SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Ontario Assembly

43rd Parl. 1st Sess.
August 11, 2022 09:00AM
  • Aug/11/22 2:10:00 p.m.
  • Re: Bill 3 

The honourable member opposite knows we’ve been absolutely clear that we’ll not tolerate any workplace harassment or discrimination of any kind. We expect that our mayors and our councillors will carry out their duties as elected officials in our province in an ethical and responsible manner.

I’m very interested—I’ve been a bit busy this week because of this bill. I understand the member opposite has either tabled his private member’s bill or re-tabled it. I haven’t had a chance, to be honest with you, to see whether you’ve changed it in any way, but the member opposite knows that the last time his bill was on the order paper, we supported that initiative. I appreciate that he’s put it back on the order paper. I’ll make him this undertaking that I will look at his bill to see if there have been any changes. But our government has been crystal clear, full stop: We’re not going to tolerate any of this activity by any councillor in the province.

The stat that I want to talk to members about that I haven’t tabled yet was this OECD report where Canada ranked 34 out of 35 countries—Slovakia was the only one worse than Canada—that couldn’t get shovels in the ground fast enough. So we know and we acknowledge that, collectively, our country needs to do a better job. This was a topic that we talked to mayors and regional chairs about—the Premier and I did in January. One of the things they said was it’s not just us. They felt very strongly that there were some changes that they needed by the provincial government so that they could get shovels in the ground faster. That’s exactly what this is going to be doing to our two largest cities: It’s going to give them the tools to help get shovels in the ground. Yes, some of this is going to be done through regulation, but we want to be in a position where, after the election, when that new council in Toronto and Ottawa gets sworn in, they’re shovel-ready, they’re committed to growth and committing to cut red tape. So, excellent question.

382 words
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