MPP Andrea Hazell: Mr. Speaker, my question is to the Minister of Transportation. Once again, the Conservatives are only showing up when it’s convenient for them. Many of us on this side of the House have been advocating all-day, two-way Milton GO service for years, and the federal government offered to provide funding for this project three years ago. The minister’s predecessor declined that offer.
But it’s obvious that this government is only reversing course on that because of the upcoming by-election in Milton. It appears that the only way to get this government to invest in a riding is to have the PC MPP jump ship from their caucus—and don’t get me started on how much time the Premier has spent in Mississauga since December 3.
Speaker, can the minister explain to the people of Milton and Mississauga why they have had to wait this long for the government to move forward with all-day service on the Milton line?
Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria: In 15 years of the previous Liberal government, absolutely nothing got built in this province. This government undertook the largest investment in public transit under the leadership of this Premier, and guess what, Mr. Speaker? That Liberal member voted against every single one of those transit investments, every single time, whether that’s the Milton GO or whether that’s the Scarborough subway extension in her own riding, in her own area. She voted against that multiple times.
When the Associate Minister of Transportation introduced One Fare, those members over there voted against it. Mr. Speaker, every time we put more money into public transit, there’s one common theme: The Liberals do not vote in support of it and don’t support our investments that we’re making across the province. We’re seeing record population growth. Our government is getting it done, and we’re getting shovels in the ground, and we will take no lessons from the previous Liberal government that did nothing—
Interjections.
The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Stop the clock. Members will please take their seats.
Interjections.
The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The House will come to order.
Interjections.
The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Order.
Start the clock. Supplementary?
MPP Andrea Hazell: Mr. Speaker, I will say again, there’s an RCMP investigation on its way.
This government likes to boast about their investment in public transportation, meanwhile Ontarians don’t see any results. My constituents in Scarborough know that all too well. What they mention less is how many of those projects have been in place for years and have only been delayed under the Conservatives: GO train electrification—delayed indefinitely under the Conservatives; Hamilton LRT—cancelled by the Conservatives in 2019 before they did what they are best at and reversed course a year later; Eglinton Crosstown—they wouldn’t even give the people of Ontario an update on that one. There’s still no word on all-day, two-way GO to Kitchener from the government, and the Milton service is only happening because one of their MPPs wanted to escape from the Premier.
Mr. Speaker, will the minister clarify when they will actually deliver these projects that were started years ago?
Interjections.
The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Order.
The Minister of Transportation can reply.
Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria: Let’s take a look at the record of this government: shovels in the ground on projects like the Ontario Line; shovels on the Scarborough subway extension; the largest rail infrastructure investment in this entire world—that’s the leadership of this Premier. That’s the record of this government. We will stand on it every single day.
We’ve seen rapid population growth in this province—15 years of absolute neglect by the previous Liberal government has left us in this position of gridlock all over this province. But we’re building Ontario. We’ve introduced legislation to make sure we can speed up the process of building subways and transit.
Mr. Speaker, just look at Scarborough. That member, that government had 15 years to act for the people of Scarborough. They did absolutely nothing. It was this Premier and the members from Scarborough that committed to investing in Scarborough and building transit there. When we look at the Milton GO, when we look at GO rail, the previous Liberal government made no investments to make sure that we could have better transit for the people of Milton and Mississauga. Our government is delivering, and we will keep building—