Je croirais que je suis encore endormi ce matin parce que c’est à mon tour de parler puis je suis encore assis. Ceci dit, ça me fait plaisir de parler du projet de loi Bill 46.

This province is facing issues at the moment, and this bill does not address any of them. We are not seeing any red tape being eliminated in order to move forward and immediately fix the crisis of workers in health care or multiple issues First Nations communities are facing, such as boil-water advisories, contamination of soil and others.

I’ll give you an example. When we talk about First Nations issues, last week I had the opportunity to go to Attawapiskat. In Attawapiskat, there are a lot of issues happening. One of the biggest ones is the ATR expansion, which is the expanded reserve. They have nowhere to grow. In other words, they have nowhere to build houses or bring houses in to be able to accommodate the community. It’s pretty sad when they show me around and the chief is bringing me around the community. He says, “Here, Guy, these are facilities for COVID, but we had to put homeless people in these units.” We go again, and then he shows me a facility that burned down that was accommodating homelessness, so they had to move people into the youth centre. So they have no more youth centre. They had to accommodate homelessness in their community, because there is no home.

You think we have a crisis up north, or even down south? Well, you know what? I say this often in the House; je le dis souvent en Chambre : You can multiply it by 10 when you go even on James Bay coast.

Through times, I’ve had opportunities to visit homes. When you walk in a living room and you’ve got a stack of mattresses so that they can sleep—sometimes they take turns sleeping—it’s pretty sad. Or you see prospector tents behind the house because there’s no more room in the house to have that. There are three or four generations living in this dwelling that was built for six. How is that acceptable in Ontario?

It’s always so easy to say—c’est tellement facile de dire : « Ah! Ça, c’est le fédéral. » On passe la puck. Ce sont de bons joueurs de hockey, de l’autre bord, en passant, d’excellents joueurs de hockey.

Mais la réalité est que ces communautés-là ont des situations qu’on ne croirait pas. C’est pour ça que j’invite souvent le gouvernement à venir faire un tour et voir la réalité qui existe dans le Nord. Parce que quand tu rentres dans une maison puis qu’il y a ça d’épais de matelas pour être capable d’accommoder le monde pour dormir, c’est inacceptable. Puis on voit, à moins 40 degrés—il ne faut pas oublier que leur hiver est beaucoup plus dur que les vôtres auxquels vous êtes habitués dans le Sud. Et c’est encore pire quand on parle du Grand Nord, où le moins 40 degrés, c’est normal. Ils vivent dans des tentes de prospecteurs—puis c’est comme acceptable? Je ne mentionne pas l’eau potable encore—je vais en parler. Mais ça, c’est des réalités qu’on a.

On parle de « reducing red tape ». Je veux revenir à Attawapiskat, parce que quand j’étais là, la chef me montrait les places où ils sont obligés de faire—elle m’a amené à une place où il y avait deux igloos en plastique. Ils sont isolés, puis c’était une des solutions du gouvernement, d’envoyer des igloos pour être capable d’accommoder du monde. On s’entend qu’un igloo, ce n’est pas gros. Puis c’est en plastique. C’était comme rire des Premières Nations de prendre ça quand on sait qu’il y a des « portables », des maisons préfabriquées qui pourraient—mais ce qui est encore pire, elle a dit, « On ne peut même pas prendre ces maisons préfabriquées parce qu’on n’a pas de place où les mettre. On a besoin de faire une expansion de la communauté. » Elle m’a montré une mappe, puis il y a juste deux manières de le faire : soit on déménage l’aéroport, qui est juste à côté de la communauté, ou on va sur l’autre côté, qui appartient—c’est du territoire qui est avec les ressources naturelles—that the MNR administers, but it’s on their traditional territory.

There’s a road that goes to the port, yet there’s a bump-up because the mine put a bump-up, so now the government is siding on the mine’s side and now the community cannot expand in that direction. They’re stuck; they’re landlocked. When you think that their traditional territories are huge—they’re on their traditional lands and they’re landlocked. How does that make sense? It’s not the place that needs it. There are two ways they can expand. The only two ways are towards the airport or towards the other way that would make sense.

That road that the bump-up is on—they call it the bump-up, but they put a protest on the road because they’re afraid of the First Nations putting blockades. But the First Nations are not against that. They just want to expand and they want to make sure that what’s happening on their traditional territories, that they’re made aware and transparency, and they want to ensure that they approve everything that happens.

To hold a community hostage, what’s happening now, that they can’t even expand—think about this: Some of the community members got out of the community. They want to come back. They said, “I’d love to come back and contribute to my community, but there’s no home. There is no house to accommodate my family.” They’re losing one of their—moi, je dis tout le temps que la plus grande richesse, c’est la jeunesse. Puis ce qu’ils font—ils n’ont pas de place et ils sont obligés de dire : « Bien, écoute, on n’a pas de maisons; on ne peut pas vous accommoder. » Comment est-ce qu’on peut justifier ça?

Encore, écoute, c’est pour ça que j’en parle. Je suis revenu plus choqué que jamais, puis je me contrôle pour ne pas m’énerver et commencer à dire certaines choses que je ne devrais pas dire, puis que je vais être obligé de retirer mes paroles.

But when you hear that they signed an agreement with the federal and the provincial—Mr. Rickford signed a deal; Marc Miller signed a deal. I’m trying to find the agreement that was signed. It was signed with Attawapiskat. It reads, “Renewed Relationship Commitment: Mino-Wha-Ko-Me-Ti-Win.” It was signed by former Chief Ignace Gull, by Honourable Seamus O’Regan, minister of Indigenous affairs, federal, and Honourable Greg Rickford, Minister of Indigenous Affairs. What it was all about: I’ll read the part that says, “In recognition of parties’ urgency of water issues in Attawapiskat First Nation, Indigenous Services Canada will take immediate action on replacing the two reverse-osmosis units that provide community drinking water”—still a problem.

Think about this: In Attawapiskat, if you take a shower, they tell you, you can’t take one for more than a couple of minutes. Make sure there’s a window open. Make sure you leave a door open, because there’s too much chemicals in the water and they can’t drink it. They say it’s potable, but nobody drinks it. They have to go get their water in different places to be bottled water, so they carry a bottle of water. But think about this: If they stay too long in the shower, they get a rash on their skin. That’s a reality.

We talk about this over and over and over in the House. My colleague from Kiiwetinoong has got a community with a 28-year boil-water advisory. You talk about urgency. You talk about good removal of red tape. Hello? Government, listen, because that’s the reality they live day to day. For 28 years, a community boil-water advisory in Ontario? We signed deals with the federal—because don’t forget Treaty 9. The province signed this, so you can’t pass the buck, because you’re part of it. Why are we still having this discussion? Why are we still talking about a boil-water advisory? Why are we still talking about communities that are taking showers and getting rashes? Is that acceptable? I don’t think so, and I’m convinced you don’t think so. But do something about it.

This agreement was signed in 2019, and nothing has changed. We sign deals, agreements, documents with these First Nations, and then we do nothing. Sound familiar? Governments have been doing it to First Nations for 400 years, and we continue doing this. This is colonialism at its best, and we should be ashamed of it. That’s good red tape—remove it. Fix it, because you signed the agreements with them. You signed them, but we don’t respect it, so our word doesn’t mean—and then you wonder why First Nations are putting moratoriums on their traditional territories, because they cannot trust you because of agreements like this.

That’s one example. I can talk about Kashechewan, which gets evacuated almost every spring. And yet, when this government got elected, they signed another agreement. They turned a red document into a blue document and signed a thing saying they will move the community from Kashechewan to a higher location. Five years later, the road is not even built. But it’s funny, we talk about the Ring of Fire. How fast is that road going to get built? How many millions are invested to build that? But for a community that every year has to be evacuated, de-rooted from their communities, their traditional territories, we turn a blind eye.

En français, je le dis souvent en Chambre : « loin des yeux, loin du coeur ». On ne devrait pas se péter les bretelles là-dessus. On ne devrait pas être fier de ça. Parce qu’on signe des ententes puis on ne les respecte pas. Après ça on se demande pourquoi les Premières Nations disent qu’elles mettent des moratoires, que c’est fini. J’ai deux communautés, moi—Fort Albany, puis il y a aussi Kashechewan—qui ont mis un moratoire totalement sur leurs territoires ancestraux. Pourquoi? C’est simple. Elles disent qu’elles essaient d’adresser les problèmes. On sait que le projet qui procède, comme celui-là avec le Cercle de feu—on veut en discuter avec le gouvernement, parce qu’on prend des études environnementales trop étroites. On doit prendre ça beaucoup plus élargi. Il ne faut pas oublier que ces communautés-là sont en aval d’où le développement peut se faire.

Water flows north, so everything that could happen, guess what’s going to happen? They’re going to pay the price. These communities are going to pay the price. That’s why they put a moratorium and said, “No. You cannot ignore us.” Just because you talk to a few communities doesn’t mean you have consent from First Nations. You need to talk to all First Nations. If you think you can ignore them and you’re going to get the thing done, man, you’ve got a surprise coming. You’ve got a huge surprise coming.

To get back to Attawapiskat, because it’s easy to get carried away and talk about these issues—because when you go there and you see the amount of issues they have and yet all we’re doing is playing political Ping-Pong, it’s shameful. Again, replace the two osmosis units and provide communities with drinking water. Like I said, Attawapiskat is still carrying water. Complete immediate sampling of raw water sources, because what’s happening is the lake is dying. They’re getting their water from a lake that is dying, so they have to put the chemicals. When the system was built, it was built for the hospital and the nurses; it was not built for the community. What they did, they connected the community to the system. When the river was right passing there, when they could have had a constant flow of fresh water, they didn’t do that. The sad part about this—you just say, “It can’t be”—the lake is beside the dump. The lake is beside the dump. Guess what happens in the springtime? Last year, the river almost overflowed, and it’s overflowed in the past. Guess where the water is going?

You need to go in these communities and see for yourself, because once you come back from these communities, you can’t say you didn’t know or you can’t pretend you didn’t know. You won’t be able to say “loin des yeux, loin du coeur,” because now you will have seen.

To have your water beside a dump—that’s what the chief was telling me. She showed me; she drove me there. She said, “Guy, the lake is right across”—there was a piece of bush. You could see where the lake was because you can tell through the trees. She says, “Guy, that’s what’s happening.” The spring thaw contaminates are going through that water. That’s reality. That would be great red tape: to move the source of the water. Fix it. Fix it like this. Because when we want to build a Volkswagen facility, how fast do we fly through the thing? How fast do we get it done? In a week. But for First Nations, where their potable water comes right beside a dump, nothing is being done. A 28-year boil-water advisory in Kiiwetinoong: Shouldn’t that be done? Come on. Be realistic and do the right thing here. It’s not because you don’t know, because we speak enough in the House here. We speak on it constantly.

To get back to Attawapiskat: ATR, the expansion, do you know how long they have been fighting for that? Take a guess. Thirty years, asking to expand their communities to be able to build houses to accommodate their community members. Thirty years, nothing has been done. Oh, we signed agreements; we signed beautiful documents that talk all about this, and yet nothing happens. That’s not unique to Attawapiskat, by the way. There are stories throughout First Nations communities on the James Bay coast and up north, the Far North, that we keep bringing here, yet nothing is being done.

Support Attawapiskat to complete existing immediate water treatment plant repair project, 12 hydrants; refurbish the filtration system and provide additional support to the water treatment plant operators. Indigenous Services Canada will work with Attawapiskat to identify and implement other measures to address medium- and long-term water quality improvements, including work with Attawapiskat First Nation—and Ontario—to complete the addition to reserve. It’s not always federal; it’s provincial.

We’re supposed to work and meet with the community to try to look at expanding the community. For 30 years we have been working on this—30 years. Yet we signed a document in July 2019—they never met once; they met maybe once, and that’s it. Meetings are supposed to happen in Attawapiskat; nothing is happening. Nothing is happening because we’re not talking about expanding the reserve.

Support a comprehensive community development plan, and plan for a new raw water intake and water treatment plant on the lands that are subject to the addition to reserve. Because if we’re going to build that, we need to put the infrastructure together. But yet, nothing has been done. Nothing has been done.

Kash: Like I said, they signed an agreement four years ago to move the community. Of course, it hasn’t been built. How long do they think it’s going to take to move this community? Because you need to do the sewers, do everything, move the school, move the hospital, move everything—but nothing, nothing. Yet, they did a big thing, remember? I know my colleague was with me when they signed this. You made a great, great thing about this new signing agreement to move Kash.

Good morning. Let us pray.

Prayers.

Resuming the debate adjourned on March 8, 2023, on the motion for third reading of the following bill:

Bill 46, An Act to enact one Act and amend various other Acts / Projet de loi 46, Loi visant à édicter une loi et à modifier diverses autres lois.

I was in the media, as I’ve mentioned in the House many times, prior to getting into politics, and I remember reporting on the number of businesses and the number of jobs that fled Ontario. One of the reasons why so many companies decided to pick up and, usually, head south of the border was the mountain of red tape that they were forced to navigate on a regular basis. When you are dealing with this level of red tape, it often slows down business, it costs companies money and they look to other jurisdictions where it is easier to do business.

One of the things that we’re doing with this, clearly, is to encourage companies to identify red tape, to share it with us so that we can, without harming people, without hurting the environment, get rid of needless barriers to business growth.

Do you recognize the burden that this unnecessary red tape has on business, and will you support us moving forward to allow them to grow and to create more high-paying jobs in Ontario?

I want to thank the member opposite for his statement.

This bill is focusing on reducing burdens to improve services and make life easier for people and businesses in this province. We’re here to reduce red tape. And this proposal does not change how the crown fulfils its obligations to ensure meaningful consultation with impacted communities. We’re streamlining businesses, fostering a strong business climate and modernizing regulations to make it easier. Does the member agree that supporting the unique needs of businesses ensures interactions with the government are efficient and important?

Yes, they didn’t want us to attend, by the way. Plus they didn’t want us to attend the meeting when they talked to the community. We had to fight our way to be able to attend the meeting. In fact, the Chief had to make a stand to say, “No, we want our representatives there.” Because your government did not want us there. Why? Are you afraid to be held accountable for what you do? That’s our job to make sure you do it. That’s our job to make sure that you live up to the commitments that you signed. That’s our job to make sure you do.

Thirty years for expansion, five years now for Kash, and nothing as of yet. Yet we continue.

If you want to talk consultation, go back to what you signed, and consult and fix the problems that they have in their own community, like Kashechewan, like Attawapiskat. Live up to what we signed and agreed to, because these are the documents you signed. You can’t blame the other previous government—

But, no, they are not looking for consent. They just want to plow through.

I want to get back to the First Nations, because when you talk about contaminated fuel issues that still happen in Attawapiskat, we fixed part of the problem but some of the problem is still left there. We talked about boil-water advisories—we talked about them when I talked about showers—and I talked about the housing crisis. The list goes on and on. A community that needs to expand the community for 30 years, and yet you’re talking that’s not part of reducing red tape. It should be part of reducing red tape. That should have been done a long time ago so that they can thrive as a community. Yet we are controlling them. We landlocked them. Sometimes I get comments from chiefs saying, “You know what they’re telling us? ‘Well, if you support the Ring of Fire, maybe we can do something.’” Is that acceptable for you?

C’est du chantage. Arrêtons de jouer au chat et à la souris, puis adressons les vraies « issues ».

Thank you. I think you’ve used up all your time.

Une voix.

We’ll move to the questions for the member.

We weren’t allowed at the event.

I’d like to thank the member from Mushkegowuk–James Bay for his passionate and articulate speech on Bill 46.

Boil-water advisories are a national and provincial disgrace that they continue to this day with very little action. I wanted to share the words of Deshkan Ziibiing, the Chippewas of the Thames First Nations, who have some concerns about some of the potential areas for carbon sequestration. It has been shown by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to be quite close to COTTFN lands. There is no commitment in Bill 46 to require First Nations’ consent for carbon capture, utilization and storage, and they ask that there be early and meaningful involvement of impacted First Nations, and, in addition to consultation, the province must seek consent of First Nations before proceeding with CCUS projects.

My question to the member: Do you suspect that the government understands the difference between consultation and consent?

Thank you, Madam Speaker, and so I don’t forget later in my comments, I will be sharing my time today with the Solicitor General, MPP Kerzner.

It’s a pleasure to rise today to speak about our government’s efforts to increase Ontario’s competitiveness, strengthen provincial supply chains and create easier access for all Ontarians. Bill 46, the Less Red Tape, Stronger Ontario Act, if passed, will modernize outdated practices and boost efficiency across various areas of government and multiple sectors of Ontario’s economy. I think we can all agree that red tape hinders Ontario’s economic competitiveness, productivity, development as well as innovation. Our government has heard from countless businesses, non-profit organizations, individuals and the broader public sector about the frustration, expenses, delays and complications red tape causes in everyday life.

Speaker, we’ve listened to our residents, and under this government, we are acting. Since 2018, one of our government’s top priorities has been to remove unnecessary, redundant and outdated regulations that are holding people and businesses back throughout our province. Through common-sense solutions, saving both time and money, we’ve passed eight high-impact pieces of red tape reduction legislation since 2018, and nine packages that acted on more than 400 burden-reducing actions, all with-out compromising health, safety or the environment.

Briefly reviewing that history, in the fall of 2018, our government passed the first Better for People, Smarter for Business Act, which was part of a broader package of more than 80 actions to cut red tape and modernize regulations to include more supports to various business sectors, including agriculture, trucking, construction, forestry and mining, and that is a theme that has continued into Bill 46.

In July 2020, the Legislature passed the COVID-19 Economic Recovery Act, which was our government’s first step in our plan for growth, renewal and recovery. The act was designed to reduce infrastructure backlogs for businesses and communities and get infrastructure projects built faster.

In November 2020, the Legislature passed the Main Street Recovery Act to support small businesses and modernize rules that would help to innovate, grow and continue to bring life into our communities. We have seen the return of over 300,000 jobs to our province, and we continue to grow those numbers, as we’ve heard from our Minister of Economic Development, and we will continue to do that through our efforts in Bill 46.

At the end of 2020, the Legislature passed the Better for People, Smarter for Business Act to include multiple changes such as requiring gas and electric utilities to adopt Green Button technology, digitize the way property developers obtain environmental information, cutting red tape for intercommunity bus carriers to improve transportation options in rural and northern Ontario and many other measures. That continued into June 2021, when the Legislature passed the Supporting Recovery and Competitiveness Act to help businesses and government deliver clear, modern and effective rules that promoted public health, safeguarded the environment and created jobs.

In December 2021, we continued that work, cutting costly red tape and reducing unnecessary burden by passing the Supporting People and Businesses Act, which was followed shortly by the Fewer Fees, Better Services Act, 2022, which was the eighth piece of red tape legislation. Introduced in February 2022, this act contained legislative changes and policy announcements designed to support post-COVID-19 economic recovery for businesses and individuals across the province.

Of course, Speaker, there is still much work to be done and we continue to face big challenges in our province. On top of the day-to-day difficulties individuals and businesses face, supply chain disruptions continue to worsen for two thirds of Ontario’s businesses, and one third of those businesses say that labour-related obstacles will limit their growth, like the ongoing labour force shortages.

There is good news on the horizon because we have a plan. We know that there are more things our government can do to cut red tape and support our businesses to develop well-functioning supply chains and solve the challenges like we are seeing today.

After extensive consultation with stakeholders and the hard work of the Minister of Red Tape Reduction, we have before us Bill 46, the Less Red Tape, Stronger Ontario Act. The purpose of this legislation is to cut more red tape by:

(1) strengthening Ontario’s supply chain;

(2) supporting farmers and agri-businesses and agri-tourism;

(3) grow our labour force;

(4) make life easier for people and businesses by making it easier to interact with government; and

(5) ensure that Ontario remains competitive in the growing global market.

Speaker, this proposed legislation is about leading Ontario to more economic certainty, confidence and stability to ensure our province continues to be competitive on the world stage.

This government has taken a Team Ontario approach when it comes to legislation like this. We are working across ministries to identify opportunities to cut red tape while prioritizing fundamental protections that Ontarians value most.

There are five guiding principles throughout this piece of legislation. The first is protect public health and safety and the environment. Our government has worked on relaxing regulatory burdens in a smart and responsible way to ensure that health, safety and environmental protections are maintained or enhanced.

The second principle is prioritizing the important issues. Our government has assessed which regulations cost the most time and money, while looking for innovative ways to ensure rules stay effective and efficient.

Principle three is coordinating rules with the federal government and other jurisdictions where possible so we can target repetitive red tape and position ourselves with other jurisdictions where possible to eliminate steps that cost and create time and money for our businesses and citizens.

The fourth principle is listening to the people and the businesses of Ontario. Our government has committed to hearing from people and businesses on an ongoing basis, and we continue to do so to learn what we can do to remove obstacles standing in their way.

And the final principle is taking a whole-of-government approach. We are working on a coordinated approach across all ministries in government to reduce red tape—a broad, informed perspective that would deliver smarter government for people and higher economic growth to match.

This legislation contains 28 initiatives which cross all ministries, and based on the five principles, we’re looking to reduce the red tape across the province to make our businesses more competitive and more aligned with other jurisdictions in Ontario and Canada.

The first impact I’d like to talk about is in the ministry of food and agriculture, and that is the grow strategy, which is our government’s comprehensive plan to build consumer confidence and support farmers and Ontario’s food supply, which is our number one economic engine in this province. It focuses on three key priorities. The first is to strengthen agri-food supply chain stability by increasing both the consumption and production of food grown and prepared in Ontario by 30%. The second is to increase agri-food technology and adoption by boosting research infrastructure, advancing the uptake of new technologies and growing the market for Ontario’s innovative technologies both domestically and globally, and growing the use of data to support efficiencies in the agri-food sector and value chain. And the third is to attract and grow Ontario’s agri-food talent by increasing the province’s total agri-food sector employment by 10% by 2032 and increase awareness of modern, high-tech agri-food careers, opportunities for mentorship and hands-on job training, and supporting efforts to increase veterinary capacity in underserviced areas across this province.

I’d like to also speak about the impacts for the Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. While continuing to protect human health and our environment, our government is also proposing changes to streamline the gas volatility regulation. If adopted, these amendments would align Ontario’s regulations to national standards and reduce unnecessary regulatory and administrative burdens and costs on the petroleum sector.

We are also proposing changes to the Ministry of the Attorney General that would modernize and reduce red tape burdens in the justice sector in three areas. First, we are proposing to amend the Provincial Offences Act to help reduce the backlog at provincial offences courts exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Second, we’re proposing to create more judicial capacity and alleviate backlogs in criminal cases in Ontario by temporarily raising the limit on the number of days that retired judges can work. And third, the proposed amendments will help reduce administrative costs and expedite prospective jurors to participate in the court system through updates to the Juries Act.

Speaker, I am proud to support this bill on behalf of the constituents of Simcoe–Grey. I know that the many measures I’ve discussed to cut red tape will help to build a stronger, more competitive Ontario, where people and businesses can continue to thrive and prosper now and into the future.

I’ll now share my time with the Solicitor General.

Merci pour la réponse. Next question?

Thank you to the member from Mushkegowuk–James Bay for his presentation. I know that the environmental policy change in schedule 5, which will be permitted on crown lands, has not been subject to free, prior and informed consent with First Nations. Let me remind this government: Crown lands are stolen lands.

I know you spoke about the ATR process—addition to reserves—regarding Attawapiskat. They have been at it for 30 years. And I think—I see this mace. It came from Attawapiskat. There’s a diamond in there. They still have a boil-water advisory.

And I think it’s important that when we talk about stolen lands, when we talk about crown lands, the province has a responsibility to be able to expand the reserve of Attawapiskat to be able to prosper.

I have a question for the member: Do you believe that this government is red tape to access clean drinking water? Do you believe this government is red tape to the ATR process?

I thank the question from my colleague. I want to thank him also for all the work he does for First Nations, because you are definitely shining a light for First Nations. I know you’ve taught me a lot and you’ve informed me a lot, of course.

The consultation and the consent—this government doesn’t stop there. It doesn’t stop there because their plan is not to stop there. But First Nations have rights. It’s way past time. On n’est plus dans le temps, là—we’re not in the times that we could just go in there, do what we need, take the resources and leave without consent. That is passé. We’re in a time of truth and reconciliation, that we should live up to what truth and reconciliation means. We should live up to what we signed, because we signed documents that we’re not respecting. And who pays the price for that? Communities and First Nations.

I’m delighted to be here and to say why I’m here and why I’m speaking on this: because I believe that when we reduce red tape, our government is fulfilling our mandate to lower costs, to create more jobs and build a stronger Ontario. I’ll make the case that when we unleash the enterprise and enable opportunity, we empower Ontario. I’ll share some personal experiences and will demonstrate how reducing red tape makes Ontario stronger on all fronts—that we’re working for workers; that we’re putting people over paperwork; and we’re building Ontario. And I’ll encourage everyone to support this legislation.

I really want to thank my great colleague and friend from Simcoe–Grey.

It’s an honour to speak here to Bill 46, the Less Red Tape, Stronger Ontario Act, 2022. When we think about red tape, it’s personal to all of us. We’ve all encountered, at one time or another, red tape. As MPPs we have a responsibility to consider how to reduce the unnecessary burdens on small businesses, workers and members of the public and at the same time continue to strengthen health, safety and environmental standards.

As MPP for York Centre, I often connect, I regularly connect, I weekly connect to small business owners in my riding, including those who are part of our business improvement areas at Wilson Village and Duke Heights. I hear time and time again positive feedback in terms of our government’s approach to creating initiatives to reduce red tape and to boost our local economies. They want us to continue to get it done. As we build the future of Ontario, we have to recall the significant strides that our government has made so far, and it’s because we believe in our province and in our future. Madame la Présidente, c’est parce que nous croyons en notre province et en notre avenir.

Since coming to office, we’ve taken over 400 individual actions to reduce red tape, to reduce the total regulatory burden by almost 7%, and our efforts are saving businesses and organizations almost $600 million a year in compliance costs. There’s a lot of stories we can all tell, and we can tell it in a personal capacity. As an entrepreneur and before the June election of 2022, I saw first-hand when I tried to start a business what it was like to encounter red tape, especially six and seven years ago.

I want to talk about and highlight how it’s working for workers. This bill proposes changes to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board to continue putting workers first. These are changes that, if adopted, would improve the WSIB’s operational efficiency and reduce undue administrative burdens to allow the WSIB to focus on its mandate of supporting injured workers and businesses. As we all know, the WSIB is one of the largest insurance organizations in North America. The updates that we are proposing will keep it world-class. One of the proposals I am most proud of is ensuring that injured or ill apprentices receive loss-of-earnings benefits at the same amount journeypersons employed in the same trade would receive. Madam Speaker, this is about fairness. This is about improving health and safety for everyone who is on the job. This is an initiative that I hope all members in the House will support.

Ongoing improvements to WSIB are essential for the well-being of our workers and their families, including first responders. In fact, I recently joined our great Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training, and Skills Development to announce that our government is expanding cancer coverage for firefighters. This means that pancreatic and thyroid cancers will be added to the list of presumptive cancers so firefighters and their families can receive the support they deserve from WSIB more quickly and with less red tape.

Madam Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to thank all our front-line firefighters across Ontario, full-time and part-time, career and volunteer. And to the member sitting right beside me—I toured in her own riding, in Lindsay, and we met Fire Chief Terry Jones. It was an example of how a community comes together under great leadership of people that take their responsibilities seriously. I want to give a shout-out to Chief Terry Jones.

We recognize their courage and we honour their service. That’s why this recently announced change applies to all firefighters in Ontario. They’re incredible people who keep us safe every day, and we’re proud to support our firefighters. Ce sont des gens formidables qui nous protègent au quotidien. Nous sommes fiers de soutenir nos pompiers et tous ceux qui assurent la sécurité de l’Ontario tous les jours. Nous travaillons fort pour soutenir ces héros.

Next, I’d like to highlight some examples of how our government is working for the people of Ontario. I want to thank my great colleague sitting to the right, the Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery, for your leadership, because we’re enhancing service delivery, reducing wait times and, as we say, Minister, putting people over paperwork. We’re doing this by streamlining administrative, and I want to thank you for your leadership as it relates to the work that you’re doing on the IT systems and creating a single system, the Transfer Payment Ontario system, or TPON for short.

This change will reduce paperwork and red tape, and improve the digitization of government services. It will allow service providers like municipalities and non-profits to focus on providing valuable public service, rather than being bogged down with paperwork. This is another common-sense solution, and again, I hope the members will support it.

I want to thank our great Minister of Transportation as she works tirelessly to build Ontario and to keep Ontario moving. Continuing to build a modern and robust transportation network is critical to the vitality of communities all across Ontario, and supports our government’s historic steps to build new housing. When you have roads, you have places where people can build housing. The Highway Corridor Management System has already significantly reduced the burden on Ontario businesses and individuals by streamlining the permit application, review and approvals process.

In closing, we’re focusing on reducing red tape to improve service and make life easier for everyone in Ontario. Everyone in our province deserves the chance to succeed, and reducing red tape helps us unleash Ontario’s full potential. Whether it’s working for workers, putting people over paperwork or building Ontario, reducing red tape helps make Ontario stronger on all fronts.

On behalf of the people of York Centre, who elected me to serve here as the 1,947th member since Confederation to serve in this Legislature—and I’m grateful every day—I support this bill, and I encourage everyone to do this. Let’s remember one thing, why we’re here, as I said at the beginning of my remarks: The province is bigger than all of us. It is more important than any of us. Ontario was here before us and will be here long after us.

Madame la Présidente, la province de l’Ontario est plus grande que nous tous. Elle est plus importante que n’importe lequel d’entre nous. L’Ontario était là avant nous et le sera longtemps après nous.

The Solicitor General.

I want to thank you for the question. Firefighters are true heroes in Ontario. One of the things I have learned through my travels is the amazing work that they do, but also the volunteer firefighters. What I spoke of in my remarks is taking acknowledgement of the pancreatic cancer as an example of a presumptive illness. We’re going to continue to look at that, but you’re absolutely correct. The firefighters are amazing heroes in Ontario and we have to treat them with respect. The announcement that the Minister of Labour made with me not that long ago is starting to look at this in a practical way, and it’s part of reducing the burdensome red tape.

A question for my colleague from York Centre who mentioned firefighters and presumptive timelines when he spoke—I don’t believe this bill actually addresses that. I do have a firefighter in my riding who has been a firefighter for 23 years, has esophageal cancer and cannot get WSIB because the cut-off is 25 years. Those are the kinds of red tape that we would like to see improved, the things that actually improve the lives of injured workers. Deeming is another thing that this government could improve on. Tinkering around the edges doesn’t help people like Captain Craig from Welland, who has been a firefighter for 23 years, has cancer and can’t get WSIB because the cut-off is 25 years. Why would we not take the opportunity to fix those kinds of issues?

Thank you to the member opposite for that question. The WSIB has an important role to play in our workplace system. It protects employers and it protects their workers. If the workers are injured, they can get compensation.

The proposed changes that are contained in Bill 46 would exclude WSIB lease transactions from the requirement for the Lieutenant Governor in Council’s approval of acquisitions and dispositions of real property, to help streamline that process. It would ensure injured or ill apprentices receive loss-of-earning benefits in the same amount as journeypersons of their trade would receive, as pointed out by my colleague. It would provide flexibility as to when the WSIB board of directors must meet; ensure that requirements for governance documents are consistent with, and not duplicative of, government directives; and, finally, it would ensure the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, does not reference repealed statutes. That would clean it up. It would help with the efficiency and it would remove duplication.

Certainly, the intent of Bill 46 would be to remove barriers that are faced by Indigenous businesses and entrepreneurs in assessing business support programs and procurement opportunities. It would be heard directly from Indigenous businesses and economic advisors that information about these supports and processes is not widely known and difficult to obtain as sources of information are disparate and complex. The intent here is to streamline the process so that we will work with our Indigenous stakeholders to streamline the consultation process.

In that way, we are working very hard to support all Indigenous stakeholders and businesses to make sure we’re competitive across the province.

We’ve seen our economy come back in terms of jobs and job demand, despite the pandemic. We continue to hear almost weekly from our Minister of Economic Development about the new projects that are coming to Ontario. We have big plans for the Ring of Fire.

We are working across the province, across the ministries, on a whole-of-government approach to increase the efficiency of our government, to remove barriers for our residents and for our businesses, and to make us competitive as the largest provincial economy in Canada and probably one of the five biggest economies in North America, and we continue to do that.

I want to thank the member for Simcoe–Grey and the Solicitor General for their comments during debate this morning. I have a specific question for the member for Simcoe–Grey: Would this bill, if passed, impact Aboriginal treaty rights under section 35 of the charter, and specifically the duty to consult Indigenous communities? And how, if passed, would this bill help Indigenous entrepreneurs and businesses?

Thank you, Speaker. It’s good to see you in the chair.

I really appreciate the conversation today, and I really appreciate the suggestions made by the opposition also in what could be in a red tape bill. I was just wondering if I could ask one of the members who spoke from the government side what it means to be a part of a government that has committed to having two red tape bills come out every year, because change is incremental. If there’s one thing I think we can all admit is when a government chooses to do massive changes very quickly, it often leads to unforeseen consequences that can have to be fixed later.

By making small, continuous, ongoing changes to reduce red tape in the province of Ontario in so many different areas, I just have to ask, because I find it very, very gratifying that we just keep making changes—nothing huge, nothing massive, but keep moving the ball forward so that we can continue to follow up and see what’s going on. I was just wondering if I could ask the member from Simcoe–Grey what it means to be part of a government that’s willing to do that.

I want to thank the two members for their presentations, and I’m posing this question to either of them: Can either member tell us how the elimination of the requirement that the WSIB file a strategic plan with its minister actually will make Ontario better? WSIB is not a small business; it’s an entity that I think would serve this province well by actually reporting regularly on its strategic plans. It needs to be held accountable. If you don’t know what they’re planning, you don’t know how to hold them accountable. Why do you want to make it less accountable?