It’s a pleasure to rise in the House today, as it always is, to speak to any matter that affects the province of Ontario and its people, and, of course, the people in my riding of Sarnia–Lambton. I want to, first of all, commend the Solicitor General and the Attorney General for their remarks in tendering this legislation, and of course my fellow PA from Etobicoke–Lakeshore for her great remarks. As we all know in this House, she’s a great advocate for replacing the PAWS Act. I know she’s got a great affinity for animals. She mentioned Bruce and—

With that, as the Solicitor General and the Attorney General noted, the primary driver of this proposed Strengthening Safety and Modernizing Justice Act, 2023, is to introduce legislative amendments necessary to bring the CSPA into force.

I’d like to go through the proposed amendments to other community safety legislation that would modernize and improve the effectiveness of those statutes, specifically, the amendments to the Coroners Act and also the Fire Protection and Prevention Act. Under the Coroners Act, coroners and pathologists already have the authority, under regulation 180 of the Coroners Act, to retain and store tissue samples and bodily fluids obtained during a post-mortem examination undertaken by a pathologist or other examinations undertaken by coroners. The act did not contemplate the retention of DNA materials for purposes beyond the needs of a coroner’s investigation when the act was first written. Nor did it anticipate medical advances that could lead to the need to retain tissue samples for other purposes, like DNA testing, in the future.

The proposed amendment would enable those regulations to govern the collection, retention, storage and disposal of the tissue samples by the office of the coroner and the Ontario Forensic Pathology Service for purposes that may go beyond the immediate needs of the coroner’s investigation.

The Fire Protection and Prevention Act, otherwise known as the FPPA, creates the framework for fire protection in Ontario, including municipal responsibilities for fire protection services and cost recovery of the same. Currently, there are gaps that exist within the FPPA’s cost recovery provisions related to immediate authorizations to close. In addition, language in the current FPPA allows for only one deputy fire marshal, when demands of the Office of the Fire Marshal call for multiple deputies. I think the Solicitor General touched on that in his remarks.

The proposed amendments support municipal and provincial cost recovery, allow for the appointment of multiple deputy fire marshals and support efficient tribunal operations.

Specifically, a proposed amendment would close gaps in the FPPA’s cost-recovery provisions by allowing municipalities and the province to use property liens and the Provincial Land Tax Act, 2006, respectively, in order to recover costs in authorization to close cases.

The amendments would also allow the Fire Safety Commission, otherwise known as the FSC, to consider whether costs were associated with the immediate authorization to close related actions when considering appeals to orders to pay costs.

A second proposed amendment, if passed, would allow for more than one deputy fire marshal, so that the duties of the fire marshal can continue to be executed when the fire marshal and another deputy fire marshal are unavailable due to other work assignments.

In addition, a third proposed amendment would strengthen efficiencies at the FSC. The FSC, the Fire Safety Commission, is an independent, quasi-judicial agency that resolves disputes and conducts hearings regarding fire safety matters, including orders made by inspectors or the fire marshal for repairs, alterations or installations to a building, structure or premises. I’m going through that, actually, at this time, Madam Speaker. This brings to mind, we’ve had a number of dwelling—multiple dwelling fires in Sarnia–Lambton. I’ve got residents who are out of that residence because they were judged unsafe to return till there were repairs made. So this would speak to that directly.

The proposed amendment would strengthen efficiencies by extending the time to appeal an order beyond the current 30-day period due to exceptional circumstances, and eliminate the three-member quorum requirements so that appeals before the commission can be heard by a single member. With the number of appeals that are going on, it’s hard to get a quorum of three members, so this would be a really big improvement.

Madam Speaker, protecting animals in distress, leveraging emerging science to improve the death investigation system and improving the administrative essentials of fire safety and fire prevention are critical components of Ontario’s public safety framework.

Taken together, the proposed amendments in Bill 102 are the basis to drive forward modernization of community safety, make operational improvements where needed and continue to be flexible and responsive to the safety concerns of a broad range of stakeholders.

As the Solicitor General and our Attorney General alluded to earlier, Premier Ford and this government see the importance of this—we move safely on this and other matters under community safety.

I ask all of the honourable members to take all of this into consideration and support the proposed Strengthening Safety and Modernizing Justice Act, 2023.

With that, Madam Speaker, I’ll yield the floor.

I had a couple of other questions that I wanted to ask, but after listening to the member from Kitchener South–Hespeler, I have to ask, first of all, is there a judicial review in a case like that, where the crown could appeal the judgment of that judge? He obviously—I’m assuming it’s a “he;” I shouldn’t. That justice would be subject to—that they could review that on appeal? Are they still on the bench?

It’s a pleasure to be here this afternoon again.

I listened intently to the member from Oshawa. We’ve got a couple of things in common; she might not think so. But I also served as the critic in opposition to the Solicitor General. I think it was called public safety then. I had an opportunity to tour a number of institutions and of course meet with police officers.

Just about the experience level—I listened to CFRB earlier this morning. Former commissioner Chris Lewis was on there. He explained his thoughts on lowering the educational requirements. He thinks it won’t be an issue.

And I notice we have quotes here. I’m going to try to read it here with my bifocals. Chief Nishan Duraiappah, president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police—“We need support for police officers in Toronto and across this province.”

“Whether it’s the years of anti-police rhetoric, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic or the recent increase in violence against police officers, we are not getting the numbers we need.”

“We think that this is one way to get more recruits from the community. We support these changes in our recruiting office.”

I’d like the member to comment on that.