 It's time for oral questions. The leader of the member for Redford, Nipissing Pembroke. My goodness, promotion's all around. It must be Christmas. You have me surprised there. Thank you very much, Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Energy. Minister, as we get closer to winter and temperatures drop, the consequences of your irresponsible hydro policies become more apparent and dire. All across Ontario, people have to face the hard choice between paying their hydro bills or going without other essentials. This is because they are paying $0.14 a kilowatt hour, plus debt retirement charge, HST, and delivery charges. When you entered office, ratepayers were paying a competitive $0.4 a kilowatt hour. If you don't change your course, Ontarians who are struggling to pay their hydro bills today will soon be forced out of their homes and left in most desperate conditions. Minister, will you finally address the reality of the failure of energy policy, your energy policies, and stop these unaffordable increases? Minister of Energy. Mr. Speaker, for the last 10 years, this party and this government has been taking tremendous efforts to create affordability, reliability, and clean energy in the province of Ontario. Mr. Speaker, when we took over government 10 years ago, they were a deficit of electricity. They were expanding dirty coal, Mr. Speaker, to the point where it was 25 percent, Mr. Speaker, and they had double-digit increases in the rates when they tried to privatize the electricity system. Mr. Speaker, we've invested tremendously in the energy sector to make it reliable, to make it affordable, to make it clean, Mr. Speaker, and I'm happy in the supplementaries to deal with the specifics. Supplementary? Minister, you know that the primary reason for skyrocketing hydro bills is because of your Green Energy Act and the expensive contracts you signed under it for unreliable, intermittent energy. On November 24th, wind turbines were cranking out a ton of expensive power we didn't need. We had to sell that power at a loss. We sold it to Michigan, New York, and Quebec at a loss of $10 million. That's $10 million for a single day. Speaker, Steve Austin was the $6 million man. You're the $10 million a day man. How? How do you explain to the small business or the senior struggling with their back up against the wall? How do you explain to them how we can blow $10 million a day and it's right on their hydro bills? How do we explain to that to them? Minister of Energy? Mr. Speaker, I know that the that the critic for the conservatives understands the electricity system a little more than he's letting on, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, he's feigning ignorance in terms of our electricity system. He knows, Mr. Speaker, that we have a surplus when they left us with a deficit of electricity. That surplus is being used, Mr. Speaker, to help the rate payer and to reduce rates. We're doing that in a number of ways, Mr. Speaker. One of the ways we're doing it is by creating the industrial electricity incentive program which represents about a 50% reduction and electricity rates for new companies coming into Ontario and for those who are expanding, Mr. Speaker. We are taking significant steps, Mr. Speaker. He also knows that on the sale, the trade of electricity that we are saving saving costs to the taxpayer by exporting our electricity, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Supplementary. Mr. Critics of your government policies have said time and time again as new, intermittent, expensive, unreliable energy comes online, we will have to sell more power to loss to our competitors at times when we don't need it. When our electrical system is flooded with wind power, rate payers have to pay Bruce Nuclear to release steam from their plants reducing the output from their plants. When we're flooded with wind power, we'll let gas plants stand idle. Rate payers have to foot all of the bills for that. They pay for your mistakes. Rate payers, you know that at peak and off-peak hydro rates as they rise, Ontario rate payers get hit harder and harder and harder. Minister, what are you prepared to do to ensure that Ontario has no more 10 million dollar days so you can stop being the 10 million dollar man? Minister of Energy? Mr. Speaker, the member knows that renewable energy consists of about 8% of our total energy supply. Mr. Speaker, that has a marginal increase in prices and to attribute it to renewable energy Mr. Speaker, is very just a genuine to borrow a phrase from the member from Eastern Ontario, but Mr. Speaker, I would refer the member to an article in the New York Times about four or five days ago where they spoke about a study by Lazard Investment Firm which is a very credible, large investment firm where they have itemized across North America, Mr. Speaker how energy prices are coming down for renewable. In U.S. states, Mr. Speaker, the renewables are now party at grid. In other words, wind and solar Mr. Speaker are not costler than anywhere else. And the current procurement process we're going through has met with the industry about five or six days ago Mr. Speaker. They are now almost approaching party at grid. Moving forward, it will be as cheap as gas and cleaner than gas and that's because we have a smoker The member for Oxford Thank you Mr. Speaker. My question is to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. The minister has been almost a year since the ice storm and municipalities are still waiting for emergency assistance. To write an application so municipalities could apply for the ice storm funding. Another two months it took another two months to give them training on the applications and then two weeks later, according to the Toronto Star, you're blaming municipalities for not having their applications in. Who is really at fault here Minister? The municipalities or you? I think it's the latter. Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. Let me take a moment Mr. Speaker to say that I was amongst a large number of Ontarians who experienced the ice storm. Our power in our place was out of the nick for six days and I have nothing but admiration and respect for municipalities and the first responders who responded so well to the emergency that befell large parts of Ontario. In that regard our government took the unprecedented step of supplying up to $190 million based on municipalities requiring money over and above their budget and also related to health and safety concerns directly into the ice storm. Municipalities are processing the applications. We're helping them in every way we can and I'm pleased to say that things are coming along quite well. Thank you. Supplementary wait for a year. Minister if you can't get the smallest of the claims out how long is it going to take you to get processed these thousand the claims that are thousand higher. Now according to the press the claim from Toronto is going to be 2,000 times higher than the claim that's already in your office waiting for approval. Have you approved that claim yet? Has any of that money gone out to the municipalities yet? We were told last week that in fact you had one application in. Have they actually got their money yet Mr. Minister? Well I appreciate that question from my honourable opponent who speaks quite frequently about government accountability you know in a similar situation when they were in government they shoveled money out the door and when they applied to the feds to get the money back the fed said no we're not about to replicate that situation here's what your former leader here's what your former leader John Tory and the current mayor of the largest municipality in Ontario said and I quote just about complete they bracket staff are having no trouble putting them together and they are going to be submitted on time the deadline is what it is and I'm told the applications will be in on time and they are not having any trouble with them so when the largest municipality and one of the smaller ones Mabel complete well on track it's clear that someone has messed up it's a year after the ice storm and only 23,000 of the 190 million dollars in emergency assistance is actually according to you gone out which would be that small municipality now that you found out that the program is so bad some municipalities are considering giving up on their applications are you going to penalize the American or the Alberta company that you hired for almost three million dollars to help you deliver this program are you going to penalize them for this delay or in fact are you going to accept that they are doing their job but you're not well we're doing the job Mr. Speaker there are accountability provisions that are in place much of that is governed by the federal process and by the way we weren't just last Friday because of the provisions we put in place around accountability that the feds are actually going to partner with Ontario in terms of assisting so I think that's good news we'll continue to work with municipalities they ask for some additional time and some additional help and guess what we extended the deadlines because some of them had not even calculated the full cost by the end of August so we have extended the deadline and we provided some assistance to them we're on track for December 31st and I'm pleased to say that that I think things very soon will work out very well thank you your question the leader of the third party thank you very much speaker my question is for the premier in hundreds of schools and clinics across this province public health units provide basic teeth cleaning and checkups to low income children but new democrats found out that liberals are using preventative dental care for kids by cutting this service from the Ontario public health standards Toronto's medical officer of health says that 80% of children who received oral health care are going to lose it the premier has said she is quote not going to cut health care speaker can she explain why she is in fact doing just that and cutting dental care for thousands and thousands of vulnerable children across this province thank you very much so here is the reality of what we're doing we are in the process of combining six different programs so you look at the programs that were in place in fact the money that was allocated to those programs was not all being spent it wasn't being used in the way that it was intended to be used in 2013-14 the funding for the healthy smiles program was $30 million in 2014 70,000 more children from low income families can now access dental services so the changes that we are making are designed to help more kids whose families cannot afford dental services to get those dental services we are combining six programs it is a change I know that the leader of the party is not keen on change of any kind but this change is going to mean more kids from low income families will get dental services thank you this is not the case and this premier knows it she and her minister have insisted all along that healthcare is not being cut we've watched the Liberals cut healthcare time and time again but the Liberals are secretly cutting dental care for the most vulnerable children 15,000 children in Toronto will lose dental care that's a cut 15,000 children according to northwestern health unit of the 4,000 children who received preventative dental care services last year 98% of them are going to lose that service speaker that is a cut of those 4,000 kids who received care last year only 80% 4,000 only 80 kids are going to be getting that service new democrats believe that children should have healthy smiles speaker not rotting teeth the Liberals used to believe that at one time too speaker will the premier stop these cuts and make sure these kids get their services the reason that we are making the changes that we are the reason we are taking six programs where kids were not accessing the services that they needed and combining those into one program where kids from low income families should have access to dental services so as of April 1st 2014, 70,000 more children from low income families have access to in a particular program in a particular municipality I know that the minister of health would like to know about that but overall the funding has not changed the programs have been consolidated and more children are receiving services from low income families are getting that dental care that they need the premier can drink her own bathwater all she wants but the Toronto Board of Health has asked the Liberals to stop these cuts the north western health unit has asked the Liberals to stop these cuts the association of local public health agencies has asked the Liberals to stop these cuts the premier is the only one saying that there are no cuts to kids that's what she's doing so now I ask her the question will she actually do the right thing and stop these unprecedented preventative health care cuts dental care cuts from being cut from the people, from the lowest income most vulnerable children in our province thank you the 30 million dollars that is in the Healthy Smiles program is there it has not been cut that money is available as we have integrated six programs if as I said there is a specific case where there has been a change that has had an unintended consequence we would want to know about that and we would want to know the specifics but Mr. Speaker 70,000 more kids from low income families are receiving dental care because of the changes that we are making and I think that that is a good thing we are working so that more children get dental care and that will make them healthier that is the full and the primary reason that we are making these changes so that more kids will have access to dental care thank you new question speaker my next question is also for the premier as the session closes this week the cynicism and arrogance of this liberal government continues to grow and we just saw it again without premier's answer the government insists people aren't being hurt by healthcare cut speaker and cutting access to home care actually hurts people and now it is cutting dental care for low income children will the premier admit that her government is cutting healthcare and that in fact people and children are being hurt premier Mr. Speaker we are working very hard on this side of the house to make changes that are necessary to transform the healthcare system so that people get the service that they need whether it is low income kids who can't access dental care or whether it is people in their homes who need service Mr. Speaker we are increasing funding to make sure that that happens the reality is that there is change needed there's change needed whether it's the integration of the six dental care programs or whether it's accessing more service for people in the communities those are changes that are necessary we are making those changes Mr. Speaker and we are increasing funding in healthcare Mr. Speaker not reducing it the people of Ontario want their government to make changes that make their lives better not make their lives worse and it's not just cuts to healthcare this government insisted that it was being open and transparent but the Liberals keep calling keep so called transparency report on the auto insurance industry hidden and the Liberals are protecting Liberal insiders still in the $1.1 billion gas plan scandal how long can this premier continue to insist that she is being open and transparent when the evidence shows to the contrary time and time again premier just picking up the thread from that first question Mr. Speaker the reality is that the report to which the leader of the third party refers is a report that will be made available Mr. Speaker we have said that all along we have been clear about the challenges in front of us Mr. Speaker and we have been very clear that we do need to make changes you know when there are six programs that are in place to allow kids to have access to dental care if the resources aren't being spent if the money is not being spent on that Mr. Speaker and the kids who most need the dental care are not getting that dental care then I think a change is needed so that's why we have integrated the six programs to understand that the leader of the third party thinks that it is responsible to just say don't change anything just leave everything the way it is that's not what we believe Mr. Speaker if there's a problem we think we should solve it more kids needing dental care we think we should solve that that's what we're doing Mr. Speaker I know that the premier ignored the transparency and accountability piece of my question perhaps when she meets with Christy Clark this afternoon a liberal premier she can encourage Ms. Clark to have Peter Feist and Laura Miller come to her area the legislature was recalled in the fall speaker we've seen cuts to health care and kids now dental care we've seen childcare spaces closed we've seen insiders protected we've seen cuts to schools we've seen reports hidden from the public we've seen an increase in the privatization of everything from hydro to health care is this the kind of cynicism and arrogance speaker that we can expect from this liberal government for the next three and a half years just because that is the narrative that's written down on the page that the leader of the third party has in front of her does not mean that that's what's happening Mr. Speaker the reality is that we are implementing the plan and the agenda that we ran on Mr. Speaker we said that we were going to make sure that we continue to deliver health care to people as they need it in their homes where they need it Mr. Speaker we said we were going to tackle issues of poverty and making sure that more low income kids have access to dental care that's part of a poverty reduction strategy Mr. Speaker and we said we were going to be open about the work that we were doing that's why all of our mandate letters both the ministers and the parliamentary assistance mandate letters are available for everyone to know the work that is being done in this province Mr. Speaker and Mr. Speaker I hope that as the leader of the third party sees the things that are happening the changes that we are making that are benefiting people that she will continue to that she will support us in those changes Mr. Speaker Thank you New question the member for Elgin Middlesex London Thank you Speaker My question to the Minister of Economic Development Minister 94 of the last 95 months Ontario's unemployment rate has been higher than the national average in particular my writing has seen their unemployment numbers continually rise since April this past month their unemployment rate rose from 7.5 to 7.8 percent you Minister have implemented a number of measures over the past three years but obviously your plan is not working as unemployment numbers continue to escalate my writing has lost over 6000 manufacturing jobs under your government and unemployment numbers continue to increase obviously your ideas are not working Minister what is plan B Minister jobs in my writing Thank you Minister of Economic Development and infrastructure Well thank you very much Mr. Speaker and yes indeed the job numbers on Friday weren't what we were hoping for Mr. Speaker and I had an opportunity to speak to that on Friday but the fact of the matter is Mr. Speaker these numbers fluctuate from month to month and if you look at September numbers Mr. Speaker there were up 24,000 not a peak from the opposition 24,000 net jobs when you look at October Mr. Speaker we're up 37,000 net new jobs not a peak from the member opposite Mr. Speaker when we're up 37,000 new jobs this past month Mr. Speaker yes the numbers did go down but since September we're still up 30,000 net new jobs in this province Mr. Speaker that's good news and still Mr. Speaker not a positive peak from the member opposite on that news Mr. Speaker back from China I'll talk about that in the supplementary thank you Mr. Speaker thank you Mr. Speaker obviously you didn't listen to my question the numbers have been going up the unemployment rate since April it wasn't fluctuating it was a continual steady trend upward maybe if you listen to the question I'd get a good answer Minister the strategies you have initiated over the last three years have only transformed into election buying and job retention strategies as opposed to job creation funds your policies are failing my constituents you've had three months in this legislator minister to bring changes that would foster a business environment for investment and job growth you again have failed to do so your current jobs program is that of high energy costs job stifling regulations such as the college of trades or mandatory WSIB for private contractors and mountains of red tape all of which is detrimental to job growth for medium small and large businesses Minister when will this government stop relying on those strategies that aren't working and implement policies to deal with the job losses in my riding thank you Mr. Speaker again in the month of October manufacturing jobs up $32,900 in the province of Ontario last month Mr. Speaker overall not the best month for Ontario manufacturing jobs still up $11,600 net new jobs again not a peak from the member of the opposition on any of that positive information in fact Mr. Speaker London has gained over 3,800 net new jobs in the last year again Mr. Speaker the member ignores that good news information in his community look there are parts of this province Mr. Speaker that are struggling more than most that's why we set up the southwest Ontario development fund that member voted against that fund $2.9 million Mr. Speaker has been invested in the London area leveraging nearly $30 million Mr. Speaker to provide sector investment in London creating jobs in that community we're creating jobs right across the province thank you Mr. Speaker the member for Bramley Gore-Malton thank you very much Mr. Speaker my question is to the minister of government and consumer services during the holiday season many charities give out gift cards to help clients afford food and gifts for their families this week we uncovered the outrageous practice of MoneyMart they were using to take advantage of the most vulnerable people in Ontario by paying out 50 cents on a dollar for gift cards while we are encouraged in fact that MoneyMart has announced that they are suspending this program how will the government how will the minister ensure that MoneyMart doesn't resume this shameful practice once the spotlight is turned off minister of government services thank you Mr. Speaker I want to thank the member opposite for the question and obviously this practice we believe is impacting vulnerable consumers in Ontario and that's why we sent enforcement folks from our ministry to Hamilton to investigate we reached out to MoneyMart immediately on hearing this information and the program is now suspended as the member has indicated so I'm certainly pleased with that and we have a strong record in our government of consumer protection and increasing and enhancing consumer protection measures for Ontarians and we will continue to review this matter and ensure that regulations are put in place we have proposed legislation coming in the spring following a very exhaustive consultation that has taken place this spring prior to the election and we would likely have more progress on that legislation had an election not been called but we have some very good recommendations coming forward to enhance legislation to protect consumers supplementary thank you Mr. Speaker the minister has had 11 years this government has 11 years to address this problem they have not addressed this problem and minister Mr. Speaker it's not just MoneyMart that has this predatory practice soon as we brought this issue to your attention we've learned that other payday loan companies are offering a similar program is offering a very similar gift program to vulnerable Ontarians in the Niagara region New Democrats have long called for sweeping and wholesale reform to put the brakes on this predatory industry and this government has done nothing will this government follow the examples set by the province and finally commit to wholesale reform to regulate properly this predatory industry Minister the member knows that the comments that he's making are not completely accurate because these are practices that evolve with these organizations as they continue to look for new ways to increase their financial betterment and at the expense often of vulnerable consumers so we need to make sure and we need to be vigilant that we are continue to move forward with regulations and legislation that help to protect consumers in the province of Ontario as soon as we became aware of this issue Speaker we acted this process and this activity is now stopped in the province of Ontario we have changes coming I am not aware of any jurisdiction in North America where there are resale where there is legislation regulations that regulate the resale of gift cards in North America and we obviously want to take all steps that we can to protect consumers Thank you Member for Kitchener Centre Thank you Mr. Speaker My question is for the Minister of Finance Minister in my writing of Kitchener Centre I'm hearing from people who are having very much trouble saving for their retirement and there are many studies that do show that Ontarians simply are not saving enough for their retirement years our government has committed to improving the retirement income system in the 2013 Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review to recap this three-part strategy it focuses on people without workplace pension plans people with self-directed retirement savings and people with defined benefit plans Minister I understand that you are planning on introducing PRPP legislation this afternoon that is going to bolster our retirement pension strategy Can you please further tell this house why it is that we need this plan Thank you Minister of Finance Thank you Mr. Speaker and thank you to the member for Kitchener Centre for her question Mr. Speaker less than 35% of workers in Ontario have a workplace pension plan coverage for workers in the private sector is even lower with only 28% having membership and a benefit plan Mr. Speaker these numbers are alarming and that's why this afternoon I plan on introducing PRPP legislation and I'm proud that this government is taking a balanced strategy so that Ontarians are better able to enjoy their retirement years the PRPP will be part of our plan for a comprehensive retirement strategy for their security and if passed PRPP will allow Ontarians working for small to medium-sized businesses as well as self-employed to benefit from voluntary retirement savings tools at lower administration costs building strong retirement savings system so Ontarians can have secure retirement future we have a key pillar in our four-part plan to build Ontario up Mr. Speaker Thank you Mr. Speaker and thank you to the minister for his response it's very encouraging to hear that our government is committed to ensuring a strong and secure retirement income system to help people when they reach their retirement years we know that in the 2014 budget our government committed to introducing PRPP legislation but hasn't the federal government already introduced its own PRPP bill they did this back in 2012 minister can you please tell us how the legislation that you plan on introducing this afternoon is going to compare with the federal legislation when passed Minister? Thank you Mr. Speaker and again thank you to the member for Kitchener's Centre for the supplementary question the member from Kitchener's Centre is correct the PRPPs were first introduced in the federal government in December of 2012 to provide individuals under federal jurisdictions with a new retirement savings tool legislations must now be passed by each province before PRPPs can be made available to individuals employed in provincial regulated sectors and self-employed individuals our government committed in the 2014 budget to introduce legislative framework for PRPP it is an important part of our government's three-pronged strategy to enhance retirement savings in Ontario and if passed our province will join British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia in providing this voluntary retirement savings tool to ensure that people across this province can retire with dignity and security Thank you Mr. Speaker Thank you, new question the member for Kitchener's Centre Thank you Speaker, my question is to the transportation Speaker, in just the first month of this government's winter road clearing plan for 2014-2015 we see that while we may have a new minister, he's working off the former minister's tired old script he's employing the same old failed strategy of finding the heck out of contractors for traffic tie-ups and then walking away thinking the problem is fixed Will the minister tell us how effective the over $3.2 million and fines handed to contractors last year have been in preventing road closures this year Very good I bet Thanks very much Mr. Speaker I thank the member opposite for that question I believe that member knows because I've said it many times in this house and outside of this house that road and highway safety is perhaps one of my most important important responsibilities when you look at the mandate that I've received here to deliver as minister of transportation it's one of the reasons that we not that many weeks ago announced that we would be releasing more equipment in southern Ontario 50 new pieces of equipment specifically to join with the 55 new pieces of equipment that were deployed last February in northern Ontario it's why we have new inspectors out on the ground it's why we've moved swiftly when there had been incidents that have occurred so far this winter we will continue to work very closely with our area maintenance contractor to work closely with communities right across the province and of course speaker encourage drivers to drive according to the conditions of the road and to work with us as partners as they always do to ensure that our roads remain amongst the safest in northern area Supplementary Great advice It's always the drivers fault Just two weeks ago the minister announced new fines for the southern Ontario contractor for the QEW mess in late November then last week another review and surely fines to follow for a highway 17 closure in northern Ontario due to snow This broken merry-go-round routine of winter road closure government review contractor fine may be filling government coffers but it's done nothing to improve what's becoming a road clearing crisis and yet we're still two weeks in fact from winter officially instead of just finding our winter maintenance partners will the minister commit today to exercise his responsibility and work with the contractors to address problems ahead of time so that we can prevent them from occurring in the first place Good question Thanks very much speaker I want to thank the member again for that follow-up question I would say that since the end of last winter right through to the beginning of this winter the Ministry of Transportation has worked very closely with our area maintenance contractors and by and large speaker throughout this winter season this winter maintenance season so far our contractors have performed well of course there had been circumstances the member has referenced a couple of them where it is possible in one case likely that a contractor fell short or was out of compliance with contractual obligations that's why the Ministry of Transportation as per the contract filed notices of non-compliance but we continue to work closely with our partners and our contractors themselves we encourage drivers as I've said before to drive according to the conditions of the road and we as the Ministry will continue to enforce the contracts to ensure that our partners are actually in compliance Thanks very much speaker New question The member for Tomiskaman Cochrane Thank you speaker my question is to the minister of natural resources Pardon my voice Last Friday residents of the vehicle falls got a huge lump of coal because the resolution forest products announced that they were closing the paper mill and the paper mill is the pillar employer in that community and not just in that community in that whole region because the forest industry is highly integrated so this is going to impact other mills it's going to impact suppliers it's going to impact right down to the grocery store it's going to be huge the last shift is just before Christmas but even a bigger issue it was also announced that the heat for the mill will be shut off in February so that so the residents of the vehicle falls and they are a very resourceful people speaker but they will only basically have a month not even to look for options and how to use that infrastructure what we're asking today is will the government will the minister stand with us and keep that so the residents of the vehicle falls and if Northern Ontario have a chance to look for options for their future minister of natural resources the speaker thank you and I thank the member for the question I got the call on Friday morning about a half an hour before the press release went out clearly let me just take a minute to offer my concern and support and anguish to the mayor the new mayor who I think quite frankly sounds like he's been hit by a truck Mayor O'Shea who in very difficult circumstances also talked to Al Spacheck in his capacity with Phenom and have committed to meet with them as soon as we can or as soon as they are able speaker the member makes a good point the integration of the forestry sector is also at play here as difficult as this is for the community of Iroquois Falls this decision by Resolute obviously has implications for the sawmills in the region as well if they lose their biggest customer it comes out of their sawmills it has a big implication for them so we're open and willing to discuss any options that may be available have already extended that to the mayor and Phenom as well thank you thank you speaker I'd like to thank the minister for his response but the crucial question is still in Northern Ontario maybe everyone doesn't know this but Northern Ontario once a frost sets in a building gets ruined it's basically when you shut it down before Christmas you're not going to do much over Christmas 1st of February the heat's off we've got basically a month so we need we need the government to stand I'm impressed by what he's done so far but we need the government to stand with the people of North East Ontario and make sure that that mill stays heated so we have the option to look at our future minister speaker this facility as I understand it is primarily and only a newsprint producing facility I'm not in a position to state with certainty exactly what's possible with this facility but what I do know is that this decision was based solely on the fact that newsprint demand over the last 10 or 15 years has basically been cut by 50, 60, 70% in North America or worldwide I don't know how much opportunity there is to transfer this facility into some other capacity what I do know is it has an impact on the greater region I'm willing to listen, we're willing to talk I can't make any commitments to you here today but at the heart of this speaker is the fact that there is a significant and continues to be a declining demand for newsprint in the North American markets that is what fundamentally underpinned the decision that was made by Resolute last week and I would say it wasn't just in Ontario they closed two machines in Quebec as well and I asked them to transfer in capacity to another jurisdiction no, they just removed the capacity from the system, there's no market for newsprint anymore or a significantly declining market Thank you Thank you Mr. Speaker My question is for the Minister of Children and Youth Services Minister, in my writing of Halton we have a growing number of young families and an increasing number of young children who are approaching school age there's no question communication is a key skill for kids in school life and we know that the sooner we address speech and language difficulties in a child's life the more successful they tend to be but when speech and language difficulties go undetected they can have a devastating effect on the lives of children and youth Minister, studies show us that about 1 in 10 children need help developing speech and language skills this means that a lot of young people in my writing could be facing an uphill battle What steps has the Ministry of Children and Youth taken on this issue Thank you Minister of Children, Youth Services and Women's Issues Thank you Speaker and thanks to the member from Halton for asking this very important question just last week Speaker we committed an additional $6.9 million over the next two years to Ontario's pre-school speech and language program Prior to this investment the funding for the program totaled $36.2 million so what this really means Speaker in terms of how it affects children is that it will benefit 10,000 more children who need speech and language services we're very proud of our achievements with the Ontario pre-school speech and language program last year provided services to more than 58,000 children with important communication and support services so this will make it easier for children and their families to access services sooner and provide resources they need to progress through their important developmental stages of life Thank you Thank you Mr. Speaker and thank you to the Minister for highlighting how our government is working to make sure children who experience speech and language disorders get the services and the help they need in the critically early years Now I know members in my writing will be happy to know that the government will be providing millions of dollars in funding for Aaron Oak kids and agency leader in the development of children's speech and language skills this funding will help thousands of children get vital pre-school speech and language services Minister I would be interested in knowing how these investments fit into our government's special needs strategy and how quickly these investments will begin to be seen Thank you Minister Thank you again Speaker So earlier this year our government announced our special needs strategy with the goal of improving the experience of outcomes for children with special needs and it will improve the services of children and their families by offering earlier identification improve service planning and coordination in the delivery of rehabilitation services and what's really important Speaker is this funding will be allocated to the 31 pre-school agencies in a very fair and transparent manner and it's also important to note Speaker that every agency will receive funding to reduce their weight list absolutely every agency half that money will flow this fiscal which goes until March and families will be able to start benefiting sooner from this funding and almost immediately so I look forward to working together with the government goal that as an Ontario where every agency succeeds Thank you Thank you Thank you very much Speaker my question is for the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister my federal counterpart Scott Reed had donated defibrillators to our local police forces a few years back however when the OPP took over the Perth Police in April of last year the OPP removed this life-saving equipment for police cars for three months I've asked for a response from you but to no avail Minister it's anyone's guess where these AEDs are now but more importantly why would the OPP who are often the first responders to our highway accidents remove these AEDs and why can't you answer a simple question from a member of this legislature Thank you Thank you very much Speaker and first of all I want to take this opportunity to thank our OPP officers for the incredible work they do in our community 24-7 Speaker We should be thanking them every single moment given the work they do putting themselves in dangerous situations in our communities I have had a great opportunity Speaker as the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services I have had a lot of OPP officers to visit detachment and need mayors who benefit their communities benefit from the services that the OPP officers provide and at every instance Speaker I have residents and local leaders telling me how grateful they are to the OPP services I have had the opportunity the member has raised the issue and I have assured the member opposite I have some information available I will be sitting down with him and relaying that to him Thank you Speaker back to the Minister Minister for three months now I have called your office I have sent you letters I have spoken with you in this house Where are these AEDs and Minister please explain to me and everybody in this house why the logic behind moves defibrillators from our police services Minister what you just did that response was atrocious I have got a simple question to you Where are the AEDs and why do you have such a ridiculous policy that takes out AEDs out of OPP cruisers Thank you Minister Thank you very much Speaker I think the member opposite very much recognizes and I am sure everybody in this house will expect that when it comes to decisions like what equipment to use and how to use them that is not a political decision Speaker that is a decision that is made by the Ontario Provincial Police as it should be Speaker that is not a decision that we the non-experts in matters relating to policing should be making as I have given my commitment Speaker to the member opposite as my office has been working with the member opposite looking into the matter and as soon as we have that information available Speaker we will share with the member and I will even take his advice into account but Speaker again when it comes to matter of safety and security of our communities I will listen to our police service I will listen to OPP any single day versus this member opposite Thank you Thank you New question the member for Niagara Falls Mr. Speaker my question is to the Premier the auto industry jobs are vital to Ontario economists are telling us that for every one job in a major auto assembly plant there are 10 spin-off jobs that depend on it auto sales are strong but there are worries about more auto plants leaving Ontario as the Canadian manufacturing footprint commitment signed in 2009 is coming to an end I'm surprised to see the Conservatives talking about this they were clear in 2009 let GM fail and let the jobs leave Ontario without an auto strategy the Liberals will be putting manufacturing jobs at risk the exact same way the PCs wanted back then will this government commit to a unified and integrated auto strategy for this province that will protect our manufacturing sector and keep good paying jobs places like Oshawa St. Catherine's Niagara, Windsor and Ingersoll Thank you Mr. Speaker I want to thank the member for his passion for the auto sector it's great to see that coming from the NDP it's great to see it coming from the member to be frank Mr. Speaker just a number of weeks ago we announced a very significant investment in Alaston we have a $7 million investment by Honda to support 4,000 jobs and tens of thousands of other jobs supply chain jobs with an investment from the province of 85.7 million and Mr. Speaker the view from the NDP was lukewarm at best so if your position is that you support the investments we've made in all we've invested Mr. Speaker $800 million over the last two years to accrue $10 billion of investment from the private sector in Ontario's auto sector if you support those investments Mr. Speaker we're really pleased to have your support Thank you supplementary Minister you might not know that but I participated in the 2009 footprint agreement so I absolutely have passion for the auto sector and you can tell that we've lost jobs in the truck plant we've lost jobs in transmission we've lost jobs in the components plant we've lost jobs here in Ontario that manufacturers look to our low Canadian dollar our universal medical system our highly educated and skilled workforce General Motors is committed to keeping 16% of his North American manufacturing here in Canada with the agreement signed in 2009 it is ending in 216 what we need now is a promise from this Liberal government that they will support an extension of the Canadian manufacturing commitment with a comprehensive, sensible and unified auto plan we can protect thousands of manufacturing jobs and pensions just as important pensions here in Ontario can we expect this government to do just that Thank you Mr. Speaker the member can expect this government to do what we've been doing Mr. Speaker and that's to keep working with our auto sector partners making very significant investments in the auto sector $800 million we've invested over the last 10 years to accrue $10 billion of private sector investment that's the biggest commitment any government has ever made to the auto sector we'll continue to work with our auto partners we'll continue to work hard to continue to grow maintain and grow that footprint that the member talks about I welcome his passion Mr. Speaker I hope that the NDP's words will match by their actions as they support the investments that we have made and will continue to make in the auto sector in this province Thank you New question the member for Davenport Thank you Mr. President Thank you Mr. Speaker my question is for Attorney General It's the exceptional achievement of dedicated professionals and volunteers in the field with your victim services awards of distinction these services are essential to victims of crime the services include counseling referrals and financial support which all work to decrease the trauma victims experience my writing of Davenport has a number of shining examples of organizations that provide these crucial services the West neighborhood house provides counseling services for women and children who are experiencing or have experience abusive relationships help victims make positive changes in their own lives the individuals who do work in this field should be proud of what they do and I feel they should be publicly recognized Can the Attorney General please share more information about these awards and inform this house who would be eligible for a victim services award of distinction Attorney General First of all let me say thank you to the member from Davenport for this very important question the victim service award of distinction were established in 2006 to recognize the high quality services and support that people and organization provide to victim of crime on a daily basis throughout the province so the award were created to recognize the great work of individuals who are personally impacted by crime and have raised the profile of victims issue in Ontario nominee must be an Ontario resident and may be individual victim of crime their family members or other personally impacted by crime who have raised the profile of victim issue in Ontario volunteer who offered their time and personal resources to help victim professional practitioner and victim services provider who have gone above and behind their duty program group or organization that delivered innovative services to victim of crime Thank you Mr. Attorney General I thank the Attorney General I am pleased to hear that our government recognizes the exceptional achievement of dedicated professionals and volunteers in the field of victim services as well as the good work of individual victims I know of individuals in my constituency who have dedicated countless hours towards this honourable cause I also strongly believe that once an individual goes through a program such as this the individual as well as the community benefits Can the Attorney General please tell this house how to nominate and submit an application for the Victim Services Awards Thank you Attorney General Thank you for the member of the airport for a very important question If you'd like to submit a nomination you need to complete a nomination form and those nomination forms are available on my ministry's website Your nomination form must be signed by either the nominee or a person authorized to sign the form Detail instruction that explains how to complete and submit a nomination are included on the form Complete form need to be mailed to the Attorney General Victim Service Award of distinction and the deadline is December 12th this upcoming Friday I encourage our member to consider submitting an application to recognize someone from their writing The individuals who work and volunteer in this field are essential to the community and on behalf of my ministry and the Premier I wanted to thank all of them who are helping to those victims Thank you very much No question to member of the Don Hill Thank you Mr. Speaker This is for the Premier In the past two years there have been over 500 reports of pharmaceuticals that are either in short supply or completely unavailable Why Mr. Speaker has this Government to ensure that our province's healthcare needs specifically life saving medication are being met Good question Well Mr. Speaker In fact what the member opposite is alleging is not actually the case In fact we have worked across the country with our colleague provinces Mr. Speaker to make sure that there is a rational process whereby those drugs that come on the market and are available elsewhere Mr. Speaker that they become available at a cost that is reasonable across the country Mr. Speaker So we have actually worked through the Council of the Federation of Premier through the Ministers of Health to make sure that there is a process that is nationwide and allows for the accessibility of pharmaceuticals across the country Mr. Speaker Thank you Supplementary We are already working cooperatively with the federal government to address this issue and produce concrete solutions Why aren't we we all heard from people from the Epilepsy Foundation last week that they are having trouble finding their meds The reality is this Ontarians are simply not getting the best healthcare available and their government is not looking at proactive solutions to get healthcare back on track and shortages under control When will this government start taking Ontario's drug shortage problems seriously Thank you Mr. Speaker We are actually working with the other provinces as well we are working as part of that national process so I am not sure exactly where the member opposite is getting her information because we are part of that Pan-Canadian process Mr. Speaker and in fact our Minister of Health was very much a part of creating that panel so Mr. Speaker we are working across the country we have a good working relationship with the health ministers across the country Mr. Speaker and we will continue to work to make sure that as drugs become available as they are proven to be efficacious Mr. Speaker and as we work with our colleagues across the country to make sure that they are available to people in Ontario Thank you Good question The member for Windsor West Thank you by questions to the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services In September I wrote the Minister asking when the Southwest Detention Centre would accommodate male intermittent offenders Now four months later I am informed that for the time being male intermittent from Windsor will continue to be sent to Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre because it is under capacity In the time he took to answer my letter one offender committed suicide and the facility was on lockdown for a week I see has been one of the triggers for all the problems there Does the Minister truly believe this facility is under capacity? Minister Thank you very much Speaker and thank the member opposite for asking this question as the member alluded herself she had written to me on this issue and I sent her response back letting her know that the Speaker that we is going through its process of making sure that it gets to full capacity but Speaker as I explained to her before and as I think members all members will recognize that when you open a new Detention Centre you just don't open all the doors immediately and get it filled up it's a process is a protocol that puts in place in a progressive way open the Detention Centre primarily Speaker to ensure the health and safety of our correctional staff they work extremely hard Speaker we need to make sure that they are comfortable with the new facility that they know all the protocols are well and as that process is undergoing we'll make sure the South Bend Detention Centre is fully filled to its capacity Thank you supplementary Thank you Speaker Perhaps the Minister didn't understand the question I asked the Minister if he truly believes that he is under capacity not South West Detention Centre Speaker just because you can do something doesn't mean you should the Minister thinks that throwing a mattress or two on the floor is a safe and effective way to increase capacity he thinks that shuffling offenders out of EMDC to make room for intermittent offenders doesn't cost the taxpayers anything perhaps the Minister should head down to Toronto South today and attend their information picket after question period for correctional facilities why won't the Minister listen to corrections officers inmates and families and fix the deplorable state of corrections in Ontario Minister Clearly I mean it's very clear what the member opposite is trying to do is she is trying to inject herself in a collective bargaining process which is highly inappropriate I think the member opposite should know better that there is collective bargaining that is going on and we should respect that our focus is to make sure that we do transform our correctional system the Premier has given me a very strong mandate in that regards and we will do so by working with our correctional staff by working with our management we are working with experts to make sure that we are focused on rehabilitation and reintegration of our inmates as they come back into our community also at the same time ensuring that our correctional facilities are safe places to work for our hard-working correctional staff Thank you Speaker Thank you very much There being no deferred vote this House is recessed until 1pm