I appreciate the member’s question on Bill 79. He was talking about the price of food and stuff. When we talk about workers and what’s missing in the bill—I mentioned this with Bill 124: When people’s paycheques are restricted, when you’re caught with a maximum 1% increase and inflation is hovering around 6% or 7%, it’s a cut in your wages. And I noticed this summer—it’s five years now that I’ve been elected, and this is the first time when people who are more affluent phoned me and said, “I just did groceries. I can cover it, but I don’t know how somebody with less money can.” It was people phoning me and saying, “I’m worried about my neighbour. My neighbour cannot make ends meet. My neighbour can’t pay the bills. My neighbour can’t afford bread. I can do it, but I’m worried about them.”

That’s why you need to address the budget and repeal Bill 124.

I’ll give you an example of bad actor. I had a workplace before where I was the health and safety rep. I notified the manager that they were going to kill a worker in this location, and a worker died in that location about three months later because of unsafe practices. It was tough on everybody, and the manager and I talked about springtime and how spring isn’t the same anymore, how the smell of it reminds us of Paul Rochette, who is no longer with us.

So I do know there are bad actors. I don’t think they’re all bad actors, but I know that there are people out there who have certain responsibilities under the Occupational Health and Safety Act who aren’t doing them properly and have to be held accountable.

I’m all in favour of this increase; I just want to know that we’re using it effectively.