by all means necessary literally tastes like dad's cooking on sunday morning a hidden dumpling spot inside of an underground mall peaking duck boughs late night skewer carts in the full restaurant that we frequent the most out at any spot in new york city most of this all under nine dollars and i know you thought this series might have been over but you don't know just how deep this goes and maybe at first we didn't know either so let us know in the comments down below if we should keep going with this series hit that like button and china town cheap eats part 10 let's andrew we have been transported to taipei taiwan between the weather outside the decor in here this is the most classic taiwanese spot in china town feel like i'm in taiwan 20 years ago i didn't even go to taiwan 20 years ago david in front of us we have li the quintessential taiwanese cheap eats in china town everything here is five dollars or less even in 2020 you have these spicy wontons hong yo chao so we have tea marinated duck andrew taiwanese people really love to marinate meats in uh tea so they stuff the sticky rice into the holes of the lotus root come on man if you guys are looking for something different in china town that's not cantonese food this is it salted uh salt and pepper pork chop with the bujiao fun wow the uh five spice on it andrew this popcorn chicken this yensuji this is not your your your boba stop david david this is a dish that i do not look forward to trying this is some um intestine soup olaji and taiwanese oyster pancake this one's super valid does not have any of like um the sea flavor i'm personally not a big fan of like sometimes at the night market you're gonna get like very cheap oysters which i'm not saying they're bad or bad for you i'm just saying they're gonna have kind of a jeep flavor but here high quality taiwanese pork chop it is called taiwanese pork chop house and honestly this is a very juicy salty and peppery chinese pork chop it's very good man this is one of the best ones i had in in new york andrew you got the yensuji popcorn chicken i got the tea marinated duck this one i was first introduced to this at tea station in san gabry wow one of the many tea flavored taiwanese foods out there one of the things i really do miss about living in the 626 andrew are the tea flavored taiwanese meats finishing up here david we have the taiwanese sausage you have the taiwanese tea egg right here this is not a boba shop no disrespect to boba shops this is not a boba shop david i feel like i just walked into a 7-11 in the daan district in taipei city last but not least andrew we got to try some of the most traditional things here you got the taiwanese kimchi i got the lotus root with stuck sticky rice in the sweet syrup yo i'm not gonna straight up david i didn't know taiwanese had their own version of this lotus root is an interesting dish it's cold and it's very sweet it's almost like a dessert we got the intestine soup for you yo guys if you guys have watched channel long enough you know one of the few things i don't like to eat our intestines but uh since i want to show my respect to taiwan pork chop house and all the great and fond memories i've had in taipei and taijong and kaoshong it wasn't that bad they were able to cook out the funkiness of the intestines you can't travel right now it's 2021 who knows when we will be able to go again if you want to taste the taiwan i don't care if you like modern things old things come to taiwan pork chop house the only thing they're missing is terisa tang in the background all right you guys we're in front of food's old wade zone right now this is the deepest cut of the deepest cut spot we are like in an essentially an abandoned mall getting for $11 we are getting xie jiao guo tian and the food's old shaolong bao all right so you guys know man they close at seven even though yelp says eight they close at seven they said yelp she a tuola all right david we just got the food yo shaolong bao let's go check them out by all means necessary all right you guys we have secured it for seven dollars you get seven shaolong bao the guo tian the shui jiao which is the dumplings and the pot stickers were two dollars each my total was $11 here they give you some vinegar this is the very first time in my life i'm having the food's old shaolong bao hot it made them fresh honestly it tastes like a shanghai it tastes a little bit more like a tianjin baozi a gobi li baozi but this is good and you gotta try one guys one thing i know about fujianese food is that they really like to brace the meat so it's always really dark brown and i like even on the dumplings a lot of the meat is dark brown but that just means it's got flavor but you can also see the dark brown seep into the bun right here as you can see you're going to be able to see the brown juice in the background man this was pretty good i'm pretty glad i got the fujianese shaolong bao does it taste exactly like shanghai ni shaolong bao not really but is it worth getting yes so if you're thinking about coming to fujiou weijou at the bottom of this east broadway mall make sure you get there before 7 p.m because that's when they're closing up shop all right everybody i got the fried guo tia which is fried dumplings i had the steam dumplings the sui jiao and i had the fujiou shaolong bao for all for $11 at fujiou weijong guys it just opened at the bottom of the east broadway mall this is a super deep cut if you guys are looking to come here make sure you get there before 7 p.m because that's when they're closing up shop because you don't want to eat in the dark all right everybody hey this was a deep cut spot chinatown chi beats 10 chinatown chi beats part 10 guys you know that we're analyzing things that very few people you know dedicate their brain power to analyzing we're on bowery and hester right now in my opinion one of the most underrated food streets now most of these spots on the street are more designed for you know 20 30 40 a person however we are going to be showing you today how to order for $10 from places like new hong wang right here this is an amazing seafood restaurant i never personally been here they said it's super underrated a lot of people don't know about it funny bbq the original malatang you know twar spot until the spot across the street the straight from donbe opened up so that's a donbe twar spot this is a Sichuan twar spot plus we've got the chinese version of the louisiana boil you know we shot a video there's subcrab and you've got the windham hotel with some very interesting dishes like shrimp garlic fries real quick i gotta let you know that this episode of chinatown chi beats part 10 is sponsored by you scooters guys you scooters are the scooters that you see us riding around town we've said it on our instagram we've shown it in other youtube videos they are our favorite scooters to ride around the city they're a super lightweight and portable you can pick them up you can fold them up you can take them upstairs you can take them down the subway the acceleration is great they're super durable and the suspension will surprise you all i gotta say is to be honest that we could not get the series like chinatown chi beats done this quickly and go to this many spots if it wasn't for the scooters so if you guys are interested at all check out you scooters dot com and we actually have a code called fun bros that if you use it you will get 60 dollars off all right you guys we just ordered take out from the bowery beer garden they do have some interesting and uh asian inspired items the owners are asian but obviously they want to cater to a very diverse demographic here are cajun garlic shrimp fries yo you guys i know a lot of people might be skeptical of bar and grill food and uh even you know the way it looks is just kind of interesting not necessarily delicious i'm gonna go ahead and give this a four out of five okay for 12 they give you three of these tacos but they're really high quality um the chefs can't do these but they do tacos well here guys they give you two different types of sauces this is it right here make no mistake guys it's bar and grill food but it's elevated so i got 10 tofu skin skewers for like seven bucks this is a dombe chow kow specialty for about five dollars i got this grilled eggplant you could not get this cheaper almost if you made it yourself if you had to get all the garlic and get it all up in your eyes and everything this is really the best barbecue you can get in china time that you know mimics mainland china this is all the different uh chinese barbecue seasonings that are obviously influenced from around the world uh due to the silk road straight up guys this tofu is silky and it almost kind of feels like a cheese i'm gonna go ahead and give these a 4.75 out of five but you know what i'm just gonna go with the five i'm gonna give the dopey here at friendship ppq a five out of five if you want to order this dish you know for five dollars i believe they just call it kow chedza kow chedza i'm also gonna go ahead and give this the five out of five it's good it's cheap it's right here it's underrated hey guys not all cajun seafood spots are gonna look this clean this nice this kind of pretty you got the little lights up top you know sub crab is trying to do something what we looking at okay what i've just opened up are two extremely hot steaming plastic trays of food here i have the mince herbal noodle with an egg on top and then i have the logic which is your spicy diced chicken with chili obviously based off the Sichuan dish who i think is really cool about sub crab is that you can actually spend almost like a hundred dollars per person here if you're getting you know the king crab the snow crab obviously all the seafood you can drop 100 but you can also eat here for only like 12 10 dollars a person this noodle dish right here let me just break up the oh my gosh this right here was only nine dollars and then here your laji ji which is fresh piping hot and spicy fried chicken laji ji a lot of spots serve this dish but not all spots also specialize in seafood so for a spot that specializes in seafood i'm going to give this a 4.5 out of 5 this is solid made by the same chefs that are cooking the $100 seafood right so they put the same mastery into this dish this is a 13 herbs dish got 13 herbs and spices come on a real chef had to come up with that guys we're inside a funny BBQ right now i'm not gonna lie it does actually feel like china because they are serving all the dishes that you might actually eat in china but while your dinner here can get kind of pricey i'm gonna show you the cheapest eats and the best deals right here at funny BBQ and let me just start off with the number one best lunch special deal here at funny BBQ shout out to car from 12 pelk because he posted this on his instagram first and this is the beef malatang this is only during lunchtime seven dollars look how much food they give you look at all those noodles you get veggies you get your greens you got your bok choy you got your lotus root you have thinly sliced beef you have tofu you have thinly sliced potatoes here for those of you who don't know malatang is probably the top three most favorite dishes of the youth in china right now and it's super popular i mean they serve it at a lot of different spots and a lot of different people do different variations i'm about to show you a dry version of it but man this malatang you know coming from Sichuan this is all the rage right now people love this dish okay guys for a seven dollar lunch special malatang i'm going to go ahead and give this a four out of five it is super solid and i think it's a great segue for people who are trying to get more into mainland food in Sichuan food in general because i know like a lot of abc's maybe you didn't grow up eating this food because that's not your your mother's or father's region food the next killer deal here at funny BBQ is actually this dry pot okay you can call it a gan guo or maybe on the menu it might be gan huo guo but basically it's a dry pot um i have instant noodles i have three types of meat i have all the veggies that you need guys for this much food during lunchtime this is only eleven dollars okay dry hot pot gan guo i'm going in for a second bite already that's how you know it's legit i'm gonna give this a five out of five definitely get the dry pot i i prefer it over the malatang i think the soup can get a little bit spicy and plus it's really hot outside but this just tastes like instant noodles tossed with spice and all these other different ingredients i think you could easily share this between two hungry friends and you'd be good for lunch okay they also sent over some of their skewers now skewers here they are a little bit more expensive but they're super high quality they range anywhere from like you know two to four dollars each i've actually never had this one all right i'm gonna try this one grill crispy rice cake baby this is only something you're gonna see at a tiny spot okay you have a hot dog but it's cut in a way where it almost looks like a flower stem or like a rose stem funny hot dog at funny baby keep not bad it's like you're kind of good base pepper on there kind of tastes like the time when he's one so not bad this is a popular fujinese dessert here it's like an ice ball you've got like sticky rice on the top you have nice sliced watermelons you got a little bit of sweet syrup some peanuts i actually had this dish a long time ago but i don't get to eat it often i'm chilling now wow i needed that all right so if you guys are nostalgic at all and searching for a vibe like it is in china you can go to friendship bbq across the street or funny bbq across the street why do they have similar names i do not know but i can tell you this funny bbq is probably more for the youth it's gonna remind you more of like a middle class spot okay it's a little bit more lit a little bit more like a club and then friendship bbq is going to be like a slightly more expensive maybe higher quality uh more family sit-down spot so you got your choices here but there is mainland china in china town now all right you guys we're looking at the new hong wang lunch specials they're about 675 each the only thing that was nine dollars was this uh zing zing you know xiouyu which is a uh steamed soy sauce fish of course we've got some very classic Cantonese dishes that are very traditional this is a seafood centric spot new hong wang you've got the squash uh winter melon you've got the hamae which is this tiny shrimp right here kind of looks hilarious in a way um you might not think this has much flavor but it's actually a very subtle complex flavor multi-layered but all subtle this is just the black bean rock cod fillet with the diced uh you know string beans which is a little bit more thai pai dong which is like a uh a little bit more of a outside hot fired wok chill jiao influenced style of course here we've got the zin dan omelet which is a crepe egg all Cantonese people know that this is how we grow up eating our eggs whether it's in a sandwich or it's on anything else this is how we get down the crepe egg this is nine dollars um but this is an incredibly complex dish to get for nine dollars and to get the homemade flavor for nine bucks you've got the black bean pan fried fish fillet 675 that's the perfect lunch dish you've got the zin dan this is a crepe egg 650 oh my gosh five out of five a um out of um this was a banger i'm not gonna lie guy team guy team guy team guy means why um honestly it's like the eggs that mom and dad used to make but maybe better last but not least you've got the winter melon funcipo yo i'm not gonna lie ander of all the dishes this reminds me the most of dad's sunday morning cooking of like all the spots in china town new hong wong yo david i'm not gonna lie mom and dad actually cook like three out of four of these dishes new hong wong literally tastes like dad's cooking on sunday morning this is actually bugging me out and you say that you know taste smell brings you activate you know memory receptors i'm going back what what are we calling this new new fun one new home fun china town cheap eats part 10 no tourists locals only a lot of interesting concepts what i love about eldritch is that it is in china town but a lot of the businesses actually serve japanese or american food here you got flour shop you got zest rum and you got takumi you got simple these are all great lunch spots and by the way a cafe granddaddy right there so shout out to them but we're going to hit these businesses up we're going to show you what to get we're going to show you what's a good value eldritch street let's go all right i'm here at takumi i got some lunch specials they are fujinese owned but fujinese japanese spots man they're getting really good here i have the yellow tail and scallion roll boom here i actually have a snow crab roll and these two rolls together for the lunch special price is only 12 that's saving you about two to three dollars here here i actually have a teriyaki salmon combo and i got to say this slab of teriyaki salmon is actually really really big look at that wow they give you a lot of salmon for 14 dollars they even give you the the shall my which is you know more the japanese version but obviously it does look like the cantonese one here you have a little california roll salad and rice and by the way you know we wanted to keep this whole series under eight dollars or ten dollars but of course you know we kind of went to all the cheap spots already so we are expanding the price out to you know the 14-15 dollar range these are still really good deals and really good quality food but of course you know you might have that we're we're saying this is a nice lunch maybe maybe not every single day lunch but this is a nice lunch not dry tender flavorful the yellow tail scallion this is the roll that's going to give you a little bit more of that premium feel i gotta say for 12 bucks on eldridge street guys you can get decent japanese food and sushi here on eldridge street last thing i gotta try japanese shall my i'm usually not a big fan of this but let me see what i like soft it's more made out of fish cake um a little bit sweet not bad chinese-owned japanese spots i know maybe for many many years before they kind of got a bad rap because they were like oh it's not authentically japanese but i mean doing this type of food they're doing a good job they're learning they're getting better yo andre how are you enjoying your uh takumi lunch special i think eldridge is a low-key japanese street her cheap japanese food eldridge is a pretty good street all right while andrew's next door we are getting the lunch special here at zest ramen so i got the vegetarian tomato ramen here at zest um it is owned by tai chinese so they also have tai shrimp rolls they also have uh squid skewers so these are actually miniature squids in some sort of like spicy tai reduction so it's kind of a fusion between tai and japanese culture and of course we've got the japanese street snack from osaka the takoyaki balls all right you guys this was pretty cheap this along with a free shumai appetizer the japanese style one was 15 dollars these were all about five or six dollars each so um it could add up but also if you want to keep it like totally could be a cheapy i know that they hired a lot of japanese shelves to consult with the menu here tomato-based vegetarian ramen yo david i had to run over because i look so good i know that david is a huge fan of anything tomato-based when it comes to yun shan michin david loves the tomato-based one ramen he's got to try tomato egg everything he's a tomato guy this tomato-based one and maybe a little bit more chinese influence i do know some japanese spots have this as well though and um i actually highly highly recommend this i'm gonna go ahead and give this a four out of five and i noticed you were quick to uh abandon your teriyaki bento hey teriyaki salmon is solid but you know what you're getting this looks really new this is a tai shrimp roll and you can tell that the crust is kind of like uh kind of has that spindly uh flour on top uh i think it would could have been vermicelli noodles or something else what do you think about how they have a crispy what do you think about how they have a fusion of tai culture and japanese culture here takoyaki i actually think tai japanese fusion works pretty well all right andrew i'm gonna need you to compare the uh japanese renditions of the shumai from takumi with zest because i had a takumi okay let me try this here at zest but i'm not gonna lie they look exactly the same they might get them from the same spot i think they're both frozen listen guys i know that you know the japanese culture is a master at innovating but i gotta say that the chinese shumai are way better than japanese shumai it's not even close they hear look they got the little uh poke bowl street matcha waffles oatmeal cranberry cookies so it's gonna be tasty to china town people and non-china town people exactly that is exactly it's gonna be tasty and healthy all right and this is like a japanese style like exactly hey why do you think there's so much japanese food on elridge i believe the reason is because in this area the the residents the people who come here and dine in they most of them they like chinese but they like japanese but they like asian food so anything asian japanese chinese vietnamese tai like any type of asian right they're all doing really really great so andrew it is really interesting that elridge kind of has this like chinese japanese fusion zest ramen was trying to find that like inflection it's partially because this spot this street was not already overpopulated with chinese restaurants so that sort of like china town extended yeah it was kind of a low-key street so it's kind of forming so you have fujao uh you have shujao fujao dumpling right which is one of the cheapest best dumpling spots in the town but then you have all these japanese spots cool i got this ume yeah choya soda choya soda and they let you know it's zero percent alcohol oh y'all man let's try this spicy salmon right here yeah man kind of kind of hard to oh oh you gave me everything no you gave me everything spicy salmon poke i can see why they survived the poke wars what i love how it's really cold it's really chilled it's got a lot of flavor guys this was only 12 75 that is not even very expensive at all for poke i don't need poke all the time but if i do i'm gonna come to simple and you've got a japanese hamburger hamburger curry hamburger curry it's pretty good that meat tastes really clean i like that that must be really high quality ground beef once we expand it out of like 10 11 dollars and maybe even stretch it to 16 a lot of options opened up actually nothing that we've even ordered today is over $15 retail and listen guys it's 2021 if you want to have a you know a certain type of lunch you probably gotta at least drop 15 bucks all right last but not least we have this matcha cream waffle here it's really cool looking matcha crescent i've never had a croissant waffle before it's pretty good i give that a four out of five i'd love to see people transfer their masterful chef techniques from you know other provinces or other countries and then transfer them to to cooking things like japanese food listen i think if you want to cook something very traditional you go for it but if you don't go for it too because to be honest that's the great thing about being in america you're exposed to all these different things and america you know still is pretty open to non-traditional foods of course and sometimes those even sell better than the super traditional stuff you know for uh better for worse so go for all right so one of the best chinatown cheap eats is actually a late night eat it starts at five p.m and it's on grand street yes you know what i'm talking about i don't think we film this yet it is the chinese skewer cart on grand and christy so you know it's the cart because you can start to smell it when you're even like you know 20 30 feet away depending on where the wind is blowing all right it is ran by this really cool couple they're actually fujinese but they know how to make these kind of like northern style like shinjiang skewers so i'm about to order a few chicken legs chicken legs chicken legs chicken legs chicken legs we are looking at my jiucai and then jingzhengbu and those are my yang rouchuan okay in front of me here at the xiaocao truck on yelp it's called chinese pinchos i don't know why that is called that i have a chicken and a yang rouchuan so that's lamb right here i got chicken right here let's go to it was that the lamb that's yang rou okay four out of five much higher quality than you think not a lot of fat but i think some people might prefer that let's get in the chicken one very solid go with the yang rouchuan all right because the davis recommendation i'm going to just try the lamb because not that the chicken's bad you know it's probably just not as strong as the yang rouchuan they got better very solid kind of spicy not gonna lie quality is good here at the pork aka the jiu rou and i can actually see i do think it's pork belly because i can see the layers of fat and then the layers of meat right here not gonna lie there's a little bit of stickiness which is good the skin is really crispy the pieces of fat we're a little bit um a little bit harder but they started to melt in my mouth as i chewed them all right wrapping it up here at this cure cart on grand street here i have the jiu chai with bacon this is the green chai and this is actually one of my favorite skewers because who would have thought just grilled chives was going to be so good wow i highly recommend this one this one's called jing jeng gu and this is the inoki mushroom wrapped in bacon i'm not gonna lie i think this is another go-to get your veggies in get a little bit of bacon fat in it wraps it all together all right here we got the king oyster mushroom this is the da wang gu and these are you know the big huge mushrooms that you've seen you know they they're up to like 10 inches long a little salty i think all the sauce really stays on this one and absorbs it overall guys having this at grand street is very very rare because this is a cart that you're probably gonna mostly find in like flushing it's a very hard working couple i say check it out they're open late from like five to 12 a.m i think so check them out tip them treat them nice you know keep them safe obviously this area is relatively safe for the most part but you know hard working i've seen them out even when it was like kind of cold too so check out the skewer cart on grand street late night eats let's go all right you guys we're in front of four five six shanghai restaurant and as you could see andrew there's quite the commotion because new york times just said that this place has the best value shall we bow in manhattan it was written by a non-asian i believe so i'm not saying that they don't know well you know i think it's fair that we give our opinion because new york times has just said that these are the best cheap shall we bow in the entire city get eight shall we bow for eight dollars now that is not the cheapest but that's still pretty cheap the thin shavings of ginger right there let's get it i'm just gonna dunk it four or five six restaurant they are good they're good the skin is still a little thick for me it's actually kind of like a weird mix between a jiaozi you know like a shui jiao and a shall we bow to meat that's a big a meatball you're not wrong if you say it but definitely the meat is like a little bit too big and not refined enough but it does actually have a very good taste to it yeah these are not anything close so i would say in chinatown there are some shall we bow's that are going to give you more of a den tai fun feeling these are not it these are definitely a lot bigger a lot bulkier the meatballs larger it does kind of taste like more of a regular jiaozi like dumpling eight for eight dollars you can't go wrong it'll fill you up but i think for the western taste buds they like it more yeah yeah i would say for western people i could totally see why this gets the number one xlb shall we bow in chinatown but if you're looking for something more authentic it's probably not four five six but it's good all right for four five six i give this a four out of five though they're pretty good and we're in front of canton lounge right now and i actually had no idea they serve dishes that are like a hundred bucks here bro like it's in the middle of a street that's like you know pretty cheap goes to show you that amongst all these uh cheap foods you actually have restaurants and you've always had restaurants where you could easily drop a hundred dollars per person 24 bucks now you guys are thinking 24 that's way to uh not a cheap eat but if you split this between two people that's only 12 bucks a person for lunch so in front of us we have a 25 dollar peaking duck lunch this is legit peaking duck you have your buns you have your scallions you have your cucumber you have your tianmian jang or your hoisin depending on what kind of sauce they use oh my goodness so let's see how many buns that this actually makes i think legitimately it's enough food for two people peaking duck lunch 25 dollars at canton lounge very fancy i'm gonna say it it's worth it it's worth it if you want peaking duck for lunch split it between two people 25 dollars that's only about 12 50 per person and you get a peaking duck lunch now is this the top quality badong you know peaking duck that would usually retail for maybe like a hundred or 150 dollars no but it's quite good guess the job done gives you that vibe i like it i think i'm gonna come back to canton lounge and try some of the 40 50 dollar dishes okay so following our theme of finding really good lunch deals it kind of takes us out to east broadway a little outside of china town but still where a lot of chinese people live david we're outside of a new tai restaurant that is serving healthy tai lunch food called seven elephants it's i've got a cool fast casual concept i personally have really yet to see tai food served in this context let's go see what they got hello okay yeah so is this an authentic style of eating tai food yes it is but we just put it in the same box yeah okay so could we call this a tai bento um of course in tai life it's called kouken or bento all right so here's what i love about seven elephants i know that it kind of just looks like a regular kind of tai bento lunch spot but you have to understand the food has got a lot of flavor it's cooked all fresh i mean even the fact that they do kind of have like a cafeteria style food that's kind of like a chipotle and they also have their fresh food here i mean i just think that's just a style of tai food that's not that popular in america and you got this green curry with this little uh layer of oil on top i'm about to pour that on top of my beef like half of it boom look at that beautiful let it run down let me try this drunken noodle out i've never seen a drunken noodle so pepper everything here was $28 including tax i like it letting the jalapeno shine and he was saying everything about this dish is pretty authentic except for the change of chilies obviously they wouldn't use jalapenos in tai land they're probably using the red tai chilies let's try this beef right here with the curry good beef is tender simmering in the sauce you got their pad thai right here solid pad thai is a side dish no egg in it here you have your king oyster mushroom now what i think is cool about this dish is that they told me that this dish got more popular in tai land in the past like 10 15 years so it's somewhat recent so that's why a lot of tai american restaurants don't serve it because most tai american restaurants are opened up by people that probably have been here for more than 10 15 years a lot of people go to tai restaurants hoping for a lot of spice a lot of peppers you know something that's really spicy so this is actually on the sweeter side all that food i give that a solid 4.5 out of 5 i could eat that multiple times a week all the things they got you have your tai iced tea right here it's very sweet but very delicious your tai iced coffee i would say tai iced coffee is one of the most underrated tai items out there to be honest and they also actually have this dessert of this like roti green matcha that's like this sweet matcha syrup that you're dipping the roti in and i just didn't get it but you should definitely get it if you check out seven elephants over on east broadway so on to the next spot all right so when talking about vietnamese spots on grand street i got to give a shout out to foe grand we've actually eaten here so so many times and uh let me tell you what we like to get so this is the number one this has all the different beef in it right and this is only 925 now here's the cool thing about foe grand you can get rice noodles with it or you can actually special request and you can get thong mean aka egg noodles with your foe okay so now most people would not choose to do this i'm not going to say categorically it's better but definitely try it when you get the chance it really goes well with the boat call here egg noodles right i know for david david likes to use more of the sriracha and the hoisin for me i don't use sriracha at all i only use the garlic chili and the hoisin sauce right here so i do the half half mix i honestly do believe that this is the cheapest foe you can get in manhattan that is actually worth eating now there might be you know for the number one that has all the meats 925 you can get a foe that's 850 here very beefy the broth is good i've eaten here probably a hundred times in my life i'm not even gonna lie all right so one of the most underrated and unknown hidden gems on the menu is their bun me it's actually super good the bud the the baguette is really nice really fluffy now they do use romaine lettuce so i'm not gonna say that this is the most authentic bun me ever but it is delicious i do like it things do not have to be authentic for you to enjoy them one thing you got to know about foe grant is that their grilled meats here are very very solid they have lots of little barbecue and char flavor on them here's the chicken and i would say it really cuts the difference between maybe like a more western kind of grill spot in an asian grill spot but man i think that's a nicely done bun me for the convenience the price the quality and the reliability of foe grand it being on grand street i have to give foe grand a five out of five i come here at least twice a week david we come here twice a week at least once a week for sure up to three times a week let's go one of the things i like to do when i have some full broth left over and a bun me of course dip that baby see you at foe grand and they got a back to all right so our next vietnamese spot on grand street is nam sun now this is a spot that actually specializes a little bit more in different dishes so each spot has their specialty here they got the avocado smoothie you know but each vietnamese spot is probably initially owned by chinese vietnamese people that speak both chile jiao cantonese prime mandarin and vietnamese let's go what you're looking at right now here is the number one this is the classic foe but it has brown noodles which makes nam sun different the fact that they even offer this and that means that they're trying to also reach a different audience who might not want the rice noodles here we got the bun kun which is the vietnamese chung fun so they are like really thin rice rolls with meat inside the way they make them is a little bit different than uh chung fun but they pretty much have it on a white pan they steam it they roll it all right so here we got the nam sun special combo plate this is actually 32 so obviously it's not a cheap eat but if you share it between like four people that is definitely a cheap eat here you have your daikons and carrots you have your grilled pork right here you have your beef that's wrapped in beetle leaf um and then you have your shrimp over sugar cane right here this is a classic dish all right i'm gonna try the bun kun this is a dish that we really got into uh in LA at a spot from a spot called Bummy Chakali a super budget vietnamese spot shout out to that in the 626 i know a lot of food vietnamese people that always kind of talk down on the chinese vietnamese owned viet spots because they say that the food does not hit hard enough it doesn't taste as authentic i don't know to me it still tastes pretty good but okay i'm about to put the banh hoi wrap it over the bolat lat get a little veggie isn't about to wrap it up here at nam sun guys listen the experience here is a little higher end than full grand i love full grand and i do think the price point is a little bit cheaper at full grand but you're not gonna get this experience all right you guys we are in a very busy hectic but very fun energy canal street right now we're for the chikarashi which is sort of like a premium poke spot but this is only like 15 bucks david what we're looking at is a search one crisp salmon rice bowl so you have the raw salmon it's doused in the sauce it's going to be a little bit spicy laying over a bed of rice with a lots of buddhikaki it's cool to see like Sichuan flavors be implemented into poke yeah so david we got extra fish this one cost us $15 but you can get this for what 12 $13 the dole whip was a 450 this is watermelon dole whip wow everybody loves dole whip but now they got the watermelon one you know for me i'm more of a watermelon guy over pineapple guy so here we go chikarashi cheap chinatown eats pya 10 it's not bad i like it but you know it's cool okay so right off the bat the salmon got that little Sichuan buzz going on right now it definitely hit my taste buds right away i wish there was a little bit more of like the salad elements it's really not a bad bowl if i was you and you're into salmon i would definitely try for $13 and you know shout out to this dole whip it does kind of taste like a jolly rancher but in a good way kind of a dick thing yeah so are you going to up the score four out of five all right you guys we're in front of alimama desserts right now you've got mochi donuts you've got all types of rose petals uh lychee rose tea you have your cold brew royal milk tea right here guys everything here is made to look aesthetic and so you got a uh vietnamese cafe suda cream puff no no it's a brown sugar bubble oh this is a brown sugar boba cream puff i'm sorry okay so that's this one right here that i'm busting open very much you know i mean it looks like a boba on the inside it looks good mochi donut with the gold on top you know what it is now mochi donuts um originally came from japan uh japan got them from the west innovated on it like as many things in japan are so check it out for me the chocolate flavor is actually really high quality i like that a lot donut is a bit chewy for me cream puffs with boba inside it's almost like the cream has laid boba eggs inside of the cream puff mm yeah you're right it's chewy you guys if you are at all into that instagram west coast asian ig girl lifestyle come to alimama no doubt let me just tell you that they are playing all of my top favorite edm remixes refreshing drinks though dave you have many boba in there yeah they have um i could tell there's a lot of that uh pee vine that gives it that blue color flavor which is a very difficult flavor to describe it's almost like a you said pee vine like it's down mule i think it's pee pee flower oh yeah yeah yeah pee that's what i'm saying chocolate my man is going to be able to put coconut and chocolate on the guidance i okay this is a hong kong favorite egg waffle it does come from hong kong just so you guys know but this is another cheap eat this is only going to be five dollars toy saw man making guidance i over on bowery and pal let's get it all right let's be real everybody i cannot wait to eat this because we all know the egg waffles uh they're only good for like 10 minutes so they poked a little hole on top to let the steam out so it doesn't get soft let me pop this open wow wow chocolate coconut condensed milk this looks super delicious all right i'm about to dive into this there we go that bite has everything in it do you see that do you see that mmm not bad five dollars one of the best parts of doing this series is showing the faces and personalities behind these small businesses it's easy to walk in and grab food and not even exchange maybe a smile but if you try i think they'll try to i'm just glad to see a lot of these people weather the storm so let us know in the comments down below what your favorite spot is and if we should continue this series thank you for watching peace


Being no further introductions, it's now time for question period. The Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opinion. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Deputy Premier. Families in Ontario can't afford their hydro bills, and nearly 567,000 households are in arrears. When is enough, Mr. Speaker? How many people will have to not be able to afford their hydro bills before the Premier and this government will take real action? 600,000? 700,000? 900,000? Will it take a million on tarans and arrears before this government will finally act? I want to know from the Deputy Premier, what is the number before you realize your hydro policy is a complete mess? Mr. Speaker, please. Thank you. If the choice is to continue what you were doing yesterday, I'll continue to do what I did. We'll move to warnings if I need to. That's my last warning about warnings. Deputy Premier. Well, thank you, Speaker. And as we've discussed before, we have a very clear plan to make sure we have reliable energy being delivered in this province, Speaker. We inherited an electricity system that had been badly neglected by the previous government. We've made historic investments so that we can ensure that even on the very hottest day or the coldest winter day, Speaker, people have access to reliable energy. We've also eliminated smog days. We haven't had a smog day, Speaker, for the very reason that we've eliminated more expensive energy, but we've saved $4 billion in health costs because people are not going to the emergency department with asthma. So there's a cost and there is a benefit, Speaker, and we have made a choice. Thank you. I'll be moving to warnings. Supplement, your question. Mr. Speaker, back to the Deputy Premier. Since I can't get an answer about the 567,000 Ontario families in arrears on the hydro bills, I'm going to try a different angle. Yesterday, the Premier said, I quote, we have just come through one of the hottest summers ever and we've had no blackouts. But on September 3rd, the Toronto Star headline read, power slowly restored at city place after blackout. In fact, in fact, Mr. Speaker, there has been not one, not two, not three, but four power outages in a span of two weeks. As odd as it is, I'd like to hear the question from your own side is not letting me do that. Please finish. So, Mr. Speaker, in fact, we've had four power outages in a span of two weeks. My question, Mr. Speaker, the Deputy Premier, was the Premier left in the dark about these blackouts? Deputy Premier. Well, Speaker, if you want to talk about being left in the dark, then, you know, I think there's somebody else in this legislature who has been left in the dark or at least claims to have been left in the dark on his position on the sex ed. These have been made. It's being kept in the dark or at least shall be claimed. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, back to the Deputy Premier. You know, when there's 567,000 Ontario families in arrears, they can't pay their hydro bills and this minister wants to take cheap partisan shots. You know? The members will come to order. New question, the leader of the opposition. Sorry. You have to complete the answer. Mr. Speaker, clearly the Liberals don't want to talk about hydro. I want them to think about Alex. He's had his hydro threatened to be cut off. He uses the help the government has to offer, but it's not enough. Alex has had an organ transplant. He knows he has to eat properly. But Global News says Alex has simply come down to eating or having his lights on. So my question is for the Deputy Premier. How can you turn the back on little guys like Alex? Why won't you help them? Deputy Premier. Well, Speaker, we're very proud of the investments that we've made to support people with low income on their electricity bills, including Speaker of the Ontario Electricity Support Program. I would urge members of the opposition to make sure their constituents know about this important program, Speaker. We've also recently announced we're removing the provincial portion of the HST on electricity bills. But, Speaker, we have a very clear plan. What's not so clear is what's happening across the way, Speaker, and this is real concern. So what we really want to know is what other promises have been made by the chief of staff, maybe by the leader of the opposition. Who knows, Speaker, whether they've promised developers that they'll repeal or maybe scrap the Greenbelt Act, Speaker. Who knows what promises have been made to developers on that front. Who knows if you've promised, secretly, behind closed doors, whether you've promised the business community that you'll strip away Labour, bargaining, rights, Speaker. Let's not talk. Two things. I'm going to use this as a moment to... Just by that last indicator that even when I'm standing, I mean, being ignored. So let's make sure that you are reminded I'm going to move to warnings as quickly as possible because this is getting unruly. And number two, government policy, please, when you're responding to answers. New question. Leader of the opposition. Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Deputy Premier. This week, the Liberals appointed David Hurley as their chief electoral strategist. And then this morning we learned that the Liberal government has given nearly $3 million in government contracts to Hurley and his company, the Gandalf Group. In fact, he was building the government at $420 an hour. Families are being forced to pay $420 a month for their hydro and David Hurley makes it in an hour. Why? Because he's a Liberal crony. Mr. Speaker, is this the way that the Liberal government and the Deputy Premier, who happens to be the Liberal campaign co-chair, is this the way of saying thank you and patting his salary for the next election? The opposition simply doesn't know what the process is for contracts such as this. All public opinion research conducted by the Government of Ontario is procured through a fair and transparent, competitive process. The member from Lannark Front and Athletics in Edmonton is warned. The member from Bruce Gray owned Sound is warned. And I'll get you on the next round. Mr. Speaker, every company must be a qualified vendor of record and compete for a project against no less than five competitors, Speaker. And the final decision about which vendor is best suited for a project is made by a committee of at least three nonpartisan public service, Speaker. So I think the leader of the opposition should familiarize himself with the process by which contracts such as this are confirmed, Speaker. Mr. Speaker, back to the Deputy Premier. Last time the Liberals got caught giving David Hurley taxpayer money, they claimed it was a fair, transparent, competitive process. But according to Brian Lilly, senior Liberals who know how cabinet office works said, I quote, they disputed the idea. Government House leaders warned. Very honest. Mr. Speaker, senior Liberals disputed the idea the process was completely nonpartisan and not subject to political direction from the Premier. So I imagine this time was no different. Mr. Speaker, when applying for government contracts is one of the questions, are you David Hurley, the Liberal campaign chair? Or do the Premier and the Deputy Premier intervene after the application process? Maybe you can elaborate on how you find ways through Liberal spin to give your campaign electoral strategies $420 an hour of taxpayer money. It's shameful. This is an important way for our government to gauge the effectiveness of their programs and what people are thinking on various issues, Speaker. And I must say that I think everyone recognizes that every government does that because it's a very valuable tool. Let me give you an example where we learned from public polling, Speaker. The Who Will You Help campaign has made a tremendous difference in attitudes in this province, Speaker. Before the campaign, 37% of Ontarians felt that they had an obligation to intervene when witnessing... Remember from Renfrew Nipissing, Pembroke has warned. Carry on, please. Speaker, before the campaign, 37% of Ontarians felt they had an obligation to intervene when they were a witness to sexual harassment. After the Who Will You Help campaign, that number became... Answer. We knew that because we did an Ipsos read poll, Speaker. And that is important information to test the impact of our... Thank you. Remember from Dufferin Caledon has warned. Final supplementary. Mr. Speaker, back to the Deputy Premier. Putting the Liberal spin aside, $3 million of taxpayer resources, $420 an hour to their chief Liberal electoral strategist. It's just not right. If the process was fair and transparent, as the Liberals say, they need to give us proof. After all, the taxpayers did pay for this polling and research, not the Liberal Party. And they have a right to know what it said. So my question, Mr. Speaker, is will the Liberals release the results for all the polling and research done by David Hurley and the Gandalf Group? It was paid for by the people, and the people should see this data. If you have nothing to hide, release it. The Minister of Economic Development and Growth has warned. Deputy Premier. Well, Speaker, I think it comes to when it comes to releasing information. We're actually hearing from someone who has released way more information than imaginable. Because he's released information supporting one position on sex. Then he released information supporting another. The member from Leeds-Grenville is warned. A reminder to the Minister, to the Deputy Premier. Policy. Carry on. Speaker, I think the Leader of the Opposition might want to check public accounts. Because I think if you looked at public accounts, what you would see is a number of research firms that have contracts with the provincial government. Foreign research, Ipsos-Reed, Strategic Council, ECOS, Enveronix, Harris-Desima. A number of firms compete. Different firms are successful, Speaker, with different bids. That's the way the process works. It's fair. It's transparent. It's nonpartisan. Thank you. New question of the Leader of the Third Party. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. The question is to the Acting Premier. Less than two weeks ago, the Premier of this province was offering or basically telling the people of Ontario that things were going to get a reset. Instead, the last two weeks have been one liberal PR exercise after another. Instead of a reset, people fear things are actually getting worse here in Ontario. The people of Ontario want an actual reset. One that ends the sale of hydro-1, Speaker. One that ends the cuts to hospitals. One that ends the kind of cuts that this government has been undertaking and actually starts to restore hope for the people of this province. When will this government start putting the wishes, the best interests of the people of this province ahead of the Liberal Party? Thank you. Mr. Speaker, the throne speech was an important announcement of initiatives that really are responding to the needs of the people of this province. 100,000 new childcare spaces to the needs of the people of this province, but also responds to the requests of the Third Party. See, here's the problem, Speaker. They are very good at opposing. Even when we do something they've been advocating for, they oppose it. So 100,000 new childcare spaces, Speaker, is an important initiative. Taking the HST off energy bills, the provincial portion of the HST, is something that the NDP had been advocating for and now they oppose it, Speaker. We have a plan, a clear plan. We're moving forward and it's working. Half a million people in Ontario are behind on their hydro bills. Last year, 60,000 people had their hydro cut off because they couldn't keep up with the bills. The Minister of Energy doesn't even know how many people have their hydro cut off this year so far. But it's only going to get worse, Speaker, as hydro-1 continues to be sold off by this Liberal government. This is a moment of truth for the government. This is a moment of truth for the Liberals. Will this government do the right thing and stop the privatisation of hydro-1 and start taking action to get those bills down? Thank you. To the Minister of Energy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I'd like to thank the Leader of the Third Party for the question. Is it important to recognise that the broadening of hydro-1 will continue to build infrastructure right across the province? It's been great for us in Northern Ontario. My colleague, the Minister of Transportation, announced $173 million to help finish Highway 69. We're doing great things, Mr. Speaker, with the broadening of the sale of hydro-1. When it comes to 60,000 people in this province having their electricity disconnected, Mr. Speaker, you don't want to see one person have to go through that. That's why we put forward so many programs. The LEAP program, for example, Mr. Speaker, helps individuals with emergency funds to help pay their bills. You know what, Mr. Speaker? We're doing everything we can to ensure that we keep that number down right now in the province. That's less than 1%. That number is less than 1%. And that's why we recognise it's difficult and acted with a three-point plan, Mr. Speaker. Thank you very much. Speaker, people take pride in our healthcare and education systems in this province, and they expect our government to make them a priority. While this government is focused on the sale of hydro-1 and the future of the Liberal Party, hospitals are run down and overcrowded, and kids are waiting hours and hours to get on a school bus that takes them to a crumbling school. These are the basics, Speaker. The basics, the fundamentals that any government should be able to deliver to the people of their province. The Liberals promised change, Speaker. Why are schools and hospitals still being robbed of the resources they need? Thank you, Mr. Speaker. When it comes to the broadening of the sale of hydro-1, every dollar realised from our current assets will be reinvested in Ontario's infrastructure. This sale will support the single largest infrastructure investment in Ontario's history. More than $160 billion over 12 years will also support, Mr. Speaker, 110,000 jobs a year. Our goals in broadening the ownership of hydro-1 have focused on an improved, more customer-focused company, and more infrastructure, Mr. Speaker. I know I was just up in northeastern Ontario a couple of weeks ago, Mr. Speaker. I announced $5.4 million in north bay. I announced over $2 million in capes casing, and we'll continue to see more of those investments in infrastructure as we continue to improve and build Ontario up. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I did remember saying this previously in a question period that I left some leeway last week because of the throne speech in question period for diversity, but right now I'm going to remind all members that your question, your supplementary question should be related to your initial question in each of the areas in which you speak. So I'm going to ask to make sure that we stay back on that. The throne speech itself during debate allows for that diversity, but not question period. So I'm going to remind the members to stay on track from their original question. New question, the leader of the third party. Thanks, Speaker. My question is for the Acting Premier. When young parents can't afford childcare, it makes it harder to build a good life. When childcare is unaffordable, it means parents can't pay down their credit card. They can't save for a house speaker. And if the car breaks down or someone needs to go to the dentist, it becomes a big problem. The Premier claims that she's creating 100,000 spaces for childcare, but young families who could barely afford childcare before the session started are still in the exact same predicament, Speaker. Why isn't this government making affordable, not-for-profit childcare a priority? Well, Speaker, I was here for the throne speech. And I know that the leader of the third party was here for the throne speech, too, where the Lieutenant Governor of this province announced in our throne speech 100,000 new childcare spaces, Speaker. When we do something that the NDP has advocated for in the past, they oppose it. So, Speaker, we are moving forward, starting in 2017, building 100,000 new licensed childcare spaces for the reasons that the leader of the third party has given. Speaker, the Liberal government might look at their throne speech as a chance to get headlines. I think it was actually an opportunity to make the big changes that people need to see. And that's the problem. The credibility of childcare is the huge issue here in Ontario, and this government completely ignored it. And it should be about the people of this province who are worried about their future and worried about the future of the next generation. Without some big changes, it's only going to get tougher for folks here in Ontario. And I need to know, and I think the people need to know, whether or not this government is ready to make those big changes that put the people at the front of the priority list. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, what could be bigger than a commitment to 100,000 new childcare from infant to four-year-olds, Mr. Speaker? That is going to double the meeting of the demand to 40% from 20% today. Our focus, Mr. Speaker, is ensuring that we provide access to good quality childcare spaces across this province, Mr. Speaker. Answer? Okay, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our government has led the way when it comes to investments in childcare. Since 2003, Mr. Speaker, we have doubled our funding. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, privatizing childcare and not addressing the unaffordability of it is something that conservatives would do. They're the types that campaign on that kind of stuff. They're the type that actually started the privatization of Hydro-1 in this province. But that's not what this government told people that they were all about. And cutting services like healthcare, education, that's what conservatives do, Speaker, whether it's in Ottawa or here in Ontario. It's not what the people wanted, but it's what they're getting. Things are getting tougher for families, and the government is not stepping up. Before the House came back, they said that they finally understood what people were facing. They said that they would change. So, Speaker, why has everything stayed the same? Thank you, Minister. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, since 2003, we have doubled the funding in the investments in childcare to almost $1 billion. Mr. Speaker, we have increased access to licensed childcare spaces by 87%. Mr. Speaker, as of September 1, we have ended fees for wait lists in this province. Mr. Speaker, we are committed to providing support to our children in this province, and that's evidenced by our investments and our commitment to 100,000 more childcare spaces over the next five years. We're committed. We're making those changes, Mr. Speaker, because we want to ensure that our earliest learners, Mr. Speaker, have what they need, and those investments are being made today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question this morning is for the Minister of Education. Yesterday, I was looking at the EQA results, and I've got to say they were rather disappointing, Mr. Speaker, disappointed that a former Education Minister under the so-called Education Premier could fail our students in Ontario so dramatically. Since the Liberal Math curriculum came into effect, Mr. Speaker, the numbers have steadily gone down. The test results have steadily gone down. Half of Ontario's grade six students failed to meet our provincial standard. Half failed to meet the provincial standard, and that's despite the fact that education funding is almost doubled while we're educating 70,000 fewer students than we were 20 years ago. We don't need another re-announcement. We need to start getting results, Mr. Speaker. This government is failing our students, Mr. Speaker. When will the government stop failing our students when it comes to math? Thank you. I think the member opposite for this question, because when it comes to Ontario's education, Mr. Speaker, we are well above the OECD average in our scores overall. So we're very proud of that fact. The EQAO results are shining a spotlight on an area that we need to improve, Mr. Speaker. And we are very well aware of that, and that is why, Mr. Speaker, our former Minister of Education, in fact, announced in the spring a commitment to a renewed math strategy, Mr. Speaker. $60 million so that we can provide the supports in our schools where we need it. Mr. Speaker, as of September, we are ensuring that we have dedicated math leads in schools. We're ensuring that there are 60 minutes of protected time in all elementary schools. That's 300 minutes of wait, Mr. Speaker. That's focused on math because we know that our young people need this support so that they can succeed in the future. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, our kids are failing at math in dramatic fashion. We have students graduating, Mr. Speaker, that can barely make change without the use of a calculator. That's completely unacceptable in Ontario. A report from the McKinsey Institute shows that the countries with the lowest youth unemployment rates also put the most emphasis on their math curriculum. We're not doing that here. It's not the student's fault that 50% of them aren't at grade level. It's not the teacher's fault. It's the curriculum that needs to be changed, Mr. Speaker. Students aren't even required to memorize their multiplication tables anymore. Simply throwing more money at the problem isn't going to make it go away. Now, I know that 50% is a much better result than the Premier's current approval ratings in Ontario, Mr. Speaker, but why is the government leaving half of our students behind when it comes to math? Mr. Speaker, I'm the Ottawa citizen, Mr. Speaker, because we have to listen to our educators, and here's what they say. When we are looking forward very much to the renewed math strategy, we know the ministry is providing mathematics supports to all schools, which is fantastic, and looking at particular schools that may need intensive supports. Getting central health with teaching skills will be useful. There are techniques that work very well with vulnerable learners, experiential learning, visual aids, and that will be useful for other students as well. Mr. Speaker, when it comes to our record on education, since 2003, when our graduation rates were 68%, Mr. Speaker, as of this year, they had 85.5%. Mr. Speaker, because we know that we want our young people to be prepared for the world that they will enter, and they have the supports to do so. Wow. Thank you. New question to the member from Hamilton East Tony Creek. Mr. Speaker, my question is to the finance minister. Yesterday, the minister announced that the government had signed a memorandum of understanding with bedrock industries in relation to the restructuring of U.S. Steel Canada. Over 20,000 people are waiting to see how this affects their jobs, their pensions, and their families, and their futures. We must ensure that equal treatment of workers and of pensioners are done in both plans, Speaker. From day one, they have sought the protection of jobs, the restoration of post-employment benefits, and the full funding of their pension plans. Can the minister promise the employees and retirees that this memorandum protects their retirement promises and will fully fund the pension plans? And can the minister promise that the current operations will be preserved at both plans in Hamilton and Nanticoke? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It's an important question that the member asks. It's something that we've been deliberating over for a number of years now since U.S. Steel went into CCAA. And we've taken steps to try to protect the pensioners, the salary workers, and protect those jobs. And the intent of the MOU is all about protecting jobs. It's all about protecting pensions and also protecting the environment while developing those lands that are so precious in Hamilton. And that is exactly what's being put forward, and that's why we've moved forward with signing the MOU with bedrock. It's the only approved bidder assigned by the court. And we have to take every step necessary to foster ways to improve with all stakeholders who are involved with this because it will be conditional upon everyone's agreement, including the union, including the employees, including the pensioners, including the other stakeholders. And that's exactly what we're doing to foster and facilitate this going forward, Mr. Speaker. And I appreciate the question for the member and his advocacy as well. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll remind the minister that this is a U.S. company. U.S. Steel's ownership was nothing but a disaster for the people of this province. Promise after promise was broken and not enforced by the federal government. Employment declined, facilities were idled, and eventually retirement benefits and municipal property taxes were suspended. It is critical that workers and pensioners have seats at this table and been involved in every aspect of negotiations. They cannot be left in the dark and only getting partial information. People need some hope in Hamilton and Nanocoat. In light of yesterday's news, the local steel workers and my local union have asked for a meeting with the minister of finance to find out and inform him of some of the negative parts of this. Will the minister commit to this meeting with the steel workers of Hamilton as soon as possible to ensure that the workers and pensioners are fully informed about the recent developments? And Mr. Speaker, we have actually been meeting and dealing with the members from the union, and we recognize how important it is to protect the OPEPS, protect the ongoing support, because it's been eliminated. And if it wasn't for the government of Ontario providing those support ongoing to continue with the urgent health care requirements, the claims that are coming forward for dental and other wide other aspects, we need to be there we have. It is a very complex situation, and this is only a first step in trying to facilitate our way through it. So we will continue to advise and work with all stakeholders to ensure that we get the best deal possible with the benefit of our pensioners and our employees and the people of Hamilton and Lake Erie, because we know how important it is to our economy and to Ontario and the whole sector. Is that a risk? We recognize that. We're doing everything we can, Mr. Speaker, to work together to try to ensure that we protect the interests of Ontario and the people of Ontario and the workers in Hamilton and Lake Erie. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Thank you Mr. Speaker. My question is for the minister of energy. Mr. Speaker, over the past few months I've heard concerns from my constituents in Davenport about their electricity bills, concerns I've raised here in the House. So I was very pleased when last Thursday the minister introduced a new bill, the Ontario Rebate for Electricity Consumers Act. The bill is part of a comprehensive package to reduce electricity rates for Ontario consumers. This government has spent the last 10 years making much needed investments in our electricity system to ensure it is clean, safe and reliable. These efforts included completely eliminating dirty coal as a generating source from our system. This remains the single largest climate change initiative in North America and today our electricity supply is 90% emissions free. The minister has introduced legislation as part of a package to build on these efforts by increasing affordability of electricity for all Ontarians. Mr. Speaker, through you to the minister, can you please tell this House what the impact of these renewed efforts will be for people across the province in my constituents in Davenport? Thank you Mr. Speaker and I'd like to thank the member for that question and for her tireless work for the people in her riding in Davenport. There are three elements to our plan to increase affordability for the Ontarians, four Ontarians, and the first is to permanently rebate the provincial portion of the HST of the bills of 5 million families, farms and small businesses right across the province. The average savings from this rebate will be about $130 per year. That's good. The second is to increase support to the most rural customers in order to help with higher distribution costs in these areas. Together with the first rebate, this will represent about $540 per year in savings for these families Mr. Speaker. And third Mr. Speaker is to expand access for industrial customers to the industrial conservation incentive. Very popular. 1,000 Ontario businesses will be newly eligible for this program which can reduce their bills by as much as one third Mr. Speaker. We're making sure that our system is clean, reliable and affordable. Thank you. To the Minister for those answers, I know that these programs will be a significant step for the families and businesses in Davenport and across Ontario. I understand the measures the Ministry is proposing will be in addition to existing efforts and programs to reduce costs for electricity bills. This government has taken considerable action to reduce costs at the system level including renegotiating the Green Energy Investment Agreement saving $3.7 billion and deferring the construction of new nuclear reactors at Darlington saving $15 billion. Just as important as these system-wide efforts are the targeted programs our government will offer families like those who live in Davenport. Mr. Speaker, through you to the Minister, would you inform the House on what pre-existing programs the Ministry offers to all Ontario families for their electricity bills? Thank you, Minister. Mr. Speaker, and it's important to mention that on top of what we're doing from the throne speech, we're actually moving forward on a number of our initiatives that we've had in place to design and in place to help Ontario families with their bills. The Ontario Electricity Support Program introduced this year provides targeted support to low-income households, Mr. Speaker. More than 135,000 Ontarians are already receiving this benefit. The Low-Income Energy Assistance Plan introduced in 2011 is another program designed to help those who need it most. It provides one-time grants of emergency assistance to customers temporarily unavailable or unable to make ends meet. And yet another program I know that's important to me and many Northern MPPs, the Northern Ontario Energy Credit. It provides assistance to low- to modern-income individuals and families living in Northern Ontario. Qualifying families receive up to $224 per year. Mr. Speaker, the goal of this government, the goal as the energy minister, I'm very proud to make sure that we have an affordable access for all of our electricity. New question? The member from Thorne Hill. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, to the Minister of Health, Sabrina Grinn is a Thorne Hill mother of four. Unfortunately, one of her sons requires medical equipment to stay alive, including an oxygen machine, feeding pump, oxygen monitor, and suction device. Due to the need for all this equipment, along with Ontario's increased hydro rates, her electricity bills have skyrocketed. Mr. Speaker, the Grinn family does not qualify for any assistance programs. Will the Minister of Health please explain his concerns of any on the effect of rising electricity costs for those who require medical equipment? Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I'm very pleased to be able to stand and rise to answer the question from the honourable members, specifically relating to the Ontario Energy Support Program. This program is specifically geared to individuals to provide more funding to individuals that have to plug in medical equipment. They can get up to $75 a month, Mr. Speaker, to ensure that when they have medical equipment that we recognize that there's increased costs and that they can utilize this. I would encourage the member to tell that family, to tell that individual to contact their local utility to make sure that they can find out all of the programs that are out there. There's even the Save On Energy Program. There are many, many programs, six of them to be exact, Mr. Speaker, that these families that they can apply for and on top of that, starting January 1st, we will make sure that we can get this legislation passed so they can get that 8% rebate. And it's unfortunate, Mr. Speaker, because it's for families like this that we ask for unanimous consent, but unfortunately, the opposition voted against it. Thank you. Supplementary. As I said in my initial question, the family did not qualify for any assistance from the Ministry of Health, from Power Stream, from any government program. We're seeing energy poverty in this province like never before. Families that are considered middle class and therefore ineligible for these subsidies, such as Sabrina's, are often struggling to provide the basic necessities. Mr. Speaker, due to these skyrocketing electricity rates as a result of this government's policies, Sabrina has been unable to buy new shoes for her two growing daughters. What advice does the Health Minister and perhaps the Minister of Energy have for the Grand Family? Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And once again, I think it's important to recognize that we as a government have heard that there are some families that are having difficulty out there with their electricity bills. And so that's why we acted. We acted with a three-point plan, Mr. Speaker. We put forward this rebate to ensure that they can see this on their bills directly every month. But unfortunately, as I keep saying over and over, Mr. Speaker, they actually voted against unanimous consent to work on this quickly because we have 70 local utilities, Mr. Speaker. That we have to work with. And we want to ensure that these families get access as quickly as possible. I once again encourage all MPPs to tell constituents that are having a hard time to utilize and work with their LDCs to make sure that they can get qualified for these programs and get that money right back in their pocket, Mr. Speaker. Because we've built a clean, reliable system that we all rely on and we're doing it to bring it to the next level to make it as affordable as possible. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My question for the Premier. My question is for the Premier. This year in Ontario, there will be the 30th anniversary of the French services in Ontario. The commissioner in his report last June proposed to review the law with 16 recommendations in his report. The government has not made his recommendation which has been tabled. It's time to do something about it. When will the French services act be reviewed? To the Minister of Francophone Affairs. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. First of all, I wish a very nice day to all Francophones, men and women, which will be celebrated on Sunday. And this will be celebrated tomorrow in Peace Park with the rays of the flag for Francophone, Ontario. I appreciate the question from the member from Nickel Belt and very proud of the government file 30 years ago. This law was enacted and then in 2007 there was a commissioner who proposed the position created and in 2016 it was declared independent. I've read all recommendations of the commissioner in his report. We are in the process of analyzing not only the review of the French services law but also the put into place the university. We are here since 400 years. 12 school boards 2 college community services as colleges as Francontarian are ready to take care of this university for us. It's time to have a plan to put in place. When are we going to have our Francophone University in Ontario? Again, I wish to say thanks to the member from Nickel Belt for all the work she does in this file. I wish to reiterate the commitment of the government of Mrs. Mathews and the premier. We are putting in place a planning committee and it would be an announcement made very shortly and again a good celebration for Francophone of Ontario men and women. The member from Berry. My question is for the minister of labour. There are many ways for my constituents to find out about their rights under the Employment Standards Act on the Ontario Health and Safety Act. I often direct community members to the online resources if they need specific assistance with an issue. I know that another tool that the ministry of labour uses to inform Ontarians of their rights under these acts is through proactive blitzes. Last session in the house the minister mentioned that over the summer his ministry would be taking part in several blitzes across the province. I'm very interested in knowing how the young worker blitz and the temporary foreign worker blitz ended. These workers are among the most vulnerable in our province and I think it is important that we continue to ensure that they are protected and well informed of their rights. Speaker through you to the minister is there a question on the summer blitz results that could be shared with the house? Thank you. Thank you speaker. I'd like to thank the member for that wonderful question because it really speaks to what we believe in the province of Ontario is that workers have the right to be treated freely by their employers they deserve to be paid for the work they do they deserve leaves pregnancy, personal emergency leaves and they need to be paid the minimum wage speaker. One of the best ways of doing that is you focus on the areas where you think you have the most concern. You go into the workplaces you can tuck the blitzes. What we did over the summer we did two blitzes speaker they focused on young workers and the other focused on temporary foreign workers the goal of these blitzes was to educate employers bring them into compliance we did 343 inspections over the summer speaker a significant number of employers we met benefited from the visits before our inspectors left and this is something we should all be proud of 98 to 100% of those employers were into compliance already so the blitzes are working we recovered $300,000 for young workers in this province. Speaker I want to thank the minister for that answer the minister mentions an important point sometimes employers and employees are unaware that they are either not following the law or that they aren't getting what they are entitled to the ministry of labor website is a great resort but blitzes are proactive having officers out across the province visiting businesses and educating them makes a big difference as the minister mentioned the voluntary compliance rates show that employers want to be doing the right thing but I know that there is still work to be done we need to make sure that all workers including the most vulnerable are protected and educated on their rights and entitlements. Speaker through you to the minister what can Ontarians expect in terms of proactive inspections and blitzes over the coming months? Thank you minister and thank you once again for the question never in the history of Ontario has a government proactively inspected workplaces but the very first government to do that I'll tell you it's working but we don't just do that we also inspect 3500 ordinary employment standards inspections we want to make sure that people are following the law that they understand the law but we're also focusing on those people who sometimes think that they operate outside of the law but the law doesn't apply to them the repeat violators we're sending a zero tolerance message that employers in this province deserve to be treated properly speaker in addition to that we're going to focus on some other areas we're going to be doing blitzes speakers in childcare centers we're doing a manufacturing blitz we're doing tow truck blitzes speaker small manufacturing blitz and the fitness center blitzes we're doing everything we possibly can to make sure employers know what their obligations are and to educate employees so that they know what their rights are speaker new question thank you very much for the minister of community safety and correctional services a year ago today everyone in this chamber was shocked and saddened by the news of the deaths of three women in and around my riding of rent for nipissing pemberg Anastasia Cusick Natalie Warmerden and Carl Culleton were brutally murdered allegedly by a man who had been released on parole I spoke to the then minister of community safety and correctional services who agreed with me we had to do much more to protect women from an abuser once that person had been released he also assured me that action would be taken I and the people of my riding have waited a year for that action we have run out of patience can the minister inform the house victims of violence and all the people of Ontario when your government will take this matter seriously and do what is necessary to protect women question being victimized by their abuser thank you very much speaker and thank the member for the question first of all speaker let me begin by saying that my thoughts are with the victims families friends and the will know and surrounding communities on the one year anniversary of this truly devastating event my most important priority is the safety and security of every Ontarian as the member knows we're now investing 208 million dollars each year for services that support and protect women from violence we've enhanced the tracking of offenders by improving the way domestic violence probation orders are uploaded to police information centers under the proceeds of crime frontline policing grant we've invested 1.2 million dollars in related domestic violence initiatives and just in fact speaker this past Tuesday we announced $58,000 in the members riding through the OPP Renfrew Detachment to support the Renfrew County situational hub project the project aims to bring together public agencies from the justice mental health and social services sectors to support and help protect individuals from violence in their communities supplementary thank you speaker back to the minister while those supports are appreciated my requests to all of you who have been involved in this specific because I couldn't wait for your government to act within weeks of those murders I introduced my private members bill which would have required all parolees to sign and accept the terms of their release those who are convicted of domestic or sexual violence and who are deemed a risk to their victims would be also would also be subject to electronic monitoring my bill introducing my bill to help victims of violence this afternoon my preference would be for the government to introduce introduce its own legislation in the absence of thus will you support my bill so that the victims of violence will have more protection than they currently have and send a clear message that this legislature places the highest priority on protecting victims of domestic or sexual violence and I would like to thank Mr. Speaker and again to the member I am certainly where the members private members bill it was bill 130 that did die on the order paper but I want to say to the member I'm certainly willing to work with him and I want to commend his advocacy on this particular issue and his his efforts to champion this particular issue what I will say as well speakers that probation by the offender and in addition we have policies in place for the supervision of high risk offenders including electronic supervision when imposed by the courts or the parole board we've implemented additional training for officers with a specific focus on domestic violence and sex offender supervision we've also focused offender programs and resources on medium high risk offenders and continue to do that I want to say to the member today in relation to the specific elements of his private members bill so that we can continue to improve these circumstances and protect women from domestic violence. Thank you speaker my question is to the acting premier back in June the ministry of government and consumer services announced that nine service Ontario offices across the province were under consideration for possible closure including providing vulgar the decision was put on whole pending further review however today we have yet to receive any updates from your ministry as to the result of these reassessments these offices are vital and provide an excellent service to which all Ontarians deserve equal access can you please provide us with the progress is in what is being made as far as the reevaluations I want to thank the minister of government and consumer services thank you Mr. Speaker I thank the member for his question and while at AMO I did meet with several municipality on that particular subject and I have to say Mr. Speaker that our government is extremely proud of the consumer service that our service Ontario location provides to Ontarians including access to a wide range of services such as drivers and vehicle registration land registration insurance of health cards and birth certificate yes indeed recently there was an announcement but there was also an announcement Mr. Speaker that we would be reviewing our decision and this was also part of my decision to meet with people at AMO so at this point I want to we are reviewing the decision and I hope to have some answer shortly thank you Mr. Speaker we have seen the government overturn its decisions in the past and availed attempt to provide short term satisfaction hence your June press release advising my office and the public indicating and I quote blind river may not end up being one of the officers clothes the emphasis on may not a service Ontario office is important to smaller communities public services are being cut and squeezed across Ontario people are really disappointed they didn't vote for these office closures or for the threat of having these offices closed either now they don't know what to expect from this government what assurances can your ministry offer that these closures won't be introduced today or at a later date again I say thank you to the member to raising and I understand how important those offices are as part of our access to government services we are reviewing that's why we are looking and that's why we share that decision with the member to let him know about the decision that we would be reviewing so Mr. Speaker as part of the transformation we are also looking at transformation of services people in Ontario are using other means such as online technology has been improving but at the same time I want to reiterate our commitment to provide the best access to government services as part of my commitment as the minister so I thank the member for his question and we are definitely following up thank you thank you thank you Mr. Speaker my question is for the minister of sport tourism last Friday the premier was in Ottawa to launch the 150th celebration of Canada and will be essential what will be in 2070 which will celebrate the 150th anniversary of Canada to while in promoting the future of our community provide us with a unique opportunity to build pride and optimism in our province inspire our youth and create strong economic social and cultural legacies for all Ontarians can the minister please tell the members of this house more about the exciting plans that were unveiled last week in Ottawa and how our government plans to support Ontario in celebrating Ontario 150 Mr. Mr. President thank you Mr. Speaker in particular Speaker for his advocacy on the Ottawa 2017 celebrations it was my pleasure to join him as well as the rest of our dedicated Ottawa caucus our premier Mayor Jim Watson community leaders to launch Ontario 150 I'm so excited about the energy we saw at the announcement speaker and look forward to building on this optimism as we reach out to communities across Ontario as part of this commitment we've launched a series of grant programs and they include our community capital program $25 million speaker to renovate repair and retrofit existing community and cultural infrastructure our partnership program $5 million to support new partnerships and collaborations with youth and about youth and to empower them and finally $7 million in community celebration funding I have every expectation that these programs will engage our youth celebrate our shared identity and I look forward to more information the supplementary speaker thank you very much thank you Mr. Speaker and thank you to the minister I would like to echo the minister's commenters regarding the success of the events of launching last week we want to celebrate Ontario 150 University in Ottawa the 150 University of Ontario is a very important thing to create communities 150 will also lay the groundwork for the next 150 years so we want all Ontarians to start thinking about what this milestone means to them I appreciate the impact of the granting programs the minister has referred to and know that they will have a province-wide impact in bringing Ontarians together and supporting our communities the minister also announced that there will be additional initiatives across Ontario in the year ahead can the minister please inform about what we can expect in the coming year thank you thank you Mr. Speaker thank you to the member of Ottawa south to share the highlights of Ontario 150 with all Ontarians and with this house they include a new logo an updated version of our unofficial anthem a place to stand celebrations in our nation's capital and in communities across Ontario and customise programming at many of our agencies and attractions in addition as a part of Ontario 150 Toronto will host the 2017 Invictus Games and international sporting events for wounded soldiers these games will really demonstrate the transformative power of sport and we look forward to sharing more in the coming months on what Ontarians can expect in 2017 key investments and initiatives which will show Ontario the world's enhanced tourism and welcome citizens from across our globe I look forward to working with our federal and communities partner speaker thank you for this thank you to the thank you to the deputy premier the ministry of transportation has been consistently among the top criticised agency in the Ontario government and for good reason Ontarians of all ages are inconvenienced at almost every interaction with our ministry with lost files and needless delays medical reviews are a glaring example when a doctor reports the driver is potentially unsafe they will suspend a license immediately when a doctor says the driver is okay however the ministry reserves the right to sit on the file for 30 business days speaker the hardworking Ontarians jobs and livelihoods at risk how can the government justify such an insensitive and bureaucratic action to the minister of infrastructure minister of infrastructure I thank the member for the question and for his initiative with his private members bill that's an issue that we've all dealt with in our constituency offices it's a common issue that we face the provincial government as you know the ministry of transportation puts a very very high priority on public safety and high priority on responding particularly to the senior citizens who have had to deal with these medical issues so we are currently meeting or exceeding our 30 day customer service standards processing 90% of cases within 10 days and so far in 2016 we are meeting our customer service standards 99.5% of the time that's a very very strong response to that particular concern that seniors may have our government's mandatory reporting for physicians and optometrists is an important way we are working to continue to make our driving safe for individuals using Ontario roads thank you constituents come to my office begging for help because they are both to lose their jobs due to this unjustifiable six week delay they have families to feed and bills to pay people in my region rely on driving work and basic living assessments providing service means being accountable transparent and effective it takes an hour to enforce positions advice to suspend a license why should it take 30 days to take his advice to reinstate it will the government support my motions afternoon for calling for five business day service guarantee for the reinstatement of a driver's license following a positive medical review Mr. Speaker again I want to thank the member for his interest in this particular issue it's of interest to all of us we deal with it in our constituency offices you know every week every month Mr. Speaker and on June 2nd 2015 our government passed bill 31 speaker which is making Ontario's roads even safer by expanding medical reporting requirements clarifying mandatory and discretionary reporting requirements in future regulations and setting out what specific driver information must be provided by mandatory reporting forms to mandatory medical reporting speaker the ministry of transportation applies consistent medical standards that are designed to balance road safety and mobility for Ontarians these standards are basic medical standards under the highway traffic act and detailed national medical standards established by the Canadian council of motor transport administrators CCMTA new question thank you Mr. Speaker my question is to the acting premier transit riders hope the throne speech would have a plan to improve transit service and lower fares they were let down Mr. Speaker not only is presto expensive there is a cost just to buy an empty card it makes it extremely difficult for social service agencies to give out transit passes especially as tokens and tickets are phased out the city of Ottawa in fact is threatening to take the province to court because presto is using its government enforced monopoly to demand higher commissions from Ottawa transit riders Ottawa riders currently pay 2% of their fare to presto presto wants tanned this outrageous cash grab transit ridership at harm low income people why is the government making low income people pay for the government's decision to force this costly fare payment system on to Ontarians Mr. Speaker I understand that the TTC is working closely with presto on implementation across the entire TTC system this includes making single fares available to users and developing a system that works best for those commuting in Toronto and while the TTC and presto work to iron out the details of this rollout speaker specific questions on this issue should be directed to the TTC the TTC is managing the system the TTC is working and the city of Toronto is working with the province to iron out the issues around presto but the responsibility for operations and the rest with the TTC thank you speaker thank you member from that report on a point of order I just couldn't let today pass by without recognizing the special day it is for a very special person here on this side of the house our very own MPP Arthur Potts from Beaches District has birthday today there are no deferred votes this house stands recess until 1pm this afternoon