I am, of course, standing today to speak about the proposed Less Red Tape, Stronger Ontario Act.

It’s no unusual news to any of us here that red tape causes a significant amount of frustration, unnecessary expense and complications in everyday life, not just for governments, but for regular people in Ontario—for our non-profit organizations, individuals, families etc. It stops productivity, it reduces our economic competitiveness and development, and it also tends to put a chilling affect on innovation.

It’s a bit of a niche reference—but what’s the point of having the floor if you can’t throw in a niche reference here and there? I’m a big fan of Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. When I think about red tape, I’m reminded of the Vogons in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, which Adams describes as one of the most unpleasant populations in the galaxy due to their bureaucratic and officious nature. I’ll quote it directly: The Vogons “wouldn’t even lift a finger to save their own grandmothers from the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal without orders signed in triplicate, sent in, sent back, queried, lost, found, subjected to public inquiry, lost again, and finally buried in soft peat for three months and recycled as firelighters.” That sounds a lot like some of the red tape that we’ve been cutting through.

To go to another great, Oscar Wilde said, “The bureaucracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.” That is what we are trying to stop here.

It also reminds me of one of my favourite questions to ask when I meet with stakeholders or constituents. I’ll say, “We’ve talked about a lot of the big issues, the overarching academic issues. Now can you please tell me the little tiny thing about a government process that makes you want to bang your head against the wall? Because we don’t necessarily know about it, and we won’t be able to do anything about it unless you tell us.”

Really, that’s what this bill is—this bill is the result of the government having a very clear mandate and acting on that to consult, to learn, to listen and to identify those things that make people want to bang their heads against the wall. It’s about red tape. It’s about bureaucracy. It’s about not burying everything in soft peat and recycling it as firelighters.

I’m going to talk about a few of the parts of this bill that are of specific relevance to me, whether in my position in energy or some of my more personal interests and projects.

One of the aspects of this bill—I’m parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Energy—is about the leave-to-construct thresholds. Currently, under the Ontario Energy Board Act, the OEB will review leave-to-construct applications for these electricity transmission projects and will grant leave, or permission, to carry out the work if it’s in the public interest to do so, looking at the needs of the project, the proposals, their price etc.

Prior to what is set out in this bill—or what this bill will change, if passed—electricity transmission projects that are greater than two kilometres in length have to go through the leave-to-construct proceedings. That includes self-funded connection lines for generators as well as industrial load consumers such as electric vehicle battery manufacturing plants or mines that are trying to connect to the grid. My ministry, energy, has heard time and time again from businesses and various industry groups that this poses an unnecessary regulatory burden, as these projects don’t impact ratepayers, whereas reliability, quality etc., are assessed through other mechanisms. It’s important to understand that the costs associated with these proposed exempt projects are not recovered from electricity ratepayers; they are customer-funded. They also remain subject to any environmental assessment processes and other approvals, which is important to understand.

One of the things that’s so important about this simplification of the leave-to-construct procedures is, we’ve made it clear time and time again that Ontario’s economy is booming, and we want to keep it that way. Making Ontario a province that is attractive to companies choosing to come here, and attractive to companies that want to have a green initiative, is incredibly important.

I know it can sound dry to hear a Conservative yet again speaking about the economy, but the truth is, it is the economy and the workers and the taxpayers who provide all of the wonderful things that our province has to offer, including the projects that fund those who are struggling, those who are dealing with disease, those who are dealing with poverty and systemic inequalities. It’s through our economy, through attracting these businesses, that we become the type of province that is actually able to turn around and make sure that we are caring for Ontarians.

We’ve heard stories in the past about electricity concerns preventing investment in Ontario, and that’s really what we are focused on dealing with. This sort of minor change is a really important part of that, and something we should be proud of. As I said, it’s really an example of this government and of the ministry listening and paying attention. But the other aspect of that is, again, when I’m talking about making sure that we are attractive to businesses—this specific project about the leave to construct has a lot to do with electrification. Electrification is a really essential part of our journey to net zero and our environmental commitments. We won’t be able to get down to net-zero energy uses without these types of projects, without identifying these problems, focusing on them, and making sure that we are removing them. So, while it may sound like a somewhat dry topic, the leave to construct energy lines more than two kilometres—it’s actually an important fact, and it’s definitely evidence of this government listening.

I also want to talk a little bit about two other parts of this bill that have nothing to do with energy but that I find particularly heartening. One of those is the invitation to open the 1989 Veterinarians Act. We are dealing with a significant veterinarian shortage in this province that impacts everybody. It impacts our farmers and our agri-food sector, but it also impacts people like me who consider themselves “pet parents,” who have gone through the struggles of trying to find a veterinarian. We have veterinarians who are struggling or burning out. We have vet techs who are capable of a vast amount of care, who are incredibly skilled, intelligent, caring people, but who are limited by a very archaic—1989—definition of the stratification of work within the veterinary sphere. Once again, this is definitely an example of this government listening. I think the College of Veterinarians of Ontario, back in 2016 or 2017, put out a request for input from their own veterinarians. They’ve been working on some policy suggestions since then. This, again, is evidence of our government listening to that, listening to stakeholders and saying this is important—“Your opinions are important; your input is important”—and making sure that we are getting that.

Finally—these aren’t related, but it’s of interest to me, what this bill is proposing to do when it comes to the Provincial Offences Act and convictions in absentia. As many know, I was a crown attorney. I’ve worked in a couple of small jurisdictions where I was also a provincial offences prosecutor, so I prosecuted Highway Traffic Act offences. In the Highway Traffic Act, you can be convicted in absentia. A trial can be held without you; you can be convicted in your absence. With COVID, we had a very challenging balance between trying to keep cases moving while understanding that there were a lot of legitimate factors that might be preventing people from accessing court services, understanding the process was still ongoing, that type of thing.

What the case was until what’s proposed in this bill—if a conviction was registered, the only person who was able to essentially vacate that conviction was a justice of the peace, which put a huge amount of burden on our JPs, who are already extremely overtaxed by the sheer volume of cases in our Provincial Offences Court. What this proposes to do is to give the clerk of the court the authority—obviously, following the same process—to vacate that conviction, which is going to be incredibly helpful. That’s something that we did see a lot of during COVID. Again, I’m very pleased to see it, as it’s evidence of this government listening and learning.

I’m sorry we didn’t hear an answer to that interesting question, but maybe we will in the future. I think that’s important.

It’s really great to have an opportunity to hear some comments today on the Less Red Tape, Stronger Ontario Act, 2022. I have a completely different perspective on the act than the members opposite, at least from what I’ve heard today. Speaker, we all know red tape is something we are far too familiar with everywhere.

There was a great quote this morning from the member from Kitchener South–Hespeler about bureaucracy expanding, increasing—

That is exactly the case, and it’s really the result, often, of well-intended rules, regulations and policies that no longer serve their original purpose, because things do change over time, but instead cause unintended frustration, expense, delay and complications. It’s a barrier to economic productivity, competitiveness and innovation.

Speaker, if no action is taken to address red tape, it does have the tendency to grow uncontrollably, like in some horror movie. When we formed government in 2018, Ontario was being strangled, literally, by red tape: the largest regulatory burden of any province in Canada, according to the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. That’s why, since day one of the Ford government, our government has focused on removing outdated, unnecessary or redundant regulations that hold our province back.

Our government has passed eight red tape reduction bills and packages, consisting of more than 400 individual actions: bills that have contained common-sense changes such as eliminating licence plate renewal fees, making it easier for restaurants and bars to include alcohol with delivery and takeout orders and making it simpler to interact with government. These things are saving people and businesses time and money, and I would think everybody could support that.

Ontario’s total regulatory compliance requirements have been reduced by 6.5%. Businesses are saving more than half a billion dollars in compliance costs every year, and that’s money that they’re no longer spending to fill out government paperwork or comply with regulations that are duplicated across multiple levels of government.

Of course, there’s much more work to be done and our province continues to face big challenges. We continue to face supply chain disruptions that were made much worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, and we’re seeing seismic shifts in demand as the habits of people and businesses have changed. There are ongoing labour force shortages that are beginning to impact both day-to-day life and Ontario’s economy. In fact, two thirds of Ontario businesses report that their supply challenges have gotten worse this year, and more than one third of businesses say labour-related obstacles will limit their growth.

We know that government can and must play a supportive role to ensure well-functioning supply chains and solve challenges like those seen in the labour market. One of the best things we can do to achieve that is by continuing our efforts to reduce red tape.

With the time I have, I’d like to share some highlights from the package.

We’re launching the Grow Ontario strategy to strengthen Ontario’s food supply chain from farm to fork, building a stronger, more resilient agri-food sector that has a strong foundation to respond to future challenges. This strategy will outline actions to support consumers and farmers, promote the supply chain while increasing the commercialization and adoption of innovative technologies and practices that enhance competitiveness, increase productivity, and create economic growth.

To help protect road infrastructure during this time of year, the Highway Traffic Act provides local authorities the power to temporarily reduce vehicle axle weight limits. We’re giving municipalities a new option to optimize the timing of these reduced load periods, including shortening the period when conditions permit.

We’re making it easier to build electricity transmission lines that do not have a financial impact on ratepayers by exempting customer-funded projects from the Ontario Energy Board’s leave-to-construct process. With the proposed amendments to the act, proponents of these projects will continue to have the right to apply to the Ontario Energy Board to cross a highway, railway or utility line in circumstances where an agreement cannot be obtained.

We’re addressing barriers to the underground geologic storage of carbon by proposing to amend the Oil, Gas and Salt Resources Act. If passed, this will support industry and reduce red tape by creating a framework to regulate and enable the permanent storage of carbon as a new tool to help reduce Ontario’s greenhouse gas emissions. As future phases are advanced, innovation of carbon capture, use and storage technologies will be encouraged, playing an important role in managing emissions and producing low-carbon hydrogen.

We’re proposing to amend the Animal Health Act to provide authority to the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs to protect the health and well-being of the public and animals when faced with a potential animal health crisis. Proposed changes would enhance animal disease emergency preparedness, mitigate risks to animal health and human health, and boost the resiliency of Ontario’s livestock and poultry sector, ensuring Ontarians have a reliable, safe and stable food supply.

We’re starting a broad public consultation on the potential modernization of the Veterinarians Act to reduce compliance burdens for vets and practice owners. The proposed changes to the act would address the scope of practice, complaints and resolutions processes, quality assurance and governance of the college of veterinary medicine of Ontario.

We’re upgrading Ontario’s highway corridor management system to provide a seamless and integrated online platform for approvals and permits along provincial highways. Work is ongoing to allow applicants, including home builders and municipalities, to submit, track and receive all Ministry of Transportation approvals online, saving time and money.

We are increasing court capacity and efficiency to help address the COVID-19 backlog in criminal cases by temporarily increasing the limit on the number of days retired judges can work and allowing court clerks to reopen certain proceedings if they believe a defendant missed a notice or was unable to attend a meeting or hearing through no fault of their own.

We’re proposing amendments to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act that would improve the operational efficiency of that act and the board. This includes ensuring injured or ill apprentices receive loss-of-earnings benefits at the same amounts as a journeyperson would receive them, providing flexibility about when the WSIB board of directors must meet and ensuring requirements for governance documents and office lease transactions are consistent with and not duplicative of other government directives.

We’re reducing red tape by exempting certain hot tubs located in individual hotel rooms or suites for the exclusive use of a unit’s guests from the requirement of the public pools regulation, and this will reduce the regulatory burden for hotel operators while ensuring guests continue to enjoy a safe stay.

We’re providing authority to local medical officers of health to order rabies testing for deceased animals if they were under observation when they passed.

This is also another important innovation: We’re enacting changes to the Mandatory Blood Testing Act to allow victims of crime, first responders and emergency personnel who are sometimes exposed to bodily substances to receive faster processing of their tests. We’re proposing other changes as well.

Finally, I’d like to say that we’re proposing a new act and associated regulation-making authorities that, if passed, would confirm the continuation of the corporate status of the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, retroactive to January 1, 2020.

All of these initiatives, I think, are helpful to the people of Ontario, will make it easier to interact with government and will reduce the red tape burden. I think everybody should support them, so I’m hoping everyone will get together with me and do that. I look forward to any questions.

The bureaucracy is expanding to support the needs of the expanding bureaucracy.

Alexis de Tocqueville, speaking about democracy in America, spoke about the administrative bureaucracy, saying it’s like a “sovereign power” that “extends its arms over the entire society; it covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated, minute and uniform rules, which the most original minds and vigorous souls cannot break through to go beyond the crowd; it does not break wills, but it softens them, bends them and directs them”—

It’s a pleasure to join this discussion today on Bill 46, An Act to enact one Act and amend various other Acts. It’s the first red tape bill that our new Minister of Red Tape Reduction has brought forward, but I doubt very much that it will be the last, because it is something that we are absolutely seized on, on this side of the House.

And it didn’t start here. I’ve been around long enough to remember when former Premier Mike Harris was elected in 1995. He saw a province that had been governed by the party on the other side here for five years, and saw the absolute growth in red tape in the province of Ontario and what a constricting effect it was having on businesses and people in the province of Ontario.

I know they might get upset with me here, but socialists love red tape and bureaucracy. They absolutely love it. I’m not sure how they’re going to vote on this bill, but I’m sure they’re kind of conflicted because the people out there, they get it. Government is too big. It stands in the way of progress. Every time you talk to somebody on the street and you ask them, “How is this going?”—it could be their project to build a new home, it could be a project to build something in the community, it could be a public institution that’s going to be built in the community—the first thing they’ll say is, “I can’t believe the amount of regulations we’ve got to go through to get that done. It’s absolutely ridiculous.” You talk about other jurisdictions that get things done in a quarter of the time.

This bill is not going to fix all of it, but it does speak to the philosophy and the belief of this government and its members that we can do better. We can make Ontario much better by getting on with moving forward and not standing in the way.

I do want to appreciate the Oscar Wilde quote from the member for Kitchener South–Hespeler earlier today—I don’t have it in front of me—that the bureaucracy is expanding to serve the needs of the expanding bureaucracy. It may not be exactly the quote, but it certainly paraphrases it. That’s what happens as governments get bigger and bigger and bigger. The bureaucracy becomes more and more unwieldy, and the people aren’t even actually able to understand what a blockade it can be.

So you have to have a government that actually takes the position that we are going to remove some of that unnecessary regulation. I don’t know if there’s an actual definition out there, but to me, red tape should be defined as “unnecessary regulation that impedes the ability of society to move forward in a progressive and beneficial manner”—something to that effect; that’s my own definition.

But the members on the other side—while listening to this debate, I have to ask myself, do they really want to debate Bill 46, or do they want to regurgitate something else? Because I heard more about Bill 23 today than I heard about Bill 46. But there’s a news flash for you folks over there: We actually passed Bill 23. It’s now done. But I think youse are a bit conflicted on Bill 46. You actually barely want to speak to it.

With that in mind, Speaker, I move that the question now be put.