I feel like I’m getting a bedtime story here.

I’ll speak to the bill.

We are talking tonight, this evening, and I’ve listened to a day-long debate about Bill 79, An Act to amend various statutes with respect to employment and labour and other matters. The short title of this act is the Working for Workers Act, 2023.

In my riding of Essex, we have a big demand for skilled workers—huge demand. They’re in demand in the construction industry. They’re in demand in the automotive industry. They’re in demand in the agricultural sector. We need skilled workers in just about every sector in every industry in the riding of Essex, and so I need to thank the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development for bringing forward this bill and its related announcements. This is excellent. It’s something that people in my riding want, and I’m going to be very happy if this bill passes into law, because I’m going to be able to go back to my riding in Essex and announce to the people of Essex that these things are going to happen. It’s going to be very welcomed.

Now, my first introduction to skilled trades came when I was a young person growing up on the second concession of Anderdon township. I got my introduction at Anderdon Public School, which was just down the road from us and around the corner on the middle sideroad about two miles away. I went there, and so did all my siblings.

Anderdon Public School, when I went there, was a very multicultural place. There were lots of kids there from all sorts of different backgrounds. There were Italians; there were Germans, Dutch people, Hungarians, French Canadians, English Canadians and people from other backgrounds, and we were very respectful of one another. We liked being at a multicultural school. We liked sharing our traditions. We liked sharing our cultures. We liked teasing each other about our different traditions and cultures.

We would even share and swap our food at lunchtime. We Italians, we’d bring big sandwiches, big sandwiches on ciabatta buns with meatballs inside, or maybe we would have calabrese bread with some leftover veal from last night’s dinner. And the English kids, they’d tell us they were jealous of us, because their parents would give them sandwiches with two slices of white bread and a square piece of processed cheese in the middle. So we’d joke and laugh back and forth with each other, and it was all in good humour. And just every once in a while, but very rarely, we’d give them one meatball—but that’s all.

In order to get to know each other better, we’d ask each other questions. The most common question we asked each other was, “What are you?” For example, one kid in my class might ask me, “What are you?” And I would say, “I’m Italian. What are you?” They would say what they were, and we’d always be respectful, and we appreciated each other.

And we loved our school. We loved our school, and we loved our teachers, and we respected our teachers, because our parents expected it. And we had great teachers, because we thought we went to the best school in the world. We had Mr. Hernandez, who taught us grade 8. He was of Mexican background. We had Miss Bond, who taught us how to sing. We had Mr. Parrot, who I adored, because he taught politics with me in grade 5.

And we had something called industrial arts; that was the more technical word for shop class. When we went to shop class, we lined up in lines. The girls lined up in one line, and the boys lined up in a separate line. The girls walked to home economics class, and the boys walked to shop class, because back then we had division of labour based on gender. Our shop teacher was Mr. Grodzinski, and Mr. Grodzinski—

When we went to shop class, it was sometimes dangerous because we had machines and moving machines in shop class. For example, we had a lathe. A lathe is a machine that holds an object, usually a piece of wood, and turns the object at great speed. Then you use another object to shape that wood. We had, for example, a band saw, which is a saw that turns a blade on a wheel, and you have to use a tool to push the wood to cut the wood. You have to be very careful because you don’t want to get a piece of clothing caught in the band saw and hurt yourself.

So Mr. Grodzinski was stern and strict, and he had to be because we were in an environment which was dangerous, or could be dangerous, if you weren’t careful. In shop class, we learned how to be very safe, because we had to be. We did things, and we all felt proud of what we were doing. There was nobody in shop class who felt bored. We all felt proud. We loved shop class because we were working on machines and we were doing things that our fathers did, and it made us feel like we were growing up into adults and becoming responsible.

Now, that was a very simple introduction to the skilled trades. And even though it was simple, it was important. Many of us graduated from Anderdon Public School and we went on to do skilled trades at high school. Many of us went to a specialized high school—it was called Western Secondary School—where it concentrated on skilled trades. That school was strictly committed to skilled trades.

Some kids from Anderdon Public School became very successful at the skilled trades. For example, one of those kids was Norbert Bolger. Norbert graduated out of Anderdon Public School. He started building homes because he was a skilled tradesperson. His business got bigger and bigger. He started building more and more homes. Now, across Essex county, there are hundreds of homes that have been built or are being built by Norbert’s company, called Nor-Built Construction. Norbert and his company Nor-Built Construction are a success story that got their start—

So, Madam Speaker, let’s talk about how this government is going to get young people into the skilled trades, to join the fabulously successful people like Norbert Bolger and Terry Jones. Madame la Présidente, parlons de la façon dont ce gouvernement va redonner aux jeunes les métiers spécialisés pour qu’ils se joignent à des gens de métier prospères comme M. Bolger et M. Jones.

Les métiers spécialisés offrent des carrières qui mènent à des emplois sûrs et à une bonne qualité de vie qui s’accompagne souvent d’avantages sociaux et d’une pension. Il y a près de 300 000 emplois vacants en Ontario. Ce sont des chèques de paie qui attendent d’être encaissés.

Bon nombre de ces emplois sont dans les métiers spécialisés. Nous avons besoin de milliers de travailleurs dans les métiers spécialisés pour aider à construire plus de maisons et à réaliser d’importants projets d’infrastructure partout dans notre province.

Nous devons construire des maisons pour faire face au manque de maisons. Nous devons augmenter l’offre pour faire baisser le prix des maisons. Nous devons construire des maisons pour les quelque deux millions de nouveaux Canadiens qui arriveront en Ontario au cours des 15 prochaines années.

Au sujet des nouveaux arrivants, notre gouvernement est fier que l’Ontario soit une destination pour de nombreux nouveaux arrivants qui sont venus au Canada à la recherche de meilleures possibilités économiques pour eux-mêmes et leurs familles.

Afin de créer une voie claire leur permettant d’appliquer pleinement leurs compétences, le gouvernement de l’Ontario a l’intention de proposer des changements qui vont aider à éliminer des obstacles empêchant les nouveaux arrivants d’obtenir un permis et de trouver des emplois correspondant à leurs qualifications et compétences. Il faut d’habitude de deux à cinq années pour obtenir un certificat de métier.

It usually takes two to five years to complete your apprenticeship and get a certificate in the skilled trades. On average, a person entering an apprenticeship program in Ontario is 29 years old. Do you know what that means? What it means is they started doing something else, and then they had to change. We can’t let people do that if we want to fulfill the needs that we have today. We can’t let people lose years of valuable earning potential. We can’t let people lose years of applying their skills to build the needed houses and infrastructure here in the province of Ontario. We need those skills, and that’s why we need to get people started earlier—earlier than 29 years old. We need to start them in high school.

As the minister has announced, starting this fall, students in grade 11 can start a full-time apprenticeship program and also, when they complete their program, earn their Ontario secondary school diploma, their OSSD, as an adult student. That means we’re going to get people into the skilled trades faster than ever. That also means that the same young person who graduates with their certificate of apprenticeship will have a job waiting for them the day they have their certificate. They will walk into a full-time career the day they graduate. They will be debt-free, looking forward to a great career of earning potential right from day one, because, as we say, when you have a skilled trade, you have a job for life. Then, after finishing their training, they receive a certificate and they’ll have their OSSD as an adult. This is how we’re going to get young people into the skilled trades and get them in there faster. This is how we’re going to deal with the province’s historic demand for skilled trades workers. This is how we’re going to get it done.

And that brings me back to Anderdon Public School and Mr. Grodzinski.

One day we were finishing shop class and the boys lined up and started filing out of shop class, and I happened to be the last boy in line. I kind of hung behind and as I was passing Mr. Grodzinski, I remembered that his name ended with a vowel, but it wasn’t Italian. So I screwed up my courage and I asked Mr. Grodzinski, “Mr. Grodzinski, what are you?” And Mr. Grodzinski looked at me with his stern face and his big black moustache, and he said to me that his family had originally come from Ireland and that his family name was originally O’Grodzinski, and that when they arrived here in Canada, they had dropped the “O” and changed their name simply to Grodzinski. And I thought about that, and I knew Italian families who had come here and changed the spelling of their name to make it easier or they had anglicized their name to make it sound perhaps less Italian. The story that Mr. Grodzinski told me seemed perfectly reasonable, rational and believable, and I believed it.

I believed it until one day I talked to my friend Alex Augustyniak. Alex knew I was Italian. We were in the same grade, and we went to Anderdon Public School. I knew Alex was Polish, and I knew there were lots of Italians at Anderdon Public School, but I didn’t know any other Polish kids. So I asked Alex, “Alex, are there any other Polish people here at Anderdon Public School?” Alex said, “Yes, Mr. Grodzinski,” and I thought about that.

Madam Speaker, I learned three important things that day. First of all, I learned that, in fact, Grodzinski is not an Irish name; it is actually a Polish name. The second thing I learned was that although Mr. Grodzinski had a very stern exterior with a big black moustache, underneath that, he had a very good sense of humour. And the third thing I learned was an even increased respect for people in the skilled trades.

As I was saying, in my riding of Essex there is a huge demand for skilled trades. We have a demand in my riding for skilled trades in just about every sector. We have a demand for skilled trades in the agricultural sector, in the construction sector, in the automotive sector—there is no sector where we don’t need more skilled tradespeople. We need them in every industry in Essex county.

So Madam Speaker, I’m going to thank the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development again for this excellent bill, which I believe is going to help fulfill the need for skilled tradespeople in Essex county and put young people in grade 11 on the path to a great career—a meaningful career where they’re going to have a great standard of living. With this legislation, we’re going to start filling not only the needs of Essex county but also the needs of all the province of Ontario, and it will be my pleasure to vote in favour of it and hope that it will pass.

Questions?

I want to return to something that the member from Mississauga–Lakeshore said. He gave a very poignant story about his family’s experience with waiting for 12 years to actually get something from WSIB that they deserved to get. But he suggested that things are better, and in fact, things are quite a bit worse than they were at that time and people wait for years with no income supports whatsoever.

So there are a couple of things I want to raise. I worry a lot about the number of young people who are going to move into the skilled trades. I think it’s a great idea, but what’s going to be there when they are injured? The WSIB is not there for people.

I also want to point out that WSIB—speaking of getting worse and worse—really stole money from injured workers by refusing to give the correct amount for the cost-of-living allowance. The result is that the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups has had to take them to court to try and get money that is owed to them.

But I want to ask the member—thank you for your journey down memory lane. I’ve wondered if I need to say, “Oh, I’m Italian too.” But I’m wondering if you have read the Platform for Change, which is put together by the Thunder Bay and District Injured Workers’ Support Group. It’s a brilliant document.

The member hails from a beautiful part of Ontario, but there’s a lot of need to focus on safer workplaces and supports for migrant workers in his neck of the woods. So when we look at some of the changes made in schedule 1 to this bill, the minister has made some announcements, but beyond the 1-800 number promoted by the minister, I’d like to ask, is the Minister of Labour expecting exploited migrant workers to call in a complaint? How is this information going to be made available to them? Is it going to be in multiple languages? Are these exploited workers going to be further penalized by losing their right to remain? Will many be deported? We have questions about the announcement, and of course, there’s not any substance in this bill that we can draw from.

So I guess there’s a missed opportunity of committing to more workplace inspections, where they live on site, ensuring that migrant workers are paid at the same rates as other workers, protections from reporting conditions or accessing WSIB without prejudice. I have lots of questions; I’m excited to hear the member’s answer.

I listened intently to the speech from the member opposite. As he was talking about some of the stuff in the skilled trades, it made me think back to just last week. I had a presentation from some university students who actually said that we should stop investing in skilled trades and invest more money in the humanities, because we are going to see all of those skilled trades replaced by artificial intelligence. I was a little bit confused by their comments at first, but I understand that usually university students think in terms of what they’re taking for courses.

I’d like the member from Essex to expand a little bit on how the skilled trades are actually integral to our Critical Minerals Strategy and how as we develop more of these mines we’re actually going to need those construction workers, those skilled trades workers to build those mines and build the roads to it.

The member from Peterborough–Kawartha.

I want to say thank you to the member for Essex for that great presentation. I always enjoy the presentations from the member for Essex. He takes me right to Anderdon county and right to the Anderdon school and it’s really interesting to hear his representation of those experiences he had. It was very nice today to actually meet Mr. Grodzinski. We have a Grodzinski’s Bakery in our riding, which is very popular, and maybe your former teacher is there.

You talked about how Ontario is facing historical labour shortages and how important that is in your area. Can you talk to us a little bit about how this bill is going to help us fill some of those historic labour shortages?

I thank the member for that question, and I thank the member for recognizing the awesome career development that will take place as a result of the progress made by the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development towards getting young people into the skilled trades at an early age. Getting them into the trades at an early age is going to benefit them, because it’s going to increase their earning potential massively, and it’s going to get those people into the skilled trades so that we can use their talents to build this province into a greater and better province. And of course, we have a robust WSIB system that’s already in place, and people who are injured can have access to that system. That’s what it’s there for.

With respect to his question, skilled trades—I talked about Essex county, but it could apply to the mining industry. We have a mine in my area. It’s called the Windsor Salt mine, and just about everybody in that salt mine has a skilled trade. Think about it: You would need maintenance workers, heavy equipment operators, people who know how to operate a drill, people who know how to read the instruments. So I thank the member for that question, and it was right on point.

Those people have access to proper language services not only in Ontario but also through the consulate situated in Leamington.

Back in the 1950s and 1960s, we had a huge wave of migrants entering Canada and they went into the construction industries—many of them were Italian—and those skills were needed desperately. The way this bill assists in our era is it will recognize skills training that people from outside of Canada have received. They’ve brought those skills here, and now those skills are going to be properly recognized or given credit here in Ontario so they can get right into the industry and do the skilled jobs that they’re supposed to do so that we can use those skills to build Ontario, just like they did in the 1950s and 1960s with infrastructure and highways and schools and other great things.

Report continues in volume B.

Thanks to the member from Essex. I’m the proud parent of a skilled trade worker, an electrician. It is a long, long journey, and there are barriers for those apprenticeships and in the educational system.

The member from Essex talked with a very romantic flair, I would say, about the shop classroom and the industrial program and his teacher. I’m encouraged to hear Conservatives talk about these classrooms and these educational settings that are needed to encourage folks to get into the skilled trades. However, two obstacles remain: Premier Harris ripped out some of those classrooms, so we need the infrastructure, and there aren’t many Mr. Grodzinskis or Mrs. Grodzinskis as qualified teachers in the province of Ontario. So perhaps the member could address how the government is going to tackle those barriers.