 It is now time for oral questions. I recognize the leader of Her Majesty's loyal opposition. Thank you so much, Speaker. My first question this morning is for the Premier. Thunder Bay got some pretty devastating news yesterday. Alstrum is laying off the bulk of the 400 remaining workers at that plant, just as the cost of living is skyrocketing and folks are finding it harder and harder to make ends meet. At its peak, this manufacturing plant was employing more than 1,200 workers. Those were good, uniform, union jobs, manufacturing jobs, jobs that paid the bills, jobs that supported family and put food on the table. The Premier was there in August. He was there in Thunder Bay just six months ago and made empty promises to those workers about future jobs. The layoffs mean that this plant is now downsizing to just 75 workers, Speaker. These uniform members will be out of work for four months, six months, a year. Who knows? My question is, why is this Premier doing nothing, nothing at all, to save these good, uniform manufacturing jobs in Thunder Bay? And to apply for things. For you, Mr. Speaker, leader of the opposition is correct. I was there, unlike herself, that hasn't showed up there. I was there a few times, actually, speaking to the frontline workers, Mr. Speaker, speaking to the CEO of Alstom, making sure that they're going to secure those jobs. And I'll tell you what we have done as a province, Mr. Speaker. We've invested into transit. We invested $171 million to refurbish 94 go transit by-level railcars. On top of that, Mr. Speaker, we invested $180 million to help fund the purchase of 60 new TTC streetcars. Mr. Speaker, there's no government in the history of this province that invested more into infrastructure, more into transit than this government has. We're, for the first time ever, we're putting $29 billion into the largest transit project in North America, making sure that we build subways. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And the supplementary question. Speaker, the workers in Thunder Bay need action, not talk, from this premier. The government knew. This premier knew that those layoffs were coming. Uniform President Dominic Pasqualino wrote the PCs just last weekend with a plan to save these jobs, and I quote, management and the union have worked together harmoniously through some very challenging times. Some of these challenges are completely out of our hands, such as COVID, but the lack of orders, that's orders from this government, Speaker, the lack of orders is something that the provincial government does have a say in. The uniform workers are asking the province to step up with much needed passenger rail vehicles to be manufactured here in Ontario in Thunder Bay. Why won't this premier commit to Thunder Bay and save these good manufacturing jobs? Why will he not? Minister for Transportation. Thank you very much, Speaker. This pandemic has been very hard on all Ontarians, and this, of course, includes the great people of Thunder Bay. But we understand that these layoffs are temporary in nature and the result of a massive work order being completed at the facility. And we are proud to sustain jobs at the Thunder Bay plant for the next several years, a series of measures that the premier just outlined. And if it weren't for Ontario's order to Holstone in Thunder Bay facility, those doors would have been shuttered permanently, Speaker. This is the tip of the iceberg on what we are going to see in Toronto in terms of growth, however, Speaker, a population that is booming, unprecedented investments into transportation and transit. We're going to make sure that we keep those work orders flowing, as well as the good order work repairs of $5 billion with the City of Toronto. And we are positive that we will see days of prosperity in Ontario and Thunder Bay shortly. The final supplementary. Speaker, these workers need these jobs to pay their bills now, to feed their families now, to pay their mortgages right now. But they are not, they are not going to be able to keep those jobs because this government refuses to step up. And more than that, more than just their jobs, they know that Thunder Bay needs to have solid manufacturing facilities in their community for the future and well-being of that community writ large. In fact, the Unifor, local president, Pascal Willino, said this, if we lose this all-stream facility, it becomes harder to attract new manufacturing industries to the district. Now, this is an old story for Northern communities like Thunder Bay. This Premier might not know it, but we saw what happened when the forestry industry went for a dive. It really impacted Thunder Bay. We need to save these manufacturing jobs, Speaker. Six months ago, the Premier was there. And he said, and I quote, he's going to make sure anything bought in Ontario should be produced in Ontario. Why is this Premier so unwilling to make sure that happens in Thunder Bay? Speaker, thank you very much. And I want to remind the people of Ontario that it was the opposition with the Liberals that saw hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs leave this province to other jurisdictions. This government, under the leadership of Premier Ford, is bringing those jobs back, Speaker. And how are we doing it? By unprecedented growth, by investments into transit, $5 billion to flow to the existing TTC network and state of good repair, we signed a deal with the City of Toronto in 2019 that set the stage for the city to build more orders in Thunder Bay. Speaker, $29 billion investments into transit expansion. This is the first time that's happened in decades, Speaker. Thunder Bay will be busy. We understand this temporary layoffs of the workers are done for work to be completed at the facility and retool to keep up with that unprecedented demand, Speaker. We are going to get on the path to prosperity in the province of Ontario, and it's no thanks to the opposition and the leader of the ADP. The next question, once again, the leader of the opposition. Thanks so very, very much, Speaker. My next question is also for the Premier. Ontarians know very well that we need to fix our healthcare system, our hospital system. Surgical backlogs are growing, have grown significantly. The FAO estimated quite some time ago that before the Omicron wave, as a matter of fact, that there was a 400,000-person waitlist for surgeries. And now the numbers are such that it's up to a million, up to a million people are waiting for surgeries in our province with stress, with anxiety, with their physical well-being deteriorating day by day. This government has not invested in our hospitals to clear these waitlists and these substantial backlogs. Ontario Hospitals Association and others have some solutions. And my question is, will this Premier start listening to the solutions that the Ontario Hospital Associations and others are bringing to the table and take action on the million backlog surgeries that people are waiting for in Ontario? Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. Thank you very much, Speaker, and I thank the member opposite for the question because I know this is something that many Ontarians are very concerned about and I really appreciate the opportunity to reply. We know that because of Directive 2, where we had to postpone surgeries, that many Ontarians have been waiting for orthopedic surgeries, some cancer surgeries, some cardiac surgeries, and we are responding. We have made an investment of over $5.1 billion to create over 3100 more beds in our system, which was left lacking by the previous government. We have built those beds, not just to deal with COVID, but to deal with the surgeries that have been postponed or delayed as a result of Directive 2. We've also invested from our $1.8 billion investment into hospital sector, $300 million added to $200 million from last fall, $500 million to allow for more surgeries to happen both in the evenings and in the weekends so that we can catch up. That is what we're doing to create the scenario necessary. We've also lifted Directive 2 so that hospitals that are able to now go up to up to 90% of their COVID-19 or their surgeries that went back to 2019. Thank you. The supplementary question. Well, thank you, Speaker. In fact, the Ontario Hospital Association has some pretty solid recommendations that will fix our hospital system, and new Democrats support those solutions. I'm going to mention a few of them. Hiring tens of thousands of nurses, that's one of the solutions. Resources to reduce massive surgery backlogs, turning additional bed capacity that was built up in COVID into permanent spaces for patients in Ontario. There's no doubt that this government hasn't been listening. In fact, the Financial Accountability Officer revealed that Premier Ford is planning to axe thousands of beds that we put in place for the pandemic. So the question I have for this Premier is, will he reverse course, will he listen to the Ontario Hospital Association and so many others and fix the mess he's made in our hospital system? Government side, come to order. Minister of Health to reply. Thank you very much, Speaker. We have been speaking with the Ontario Hospital Association, and we are already taking all of the actions that the member opposite has just mentioned, a multi-phase plan to increase our health human resources in order to deal with these backlogs. We've created those 3,100 extra beds to deal with COVID. Now we are dealing with them to deal with the surgeries. They will remain in our system because we know that we need them. As for the number of people who are waiting for these procedures, we are actually calculating that right now because on a regular basis, there are already 200,000 people on a wait list. We are 250,000 right now. What we are looking at is the number of people who have waited outside of the medically accepted guidelines. That is what we need to focus on, and that is what we are dealing with. More difficult than that, though, even, is to get people to come back to their family doctors to get the procedures and examinations done to make sure that they are healthy. That is where we are going to need our frontline medical practitioners, primary care, to help us bring people back in so that we will be able to deal with their issues very easily on and straightforwardly early in their diagnosis so that we can have... Thank you. And the final supplementary. Well, Speaker, the fact remains that the hospital system capacity is a serious problem in this province, and we all know, all of us know, it didn't get that way overnight. We know that the Liberals spent years in office and neglected our hospital system. The facts are very clear, but the OHA points out that the total spaces that we have in hospitals right now remained the same for 20 years, for 20 years, including the last four years, and the province grew by nearly 3 million people. So there was no extra capacity put in place by the Liberals. The question that I have is, will this Premier fix the problem that he's ignored for four years just like the Liberals did before him, or will he step aside so that new Democrats can fix the hospital system that we need? From the side, come to order. Order. Please reply to the Minister of Health. Thank you, Speaker. Maybe we can just take a look at the facts here. Our government has actually increased healthcare spending from $59.3 billion in 2019-20 to an expected $64.1 billion in 2021-22. We've also invested an additional $5.1 billion in 2021 and an expected $5.2 billion in 2021-22 in dedicated COVID-19 health response funding. Our government has increased healthcare spending more than any other government to date in history. We have already made, created 3,100 beds since the beginning of this pandemic, several hundred more intensive care beds, and we're continuing to grow. We are also investing $22 billion over the next 10 years in hospital capital infrastructure that will lead to $30 billion in capital investments. If that's not what growth is, I don't know what the member opposite expects. Thank you, Speaker. My question is for the Premier. When the Ford government took office in 2018, there were 1,200 workers at the Alston plant in Thunder Bay. Today, there are 400 workers and will soon only have 75 unionized workers. This government has promised a bright future. The Premier and his ministers have repeatedly come to my writing and made promises of jobs and to slink some mud. Yet again, though, people are facing unemployment because this government's lack of urgency. Premier, what is this government going to do for the hundreds of workers and their families facing many months without a paycheck? Through you, Speaker, why didn't the Premier act sooner? Thank you very much, Speaker, and thank you to the member opposite for that important question. Of course, it's a difficult time for the people of this province, especially for people of Thunder Bay. But I want to remind the member opposite that these layoffs are temporary, that the closure of the facility is to retool. Why, Speaker? Because there is lots of business on the way to the great people of Thunder Bay, thanks to this government's investments into transit infrastructure, into actually getting subways built, into expanding the GO network, Speaker, to connect the grid and finally catch up Ontario to other jurisdictions, world-class jurisdictions around our planet, Speaker. These investments are going to continue. We will see those jobs return to Thunder Bay on a day of prosperity, unlike any other scene in this great province. Any supplementary questions? Again, my question is for the Premier. The Alstom plant needs certainty. Workers have had an excellent record and can produce 170 vehicles per day. There are long lead-up times when there are new orders, and the plant needs certainty from this province. Certainty about orders. The people of Ontario need more mass transit. We know that. We can build it here in Ontario. Premier, will you commit to a made in Ontario transit strategy and, Speaker, through you, will the Premier do something to help the Alstom plant workers today? Speaker, the answer is yes. This Premier has committed from the very beginning of our mandate to the transit system, to the great people of Thunder Bay. Just to highlight a few of those examples, $171 million to refurbish 94 GO transit rail coaches at the Alstom plant located in Thunder Bay. This is on top of our partnership agreement to purchase 60 new electric street cars and will maintain 300 good manufacturing jobs at the facility. This is on top of the huge growth. We will see upwards of $180 million to the TTC to support up to 60 new street cars. This is a long list of investments that our government is making into transit expansion. That means jobs for Thunder Bay, not just for today, but for many days to come. Thank you. The next question is a member for the Mississauga Centre. Thank you, Speaker. At the core, all levels of government have one true mandate. That is to support our hardworking constituents who have elected us as their representatives in this house. During these unprecedented times, we must look to this core reason for guidance and direction. Ontarians expect clean water, clean air, safe products and safe working conditions. Good rules and regulations are necessary to maintain these high standards. Ontarians across the province have called for our government to lead the charge in this field by eliminating unnecessary regulatory and financial burdens for the great people of Ontario and to make sure that Ontario is open for business and open for jobs. So, Speaker, through you to the Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tapers Reduction, my Mississauga colleague, what is our government doing to deliver clear and effective rules that promote public health and safeguard the environment without sacrificing innovation, growth and opportunity? Thank you, Speaker. I really want to thank my colleague from my neighbouring riding of Mississauga Centre for the question. Yesterday, Speaker, I rose in this house and tabled our 8th Red Tape Reduction Package. This package builds on our incredible effort to make life easier for businesses and the people across Ontario. Through this piece of legislation, we've announced our intent to eliminate the annual licence plate sticker renewal fee and requirements to have a physical licence plate sticker for passenger vehicles like duty trucks, motorcycles and mopeds. This change will save each and every vehicle owner $120 per year in Southern Ontario and $60 per vehicle in Northern Ontario. Further, we will reimburse every eligible owner of vehicles for any licence plate renewal fees in March of 2020. Speaker, this is not a one-time deal for relief. This government will continue to explore ways to lower the cost of living in every corner of this province. The supplementary question. Thank you, Speaker, and thank you to the Minister for that answer. I know that the members in my riding of Mississauga Centre were thrilled to learn that this unnecessary costly requirement is being eliminated. As our province slowly but surely places the pandemic in its rearview mirror, we must look to the future and how we plan to rebuild and accelerate the growth of our economy to pre-pandemic heights. With the removal of licence plate fees, provide the people of Ontario with direct financial relief, keeping more money in their pockets, not the government's pockets. Something that I hope all the members of this House would be in support of. However, there still remains more to be done. So, Speaker, could the Minister tell us what progress has the government made in helping to reduce cost and eliminate burdens for businesses and Ontarians, and what more can Ontarians expect from this package if passed? Thank you, Speaker, and thank you again to the member of the Government. Our government is proud to support important measures to ensure the prosperity of Ontario. We believe the people of Ontario deserve all the help they can get in these trying times. When we took office in 2018, Ontario's regulatory burden was amongst the heaviest in North America. Ontario had the highest cost of regulation compliance right across Canada. The government is proud to support Ontario businesses and people. As we bring forward this new bill, we have achieved $373 million in annual savings for businesses and people by cutting the unnecessary and costly burdens left over by the previous Liberal Government. Our government has remained steadfast in our commitment to support Ontario businesses and people, and with this new package, we will continue to support our families. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Speaker. My question is for the Minister of Health. It says 17% of PSW RNs and RPNs positions are vacant. What does this human resources crisis look like, Speaker? Well, parents in Bracebridge were told that they had no home care in downtown Bracebridge. So she moved in to help them. But she broke her foot trying to care for her parents, and guess what? There was no PSW to help her either. A woman in Nickel Belt has a severe infection. She lives 40 minutes away from the hospital and does not drive. She must find a ride to the hospital three times a day for the next 14 days because they cannot find a home. Why is the government allowing the private for-profit home care company to keep their lucrative contracts while failing to deliver the home care people so desperately need? Thank you, Speaker. And I thank the member very much for the question. Our government certainly recognizes the importance of home care in our overall health care system. In fact, it's been described that we all have to be in balance for the health system to work properly. And that's why we passed the Connecting People to Home and Community Care Act, which is going to modernize the delivery of home and community care services by bringing an outdated system designed in the 1990s into the 21st century. So we do have an active consultation that's going on right now with our home care partners to understand what we need to do to help local Ontario health teams to perform the care that is appropriate and relevant in each of our communities across the province of Ontario. A supplementary question. Speaker, everyone on this side of the House knows why 17% of home and community care positions are vacant. It is because a private company would rather increase their profit than pay home care workers a living wage. Dr. Hamilton from London said, the home care and community support services nursing teams were in crisis five years ago. It has now collapsed. This has resulted in the record numbers of emergency visits and admissions of palliative care patients to his hospital. The solution is simple. Get rid of the for-profit agency. Follow the maritime and BC leads for equal pay for all nurses and personal care workers whether they work in the home and community care sector. Speaker, our home care system is broken. When is the minister going to fix home and community system so that Mrs. Kendall, Judith's family, patients requiring palliative care gets the home care that they need to safely stay home. Thank you. First I would say that we are currently working on modernizing our home and community care system but I would disagree with the member who made the decision why she has a concern about home and community care. One is we have put the money into it. In 2019-20 we invested an additional $155 million into home and community care and in 2021-22 we made an additional investment of $111 million for high intensity supports at home. However, as the member will know there are health human resource challenges across the province that we are currently working on which include hospitals, long-term care as well as home and community care. We have a number of proposals that we are working on to increase the number of personal support workers by 8,000 over the next several years and to increase the number of nurses by 5,000 through graduating more nurses but also with our jobs and credentialing and laddering programs that will allow personal support workers to become nurses if they choose to. We are actively working. Thank you very much. The next question the member for Scarborough Thank you speaker. My question is to the minister of health. Today I sent a letter to you minister which asks for your support for bill 60. My private members build the safe and healthy communities act ending gun violence. When I first tabled this bill your government said if the bill has merit that you would support it. Right now there are students in the community who are reeling from the trauma invoked by gun violence. My riding of Scarborough Guildwood has already this year seen 10 shootings including one fatality. We are mourning the loss of Jeremiah Robinson and 18-year-old student who was gunned down inside of his school. I visited this school. I talked to parents students, the principal, even the custodian staff. I believe that this bill has merit and that we need to do more. Speaker bill 60 would provide trauma informed counseling paid for by OHIP. A service that this school and its parents and students agree are needed right now. The minister work with me on bill 60 so that we can get these much needed services and help to the people in our community who are suffering as a result of this type of violence that is affecting their community. This bill has merit and I ask for your support for this. Thank you. The associate minister of mental health and addictions. Thank you Mr. Speaker. And thank you for that question. We all know that in the province of Ontario especially given the opioid crisis and the pandemic and everything that we've been seeing that there is a great need of support especially for our children and youth health agencies. The minister has invested in children and youth mental health. We invested over $31 million in new annualized funding this year to improve access to specialized mental health treatment services to reduce wait lists and wait times and support the mental health and well-being of the children and youth. This includes an investment of $20 million from across the board 5% fund increase for all government funded children and children. This includes an investment of $7 million for four new youth wellness hubs across the province of Ontario in Guelph, in Renfrew, in Timmins and Windsor. In addition to that through the addiction fund we are also making additional investments in children and youth wellness hubs so that we can support our children and youth and build resiliency in them. This includes an investment of $25 million to reinstate the $25 million that was cut from the education other budget which supported after school programs such as Focus on Youth which was directed towards vulnerable youth at risk of violence. These programs need to be reinstated, they need to be reinstated now. There are 43% increases in shootings in my riding alone for year to date. This includes young people with their families. One of the questions that the young people asked is is anyone listening to us? Are we actually hearing the young people when they say that they need help and they need that help now? Programs for youth need to be funded and the cuts that were made early on in this mandate need to be reinstated. Bill 60 is offering an investment of $25 million that was cut from the education other budget. I am back to you Minister of Health. You did talk about funding counseling services digitally and I am asking for that to be done now and so are the families and the young people affected by gun violence. Thank you Mr. Speaker and once again I would like to reiterate our position is to ensure that we continue investing in our children and youth by providing them opportunities to have their mental health looked after. The youth wellness hubs for instance the ones that I visited around the province, the investments that we have made through SAPACI to provide specific resources for young people so that they have safe spaces where they can be comfortable and receive culturally appropriate services. We are looking to ensure that there are resources they need so that we can prevent so that we can build resiliency so that we can further educate because we know that children are our future and this government has taken that very seriously making investments that now total over $525 million a year in new investments to ensure that we look after advocating for our youth and providing the supports they need and also building treatment capacity to make sure that the government takes the money. Thank you very much. The next question, the member for Kitchener Conestoga. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker and my question is for the Minister of Economic Development Job Creation and Trade. I can tell you that Ontario's auto industry is one of the most important sectors we have here in the province employs thousands of people directly and indirectly but under 12,000 of those alone came from Waterloo Region flood the province for either the states or overseas. Ontarians deserve to know that their government is working day and night to make sure that these jobs have been regained and that the industry is confident enough and this is a crucial part of this question Speaker confident enough to make significant investments in Ontario once again. So Speaker through you can the Minister please outline clearly to the house the long-term future for the auto sector and the hundreds of thousands of Ontarians that rely on it. To reply Minister of Economic Development Job Creation and Trade. Our government has been laser focused on working with the auto sector to make Ontario the electric vehicle manufacturing powerhouse. Our automakers have already announced almost $6 billion in investments of that 4.3 billion are investments that will transition the industry towards electric vehicle manufacturing. Ford's $1.8 billion investment to retool their Oakville plant for EVs. Stellantis one and a half billion investment to retool their Windsor plant to build hybrid EVs and GM's $1 billion investment in Ingersoll will produce the bright drop electric vehicle delivery van. Speaker under the previous government workers and industry was abandoned. They left the province. Now we're committed to working with the auto sector. We will make Ontario the destination for EV manufacturing. And a supplementary question. Well thank you very much and thank you to the minister and you know what he's absolutely right the previous Liberal government of course propped up by the NDP voted against or were out there trying to force these jobs out of the province Mr. Speaker. Ontarians deserve better with the transition to electric vehicle production. Entirely new sectors are opening up here in the province and new jobs become available that never existed before. Ontarians need a government that is willing to support the hard working men and women in Ontario's auto sector by focusing on the supply side of building electric vehicles of the future. So Speaker could the minister tell us how the government plans to support the broader electric vehicle supply chain while integrating it with components that are already made right here at home in Ontario. Minister of economic development will create an end to end supply chain for EV production and that's outlined very clearly in our driving prosperity plan building electric vehicles in Ontario is not only critical to the long term security of the 100,000 workers but will also provide opportunities in a number of industries like our mining sector. We have all the minerals for EV production right here in Ontario nickel and Sudbury cobalt processing in aptly named cobalt lithium north of red lake graphite in Hearst and is very hard at work attracting an EV battery manufacturing facility a true game changer for Ontario. We will lead North America in the transition to electric vehicle production creating new innovations and securing our economic prosperity speaker. Next question from Andrew Thank you Mr. Speaker my question is to the premier I've been talking to paramedics residents and frankly what's happening with people that dial 911 is terrifying. We have so few staffed hospital beds in Niagara that ambulance are waiting upwards to 5 hours to offload patients. Residents are dialing 911 and waiting 3 hours or more for an ambulance to be available. Some are being told to take a cab it's faster. Frontline workers have said and answer all these issues is quite simple staffed hospital beds paramedics and ambulance fix that and all the ambulance issues go away. Speaker does the premier thinks it's acceptable that people wait over 3 hours for an ambulance after dialing 911 911 in Niagara and why aren't paramedics hospital health care workers and Niagara resident getting the support they need. Deputy Premier and Minister of Health Thank you very much Speaker for your questions. First of all with respect to paramedics we recognize that in some areas of Ontario there are areas where paramedics are waiting for long periods of time where they need to get back out on the road that's what we brought in specialized nurse practitioners and other nurses were able to receive patients and allow those paramedics to be able to go back out out of the road that's been very successful in the Ottawa area and in other parts of the Ontario area. Thank you very much Deputy Premier and Minister of Health with respect to the second half of your question about not having enough beds in Niagara well I'm sure the member will know that a new hospital is being built in Niagara so we are certainly addressing that issue as well. And the supplementary question. I'm certainly aware of the new hospital being built as we've been waiting almost 11 years for people to get a cab it's faster again to the Premier not only have this Conservative Government ignored these issues they actually gone out of the way to make it worse tens of thousands of healthcare workers have signed a petition saying that Bill 125 124 pushes down their wages and drives nurses out of their jobs with inflation at 6% it's a wage cut of 5% the same nurses we need to clear the backlog yet when the NDP colleagues still bill 124 the Conservatives voted it down paramedics have asked the Premier to commit the funding for more paramedics and dispatchers to handle the volume of 911 calls in Niagara the government has ignored it Can the Premier explain to us how his cuts have done anything other than create chaos in our healthcare system Thank you Thank you very much well first as I previously indicated we're spending in Ontario by more than any other government to date we're now at $64 billion in healthcare where it's $59 billion when we started here so any suggestion that anything is being cut is not the case we are increasing our investments we're increasing our investments in health human resources we're also modernizing our ambulance system and making sure that we can respond quickly we're also making sure that our paramedics are being put to good use when people stay in their own homes the Ministry of long-term care has paramedics that are helping there to visit people so that they don't need to go to long-term care or can support them while they're waiting for long-term care we also have paramedics in the Ministry of Health we're working to make it a comprehensive service so that when somebody does need healthcare and they need perhaps both a nurse and a paramedic we can combine that for a better patient experience but as for the health human resources issue we're also working we have a strategy to increase paramedics personal support workers registered practical nurses registered nurses and nurse practitioners we're working on this all at once to create a better patient experience for everyone in Ontario regardless where they live next question my question to the Premier on February 1st the Premier was asked if he supports the mandate on truckers the Premier said that he was in favour of vaccination that's what the Minister of Labour told me every time I asked him if he believed it was right to make workers choose between their own health and their ability to put food on the table but on February 15th we got a whole new Premier he said it doesn't matter if you have one shot or ten shots you can still catch Covid Premier said that these are hard-working people who don't believe in it and it's their choice and it's about democracy, freedom and liberties now the Premier sounds exactly like the member from York Centre as if we had amnesia for two years my question to the Premier is what is his position today is it the Premier who believes in vaccination when asked about the mandates or is it the new Premier who believes that it's a choice and it's about freedom and if so will he help me pass my jobs and jabs bill through third reading on March 3rd order order Government House Leader to respond thank you very much Mr Speaker look I'm very happy that we are seeing really a progression away from the Covid restrictions that were so important at the onset of the pandemic Mr Speaker the member will know of course because he was in the caucus at the time and voted in favour of a number of the measures that were brought in he will know that of course we inherited a healthcare system that was severely severely understaffed Mr Speaker we inherited a healthcare system where 800 people in ICU could bring this province to a standstill and we said no more Mr Speaker that is why the Minister of Health has made such enormous investments in healthcare and we're coming out of that now Mr Speaker the important thing is is now that we are coming out of that we are loosening restrictions and we're seeing the economy begin to grow again Mr Speaker so that we can be in the same position that we were before the pandemic leading the country in terms of job creation and being a jurisdiction where people want to invest in thank you Speaker the Premier says that he stands for the rights of workers but he has no courage no sense of moral obligation to defend workers when their employer said inject yourself or lose your job the Premier presided over the greatest labour injustice in recent history if not hundreds of thousands of working Ontarians were terminated, suspended, resigned or retired because of ideology not science but now the Chief Medical Officer told all of us that passports no longer make sense because two doses offer limited protection Speaker that means that you can no longer say that someone's risk of transmission is lower because their risk of infection is lower the same applies to mandates no one is putting anyone at risk it is the most disgusting allegation of the 21st century shame on everyone here that perpetrated that lie does the Premier stand by the Member will withdraw his unparliamentary comment will withdraw will the Premier stand by allowing businesses to impose mandates or will he protect all workers next Thursday and help pass my jobs at sea I will take a seat and the reply? Thank you Mr Speaker I don't know which Member for York Centre we have was this the Member for York Centre who month after month stood on this side of the house and voted in favour of every single measure that he now today says that he didn't support at the time there was a different reason for him right? so I just don't know which Member for York Centre we have in front of us today Mr Speaker but I do know this because of the things that this Government put in place the measures that we put in place we are coming out of the pandemic we are leading the nation in terms of getting vaccines into people's arms which is leading us to opening the economy quicker Mr Speaker which is seeing a rebound in the economy economic development, job creation and trade is fielding calls from people around the globe to invest in the province of Ontario Mr Speaker that is the future of the province of Ontario there are great things ahead for us this is the jurisdiction where people want to live, work, invest and raise a family because of the hard work of this Government in spite of that member The next question the Member for Whitby Thank you Speaker Stephen Del Duke and the Liberals say they will make life more affordable for Ontarians the reality is after 15 years of the Liberal Government in Ontario the cost of living for hard working families and businesses went sky high sky high when the Liberals were in power they imposed tolls against drivers leaving them to foot the bill Durham residents and businesses were forced to endure the unfair tolls imposed on highways 412 and 418 by the Del Duke Liberal Government so Speaker could the Associate Minister of Transportation tell us what his ministry is doing to cut transportation costs for hard working Ontarians Thank you Thank you Speaker and thank you to the Member for Whitby for that question he is a tireless passionate advocate for his constituency and his hard work is paying off recently our Government announced that we will be removing tolls on highways 412 and 418 effective April 5 this year people and businesses will no longer need to pay to use these highways this will level the playing field and cut costs for Durham drivers that were wrongfully disadvantaged by Stephen Del Duke and the Liberals it will also help reduce gridlock on our major highways getting you home to your families faster after a long day's work Speaker our Government made a promise to the people of Durham and thanks to the hard work of that member we are keeping that promise Supplementary Well thank you to the Minister for his response Speaker when the previous Liberal Government made the decision to toll these highways the people of Durham suffer it's comforting to know that under this Government they are no longer suffering the tolls on highways 412, 418 it's very welcome news for drivers in Durham yes I've long advocated for this change and I'm happy to hear the voices of my community have been finally heard when Stephen Del Duke it was Transportation Minister under Kathleen Nguyen he ignored these voices for over a decade Interians had to deal with the Government that said no to Interians said no and yes to their own agenda what is the Associate Minister of Transportation doing to expand on the initiative to removing tolling and to show hard working Interians that they've been heard once again Associate Minister of Transportation Thank you very much Speaker and I'm glad the member from Whitby brought up the record of Stephen Del Duke as Transportation Minister in the partnership of Kathleen Nguyen Stephen Del Duke thought it was acceptable that Durham region drivers were the only drivers in Ontario forced to pay tolls to travel north and south through their own communities our Government thought that was wrong and we got rid of those tolls Stephen Del Duke barely built new transit and the few times he did it Speaker there were questions about it the Auditor General found that he influenced Metrolinx to build a GO station in his own riding Meanwhile Speaker our Government is investing a historic $28.5 billion in the largest subway expansion in Canadian history Speaker we're the only party that says yes to Ontarians and we're going to keep doing that Heckling is not permitted and if you ignore the Speaker's request to come to order I will start I will have to start calling you out by name and potentially move to Ontarians we'll see 15 minutes left to go in question please start the clock next question the member for Scarborough, South Wales Thank you Speaker Speaker my question is to the Premier Parents and families across the province are struggling not only to find spots for their little ones but also struggling to afford the cost of childcare I have heard from a dual income family for whom the $1200 top of their regular expenses was just unfeasible $1200 a month and that's lower than the average cost of childcare in the city which for some people is just their entire paycheck childcare could be the deciding factor between someone being able to work and without access to childcare has forced many parents specially women to leave their jobs Speaker Ontario continues to be the only province that has not signed the federal government for $10 a day childcare so my question is Speaker why is this government refusing to sign this critical agreement that will help millions of families in the province and support the economy Thank you Speaker Reply the Government House Speaker Thank you very much Mr Speaker the member is quite correct that under the previous Liberal and NDP coalition governments the cost of childcare really did escalate tremendously in fact when the leader of the opposition held the balance of power between 2011 and 2014 childcare and the cost of it was never a priority for the leader of the opposition now the Liberals unfortunately made childcare priority their priority was to make it the most expensive in the entire country Speaker we know how important it is to bring down the cost for parents parents have told us that this could be the difference between somebody working a two income in the household Mr Speaker and we know that we have to provide better options but what we will not do is sign a deal that will disadvantage future generations for years to come we will sign a deal that is in the best corner of the people of the province of Ontario Mr Speaker because that is what Ontarians want us to do Speaker we will sign a best deal for our parents for future generations we will get the job done on behalf of the families This supplementary question Thank you Speaker The former Liberal government did under their government the price of childcare skyrocketed but right now you have a majority government and you have a choice on the table you have the option you can take that decision you can take that decision right now ECs and childcare workers have been on the front lines throughout this pandemic caring for our little ones making sure that parents can continue to work that many of our essential workers could continue to carry our province through an unimaginable crisis and yet there continues to be little support to ensure decent work and pay for childcare workers Ontario needs to sign the deal now by the end of the fiscal year which is March 31st to ensure that we can receive adequate funding these delays are costing Ontario working families hundreds of dollars every single day money that could have helped these families especially during this difficult time so Speaker my question is once again why is the Premier and his government refusing to help Ontario's hard working families and invest in the future of our children and support the working families of this province thank you Speaker to respond to the government thank you Mr Speaker to be clear Mr Speaker what the NDP is asking us to do is to sign a deal that will not achieve $10 a day childcare that will not reduce the cost for the parents of the province of Ontario if they are relying on us to get a good deal will saddle them with expenses that they cannot afford so very clearly I say to the members opposite no we will not sign a deal that disadvantages the parents of this province who want a good deal who want more money back in their pocket who want options for childcare we won't sign a bad deal and if that means we have to wait a little bit longer if that means we have to work a little bit harder to get a good deal for parents today and into the future we will do that so I say very clearly to the members opposite they can ask us time and time again we will not sign a bad deal for the parents of this province we want to keep childcare we want to bring childcare costs down and we will hold out until we get the best deal for our parents thank you very much Mr Speaker my questions for the Premier Mr Speaker for weeks downtown Ottawa was occupied by thousands of protesters in quotation marks with hundreds of semi trucks incessant honking use of air brakes, harassment threats of violence and intimidation and for weeks the residents of Ottawa were looking to this Premier and to this government for leadership and support but what did they get zero, nada, zilch nothing Mr Speaker the Premier couldn't even pick up the phone to call the Mayor to see how things were going but finally after weeks of an action the government decided to try and say face the government decided to try to say face and talk tough about 100,000 dollar fines so Mr Speaker I'd like the government to tell us how many of these tough 100,000 dollar fines did they issue to help end the occupation of Ottawa Mr Speaker what I will say is that police, OPP, RCMP were working actually before the occupation occurred in Ottawa sharing information sharing operational plans to make sure that there was a plan in place that could be executed using multiple police services and I have to say again I will repeat it was done successfully to suggest in any way that there was not preparation in place through police services is frankly quite a disservice and a little disappointing that you don't understand how police services have been sharing intelligence and information with each other through the entire occupation it has been successfully implemented and I think it's really important for the member opposite to understand that things such as revoking the CVORs has been a successful deterrent both in Windsor and in Ottawa we have people who willingly chose to leave because they understood a revocation of their CVOR was going to lead to thank you the supplementary question so it seems that either the minister doesn't know how many fines for 100,000 dollars they issued or they didn't really issue any 100,000 fines and I think Mr. Speaker I can speak for everyone on this side of the house that we would all like to see the premier's intelligence about this protest Mr. Speaker this government has flailed and flubbed during this occupation the entire time we have a solicitor general who overinflated how many OPP officers were in Ottawa to support Ottawa police we have a transportation minister who backed on going after insurance and licensing we have a government caucus from Ottawa that was all but invisible during the entirety of the crisis not from Ottawa none of your Ottawa representatives said appease during the protest Mr. Speaker this was a whole of government failure a whole of government failure Mr. Speaker this morning we'll take a seat questions been put the government side will come to order minister Mr. Speaker it fascinates me to hear this liberal member talk about the idea that political government leaders should be intervening in what happened in Ottawa there was an order and it was successful is the member suggesting that we should have for Orlean come to order solicitor general to reply is the member opposite suggesting that we should have controlled the Ottawa police and told them what to do how would you have felt if we started doing that it is important that there is a separation between what the police do to protect our communities and what we as government leaders do to protect our community I could not hear the minister because of the situation the next question the member for Kiwetanong Charles McBain Kiwetanong has the floor Good morning my question is to the Premier while COVID numbers may be in decline in the southern parts of Ontario we continue to see extremely high numbers of COVID-19 infirm nations in towns across the north the province wide easing of many restrictions completely misses what is happening and what is needed in the north Speaker we are talking about the historic lack of health resources that has not improved since the pandemic started while Ontario ensure provincial resources are made available to support both on reserve and off reserve indigenous populations who are still experiencing a pandemic and COVID related health emergencies Thank you Minister of Health I thank the member very much for the question this is an important issue because our government is dedicated to making sure that everyone in Ontario regardless of where they live they need to deal with COVID as well as other health emergencies I would say that we had a very good collaboration between indigenous communities as well as the government for operation remote immunity for the vaccination effort that happened which is still continuing for second doses and third doses including in flying in communities but I would also say that we are aware that there is an increase still in COVID infections in some parts of northern Ontario we can see that from wastewater surveillance that we are conducting across the province it may perhaps be although it's not conclusive yet that that is because COVID transmission has happened somewhat later in the northern communities than in the southern communities but it's something that we're monitoring carefully and something that we will make sure that if additional resources are needed absolutely in indigenous communities they will be provided the supplementary question question back to the premier Speaker health officials across the north have said we are weeks behind the rest of the province when it comes to test positivity rates and hospitalizations this virus remains a serious threat to the north with some experiencing their highest numbers since the beginning of the pandemic there are over 600 active cases of COVID in 25 first nations with more in the adjacent towns Speaker the north is in a critical stage in our fight against COVID again while Ontario ensure its approach to easing public health measures reflects the needs of the north yes or no yes of course we are watching all parts of Ontario to understand the number of cases in each community today we have 1,425 cases in Ontario with 319 people in our intensive care units so we are aware that there are higher levels to some degree in northern Ontario which would of course include many first nations communities but we are also working to provide additional tests to everyone in Ontario so that we can determine community transmission that people can keep themselves safe by using these rapid tests they are available at 2,385 community grocery stores as well as pharmacies as well as in 22 community centers for vulnerable populations some of which would include first nations communities in northern Ontario because stores in the north that we do have a good concentration of these rapid tests there are 5.5 million of these tests available weekly that we encourage everyone to use to make sure that we can limit the community transmission thank you next question the member for York Sound Canadians coast to coast are waking up in horror first the provincial cabinet invoked emergency legislation to deal with largely peaceful protesters this government followed Justin Trudeau's playbook to name, call and demonize peaceful and freedom loving Canadians who made a different medical choice who would of open their business who want their kids in school without a mask if needed they could of been dealt with bylaw highway traffic or the code if needed but a state of emergency was declared by this government in response to bridge blockades and protests that no longer exist the invocation of the emergencies act the federal government does not meet the legal test as in response to a situation that already resolved will the solicitor general and Ontario state of emergency and will she condemn the unlawful unprecedented and frankly perverse declaration of emergency by Justin Trudeau and to reply the government house leader Mr. Speaker as the member knows as he enunciated in his question the federal state of emergency was passed by the federal parliament that is an act under their purview Mr. Speaker thank you very much that concludes our question period for this morning understand the member for Sudbury has a point of order thank you speaker just want to rise on a point of order to correct my record this morning during my member's statement I said that McIntyre powder inhalation continued until 1990 it was discontinued in 1979 thank you speaker thank you very much for being no further business this morning this house stands in recess until 3pm