 is now time for question period. And I recognize the member from Brampton Center. Thank you and good morning, Speaker. My first question is to the premier. As the forward government scrambles to prepare the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine, it's clear that if everything works out, it will still take months and months for them to be able to distribute it. Meanwhile, we are seeing record breaking numbers of new COVID-19 cases throughout the province. Families need help today. But the Independent Financial Accountability Office reports that the government has been sitting on $12 billion in unspent COVID relief funds. Why is the premier hoarding money and waiting for a vaccine instead of helping families who are managing this pandemic? You over to the Auditing President of the Treasury Board for response. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the member opposite for that question. Mr. Speaker, numbers tell the story. The plan that was presented by the Minister of Finance in March of this year, the Financial Accountability Officers highlighted that we increased spending by $14.5 billion, 8.8% increase, Mr. Speaker. Of course, we are going to do everything we can to protect the individuals and families and businesses in this province. We're seeing an unprecedented amount of spending. We are going to not relent until the job is done. We've unleashed an incredible amount of fiscal firepower against the COVID pandemic. And, Mr. Speaker, we aren't done yet. We're going to continue to do everything that it takes to protect the families, individuals and businesses of this province. Back to the member from Brampton Center for next question. Thank you, Speaker. To quote one health expert on the government's vaccine task force, vaccines will help, but it's going to be an ugly January end quote. Working families in hotspots like Brampton can't sit back and just wait for a vaccine. Expert after expert has called for measures like paid sick days, a ban on evictions, capping our class sizes and direct supports for small businesses hit by the lockdown. The billions of dollars that this government is sitting on could be put to work today. Why is the premier refusing to consider measures like these and choosing instead to wait it out while he just conducts photo ops? Thank you. Back to the president of the Treasury Board for response. Mr. Speaker, we have to look at not only the record 38.5 billion deficit that was tabled by the minister of finance in on November 5th to just see the number of spending programs that we have primarily in health and long term care in for small businesses supports and property tax electricity. Mr. Speaker, that spending is up 7.6% year over year and in reference to the now 12 billion dollars of money that we've set aside. I remember the opposition saying that we had 9.3 billion dollars and we weren't spending it. Well, the minister of finance tabled on November 5th that we had actually spent 6.7 billion dollars of that 9.3 billion dollars. Mr. Speaker, Prudence says that we should continue to set aside money because we're not finished the battle against COVID-19 and we won't rest until the job is finished. Thank you back to the member from Brampton Center for final supplementary. Speaker, it is fiscally and morally irresponsible for this government to be sitting on money while businesses go bankrupt. People in communities like Brampton and Scarborough are working every single day and seniors continue to die in long term care homes. Will the Premier admit that families need help today and that sitting back and just waiting for a vaccine is not a plan and start bringing in measures that families in this province desperately need to survive and help us stop the spread of COVID-19 here in Ontario. Thank you. I referred to the Premier for this point. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the interim leader of the opposition for the question. You know, that's the difference between ourselves and the NDP and the Liberals. We actually have some money in contingency, 2.6 billion. It's not accurate when they say 12 billion. That's all been allocated to the exception of 2.6 billion because as we've went through this pandemic, Mr. Speaker, we've seen things pop up. It's very fluid. It moves very quickly and especially with the distribution coming up. The difference is they spend every single penny they have. Then they come hat in hand looking for extra money, be it raising taxes, going to the federal government. We're being prudent fiscal managers with the taxpayers money. We have 2.6 billion dollars left. The rest has been allocated, Mr. Speaker, and we're going to be responsible right up to what they don't realize. We have this money up to March the 31st. So rather than spend all the taxpayers money up front and then start looking for more money, we're being fiscally prudent. Next question. The member from Tamiskaming, Cochran. Thank you. Speaking of my questions to the Premier. For seniors living in long term care homes, waiting out the pandemic isn't an option. Claimed another 21 lives in the last 24 hours. And the second wave continues to ravage its way through long term care homes. The government has repeatedly promised a plan to increase frontline staff sometime in the new year, and the President Treasury Board just said the numbers tell the story. So perhaps the Premier could tell us how many frontline, extra frontline staff between the first wave, which caught us by surprise, and the second wave, which everyone knew was coming. How many extra frontline staff have actually been placed in homes to prepare for the second wave? How many? Tell us that story. Thank you. Before we get the response, I just want to remind all members that you address your question through the chair, please. Thank you very much. Now I return to the Minister of Long Term Care for response. Thank you. So thank you, Speaker, and thank you for that question. Staffing, you know, the legacy of the staffing crisis that was left for us to deal with. And also on top of that, the staffing issues with COVID. So this is something that it takes many variables to deal with. It depends on the number of residents in the home. It depends on the level of care that is needed. And we're working across ministries to address the staffing strategy long term, as well as addressing the crises in our homes right now. So this is a multi-pronged approach. And the dollars do speak for themselves. We started with $243 million to help with staffing and infection prevention and control. That was put out very quickly. And back in October, $540 million to address this. $405 million of that to address the issue with staffing. Another $30 million to allow more training for infection and prevention and control to enable our staff to to be safeguarded against COVID so that they can stay and work in our long term care. Response? $61.4 million for capital repairs. $461 million for a wage increase to our frontline workers. $2.8 million for PPE. $19.4 million for direct care staffing. $10 million annual. And the list goes on and on. Thank you very much. Thank you. Supplementary. Once again to the premier through the through you speaker. The list goes on and on about program announcements and but the question was how many actual people because they were short on people when the first wave hit and shorter on people now but you had time. Other provinces took steps put staff in. The question speaker is how many staff, how many staff, not how many programs and how many millions and how many you've got in contingency and how many people because we're talking about people dying in those homes. We're talking and thank you for pointing at me speaker. We're talking about people dying in those homes and who were under staff before. How many have you actually hired and put in those homes? You knew the second wave was coming. Thank you. Back to the minister of long-term care. Thank you speaker and thank you for the the question really ultimately that you have to understand what the level of number of residents in the home and what the situation is with the capacity in the homes. Our homes were at 99% capacity. When we started this pandemic there was not sufficient space for more additional residents and that's why cohorting had to be addressed. Infection prevention and control had to be addressed and and the homes we heard very clearly from them that they needed space to be able to do that and so the staffing ratio is very dependent in terms of of other countries or other provinces. You know I look at Quebec and what they did and in fact they have not been able to fulfill 10,000 spaces in what they said that they would do so that is no fault of theirs that is the conditions that they find themselves in. Response? We've taken a different approach integrating our acute care sector using community paramedics using the Canadian Red Cross when necessary using the supports that we have available to us and our homes are holding and we're getting the care that they need to them along with the support in staff. It's on. Thank you very much. Back to the member for final supplement. 21 people died in long-term care yesterday. The minister is able to quote how many people in that Quebec failed to hire but she is not willing to say how many people Ontario actually added and news of a vaccine isn't going to make COVID-19 disappear. Premier seniors are still getting sick and they're still dying. They're still waiting for four hours of hands-on care. They're still waiting for regular inspections which aren't happening either. The government seems to be more intent on saving money and waiting for a vaccine. How many people is the government prepared to risk while they sit on their contingency fund and hope to be able to roll out a vaccine? Thank you to the minister of long-term care for response. Thank you speaker and I actually do reject the premise of that question on so many levels. Our government has done nothing but support our long-term care system rolling out dollars behind the policies dealing with an unprecedented situation across the world and my heart goes out to everyone who's been impacted by this and the money is going out and if we look at the dollars that have been spent over a billion dollars already and we've been very clear about the issues that have to be dealt with on an emergency basis the stabilization of our homes and then the long-term plan to address the neglected system of long-term care whether it was in capacity bed capacity or whether it was in staffing or whether it was in in other areas this is a sector that has been largely neglected are what we promised a staffing strategy in December and that will be coming and you will respond the dollars are there and please understand that it is more than numbers this is more about getting the the support to our homes our homes are holding we are getting support and staff to the homes that are in crises and and this is happening we'll continue to support our long-term care homes thank you very much next question the member from london west thank you very much speaker my question is to the premier a speaker for months health care professionals and public health experts have been calling for paid sick days in ontario their calls are getting more urgent and they have been joined by ontario's big city mayors and gthj mayors and chairs speaker almost 60 percent of ontario workers have no paid sick days especially if they are low wage these workers can least afford to lose a day of pay and are often at highest risk of COVID-19 people who don't have paid sick days are going to work sick or they are sending their kids to school sick they are putting off getting a COVID test because they simply cannot afford to lose their paycheck speaker this afternoon i will introduce the stay home if you are sick act to provide paid sick days and actually support workers to stay home well the premier commit right now to passing my bill thank you recognize the minister of labor training and skills development well thank you very much mr. speaker look every single day during this pandemic we've been protecting the health and safety of workers and the public at large mr. speaker that's why the very first initiative we passed here at queens park literally on day one of the pandemic was bill 186 i told any worker in this province that they can't be fired because of COVID-19 if they're home in self-isolation if they're in quarantine if they're looking looking after a son or a daughter they will not be fired for that furthermore mr. speaker it was our government that eliminated the need for sick notes during COVID-19 and mr. speaker we all should give credit to premier ford for leading the charge across this country to ensure that 1.1 billion dollars in paid sick days was delivered for the people of this province thank you supplementary question speaker it's not getting fired that workers are worried about it's paying the rent it's buying the groceries it's paying the bills workers are put in an impossible position when they are expected to sacrifice their financial security in order to help slow the spread of COVID-19 workplace outbreaks are on the rise because this government took away the paltry to paid sick days that used to be available to Ontario workers paid sick days don't just protect health they are good for the economy the Ontario chamber of commerce said this about my bill when a worker protects themselves they protect their colleagues and employer and in turn they safeguard the entire business speaker this government has an opportunity to do something that will not only help businesses recover from COVID-19 but will strengthen our economy when the pandemic is over i ask again will the premier agree to pass my bill and provide permanent paid sick days for Ontario workers back to the minister of labour Mr. Speaker thanks to this premier leading the charge across the country there is 10 paid sick days totaling 1.1 billion dollars for the working people of this province mr. Speaker every level of government have worked together every day during this pandemic to protect the health and safety of workers but mr. Speaker i have to ask the member opposite in her party when did you abandon the working people of this province for example mr. Speaker if this budget passes that the finance minister tabled we will have more health and safety inspectors than in the history of this province and you know what mr. Speaker the NDP the so-called party of the working people they've failed workers in this province next question the member from York center thank you good morning mr. Speaker my questions to the premier premier we've seen great news this morning out of england and scotland about vaccination administered to seniors and frontline health care workers we know that ontarians are waiting on health canada approved excuse me stop the clock i'll give you a few extra seconds i'm hearing a lot of chatter loud chatter coming from the opposition side right now it's making it very difficult for me to hear the questions being asked by honorable members so i would ask use your inside voice so we can all hear i'm going to allow the member to start his question once again thank you very much thank you speaker my questions to the premier premier we've seen a great we've seen great news this morning out of england and scotland about vaccination administered to seniors and frontline health care workers we know that ontarians are waiting on health canada approval of the Pfizer and biotech vaccine premier our government has been advocating for ontarians to receive our fair share of vaccinations and to receive them in a timely manner premier can you please share what the federal government's announcement yesterday will mean for my constituents and all of ontario thank you to the premier for response i want to thank the great member from york york center he's doing a great job there as we get ready to receive the first shipments of covet 19 vaccines i'm glad to see uh after pushing the federal government they're actually going to be distributed per capita right across this great province and our top priority mr speaker remains getting the vaccines out to the people who need it most and we're going to do it as quickly as possible our first shipments are going to be in very small numbers as everyone knows but what we're waiting for we're waiting for the millions and millions of vaccines that we can distribute we have a phenomenal phenomenal table ready to distribute it we have a great leader with general hillier and both the minister of health and solicitor general has been doing a great job too so as soon as they land we're going to be out the door for the hardworking people of of this great province and mr speaker i'll i'll leave with this note we are the party for the working class we are the party who represent the hardworking people no matter if they're union or non-union thank you very much supplementary question back to the member from york center thank you speaker and back to the premier ontario is ready to do its part and we'll be ready to receive and distribute the first batch of vaccine when they arrive at our doorstep so much work has already been done to date the vaccination task force met held its first meeting on friday another meeting over the weekend and another meeting with cabinet today as general hillier indicated they've already run a tabletop exercise to look at how the vaccine roll-in process would unfold and are coordinating with the canadian armed forces fourth division headquarters here in toronto on the next steps in the planning process premier could you please elaborate on the next key phases of the vaccination rollout and what that will mean for distribution priority to the premier remember york center as general hillier said yesterday mr speaker this is our mission our mission we want to run an efficient and equitable covet 19 vaccination program right across ontario in order to provide every eligible person in the province the opportunity to voluntarily get vaccinated against covet 19 and we believe that's going to be huge way to help end this absolute tragedy that's been facing the world and our province for over the last close to a year the vaccination task force under the command of general hillier is taking prudent measures outlying three phases of deployment in phase one we want to deal with the vaccines that we know are coming in the first quarter of 2021 prioritizing the vulnerable and health care workers no one response the most vulnerable more than our health care workers and they're going to get vaccinated first so thank you mr speaker next question the member from nyagra center thank you speaker three of the premier under the cover of the covet 19 pandemic the ford government has been quietly issuing a series of minister zoning orders for projects that threaten the safety of ontario's conservation lands at least 19 of these orders are backed by developers that are pc party donors and close political allies of the premier why in the midst of a global pandemic is the government allowing their donors and allies to build over protected conservation lands to recognize the parliamentary assistant to the minister of municipal affairs and housing thank you thank you mr speaker mr speaker it's disappointing when it comes to this issue and ndp is totally out to lunch mr speaker every single m zero that has been issued by the minister responsible has been at the request of the local municipality unless the lands were provincially owned and i have mentioned this over and over in this house i know the members opposite are having a hard time understanding and be pleased to draw it for them if they'll make it easier mr speaker mr speaker let me just list a few projects that the member opposite better have opposed mr speaker 3700 long-term care beds a new facility to build made in ontario ppe the expansion of sunnybrook hospital 300 new supportive housing units thousand new affordable homes mr speaker quest doing all of this mr speaker we're creating 26 000 new jobs in ontario mr speaker we're proud of that thank you supplementary question from the member from Niagara center again to the premier speaker that got the government member needs to acquaint himself with the facts the government is lining the pockets of their donors and developer friends under the cover of a pandemic and hoping no one will notice over the weekend seven members of the ontario green belt council resigned in protest to this government's reckless attempt to undermine their mandate to protect the green belt if the government stands by these zoning orders they should have no problem answering questions from the public on record will the government agree to a full review of these zoning orders by the committee on general government so we can hear from the minister the premier and the insiders who this government keeps writing the rules for thank you very much mr speaker i want to thank the member opposite for that question again mr speaker mr speaker if the ndp did bit more research they're actually would find that these builders donated just as frequently mr speaker to the oppositions to the liberal party to the ndp that they did to the pc party mr speaker the people benefiting from these mz o's are ontarians needing long-term care beds mr speaker people out of work nurses needing ppe and restaurants needing to expand their outdoor patios mr speaker mr speaker as i mentioned every single mz o the minister has issued has been at their quest the municipalities unless the lands were provincially owned mr speaker so i would encourage the member opposite to do his research mr speaker before posing a question in this house and i am happy to sit with the member and go through all of these projects and provide an explanation to him and make sure he understands the importance of these projects to ontarians mr speaker next question recognize the member from dawn valley west thank you very much mr speaker my question is for the premier mr speaker in resigning from his role as chair of the green belt council david crombie respected former federal progressive conservative cabinet minister said this about schedule six in bill 229 he said and i quote it cuts out the heart of integrated watershed planning and management severely cripples the conservation authorities in their historic stewardship of environmental issues and now with the grossly expanded use of ministerial zoning orders and other procedural revisions essential public discussion debate will be stifled or shut down unquote this legislation mr speaker was certainly caused irreversible damage to wetlands natural features and will put the public at risk of increased flooding and environmental degradation without the protective check that conservation authorities have provided and with the amendments that the government has introduced conservation authorities will be forced to allow development permits even in the face of contrary scientific evidence question coming speaker we know that charles mcveedy was the beneficiary of passage of bill 2 13 can the premier share with the people of ontario the names of the developers who support and will be the beneficiaries should 229 pass as it is currently written thank you to the premier for response well to you mr through you mr speaker and i want to thank the former premier for the for the question i'd just like to know when she changed the green belt 17 times what developers was she helping 17 times i can tell you mr premier i mean mr speaker i have yet to touch the green belt unlike the former premier that wanted to take care of all her buddies and all her development buddies by changing it 17 times and then the new leader decides to build a pool in his backyard as i mentioned yesterday mr speaker to ignore the conservation authority when we're putting 30 million dollars into making sure that we protect wetlands protect the green belt unlike the previous government that didn't even put close to that into protecting it all they wanted to do is line the pockets of all their buddies 17 times mr speaker one side of the road of farmers worth 50 million on the other side of the road he's struggling to pay the bills because of the former premier playing games with the green belt we are going to play games we're protecting the green belt supplementary question back to the member from don valley west thank you very much mr speaker and i heard this this response yesterday and mr speaker my recollection i was also minister of municipal affairs and housing and then i was premier and those 17 adjustments mr speaker they were adjustments to the boundary we had i believe over 600 requests mr speaker over 600 requests for adjustments we made 17 minor adjustments mr speaker i think it is legitimate that when a government puts a policy in place we order the green belt it is only reasonable to make adjustments if there were mistakes i'm the first to admit there were mistakes made in some cases but with over 600 requests mr speaker 17 adjustments i think that's pretty on the cbc this morning the minister noted that the increased use of mz o's did not pertain to the green belt and that the use of mz o's was driven by municipalities speaker the mz o's and decisions that degrade question protection outside the green belt will affect the land inside the green belt mr speaker water flows mr speaker there were plans in place to expand the green belt in one way to the paris galt moraine thank you very much why are those plans thank you to the premier for response through you mr speaker i remember everyone in this house remembers the time that they were selling access every single minister had their quota ten thousand dollars a table and maybe that was part of the 17 minor changes to support their developer buddies you buy the table we'll give you a little bit of the green belt off that's the real story mr speaker our government doesn't do that we aren't going to do that we aren't touching the green belt we said we weren't going to touch it we support the green belt we're pouring money into the green belt and the watershed to make sure that that is taking care of mr speaker unlike the previous government that was selling access how many tables you want and we'll fix you up with the green belt not a problem at all 17 times it happened it's not going to happen under our watch just before we get to the next question listen i know that it's getting close to christmas and you have visions of sugar plums dancing in your head but i'm going to ask you kind of keep the excitement level down so that we can hear uh what the uh with the members the questions and their responses so thank you for that and now i return to the member from york center for question thank you mr speaker my question is to the minister of education speaker this has been a year we'll never forget in the spring we saw the impact of not having schools open be at the effect on children parents or educators in august our government revealed it's back to school plan fully endorsed by the chief medical officer of health to allow for in-class learning to resume we're now in december and we've seen a remarkable effort by everyone involved in ontario's education system to create a safe and positive environment in which students can learn could the minister please share with us what efforts have been taken to date to get us to where we are today thank you very much i turn over to the minister of education for response i want to thank the member from york center for the question mr speaker it's been an unprecedented year and amid this difficulty in this province we have two million children learning safely in ontario under a plan fully endorsed by the chief medical officer of health of this province mr speaker as was mentioned earlier by the treasury board president numbers matter 1.4 billion dollars of investment 3 000 new teachers hired in this province 1,300 more custodians 600 additional mental health workers ea's and ec's an additional 625 public health nurses more than doubling the allocation for our schools 130 000 more computers 19 000 more portable HEPA filters 2,500 portable ventilation devices mr speaker this plan endorsed by the chief medical officer of health fully funded by this province has helped ensure 99.9 of our students remain safe over four out of five schools do not have COVID at all this is why we face rising community transmission and the light in the darkness and the difficulty we face in this pandemic is the incredible heroism the hard work and determination of our teachers of our staff and our parents for which this province is extremely grateful and proud of thank you back to the member from york center for a supplementary question thank you mr speaker and back to the minister the minister is right keeping our schools open is a societal imperative which this pandemic has taught us time and time again the pandemic forced all of us and our education system to adapt to circumstances beyond our control can the minister please share with us what efforts are being made as staff and students are planning a return to school in january thank you to the minister of education for response thank you thank you speaker indeed we are looking forward to protecting the progress made in this province recognizing fully with rising community transmission the challenges imposed within our schools but having said that speaker we are committed to doing everything possible to keep our schools open it is a societal imperative it is so important the mental health and development of our children and i think for parents as well that's why we are looking to continue on with asymptomatic testing in schools in the new year in those high-risk regions we're launching a COVID safety refresher course on the first day back as a compulsory learning for all students on the protocols to ensure that they understand them and adapt to them we're adding an additional $380 million that we will unlock and we will announce in the new year to further protect schools to hire more staff to ensure more distancing to ensure we have the technology to give every student universal access to learning both online and in class we are taking action for the advice of the chief medical officer of health i want to reaffirm speaker my gratitude to everyone working together public health and school boards collaborating in the interest of keeping kids learning and keeping them engaged in school thank you very much next question recognize a member from it's a long one i know i know hamilton east is it no it's no hamilton west and caster dundas speaker so today my question is for the premier today we learned from the FAO that in the middle of the worst crisis our province has ever seen during a brutal second wave of a virus it's devastating our hospitals our long-term care homes our economy and impacting every single aspect of all of our lives this conservative government and the premier are sitting on 12 billion dollars of ununallocated and unspent money the question is simple mr speaker how can this premier and his ministers sleep at night knowing that they could have kept people safe but they chose not to recognize the uh ministers or the president of the treasury board for response well thank you mr speaker well the question is simple the answer is simple 14 and a half billion dollars of increased spending since march of this year mr speaker and you talked about health and and you know we we aren't sleeping because we're going to work tirelessly 24 7 to get this job done and let me just highlight some of the where that money is going 80 of those unallocated funds have been earmarked for health care and other funding let me give you some examples through our ministry of health and our great minister of health 351 million dollars for 2250 additional beds over a quarter billion dollars 284 million dollars to deal with the surgical backlog mr speaker 70 million dollars for additional flu vaccines 572 million to further support hospitals mr speaker as i've said when you have a response like this we will not rest until all the people of ontario families and businesses are safe and we get to the other side of this terrible pandemic thank you thank you very much back to the member from hamilton west and castor dundas thank you mr speaker and i do have to say thank goodness uh for our independent officers like the the fao because the only way we're getting any transparency from this government because for weeks now members on that side of the house have been howling every time we mentioned that they were choosing to sit on 9.3 billion in unspent money and mr speaker that's billions that could have saved lives they heckled and they spun and they tried to tell us that they weren't sitting on any money at all that it was just fear mongering now we know thanks to the fao the government wasn't just sitting on 9.3 billion it turns out the real number mr speaker is actually 12 billion what does that side of the house have to save for themselves now why weren't the thousands of people who died in this crisis worth the money to the president of the treasury board for response mr speaker i do reject the premise of that statement we have been working tirelessly and the numbers show it i mean the 9.3 billion contingency that we set aside as the minister of finance tabled in the budget November showed that over 6 billion was spent in that period mr speaker when you have a 38.5 billion dollar deficit plan for this year you are spending money mr speaker we're going to direct those very dear funds to the people that need it most in this province but we as the premier said we're going to have a little bit left over because we don't know exactly what's around the corner so 80 percent have been allocated we have another 20 percent and we're going to support the minister of health the minister of long-term care the solicitor general uh all aspects of our response to this pandemic and we won't rest mr speaker until everyone responds to this province thank you further questions i recognize a member from Ottawa south thank you very much mr speaker and my question is for the deputy premier minister of health rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine to 14.5 million Ontarians is going to be a great challenge the health of all Ontarians and Ontarians economy depend on it the government struggled with this year's roller of the flu vaccine it was a major pillar in their second wave too many Ontarians who wanted it didn't receive it that simply can't be the case with COVID-19 i put a forward emotion for this house to be debated later this afternoon with the intention of ensuring that the government's adequately prepared for the task that there be clear and transparent communication throughout the rollout of the plan and that there be some legislative oversight so speaker through you to the deputy premier will the government be supporting my motion this afternoon thank you i recognize the deputy premier thank you speaker and thank you to the member for the question what i can certainly advise you is that first of all with respect to the flu campaign it was the most successful flu campaign that we've had in Ontario's history to the point that we've just recently purchased another 200 000 doses of flu mist from AstraZeneca to make sure that all the people in Ontario that want to receive the flu vaccine will be able to do that the COVID vaccine is is a mammoth task there's no question about that it's going to be the most important vaccination campaign in probably Ontario's history but we have key people there that are supporting it the solicitor general and i are the ministers that are responsible we have general hillier leading up our task force general hillier has people on the task force would have combined knowledge and experience in both information technology in epidemiology all of the others that are important for this to be rolled out properly and there's no question that we will be ready as soon as those flu vaccines are ready to be shipped we will be dealing with them and getting them into people's arms as quickly as possible thank you back to the member from all of us for supplementary questions thank you very much your speaker and i was just speaking about the everyday experience of people in my riding and other people's ridings as well too in regards to the flu vaccine so and i think i speak on behalf of all members of this house to say that we want you to be successful we want you it's so important to the health and safety of all of our communities and we know that on first high-risk non-terries need to be first in line it's very important and we know the government got a general but you need an army and regional leadership is critical in this because ontarians will need clear and consistent communications to know what to expect that means setting targets and showing your progress and we have a committee establishing this legislature for emergency management oversight and the most important thing in emergency management right now is the distribution of this vaccine so speaker through to the minister question will you commit to appearing or a designate appearing before the select committee in emergency management oversight on a regular basis we're going to be away from here for two and a half months that's a long time thank you thank you deputy premier thank you well what i can assure the member is that there will be open and transparent communication with respect to uh plans for the distribution of the flu vaccine you're absolutely right it is vitally important for everyone on ontario to know what the plan is and how things are moving along but i can tell you we've had several meetings already with the task force they're continuing to meet they have three virtual half-day meetings a week this is something that we need to deal with immediately because it sounds as if we may be receiving some of the vaccines slightly earlier than we expected but have no fear we will be ready we have the right people in place we have the plan in place and as soon as that those vaccines arrive they're going to be distributed and to be dealt with and given into the arms of people who are most vulnerable people are seniors living in congregate care settings long-term care homes the staff people in first nations and other communities that are in need as well as people receiving chronic home health care i don't think there's any concern about the question that these people need to be first and they will be but we will be giving regular communications to the people of ontario about how the plan is moving through next question the member from york center thank you mr. speaker my question is to the minister of labor training and skills development in my writing of york center and across the province jobs in the skill trades are and will continue to be in high demand for years to come the most recent data shows that one in three journey persons are over the age of 55 mr. speaker projections prior to the pandemic demonstrated that the construction sector alone will need an additional 22 000 workers in anticipation of the shortage of skilled and trained workers to the minister of labor training and skills development what action is our government taking to prevent these shortages and support the skill trades recognizing minister of labor well thank you very much and i want to thank the honorable member from york center for his strong advocacy to get more young people into the skilled trades mr. speaker it is true we anticipate shortages in the skilled trades over the next several years here in ontario that is why our government is taking immediate action to promote and recruit more young people women indigenous people and veterans into these meaningful and well-paying careers mr. speaker i recently joined the associate minister of women's issues in london to announce the new group sponsorship grant we're investing 20 million dollars to help small and medium-sized businesses share the cost of managing and training new apprentices and mr. speaker i look forward to sharing more about our government's mission to reform the skill trades and get more young people into the skilled trades in my supplementary back to the member from york center thank you mr. speaker and thank you to the minister for that response it's great to hear that our government is taking the skill trade shortage seriously and active acting decisively to tackle it the skilled trades are crucial to our economic recovery when you have a trade you have a job for life mr. speaker recently i was disappointed to hear that only six percent of businesses are taking on apprentices we know that ontario businesses want to step up but they need our help can the minister please tell the house how this new grant will further support employers in recruiting and training of new apprentices to the minister labor great well thank you very much and thank you to the member for that question again mr. speaker 20 million dollar investment will reduce pressure on any one employer to see an apprentice through the completion of their training now a group of local businesses for example can work together to train six to 12 apprentices and receive around 125 000 up to 250 000 this will increase the overall number of people training and working in the skilled trades and mr. speaker it will expose apprentices to a wider range of skills and work experience mr. speaker our government is committed to connecting people with lifelong careers that provide for them and their families and build stronger communities for all of us thank you next question the member from muskegua no there we go good morning mr. speaker my question is to the premier speaker yesterday the auditor general reported that indigenous peoples our nations are not engaged in the development of government programs and policies that impact us when i see that happening that is racism oppression and colonialism in action and we see it playing and played being played out on the lives and the health of people of niskanaga who have no access to clean drinking water speaker niskanaga needs to be needs the premier to be part of the solution they need clean drinking water now is the premier's help on the way today or or for the people of niskanaga thank you recognize the parliamentary assistant to the minister of energy indigenous northern development and indigenous affairs thank you mr. speaker and thank you very much for the question as the member pointed out the auditor general's report has taken a look at how indigenous affairs can be incorporated throughout all of our ministries and we've embarked on that process of making sure that all ministries are working together it was one of the things that we talked about when we were first elected how many ministries were acting as silos and those silos need to be broken down and we have embarked on that process to do that with respect to clean drinking water at the community that the member was speaking about we have been involved with that the ministry of environment conservation in parks their indigenous drinking water team has been involved from the very beginning and we believe that the federal government has it now in place and the testing will be completed very shortly spot so that there will be clean drinking water back to the member from q at newt it seems that the ministry of indigenous affairs has been m i a in our communities but back to the premier with this global pandemic hurting the economy we understand and we hear that the development of the far north is an essential part of the government's recovery plan speaker i want to be clear without respect for treaty number nine and the support for niscana guy's basic human rights this government has no right to request development on our treaty territories the chief of niscana guy wrote the premier this week for his commitment and helping to access clean drinking water as human beings ontarians and treaty rights holders will the premier meet with niscana guy to discuss their nation's access to clean drinking water thank you back to parliamentary assistant to the minister of indigenous affairs thank you mr speaker is my understanding and working directly with the federal government on it that the testing should be completed on december the 14th of the clean water facility there and that's where our expectation is that clean drinking water will be available very very shortly to the entire community we thank all of the partners who have worked together to make sure that this is something that is completed but i do have to remind the member that it was the federal government that put the 16 million dollars in to build it they did not have it completed appropriately and the provincial government stepped forward with the clean drinking water task force to make sure that we were getting it right so that those people could have clean drinking water further to that the provincial government did its part to make sure that those individuals had a safe environment in the meantime while we looked after the evacuation of the community thank you mr speaker thank you next question the member from guelph morning speaker thank you my question is for the premier every prominent stakeholder in the province of ontario except for a handful of development industry lobbyists have unanimously asked for schedule six to be removed from bill 229 but instead of listening to the people the government introduced amendments that gave the minister even more power to ignore science and run roughshod over responsible planning yesterday the minister of the environment in a media article said that he thought it would be excellent for democracy to have more debate in consultations on ca's i agree before we pass schedule six i agree so speaker why is the premier hellbent on continuing to rush this ill-conceived schedule question to an unrelated budget bill against the will of the people of this province will he listen to his own minister remove schedule six because we need more consultation on the changes to ca's thank you i recognize the parliamentary assistant thank you speaker and over the past few years as the member knows conservation authorities were getting into all kinds of things like ziplining and photography and and the member knows how important it is to focus on flood mitigation which is why that's the changes we made brought them back to their core mandate on source water protection flood mitigation and natural hazards and the member also talks about amendments and yes speaker amendments were made in order to take into account natural hazards and in fact over the last now the conservation authorities actually have more enforcement power with a stop work order when it comes to natural hazards and that's actually more enforcement that they've had in the last 70 years speaker it was in the bill originally but the liberal government never actually proclaimed it and it's this government that proclaimed it and giving more conservation authorities the the tools they need in order to protect the environment but speaker the member also talks about no support and i will talk about the enteros far farmers network that these changes are all order i will talk about ducts unlimited london we also have uh here in perth landowners association and enteros stone sand and gravel association entero fruit and vegetable growers and i can name many more thank you for the support of these changes thank you back to the member from gual for supplementary question yeah i'd like to remind the member opposite that the association miss pallies of ontario the big city mayors literally the people who represent the local elected leaders who literally represent everybody in this province along with conservation authorities have said that what this government is doing is reckless it's going to cost us more in the long run so i want to ask a question that came to me directly from the cfo of the toronto region conservation authority speaker if the province is going to force conservation authorities to issue permits for development in environmentally sensitive areas that are in contravention to their science-based watershed approach to decision-making are they going to question defy conservation authorities against the repercussions of future impacts of these developments including flooding because there is no mention of this in schedule six and there is substantial risk being forced on to ca's due to thank you thank you back to the parliamentary assistant to the minister of environment conservation of parks thank you speaker and uh let me read you a quote by the mayor of windsor and he says lots of mayors myself included as part of the entero big city mayors have issues with conservation authorities and the power given to them and that the delays that add significant cost to projects often without much material benefit please tell the minister of environment know that these changes need to be made speaker the changes we're making uh get to make sure that conservation authorities are focused on their core mandate many of them are doing good work but frankly some of them are more focused on ziplining than there are on flood mitigation and natural hazards again we're giving them the tools to do this and this is being supported by the simcoe county federation of agriculture the entero farmers network northumberland federation of agriculture and i can name more and in fact the auditor general in her report yesterday if the member read it page to ages 40 to 43 to 269 also mentioned and she followed up on her previous auditor general report 2008 that said there needs to be changes to conservation authorities on transparency accountability and we're doing just that thank you thank you next question the member from james bay thank you speaker to the premier while english and french are official languages in courts in ontario french language access is still a new topia in certain region last week in hers the resident couldn't be served in his native language in so saint mary she had a hard time to speak and understand english but this lady had to appear in a video conference only in english could the premier tell us why in 2020 it is impossible to have french language services in ontario tribunes for response thank you mr speaker and and i'm pleased to have the question it is a very very important topic and something that we're actively working on i i wonder if maybe he's been speaking to some of some of my officials who who know that we're working on some pieces that i hope to be able to to bring forward publicly soon it's a very important it's a very important piece that that people can access the justice system in their in their in their language of choice of the official languages in ontario and again i i look forward to acknowledging publicly some changes that are in the works and to move us forward in that regard it's long overdue thank you mr speaker back to the member from mesquigua james bay for supplementary the minister for francophone affairs keeps telling us that we have a pilot project for french language services in tribunals in Sudbury she's repeated it in september in december telling us that we're but still we're facing failure a failure of some of a lady who couldn't do her tell her story in her native language mr speaker because there was no interpreters the case has been cancelled in november 2019 and the victim could not even tell her story will the premier admit once and for all that there are failures in the francophonie and that there should be the french language services access in the legal services thank you mr speaker and and i'm proud to stand with my colleague the minister of francophone affairs who was the previous agey and set in motion a number of very positive changes to catch us up on the neglect that was in place by the liberals for 15 years mr speaker with with no regard for the people of ontario who speak french as their as their primary language and so mr speaker we need to move this forward and we are moving this forward and i am really looking forward to being able to announce in the very near future some very positive changes with more to come mr speaker thank you very much thank you next question the member from scarborough gildewhood thank you mr speaker my question is to the premier this morning the f a o released its expenditure monitoring tracking provincial spending which revealed that contrary to the government's pandemic insistence pedantic insistence that they have not spent unallocated funds quite the opposite the balance in unallocated funds have actually increased speaker thousands of ontarians are going to stay home away from their families this holiday season because the government failed to flatten the second wave curve speaker they had the funds they were given the funds by the federal government they did not ramp up testing and contact tracing in the summer when they knew the second wave was coming they did not invest in schools to make them safe places for learning for education workers and students they did not shore up covid hotspot communities like my riding of scarborough gildewood and brampton and windsor speaker question the premier think it's appropriate to sit on billions of dollars in funds while millions of ontarians are in lockdown thank you recognizing president of the treasury board for response well mr speaker thank you to the member opposite for that question but clearly she has her numbers wrong let me tell you this is the same member who said that the nine point three billion dollars that we set aside that we weren't spending any of it she said we were spending zero we actually spent over six billion dollars of it it's only prudent to set aside more money mr speaker because now we're up to almost 12 billion dollars in set-asides why of which 80 percent has been spent 80 percent mr speaker she referenced testing 1.4 billion dollars in additional covid testing in the last six months of this fiscal year alone the minister of education mentioned thank you for mentioning some numbers uh minister of education one point three billion dollars in additional funding for education to keep our children safe and our teachers safe mr speaker we also put in another billion dollars additional money into personal protective equipment mr speaker the numbers tell the story the money is being spent and we're very proud of what we're doing back to the number for scarborough gildewood for supplement your question speaker we're going to have to disagree with the numbers right as the second wave was heating up the government underspent by 278 million dollars in public health that's almost 300 million dollars that could have been used to ramp up contact tracing and testing efforts they had under spent by an even greater 477 million dollars in post-secondary education this is in the face of deep cuts to osap while students are accumulating more debt to pay their tuitions despite the the title of their budget speaker the government has pinched pennies to the tune of 12 billion dollars instead of investing to protect and to support ontarians this inertia is unconscionable speaker through you question when will the premier stop being cheap in the pandemic or is this going to be where he gives ontarians a lump of coal this christmas with a thank you covid bump in case thank you back to the president of the treasury board mr speaker we're hoping to give all ontarians a vaccine for this christmas mr speaker you know that's what we're planning to do mr speaker it's it's interesting coming from the member opposite who increased the debt by 200 billion dollars of the previous government and had a qualified opinion from the auditor general for a number of years we've had three years of clean opinions mr speaker the fao report that she references indicates that spending this fiscal year from march to now we've revised up by 14.5 billion dollars mr speaker 8.8 percent as well year over year up 7.6 percent i don't know about your math but my math says that that's an increase and we are spending the months and the auditor general and all the other officials are supporting us on this mr speaker we won't stop working hard on behalf of the individuals and the families of this great province to keep them safe thank you continue working thank you next question the member from to rio say paul thank you speaker elaine in my community is terrified her grandmother lives at rose of share in the only korean long-term care home in ontario it's nonprofit and now it's being taken over by rica care centers a for-profit and she is worried there are over 20 thousand signatures signed on this and the question to the premier is will the premier commit today to stop the long-term care license transfer application of rose of share in korean non-profit long-term care to for-profit rica care center which has multiple lawsuits and is for-profit and has had many deaths during covid thank you recognize the minister of long-term care thank you speaker thank you for raising your concern our priority as a government is the the safety and well-being of residents and staff and families involved with long-term care there is no doubt about that this situation is is a under review and we're considering it thank you thank you time for question period it's come to an end