Children and youth have the highest mental health care needs of any age demographic. We know this. This informs every investment we have made and will continue to make. In 2022, we invested another $31 million in new annual funding to reduce wait-lists and support the mental health and well-being of children and youth. We’re innovating on new ways to treat children and youth and new means for them to access care. This means: $3.5 million in the Step-Up Step-Down live-in treatment program, helping move kids through levels of intensive treatment; $2.1 million for virtual walk-in counselling, connecting youth to a clinician by phone, text or video chat; $1 million for children and youth telehealth services; and $4.5 million for One Stop Talk virtual walk-in counselling programs for children and youth.

Mr. Speaker, we’re innovating. We’re working with the sector. We’re ensuring that the kids have the supports they need, where they need them.

And, yes, I have and will continue to meet with all stakeholders to ensure that we understand the needs not just of children and youth in general, but on a region-by-region basis. That has been the way we’ve done our work to date. We’ve attended meetings. We’ve had round tables throughout the province—in Thunder Bay, in Indigenous communities throughout the north, in southern Ontario, and of course with children and youth mental health.

Mr. Speaker, we’re more prepared than any government in Ontario’s history to build an accessible, equitable and accountable mental health system.

When we deal with issues of mental health and addictions, we do look specifically at different regions. To assist in the Niagara region, one of the things we did was open two mobile health units so that the units would be able to provide supports, especially in the rural areas, where it’s difficult for people, because of transportation, to be able to access the services.

Children and youth mental health supports are being placed throughout the province of Ontario, including through our youth wellness hubs. The youth wellness hubs are providing low-barrier supports to individuals. They allow children between the ages of 12 and 24 to be able to attend a place where they can get wraparound supports for everything from primary care to mental health care supports.

We’ve worked with and will continue working with the stakeholders in the Niagara region to provide the supports necessary to assist the children in that region, the way we’re working with all other regions to provide supports.

Again, after neglect over 15 years by the previous government, it’s very difficult to put all of these in place and ensure that they’re all working together. But we are filling gaps. We are working with communities, stakeholders—

I will certainly take you up on that offer and have an opportunity to meet with them and discuss what other needs are there and how we can continue supporting all the regions in the province of Ontario including Niagara.

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.