I’d like to welcome Tim Jennings from the Shaw Theatre. I’m looking forward to the reception tonight and our meeting later today. Welcome to Queen’s Park, my friend.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the use of replacement workers undermines workers’ collective power, unnecessarily prolongs labour disputes, and removes the essential power that the withdrawal of labour is supposed to give workers to help end a dispute, that is, the ability to apply economic pressure;

“Whereas the use of scab labour contributes to higher-conflict picket lines, jeopardizes workplace safety, destabilizes normalized labour relations between workers and their employers and removes the employer incentive to negotiate and settle” a fair collective agreement; and

“Whereas strong and fair anti-scab legislation will help lead to shorter labour disputes, safer workplaces, and less hostile picket lines;

“Whereas similar legislation has been introduced in” BC “and Quebec with no increases to the number of strike or lockout days;

“Whereas Ontario had anti-scab legislation under an NDP government, that was unfortunately ripped away from workers by the Harris Conservatives;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To prohibit employers from using replacement labour for the duration of any legal strike or lockout;

“To prohibit employers from using both external and internal replacement workers;

“To include significant financial penalties for employers who defy the anti-scab legislation; and

“To support Ontario’s workers and pass anti-scab labour legislation, like the Ontario NDP Bill 90, Anti-Scab Labour Act, 2023.”

I agree with the petition and I’ll sign my name.

I always like to stand up here and tell the truth, and I’m not really sticking up for the Liberals, but the reality is, under Mike Harris, you laid off 6,000 nurses—let’s be clear on that—and you closed multiple hospitals. So let’s at least be accurate and tell the truth on that particular issue.

I see the labour minister is here, so I’m going to ask this question to the Liberal, hoping that he hears me. This bill does not guarantee that the Ontario Health atHome workers will be unionized or full-time positions with real wages, real benefits and pensions. So my question to the Liberal—either one; it doesn’t matter who answers: Do you believe that people who work in home care should be unionized, should have full-time jobs, should be respected, should have pensions and belong to a union? If you want to improve wages, you need to join a union in this province.

From reading this bill, it looks like it completely leaves open the service delivery arm of home care to private, for-profit companies. We know that private care almost always leads to worse care. We saw that in long-term care, where 6,000 of our seniors died in long-term care, but 78% of them died in private care. Could the member discuss why this government would allow private companies to continue to control home care in this province after seeing what’s happened in long-term care?