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.

Today, that member voted against prostate screening testing right here in the House, and against mental health. That was just today; I don’t have time to go back on his entire record.

One of the government’s priorities within this bill is the agriculture sector—to build confidence in Ontario’s food supply chain. Obviously, this is a big priority as we see the rise in food prices from 11% to 14% across our province. If we could be more self-reliant on our food supply, I think most members would agree that’s a good thing.

So my question is, could the member discuss if they believe that tearing up our greenbelt will help us build confidence in our food supply system, as we lose over 300 acres of prime farmland each and every day?

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?