I like to say that I’m in the productive middle and there are the fringe corners on either side of this side—because our government is so big that we span that entire side as well as a large chunk of this side of the House.

There are so many things that are in this red tape reduction bill that are going to help so many different businesses. I’ll touch on two of them.

If you’re doing jury duty, for example—if you get called to that, not having to waste your time filling out paper forms for it, being able to go on and do it electronically at your ease, at your comfort, is one of those things. It doesn’t sound like it’s a big deal, but all of those small things start to add up.

On the agriculture side: Our Grow Ontario Strategy is something that’s not only going to help agriculture, it’s not only going to help husbandry and livestock, but everyone who consumes all of those. There’s an expression in Ontario that one in eight work in agriculture, but I can guarantee you, eight out of every eight people eat what comes from agriculture.

The NDP can virtue-signal all they’d like. They can throw out all kinds of different things to distract from the great work that we’re doing.

This is one of those bills that will make a positive difference for the people of Ontario. This is one of those bills that will reduce the cost of doing business, which will reduce the cost to every single person in this province. This is one of those things that’s a good-news story.

I’m sorry that the NDP doesn’t want to talk about the good things that this government is doing for the people of this province.

Interjections.

It’s a pleasure to rise today, on behalf of the people I represent in London West, to participate in this debate on Bill 46. Just so people understand the context, this bill is part of a red tape package of measures that the government just introduced, which includes 28 different initiatives; some are legislative, some are more policy-related. Given the limited time I have this morning, I just want to highlight a couple of those measures that are included in the red tape package, and specifically, the ones that are of most concern to the people of London West.

One of the initiatives that the government has announced with this bill is the Grow Ontario Strategy. We heard the Minister of Agriculture talk about the strategy as the province’s plan to build consumer confidence and support farmers and Ontario’s food supply.

I have to say that there are a lot of concerns about what this government is doing, in fact, to undermine Ontario’s food supply and to undermine the ability of farmers to continue to feed the people in this province.

As we know from the committee hearings on Bill 23, Ontario is one of the few jurisdictions that actually is able to produce surplus food so that it can be sent to other jurisdictions to help feed people.

A couple of days ago, we all received a media release from the Ontario Federation of Agriculture showing that more than 50,000 people have signed on to the OFA’s campaign to support farmers and Ontario’s food supply, which they are calling the Home Grown campaign. They are highlighting the fact that every day in this province we are losing 319 acres of farmland. That is equivalent to losing nine family farms every week—and the reason we are losing this is because of the policies that are brought forward by this government. We have seen, over the last five years, a doubling of the rate of farmland loss that is occurring in this province. That is not the way to support farmers and ensure that Ontario has a sustainable food supply.

On the one hand, the government is announcing a Grow Ontario Strategy, but on the other hand, they’re opening up the greenbelt, they’re paving over farmland, they are bulldozing forward with the 413, and all of these initiatives are going to continue to expedite the loss of farmland in this province.

The next feature of this bill that I want to comment on is the commitment to open up the Veterinarians Act. I did want to give a shout-out to Dr. Martha Harding, a London veterinarian who established the East Village Animal Hospital. That East Village Animal Hospital now has locations not just in London, but also in Kitchener and Sudbury and Hamilton. Dr. Harding runs the East Village Animal Hospital as a veterinary service that low-income people can take their pets to to get very low-cost basic veterinarian services. One of the barriers that Dr. Harding has encountered in providing this service is that, currently in Ontario, there is no ability for a veterinary clinic to be registered as a non-profit. There are a lot of people across the province who would like to support veterinary clinics like the East Village Animal Hospital, to provide those low-cost services to people on low income. Everyone should have access to a pet. We know the benefits of pets. We hear of low-income people who have to surrender their pets because they can’t afford the veterinary fees. So I urge the government to look at introducing that non-profit status for veterinary clinics like the East Village Animal Hospital.

I also want to comment on one of the schedules of this bill that temporarily allows retired judges to work longer in the court system. This is in schedule 4. It allows retired former provincial judges serving on a part-time basis to go from 50% of full-time service to 75% of full-time service, but that is only until April 2024, I believe.

In London, we have a crisis in both Small Claims Court and in civil courts. I heard from a labour lawyer in London who uses the Small Claims Court many times to pursue wrongful dismissal cases on behalf of workers in the community. He said, “I have a case where the claim was filed in 2019, a settlement conference was held pre-COVID and, for over two years since, it has been radio silence from the court.”

The Small Claims Courts are simply not able to deal with the huge backlog that has grown, and as a result, people are not getting justice through the Small Claims Court process. I have concerns that schedule 2, allowing retired provincial judges to serve a little bit more time in the courts, is not going to effectively deal with that backlog in our court system—and it’s not just Small Claims Court; it’s also the civil courts.

Earlier this fall, we had a number of prominent lawyers from almost every single major law firm in the city of London write to the Attorney General, Doug Downey, to urge him to take action on the trial backlog in the civil courts in London and southwestern Ontario. They pointed out that the regional senior justice declared in a ruling that trials of over two weeks have no prospect of being heard until late 2024. They gave some examples of the consequences of the backlog in the civil court system. They said, “A business making $50 million a year with dozens of employees failed because the court could not find time to hear a dispute about the ownership and control of the business....

“A small business was lost while a contracted dispute remained unresolved.”

Clearly, dealing with the backlog in the civil court system is something that would—that is red tape reduction that would really help businesses move forward.

These lawyers who sent this letter to the Attorney General have called for a couple of things. They’ve called for two more Superior Court justices to be appointed to the regional court and two more justices to London specifically to deal with civil matters. They also argue in support of a specific earmarked civil legal aid fund. We know that the cuts to legal aid have really had a major impact on people’s ability to pursue justice through the courts.

In the limited time I have left, I want to highlight the irony of this government saying that it is moving forward with red tape reduction when other things that they are doing are adding red tape. They are adding barriers to businesses and municipalities in the province. I want to use the example of Bill 23. We had a letter from the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority, and they pointed out that when “municipalities are prohibited from seeking advice from conservation authorities, they will need to acquire additional resources and expertise related to natural heritage review, protection and management to replace the substantial technical and science expertise provided by conservation authorities. This will increase costs and delay development.”

So on the one hand, the government says they’re all about red tape reduction—they’re bringing forward this bill—but other bills like Bill 23 have actually added red tape and added barriers to businesses in the province.

Second reading debate deemed adjourned.

My question is to the Minister of Agriculture.

Ontario loses 319 acres of farmland every day to development—319 acres that will never ever grow food again. Now the government is trying to pave over the greenbelt as well, and farmers are concerned. The three farm organizations that represent almost every farmer in this province have written an open letter to the Premier expressing that fact. I’d like to quote from that letter: “These losses are not sustainable and will become increasingly worse with the overreaching effects of Bill 23, More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022.”

My question to the minister is, does she agree with the farmers of Ontario that farmland loss at this rate is unsustainable?

I have asked this question several times and have yet to hear the minister say the word “farmland.” Does she actually represent farmers at the cabinet table—to say the word “farmland”?

As I mentioned in my remarks this morning, one of the primary concerns of people in Ontario—and we know that from the support that the Ontario Federation of Agriculture is getting for its homegrown farmland preservation campaign—is to preserve farmland.

So this member can talk about the number of regulations that have been reduced, but on this side, we want to highlight the fact that 319 acres of farmland is being lost in this province every day, and that is undermining our self-sufficiency as a food-producing jurisdiction. It is undermining food security for people in this province. It is undermining the sustainability of our agriculture and rural industry, and it’s affecting our environment when you see that level of loss of farmland on a daily basis in this province.