Absolutely. The anti-scab labour law is co-sponsored by Ms. French from Oshawa, Mr. Gates from Niagara Falls, Mrs. Gretzky from Windsor West and MPP West from Sudbury.

The bill is quite simple, Speaker. The provisions being restored prevent an employer from replacing a striking or locked-out employee with a replacement worker except in specific emergency situations.

The bill restores the provisions that were incorporated into the Labour Relations Act by the labour relations and employment statute act of 1992 that were repealed in 1995.

Mr. Saunderson moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill Pr20, An Act to revive 414087 Ontario Limited.

“Whereas the arts and culture sector contributes $28.7 billion to Ontario’s GDP and creates over 300,000 jobs;

“Whereas the Ontario Arts Council budget has not been increased” in Ontario at the “rate of inflation, exacerbating the income precarity of artists and cultural workers, some of whom are earning less than $25,000 per year, and still less for those from equity-deserving groups;

“Whereas the income precarity was worsened during the pandemic through issues of regulatory unfairness in the arts and culture sector, disproportionately impacting the performing arts sector and OAC-determined priority groups, including BIPOC, Indigenous, women, people with disabilities, and LGBTQIA2S+ artists and cultural workers;”

They petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows: “to sustain the Ontario Arts Council budget” at $65 million a year for 2023 “and adequately invest in the arts and culture sector, including supports for equity-deserving groups, small, medium and grassroots collectives in our communities, and individual artists to ensure their personal and economic survival.”

I support this petition, Speaker. I will affix my name to it and ask my good page Paul to bring it to the Clerk.