I’m pleased to have the opportunity to lead off third reading of Bill 91, the Less Red Tape, Stronger Economy Act, 2023. Once again I’ll be sharing my time with my parliamentary assistant, the member from Niagara West.

Our government has made it a priority to continuously track down and remove unnecessary, redundant and outdated regulations that hold Ontario’s economy back. Since 2018, we have eliminated more than 16,000 individual compliance requirements for businesses, reducing our total regulatory burden by 6.5%. These changes have helped save businesses, not-for-profit organizations and the broader public sector nearly $700 million in annual regulatory compliance costs. That’s $700 million that can now be reinvested in Ontario’s economy.

This ongoing work is necessary because red tape causes frustration, expenses, needless delays and complications for everyone: individuals, businesses, non-profit organizations and for the broader public sector. We are proud of our progress but continue to look for ways to do more on a daily basis, because regulatory burdens are barriers to our productivity, to innovation and to our economic competitiveness and development. And they result, of course, in real cost.

Just look at Ontario’s track record during the last 15 years of the previous Liberal government, of course supported by the official opposition. Our province had the highest regulatory burden in the country. Companies were tangled in endless regulations. Debt, deficits and taxes went up. Hydro rates spiralled out of control. More than 300,000 manufacturing jobs packed up and left our great province.

When we formed government in 2018, we knew that there had to be a change, and we worked hard to make that happen. Under the leadership of our Premier and this government, we have brought forward 11 different red tape reduction and regulatory modernization packages that have helped get our province back on the right track. We are committed to continuing this important work while maintaining those important rules and regulations that are necessary to keep people safe and protect the environment.

But make no mistake, Speaker, reducing red tape is not just about counting the number of regulations and trying to reduce them; it is about the impact those changes are having on real people and businesses across our great province—changes like accelerating timelines for municipal approvals for broadband projects to support our goal of bringing high-speed Internet to every community in Ontario by 2025; changes like helping businesses embrace new technologies so they can improve safety standards for their workers and reduce their carbon emissions; and changes like saving people time and frustration when they access government programs, by offering more services online so people don’t have to wait in line.

This package is the result of continued collaboration across government with other partner ministries and extensive consultations with a range of stakeholders and people across the province to develop an unparalleled inventory of red tape reduction ideas. I’m proud to say that the proposed Less Red Tape, Stronger Economy Act is our government’s 10th burden-reduction bill and our largest one to date, with 37 different schedules. It sets out mea-sures to build a stronger economy, improve services and save Ontarians their most valuable resource, which is time. It’s an important part of our larger spring 2023 red tape reduction package, which contains additional regulatory amendments and policy changes that contribute to a common goal of reducing red tape. If passed, Bill 91 will streamline processes and modernize outdated practices across multiple areas of government and several sectors of Ontario’s economy.

Speaker, we find ourselves in uncertain economic times, and while Ontario has remained resilient, we cannot take anything for granted. That’s why it’s so important we continue our effort to streamline Ontario’s regulatory climate so we can make it easier to invest and do business in our province. How we work together to address regulatory burdens will affect us now and for generations to come.

A wide-reaching red tape reduction bill like this one simply isn’t possible without the assistance of our partner ministries across government, who best understand the issues that their sectors are facing and how we can implement solutions to solve them. Our goal with the burden-reduction initiative in our proposed bill is not to get rid of rules and regulations for the sake of doing so, but rather to ensure that we no longer rely on ones that are burdensome, inefficient, inflexible or outdated, and that the ones we do rely on are current, and enforced properly, predictably and consistently. With those principles in mind, Speaker, I would like to take another opportunity to speak to some of the items with the spring 2023 red tape reduction package and how they will make life better for people right across our great province.

I’d like to start with a change from the Ministry of Infrastructure, which is playing a leading role in our government’s plan to build Ontario, with transit, highways, hospitals, universities and broadband. As a government, we have committed to connecting every community across the province to high-speed Internet by the end of 2025, because high-speed Internet is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. Speaker, this is a goal we are getting closer and closer to meeting each day. Yet some Internet providers are still facing unnecessary delays in receiving required municipal permits and approvals when they go to build the broadband that our residents so desperately need. That’s why our bill is proposing amendments to the Building Broadband Faster Act, 2021, that would enable more efficient collection of utility infrastructure data to optimize routing for projects, to plan networks and to prevent delays in the permitting process between municipalities and Internet service providers. This will ensure that ISPs can plan, design and build a high-speed Internet project as quickly as possible, connecting more communities across Ontario to high-speed Internet faster.

But it’s not just broadband that our government is building. In the last two and a half years, the government has attracted billions of dollars in new manufacturing investments, including from global automakers and suppliers of batteries for electric vehicles. These are top-tier companies and employers who are looking for new opportunities for industrial facilities and mineral extraction in Ontario. It’s huge news for our economy, but these projects are going to require access to many critical minerals. We have a responsibility to ensure the miners who do the difficult work of supplying those critical minerals or other raw materials our province needs are kept as safe as possible.

That’s why, working with our colleagues at the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, we have amended various provisions in the mines and mining plants regulations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act to improve ventilation requirements in underground mines and lower exposure to harmful diesel exhaust to the most protective levels in North America. Amendments were also made to requirements for ventilation systems and equipment, management-of-change procedures, ground control, hoisting and explosives. These include allowing for new technologies, like track-mounted robots, to identify loose rocks, misfired explosives and other safety hazards, while keeping workers out of danger. It’s a great example of enhancing safety protections for workers while providing employers with more flexibility to meet these requirements—an ideal example of what reducing red tape can accomplish.

Speaker, working with the Ministry of Transportation, we’ve also brought forward new initiatives to help move people and goods safely and efficiently across the province. We’re proposing an amendment to the Highway Traffic Act that would prohibit drivers from overtaking snowplows working in a staggered formation across highway lanes. This is intended to help reduce motor vehicle collisions with snowplows on higher-speed, multi-lane highways, making the public safer and reducing the burden on emergency responders, health care services and the insurance sector, including our legal system.

We are also proposing to remove duplicative requirements for the towing and vehicle storage sector. To improve safety for people needing a tow and those working in the towing industry, the province is taking steps to implement a certification program that would require tow operators, tow truck drivers and vehicle storage operators to meet certain requirements to operate in Ontario. But as we roll this out province-wide, the ministry is also proposing amendments to the Municipal Act and City of Toronto Act that would ensure operators and drivers in the towing and vehicle storage industry are not required to pay multiple licensing and certification fees or adhere to different municipal requirements when the provincial certification program is in effect.

We are also proposing additional measures in our red tape reduction package to encourage and reinforce the need for pre-consultation with the Ministry of Transportation for any Planning Act submissions, such as official plans, development proposals or housing proposals that include work adjacent to provincial highways. Pre-consultation with MTO would help streamline and ensure timely comments, approvals and permits by ensuring proponents and municipalities are aware of MTO requirements before starting significant work. This could translate into tangible cost savings of thousands of dollars by avoiding project implementation delays and reduce the potential for frustration and dissatisfaction for proponents and municipalities.

Next, I’d like to share three modernization measures coming from the Ministry of Colleges and Universities. First, Bill 91 is proposing enhanced administrative monetary penalty collection for long-standing non-compliant private career colleges. Under the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005, administrative monetary penalties are levied against career colleges and other institutions that contravene the legislation. These rules, of course, help to address bad actors who prey on students, protect compliant institutions and uphold the integrity of the private career college sector. That’s why we’re proposing to strengthen collection of outstanding administrative monetary penalties for non-compliant career colleges by leveraging enhanced collection tools. This will ensure the accountability of training providers, protect students and promote a healthy and vibrant private training sector.

The Less Red Tape, Stronger Economy Act is also proposing to require legislative reviews of the Private Career Colleges Act every five years. When originally passed, the Private Career Colleges Act included a requirement for review seven years after its coming into force. This requirement was completed in 2013, and now there is no requirement in the legislation for any further review. By introducing regular reviews of the Private Career Colleges Act, Ontario is supporting career colleges in staying responsive to the needs of the economy and employers in preparing students for great careers and keeping Ontario open for business. Finally, we’re also proposing to update the name, to the Ontario career colleges act, to signal the importance of career colleges in preparing students for high-demand professions.

Speaker, working with the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, we have also proposed new legislation to implement the Convention of 23 November 2007 on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance, also known as the 2007 Hague Convention. The 2007 Hague Convention is an international treaty that applies to obtaining, changing and enforcing spousal and child support orders when parents or spouses live in different countries. If legislation is passed to implement the convention in the province and the government of Canada ratifies the convention, Ontario would be able to enforce support for Ontarians from 34 additional countries, for a total of 55 countries across four continents. This amendment would make Ontario one of the first provinces in Canada to implement the 2007 Hague Convention. If passed, current procedures would also be streamlined to provide Ontarians with access to faster, more efficient and easier processes to establish, vary and enforce support orders internationally, so that payments flow more quickly and reliably. This would help save time and reduce frustration for families in Ontario’s support orders system.

In our bill, we have also proposed amendments to the legislative framework for financial protection programs administered by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs. Financial protection programs, or FPPs, help protect farmers from financial risks, like a dealer defaulting on a payment of a farmer’s grain or livestock, or an elevator operator who doesn’t return grain to a farmer upon demand. They are currently governed under three separate acts: the Grains Act, the Livestock and Livestock Products Act and the Farm Products Payments Act. The legislative framework of having three separate acts has made it burdensome to administer. That’s why we’re proposing to replace them with one consolidated, updated and streamlined act, which would, if passed, support the current and future needs of the sector.

While we’re talking about farmers, Speaker, I’d also like to highlight a proposed regulatory amendment under the Milk Act, one that has come directly from ongoing conversations with the Ontario Dairy Council. As with other industries, Ontario’s dairy industry has changed over the last several decades and regulations have not kept pace with new technologies, practices and products. Some legacy requirements remain in regulation, resulting in unnecessary costs for dairy producers and processors. By modernizing the regulations under the Milk Act, we would help the burden and costs for dairy processors, while maintaining the high food safety standards that people have come to expect from Ontario’s agri-food sector.

Next, I would like to speak to a very important proposed amendment from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry. As part of a phased approach in creating a framework to regulate carbon storage in Ontario, the Less Red Tape, Stronger Economy Act is proposing amendments to the Oil, Gas and Salt Resources Act to accommodate innovative technologies. This regulatory framework would give Ontario the ability to establish protective checks and balances for testing and demonstration projects on private land, including for carbon storage. We’re talking about piloting technology that has the potential to store 30 years’ worth of carbon emissions. Carbon storage plays an important role in Ontario’s low-carbon hydrogen strategy, which sets out a vision for a low-carbon hydro economy in our province, one where we can develop a self-sustaining sector in the province, evolve our energy system, create local jobs and attract investments, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It’s a win-win for Ontario.

We are also proposing amendments to the Courts of Justice Act. Each year, the Office of the Children’s Lawyer’s financial position and records are reported in public accounts. We are proposing changes to the act that would remove the requirements that the Auditor General also audit the Office of the Children’s Lawyer, saving them both time and resources. In addition to this, we are looking to amend the Substitute Decisions Act to clarify that an attorney has the power to access personal information about an incapable person. These amendments would provide clarity, simplify processes and make it easier for substitute decision-makers to do their job.

Building on this, we are also proposing an update to the Creditors’ Relief Act to modernize the delivery of court services and make communications quicker and easier by allowing the sheriff’s office to send enforcement documents by email.

We’re also looking to fix legislation under the Execution Act for collection of judgment awards, including seizure of debtors’ property, to clarify when the principal residence exemption in forced sales can apply.

The bill also includes proposed changes to the Trustee Act that would make it clear that investment managers of trust properties may invest in mutual funds, pooled funds or segregated funds on behalf of a trustee.

And we have proposed amendments to the Cannabis Licence Act which would reduce costs and red tape for retailers who wish to transfer their operating licence, retail authorization and cannabis inventory to a new cannabis retail licence holder.

We also have some exciting amendments to the Ontario Energy Board Act, which would allow the Ontario Energy Board to facilitate innovative pilot and demonstration projects, such as exploring the idea of peer-to-peer energy trading. There is a vast potential for energy innovation that could modernize the way we produce, distribute or consume energy, and eliminating red tape associated with pilot and demonstration projects has the potential to reveal real value for the sector and for customers. The bill also proposes changes to keep energy rates affordable for Ontarians by amending the Ontario Energy Board Act to prohibit any administrative monetary penalties, fines or fees imposed by energy utilities from being recovered from customers through energy rates.

In addition to this, we’re also looking to allow mutual insurers incorporated under the Corporations Act to decide the size of their board of directors to give companies greater flexibility, and to amend the Pension Benefits Act to remove requirements for plan administrators to provide additional notices to members who have already opted to receive communications in electronic format when they retire.

In addition to these measures, we are also proposing to save time and reduce burdens by amending Ontario’s business law statutes and regulations to permanently enable businesses, not-for-profits and condominium corporations to hold virtual or hybrid meetings, facilitate virtual or hybrid voting, and enable certain notices or documents to be sent electronically.

And we’re making updates to the Motor Vehicle Accident Claims Act to authorize the fund to make statutory payments from a designated purpose account, consistent with the recommendations by the Auditor General.

We’re also looking to strengthen board governance for Ontario’s tourism and culture agencies by reducing unnecessary red tape and delays in appointment processes, supporting business operations, increasing flexibility in appointments to support strengthened agency oversight, and clarifying board governance rules to reduce confusion and support business success.

Building on this, we are also proposing to modernize legislation for eight public agencies and a publicly funded organization to follow the best practices of their provincial agencies by incorporating a “protection from personal liability” provision for board members. The proposed changes would clarify rules for public appointees and align these agencies with governance best practices, modernizing the governance framework for these organizations and making it easier and more attractive to serve on their boards.

The Less Red Tape, Stronger Economy Act, 2023, also proposes changes to the Niagara Parks Act which would make it easier and faster for routine land easements to be granted on the Niagara Parks Commission’s properties. This change would allow for routine utility work to take place quicker, giving residents of Niagara much-needed access to utilities such as cable, natural gas and water systems.

With that, Speaker, I’d like to turn it over to my parliamentary assistant, the great member from Niagara West.

Thank you to the member for Cambridge. I know that the minister is leading the charge when it comes to cutting red tape, reducing costs for businesses and ensuring that it’s easier to start, operate and expand a business, creating jobs and driving our economy forward.

Since forming government, under the leadership of the minister and this entire party, we’ve seen real progress. We’ve reduced Ontario’s regulatory burden by 16,000 regulatory compliance requirements, saving businesses some $700 million—not once, but every single year—in annual compliance costs. The results speak for themselves: over 85,000 new jobs in Ontario last year and, since we came to office, over 660,000 new jobs here in the province of Ontario.

We know there’s more work to do to clean up after 15 years of Liberal and NDP mismanagement, but we’re going to get the job done under this Premier and under the leadership of each and every member of this House. We won’t stop—