Thank you to my colleague from Kitchener South–Hespeler for the wonderful presentation.

Madam Speaker, my colleague from Peterborough–Kawartha mentioned the more than 350,000 regulations and the regulatory burden on businesses, impacting our businesses.

This red tape reduction bill is trying to make things easier for our small businesses, fairly clearly.

There are over 1,800 small businesses in my riding of Markham–Thornhill.

I’d like to thank the minister for introducing this bill, and our government and our Premier.

My question to my colleague: You passionately talked about the energy industry. How would this proposed bill bring changes to the energy industry?

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 That’s why, since day one of the Ford government, our government has focused on removing outdated, unnecessary or redundant regulations that hold our province back.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.