It’s always a privilege and an honour to take my place and stand at my seat on behalf of the good people of Algoma–Manitoulin.

I want to start my comments this afternoon by asking a question to the government. This bill is entitled Less Red Tape, Stronger Ontario Act. I want to put a question, and I’m going to end with the same question in my comments that I’m going to be bringing in this afternoon: Does this government look at First Nations as being red tape? I’ll come back to that question at the end of my comments that I’ll be making this afternoon.

I do want to go through a few of the schedules that I do want to put some comments on. I want to talk a little bit about schedules 1 and 4, but most of my comments that I’ll be making today will be on schedule 5. There’s some concerns that I see there, and I want to raise those concerns because there’s certainly some issues that I have there.

I want to go to schedule 1, and I’ll cover schedule 4 at the same time. Bill 46 has been marketed by the government as taking measures to aid farmers and protect Ontario foods. However, they are basically tinkering around the edges with this particular piece of legislation. They are not taking on the larger challenges identified by industry groups as major hurdles to Ontario’s agricultural market.

The Ontario beef farmers have asked the government to take steps to support their industry by—the government calls it red tape, but these are really big steps and big milestones that the industry has been asking for, for a very long time, which are increasing investment in the risk management program to help protect the province’s food security, that’s one; to review the PAWS Act and examine farm inspections and enforcement practices employed under the act, there’s another one; and preserving farm and grazing lands through land use policies that see agricultural lands protected.

Now, the member from Timiskaming–Cochrane and many of our members have raised it often in the House, and let’s put the number out there: 319 acres of land are being lost every single day. That’s 319 acres of farmland that are being lost each and every day in this province. The government just removed protection on thousands of acres of farmland, which is a direct attack on the industry’s long-term future for Ontario.

Now I want to take some time and look at schedule 5. The things I want to cover under schedule 5, in the short time that I have left, are: Schedule 5 is eliminating the prohibition of deep geological carbon storage. It’s also opening up the path to storage in ground; however, it’s also being used to extract natural gas. I want to touch on this a bit.

The third thing that I want to talk about is that they’re opening up a process to crown land which—crown land is a colonial way of saying “treaty lands.” And I go back to the initial questions that I put to this government: Do you see First Nations communities as red tape? Do you see First Nations communities as stakeholders? And why is it that we’re seeing legislation such as this as an afterthought, that now we’re going to go back and consult with First Nations on treaty lands? We’re getting that wrong. These discussions should take place prior to the legislation coming into the House.

Now, on point number two, what I wanted to do is touch on a few things. This is an article in a paper, Narwhal. It says, “Critics of carbon capture technology see investments like those in the Prairies and argue it’s simply a way to prolong the lifespan of an industry that needs to put itself out of business if the world is to survive.”

It also goes on to say, “The push for government funding”—and again, the funding is coming from the federal government, but the province is opening up legislation here to permit this to happen—“also comes as oil and gas companies are pulling in big profits, and spending the windfall on stock buybacks and increased dividends for investors....

“Even those who support carbon capture technology”—one of the speakers—“including Chris Severson-Baker, the Alberta director of the Pembina Institute, don’t want an excess of public money invested in an industry that is ‘likely to decline in the not too distant future.’”

He also goes on to say, “These projects, at scale, are not cheap.... Most require significant public funding to make financial sense.... costs, including sourcing good storage areas, could become more expensive.” And he goes on to say, “the average cost of a big project in Canada is currently $1 billion for a megatonne per year of reductions.”

I’m just briefly touching upon some of the highlights that were in this article: “‘We think there’s definitely sources of [carbon dioxide] that could be captured in the upstream oil and gas sector, in the oilsands, today, but it’s not as extensive as the companies claim.’”

He also goes on to finish this article: “The injection of carbon into deep aquifers requires monitoring to ensure that carbon doesn’t escape for a very long time. He noted there might need to be a fund to manage that liability.”

So under schedule 5, we will allow for carbon dioxide to be injected into the bedrock as a form of sequestration: “Carbon capture ... and storage essentially means any technology that removes carbon from industrial processes and ... stores it deep underground ...

“Captured carbon can also be used for what’s called enhanced oil recovery, where the carbon is injected into old wells in order to increase pressure and force more oil or gas to the surface. The carbon is then stored in the wells. It’s a less carbon-intensive way of getting to the oil, but it’s still using carbon to access sources of, well, more carbon.”

Environmental groups have criticized carbon capture as a form of greenwashing during a time of climate crisis, allowing oil and gas companies to justify extracting more fossil fuels. According to the industry proponents, “There need to be more regulations put in place to oversee the expansion of carbon capture, utilization and storage, particularly when it comes to pore space and monitoring.” And the government has removed the prohibition of carbon capture on crown lands. These are treaty lands, and the government has not demonstrated any consultation with First Nations, Métis or other Indigenous groups about this change. So I come back to the question that I initially asked: Does the government look at Indigenous communities, Métis, Inuit and First Nations, as red tape? Well, if I look at this bill and compare it to the actions this government is doing, one would have to extract and say yes, because they are completely leaving them out of the decision process or engagement process.

These crown lands that this government is going to be tampering with and opening up is a colonial way of saying “treaty lands.” Let’s be straight about that, Speaker. There is a responsibility from this government to have meaningful consultation with First Nations, Indigenous communities, Inuit and Métis people, and they’re not doing that. They’re looking at them as being an obstacle.

I may be wrong. I’m hoping that someone from the government will steer me in the right direction and show me differently. But when legislation comes to this House—and this is not the first piece of legislation that came to this House and is in this format and denies and does not take—this government does not take the time to meaningfully participate, engage with the First Nations community leaders. It leads me to believe that this government exactly does that: They look at First Nations across this province as red tape. They look at them as being stakeholders. And I tell this government, you will have a lot of an easier time passing legislation if you sit and have meaningful discussions with Indigenous communities.