Thank you to the member for Thornhill for this really important question.

In Ontario today, about 600,000 people work in construction. Each and every one of them are heroes, and it’s time they got the dignity and respect they deserve. For far too long, politicians and others have looked down their noses at people in the skilled trades. No more.

Over the last two months, my ministry inspectors have visited more than 1,800 job sites and inspected their washrooms. They found over 240 washroom-related violations: missing doors, missing walls, no place to wash your hands and, worst of all, no toilets on job sites. In what other industry would this be acceptable? These are people who are building our communities, not livestock.

I’ve spoken to workers who tell me washrooms have been an issue for generations. This ends today. We’re working for workers and making sure our washrooms are clean for these heroes.

Interjections.

Under the leadership of our Premier, last month we announced our government is requiring cleaner washrooms for all 600,000 construction workers. We’re doubling the number of washrooms on construction sites. We’re mandating that they be clean, private and well lit. We’re also requiring that they have hand sanitizer when running water isn’t possible and that large job sites have women-only washrooms.

Speaker, it’s unacceptable that anyone is making a career choice based on washroom quality.

For over 100 years, Ontario’s Ministry of Labour had never done a washroom blitz. Under our government, we launched the first one in history, and the second blitz is starting this week. Only our government, under the leadership of this Premier, is getting it done for our front-line workers and our heroes, those construction workers.