Yes, and give yourselves each a round of applause for that, because at the end of the day, it’s the members who have come forward, after listening to stakeholders in their ridings, with ideas about how we can reduce red tape and how we can incorporate best practices and ensure that we have a lean government that responds to the needs of the people. It’s each and every one of you who are here in this House today who have helped to make a better reality.

It’s more than half a billion dollars every single year being poured back into our economy in savings and services that are able to be delivered by these businesses, municipalities, hospitals and other organizations. Now, it wasn’t an easy feat. I know now, when we sit here and we look back, we think, “Yeah, it makes sense. Seems good—6.5%. Let’s do it. Let’s go.” But that wasn’t something that just happened on its own.

Again, I’m going to go back to that constant regulatory creep that we saw under the Liberal government, just cajoling the expansion of the state into more and more aspects of life—more regulations, more red tape, more ways of interfering in people’s lives. And frankly, that puts a stark contrast with our government’s approach of reducing unnecessary regulations and burdens on Ontario businesses.

Now, in the past, Ontario had a reputation as being the most regulated province in Canada. Businesses were being suffocated by red tape. It’s why we introduced over eight reduction bills that included over 400 different measures. And these measures have included changes to legislation, regulations and policy across the entirety of government.

The minister spoke about this briefly, but I want to encourage the members who are in the chamber today to speak with their constituents about ontario.ca/redtape. One of the most important ways that our government can solicit ideas to reduce the burden on the people of Ontario is through the government’s red tape reduction portal. Again, that’s ontario.ca/redtape, where people and businesses can quickly share their ideas with our team at the Ministry of Red Tape Reduction.

Every single submission through that portal is reviewed and shared across government, working with all stakeholders and all ministries to help identify effective and lasting solutions. This is important because the people who run businesses, who apply for permits and licences, or interact with government each and every day are the experts in identifying red tape. They are the front lines when it comes to engaging with government red tape. And it ensures that the efforts we have put in place to reduce red tape have the maximum impact for the people we all serve.

We’re going to continue our efforts to proactively consult with people and businesses right across this province, so that we can really focus our efforts on the types of changes that will make a real difference.

Again, the minister did speak about the legislative proposals brought forward in Bill 46 in his remarks, but I want to take a few moments to speak about some of the other policy and regulatory changes contained in the package.

In the fall, our government proposed regulations that will reduce red tape for things like the operators of certain types of hotel spas and hot tubs, such as in-suite hot tubs or a tub on a private balcony or deck intended for the exclusive use of its guests, by exempting them from the public pools regulation. Signage requirements will still remain in place to ensure that the public is aware of any risks.

But Speaker, we have also listened to concerns raised by stakeholders and have amended the Mandatory Blood Testing Act and the Laboratory and Specimen Collection Centre Licensing Act to speed up application processing for those who are victims of crime, first responders, correctional services staff and others. We proposed to remove the costly and resource intensive tissue testing requirement under the Public Hospitals Act regulations, and this is based on scientific advice and health sector stakeholder recommendations.

We’ve proposed to provide authority to local medical officers of health to order rabies testing of deceased animals that were under observation after biting a person, and to recognize rabies vaccination status from other jurisdictions that have similar rabies standards. What this means is that bite victims may no longer have to undergo unnecessary post-exposure rabies vaccinations, since a deceased animal’s rabies status will be known, and animals brought in from other jurisdictions will still need to be revaccinated in Ontario.

We’ve also been making improvements to some of the essential but often invisible functions of government. At the end of the day, so many people I speak with in my community—and I’m sure you all have the same experience—don’t want to hear about the standing committee on XYZ. They don’t want to hear about the policy priorities and the red tape even just within this chamber that it takes to accomplish the things that they send us here to do. We understand the necessity; I’m all for due process and ensuring that we have proper checks and balances. I think it’s a very important role that we have here in our democracy. It’s crucial that we have oversight over the decisions that are made. But at the end of the day, they want to see that they’re able to access their services rapidly. They want to see that they’re able to have a responsive, nimble government, one that is easy to access and that they’re able to rely upon. They want to see good management. At the end of the day, Ontarians are people of peace, order and good government, and that includes wanting to see that the little processes that can be so frustrating when they go wrong aren’t going wrong and that they’re able to continue to live their lives and have a government that is providing that service.

That’s why we’re bringing many government programs and related IT systems onto the Transfer Payment Ontario system. The process to become a transfer payment agency, to have these transfer payment agreements, is burdensome, it’s cumbrous. I’ve spoken with many small service providers in my communities who feel that that process that they have to go through, sometimes on an annual basis, even just to be receiving the funds to provide the services that we vote upon in our budgets and through the fall economic statement, can be an onerous one. So to reduce paperwork and administrative burdens for government-funded organizations, we are creating Transfer Payment Ontario, which is ensuring that all of those services are being provided in a rapid, consistent and streamlined fashion.

We’ve also extended certain temporary corporate governance rules to the end of September 2023 while the government continues to analyze consultation results and explore potential permanent changes. These temporary rules were put in under legislation including the Business Corporations Act, the Not-for-Profit Corporations Act as well as others, including the Condominium Act. This will allow meetings, votes and elections to be conducted virtually under certain circumstances. It allows notices to shareholders, directors and members to be sent electronically, and allows a corporation to store records electronically and have them examined electronically.

It’s important that we continue to provide flexibility and predictability while taking the time needed to consider changing these governance rules permanently.

Speaker, we’ve also heard from Indigenous businesses and economic advisers that information about the full range of government supports and services available to them is not widely known and can be difficult to obtain. That’s why our government is working with Indigenous partners to better understand how we can increase awareness of and access to government initiatives.

Speaker, I’m going to briefly talk about the proposals in this package which will help make the transportation sector more competitive and keep our supply chains moving. I don’t know about any of you, but this was something—

Interjections.

Yes, absolutely. This was something that has come up so often over the last couple of years. Frankly, at some points, I wasn’t even sure if I believed it. I would hear from people: “Oh, we have supply chain challenges.” Sometimes you would have a conversation, trying to order—I don’t know—you’re trying to get a new black lock for your door or something like that, and there are supply chain challenges. I never figured out why Home Depot would have the challenge and Lowe’s next door wouldn’t. Anyway, it’s neither here nor there.

The point is that supply chain challenges plagued many of our supply chains throughout COVID, and we saw the necessity of responding to that. I actually had the opportunity to work on a consultation with the Ministry of Red Tape Reduction to hear from stakeholders, including from our ports, the trucking authorities’ organizations, hearing from those who are working in logistics. The interconnectedness of our economy in terms of providing the resources that we rely upon in just-in-time sectors is truly remarkable, and also quite fragile, but also resilient in terms of the ability for these structures to respond to the challenges that COVID had in ways that really still were remarkable. I don’t think any of us had to go without something that was crucial to us. I know that we saw governments also step up to the plate when there were unique challenges in areas like baby Tylenol and some of those particular areas where we saw supply chain challenges come to a challenging place. But that’s why our government is making improvements to Ontario’s Highway Corridor Management System. It will provide a seamless and integrated online platform for approvals and permits along provincial highways. No more goods being tied up, waiting for permits before they’re able to move forward and deliver those much-needed products to you in your community. Work is also ongoing to allow applicants, including home builders and municipalities, to submit, track and receive all their Ministry of Transportation approvals online, which will save substantial amounts of both time and money.

The Highway Corridor Management System has already significantly reduced the burden on Ontario businesses and individuals by streamlining the permit application review and approval process. Sometimes these kinds of pieces, where we’re talking about moving something into the 21st century—it’s 2023, I think, at the beginning of March, and we’re sitting here. This is stuff that could have been online decades ago that we should have seen previous governments take rapid action on as just a matter of course, as a best practice. But no, it took the election of Premier Doug Ford and this government to get that done, to make sure that we’re moving these very reasonable processes—that are frankly just part of the dotting your i’s and crossing your t’s and getting your permits—online. This is something that our government is taking the lead on because we know it reduces that headache for small business owners and at the end of day ensures that the goods that you rely on are getting to you faster and more affordably.

These new improvements will also reduce red tape for businesses and organizations interacting with the Ministry of Transportation. But we’re also reducing the weight given to the corporate performance rating when the Ministry of Transportation evaluates bids for engineering services. We’re doing this to improve the fairness and efficiency of the procurements process, ensuring value for taxpayer dollars and making the bidding process more competitive for all participants.

Finally, during the spring thaw, some Ontario roads are designated and signed to limit the weight of trucks that can use them. This reduced load period helps to limit the damage that might otherwise occur to the roadway weakened by spring thaw. I know this very well as the street that I live on is one of these. You’re not allowed to get any loads of gravel or anything brought up and down that road between, I think, November and May. But that’s why our government is now working with the Ontario Good Roads Association to improve frost-depth prediction models, which will allow municipalities to optimize the timing of these periods on our roads and to be responsive in real time to the needs of the local community and recognizing that frost might be different in terms of an area like Niagara than it is in other areas. Perhaps Halton region has a slightly different road variation in terms of their soil structure and how frost is impacting the road patterns in those areas, and we need to be responsive to that, ensuring that we’re not creating artificial barriers to people being able to transport goods and services. This will hopefully include shortening the period when conditions permit, enhancing our supply chains by allowing more goods to reach places during those crucial summer months.

Let’s take a look back at some of our past red tape reduction accomplishments. I could spend more time going through the aspects of this package; I think it’s very important, but I recognize we’re all busy people and we want to make sure we’re moving on. So I’m going to try and make sure that I can walk through very quickly just a brief refresher for those members who are newer in this chamber and perhaps even for those of us who have become more seasoned veterans, so to speak.

The first red tape reduction package was in fall of 2018, when the Legislature passed the Making Ontario Open for Business Act, which removed onerous regulatory burdens introduced by previous governments. I’ve heard from many members, including some of the members from Brampton, that they wish they had actually been elected at that time in order to be voting for that legislation. They thought it was such an important piece of legislation. This is the bill that also addressed the backlog in Ontario’s skilled trades by replacing Ontario’s outdated model with a 1-to-1 person-to-apprenticeship ratio for every trade for which ratios applied, which aligned Ontario with other territories and provinces. I know this change was massive for so many young people especially who were sitting on that stack of papers that—people were waiting to get into an apprenticeship. There was a stack of papers, but they didn’t have maybe enough journeymen to have those apprentices brought on and to be able to bring more people into the skilled trades. This was a massive change.

In April 2019, the Legislature passed the Restoring Ontario’s Competitiveness Act with 31 actions, which cut red tape in 12 sectors and had numerous regulatory changes which cut business costs, harmonized regulatory requirements with other jurisdictions, ended duplications and reduced barriers to investment.

In December 2019, the Legislature passed the Better 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 make life easier for people and businesses. This included support to various business sectors, including agriculture, trucking, construction, forestry and mining. It streamlined and consolidated rules and requirements for quarries, farming and waste management—before you applaud, just hold it to the end, because man, there’s a lot more where this came from—and it created a one-stop shop for trucking safety and emissions inspections and hydroelectric dam approvals.

And then, of course, just a few months after we introduced the third red tape package in late 2019, COVID hit. Ontario has long been the manufacturing engine of Canada. The pandemic made it clear that we are a supply chain economy.

The fact is, Ontario supplies components to businesses across Canada and right across North America. We can’t afford to let our costs get out of line because we’re up against competition from suppliers in other regions.

Nope.

We need to keep operating costs for Ontario businesses as low as possible, while maintaining and strengthening those standards that are essential to keeping people healthy and protecting the environment.

The biggest single way we can support Ontario businesses is to make regulations easier and faster and less costly to comply with. We’ve been working very hard to do that so we can intensify our work to modernize regulations so that businesses can stay open and grow.

Interjections.

To help address infrastructure backlogs for businesses and communities, that act cut red tape by modernizing and streamlining the environmental assessment processes, while ensuring protections were still maintained. This was accomplished by updating the almost-50-year-old environmental assessment program to focus resources on projects which would have had the most impact on the environment. Through this change, approval timelines for some projects have been reduced from upwards of six years to three, and a greater number of important infrastructure projects have been able to move forward without unnecessary delays. To reduce delays for sewage and stormwater projects, the act was updated to provide a single consolidated environmental compliance approval process for low-impact municipal sewage collection and stormwater management projects. And this change is allowing simple, routine changes by municipalities, including alterations, extensions, enlargements or replacement projects, to be preauthorized so that construction can start without needing separate approvals for each project.

In addition to this, to help people and businesses in the construction sector, the act made it easier and faster to update the building code. Streamlining the building code development process by supporting harmonization with national construction codes and allowing Ontario to respond faster to the needs of the construction sector helped keep more people working and communities operating smoothly across the province during a very challenging time.

I think one thing we can all agree on is the importance of speeding up construction projects to keep people working and, especially during the current affordability crisis, to build more homes for all Ontarians.

In November 2020, the Legislature passed the Main Street Recovery Act to support the small and main street businesses that fuel our economy and bring life to our communities. It was part of the main street recovery plan to support small businesses and modernize rules that would help them innovate and meet the challenges of today so that they could pursue new opportunities. Small and main street businesses all over Ontario dealt with urgent and unexpected pressures related to cash flow problems, customer limits and physical distancing since the onset of the pandemic. The last thing they needed as they navigated a profoundly disruptive event was outdated and unnecessary rules that slowed them down and cost them more money.

One important measure in the Main Street Recovery Act was making 24/7 truck deliveries to retailers, restaurants and distribution centres permanent, building on temporary changes that had been brought in to keep store shelves full through the first wave of the pandemic, when many retailers were experiencing low supplies. Benefits of this measure include reducing rush hour traffic—something we all want to see—lower fuel costs for businesses, as well as reducing greenhouse gas and other emissions. It’s a simple solution that helps boost productivity, cut costs, and give businesses the flexibility they need to be successful and grow.

Other examples from this act include increasing the diversity of products sold at the Ontario Food Terminal and allowing the terminal to promote local food. These changes help support main street retailers, restaurants and shoppers by giving them greater access to the products they need. Thousands of small businesses, including independent shops and restaurants, rely on the Ontario Food Terminal for their supplies. It helps support the growth of Ontario’s agri-food economy, and it gives the terminal support in competing in a crowded marketplace.

In December 2020, the Legislature passed the Better for People, Smarter for Business Act to strengthen Ontario’s economic recovery, support businesses on the ground, and help governments deliver clear and effective rules that promote public health and safeguard the environment without sacrificing innovation, growth and opportunity. Changes in the act, along with other measures, included:

—requiring gas and electric utilities to adopt Green Button technology, which allows utility consumers to automate the secure transfer of their energy use so that they can understand their energy consumption and reduce costs;

—allowing single traffic studies for an entire specified highway corridor or area to reduce duplication and enable developers to get shovels in the ground faster for crucial infrastructure projects, like the 413, that we all rely upon;

—making it easier to get environmental information that we need by moving from a manual, paper-based process to a much faster digital delivery platform; and

—cutting red tape for intercommunity bus carriers to improve transportation options in rural and northern Ontario, making it easier for workers and families to access more transportation options.

In June 2021, the Legislature passed the Supporting Recovery and Competitiveness Act to help businesses and governments deliver clear, modern and effective rules that promoted public health, safeguarded the economy and created jobs. This was a comprehensive package of some 90 regulatory and legislative actions and announcements to position businesses for new opportunities as competition ramped back up and as the economy reopened. Among other things, this red tape legislation was intended to help consumers save money on electricity, to help innovative pilot projects that supported our automated vehicle industry—a fledgling industry, but one that’s taking off—bringing more Ontario processes and services online, such as the sticker renewal for commercial vehicle licence plates. I would also note this was around the same time that we got rid of licence plate sticker fees for regular vehicles, which I think is a very important step towards affordability. And it also supported the not-for-profit sector and other corporations by allowing them to continue virtual meetings.

In December 2021, the Legislature passed the Supporting People and Businesses Act to continue our work cutting costly red tape and reducing unnecessary administrative burdens. Highlights included making it easier for people to become volunteers by providing free police checks. And the act laid the groundwork for licensed restaurants and bars to extend their outdoor patio spaces last year, when they needed it most. It also laid the groundwork for additional financial supports and a simplified application process for the Second Career program—a program that helps those looking for employment training for occupations in high demand.

The Fewer Fees, Better Services Act introduced last February was our eighth red tape reduction bill. It consisted of legislative changes and policy announcements designed to support businesses and individuals with the certainty for successful economic recovery as Ontario emerged from the pandemic and moved beyond. This package included financial relief for millions of Ontario vehicle owners, including removing the requirement for and providing refunds for the licence plate renewal fees. It also gave drivers a break by removing tolls from Highways 412 and 418. It also put Ontario businesses front and centre for government procurement; established a single window for business services that set service standards so businesses will know how long it will take them to get the information they need from government; as well as unlocked the value and optimized the use of government real estate to attract investment, identify social benefit opportunities and support communities across Ontario.

In March of last year, we announced the Building Ontario Businesses Initiative, strengthening supply chain resiliency.

And in the 2022 budget, we committed to cutting more red tape to support individuals.

Speaker, I am running out of time.

Interjections.

Nope.

Order.

Thank you to my colleague for the great speech—I really enjoyed listening to his words—and the great work he does for his constituents in Niagara.

I wonder if my colleague—he mentioned it in his speech, on the reduced load periods. I also have a lot of rural roads and dirt roads in my riding. It’s something that I hear often from my municipalities, but also the farmers and the truckers—around the reduced load periods and the important work this legislation does for that. I was just wondering if my colleague could elaborate a bit about how this model works, how it will roll out, and how it will support our municipalities to make those decisions.

I know that many members in this chamber wish to hear more about the measures that we’re taking to cut red tape, so I’m going to get a copy of this and provide it to each and every member of this House. You’ll be able to get it at the Hansard table tomorrow.

As mentioned before, the previous red tape packages we have introduced since 2018 have saved Ontario’s people and businesses over half a billion dollars in regulatory compliance costs. This is real money back in the pockets of the hard-working people of this province.

We know that smart, modern regulations can improve how people go about their lives, making it easier for them to interact with important public services. That’s why, under the leadership of this Premier and this minister, we continue to update regulations and reduce burdens in ways that save people time and money.

We’re removing the requirement for high school students to submit paper-based forms on community involvement activities. We’re saving time and frustration for students and administrators alike. It’s a simple fix—just like that—that just makes sense. It shows how regulatory modernization and burden reduction can affect Ontarians in every walk of life.

Speaker, on this side of the House, we stand with the people and the businesses of Ontario, as I know a few members on that side do, too. We’re going to continue working each and every day to reduce these burdensome and onerous regulations—the duplicative ones that continue to frustrate jobs and businesses and prosperity. We’re going to make it affordable to grow and start a business in Ontario. That’s where we stand.

Unfortunately, we don’t really know where the opposition stands. They say they support making life easier for people, but then they vote against our measures to do exactly that. They say they support a transition to a low-carbon economy, but then they try to downplay the enormous potential of new technology to do that. The other side of the House always seems to be in favour of more costs, more delays and more red tape. Perhaps that’s why the NDP supported the Liberals for 15 years.

I’m proud of the work we’ve done to ensure that we’re making life easier and more affordable for the people of this province, and I’m even more proud that we’re committed to doing more through this legislation.

Speaker, the initiatives in the Less Red Tape, Stronger Ontario Act will build on the legacy that we’ve already brought forward. It will build a stronger supply chain, support agribusinesses, shore up our workforce, and make it easier to interact with government. These combined measures, together, will seek to build a stronger Ontario in which people and businesses will thrive, now and into the future.

I’m not going to be surprised if the opposition votes no to this bill too, because it’s ensuring that we have stronger supply chains, more opportunities, more prosperity and more jobs for the people of this province. Unfortunately, all we seem to see from the opposition is no.

I would say to the member that the cumulative effect of these types of red tape barriers that we’re seeking to address ends up meaning less food at a higher cost. At the end of the day, time is money, and money impacts the ability of farmers and agri-food processors to bring more of that product to market at a reasonable rate. So the modernization of both the Grow Ontario Strategy and some of the changes that he referred to which have to do with feedlot allocations and some of the paperwork around that—when people are spending that time on that paperwork, they’re not able to be spending that time farming. We want to have less time on paperwork, more time on farming, and more food on the shelves.

I would also say that increasing the part-time availability of retired provincial court judges will serve to ensure greater access to justice. I’m sure that the member opposite understands the importance of ensuring access to justice for those in our communities and ensuring that we’re able to see people brought to trial and brought forward to have their cases heard in a timely fashion. Unfortunately, we did see a backlog build up over the course of COVID, and we’re taking these actions to ensure that we’re addressing that backlog and to ensure people have the access to justice they deserve.

First of all, I want to acknowledge the important and incredible work that has been done by the Minister of Energy and his team to ensure that we have safe, affordable, reliable energy here in the province of Ontario—something that we didn’t have for many years under previous governments, unfortunately propped up by the NDP. I know he is taking sincere and steadfast action to make sure that all of these types of concerns are being addressed and is working with all providers to make sure that everyone is safe, in each and every corner of this province.

I want to speak about the component of the bill that she referenced, and that is with regard to removing the prohibition on carbon sequestration here in the province of Ontario. What this really opens up is opportunities for a nascent industry. It helps us achieve our climate goals by ensuring that carbon sequestration is an important component of reducing carbon emissions, and also storing those in very deep and intensive ways that reduce the output into the environment. So there’s a number of different components to that.

Report continues in volume B.

My question to the Minister of Red Tape Reduction: Schedule 5 of this bill makes changes to the oil and gas act, but I notice that there’s nothing here to address the 27,000 oil and gas wells across Ontario, 15,000 of which are identified as abandoned and almost 4,400 that have been identified as posing an immediate and significant risk to property and to life. The Auditor General talked about this in her most recent report. She said the province failed to identify and inspect high-risk oil and gas wells, even though improperly maintained or abandoned wells are safety risks for people. And we know this to be true because we had the explosion in Wheatley, Ontario, which flattened the downtown core and sent 20 people to hospital.

So my question is, when you were given this opportunity to open this act, why did you not address this ticking time bomb that are these abandoned oil and gas wells across the province of Ontario?

I want to thank the member from Niagara West and our Minister of Red Tape Reduction for two excellent presentations.

One aspect of this legislation has to do with modernizing the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario—particularly the agri-food sector. My colleague the MPP for Oshawa would agree that the agri-food sector is a big part of our economic recovery in the region of Durham.

I’d like the member from Niagara West to talk a little bit more about the modernization of that act and what the effect will be not only for the region of Durham, where we have close to a million people, but other upper-tier areas, like Niagara.

Questions?

My question is pertaining to schedules 2 and 3. I’m just going to combine them together.

Having the retired judges go back to work seems to me like a form of double-dipping—not only are they accessing a lucrative pension; they’re also now accessing very substantial salary compensation. At the same time, it’s not a sustainable solution with respect to clearing the backlogs in the courts.

The Ontario trial lawyers have put forward a long-time position where they want to be able to remove the choice of a jury trial, especially for most civil matters. This is a long-standing position of the Ontario trial lawyers. It also means that Ontario right now is the last jurisdiction in the country that actually offers that. They’ve noted that it costs more—it’s more time to administer and not necessarily a good use of court resources.

Why does the government not invest in that type of red tape elimination, and why are they proposing something else that’s not sustainable?