I would like to thank Chris Galloway from Capreol in my riding for these petitions.

“Enact Anti-Scab Labour Law....

“Whereas strikes and lockouts are rare: on average, 97% of collective agreements are negotiated without work disruption; and

“Whereas anti-replacement workers laws have existed in Quebec since 1978, in British Columbia since 1993, and in Ontario under the NDP government, it was repealed by the Harris Conservative government;

“Whereas anti-scab legislation has reduced the length and divisiveness of labour disputes; and

“Whereas the use of scab labour during a strike or lockout is damaging to the social fabric of a community in the short and long term, as well as the well-being of its residents;”

They “petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To pass the anti-scab labour bill to ban the use of replacement workers during a strike or lockout.”

I support this petition, will affix my name to it and ask page Beckett to bring it to the Clerk.

I would like to thank Claire Quenneville from Azilda in my riding for this petition. She is one of 1,170 people to have signed this petition.

“Save ‘the Spot’ Supervised Consumption Site ...

“Whereas Sudbury’s overdose death rate is three times the rate of the rest of Ontario;

“Whereas an application was submitted to the government in 2021 for funding of a supervised consumption site in Sudbury called the Spot;

“Whereas the Spot is operated by Réseau Access Network with municipal funding that ends on December 31” of this year, “the province must approve funding very soon, or the Spot will close putting many people at risk of death;

“Whereas in 2023 alone, the Spot had 1,000 visits, reversed all 17 on-site overdoses, provided drug-checking services and prevented many deaths;”

They “petition the Legislative Assembly ... as follows:

“Immediately approve funding for the supervised consumption site in Sudbury to save lives.”

I fully agree with this petition, will affix my name to it and ask Saniyah to bring it to the Clerk.

« Sauver des organes pour sauver des vies ... »

« Alors que l’Ontario possède l’un des meilleurs programmes de greffe d’organe au monde;

« Alors qu’il y a 1 600 personnes en attente d’une greffe d’organe en Ontario;

« Alors que tous les trois jours, une personne en Ontario meurt parce qu’elle ne peut pas obtenir une greffe à temps;

« Alors que le don d’organes et de tissus peut sauver jusqu’à huit vies et améliorer la vie de jusqu’à 75 personnes;

« Alors que 90 % des Ontarien(ne)s appuient le don d’organes, mais seulement 36 % sont enregistrés;

« Alors que la Nouvelle-Écosse a connu une augmentation du nombre d’organes et de tissus destinés à la transplantation après la mise en oeuvre d’une loi sur le consentement présumé en janvier 2020;

Ils et elles demandent à l’Assemblée législative « de changer la loi pour permettre un système de don basé sur le “consentement présumé” tel qu’énoncé dans le projet de loi 107, commémorant Peter Kormos (Sauver des organes pour sauver des vies) ... »

J’appuie cette pétition. Je vais la signer et je demande à ma bonne page Saniyah de l’amener à la table des greffiers.

“Protect Kids from Vaping....

“Whereas very little is known about the long-term effects of vaping on youth; and

“Whereas aggressive marketing of vaping products by the tobacco industry is causing more and more kids to become addicted to nicotine through the use of e-cigarettes; and

“Whereas the hard lessons learned about the health impacts of smoking, should not be repeated with vaping, and the precautionary principle must be applied to protect youth from vaping; and

“Whereas many health agencies and Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada fully endorse the concrete proposals aimed at reducing youth vaping included” in my bill;

They “petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To call on the Ford government to immediately” implement the bill, “Vaping is not for Kids Act, in order to protect the health of Ontario youth.

I support this petition, will affix my name to it, and ask my page Saniyah to bring it to the Clerk.

« Doubler les taux d’aide sociale ...

« Alors qu’il y a plus de 900 000 Ontarien(ne)s qui sont obligés de dépendre sur l’aide sociale;

« Alors que le gouvernement Ford a promis d’augmenter les taux du Programme ontarien de soutien aux personnes handicapées (POSPH) de seulement 5 %, et n’a fourni aucune aide supplémentaire aux personnes qui bénéficient du programme Ontario au travail (OT);

« Alors que l’inflation n’a jamais été aussi élevée depuis 40 ans et que les personnes à revenu fixe sont obligées de faire des sacrifices tous les jours, simplement pour survivre;

« Alors que les bénéficiaires ... vivent dans une pauvreté profonde imposée par la loi, une maigre augmentation de 58 $ ... et aucune aide supplémentaire aux bénéficiaires d’OT ne feront pratiquement rien pour améliorer la vie des personnes vivant de l’aide sociale;

Ils et elles pétitionnent l’Assemblée législative de l’Ontario « de doubler immédiatement les taux d’aide sociale, afin que les gens puissent vivre une vie digne et saine. »

J’appuie cette pétition, monsieur le Président. Je vais la signer, et je la donne à Saniyah, ma page qui est très bonne avec moi, pour l’amener à la table des greffiers.

“Improve Ontario’s Children and Youth Mental Health Services....

“Whereas children and youth across Ontario experience mental health and addiction issues that impact their lives and the lives of those around them;

“Whereas the demand for community child and youth mental health services is increasing, in Sudbury-Nickel Belt, 50% of them are waiting over six months and 20% for longer than a year for services;”

They petition the Legislative Assembly as follows: “to tell the Ford government to properly and equitably fund community children’s mental health services immediately to improve access to timely services for children, youth and families in our communities.”

I fully support this petition, will affix my name to it, and ask my very patient page Saniyah to bring it to the Clerk.

Resuming the debate adjourned on October 31, 2023, on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

Bill 142, An Act to enact the Consumer Protection Act, 2023, to amend the Consumer Reporting Act and to amend or repeal various other Acts / Projet de loi 142, Loi visant à édicter la Loi de 2023 sur la protection du consommateur, à modifier la Loi sur les renseignements concernant le consommateur et à modifier ou abroger diverses autres lois.

It is my pleasure to add a few words about Bill 142, An Act to enact the Consumer Protection Act, 2023, to amend the Consumer Reporting Act and to amend or repeal various other Acts, better known as the Better for Consumers, Better for Businesses Act.

I wanted to start by sharing a story that happened in my riding, as well as in Sudbury. There was this home renovation business called EcoLife Home Improvements; that was at a time, back in 2015, 2016, when there were quite a few programs coming from the government to help people do renovations in order to cut their usage of electricity, mainly by heating. So you were able to get a little bit of money if you changed your windows to better-insulated windows. You were able to get a little bit of money if you put insulation in the roof of your house or in and around your doors; or if you did, basically, an assessment of your house to see where your house was leaking heat; changing doors, changing windows; reframing; adding some insulation into the wall, your basement—anywhere in your home, really.

Many constituents of mine were interested in doing such renovations. They have older homes. In my riding, many people still heat with wood or electricity because those are the only two available. Some of them will have access to propane or oil heaters, but natural gas—I don’t have it at my house, and we don’t have it in most of Nickel Belt. They were trying to decrease their heating costs, their electricity costs, and there were those opportunities that the government was advertising. So EcoLife Home Improvements went and got a series of contracts, mainly from elderly people living in older homes, who could certainly benefit from a retrofit so that they could bring their heating costs and electricity costs down. He went and signed up contracts for everything from changing doors to rebuilding porches to changing windows to spraying insulation—many, many of those contracts, 35 of them, to be exact, in and around my riding, and he did zero of the work.

People started to come to our office, saying, “What can I do? He’s giving me an estimate for a $90,000 job. He’s giving me an estimate for a $50,000 job.” They had to put 50% of the value of the contract up front, and they would only need to pay—90% of it if the job was done, and the rest at the end. They had to come up with tens of thousands of dollars up front to secure, and he was using the fact that—those facts were not accurate: “Oh, you have to sign up now, because if you don’t sign up now, those discounts that the government is giving you to change your windows, to better insulate, to change the doors and all of this won’t be there anymore.” People knew that this was happening. The government had put out information that they were helping people decrease the cost of electricity.

Similar to what my colleague from Waterloo was saying, he seemed to have targeted mainly older women living alone in older homes that were in need of renovations. Some were couples, but a lot of the people who came to see us were women. This went on for a long time.

I had multiple meetings with David Murray, and he made promises up and down that, “Oh, yes”—it was, the windows were not coming; the train had derailed; the workers had gotten sick. There were all sorts of really good reasons why none of those jobs were moving ahead. Then, winter came. In the winter, you don’t really want to change windows, because it’s winter and all of this. Then, the next spring came and nothing got done, to the point where we ended up going to see Sudbury regional police and saying, “Something is going on.”

Well, something is going on. David Murray and EcoLife Home Improvements have been charged with 35 counts of fraud over $5,000, for a total of $800,000. This has been going on since March 2019, and absolutely nothing has happened so far, except for his case being delayed and delayed and delayed in court.

For a lot of people who are on limited income, who are at a time in their lives when they cannot go back and get a second job—when you’re an 85-year-old woman who stayed at home all of your life, you’re not about to go and get a new job. But they have this huge debt to somebody who basically—he hasn’t been found guilty in court, but he certainly has been charged with 35 counts of fraud over $5,000 for renovation contracts that he got a whole lot of money for, but did very little or none at all.

We did everything we could to try to help those constituents. As I said, we met with David Murray. We went to the police. We called consumer services. We called everybody and anybody—the construction industry in Sudbury, anybody who can help—and at the end of the day, it always ended with, “Tell them to go get a lawyer.”

The consumer protection services in place, when you go with contracts in hands—because the people would come to see us and we would show them, “Listen, those contracts are pretty similar to one another.” We can start to see a pattern here. There is no work that has been done. No windows have been ordered. There’s nothing that has been done, yet there was nothing to protect them.

Even after we became aware, after I contacted the Sudbury regional police, he continued to do the exact same thing. It was impossible to stop this. And when I read the Better for Consumers, Better for Businesses Act, frankly, Speaker, I don’t see how the changes that we have in this bill would prevent another David Murray from doing the exact same thing he has done to 35 homeowners in my riding, or another person from doing the exact same thing to another person in another riding in other areas of Ontario.

This is wrong. We all know it’s wrong. The court process is taking forever; I don’t know why. We’re in November 2023 and he still hasn’t gone to court. It has been in front of the court at least a dozen times, being postponed, whatever. It’s rescheduled for December, in a month from now. I hope that something happens then.

But still, these kinds of consumer protections were lacking back then. When I read the bill, I don’t see how we are any better protected. But I hope they exist, that I just didn’t fully understand the reading of the bill, but I would like this to be included. I don’t want anybody else to go through what my constituents have gone through in Nickel Belt with EcoLife Home Improvements.

That being said, something else that, on this side, we have been pushing for is the Ontario consumer watchdog. So that would be an independent organization that would oversee all consumer protection matters in Ontario. I would have loved to have one of those to call because every other phone call that we have made led us to the same thing: “Call a lawyer.”

When you’re an 85-year-old woman living alone in your home that hasn’t seen renovations in 40 years, you don’t have money to go hire a lawyer. You already have a $40,000 debt to someone who hasn’t done any renovations in your home. To tell her, “You’ll have to go see a lawyer,” we’re basically telling them, “Nothing can be done for you.” All this would change with an Ontario consumer watchdog that could see those cases coming, that could act upon them, that could help, so consumers are not left with the only recourse to find a lawyer who is willing to take the case—that’s not easy—and willing to take the case at a price that somebody could afford is even tougher where I live and for the people that I represent.

We don’t have too many lawyers’ offices in Nickel Belt. I can tell you that you can go from Ivanhoe Lake, Foleyet, Mattagami First Nation, Gogama, Biscotasing, Westree, Shining Tree, Benny, Cartier—none of them have any lawyers’ office or lawyers available close by, but some of them have been scammed by EcoLife Home Improvements.

When we talk about “better for consumers,” I want to talk a little bit about the consumers of midwifery services, which are women who are about to give birth. The midwives have been asking to be allowed to prescribe whatever is within their scope of practice for a long time, but right now, the government gives them a list of the medications that they are allowed to prescribe and not allowed to. This makes no sense. New medications are added to the formulary all the time—new medications that could be very beneficial to women who are about to give birth, which is what midwives do. They help women through pregnancy, through delivery and then when their babies are born, things like genetic testing; things like thyroid screening; things like nausea and vomiting; things like heartburn management during pregnancy—lots of women who have babies know what I’m talking about—preterm labour etc. They’re not allowed to prescribe those medications. That makes no sense.

If we’re talking about better for consumers, it would be way better for the women that I represent who are able to gain access to a midwife—we do have a fabulous midwifery practice in Sudbury; thank you to all of the midwives who work there, but I can tell you that 40% of the people I represent do not have a family physician or a nurse practitioner. They do not have access to primary care. So they won’t be able to gain access to the midwife while they’re pregnant. Through their pregnancy, they start to get a lot of heartburn because of the change with the baby and change in their weight etc. Well, in order to get a prescription for heartburn, they will have to go wait for hours and hours and hours either at Health Sciences North, the only hospital that serves our area, or at a walk-in clinic.

When you are pregnant, the last thing you want is to spend 18 hours waiting your turn at Health Sciences North to be able to get a prescription. Just sitting in the waiting room when you’re in an advanced case of pregnancy is actually dangerous for you. All of this could be changed. The midwives in Ontario have the knowledge and the skills to do all of this. They just don’t have a government who gives them permission to work within their full scope, which means that, for many of the people that I represent and for the 2.2 million Ontarians who don’t have a family physician—many of them women; many of them pregnant. Better for consumers? It would be way better for them if their midwives were able to prescribe any treatment, therapy or medications that they need that are within their scope of practice, if only the government would give them the right to practise within their scope, but so far this is not happening at all. There are a number of other health care professionals that face the same limitation.

Another part of the bill where I would have liked to see more is in the new home sales and their warranty. I was there when the Auditor General did her review of Tarion, which is supposed to be a consumer protection agency, but has been doing pretty much anything but protecting consumers when they purchase a new home. For most people, the purchase of a home is the biggest purchase we ever make in our lifetime. That’s why Ontario has a consumer protection agency, but when the consumer protection agency fails to do their work and has been taken over by the people who build those homes and the people who control that money, it makes for a pretty sad state of affairs.

When Tarion came to the committee on public accounts to answer to some of the questions that the committee on public accounts had for them, they basically promised that they were going to implement all of the recommendations that the Auditor General had put forward—that they had seen the wrong that they had done and seen the light at the end of the tunnel. They were going to do what needed to be done to protect consumers and make sure that they regained the trust.

I am really sad to say that if the experience in my riding is the same in the rest of Ontario, nothing has changed. Tarion is still very, very rigid. You call one day after the deadline that they put you—“Oh, no, the warranty doesn’t work anymore.” If something needs to be done, and you call them and you leave a message, they don’t call you back.

For a consumer protection agency—they still have not implemented the recommendations that the Auditor General had put forward. They have not implemented the recommendations that the committee on public accounts—those are MPPs in this House who made recommendations that Tarion had to put into place, and it’s as if the MPPs from this Legislature did not exist. They said all of the right things when they came and met with us and then did very little to change their ways.

The big complaint, right now, in my riding is similar to what we have with EcoLife Home Improvements. Remember, David Murray—35 counts of fraud over $5,000, selling people heat pumps and rental hot water heaters as well as rental furnaces. This seems to be covered in the bill.

So I’m happy to see those changes were included in the bill, and I hope they are put in place in a way that will make it easy for people who were sold those NOSIs and sold those payment plans—to put them in place as quickly as we can so we protect consumers in Ontario.

I know that the member is a lawyer and I am not.

What I can tell you is that the experience that I went through with the 35 homeowners in my riding who are now in court with EcoLife Home Improvements and Mr. David Murray—I don’t see how negotiations would have helped anything. I sat down and negotiated with this man many times, and he basically told me what I wanted to hear but never followed through.

I can tell you that you are not the only one who faces that. In parts of my riding, when an elderly person dies, by the time you pay those contracts for an old furnace, an old water heater, it’s like the value of the home. The inheritance comes down to very low, because they are stuck having to pay for a $5,000 or $6,000 furnace and they end up paying $40,000 for it because they did not pay for it up front.

I did not see anything in the bill that would go retroactive for all of the people that are going through this right now, including succession where the homeowner is deceased and the family is trying to sell the house.

We direct them, but I would never pretend to be a lawyer because I am not. We don’t give people false hope. What we give them are the consumer protection resources that presently exist. We link them up, we help them connect with them and we follow through, but we don’t give legal advice.

Ontario does recognize the training that midwives on First Nations are able to give to one another. There is also a little wee bit of opportunity for funding for those midwives, but a lot more needs to be done in most fly-in communities. Women have to be flown out. They’re all alone in a community, hundreds of kilometres away, to give birth. This is not human. This has to change. The member is right; there is room for better consumer protections right there too.

I intend to make full use of those for whoever comes to our office in need of consumer protection, but I have been here long enough to know that a revision to a bill is not something incremental. You make changes to a bill, and then you don’t touch it again for two decades.

So if we are going to go through to make it a consumer protection bill, let’s put into it as much of it as we can, so that if we don’t have a chance to look at it for the next 20 years, at least, we would have brought it as far as we can for that 2023 allows us to do.

The member opened up his statement talking about the fence going up at Ontario Place and the 1,500 trees that are scheduled to be cut down. I was just wondering if he could share with us: Has he heard anything from the people of his riding about Ontario Place? I live in northern Ontario, and I can tell you that for the people of northern Ontario, Ontario Place is a place that we all know is there. We’ve all brought our children to come and take in this phenomenal place in southern Ontario that has been very welcoming for generations to people of the north who come and visit the big city in the summer.

What has he heard from the people in his riding about the cutting of 1,500 trees at Ontario Place?