 It is now time for oral questions and I recognize the leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. Thank you so much speaker. My first question this morning is for the Premier. Last Wednesday in his daily news conference, his daily campaign news conference on COVID-19, the Premier claimed and I quote, we see the curve going down. Well since then health officials have reported three of the worst days that Ontario has ever seen in terms of new cases of COVID-19. And today the Ontario Hospital Association is sounding the alarm bells because acute care wards are already operating above capacity in dozens of hospitals in our province. It's clear to everyone that we are still dealing with the consequences of the forward government's failure to prepare properly for a second wave. Does the Premier think that declaring victory is going to have the thousands of new cases appearing daily just disappear? The Deputy Premier, the Minister of Health. Well what I would say to the leader of the official opposition is we have prepared. We have a comprehensive fall preparedness plan that anticipated an increase in the rise of COVID cases and we've prepared for that and we've prepared our hospitals for that as well. What I would say is that we are first of all very grateful to them for stepping up and the incredible frontline workers that show up to work each and every day and the hospitals have even gone above and beyond what their normal capacity is and many of them have gone into our long-term care homes when they've needed assistance but we have provided them with expansion availability. Right now they are close to 100% capacity because they're dealing with COVID-19 cases but they're also trying to catch up on the backlogs of surgeries and procedures that we had to postpone during the first wave. We don't want to have that happen again. We want to be able to keep those times happening as well because it's terrible as it is to lose someone to COVID. It's equally terrible to lose someone to cardiac or cancer problems so we have to keep that moving forward. The supplementary question. Thanks Speaker. Well after the first wave of the pandemic labs and health units were left begging for funding to prepare for the second wave and now we're in a situation where in the City of Toronto we don't know where 65% of cases are actually coming from. While hospitals are facing huge deficits and operating above capacity will the Premier stop pretending that this pandemic is going to go away on its own and start making the investments needed to catch up to where we should be. Minister of Health. Well the reality is that we have been investing money. We have since the beginning of COVID pandemic both in terms of case and contact management. We're investing over a billion dollars in testing facilities in case and contact management facilities so that we are able to trace where these contacts are coming from and when someone comes down with COVID that we can contact trace and find out who they've been in contact with. Right now we're at about 85 to 90% of contact management within 24 hours of someone being diagnosed with COVID but we've also made significant investments in our hospital sector. We've invested at 935 million dollars in additional money in the sector this year. It's a 5.5% increase. The biggest increase in a decade and we've made hundreds of millions of dollars in additional investments since then which I can discuss in the next document. Well Speaker parents, seniors, small business owners and all Ontarians are paying the price. They're paying the price now for the Premier's failure to prepare for the second wave. The Premier could admit that and make the overdue investments that are necessary to get testing and tracing to where it should be and to ensure that our hospitals, schools and small businesses have the support that they need to get through these next couple of months. But instead the Premier is ignoring the evidence and apparently so is the Minister while members of his own caucus are ignoring public health advice. When will the Premier stop making things up as he goes, start making sure his caucus members are following the rules and start making the investments that should have been in place months and months ago. Well in fact we do have a comprehensive plan one that is called keeping Ontarians safe and it anticipates all of the issues that the Leader of the Official Opposition has just mentioned. Case in contact management making sure that we can be prepared for surges in COVID cases as well as keeping our surgeries and procedures going to keep Ontarians healthy. We've invested $341 million to create an additional 500 acute care beds and 100 critical care beds. That was at the beginning. It was supplemented by more money but went into 139 more critical care beds and 1349 additional beds and recently by an additional 116 million that created an additional 766 beds in 32 hospitals across the province. So as things stand now since the start of this pandemic we have created 3131 new hospital beds to deal with the increase in both patients with COVID with flu. Thank you. The next question once again the Leader of the Opposition. Thanks very much Speaker. My next question is actually for the Premier as well. The government's failure to prepare for the second wave is especially devastating in long-term care and I think we all know that where now at least 509 residents currently have COVID-19. In the face of unprecedented this unprecedented disaster the Ford government has dithered and delayed on action that was needed to save lives in long-term care and we know that's the case that's what the Commission heard in terms of testimony. So why is the Ford government moving so slowly Speaker and when when will they start moving quickly because we all know that the lives of seniors in long-term care are truly at stake here. Mr. Long-term Care. Thank you Speaker and thank you the member opposite for the question. I can tell you that all of us feel very concerned about our long-term care home residents and staff and that is why we have acted swiftly since the very beginning making sure that we created the regulatory flexibility for our long-term care homes with the regulatory amendments for emergency orders. $243 million to make sure that our staffing had support and infection control ongoing measures to make sure that they were rapid deployment teams from their hospitals integrating that response to our homes and our homes the vast majority of them 94 percent of them right now have no resident cases and there are outbreaks but I want to remind everyone that an outbreak means one resident case or one staff case as a minimum and that staff case can be isolating at home. So we are making sure that all the measures including the $540 million to back up our homes in a few weeks ago making sure every measure is taken. We will continue to. Thank you. Let's supplement your question. It's unfortunate Speaker that the Minister's talking points don't include that 509 seniors are infected as we speak with COVID-19. A new testimony in new testimony that's happening at the long-term care commission speaker government officials were struggling to try to explain why staffing studies sat on the Premier's desk literally for months while seniors died during the second wave. At one point the lead commissioner raises the issue of the urgent need the urgent need for four hours of daily hands-on care. Here's what he said quote we're in the middle of wave two there's an immediacy to this a sense of urgency but what yours is describing doesn't seem urgent. With so many lives at stake how can this government fail to appreciate the urgent need for action on four hours of hands-on care. Thank you Speaker and thank you again for the question. The sense of urgency has been consistently there 24 hours a day seven days a week. Even since we started as a new ministry in the summer of 2019 to understand the staffing issues we created the expert panel the advisory panel to give a comprehensive understanding of what needed to be done and that that report will be completed with the strategy. The report has been received the strategy will be in December we have committed to doing that and not only have we been doing that we've been working urgently to shore up the staffing in our homes using every measure possible whether it's looking at the Red Cross community paramedics integration with the hospitals in the acute care sector the IPAC teams this has all been ongoing with a sense of urgency from the very beginning and we will continue with that same sense of urgency. Thank you very much. Final supplementary. That is certainly not what the commissioner said so something doesn't add up here it's literally a matter of life and death that we're talking about and the premier's response quite clearly has been to dither and delay in testimony at that long-term care commission made public late friday in government the government admits rather that quote it isn't government policy that there can't be three and four residents in a room it isn't government policy well we know that for-profit homes with massive outbreaks like extended care starwood in Ottawa and many others have had shared three residents sharing a room so the government promised to change that just like they promised to change the staffing levels they promised action but everyone is urging everybody's asking for urgent action people don't want the government to delay any longer it's time to fix the problem so when are they going to get around to banning more than two residents per room in long-term care. Thank you speaker and thank you once again to the member opposite making sure that we were absolutely transparent about the ward room issue as soon as that was identified in wave one we have been working with public health Ontario Ontario health and medical officers of health within the public health units looking at measures we can take to address the ward rooms using every possible measure and all the while understanding the balance that must be had in the acute care sector to create capacity in long-term care and create measures that allow our hospitals to stay function and serve those individuals who have who have cancer who have heart disease and require urgent urgent treatment so all of this has to be an integrated effort and i want to thank the commissioners for hearing the testimony and they did hear about the staffing issues and those of course have been ongoing and and we as a government have acknowledged that response and are working feverishly to address that and i want to thank the thousands of people that are working around the clock all during this terrible unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic those people are making a difference we thank you thank you next question the member for dad and for good morning mr speaker thank you this question is for the premier speaker throughout this pandemic parents have tried to make the right choices to keep their kids safe while also making sure they aren't set back a year in their learning but thanks to a staggered and piecemeal approach that left class sizes too big and buses too crowded thousands of students across this province never returned to school at all in toronto 5500 students didn't return in london a thousand in hamilton the public board reports it's missing 1,756 kids speaker we all know the way education is is funded in ontario and that means that dollars follow students enrollment has been completely disrupted by the pandemic and by this government's inconsistent policies the corresponding drop in funding for those students will mean millions of dollars budgeted for schools will vanish unless the premier asks acts will he thank you very much mr speaker appreciate the the question for the member opposite but the member opposite knows that the minister of education and the premier have committed a significant in fact historic amounts to to education obviously this is a a challenging time not only for the people of the province of ontario for our students but school boards who have done frankly a spectacular job in helping ensure that the funding that we have set aside for for schools during the pandemic is getting to the students i know from my own experience and in my board and my kids one in the catholic system one in the in the public system the experience has been nothing shorter spectacular and i want to i guess opposite of what the member is is saying uh congratulate the teachers and the two boards that i am fortunate enough to work with they've done a great job students are responding it is certainly different mr speaker but they're getting the job done and i want to thank our educators for that mr speaker if boards and schools are doing such a great job keep the money there give them the assurance they need repeating the same numbers from back in august is not going to make these problems go away the minister needs to listen to families listen to frontline workers in our schools many have taken to social media using the hashtag aunt ed reality to share what's really happening one teacher wrote that as families were trying to make halloween as fun for their kids as possible he was busy rearranging classrooms once again to accommodate even more students as classes are collapsed and class sizes continue to grow others are asking where are these new custodians speaker ontario's covet cases are breaking records every few days we can no longer wait to see how this will all pan out we need urgent action to protect our students and keep schools open as long as possible will the premier take action now thank you thank you very much mr speaker of course we have continued right from the beginning of the of the pandemic took very swift action to ensure that our students that our students were safe we did that by working with not only our school boards but with our education partners or the union leaders to make sure that we rolled out a system that worked as best as it could for the students of the province of ontario will we continue to invest in students absolutely we've done that right since our first budget mr speaker we are the only government to make significant investments in education in such a short period of time i'm quite proud of that mr speaker this is a very challenging time obviously surely to goodness the member opposite can can appreciate how difficult it has been to bring forward online learning to bring forward protection for our students those who want to go to school and those and for the teachers we've been able to do that it has been a success that means mr speaker that we we stop no we of course redouble our efforts because parents will do different things and students will want different things this government will be prepared for whatever our parents and whatever our students want by working with our teachers and our educators to make sure we get it right thank you next question the member for barry in this film thank you mr speaker my questions to the minister of economic development and job creation and trade last week the minister joined me the premier and the member and the mpp for barry springwater aura medante to meet wilfred and his wife ingrid wilfred is a german tool and die maker who came from germany and his wife ingrid co-founded napoleon in in the late 1970s and barry and as we heard they are now a north america's leader when it comes to manufacturing quality fireplaces grills furnaces and air conditioners all because wolfgang tried to press his father-in-law by making a wood stove that had led of course to them stepping up to the plate like so many manufacturers where during COVID-19 and as we're still in it napoleon workers put the grills on hold and they started to make medical equipment they're an example along with their sons christopher steven of manufacturers that really step up to the plate and so i'm looking for the minister to tell us in this house how we're supporting manufacturers like napoleon and what our government is helping to do to help manufacturers thrive mr economic development job creation speaker thank you to the member from barry and his fill for her question let's start with a shout out to ingrid and wolfgang and steven and christ schroeder for hosting us at napoleon home comfort their 1100 employees prove that ontario is indeed a manufacturing powerhouse in september alone ontario saw an increase of nearly 52 000 manufacturing jobs that means that 17 000 more people work in manufacturing now than did pre-covid and that proves even in times of the pandemic we can make anything right here in the province and speaker we should be proud of that by purchasing ontario made products we can put billions of dollars back into our economy and lead our province down the road to recovery thank you minister for that answer and a stated plant magazine not even COVID-19 can dose the sizzle on napoleon barbecues our government continues to be a leader and champion when it comes to highlighting and supporting ontario ontario's made businesses and several months ago of course we launched the made ontario program that helped really support manufacturers through the manufacturing and export association by highlighting our businesses and of course creating the ontario made logo which you can proudly support onto our ontario made products so that people know when they're going to stores what products they can buy that are made in ontario and in recent polls we have seen that 73 of canadians want to buy local made product and in fact 56 of ontarians wish they could purchase more domestic products so i'm asking the minister if he could share with my constituents and all ontarians what new developments we have for the ontario made program minister of economic development thank thank you speaker the canadian manufacturers and exporters launched the ontario made program but that was only the beginning today we're excited to announce the launch of the second phase of ontario made so when you see that ontario made logo it's easier for shoppers to tell what products are actually produced right here in ontario to date 4600 products are registered with that logo from 1200 ontario manufacturers that's 4600 quality ontario made products supporting local jobs speaker was great to see the ontario made logo on beauty tone paint when i dropped by the ferris home hardware in in north bay this weekend so we want people to go to support ontario made dot ca for a complete directory of these 1200 companies question the member for ethics thank you very much speaker my question is to the premier speaker we all know that the premier has a close personal relationship with Charles McVeedy he's even trying to grant him his own version of trump university north and speaker i cringe at the thought of what an ethics degree from McVeedy you would look like but speaker it appears that he's not McVeedy's only friend in the pc party caucus in now deleted photos from McVeedy's lavish birthday party last november we see a special video greeting from the premier and also appearances from the chief government whip the associate minister of mental health and addictions and the minister of finance mysteriously speaker these photos have all disappeared on their website as of last thursday night speaker do any of the ministers who attended that party know if canada christian colleges accreditation was discussed and if so why have those photos disappeared respond to the government the minister of colleges and universities thank you mr speaker i'm glad to have this opportunity to rise and address this important matter anytime any organization or any individual applies for any type of a license or a designation it's incumbent upon legislators people in quasi-judicial functions to ensure that there's fairness and there's accountability in the process the main way to ensure accountability is through transparency things like having bills debated openly in this house the main way to ensure fairness is to ensure that there is a process order there are three ways for any order nation as this this nature to be granted one through a private bill goes directly to committee tabled by any member of this house does not come into this house for open discussion very sheltered process second option is through ministerial consent i'll speak about that in the supplemental third option is through a legislative process once again that gets debated in this house what we chose to do mr speaker was to blend a ministerial consent response process to ensure transparency to ensure accountability to ensure fairness to ensure a process mr speaker thank you supplementary question thank you very much speaker speaker despite concerns coming from his own pc party members the premier has spent weeks defending his favour to Charles McVidi by claiming it's all above board following due process but we now know that McVidi had unrestricted access to the premier's cabinet ministers and closest advisors at this event nobody can know for sure what was said at McVidi's birthday bash but i don't think anyone would believe that government business never came up speaker were any of the members of the premier's cabinet that were present at that party lobbied at the party or are they just really such good close allies of Charles McVidi mr college's university thank you again mr speaker again to ensure a fair and accountable process what we have done and what we've endeavored to do and we will always do on this side of the house is making sure that fairness process accountability are adhered to these are principles principles of the rule of law that i certainly take very seriously and we on this side of the house take very very seriously if you look at the private bill option which i discussed in the earlier in the earlier question that option goes directly to a committee very sheltered process would not have been debated in this house would not have been a very transparent process ministerial consent mr speaker is something that is traditionally done in a minister's boardroom signed off on we converted that in the last red tape bill last october mr speaker were two other universities okad universities and algoma were part of that as well we ensured that that process went directly to an independent review board being p-cap what we've done here was this particular legislation same we did before same we'll do again as we made sure that it was all combined in a blended open transparent process mr speaker next question to you member for Ottawa venue thank you mr speaker my question is for the minister of long term care and speaker i need to keep on asking these questions because i keep on hearing from people in my writing that the situation in our long-term care homes is far from being resolved i receive updates from administrators of these for-profit long-term care homes and while they're trying to be reassuring it's really easy to read between the lines in fact they're trying to tell us that everything is under control by saying they have a very comprehensive infection prevention and control program and say in the same letter that they are working with the hospital team to develop procedures to manage the outbreak because they can't control anything i've heard from family members and caregivers and there are still delays and getting tested and getting and getting results while the virus continues to spread so my question is will the minister ensure that testing is improved and prioritized in the long-term care homes to apply for the government the minister of long-term care thank you speaker and thanks again to the member opposite for the question and this is something i want to emphasize is ongoing making sure that our homes are getting the staffing they need the ppe support that they need there are no critical situations with the homes there's no critical staffing shortages the the homes are working in some cases it's voluntary management contracts management mandatory management orders with the hospitals involved in the Ottawa area there are four homes that have resident cases the others do not even though they're considered an outbreak and that's because of the definition that i i keep mentioning also making sure that there's communication with families and i think that that is something that is one of those lessons learned that we are making sure that those homes have the ability to communicate with their their loved ones looking at making sure we have the infection prevention and control measures in there these homes are all partnered with hospitals across the province to make sure that they have the necessary expertise so i thank you for your question the supplementary question thank you mr speaker and again to the minister long-term care i do want to congratulate the minister on the apparent medicine program that i've heard of and based on the consultations i've done around long-term care and based on my own experience of having my mother living with us i believe this can go a long way in helping our loved ones and those who look after them essential caregivers are indeed very important part of the solution for providing much needed support to the system and it's really important that they have access to their loved ones in long-term care homes to provide much needed support we need to realize that more often than not these essential caregivers are seniors themselves looking after a relative or a spouse the champlain family councils has reached out to me and to the minister to make us aware that the obstacles to getting tested have undermined their role as caregivers my question on behalf of all the family members who are taking care of loved ones in long-term care is will the minister ensure that rapid testing be given ongoing priority in long-term care settings and that it includes caregivers thank you minister of health testing is very important because for caregivers because we recognize through wave one how important these caregivers are they provide in some cases up to 80 of the care that their loved ones receive in long-term care it's very important for their for their mental functioning and physical functioning but we have allowed for that with opening up pharmacies for asymptomatic testing can be family members that can go into pharmacies receive a quick turnaround and receive a quick answer about not having COVID and being able to see their family members but we're also looking at the new strains of testing they're coming forward some of which are point of care testing and we're going to give them in priority to both residents of long-term care homes staff members as well as essential caregivers because you're absolutely right these essential care bonds are truly essential to be there with the ones they love during COVID-19 thank you very much the next question the member for mississauga league short speaker my question is for the attorney general constituents in my riding need to know that their government supports local efforts to prevent and fight crime in their community they appreciate the work our government is doing to support the work of local police prosecutors victim service organization and other community partners who are working together to stand up for law-abiding citizens support victims of crime and dismantle the criminal network that prey on the profits of young and vulnerable people in our community speaker we know human trafficking has targeted Ontario communities and our government has established a comprehensive and province-wide approach to fight these crimes what is the government doing to hold criminals accountable and keep communities safe from human trafficking great question question the attorney general i thank the great member for mississauga lake shore for the question and for the opportunity to tell ontarians what our government is doing to support victims of crime just last week i announced that our government is reinvesting cash seized from criminals to help fight heinous crimes like human trafficking across ontario our government's investing a total of 2.5 million dollars through the civil remedies grant program to support 33 local crime fighting projects that will make communities safer this year where we focused on investments and helping communities fight back against human trafficking money collected from proceeds of crime will be reinvested into support programming and will also go towards crisis counseling and public education in fact in the member's writing we invested nearly a hundred thousand in project haven with appeal police service project haven will use technology and surveillance equipment to locate and support victims of human trafficking and ensure those responsible for exploiting them are identified and prosecute response mr. speaker we are taking money out of the hands of criminals and putting it directly back in the hands of those who will make an important contribution to support victims of crime supplementary question member for sarnie lambton my question is to the attorney general as well minister well the news of funding is welcome ontarians need certainty that the government is providing resources to get at the roots of criminal activity like human trafficking so there are less victims ontarians and the constituents in my writing need to know that unlike the liberals in the ndp this government will support our law enforcement so that they can do their job and prevent crime like human trafficking from occurring can the attorney general commit to this house that this funding is more than a band-aid solution to a problem that impacts so many and that it will in fact provide direct support to law enforcement and the prevention of crime attorney general thank you again mr. speaker i'd like to thank the member from sarnia and let me make it clear to all members under our government crime will not pay much of the 2.5 million investment in the civil remedies grant program will go directly to funding law enforcement programs that fight back against human traffickers by supporting the efforts of local police and prosecutors to dismantle the criminal networks that pray and profit from young and vulnerable people in all of our communities in fact in in the members writing we're providing over 75 thousand dollars to the sarnia police service to ensure they have the training and surveillance equipment they need to locate and prosecute those involved in human and drug trafficking as well as aid the victims of crime i'd also like to highlight that our government has made it harder for criminals to hold on to proceeds of their crimes through the smarter and stronger justice act passed in this house it was passed just this past this summer by strengthening the civil forfeiture laws and catching up with the rest of kanda we've taken real action to hold offenders accountable support victims of crime and build safer communities thank you the next question the member for toronto st paul's this is to the deputy premier the deputy premier went to great lengths to try to distance herself from charles mcveedy on thursday she told the media she was uncomfortable with the suggestion that this government stands for racist or homophobic behavior speaker the deputy premier is more worried about the reputation of her government than the lives of queer and trans people and of muslim ontarians and others attacked on a constant basis by mr charles mcveedy why is the deputy premier more worried about the brand of her party than the lives of queer and trans people constantly attacked by the hateful and bigoted charles mcveedy thank you mr colleges and universities thank you mr speaker and very happy to rise and address this question we believe in the rule of law i've indicated that we believe in the charter perhaps my background mr speaker as a lawyer myself dealt with issues around the charter all the time section seven of the charter which guarantees fundamental freedoms to us all section 15 guaranteeing equality under the law guaranteeing equality for all order want to ensure that we have fair processes fair processes for all fair processes that ensure that any individual any organization when applying for any kind of a license or a designation has a fair and transparent process it is not for any one individual order how a single individual will be weighed in these processes what's important is that we have a fair process we have that mr speaker we have taken a ministerial consent process we've taken a legislative process we've married those two processes together we've done it before we did it with al-goma university did we did with okadu and we've done it with three institutions in this legislation right now mr speaker order order order supplementary question again to the deputy premier hoping she'll answer this time speaker charles mcveedy claimed in 2010 that sex education would lead to queer adults preying on children he said quote they want to proselytize your children and mine our grandchildren and turn them into homosexuals end quote he suggested every queer person is a pedophile and he spewed all of that vile hate while taking for himself and his son nearly a million dollars from his college speaker if the deputy premier is really worried about the brand of her party she should be worried with the fact that charles mcveedy's college requires members to sign a form proving that they're homophobic and transphobic will the deputy premier vote against this legislation to give charles mcveedy an even bigger platform to spew his hatred and bigotry against queer and trans people yes or no thank you mr colleges and universities first one thank you again mr speaker again mr speaker i can respect the question i could respect where it comes from because we can all respect the importance of quality we can all respect the importance of ensuring that we have processes that are free of hate but processes mr speaker when any individual is applying for licenses or designation require procedural fairness they require that the rule of lobby adhere to they require a process that everybody can have an opportunity to have a part in state their beliefs state how they feel about it that gives us the opportunity to make good judicious decisions we are here mr speaker following a process we are following the most transparent order possibly is open debate in this house we are following an independent review process mr speaker response there is no other process order that is more fair and accountable than the process we are following mr speaker thank you very much next question the member for our land thank you very much mr speaker mr speaker about a month ago the premier said that his plan was working while the chief medical officer of health in Ottawa was saying that there was an impending health care crisis in the nation's capital a week later of course the premier put Toronto Ottawa and peel into an enhanced social and economic restrictions mr speaker last week the premier told ontarians that we would see new modeling and that modeling would show good news that cases and were going down that the curve was going down mr speaker and of course his medical team the next day showed us that in fact cases are going up how can ontarians trust what is said when every time the speaker when every time the premier speaks on the status of COVID-19 in Ontario he's almost immediately disputed by his own medical experts deputy premier and minister felt thank you well i i thank the member very much for the question and the reality is that COVID has taken many turns in the province of Ontario we've gone through wave one we're clearly in wave two our numbers are high for a period of time it looked as if the numbers were lowering somewhat in the Ottawa area in particular but the numbers have gone back up that is what happens if the premier spoke at the time and that's the way that it was but the numbers have gone back up and all we can ask of ontarians is to please continue following those important public health measures maintain physical distancing wear a mask if you can't do that make sure you follow complete hand hygiene stay home if you're feeling ill that is the the number one rule for dealing with COVID and make sure that you do everything that you can to follow that and that's that's how we truly get the numbers down and that's what we're asking all ontarians to do the supplementary question thank you mr speaker my supplementals also for the minister of health clear and concise information from the government is paramount during an emergency mr speaker in some cases the premier tells us he's taking his advice from medical experts in other times he takes his advice from elected MPPs and mayors one day he's telling us that cases are going down the next day his own medical experts are saying no cases are going up one day later mr speaker there doesn't seem to be any objective measure criteria or basis for some of the decisions the premier is making there's no strategy there's no thought and it seems that he's just whacking away at problems i'll do something over here today something over there tomorrow mr speaker so when will the government come clean with the people of ontario become transparent in in their decision-making how they're choosing winners and losers in this economy and stop taking a whack-a-mole approach to COVID-19 minister of health very much speaker and in fact there is a very comprehensive measured approach that we're taking to dealing with wave 2 of COVID-19 it's all part of the fall preparedness plan that has been available to all members of this house and members of the public for weeks now it has six pillars and we're following each one of those pillars we want to make sure that people follow the health measures we want to make sure that people can still have their procedures and surgeries done we're ready for an increase in COVID cases or in flu cases we're ready for all of that that is the the path that we're following and we are sticking with the plan because it is working we haven't had the the huge mass uptakes in COVID as we've witnessed around the world but our numbers are still higher than i think any of us would want to see and we're taking the public health approach that we need to take to deal with that the premier has been very clear from the beginning of this pandemic that he's going to take the advice of the medical experts dr williams the public health measures table and the many other people who are providing advice giving clinical advice thank you very much thank you the next question member for don valley norm thank you thank you mr thank you mr speaker my question is for p.s me speaker the COVID-19 pandemic has brought uncertainty to many industries across across the province in ontario the mining sector employs over 72 000 workers in mining sites as part of the mining supply chain and here in toronto the mining investment capital of the world can p.s made tell this house how our government is supporting the critical mining and minerals development sector during this difficult time thank you the parliamentary assistant and a member for peter burrow quarth thank you mr speaker and through you i'd like to thank the member from don valley north for that question in 2019 alone our mining industry produced more than 10 billion to interrupt the member it's inappropriate to direct a question to a parliamentary assistant um were you going to intend it to give it to a minister or to the minister you're not oh minister minister mining energy and mining so do we allow the question okay so you intended to put the question to the minister responsible for mining and the parliamentary assistant member for peter burrow quarth will reply on behalf of the government thank you mr speaker as i was saying in 2019 alone the mining industry produced more than 10 billion dollars worth of minerals almost a quarter of all that was produced in canada time and time again ontario's exploration and mining companies have led the way in corporate social responsibility and sustainability and this has never been more apparent than during covet 19 i want to thank the entire mining industry for its rapid and compassionate response to the pandemic for sharing our commitment in protecting the health and safety of everyone because of their commitment we were able to act quickly and decisively to designate the mining industry and the minerals response as an essential during covet 19 protecting the health and safety of those workers while protecting those important jobs will continue to be our priority supplementary question thank you mr speaker and thank you to ps mid for the answer speaker i also want to appreciate all of ontario's corporate championship who share our commitment to protect the health and safety of workers during this covet 19 pandemic can ps mid please elaborate on other initiatives initiatives our government is taking to support the mining and mineral sector at this time thank you thank you mr speaker ontario's continuing down the path of economic recovery by reducing administrative burdens on the industry the latest iteration of our red tape reduction bill the better for people smarter for business act if past will improve the administrative efficiency of the mining act the proposed changes will clarify and update the mining lands administrative system to fill gaps and create a better user experience for proponents these proposed changes will also ensure the minister can respond swiftly to future global or provincial crisis while our work is far from over i'm confident that ontario will continue to take our rightful place as a leading jurisdiction for global mining innovation and investment helping to fuel our economic recovery while supplying the world with critical minerals that'll power technology of tomorrow next question the member for nickle thank you thank you speaker my question is to the minister of health for flu shots from ontario it is really great we all understand that we have our part to do to get rid of this virus and to get a flu shot is a step in that direction unfortunately the government seems really ill prepare i have an email from caroline family health team sends to their patient on the waitlist for a few shot flu shot and i quote we placed an order for 1500 shot with public health this request has been declined supply was and continues to be the major impediment at this time unfortunately this is completely out of our control public health has not given any confirmation of future flu shot supply if any end of quote and this is the same thing all over speaker i agree with the minister that vaccines have always been delivered in batches but we knew when the next batch was coming and we knew how many doses we would get what's happening minister of health well thank you very much for the question in fact this is the uh we started this flu season wanting to have the largest flu campaign in ontario's history and it's happening i'm very very grateful to the people of ontario that have gone out to get their flu shots we ordered last year long before the pandemic ever was thought of we ordered 5.1 million doses which was uh 700,000 more than we'd ordered the year before we were then able to obtain another 350,000 doses with the assistance of the federal government 5.45 million doses i can tell you that as of today uh at far just at pharmacies over one million doses have already been given to people whereas this time last year it was 150,000 and we almost had to beg people to come in to get the flu vaccine over one million doses already so this is response very successful flu campaign and i'm very as i said very grateful that the people of ontario are coming forward to get the flu shot and the supplementary question caroline family health team is not the only one in my writing city of lake family health team wrote to the minister and i quote our family health team was notified by public health that flu shot would be quite limited this year and that pharmacies would be getting more than in previous year so we found the pharmacies for shopper drug martin henner their flu shot full tool says flu shot not available so we call the pharmacist she advice us that they have they do not have any guardian pharmacy in champsford they do not have any same thing with the high dose ida pharmacy in levac they do not have any and do not know when they will get more rexall is cancelling book flu shots appointment what is going on minister we both know that if access to flu vaccine is too difficult people will simply stop trying in a pillar of our pandemic response will collapse with the consequences we all fear i can think that ontario always did well in the past go so wrong well actually things are going right as i indicated a record number of ontarians have come forward to have the flu shot we also prioritized our most vulnerable population people in long-term care homes and retirement homes other places of congregate living we want to make sure that those people can be protected and people who are in hospitals as well but we've also as part of our fall plan set aside another 28 and a half million dollars in the event that we needed to purchase more flu shots and i can advise you that i have already been in contact with the federal minister of health minister patty hydro to to inquire about their flu reserve they do have a reserve of shots we are trying to procure some from that and we're also dealing with those global manufacturers directly to procure more supplies from places around the world so we are because people still want to get the flu shot we are working response to get those additional shots that people have indicated they want but this is the biggest flu campaign ontario has ever had in its history next question remember for lanark frontenac kingston thank you speaker speaker my question is to the minister of health there's a difference between theory and practice last week dr paul remote remote leotis eastern ontario medical officer of health complained to the media and i quote i'm getting too much criticism from doctors and experts in infectious diseases epidemiology immunology and intensive care real doctors those who treat patients disagree with this dangerous theoretical experiment you and your overpaid public health doctors are practicing tens of thousands of doctors in ontario and around the world are using science facts in their first-hand experience to challenge the lockdown narrative from public health minister you can delegate authority but in a democracy you cannot abdicate responsibility when will you acknowledge like all those doctors that your lockdown experiments are doing far more harm than they are good minister of health thank you speaker and thank you for the question but we have from the very beginning indicated that any decisions that are made with respect to covet nineteen are going to be based on science science and facts as you refer to it and that's what we're using clinical evidence what is going to respond to this epidemic how are we going to keep the people of ontario safe and that's what we've done every step along the way now there are many doctors out there there's other public health doctors not everyone is going to be of the same opinion however we have a very competent chief medical officer of health and dr. williams very competent people at public health ontario and around the public health measures table those are the people who provide us with recommendations based on the facts based on the science what's going to keep the people of an ontario safe and that's the advice that we've been taking response higher pandemic and the supplementary question again to the minister of health you stated that you're using clinical evidence but that's not quite true is it the you're using bureaucratic opinions please withdraw the parliamentary comment yeah place your question it's not just practicing doctors and specialists that see your approaches causing damage and injury ontario and manitoba's former public health officers dr. richard shabas and dr. joel ketner are opposed to these dangerous lockdowns as well real doctors who treat patients and specialists and oppose this as well but you don't listen you don't even listen to the caucus and other make your comments through the chair you only listen to dr. david williams make your comments through the chair when will you start to listen and stop the suffering i'll remind all members to make their comments through the chair minister of health to reply well i would invite the member through you speaker to consider what would have happened if we didn't do anything in ontario we could very well be in the same situation that europe is in right now hundreds and hundreds of thousands of cases with their emergency departments with their hospitals being overwhelmed we had to take some action we know these measures will work we're seeing the numbers starting to go down not to the level that any of us would like to see but they are maintaining at a plateau i would like to see them go laura as would you but we don't have i apologize to the minister of health member for lannark front neck Kingston will come to order minister of health can reply we are relying on the evidence of frontline doctors because there's dr. williams there's the public health measures table but there are many many doctors behind that that give them their response as well it's not just one or two doctors we are consulting with many doctors across the province thank you my question is for the premier last week canada's top public health doctor released a report on community covet outcomes outlining what we in york southwestern already know and have been speaking about for months now when it comes to getting hit with covet 19 your postal code matters as much as you are genetic code data shows that socially and economically disadvantaged groups with seniors women disabled people and immigrants and marginalized workers who deliver essential services bearing the prant of the bandamica will the premier finally recognize the regional inequities like those that exist in toronto northwest seriously and deliver the resources and support our community so desperately needs and has been asking for this government make your health require well i thank the member very much for the question you're absolutely right there are some regional areas where there are inequities where there are a number of people that aren't coming forward to be tested and we know that when we started taking testing by appointment at the assessment centers that many of these groups weren't coming forward so what we are doing is going to them so we have opened up some pop-up centers some mobile testing units some of the hospitals are doing a great job in reaching out the michael garen hospital is doing a great job unity and u h n they're already reaching out through some of the community partners that are already providing services they're the people that many recent people front to Ontario trust they go there for their other health services so this is a really important trusting relationship and that would they can go and be tested there response because when we have a vaccine that's also going to be important when we come forward with that to have those stress trusted relationships so that people will get the vaccine too when it's available the supplementary question member for humble river black creek my questions to the acting premier again toronto's northwest neighborhoods continue to be amongst the hardest hit in our province my neighborhood is one of them so is the premiers the reasons are socioeconomic they are structural and we need targeted solutions something that would help would be the establishment of community liaisons to fight COVID-19 on the ground to address language barriers by working with different communities in their own languages making sure the information that could save lives is heard and followed by everyone their strategies would be tailored to each neighborhood i raised this at the select committee for emergency management oversight and the solicitor general said this request was indeed reasonable acting premier our communities are counting on us will you commit to funding the establishment of community liaisons to help the neighborhoods would be hardest hit deputy premier well what i can definitely commit to is that we recognize the issues that exist in some neighborhoods we are providing that support we are making sure first of all that people can be tested and that when the vaccine comes forward they will be able to get the vaccine as well but i think the overall what we're trying to do and very similar to what you mentioned is making sure that we can wrap around people with their health care services that's why we undertook the transformation in the first place the creation of ontario health and the local ontario health teams that contain not just the local service health service providers but the social service providers as well so that they will know if they are dealing with a patient that has some health needs maybe they also have a food security problem or having a problem paying rent a lot of socioeconomic factors that we keep talking about wanting to bring into health that's what we're trying to do with response and that is going to be the greatest help to these communities in need the next question to member for london or Ottawa south thank you very much mr. speaker and my question is for the minister of colleges and universities speaker charles mcd has demonstrated over the years his islamophobic homophobic and transphobic views these hateful views they're really well documented so i'm not i'm not going to recite them now because we all know them and yet under the covid-19 economic recovery act this government is returning favors and about to give mr. McVeedy a special deal a very special deal in indeed supporting mr. McVeedy's special deal is an endorsement member knows full well he can't impute motive ask him to be very careful with his language thank you speaker i will draw supporting mr. McVeedy's hateful views i see is a direct endorsement and it says a lot about our premier and his priorities during this pandemic so speaker to you to the minister question can the minister explain why he thinks that mr. McVeedy's hateful views have any place in any Ontario school minister of colleges and universities thank you mr. speaker the member opposite knows very well that our premier and our entire government's number one priority throughout this entire pandemic has been the health and safety of every single individual in this province and we've done an exceptional job combating this pandemic and i'm personally very proud of the work of our premier of our minister of health and all of our caucus and all of our colleagues in cabinet and the work we have done during this pandemic and you know what mr. speaker i believe the people of ontario also feel the same way about that we've done an exceptional job and that is just an inappropriate reference from the member opposite with respect to the issue that has been canvassed here today and over the last few weeks this has absolutely everything to do with fairness and transparency accountability the rule of law making sure that when any individual any organization makes an application for some type of a license or designation that there's a fair and transparent process mr. speaker and that's what we have here thank you supplementary question so speaker it's not about process not at all it's not about process the whole thing just thinks we all know it i can see it when i look over there you know too you all know and the deputy premier said as much last week in a scrum you know so quite frankly i'm surprised that the government's hell bent i'm moving forward with this and given the financial revelations of last week it kind of looks like it might be a bit of a piggy bank so i don't understand why you are so fixed on moving forward with this case counter rising outbreaks serious outbreaks are happening in long-term care testing and tracing order not where it needs to be so i go inside come toward this is such a priority for this government there are so many other things we should be talking about right now quite frankly i'm in order speaker order so i have to ask this question question well the minister of colleges and university do the right thing and tell the premier to withdraw schedule to a bill 213 thank you again i'll ask all members to make the comments to the chair minister of colleges and universities to reply thank you mr speaker under that former government mr speaker that member who is a part of the former government a process to obtain this type of a designation would take over three years in some cases last year in our fall red tape bill last october we introduced a simplified ministerial consent process where applications went directly to p-cab an independent reviewing agency we added in that legislation additionally we put in legislation order had university in al-goma university to bring it forward into legislation along with that independent reviewed p-cab process now in this particular legislation we have here three institutions are coming forward in the exact same process a transparent open accountable process one font is being followed to a t mr speaker one that we have followed in the past mr speaker and one that ensures people have fairness thank you that concludes question period how stands in recess until 1 p.m