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’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.

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.

Thank you to the member across for his comments.

This bill is all about removing red tape. We’re focusing on reducing barriers to improve services. This includes a whole-of-government plan, including the elimination of administrative overlaps.

Just as an example, currently, the WSIB is required to create both a five-year strategic plan and an annual business plan spanning three years to come. The strategic plan and the business plan duplicate content for governance and oversight. Requiring the WSIB to submit both is burdensome and a matter of red tape—and yes, those are weeds. So removing, in that circumstance, the five-year strategic plan while keeping the business plan will eliminate red tape and ensure that the WSIB focuses less time on paperwork and more time on helping the workers.

As mentioned, I did work within the system for several years. We were constantly dealing with paper. Papers get lost; people lose them. Those notices were actually sent out to people, and they would lose them; it would never get back to them. They could get into trouble. Eliminating that paperwork will modernize the court system. We do still have a requirement that—people can still ask for paper.

But actually modernizing the system and the justice system is a long time overdue, absolutely.

Following up on what I was talking about earlier, as we continue to modernize regulation, our government is committed to taking action that reduces that red tape. We’re proposing to repeal the five-year strategic plan for WSIB, and we’re focusing and proposing that this be done by providing a five-year strategic—the WSIB, also allowing them to submit a business plan that spans three years or more. This strategic plan, this business plan is not a duplicative—

TPON is utilized, I believe, by all of our not-for-profits and we want to keep them whole. The enterprise Transfer Payment Ontario system, TPON, is used for the end-to-end administration of transfer payments, from application to payment to reporting. Continuing to implement TPON will provide ministries with standardized, streamlined processes to manage and administer their transfer payment programs, resulting in more efficient and effective program delivery at a lower cost to the taxpayer. For transfer payment recipients, this system will provide seamless user experiences, reducing their administrative burden and freeing up more time to deliver key services for the people of Ontario. Through this initiative, there is a concerted focus on bringing all government transfer payments and programs and related IT systems onto TPON and driving an enterprise-wide efficiency and process.

I apologize, Speaker. I thought the Minister of Economic Development wanted to ask a question there, but he was just getting up.

It’s been very interesting listening to debate on this bill today, and I have to say, I very much appreciate that our government continues to put forward legislation for red tape, I think twice a year—perhaps the parliamentary assistant could correct me if I’m wrong on that.

But what I’m hearing from the opposition benches is that we’re not going far enough; we should be doing more, which we are. We keep doing that.

So my question to the member is, since I haven’t heard anything terribly negative other than they wish there was more in it, will they be supporting the legislation?

Tomorrow I’m going to bring a motion to the Legislature that is going to ask this government to eliminate discriminatory practices for people on ODSP according to living conditions, for people who live in room and lodging. This government talks about eliminating red tape, and I think this regulation could actually alleviate some of the red tape concerns under schedules 2 and 3.

Can the member speak to some of the experiences he has heard from people who have reduced ODSP who live in a room-and-board situation—$867, compared to someone who lives independently, at $1,228. How could that red tape help alleviate the juries’ and the judges’ red tape that the government is proposing?