across the province, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. At many times that they have to rush the sell-off of Hydro-1. She said that she will push her half-baked scheme out the door because of the sudden urgency of building infrastructure. She more or less repeated that just now, Speaker, but here are the facts. In 2014-15, Mr. Speaker, the government spent $300 million less on transportation capital than it had budgeted for. In 2013-14, Mr. Speaker, the government spent a whopping $1.2 billion less speaker than budgeted for. So will the Premier admit, finally, that the sell-off of Hydro-1 has never been about money for infrastructure? Mr. Speaker, providing the ownership in Hydro-1 is all about investment in infrastructure. Mr. Speaker, there is a 10-year plan that we have in place, and if there are projects that come in under budget, that's something that the leader of the third party should be celebrating, Mr. Speaker. There's province in every community. There is a need for investment within the community, and there is a need for investment to link communities to one another, Mr. Speaker. That is in the best interest of our economic prosperity, Mr. Speaker, as a province, but also community by community. It's what businesses need in order to be able to expand and bring more business here to Ontario. That's why we're making these investments, Mr. Speaker. Final supplementary. Mr. Speaker, in fact, the Liberals have had 12 years to build infrastructure, but really, they haven't. And for 12 years, new Democrats have been pushing them... Order. For the sake of those that may not have been here to hear what I had said, we're at the warning stage. ...have been pushing them to make those badly-needed investment, Mr. Speaker. But frankly, they didn't. And now, suddenly, the Premier says it is urgent. But public accounts show us very clearly, Mr. Speaker, that in just the last two years, this Premier spent $1.5 billion less than she budgeted for, Mr. Speaker. The Premier is not even utilizing the money that she has, and yet she continues to insist that she has to sell off Hydro-1 in an urgent way. Will this Premier admit that she does not need to sell off Hydro-1 and just stop this wrong-headed move, Mr. Speaker? No, Mr. Speaker. I won't, because I'm not sure how the leader of the third party gets around this province. But if she's been in the Windsor region at all over the last three years, she will know that there's been building going on, Mr. Speaker. She just has to go up to Eglinton Avenue in Toronto, Mr. Speaker, and she will see that there is building going on. So there is infrastructure being built all over this province, Mr. Speaker. Historic investment. And the fact is, the way the budgets work, there is money that is invested in planning. There's money invested in accumulating property. There are environmental assessments that go on, Mr. Speaker. There is work going on across the province. That work can't go on unless we make the investments that we are making. So we are going to continue to do that, Mr. Speaker, because the Hamilton LRT will not happen if we don't do the upfront work to make sure that those shovels get in the ground. Thank you. The next question is for the Premier. People have been telling this Premier to find another way, Speaker, to fund infrastructure instead of selling off Hydro-1. We know that the Premier has other options. According to the government's own reports, a 1% increase in corporate taxes would raise up to $700 million a year, Speaker. That's much more than the $400 million a year that her sell-off scheme will apparently earn. Will this Premier admit that she has other options but instead stubbornly refuses to take those options and instead sell off Hydro-1, a plan, a scheme, an effort that Ontarians soundly reject? Thank you. So, Mr. Speaker, whether we are talking about investment in infrastructure or whether we're talking about enhancement to social programs, Mr. Speaker, or whether we're talking about supporting businesses and supporting communities, the leader of the third party only has one answer, Mr. Speaker, and that is raise corporate taxes. She spends that $700 million over and over and over again, Mr. Speaker. The fact is, we know that businesses in Ontario need to be competitive. They are operating now in a competitive tax environment, Mr. Speaker, but they need something else. They need infrastructure investments so that they can move their goods and their people can move around, Mr. Speaker, and be connected to the communities that they want to be connected to. That's why we're making these investments. The oversimplification by the third party will not get business investing in this province, Mr. Speaker. We are taking the steps to bring business to Ontario, to increase connectivity, Mr. Speaker, and improve people's quality of life. Supplementary. Supplementary. Thank you, Speaker. The Premier in the past has often said, and I quote, it would be great if we had a federal partner working with us on infrastructure. In fact, she said that today, Speaker, and now the federal government has promised billions upon billions of dollars for infrastructure and transit. The Premier insists she can't wait for the federal money, though, because she has to rush to sell off Hydro One, but the Premier also has $1.5 billion in unspent infrastructure money from the last two-year, Speaker. It is clear that the Premier doesn't need the money all that quickly, Speaker, and my question is a simple one. Why is the Premier plowing ahead with the sell-off of Hydro One when it is so obviously unnecessary? Great question. It is necessary. Mr. Speaker, just because the money hasn't been put out, Mr. Speaker, spent doesn't mean that it's not needed for current projects. I would just explain to the leader of the third party that the money that's allocated actually has to be kept for that purpose so that when that bill comes in for the work that's been done, we actually have the money to pay for it. So, Mr. Speaker, that is the way the funding works. The projects are underway, Mr. Speaker, and the fact is that we've said all along we need a federal partner. The money that we have to invest in infrastructure, Mr. Speaker, will do a lot of good, but it's not all that needs to be done, Mr. Speaker. I've worked with the premiers across the country and we know that we are just barely keeping up and in some cases not keeping up with the needs of infrastructure in the country. We need that federal partner to make sure that we can build new and we can enhance the economy of the whole country. Mr. Speaker, according to media reports, it is this premier herself who refuses to even consider asking Ontario's wealthiest corporations to pay just a little bit more to fund infrastructure and it is this premier who has allowed 1.5 billion in infrastructure money to go unspent and it is this premier that cannot wait for the billions of dollars promised from the federal government, Mr. Speaker. The premier's justifications for this unnecessary sell-off, Mr. Speaker, are insulting to the public's intelligence. Will this premier do the right thing, stop the sell-off of Hydro-1 and find another way to fund her infrastructure promises? Thank you. Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. What's insulting to the intelligence of the people of this province is the leader of the third party's contention to raise corporate taxes by just a little bit, that's going to solve all of our problems in this province. That's going to cover all of the expenses we need when it comes to investing in infrastructure. Mr. Speaker, the biggest concern in an officially competitive global economy of our business community is that we take the advice of the party opposite. Jack up corporate taxes, Mr. Speaker. Kill jobs in this province. Stop building infrastructure. Make our economy uncompetitive. Mr. Speaker, this party, this premier is committed to making this economy our business community competitive and officially competitive global economy. We're going to do what it takes to do that and we're going to act contrary to the views of the members of the opposite. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Treasury Board President. Her job is to eliminate the deficit and to ensure government accountability. But the slush fund payments to education unions flies in the face of her personal commitments to this assembly. We learned of a secret one million dollar payment to OSSTF in the media. The education minister said it was a one time thing until she got caught and now it's 2.5 million dollars. Who knows what secret payments will add up to by the time she finishes speaking here in question period today and all without any receipts. And now we know that other unions who may not have gotten this golden handshake or golden milkshake at the meeting space may want more. So my question is, and it's a very serious one to the Treasury Board President, how could you let the education minister undermine your deficit reduction targets and as important as the bill a law you put before this House to increase accountability after e-health or in a cancelled gas plant scandal? Thank you. Can you see the please? Can you see the please? Thank you. President of the Treasury Board The Minister of Education The Minister of Education Yes, thank you very much. And as a result of the year that we spend at the hotel, I would like to remind people that in fact we actually did end up with the first ever presidential collective agreements. We have collective agreements with the English Catholic teachers. We have collective agreements with the public secondary teachers. We have collective agreements with the French teachers who work in both the English public and the French public and the French Catholic school boards. We have three presidential collective agreements. Those represent hundreds of collective agreements being fold into three provincial-central collective agreements that took time and when you take time there are costs involved in taking that time and we recognize that and we have supported both our school board colleagues and our union colleagues in coming to a three-way tripartite agreement in this transformational round department. She may have been spending some time at the hotel grand mare with Chuck and unresolved the receipt speaker but the rest of us were standing here defending Ontario taxpayers and particularly Ontario students back to the Treasury Board President. We have handed out $2.5 million at least in slush fund money that was intended for kids in classrooms. They cut checks to the same unions who helped them 18 months ago run attack ads against the progressive conservative party. Even Sam Handen, one of the unions they do not have a deal with stealing candy from a baby but I've never him to get real. I'll ask the member to withdraw. Withdraw. Minister explain to this house why it's okay to rid of her deficit reduction targets why it's okay to eliminate her own billing. When I stand members sit Minister of Education and I think speaker we've now discovered what the fundamental issue here is. We have a difference in the way that we work with our colleagues in both the school boards and in the unions. The way they want to work with the unions as we found from their campaign platform was to fire 100,000 people. Probably years we could figure out with their calculations fire 20,000 people in the school board sector. We actually don't think that that's the way to work with people. We think that we need to bring together our school board colleagues and our union colleagues and we all need to sit at the same table and come to agreement. That's why we brought new school board collective bargaining legislation which if memory serves me they voted against because they don't believe in the principle of appreciation. Thank you speaker. My questions to the premier. The premier's recent threat aimed at education workers continues to create chaos in our schools. Students, parents and education workers want quality education in Ontario but this government is only providing cuts and uncertainty. For more than a year the liberal government has failed to treat the negotiating process with respect and attention. Just like this government has failed to treat education with respect and attention given more than a decade of chronic underfunding of our public education system they are proud of a planned 500 million cut to education. Proud of firing 21 early childhood educators in Windsor Essex. Proud of laying off 118 teachers in Peterborough. This government's record on education is nothing to be proud of. The minister of education has lost all credibility and needs to go. For the premier to admit that a recent threat to education workers is only going to cause more chaos in our schools and for students and families to pay the price for her minister's failure. So Mr. Speaker on the one hand we have the official opposition saying that we have spent too much time because there are costs associated with collective bargaining and we've spent too much time negotiating Mr. Speaker and we shouldn't be putting out that money to pay for those negotiation processes. On the other hand Mr. Speaker we've got the NDP saying that we really should let this go on forever Mr. Speaker and the bargaining process should go on forever that we shouldn't use any of the tools that are actually part of the the labor law Mr. Speaker to bring to a conclusion a situation that is putting kids at risk that is not giving families the information that they need about their kids' progress that is keeping schools dirty Mr. Speaker well I'm not willing to do that I'm not willing to let that go on and on and on but our education partners know that I believe in collective bargaining Mr. Speaker and I believe we are allies with them but they also know Mr. Speaker that we have to act in the best way for the children. Thank you Mr. Speaker it was in fact the government that walked away from bargaining not at folk now let's get back to the facts Speaker the Premier uttering threats and stomping her feet because the Minister of Education couldn't do her job is no way to negotiate since the beginning of the process she failed to do her job when it comes to bargaining now our kids are paying the price of increased chaos in our schools as if cuts to special education funding in eight boards totaling 22.5 million dollars wasn't bad enough students and families shouldn't be paying the price for the Minister's incompetence and neglect of the education file. My question is simple will the Premier fire the Minister of Education immediately yes or no Thank you Well Mr. Speaker I just want this house and the people of Ontario to know that our Minister of Education has as her top priority the best interest of the children of this province the students of this province Mr. Speaker and there are probably few people in the province who know as much about the education system as the Minister of Education so Mr. Speaker systems in the world Mr. Speaker people come from all over the world to look at how we have developed the education system 84% of kids in this province graduate from high school Mr. Speaker it is a model so the fact is that we need government needs to be working with school boards and with our education partners both teachers and support staff that's what we're doing as part of the collective bargaining process it's not easy Mr. Speaker it takes time but it is necessary Mr. Speaker Thank you Mr. Speaker and this question is for the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister over the summer as mandated by the premier your ministry conducted a review of the rules governing our municipal elections we are keenly aware that our local democracies are critical hubs of civic activity and an important entry point to Ontario's governance system that's why our municipalities and the local leaders we choose need to be supported and clear and fair rules these rules need to be simple and reflect how modern campaigns should be run they should address the changing spectrum of needs that communities encounter throughout the municipal election process Mr. Speaker these are important goals through you can the minister tell this House a bit about the review and its consultation process Thank you Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Well Speaker I'd be delighted to respond to the question from the member from Davenport to begin by saying Ontarians really care about municipal elections they care about voting and they want to make sure that their voices are heard so over the last several months I've been traveling the province talking to over 200 municipal councils and a number of citizens about how they view their election system and we've been hearing a lot about what works and what doesn't work so well we look specifically and closely at campaign finance rules whether third party advertising should be regulated challenges and barriers to making elections more accessible and whether municipal election rules are effectively enforced Speaker I believe that hearing from as many municipalities and Ontarians as possible and we've had wonderful feedback is the way I look forward and we'll be presenting more specifics very soon Thank you Thank you Mr. Speaker In addition to the goals the minister has laid out this time around the Municipal Elections Act Review has an added objective and that's our government's commitment to provide municipalities with the option to implement ranked ballot voting for our next municipal election cycle in 2018 Speaker as a new frontier significant attention in conversations throughout our communities including my own riding of Davenport and in various news coverage throughout the media our municipal partners have been considering whether moving forward with efforts to establish ranked ballot voting in 2018 will meet their communities needs across the municipal councils there has been some confusion as late on this matter Mr. Speaker through you can the minister share what he and his team are working on in regards to ranked ballots Thank you minister Well Mr. Speaker I'd be delighted to respond as simply as I can we've had over 1900 responses on the issue of ranked ballots about 97% of them view it very positively there are some that don't and some of those people might be predictable but that's okay so we're working very hard on it we think that anything that will enhance voter turnout to give a little bit more attention to the importance of municipal campaigns is worth doing we have reason to believe based on the experience in other countries that a move to ranked ballots would make election campaigns more civil ensure candidates will have a vested interest in working better together right from the get go and reduce negative campaigning answer well increasing focus on issues that matter it will be an option it will be coming forward when we deliver the whole package and I look forward to it Thank you very much Mr. Speaker my question is to the minister of education last week this minister was quick to defend her government's payouts 1 million to SSTF 1 million to elect it and a half a million dollars to AEFO on the grounds that and I quote her statement from Hansard we haven't fired anybody we haven't cut anybody end of quote I want to remind the minister of the reality that her government is firing and they are cutting and they are compromising our children's education by taking away 2.5 million from students and giving it to teachers unions in my writing alone 50 education assistants have been eliminated and consequently special education students have been told to stay at home or not to come to school as a result of scan resources my question to the minister is does she not respect our students and educational assistants enough to acknowledge there is a cut to the classroom Thank you No there are not any cuts to the classroom as a result of the collective agreements that we have negotiated in fact the the generators in terms of class size generators are the same in fact many of them are actually the same the ones that you legislated but the class size generators are the ones that were in place prior to the agreements being cut we agreed in a previous round of bargaining that we would hire additional teachers beyond those class size ratios and in fact as a result of those previous agreements we hired 2300 additional teachers over and beyond the class size generators and as a result of these collective agreements we continue to fund those 23 teachers in addition to the classroom supplementary one is a cut not a cut the reality is you have taken $2.5 million away from our vulnerable students Aaron Bessie's sons Owen and Nola who are autistic, Kathy Cotter seven-year-old daughter moving into secondary school and she is a three-year-old son who has type one diabetes and suffers from hypoglycemic episodes with their EAs gone there is no one to watch and keep them safe I sent the minister personal letters from more than 30 parents of special needs students whose EAs have been fired these students their parents and every special education teacher and support staff who receive their pink slips are deeply offended that this minister is flipping in regard to their loss of jobs in classroom resources and I quote we haven't fired we haven't cut with a straight face the minister is responsible for this mess on behalf of these students and families who want their children to receive education they're entitled to I ask will you bring back the EAs who will you put the children first here here minister we can just reflect a little bit on special needs funding special education funding speaker this year the 2015-16 school year students with spec head requirements are receiving 2.72 billion in addition to the regular funding that goes to every student if you look at that that's an increase of 225 0.7 million or actually 9% 6 2012 3 so over the last few years if you go back to the start year the 2002-3 year it's an increase of 68% or 1.1 billion dollars since we took office we are not cutting special education thank you a member from Hamilton East Stony Creek thank you speaker my question is to the premier just two weeks ago in reference to US Steel and Trudeau stated that the Canadian government needs to work with its provincial partners to ensure that people's pensions are protected speaker I couldn't agree more US Steel has a towering moral debt to its workers and its pensioners will the premier use her influence with Mr Trudeau to protect US Steel pensioners to push for the release of those secret documents and agreements with US Steel and to ensure that these moral debts will in the future be legal debts any kind of theft can never happen to Canadians again thank you the member opposite makes an important point mind you court proceedings are still ongoing but our government remains committed to working with all the stakeholders our goal of course to achieve a long-term viability of the ongoing operations of US Steel Canada and more important to protect the employees and retirees and suppliers and customers who are affected and while it is still ongoing we do want to ensure the member opposite that our government will work with the retirees by providing the support necessary over the next six months so they can have their health benefits and more importantly will establish a transition fund to enable that to take place and as the restructuring is ongoing it's important to note that the pensioners and the workers will be receiving their benefit plan to the point made around unsealing those secret documents by the Harris government that was achieved previously indeed we will stand by the retirees and US Steel Canada to ensure that that's unlocked thank you Mr. Speaker supplementary thank you Mr. Speaker it's bad enough that US Steel pension funds themselves are underfunded but there is no trust account at all to pay the benefits of the pensioners indeed their seldom is the benefits that form part of employees promise to its retirees are funded from the company's current cash flows not from trust accounts but from trust funds funded this way and after many bitter lessons we decided on a better way perhaps it's time for other post retirement benefits to receive the same protection what will the premier do to ensure that the medical dental health benefits of retirees are given the same financial stability and security as their pensions thank you Mr. Speaker as a member knows as restructuring continues it's important to remember that it's still operating and the retirees are still receiving their pensions and as the member knows and he may reference to this Ontario is the only jurisdiction in Canada with a fund like the PBGF the pension benefits guarantee fund and this was made in 2012 to put in more sustainable footing including increasing assessments and eligibility conditions to cover those benefits and I can confirm that the current estimates indicate that the PBGF is financially sound the bottom line is that although the courts are processing and going through the approval process this will not affect the PBGF coverage if needed Mr. Speaker in the future and again I add that we will as a government continue to support the retirees and the workers over the next six months that will not implicate the PBGF but it is there the only province in Canada that offers that and we recognize that more has to be done thank you Mr. Speaker Mr. Speaker my question is for the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister we all know that Ontario's police officers work hard in our communities every day to keep us all safe they have helped make Sudbury in Ontario one of the safest places to live work and raise a family and there is a growing recognition everyone has a role to play in building partnerships providing opportunities to prevent crime and to promote safe healthy communities this means our police services must form partnerships with social service education health and community groups to address social ills and proactively prevent crime for we all know that this is the most effective way to create positive lasting change for example in my community of Sudbury we have seen the positive impact of the strong partnerships between the Greater Sudbury Police Service and the local service providers to actively address these kinds of issues through you can the Minister please explain what he is doing to support the development of community safety planning across Ontario Thank you very much Speaker and I want to thank the member from Sudbury for the important question because we work to build stronger safer and healthier communities right across Ontario one of the key challenges addressing social issues that lead to crime our proceeds of crime frontline policing grant helps partnerships between local police and social service providers to just do that speaker this year Ontario is investing $2 million in 25 community safety and well-being programs to support local police and community groups in their efforts to build safer and stronger communities for example speaker the Saint Thomas and Elma police services are working in helping police connect with seniors to combat elder abuse Peterborough pre-services increasing access to safe housing say speaker through the OPP we are making sure that our kids stay safe online and speaker through the Cornwall police service we providing counseling and other services to combat domestic violence and help those affected by it speaker in fact this year Ontario is investing $100,000 in the second phase of crime prevention through social development program in Sudbury to support local police and community groups supplementary Thank you Mr. Speaker and thank you to the Minister for his response I am concerned about the important contribution the proceeds of crime frontline policing grant is making to community safety and well-being initiatives in Sudbury and across our great province as the Minister mentioned Mr. Speaker the grant will go to funding phase 2 of the crime prevention through social development program this initiative is being led by the community safety and well-being planning steering committee which is made up of important local service groups their goal is to come together to build a collective crime reduction strategy and improve overall community safety and well-being to prevent crime and address social issues in the community but Mr. Speaker, Ontarians need to know that the good work like this is also happening in communities across this province so through you Mr. Speaker and the Minister explain what he is doing to encourage other communities to develop the same sort of community safety and well-being initiatives that we have in Sudbury thank you very much Speaker we are working to ensure that the good work that is happening in Sudbury will also happen in other neighborhoods and communities across the province that is why the cornerstone of our new strategy for safer Ontario will be community safety and well-being plans which will be in every part of the province these plans will help to lower the demand for a reactive resource intensive emergency responses by developing a collaborative evidence-based approach to community safety I would like to recognize those community speakers from across the province who are already taking steps to make the province an even safer place to live by by putting these kinds of plans in place because the only way truly fight crime is to prevent it happening in the first place Speaker these are the kind of proactive and collaborative efforts we will continue to encourage through our community safety and well-being plans as we work to build stronger and safer communities across Ontario we thank communities like Sudbury who has taken a leadership role speaker in setting up an example of how this proactive model could work. Thank you. Do you have questions? Mr. Mayor Culture Food and Rural Affairs clearly a minister who should be fighting for farmers at the cabinet table and we have dairy farmers here today however the minister said highly by now 174 municipalities the vast majority of them rural have passed resolutions opposing the sale of Hydro One I have and the minister himself has said will keep Hydro One quote in public hands so now speaker when will the minister speak up at the cabinet table to keep Hydro One in public hands Mr. Speaker Mr. Speaker it's a strange question coming from members from that party Mr. Speaker as we all know in this house in the 2014 election that party campaigned in favour of broadening the ownership of Ontario Power Generation and Hydro One Mr. Speaker not only that Mr. Speaker they indicated that race would be protected through the Ontario Energy Board Mr. Speaker the present leader of that party has essentially said the same thing Mr. Speaker so when will that party disavow themselves of the commitment they made in the 2014 election campaign Mr. Speaker the minister of agriculture is sitting over here silent sitting idly silent I might say with respect to the Hydro One fire sale while rural municipalities passed resolution after resolution opposing it among the now 174 municipalities that oppose the sale are the ag ministers own Peterborough County and Peterborough itself in the past minister Leo opposed privatization and I quote will never look at it end quote his constituents oppose the sale the farmers as ministry represent oppose the sale when will the minister finally represent farmers at the cabinet table I'm not referring to other cabinet ministers and oppose the sale of Hydro One thank you minister excuse me rural municipalities want infrastructure they said it over and over and over again Mr. Speaker and if they look at the results of the recent federal election campaign Mr. Speaker the country every province said they want infrastructure that's why they got the result that they did from a party that was promising infrastructure you know we did a lot of consultation Mr. Speaker and the mayors one after the other said they need infrastructure we have 130 million dollar billion dollar infrastructure program over 10 years led by the premier Mr. Speaker that is real change in terms of meeting the deficit infrastructure deficit Mr. Speaker and the four billion dollars that will go to infrastructure from broadening the ownership of Hydro One Mr. Speaker is four billion dollars that will not come from taxpayers money will not come from cuts Mr. Speaker and will not come from borrowing it's sound business manager Mr. Speaker new question the member from Oshawa thank you Mr. Speaker my question is to the premier several governments however have stayed seated on the sidelines while auto jobs have disappeared and our community has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in auto investment now the premier has endorsed the TPP site unseen a secret deal that is expected to put approximately 20,000 jobs in the auto industry at risk in fact this past weekend the CEO of Ford Canada said and I quote we see the Trans-Pacific Partnership back premier what do you have to say to the thousands of people in Oshawa and across the province whose jobs are at risk because you have decided to support a deal that you haven't even seen yet things one of the things correct in the members comments are we haven't seen the deal yet I think it's it is important for us to see the deal but we've seen a lot of speculation about it and we've with the previous federal government did provide some details which the members right is concerning to us in terms of the impact on our auto sector now we're not suggesting that the federal government be totally irresponsible and walk away from this incredibly huge trade trading block that wouldn't be good for any Canadians or any Ontarians or any sector but we do believe that the previous government did not do a good job when it came to negotiating on behalf of our auto sector we were very clear about that in fact we've written to the federal minister we're very clear in our comments between the premier and the prime minister that they had to stand up for it for that sector in our agri-food sector as well we don't think they did a good job in negotiating the aspects with regard to auto but at the same time we've got to be responsible in our overall comments on the TPP because we have to think of the overall good of our economy supplementary okay thank you speaker the actions of the liberal government or lack thereof come with a real cost to families in my riding making it that much harder for them to keep up or get ahead without good stable jobs the TPP has significant consequences for the province from what we do know Canada got the wrong end of this lopsided deal even Stephen Harper admitted that the auto sector may not benefit from the TPP trade agreement now we're hearing from industry giants like Diane Craig that not only will this deal jeopardize auto sector jobs in Ontario but it will also negatively impact manufacturing sales this is yet another example of the premier's short-sighted vision for Ontario and for Ontarians premier will you will you reconsider your position on the TPP and ensure that good automotive jobs are protected in the province thank you minister the members got to pay better attention to these issues as they're developing we are on record publicly we've written to the minister to ensure that it's on the record the federal minister previous one that we're standing up for the auto industry in this province and we've stood up repeatedly on this particular issue and we will continue to but what that sector is really concerned about as well is having a third party in this province that wants to jack up their corporate tax rates that's not going to help investment in auto in this province that's going to kill jobs in Oshawa that's going to kill jobs across this province what they also want is to ensure they can get their auto parts to and from their plants they can't do that if we don't have the courage to make the investments that we need to make an infrastructure you can't have it both ways if you're standing up for the auto sector you've got to stand up and keeping them competitive and competitive in terms of infrastructure as well well thank you speaker Mr. Speaker my question is for the minister of northern development in mind minister under premier's leadership our government has placed strong emphasis on supporting small rural and northern communities across the province our government economic plan is started to create jobs in spur economic growth and we're focused on investing in people investing in infrastructure and supporting dynamic and innovative business climate I know our investment through northern Ontario heritage fund is doing just that committing 100 million annually through the NOHFC is a very clear indication in fact the north is being heard speaker can the minister from this house tell this house on how our government is investing in northern Ontario communities to ensure they have the tools they need to compete competitive in the global market thank you minister of northern development in mind thank you very much to the member for north umbilund quidney west for that great question and you did indeed reference the northern Ontario heritage fund corporation I think I'm very proud to chair that great program 100 million dollar fund annually which has brought forward extraordinary investments in the north 10 years we've invested over 1 billion dollars which has leveraged about 3.6 billion dollars in thousands of projects and creating or sustaining 26,000 jobs across northern Ontario we know how important each and every job is and what we are incredibly proud of our continued support for public sector projects all across the north I've often said speaker that I honestly think there's not one community in northern Ontario that has not seen any application successfully from the northern Ontario heritage fund corporation but we are equally proud of our government's decision 10 years ago to support private sector business expansion in our northern communities and I look forward to speaking about it myself on that tree thank you thank you speaker thank you to the minister for his response no one can argue that it's a small business that creates a vast majority of jobs in this province in 2013 our government strategic programs to better align with key sectors identified in the growth plan like the business opportunity program the strategic economic infrastructure program in the northern innovation program as well as community capacity building and internship programs the minister has made it clear that we're continuing to work with all our northern organization to keep building and creating jobs in northern Ontario we need to support an innovative business across the north can the minister please share the status of some of the NOHFC most recent investments when it comes to innovation and jobs in the north thank you again Mr. Speaker and to the member for the question there's so many examples just this past month my colleague from Panabayate Co. and I announced the expansion of broadband in north western Ontario with $750,000 expansion partnership with T-Batell in the film industry and the culture industry $3.4 million went into north base film and television industry and one of our greatest investments we're very proud of our investments in Sudbury snow lab where Nobel prize winner and physicist Arthur McDonald did much of his research very proud of that as well the bottom line is we're going to continue to invest in northern Ontario we're doing this for larger established businesses small and start-up businesses we're fostering valuable work experience to our extremely successful internship program we're encouraging major business productivity and expansion as well as global investment in northern communities and we're going to keep on doing that as we expand the economy thank you thank you Speaker my question is to the Attorney General it's expected all government departments track relevant data to identify areas that need improvement last week I questioned the competency regarding lost or misplaced transcripts at the license appeal tribunal the LAT for short which adjudicates home warranty disputes in addition in response to my question order table question 378 minister stated that matters that proceed to a hearing statistics are not kept regarding dispositions at the LAT furthermore Frank Denton the ADM stated homeowners are dissuaded for pursuing LAT appeals because the process is not transparent is complicated time-consuming and unbalanced speaker why does the minister frustrate new homeowners and allow the LAT to hide data regarding case success and failure rates surely that is part of the problem thank you Attorney General Mr. Speaker I appreciate the comment coming from my friend the opposite party but you know what I wanted to remind him that the administrative tribunal I like court I like judges you know they are independent so the member from the opposition want me to get involved and tell them how to do their work but I'll say this you know when my friend was appointed my critic and asked him you know we wanted to provide him with you know a briefing and today he has not responded to our invitation so I would like to again you know to a briefing and moreover the president of that tribunal would like to also meet with the member and answer all his question thank you Mr. Speaker thank you Mr. Speaker my office has never received a request from the Attorney General but I'd be happy to go anytime the ministry of the Attorney General doesn't document these cases however the not-for-profit group Canadians for Property Built Homes does over the last nine years they found that homeowners lost 90% of the time at the LAT for their new home warranty claims the minister's tribunals have created a David vs. Goliath situation for homeowners seeking remedies regarding new home warranties and homeowners are being ripped off at this tribunal and now with Bill 15 pass she will be adding auto accident disputes to this very much maligned and broken LAT system Speaker will the minister commit to fixing the outstanding and significant policy at LAT before she grants the authority to adjudicate and rip off auto disputes as well and again Mr. Speaker those tribunals are independent we have a very good chair of that tribunal and if there is concern I like again the chair of the tribunal would very much like to meet with the member opposite and here is concern and again I reiterate the invitation I'll ask the member to check with his staff because it's the second time that we invite him to a briefing so would you please check with your staff and accept our invitation to a briefing thank you Mr. Speaker there being no deferred votes this house stands recess until 1pm this afternoon