It was auditor general day all around, including during question period.
Bonnie Lysyk tabled her 2021 annual report prior to question period, serving as fodder for the opposition, which grilled the government on a variety of topics.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath started off with business supports during the pandemic, which Lysyk found were <a href="https://www.qpbriefing.com/2021/12/01/ag-report-2021-hundreds-of-millions-inefficiently-spent-in-covid-19-economic-support/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inefficiently spent</a>.
"The AG’s report says that small businesses that needed support didn’t get it, and many others got support that shouldn’t have, or that didn’t need it," said Horwath, going on to note a conflict-of-interest concern raised in the report — that the CEO of a company who was given a $2.5-million contract was a member of COVID-19 vaccine task force.
"Can the premier explain how his buddy, a CEO on the minister’s own vaccine task force, got $2.5 million in contracts when struggling small businesses were turned away?" she asked.
Government House Leader Paul Calandra didn't address the conflict-of-interest issue, but instead touted the Small Business Support Grants, saying they "were instrumental" in supporting many small and medium-sized businesses.
"We know that there is still a lot more work to do for them, but the small business grants, on top of the other supports that were put in place with respect to property taxes, with respect to education taxes and with respect to hydro relief, were all part of helping our small and medium job creators get through the pandemic," he said.
Horwath also raised the issue of Facedrive, a company that was<a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-facedrive-bought-covid-19-devices-from-china-as-ontario-government/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> in the news recently</a> for getting government funding to develop and manufacture wearable physical-distancing devices, but ended up buying more than 200,000 of them from China.
Calandra repeated some of his earlier comments.
Surgeries 
Lysyk also reviewed outpatient surgeries, saying people are waiting too long for many procedures and that the wait has gotten worse during the pandemic.
Horwath noted that the wait time for gallbladder surgery, for example, has gone up by 57 per cent (in 2020-21 compared to the previous year."
"Why is this premier leaving patients waiting in agony for the surgeries that they need while chasing nurses and other health care professionals out of Ontario with his low-wage policy?" she asked.
Calandra said health care and ending hallway medicine have been priorities for the government, defending his statement by noting a shift to Ontario Health teams, funding for new long-term care beds and hospitals and the hiring of more nurses and personal support workers.
Electric vehicles
Moving away from the auditor general's report, Liberal MPP Lucille Collard turned to the government's announcement this morning about its plans to install electric vehicle (EV) chargers to all ONroute locations by the end of next year.
"Let me remind this house that one of the first things this government did when it came to office in 2018 was to rip up the charging stations that had already been installed," Collard said, noting that while the former Liberal government had planned to build 500 stations, just 350 were completed "before this government stopped their development."
"Will the premier explain why this government ripped up EV charging stations in 2018 only to partially replace them three and a half years later?" Collard said.
Minister of Energy Todd Smith created some commotion with his response that tried to take a dig at the Liberals.
"The simple answer to her question is, because the equipment that the Liberals installed was substandard. It wasn’t working, Mr. Speaker. Moreover, because it was substandard, nobody was using it," Smith said, adding that Metrolinx made the decision to remove chargers from <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/metrolinx-ev-charging-stations-1.4972890" target="_blank" rel="noopener">GO stations</a>.
He said "people are actually going to want to use" the new chargers and that the aim is to encourage people to buy electric vehicles, with Collard highlighting that it was the Ford government that decided to scrap EV subsidies.
Minimum wage
The NDP once again attempted to highlight its promise of a $20-per-hour minimum wage by 2026 if elected and get the government to adopt the proposal.
"After the 2018 election, this government acted urgently on their bizarre priorities of freezing Ontario’s minimum wage at $14 an hour and removing two paid sick days that were guaranteed to all employees," said NDP MPP Chris Glover. "Today, the living wage in Ontario is $17 an hour and inflation is at a shocking 4.1 per cent — the highest in 30 years."
He asked whether the government would amend its fall economic statement legislation "and provide desperately needed relief for workers by committing to a $20 minimum wage."
Calandra fielded this question too, criticizing the opposition for its differing minimum wage calls.
"Two weeks ago we were at $15. Yesterday it was $17 and today we’re at $20. I look forward to tomorrow’s announcement from the NDP of what their new policy will be — or maybe this afternoon, who knows?" said Calandra, who then went on to accuse the Liberals and the NDP, the latter of which hasn't been in power recently, of causing a loss of jobs in the province.
"I think that sounds like a 'no' to the workers of Ontario," responded Glover.

Your question period briefing: ‘That sounds like a no’

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