It’s my pleasure to talk about this red tape bill, because there are ways that we always try to work with government despite the, “We’re always opposing, we’re not proposing”—we certainly are.

We like to have things work smoothly here on this side of the House, and my background is insurance. Insurance is all about systems and how to operate systems so that you get the best performance out of your work. Last night, Intact was here, if anyone went to the reception. I didn’t get an opportunity to meet with Intact, but they talked about many efficiencies, and I encouraged them to put those things forward to the government and not to be shy or reserved about it. Because sometimes when we’re looking to make changes to systems, we have to open up all topics to talk about those things to make sure that we get the best result.

In this case, the government’s intention is to try to cut some red tape to make things better, and there are some things in here that they put through that, you know, some of it makes sense, right? But when we talk about things, what people are looking for today—families are struggling in my riding of London–Fanshawe. There are so many issues that are top of mind, and I have to say that—every piece of legislation is important. It changes people’s lives. There are things that come to my riding that people really want to see done. They want systems changed so that their life is better, and a system such as health care is one of those things that I hear about every day. There’s nothing on health care in this red tape bill.

I want to read an email from a resident that I got just recently, at the end of November. She said, “I’m a resident in the east end of London, Ontario”—that’s my riding that I represent. “Today, while I continue to scour the Web for a family physician, I was brought to a web page that told me that if I had been on the Ontario physician wait-list for an extended amount of time, to then contact a member of Parliament for my district. I’m not sure what amount of time classifies as an extended period of time. However, myself and both my children have been on the wait-list since 2016 or 2017, and still nothing. Thank you for your time, and hopefully there’s something you can do to help us with this relentless journey.”

Here is a system in our Legislature, in our province—a health care system that we all rely on. It’s not to say that we don’t rely on some of these pieces that have come in this red tape bill, but we’re all going to use the health care system. We have the paramedics here today. They know how important it is for that system to work when they pick up their patients, when they pick up that 911 call and bring them to the emergency room. That system is broken. We’ve heard from paramedics that it takes hours—20 hours, so long—and they’re stuck in that hospital area waiting to pass on their patient. That’s a system that I think we need to look at and fix, because there are 911 calls not being answered and people are not getting help.

I mentioned a constituent recently whose wife had fallen twice in the last couple of months. He called 911, and they were waiting for hours. In one of the incidents, a repairman was able to help them, so they cancelled that 911 call.

So it’s no fault of the paramedics, it’s no fault of the people calling 911; it’s the system. The health care system needs to be fixed, and it has been broken for decades.

I urge this government, as they’re looking through red tape and as they’re coming out with schedules—I think there are eight in this act here—to take the same diligence to look at the systems that are affecting people’s health care, affecting the wait times for paramedics to get to their calls and then drop off their patients, do that patient transfer, and to limit that or minimize that amount so they can go back to doing what they’re supposed to be doing—to a wait time for someone who has been on the wait-list since 2016-17, and then to be told on a website to contact your member of provincial Parliament. Those are the systems that we need to focus on.

But here we are, today, talking about different red tape systems, and that’s fine. That’s where the government wants to take the time of the Legislature. I respect that. They have a right to set their agenda.

One of the things that we’ve been talking about is the Courts of Justice Act that extends the time of judges. I met with the Ontario trial lawyers as well. These are civil cases, but they talked about how there were not enough judges to hear their cases, and they wanted an option of asking for juries in civil cases. That’s not in here. They’re talking about how jurors will be selected to make that system work better for jury selection, most likely, obviously, in criminal cases. When we’re talking about a court system and judges in civil cases—there’s not enough of them. The Ontario trial lawyers told us that this is causing a problem, and the ones I was speaking to directly said it was about insurance injury claims—so delays and delays, which is costing the person who’s injured, which is costing the system, a lot of heartache.

So if there’s an option to choose juries as opposed to the judge having to hear it over and over again, finding those judges—and as I said, there’s a shortage of judges—in every sector we’ve been hearing, people are retiring and they’re not infilling the new people coming in. So in this case, we’re talking about having retired judges come in and work more hours to try to clear the backlog. And that is a solution. I have to say it is a solution. But the other part they could also consider is hiring new judges, because that’s not going to solve the problem, from what I’ve heard, in the civil part. And I know with criminal court, with provincial courts, it’s also an issue. So let’s get new judges, young judges who are coming on and who are very much aware of different issues in society—one of them being the Internet and cyber, right?

So it’s not terrible, like I say, to allow judges to come out of retirement or add in more hours, but we could be looking at other ways to supplement that and hire new judges to fill the ones that are retiring and making sure we have enough judges to put those court cases through in a timely fashion.

And when we talk about systems, again—I don’t know if you guys have heard about the Landlord and Tenant Board; that is destroyed. It’s so broken. It’s so broken not only for tenants but for small landlords. I know you were on that call with SOLO, the Ontario small landlords association. They’re representing small landlords, because—for an example, I had a constituent come into my office. They live in the basement, they’re renting the main floor, and they’re having to wait eight months for a hearing. So tenants who are facing issues with their landlord are having to wait eight months, in a system that is completely destroyed and broken. Small landlords, like the example I used where the couple lives in the basement and they have the rented upstairs, are having to wait eight months, if not longer, to get a hearing.

So these kinds of systems are broken, and I wish this government would, again, not just hire adjudicators in the Landlord and Tenant Board, but look at other ways we can look at the backlog, because small landlords and big corporate landlords are two different entities, and maybe those are pieces of a system that we can help clear that backlog.

Speaker, the other part of systems and red tape that they were talking about is the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Corporation Act. Again, this is acknowledging that when the OSPCA enforcement was ended in 2019, there was a bit of a technical issue, and now they’ve corrected that so that the society can then be incorporated.

And I want to thank all the farmers in Ontario for all the work that they do.

There are a lot of publications, Speaker, that come into our office. Every day we get magazines and reports from many stakeholders, lobbyists that come here, and I want to let them know that we really appreciate the actual ones that come in my mail, because I do look at them, especially when there’s legislation that can relate to these publications that we get into our office.

I just want to point out that the Beef Farmers of Ontario, who sent the publication, were at Queen’s Park this year, and it was their 15th annual barbecue at Queen’s Park.

We all know that the government has a new strategy for sustainability around agriculture, and, again, I hope that they’re listening to the beef farmers.

They captured our MPP Sol Mamakwa—if no one’s seen the magazine—in one of the articles here, but this is one of the things they put in the article. They said, “In speaking with MPPs, BFO requested a review of the PAWS Act as it relates to enforcement on farms and removal and seizure of livestock in partnership with agricultural stakeholders.”

Again, we have discussions with groups that come here, with lobbyists, with stakeholders that want to give feedback and solutions or criticisms to a system that we set up, to legislation that we put forward, and they’re looking for solutions. I hope that this government is working with the Beef Farmers of Ontario to listen to them, to correct—