Opposition, complaining—to every action, they are going to complain, but that does not mean we should stop taking action. That is why this bill, if passed, will streamline processes and modernize outdated practices of government in multiple sectors across Ontario. It will increase our competitiveness, strengthen the provincial supply chain, grow our labour force, support farmers and agribusinesses, and make interaction with government services easier. That’s what we are doing here: We are reducing red tape.

If we want to achieve sustainable growth, it is essential to remember Newton’s three laws of motion. Start by applying a force—the first keyword is “start;” if you will not do it, it will not happen. Once you’ve got the motion going, keep driving it and driving it hard. That’s what this ministry is doing. That’s what this government is doing. Finally, always be ready to counteract any opposition that you might face. When leaders stop rowing, the boat stops moving, so if you want to make sure to grow our Ontario, we need to keep working, irrespective of the opposition we may face, and that is what we are doing through this bill.

The burdensome red tape and overregulation, as many of my colleagues talked about, are costing an average of $33,000, one of the highest in North America. That’s $4,000 more than any province in Canada, but thankfully we have a government, we have a member of this caucus who is standing strong and making sure those dark days are now behind us. We will continue to fight, and we will continue to work together.

Since 2018, under the leadership of Premier Ford, we took significant action to reduce red tape by making a plan to remove unnecessary, redundant and outdated regulations that are holding our businesses back. Over the past five years, we reduced Ontario’s regulatory compliance requirements by 6.5%.

Interjection: It’s a good start.

The actions we took saved businesses, not-for-profit organizations, school boards and hospitals $576 million annually. As I said earlier, when you reduce costs, businesses become sustainable, they want to invest more, and they grow more. And when they grow more, they prosper. What prospers with them is our province and our Ontarians.

We’ve made great progress, and this progress has been achieved through common-sense changes that save both time and money. I’ll give you an example. We passed eight high-impact pieces of red tape reduction since 2018. We took more than 400 burden-reducing actions. And guess what? It was all without compromising health, safety and/or the environment.

The result, Madam Speaker? Through these changes, we’ve been able to reduce—for an example, in July 2020, the Legislature passed the COVID-19 Economic Recovery Act to help address infrastructure backlogs for businesses and communities. We cut red tape by modernizing and streamlining a 50-year-old environmental assessment process. What happened? It reduced the timeline for many projects from six years to three years, and a greater number of important infrastructure projects are now able to move forward without unnecessary delays.

I’ll give another example: We live in the 21st century, yet our high school students were still required to submit their important diploma requirements through paper. When we made that change, it saved time and frustration for students and administrators alike. As a part of the Supporting Recovery and Competitiveness Act, we helped students digitally submit their forms on community involvement activities.

Madam Speaker, every time I talk about community involvement—I just want to take a moment to talk about that. On Saturday, November 26, my wife, Aruna Anand, and I had the opportunity and pleasure to attend the centennial celebration of Pramukh Swami Maharaj, organized by BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha. To commemorate his precious words, “In the joy of others lies our own.”

December 7 marks Pramukh Swami Maharaj’s, creator of BAPS mandir, 100th birthday. It was held at International Centre in Mississauga–Malton and attended by thousands of devotees. I want to say thank you to BAPS for your Ontario spirit.

Madam Speaker, by the way, do you know who joined me? It was Minister McNaughton, along with his wife, the famous political wife Ms. Kate Bartz, so I want to say thank you to them as well.

Today is also the Shaheedi Diwas, the martyr anniversary of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, the ninth Sikh guru, who gave his life to protect human rights. Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji’s priceless thoughts are:

—respect for all beings is the foundation of non-violence;

—outside of our thoughts, fear does not exist;

—show empathy for all living things because hate causes destruction; and

—great things are composed of small things.

Even after almost 350 years, his teachings remain highly relevant to today’s society. We cannot thank Guru Ji enough for his sacrifice and service to humanity.

Madam Speaker, I also want to mention that it is already November 29 in India, and soon, it will be the 29th here. This is the day when my father, Sardari lal Anand, a person full of life, left us for his heavenly journey. Born in 1940 in Gujranwala, he was always at the forefront in helping community members, especially helping countless families through bathing the deceased person, a ritual done before cremation. He always believed in providing the help before it is asked, and I just want to take a moment and thank my father for his teaching of the art of giving. I just want to say, Papa, you left us with a void that can never be filled.

And I am thankful to the person who has shown the most strength in the last three years, Madam Speaker, and that is my mother, Santosh Anand. My deepest gratitude and thanks to my mother for being so strong and providing strength to all of us.

Madam Speaker, nothing in life is permanent. I want to give you an example of a hidden gem of Malton, Carlton Chambers. Carlton won a gold medal in the Commonwealth Games in 1994, Olympic gold medal in 1996, world champion in 1997. He’s in the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame, 2004; Mississauga Sports Council Hall of Fame, 2005; Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame, 2006; Athletics Ontario Hall of Fame, 2010; Brampton Sports Hall of Fame, 2016. However, a car accident aggravated his groin, troubling him for the remainder of his career, and he never regained his previous Olympic form and retired. Despite the sudden end, he remains the national high school Canadian record holder.

With the athletic track being built in Malton, I hope this will give Carlton Chambers the opportunity to support the local talent. The last many years have been tough for you, and I hope, Carlton, that God will give you the strength to come back and help our youth.

Madam Speaker, back to the bill: We are taking the whole-of-government approach to reducing red tape with 28 measures from 11 ministries, including actions to drive efficiencies within the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. As the parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, it is my honour to work alongside the skilled trade professionals and knowledge experts to help ensure that Ontario works better for people and smarter for businesses. We are making sure that Ontarians have better jobs and bigger paycheques.

The proposed piece of legislation would amend the WSIB, Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, to eliminate administrative burdens when reviewing, renewing or extending lease agreements for the WSIB offices. It is important to know that these potential changes would not apply to the acquisition or disposal of the property, nor would they eliminate government oversight.

The act would update current requirements of the WSIB to ensure they are consistent with other government directives. Right now, WSIB is required to provide both a five-year strategic plan along with an annual business plan spanning three to five years. This is a perfect example of burdensome red tape: Requiring the WSIB to provide both a strategy and business plan is duplicative and only leads to more costs and delays.

To ensure a better and greater responsiveness, we are proposing greater legislative flexibility to the WSIB to align with other large agencies like Metrolinx, the Ontario Energy Board, and Ontario Health. By modernizing and updating the governance structure of the WSIB, we are supporting Ontario’s overall red tape reduction efforts to streamline outdated practices that no longer serve a purpose. With the Less Red Tape, Stronger Ontario Act, we are continuing to meet this commitment.

Madam Speaker, what does that mean really? It means with less red tape, should the unfortunate need arise, we are proposing to give WSIB the ability to determine all injured apprentices’ average earnings be equal to those of a journeyman employed by the same employer in the same trade, for the purpose of calculating loss of earnings. It means that an apprentice would benefit from full earning potential if they were injured.

Not only that, this change also supports Ontario’s prosperity and economic recovery and aligns with our continued commitment to people and workers. Madam Speaker, I truly believe that all we’re doing here is helping our businesses and making sure that we are sustainable. We have seen that by reducing the red tape, there are many, many organizations who have invested into Ontario, and I just want to give you some of the examples of organizations: Borrowell, Wealthsimple, Equinox Gold, Pfizer, Bombardier, Nestlé, Square, Oracle, Fujitsu—all these organizations are making investments because we are making sure that we are reducing the red tape, we are reducing the cost of doing business.

Again, Madam Speaker, when we reduce the cost of doing business, we’re making sure that the organization becomes sustainable. They can take this extra money and reinvest back into their businesses and can grow their businesses. Together, when they grow the business, our Ontario grows as well.

In conclusion, Madam Speaker, red tape reduction is in high demand. Site Selection Magazine, an internationally circulated business publication, not too long ago awarded Ontario the Canadian Competitiveness Award for the fourth consecutive year, and it was primarily because of the factor of our commitment to red tape reduction.

The proposed legislation will reduce administrative burden and costs in matters linked to 11 ministries through new practices and updates to the old acts.

Let’s not forget that members of the general public also benefit when businesses can grow and thrive. A competitive business climate created through the reduction of red tape brings economic growth, jobs and new investment to our wonderful Ontario.

Minister of Red Tape Reduction and PA for the Minister of Red Tape Reduction, I want to acknowledge you’re doing an incredible job. You have started a broad public consultation on the potential modernization of countless acts. So I encourage everyone: Please come forward, join us, join the moment and participate in this consultation. Your valuable consultation will help the ministry and your government to give back more to the communities we live in so that we have a stronger, more prosperous Ontario.

Speaker, I will be voting in favour of this tremendous piece of legislation, and I’m looking forward—both sides of the aisle, let’s come together and let’s rise above the politics and support our Ontario. Let’s build a better Ontario, a stronger Ontario.