We weren’t allowed at the event.

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 ».

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?

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

Une voix.

We’ll move to the questions for the member.

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.

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?

Merci pour la réponse. Next question?

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.

We’ll move to the questions.

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?

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?

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?

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.

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.

Thank you to the member opposite for her question. The WSIB, as I indicated previously, is a very important part of our workforce compensation and insurance that benefits both our businesses and our workers. We are working to make sure that we streamline that process and, as you indicated in the first part of your question, we are looking at how we can streamline efficiencies through our leases. Instead of leasing space in downtown Toronto, we’re looking to move to a smaller area where we can do it more efficiently and less expensively. That’s another aspect of our efficiencies.

We are working hard to make sure that the end workers, the insured, are going to be compensated properly in the event of injury, and we’re making sure that we remove any duplication that would get in the way or hinder that process as we work towards making sure that we are focused on making Ontario competitive, protecting our workers and giving apprentices the same amount of coverage as a journeyman would receive.

My question is to the member for Simcoe–Grey. As a representative of the city of London, I note that Bill 46 includes provisions to allow the government to move the WSIB headquarters to our city, to London, which is certainly a welcome opportunity. Hopefully we’ll see those jobs materialize.

However, I am troubled at the same time by the other provisions in this bill related to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act that removes the requirement for WSIB to table a strategic plan to the minister. Injured worker groups have taken that opportunity to provide input. Why is the government removing that accountability?