We don’t have time for another question and answer. We’re going to move to further debate.

I want to assure the member across the way that I am very much informed about what is happening in my community.

There was an initial investment from the province that, following the budget, was supplemented by an additional $8 million for London-Middlesex; $1 million of that went to Middlesex, leaving London with an additional $7 million. That is funding that came after the city had developed the health and homelessness whole-of-community response. It is funding that needs to be supplemented to a much higher degree if the city is to be able to move forward with this model, innovative program to actually deal with the health and homelessness crisis that we are facing in the city of London.

C’est un plaisir d’offrir quelques mots au sujet du projet de loi numéro 102, la Loi de 2023 sur le renforcement de la sécurité et la modernisation de la justice. Pendant ce commentaire, je parlerai spécifiquement au sujet de l’annexe numéro 1, qui vise la Loi de 2019 sur la sécurité communautaire et les services policiers.

Telle qu’elle existe actuellement, la Loi sur la sécurité communautaire et les services policiers exige certaines conditions avant qu’une personne puisse se poser comme candidat au collège de police. Telle qu’elle existe actuellement, la loi exige qu’un candidat doit remplir les conditions suivantes : le candidat doit être titulaire soit d’un grade universitaire ou soit d’un grade d’un collège d’arts appliqués et de technologie autorisé à décerner le grade; un candidat peut être un titulaire aussi d’un grade équivalant à un grade universitaire ou à un grade d’un collège. Ça veut dire, madame la Présidente, que, pratiquement, les candidats qui peuvent se poser au collège des policiers sont tous des personnes qui viennent des collèges ou des universités.

J’aimerais parler de la possibilité d’inviter des personnes qui n’ont pas de diplôme d’études collégiales ou de diplôme d’études universitaires. J’aimerais expliquer ma position en parlant d’une personne qui n’a pas de diplôme d’études collégiales ni de diplôme d’études universitaires. Je parlerais d’une personne qui a simplement un diplôme d’études secondaires.

Imaginons une personne qui est allée à l’école secondaire et qui a commencé sa carrière immédiatement après avoir fini sa formation à l’école secondaire. Cette personne s’est lancée dans la vie de travail et travaille depuis peut-être 10 ans ou 20 ans ou même 30 ans. C’est une personne avec beaucoup d’expérience. Peut-être que cette personne a travaillé dans un bureau ou peut-être dans une petite entreprise où elle a dû être organisée et a dû garder bien les affaires de l’entreprise.

Est-ce que cette personne peut se poser comme candidat au collège de police? La réponse, c’est non, parce que cette personne n’a pas de diplôme d’études collégiales ni de diplôme d’études universitaires. Je sais qu’il y a des exceptions, mais ça, c’est la règle générale. Cependant, je peux imaginer que cette personne peut avoir des qualifications très importantes pour le travail policier.

Il y a des situations où les policiers remplissent des fonctions très importantes pendant une enquête, même si le policier n’est pas engagé avec les responsabilités auxquelles nous pensons traditionnellement. Par exemple, imaginons que nous avons une force de police qui est en train d’exécuter un mandat de perquisition. Ils défoncent la porte d’un appartement et ils entrent dans l’appartement. Là-dedans, ils trouvent des preuves : ils trouvent, par exemple, un sac de cocaïne, de l’argent et aussi des armes à feu. C’est évident que les occupants de l’appartement sont engagés dans le trafic de drogue. Les policiers qui sont entrés dans l’appartement ont saisi les preuves. Mais maintenant, il faut une personne qui va s’occuper de la preuve. Nous avons un nom pour cette personne : c’est l’agent de preuve.

Notre agent de preuve va s’occuper de la preuve. L’agent va marquer toutes les preuves avec un numéro et il va les mettre soigneusement dans des sacs. Après ça, notre agent va soigneusement préserver toutes les preuves et les garder dans un casier des preuves. Le jour du processus, notre agent ramènera les preuves devant le juge. Notre agent va jurer que les preuves saisies pendant l’enquête ont été soigneusement gardées sans être changées.

Notre agent de preuve doit être prudent. Notre agent doit être précis. Notre agent doit être méthodique. Mais notre agent de preuve n’a vraiment pas besoin d’un diplôme d’études collégiales ni d’un diplôme d’études universitaires.

Je vous ai donné cet exemple pour démontrer qu’il y a plein de gens qui ont de l’expérience dans la vie pour remplir les responsabilités d’un agent de police. Et en plus, il faut tenir compte du fait que tous les candidats qui se posent comme candidats au collège de police doivent subir une formation et aussi passer des examens. Le collège de police, c’est un collège. C’est exactement ça, la formation collégiale d’un policier.

C’est pour ça, madame la Présidente, que nous avons visé la Loi de 2019 sur la sécurité communautaire et les services policiers. Le gouvernement propose de modifier la loi et d’éliminer la condition que les candidats au collège de police doivent avoir un grade d’études collégiales ou un grade d’études universitaires.

À mon avis, c’est un bon changement. Il y a plein de gens dans notre société qui ont de l’expérience de vie et qui peuvent se poser comme bons candidats, mais qui n’ont pas un grade d’études collégiales ni un grade d’études universitaires.

C’est important que les candidats subissent une formation au collège policier. Ce programme de formation existe actuellement. Cela existe pour que les agents de police deviennent des professionnels. C’est une formation professionnelle.

Et c’est pour ça que nous proposons de modifier la loi pour prévoir qu’un diplôme d’études secondaires ou l’équivalent constitue une éducation suffisante pour être nommé agent de police. Si nous faisons cela, nous allons ouvrir les portes de la profession à toutes sortes de personnes qui seront de bons policiers.

Maintenant, madame la Présidente, je vais parler d’un sujet qui est lié au projet de loi, mais qui n’est pas exactement écrit dans le projet de loi. Notre gouvernement va aussi offrir la formation gratuite aux candidats. En faisant cela, nous espérons que nous allons attirer de très bons candidats au collège de police.

Le gouvernement prend la sécurité du public au sérieux. C’est pour ça que nous proposons de modifier la loi en ce qui concerne les policiers. C’est pour ça que nous offrons la formation gratuite aux bons candidats.

Je donne mon appui au projet de loi 102 et j’espère que tous les députés de l’Assemblée vont voter pour ce bon projet de loi.

My question for the member—I thank him very much for his excellent comments and participation in this debate—is specifically on the Courts of Justice Act amendment proposals in the bill.

We know that we have the Small Claims Court for civil claims up to $35,000 and then simplified procedure in the Superior Court of Justice up to $200,000. But what we’ve seen in the past is the Superior Court and judges in the Superior Court overburdened by claims that really should have been commenced or should be traversed to the Small Claims Court. This bill does address that. To the extent that it does, can the member explain how that will free up judicial resources and help clear backlogs in the Superior Court?

I’d like to thank the member from Essex for his presentation.

It’s very curious that today we are debating Bill 102, when just last week Bill 91 was passed, allowing for new dog training and trialing areas—something that has been called a sport but also has been very deeply questioned by many animal rights advocates.

In Bill 102, section 6 grants new discretionary powers to inspectors. This allows the inspector to check in on animals who are in distress.

Does the member not think that rabbits, coyotes and foxes that are being tracked and likely torn apart in these fenced enclosures—does the welfare of these animals not matter to the member? Does the member not think that these animals should be checked on for signs of distress?

To the member from Essex: Recently, I was speaking with the chief of police in Hamilton, and he was commenting on how difficult it was to attract new recruits to policing. I spoke with young recruits about why they entered the force, and they said it’s very challenging when they hear comments, as we’ve heard and read, by people—for example, the member from Hamilton Centre, who tweeted some very disparaging remarks about police officers. We know that previous members of the NDP also made some very disparaging comments about police.

We also know, from a recent article in the Hamilton Spectator, that a heightened police presence actually impacts the level of crime. We saw the drop in break-and-enters in Hamilton, right across the city, because of a heightened police presence.

Can the member speak to why it’s important to reach out and provide opportunities to people who may be considering policing? They’re not always getting the support in communities—and we’ve seen that by members of the NDP.

That’s a good question.

This government has continued to support various programs that assist police officers when they are called to a situation where some kind of mental health issue might be identified.

This particular law opens up the doors of the police colleges to people who might not necessarily have a college diploma or a university diploma—or they might have a college diploma or a university diploma, and that’s a good thing too.

But it’s really the programs offered by this government which assist those types of calls which the member was referring to. Those calls are identified through the police call centres, where they usually identify a person who might be in mental health distress, and a police officer is sent. From time to time, that call centre might also identify another person who might be sent to that situation to help out.

The specific provisions which he referred to are related to the Small Claims Court and the Superior Court. A Small Claims Court action is an action which involves $35,000 or less. However, there are some litigants who, notwithstanding that rule, will bring their litigation to the Superior Court for whatever motive—sometimes they are good motives, but sometimes they are not proper.

What this law provides is that when you have a claim of $35,000 or less and you seek to bring it to the Superior Court, you must first seek permission or leave from the Superior Court to do that. That should keep those claims that don’t belong there out of the Superior Court.

Now we’re debating this bill this week, and it seems to me that the NDP are once again turning on a dime.

I share the concerns of the member that we need to make sure that police are properly funded, notwithstanding the very negative and sometimes disheartening criticism that is levelled at our police. We need to stand up for them, make sure that they’re properly funded, and praise them for the job they’re doing.

Thank you to the member from Essex for his comments.

I wanted to ask generally, what kind of impact does the member feel this bill will have on the training of front-line police officers, especially as it relates to dealing with the increasing number of calls around mental health issues?

Next question?

Speaker, the member for Essex made his presentation on this bill. In response to a question from my colleague from Niagara, he talked about potential alternate responses to calls coming into the police for people experiencing mental health distress. I would appreciate if he could tell us what responses provided for in this bill will be made available to those in mental health distress.

Meegwetch. Thank you, Speaker. Remarks in Anishininiimowin. Good morning. It’s always an honour to be able to stand up in this place on behalf of the people of Kiiwetinoong. It’s also an honour to be able to speak on this bill, Bill 102, the Strengthening Safety and Modernizing Justice Act. We know that there are many parts to this bill. There are amendments to the Community Safety and Policing Act, 2019, as well as the Comprehensive Ontario Police Services Act, 2019. In the last four years since then, I’ve heard a lot of lip service from this government as it relates to policing. Some of it is good, if you live in a town or a city where there’s lots of funding and resourcing made available to your police services, but it’s not that good if you live in a First Nation, if you live on a reserve, also referred to as an Indian reserve; it’s not good for police services that are on-reserve. I know that First Nations police services need better funding from the federal and provincial governments to serve their people effectively.

In my language, there’s a name that’s very descriptive of what a policeman is. My language, Anishininiimowin, also known as Oji-Cree, is a very descriptive language. What we call a police officer is tukaanaawehnineh—that means a person who takes somebody away. That description comes from the old Indian residential school days, because the RCMP were used to take away our children, to take them to Indian residential schools. I just wanted to share that.

What many in this House may not know is that Indigenous police services are not essential services, and legal and funding frameworks are needed to change that status.

I want to sidestep a bit. I know there is a recruitment issue for police officers in parts of Ontario, particularly in the north, and I know that this bill will not solve that. I know that there are many staffing shortages in some communities in Ontario that are largely because officers are affected by PTSD. In the OPP, Ontario Provincial Police service, constables on long-term leave make up 30% of the vacancies. I believe that.

I believe that there are a lot of officers who are off right now. I was just talking to one this morning. He’s a good friend of mine. He has been an officer for about 30 years, and he’s off right now on PTSD. His name is Jerry Mosquito. He’s up in Big Trout Lake, Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug, this morning. About two or three Christmases ago—it was during the holidays, in between Christmas and New Year’s—we were talking on the phone in my language. After I hung up—I didn’t know what he was saying—what clicked after is that he was actually saying goodbye to me. I could hear him talk about the stuff that he was doing, how proud he was of what he was doing, but also how proud—because we’re good friends. It took me maybe an hour to call 911 on him. I was afraid to call 911 because I thought I would upset him, and me and his wife—actually, I think it was his wife who finally made a decision to call 911. It was hard. Then we didn’t talk for maybe a year after that. The OPP should be reaching out and saying, “We’re going to help you”—and make sure that you are providing the proper clinical support, the mental support that he needs.

I think we need to start hearing stories of what officers actually do to protect us. I hear the other side talk about defunding the police, but in the north we need more funding to provide that service. In my home First Nation, I think it was in 1992, 1993 maybe, when we got our first officer in the community. That’s when the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service started.

When we talk about police services in the north, currently, First Nations’ policing are funded as programs—not essential services—under the First Nations Policing Program, which was implemented in 1991 and gives Public Safety Canada the authority to administer funding, which comes from both the federal and provincial governments. Just over half of the funding, about 50%, comes from the federal government through Public Safety Canada, while the remaining 48% is funded through the Ontario government.

The First Nations Policing Program hasn’t changed much over the course of its more than 30-year lifespan. The system is broken. It maintains an unequal status quo between Indigenous and non-Indigenous policing services. But, also, I can flip it and say that it’s not broken, because it’s designed the way it’s designed to operate because that’s how oppression works; that’s how colonialism works; that’s how racism works. It’s not broken. It’s working exactly the way it’s designed to. It has always become a way of life for First Nations programming, First Nations services.

Right now, the current system basically requires First Nations police services to justify their existence, year to year to year—or for however long their policing agreement is. So First Nations police officers, generally speaking, are underpaid and do virtually the same job as an officer off-reserve.

Right now, First Nations police services are not funded to meet the adequacy standards of the OPP. The ongoing chronic underfunding affects every facet of police work on-reserve, whether it’s training, whether it’s equipment, whether it’s victim services, whether it’s employee retention or pensions. I don’t know why I call it “chronic underfunding.” It is strategic underfunding. I have learned the ways of these colonial systems that we live under as First Nations people. It’s not by accident. It’s by design.

Other provinces have made moves toward equality between Indigenous and non-Indigenous police services. The province of Alberta has amended their policing law to uphold First Nations police services as essential—nope, not in Ontario; it’s a program. In the wake of the tragedy in James Smith Cree Nation, Saskatchewan is making its own set of commitments—nope, not in Ontario.

I think here, in Ontario, the amendments to the Police Services Act have stalled. In 2019, legislation permitted the province’s nine stand-alone Indigenous police services to opt into the Police Services Act in order to become an essential service, but there has been no resourcing put towards this legislation in Ontario to be able to make this change.

The legal counsel for Nishnawbe Aski Police Service noted earlier this year that this government has a lot to answer for: “The failure to act on this legislation over four years has to represent one of the longest delays in proclaiming legislation, certainly that I have ever seen. How is it that this happens to First Nations in this day and age?”

I cannot imagine any important legislation that goes to the heart of protecting people’s lives getting delayed like this in a non-Indigenous setting. It simply makes the point that when it comes to the safety of members of Indigenous communities, it simply sits on the back burner year after year after year while you have communities in crisis, you have deaths every day and communities being grossly under-policed, underserviced.

Just going back a little bit about policing, in the 1960s, the RCMP announced its withdrawal from policing First Nations in Ontario and Quebec. The change was transitional—announced in the early 1960s, begun in the mid-1960s, and officially completed when the Indian agent role was abolished in 1971. Before this, the RCMP policed First Nations.

Talking about police, the first Prime Minister of Canada, Sir John A. Macdonald, got the idea for the Mounties from the Royal Irish Constabulary, a parliamentary police force the British created to keep the Irish under control.

I’m going back because I told that story about tukaanaawehnineh, a person who takes somebody away. That’s how we describe how we know what we call a police officer—a person that takes somebody away.

The role of the Mounties was to clear the plains, the Prairies, of Indigenous people. They were there to displace Indigenous people, to move them on-reserve, to move them to Indian reserves—I grew up on an Indian reserve; we became an official reserve in 1976. That was done to displace people, whether they were willing or not.

Reclaiming Power and Place: The Final Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls talked about the RCMP this way in the findings on the right to justice:

The government of Canada used the RCMP and its predecessor, the North-West Mounted Police, to implement and enforce laws and policies designed to control, assimilate and eliminate Indigenous people. I’m not supposed to be here. We are not supposed to be here. But we are here.

You have to be able to fund Indigenous policing the way you fund non-Indigenous communities. We are not a program. The Nishnawbe Aski Police Service, treaty police and Anishinaabe police should be essential services as well.

I was here in 2019, and I spoke at length about the Comprehensive Ontario Police Services Act. I said this earlier, but in essence, the government passed this act that would allow First Nations police services, again, to opt into the provincial policing framework. We know this cannot be done without resources to close the gap in service standards between on-reserve and off-reserve police forces.

In March, the Indigenous Police Chiefs of Ontario filed a human rights complaint against Public Safety Canada, accusing Ottawa of ongoing systemic discrimination perpetuated by the government of Canada through its deliberate and willful underfunding and under-resourcing of the safety of Indigenous communities through the First Nations and Inuit Policing Program. Their complaint states that the government’s First Nations policing policy mandates that Canada’s own self-imposed standards for equity, requiring, at minimum, that First Nations benefit from the same standard of policing available to non-Indigenous communities—and that policing be provided in a culturally responsive manner. Ontario is responsible for that, too. Just because it doesn’t mention Ontario—you are part of the problem. Meegwetch.

Well, I can say two things about mental health. First is that this government has made a multi-million dollar commitment to assist police officers who are experiencing mental health issues, and, I believe, if I’ve not misspoken, that investment was approximately $12 million in a treatment centre which is well-known among police officers in the province of Ontario. They need and deserve our support when they experience mental health issues.

Secondly, on the topic of mental health, when a call comes into the call centre, the dispatch centre, and the dispatch officer on the phone is made aware that there might be a mental health issue that is perhaps presenting itself in a certain emergency situation, that dispatch officer does have the resources and the authority to call in other services who can attend along with the officer if that is deemed to be a safe thing to do.

Life has never been so expensive, and now more than ever we need real consumer protection in Ontario. People are paying more for less, and when you get gouged, ripped off or taken advantage of, where do you turn? How about the ministry’s consumer hotline? Tens of thousands of complaints, and not a single fine laid—so you get a lawyer to fight a giant industry that can crush you like a bug. It’s the classic story of David and Goliath.

Last year, I tabled a solution: the Ontario Consumer Watchdog Act—the creation of a powerful advocate who would have the back of consumers and the resources and powers to stand up to Goliath. And do you know what? The government said no. They voted on the side of Goliath.

This afternoon, I’m proud to table a new and strengthened Ontario Consumer Watchdog Act that reflects the crushing times consumers are facing. I’m calling on all members of this House to do the right thing and support this very important NDP bill to bring real consumer protection to Ontario.

I seek unanimous consent of the House to wear an Our London Family ribbon until the end of question period.

Recently I was proud to announce that nine organizations in Mississauga–Lakeshore have just received $969,000 through the Ontario Trillium Foundation Resilient Communities Fund. This includes $200,000 to support Armagh House, the only transitional shelter in Peel for victims of domestic violence; the new house will have double the capacity moving forward. The Embrave Agency to End Violence received $40,000. DEEN Support Services received $200,000 to help expand their program for people with intellectual disabilities. Epilepsy South Central Ontario, which is now based in Port Credit, received $79,000 to help expand their program for people living with epilepsy and their families. The Don Rowing Club received $90,000 for a safety boat and rowing shells to expand their programs in Port Credit. And as we’re looking forward to the summer festival season, the Southside Shuffle festival has received $76,000, and the Crane Creations Theatre Co. received $200,000.

Speaker, I want to congratulate these non-profits again on receiving these grants, and I want to thank them for everything they do to enrich the lives of people in Mississauga–Lakeshore and to help build a better and stronger Ontario for everyone.

I want to thank the member from Kiiwetinoong for his insightful remarks. He’s a great educator for me on so many things in the community. He knows that our government fought very hard for pension equity. This is something that I was personally involved with. We corrected something that took decades to do.

We continue to advocate and speak with the chiefs of police in the First Nations communities, and I do so on a regular basis.

The member speaks about the urgency in getting the CSPA, the Community Safety and Policing Act, moving forward, and I absolutely agree with him. I have given this House an undertaking that we will move with dispatch to make sure that we proclaim it and enact it. My question to the member is, given the fact that we are moving the needle, will the member support this bill?

It’s my great honour to extend my heartfelt gratitude and a warm welcome to His Holiness Mahant Swami Maharaj as he graces our province with his presence later this week. His Holiness is among the most respected Hindu leaders in the world today and the current spiritual leader of the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, a worldwide organization dedicated to promoting harmony.

The presence of His Holiness Mahant Swami Maharaj marks the commencement of the celebrations for BAPS Canada’s 50 years of dedicated community service. This auspicious event will ignite a year-long festivity, allowing us to reflect upon and commemorate the remarkable achievements and invaluable contributions of BAPS to our great nation. Over the past five decades, BAPS Canada has grown to become recognized for their community service, remarkable achievements and invaluable spiritual and humanitarian endeavours in more than 150 towns and cities across Canada. We commend their unwavering commitment to lift society as a whole. Particularly, BAPS played a vital role in supporting and serving communities in need throughout the pandemic.

In closing, I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to His Holiness Mahant Swami Maharaj for coming to Ontario.

We’re incredibly thankful for the impact of BAPS in making Ontario a stronger and better place to live, work and play.

Meegwetch. Thank you.

We are going to move to questions for the member.

Third reading debate deemed adjourned.

You weren’t here when I spoke about an OPP officer who is on PTSD. He is up in Big Trout Lake right now. He has been off for a few years. His name is Jerry Mosquito. I spoke earlier about how sometimes he calls me. He is struggling to live. I said to the Solicitor General that at some point you should reach out to him. I think it is very important to reach out to people who are struggling, especially people who have served the community and who have seen so much stuff. I encourage you; I will even send you his phone number.