Thank you to the member from Brantford–Brant for his great presentation, which I really enjoyed listening to. I’m very excited about how we’re building the skilled trades in the province and making those jobs that are great alternatives for young people of all kinds. We’re getting women and men into the skilled trades which is so exciting. They’re exciting careers with six-figure incomes. They’re jobs for life. They’re purpose-driven and in demand.

The member from Brantford–Brant mentioned his son who is becoming an electrician. I’ve met a lot of young people who maybe aren’t really excited by what they can learn at university, but they are excited by being able to make things, to fix things, to do things, and they have a special gift. I just wondered if you could share a little bit about how the skilled trades option is being developed and how we’re reaching a whole bunch of young people to give them meaning and purpose in their lives through those skilled trades.

Pardon me; April 28, National Day of Mourning. Each year in Hamilton, the Hamilton and District Labour Council, along with many other unions and community groups in Hamilton, gathers at a statue right in front of city hall. It’s the corner of Bay and Main Streets in Hamilton. There’s a really remarkable statue there that is actually called Day of Mourning. If you google it it’s such a stark and impressive sculpture. We gather there every year to lay wreaths and honour the people who are injured or have died in the workplace.

The very first day that statue was dedicated, which was in 1990, I was there, and just that morning, before we were there, an electrician had been killed on the job at Dofasco that very morning. The family was actually there crying—grieving—because they had just got this tragic news that very morning. I was standing beside an older gentleman in front of the city hall and he said, “Yes, my brother-in-law was killed building city hall,” so killed in the 1950s. When you lose someone you always remember and you always need to recognize and acknowledge that. That’s why the Day of Mourning is really so very important.

Also I would just like to acknowledge Paul Cvetich, who is the sculptor who created that beautiful piece of work. If you’re ever in Hamilton, go and look at it. I’m telling you, you will be impressed.

I think it’s kind of ironic—or I don’t know what it is—that May 28 was picked as the day—

I think what many people don’t know or don’t realize is that when WSIB was first brought in, workers in the workplace forfeited their right to sue for injury or damages if they were injured on the job. They forfeited that right in exchange for an insurance compensation program that was expected to make them whole.

We have seen since that time that this is a program that has not worked for workers and, in fact, is continuing to actually make things more difficult for injured workers. Injured workers are having to advocate to us, to you, as MPPs, to say that this system is failing them. This system is failing them when they need it most.

I have to, again, acknowledge Hamiltonians who have done a lot of work to advocate on behalf of injured workers. Karl Crevar is a gentleman who helped establish in Hamilton the Hamilton and District Injured Workers’ Group. They come to my office quite regularly to tell the stories. He comes and quite clearly tells the stories and the plight and the injustices that workers in Hamilton—which represent workers across the province—are facing.

I think we’ve said it here before, but the methods by which WSIB is changing their benefit programs, making it so difficult for injured workers to access these benefits, it’s essentially a way of slowly diminishing benefits and cutting benefits, essentially, that people should be entitled to. Not only is this injustice, plain and simple, but it is driving people into poverty.

I would like to just talk a little bit about one of these individuals who also is a huge advocate and comes to all of our offices and I have nothing but admiration for, Marvin Mulder, who himself is an injured worked. Marvin’s story is that he was injured on the job, and he underwent six spinal injections and two failed back surgeries in an effort to recover. In that time, he was asked by WSIB to participate in its work transition program right after his accident, and they gave him an option to retrain as a millwright or an office assistant even though his injuries prevented him from walking, from sitting or standing for long periods of time. It’s unbelievable.

Marvin’s persistent health problems prevented him from completing the retraining program. Because of that, the WSIB deemed him as non-co-operative and drastically reduced his benefits each year. The issue of “deeming”—this is just an unfair, punitive practice that is used to prevent workers from accessing the insurance benefits that they pay into, that they have a right to, and so I want to salute Marvin and I want to salute Karl and all the injured worker alliances and folks that fight on behalf of injured workers across the province. We hear you and we support your fight and we are doing what we can to support that, but as you can see, with this legislation there’s an opportunity to address this injustice in this bill that is supposed to be about workers, but the workers that most need help have been excluded when it comes to WSIB.

A couple of the members on the Conservative side have talked about the presumptive legislation, and I would just like to make sure that I acknowledge that we here feel that any opportunity, any time that benefits can be extended to workers in the workplace, that is a wonderful thing. We’re fully supportive of that.

In fact, the first presumptive legislation that was introduced in the province of Ontario was spearheaded by our former leader Andrea Horwath. She did that because of a firefighter in our community named Bob Shaw. I knew Bob Shaw and his son, Nathan Shaw—not related, but I did know them. He was one of many firefighters that fought the Plastimet fire, which was a devastating tire fire right in the centre of Hamilton. It caused a lot of damage, and a lot of firefighters breathed in those toxic fumes and were working in that toxic water, and a lot of the injuries that they suffered were because of that. So the first presumptive legislation was in honour of Bob Shaw, and we are happy to see this extended.

I would also like to say that a good friend of mine who was a firefighter—his name was Dave Begley. Actually, we called him Bugsy; it was his nickname. He also fought at Plastimet day and night for many days if not for a week or so, and he died shortly thereafter as well. So this legislation is near and dear to all of our hearts, mine as well.

But I have to say, what you’re talking about—the extension of presumptive legislation to include pancreatic and thyroid cancer—is not in the bill. You can talk about it, and it’s important to talk about it, but if it’s that important, why is it not in the bill? I find it is actually a bit of a sleight of hand, if you will, that the government gets up and talks about something that’s in the legislation that actually isn’t in there. So I think people need to read the bill and see that it’s not there. Don’t judge a book by the cover, or don’t just take the government’s word for it. The “trust us; we’ll take care of it” hasn’t worked for many people in this province with this government.

And when it comes to presumptive legislation, extending this to firefighters, this also is the case. My guess is firefighters expected this to be in the legislation, and they’re probably dearly disappointed that it’s not. I am hoping that the government will be true to its word and make sure that they pass it at legislation, but it would have been a proud moment to see it right here in the bill.

I also just would like to acknowledge the many things that are missing from this bill. While we think, in schedule 2, it is absolutely wonderful that members of our armed forces will be extended the kind of mental health benefits that they deserve and that we all deserve, I would just like to acknowledge that in the city of Hamilton, access to mental health services is abysmal. It’s absolutely abysmal, particularly if you’re a youth in the city. We’ve had two, now three mental health service providers closing due to lack of funding from this government and due to the inability to retain workers because of your wage-cap, punitive Bill 124. It’s great that you’re extending these benefits, but it will be very difficult for anybody to access mental health services, because they’re drying up and they’re closing in cities all across the province.

We’ve put forward legislation. Our opposition day motion called for emergency funding for the Canadian Mental Health Association, emergency funding that would have kept the doors open at some of these services all across our ridings, and this government voted no. You turned down funding for mental health service providers in the middle of a mental health crisis, and that is just really mind-boggling as to why you would do that.

Further to Bill 124, I just want to talk about PSWs and the injury and the risk that they faced when they went to work during COVID. I want to talk about a PSW in my riding whose daughter wrote to me to say that due to Bill 124 her mom struggled to pay the bills, struggled to keep her job. What happened was, at one point, she was in a client’s home and she was exposed to bedbugs in the workplace. She brought those home and then she had to incur the cost of making sure that her home was cleared of that—very expensive, hired an exterminator. Then she was told, basically, that if she did not go back to work that she would be fired, essentially. In her distraught state, she spoke to the Ministry of Labour, and was told that there was nothing that they could do to protect her in this instance. This is a PSW working in people’s homes, home care, making sure we can keep our loved ones at home, who faced an exposure in the workplace where she needed protection, and was told by the ministry that there was nothing that they could do to help her.

There’s so much missing from this bill. I would say that we have been advocating for workers on this side of the House for five years now with this government. We have been saying that we want to make sure workers are protected in the workplace—true protections that include enforcement and true fines. We’ve been calling for a minimum wage for workers so that they can actually go to work and put food on their table. We’ve been saying that you need to repeal Bill 124. It’s unconstitutional and it’s harming people all across the province. I don’t understand your stubbornness not to repeal this bill. I think that women, who are the majority of health care workers, really need real pay equity in this province.

There are many, many things that you could have put into this bill to really work for workers. It falls short in many aspects, and I hope that the government will take some of our consideration and put it into their next bill that apparently we’ve been hearing is coming along.

April.

Questions?

I want to commend the member for the time she spent talking about the bill. Certainly, it is a lengthy bill. There’s quite a bit in it, and I know the member opposite had since Monday to review it.

Of course, I speak to many individuals about it, and something that came up time and time again in my community of Barrie–Innisfil—and I’m just curious to see if it’s resonating in other parts of the province, like the member opposite’s riding—is newcomers who come to Canada not being able to necessarily always get into their profession. Something we’ve done all along in this government is make many different changes in order to help that next generation and, of course, the current immigrants coming to Ontario to be able to hit the ground running, being able to work in their profession. Of course, many measures in this particular bill build on those efforts. I just wanted to ask her if she has been hearing about similar situations in her riding when it comes to newcomers.

Thank you to the member opposite for her remarks. Recently, in my riding of Burlington, I met with a women-in-industry committee, who shared with me that a large number of women leave the skilled trades after three years because of a lack of bathroom facilities. We know that having sanitary washroom sites on construction sites is the right thing to do and it promotes workers’ dignity. Will the member across agree that our proposal to include women-only washrooms and increase standards for bathroom hygiene on construction sites for workers is a step in the right direction?

Questions?

I just want to ask the member opposite: I’ve heard her speak about a few things she supports in the bill, including our reservists and members of our Armed Forces. I want to ask her, if she’s supportive of our Canadian Armed Forces personnel, will she advocate that everyone in her caucus not only wear a poppy but stand up against anti-Semitism and those Canadian Armed Forces members who fought in World War II against the Nazi-Fascist regime?

The following are the titles of the bills to which Her Honour did assent:

An Act to authorize the expenditure of certain amounts for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2023 / Loi autorisant l’utilisation de certaines sommes pour l’exercice se terminant le 31 mars 2023.

An Act to enact one Act and amend various other Acts / Loi visant à édicter une loi et à modifier diverses autres lois.

I very much appreciated the remarks from my colleague the member for Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas. She pointed to all of the missed opportunities in this bill to actually address the issues that workers in this province are facing. I wondered if she was as struck as I was by the absence of any mention of permanent paid sick days for Ontario workers, especially as we know that program is set to expire on March 31. Workers who are ill with COVID or any other disease or illness in this province will no longer have access to any support to enable them to stay home if they are sick. Would the member like to comment on that?

Thank you to the member for the question. It was very difficult, actually, to hear from across the way, but I think she was talking about newcomers coming to this province and what we need to do to support them. Absolutely, I think that’s very, very important.

In my past career, I worked in Peel on integrating and making sure newcomers to the region had all the supports that they need, and the supports that they need are many. They need access to good health care in the province, and we know, with the privatization efforts and bills of this government, health care is going to get more and more out of reach for newcomers.

We know that newcomers, when they are in a job, are often, in some instances, at entry level. Minimum wage standards need to be raised in this province to allow newcomers to be able to afford to feed their families. So there are many, many things that we need to do in this province to support newcomers, and I think that that’s an important thing, but this bill is really just a tiny piece and only touches a little bit on the experience of newcomers in this province.

I would just like to say again that this should have been in the bill. It’s not in the bill. There’s talk about it, but it’s not here in the bill. It’s important that we extend presumptive legislation to firefighters. It’s important that we acknowledge illnesses by exposure for all Ontarians, including people in your riding in the Far North that are exposed to mould, that are exposed to unsafe drinking water conditions. Those are health impacts that this government should come forward with a bill to address.

Last year on April 28, I was there at the Workers Day of Mourning with my colleague from Hamilton Mountain, and on the day of that acknowledgement, we had just had a 36-year-old man who was hit by a forklift, and then we also had a 37-year-old Ancaster construction worker who was killed on the actual morning of the day. So this is something that happens every day, sadly, in our communities. People are killed or injured on the job, so it is important that we acknowledge this day and that we continue to make sure that we put workers at the forefront of our bills and our thoughts.

Thank you to the member from Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas for the presentation. I know that you spoke about some of the issues with regard to the firefighters, and that we need to add pancreatic and thyroid cancers as part of the presumptive occupational illnesses for firefighters.

Perhaps if you can elaborate on the importance of the work that firefighters do in this role—I say that because I know that last month we had a very tragic house fire in Pikangikum First Nation, where we lost three people. So again, can you elaborate on the presumptive list and the addition of these cancers?

It’s an honour to rise this afternoon and to speak in support of Bill 79, the third Working for Workers Act, introduced by the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development. I’d like to thank him and his team, including his parliamentary assistants from Mississauga–Malton and Scarborough Centre, for their great work on this bill and on the first two Working for Workers Acts.

I was proud to speak about these historic reforms in the House. If passed, Bill 79 would expand on other reforms which are already helping millions of people across Ontario.

Yesterday, the President of the Treasury Board and I had an opportunity to visit the Medical Innovation Xchange in Kitchener with the member for Kitchener–Conestoga. This facility, which is supported by grants from the Ministry of Labour’s Skills Development Fund, is developing made-in-Ontario medical technology that’s being used now in our hospitals and in long-term care. I want to thank the executive director, Elliot Fung, and the CEO of Intellijoint Surgical, Armen, for the meeting and the tour. Their director of corporate affairs, Tim Dutton, said—and I agree—that Bill 79 as well the previous two Working for Workers bills show that the Ministry of Labour is one of the most forward-thinking policy-makers in the country.

Speaker, before I begin my remarks today, I also want to take the opportunity to thank the Premier and the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade for their leadership on Bill 63 and all the other changes we made that led to this historic announcement last week that Volkswagen has chosen St. Thomas, Ontario, to build the first electric-vehicle battery gigafactory outside of Europe. This will be the single largest investment in the auto sector in the history of Canada, and Volkswagen is the first auto manufacturer to set up major operations in Ontario since 1980. As the minister said, this is a major vote of confidence in all the work that we’re doing across government to position Ontario as a global leader in the supply chain for electric vehicles.

A very important part of this is our work to close the skills gap and to build a stronger, more competitive labour market. As the minister said, we’re in the middle of the largest labour shortage in a generation. The Conference Board of Canada reports that Ontario’s skills gap costs our economy over $24 billion each year, or about 4% of Ontario’s provincial GDP. We know there are about 300,000 jobs left vacant across the province, including many in the skilled trades. In fact, we expect that over one in five job openings in Ontario will be in the skilled trades by 2026.

The government is working to increase Ontario’s supply of skilled labour through training, through bringing new skilled workers into Ontario and through making it easier for them to work in the field that matches their skills and experiences. I’ll speak briefly about each of these.

Just yesterday, Speaker, the Premier and the minister announced an investment of $224 million in a new capital stream of the Skills Development Fund to allow businesses, unions and industrial associations to build new training centres or to upgrade their current facilities with state-of-the-art design and technology. This will build on the previous investment of $700 million through the Skills Development Fund since 2020, including an investment of $1 million that the minister and I announced in Mississauga–Lakeshore to help the Christian Labour Association of Canada offer free, online and flexible training for construction workers. It was great to meet them again earlier this month during their lobby day at Queen’s Park.

Speaker, the mayor of Vaughan, Steven Del Duca, said “I want to thank” the Premier “and Minister Monte McNaughton for their continued efforts on this critical province-building priority.... Our highly educated, multilingual population already ensures businesses from all industries have a qualified and ready labour pool, and the government’s new investment in the” skilled trades development fund “means that pool will grow even larger.”

As the minister announced Saturday, we’re also doubling the number of economic immigrants that Ontario can nominate each year through the Ontario immigration nominee program from 9,000 to 18,000 by 2025 to help fill the skills gap.

The two previous Working for Workers Acts removed barriers for internationally trained professionals to allow them to match their skills with jobs they need to fill here in Ontario. Speaker, this was critical because up to three quarters of internationally trained immigrants were working in jobs that didn’t match their skills or experience. As I said before, members of our caucus experienced this when they first came to Canada. The members from Mississauga–Malton and Mississauga–Erin Mills came to Canada with degrees and experience in chemical engineering and information technology, but they weren’t able to work in jobs matching their skills. As we continue to recover from COVID-19, this is a problem Ontario simply cannot afford.

If passed, schedule 3 of Bill 79 would amend the Fair Access to Regulated Professions and Compulsory Trades Act to continue to remove barriers for internationally trained professionals looking to register here in Ontario. This includes a new section to clarify that Canadian experience can only be accepted if there are international alternatives as long as they meet certain criteria. Speaker, this will make it easier for engineers, plumbers, mechanics and many other internationally trained professionals to register here in Ontario and to fill in-demand jobs, to help drive economic growth and our recovery from the pandemic.

As my friend Tonie Chaltas, the CEO of Achēv, said, “We need to make it as easy as possible for newcomers to Ontario to find jobs, settle into their communities and build a life here. Streamlining the credentialing process for skilled immigrants is a great step in supporting that journey.”

Speaker, recently I had the opportunity to visit Mike Yorke and the Toronto’s Carpenters Union Local 27 in Woodbridge. They were looking forward to another change. Starting this fall, students in grade 11 will be able to enter a full-time, skilled trades apprenticeship program and still earn their secondary school diploma. These changes mean that high school students will be able to enter the skilled trades faster than ever before. And I know the minister and his team will be consulting with our partners later this year about other options to make it even easier for young people to enter the skilled trades.

Speaker, if passed, Bill 79 would also update the Employment Standards Act and various other laws to reflect the changing nature of our workforce after COVID-19. In the last quarter of 2022, about 2.2 million Ontarians worked from home, including 1.4 million people who worked from home full-time and 800,000 people who worked from home part-time. If passed, schedule 2 of Bill 79 would update how workplaces are defined in Ontario’s labour laws to extend fundamental protections to people who work from home. For example, employees who work from home would become eligible for the same eight-week notice as in-office employees in mass terminations.

Speaker, the minister is also proposing changes to the regulations that would require employers to give new employees information about their jobs in writing, including pay and hours of work but also work location before their first shift. These changes would help to provide certainty for both employers and new employees.

Yesterday, I joined the President of the Treasury Board and Jamie Wallace, the CEO of Supply Ontario, for an event at Communitech in Kitchener, which supports a community of over a thousand high-tech companies, from new start-ups to rapidly-growing companies. Many of these depend on employees who work from home or from other locations around the world. The CEO and president of Communitech, Chris Albinson, said, “We applaud Minister McNaughton for taking steps to ensure that all workers in Ontario are afforded the same rights and protections, regardless of their workplace setting.”

It’s also worth mentioning schedule 2 of Bill 79 would make Ontario’s job-protected leave for members of the Canadian Army Reserve the most flexible and most comprehensive in the country. If passed, schedule 2 would ensure that their jobs are protected when they’re sent into emergency operations, even when it is their first day on the job. And for any other reason, they would qualify for a job-protected leave after only two months so they can take the time they need to recover from physical or mental injuries. Major-General Charles Sullivan said that this “will allow our proud and dedicated reservists to serve their country at home and abroad knowing they will be able to return to their places of employment and be entitled to care after they return home.”

Bill 79 would also strengthen the protection of vulnerable and migrant workers. If passed, schedule 1 would introduce the highest maximum fines in Canada for employers convicted of taking or withholding a foreign national’s passport or work permit: up to $500,000, plus up to $200,000 for every worker whose rights are violated. This will be another important tool to help our police fight human trafficking, which is a growing problem in Peel Region and across the province. My friend the Mexican consul general in Toronto, Porfirio Ledo, offered his support, as Mexican workers have been victims in the past.

If passed, schedule 5 would also introduce the highest fines in Canada for companies that don’t follow our workplace health and safety laws. If convicted, officers and directors of businesses that don’t provide safe work environments that lead to a worker being severely injured on the job could face fines of up to $2 million under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, up from the current $1.5 million.

Unfortunately, we know that some businesses treat fines as just another business expense, and they continue to put their workers at risk. But injuries or death should never be just another cost of doing business. This new penalty will help send a strong message about the importance of worker health and safety and compliance with workplace laws and regulations.

Earlier this year, members of the Mississauga Fire Fighters Association visited my community office in Port Credit. Their top request was that we support an addition of thyroid and pancreatic cancer to Ontario’s presumptive coverage for firefighters. Firefighters die of cancer at a rate four times higher than the general population. On average, 50 to 60 firefighters die of cancer each year here in Canada and about half of them right here in Ontario.

The changes the minister is providing would assume thyroid and pancreatic cancers are work related and streamline workplace injury claims for firefighters. This would make it faster and easier for them to access the compensation and the support they deserve. These changes would be retroactive for claims back to 1960, and it would follow similar changes in other provinces like British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador.

The minister is also proposing changes to the regulations to ensure that construction sites are safe and welcoming for everyone. For example, it would ensure women have access to properly fitting safety gear and clean, women-only washroom facilities with proper lighting and hand sanitizer.

Victoria Mancinelli of LIUNA said—and we agree: “Ensuring women have access to the tools to reach their full potential in the construction industry will strengthen retention, eliminate barriers, attract talent, and” ensure that they will stay on the job.

Lastly, Speaker, the minister has proposed to expand employer services to five new communities—London, Windsor-Sarnia, Kitchener-Waterloo-Barrie, Durham and Ottawa—to make it easier for job seekers across the province, especially those on social assistance, to find better jobs.

Speaker, in closing, I want to thank the minister and his team for all the work they’re doing on Bill 79 and for everything else they do.

Meghan Nicholls, the CEO of the Mississauga Food Bank, was here on Monday for the Feed Ontario breakfast. She is working to support over 600 new refugees who are coming to Mississauga from Ukraine per week, every week. The minister and his staff are working to connect them with resources, jobs and a safe place to live here in Ontario. So again, I just want to thank the minister and his team for doing everything they can to help.

Speaker, Bill 79 will help prepare Ontarians for the jobs of the future. It will help protect some of our most vulnerable workers, and it will help ensure that our labour laws can keep pace with new technologies and with the new reality of working from home. It would continue to position Ontario as a top destination for global talent and innovation and as the best place in the world to live, work and raise a family. I look forward to voting for Bill 79, and I urge all members to support this important bill.

Further debate?

I want to thank the member from London from that question. The member doesn’t know that on December 12, 1985, my father died of asbestosis from being a welder at the Texaco refinery in Port Credit. It was difficult at the time, and I agree that workers’ compensation at the time was not how it is today. It is getting better, and we’re going to continue making it better.

We fought WSIB for 12 years, because my father was a smoker as well, but we were able to prove at the time that it was asbestosis that caused his death, and my mother—not me; I was young at the time—was able to get a settlement from WSIB at the time. But, like I said, it took us 12 years at that time, and I know today it’s much easier and much better how we’re doing things here in the province of Ontario.

Thank you for your presentation. I want to ask about—I’m very glad to see that some cancers are now being recognized as affecting firefighters. That’s terrific; it’s an important change. But I worry very much about the workers I know—I’ve been involved with the Thunder Bay injured workers support group for many years. There are workers who worked at the mill in Dryden. For many, many years, they’ve been waiting to have the neurological damage and lung damage recognized, but WSIB is still refusing to do that.

I’m wondering if you anticipate changing the direction of WSIB so that it’s really there for workers when they need it.

Questions? The member for Thunder Bay–Superior North.

Thank you to the member for his speech. It was greatly appreciated. As we all know, the changes to Employment Ontario are long overdue. This being said, we also know that we are going through a historic labour shortage right now. My question to the member is if you could please explain when this new Employment Ontario approach will be fully implemented and start helping people on social assistance across this province.

And migrant workers are also discriminated against in this province.

Yesterday, for the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, migrant injured farm workers called on the president of WSIB to end the discriminatory practices and called out specifically the racism around the physical, mental and emotional state of workers who have suffered a workplace injury but who are not receiving those supports.

“Following a workplace injury, many migrant injured workers are repatriated and forced to recover from their injuries back in the home country.... WSIB’s discriminatory practices make injured workers feel powerless by isolating them and breaking up injured worker communities....

“Their horrific experiences of improper health care support and the racist reality of the practice of ‘deeming’” still continues.

My question to the member from Mississauga–Lakeshore: Why do you think the Minister of Labour left this important and key issue out of Bill 79 when obviously it will impact worker shortages?