Thank you to the member from Scarborough Southwest for her remarks.

Madam Speaker, we know that men and women who serve our country in the reserve forces are heroes, and I always say that you stay awake so that we can sleep well. So thank you for your incredible work.

Ontario is home to 1,100 reserve forces members. When they’re abroad or serving domestically, keeping our country safe, the last thing they should be worried about is whether their job will be there when they get back or not.

I had the opportunity to meet Rick Hillier, the Canadian Forces head, and we were talking about it. He said that this is the move which will support our reservists and make them proud of being Canadian and working and helping the community.

My question is very simple to the member: What would you say to Mr. Hillier about this bill? Are you going to support it? And what else can we do to support our reservists?

I really wish that my colleague, who I had the chance to raise the flag of Bangladesh with, actually listened to the first part of my speech, because I spent a significant portion going through each and every single schedule, highlighting it for anyone watching—and anyone in this House as well—because I felt it was necessary because many people may not have had a chance to understand what this legislation highlights. One of the things that I thanked the government for was making sure that we have health—physical health but especially mental health—supports accessible, especially to those who protect us, those who work hard and make sure that we are protected as well, and for them to be able to have that mental health support faster.

One of the pieces that I do have a question about—and maybe you can talk to the Minister of Labour about it and we can take it to committee and amend it—is how we are making sure that people who are part-time, who don’t have that seniority, are also included in there as well so that they have the ability to know exactly if there is a mass termination and what’s going on.

You’re absolutely right: We need to have the protections, we need to have penalties for any employer that’s harming any employee, but we also have to make sure that we protect those workers to be able to do their jobs without facing hurdles in coming forward and actually reporting something like this, which does not exist—

To your point—and thank you for the opposition’s statement—like many of us in the House, I’m privileged to have some very hard-working and dedicated firefighters in my riding. Firefighters die of cancer at a rate four times higher than the general population. On average, 50 to 60 firefighters die of cancer yearly in Canada, and half of those are from Ontario.

Will the member please support our proposal to expand WSIB to expand presumptive coverage?

Thank you to the member from Oshawa for your remarks. The member from Oshawa was talking about the announcements. She talked, I’m guessing, about what our government is doing for job-protected leave for military reservists, expanding cancer coverage for firefighters, enhancing fines to protect workers, cleaner washrooms on construction sites, remote work protection and making sure we are preparing students for skilled trade jobs and helping newcomers.

My question to the member opposite is very simple: Do you support these initiatives taken by the government to support our workers?

I want to thank the member for Orléans for what I would say was a pretty balanced approach to what is and isn’t in Bill 79, contrary to what I heard from the New Democrats earlier, where they wanted to go back for 20 years and a litany of things that they don’t like. Because, you see, they have abandoned workers in this province, but we’re supporting workers in this province. And I appreciate what the member for Orléans had to say about the positive aspects of this bill, because no bill can address everything, otherwise they’d be that thick. But this bill is about supporting workers and also making sure that Ontario has the workforce to see that we can advance and progress over the next several years and the next number of decades.

So you did talk about the flooding in 2019 and your support for reservists, and I couldn’t agree with you more. Can you elaborate a little more on some of the aspects of that part of the bill that you find really positive and will be really good for families that have someone serving in the reserves?

It is surprising many times when I see two people on one thing thinking differently—some people like sugar, some people like salt. But, here, when the member from Orléans started the conversation, he started with saying, “Oh, this is Working for Workers Act 3,” and he talked about this lack of creativity on deciding the name of the bill. But, Madam Speaker, I think it’s exactly the opposite. I think it is the commitment for the worker, that is why we kept Working for Workers Act 3. So I just wanted to share this.

But my question again to the member is the same. This bill protects leave for military reservists, it’s expanding cancer coverage for firefighters, it’s enhancing the fines to protect workers, it is making sure there are clean washrooms on construction sites, and it is providing work protection. So this bill is actually working for workers. To the member opposite: Do you not support this?