It’s an absolute honour and privilege to rise on behalf of His Majesty’s government to offer these words and some of my personal memories.

As a lifelong learner and student of political science and history, I’ve always found it fascinating to listen to the tributes offered by our colleagues on behalf of our former members—larger-than-life people who work in this very place, serving their communities, trusted to make decisions of consequence, commanding attention and mobilizing others with their words and with their deeds.

Few members have served this province as well and as nobly as the Honourable Darcy McKeough. It’s in this spirit I want to offer my sincere gratitude to one of our most esteemed past colleagues—a legend who contributed and shared his unique experiences with me and with countless others well into his 90th year. If you were sincere and interested in both listening and sharing your ideas and perspective and were prepared to debate and defend your position, Darcy would be more than pleased to offer you direct, sage advice on a wide variety of relevant topics and policy initiatives.

I feel so privileged to have had the opportunity to listen to, share with and learn from Darcy during our many personal conversations and particularly over our lunches and dinners, each appointment meticulously and diligently scheduled through the coordination of both our calendars—and Darcy’s calendar was busier and more ambitious than my own.

Born in Chatham on January 31, 1933, Darcy remained active in his community and closely followed politics and current events from his home, Bally McKeough, on the beautiful shores of Lake Erie in Chatham-Kent.

Elected MPP five times between 1963 and 1977, McKeough was mockingly dubbed “the Duke of Kent” by MPP Elmer Sopha, the Liberal member from Sudbury who served from 1959 to 1971. Darcy found the first published reference to his nickname in the Toronto Star on November 23, 1967. Although the nomenclature was clearly meant to mock him, McKeough came to like the name. He recounted in his memoir, “After all, I know my roots, am proud of where I come from, and have a desire to help others that is becoming rare in an era in which the relentless search for materialism often substitutes for what really matters.”

As Treasurer of Ontario, Minister of Economics, Minister of Municipal Affairs, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister of Energy during his time in office, McKeough coordinated the creation of regional governments to bring more efficient services to Ontario’s citizens and fought to achieve budget surpluses well before it was fashionable.

Although I knew of him from his work in our communities and through friends and contacts we had in common, I first met Darcy personally when I was a candidate in the provincial election of 2022. By then, I had already read his memoir, a gift to me by one of our friends in common.

On a sunny, cold winter afternoon, I knocked on the front door of Bally McKeough and was met immediately by the legendary lawmaker, confidante to Premiers, Ontario’s minister of everything and the star character from the very pages of the books I had studied and enjoyed.

With a kind and disarming smile and, of course, the faint smell of sweet pipe tobacco in the background, he placed his hand on my shoulder and said, “Trevor Jones, my friend, you have a good name and a good reputation. I’ve asked around about you. I’m so happy you’ve come out here to see me. Now, let’s get some refreshments.” With that, Darcy pointed with his cane to his study down the hall and said, “Take a seat—not there, that’s my seat, anywhere else—and make yourself at home, Trev.” Our first conversation, like many more that followed, lasted for several hours.

Darcy listened attentively to my story and generously shared of his own from, his early life in Chatham, to his time at Ridley College, Western University and graduating to learn business in a family business, to his time in elected office and his time after politics. At the centrepiece of each journey was his duty to public service and his love for his family.

He spoke often of the strong bond he had with his wife, Joyce. He beamed with pride when he spoke of his sons, Stewart and Jamie, and his granddaughter, Kate. I feel so fortunate for the friendship I shared with my honourable predecessor and privileged to glean some insights from the lived experiences of a gentleman who is delightful company in any social setting and who selflessly offered highly relevant solutions to contemporary matters with a level of competence, kindness, humility and charm that I hope to one day aspire to.

At our last lunch meeting in the fall of 2023, we met at one of our favourite restaurants in Chatham on the Thames River. Darcy was happy, energized and in a very spirited mood. He spoke with clarity and conviction on several timely and relevant local and provincial matters of concern—concern to him and concern to the people elected in this House. As I walked him to his car, he stopped momentarily, looked me in the eye and reminded me, “Opportunities come to those who are ready.” Darcy, you were always ready.

Thank you, Darcy. On behalf of the government of Ontario, thank you for your service to the people of Ontario, for your integrity, your energy, your ideas and for caring to make meaningful contributions to all our communities.

Applause.

It’s a great honour to rise today on behalf of the Ontario Liberal caucus to pay tribute to a former member for Chatham–Kent, nicknamed “the minister of everything,” Darcy McKeough.

Born in Chatham in 1933, Darcy came from a successful family in the Chatham community, with his great-grandfather and grandfather both serving terms as Chatham’s mayor and running a business. He attended Ridley College in St. Catharines. He served three years as a city councillor in Chatham before his election to Queen’s Park.

Darcy “the Duke of Kent” McKeough served Chatham-Kent for 15 years, from 1963 to 1978. There’s a reason why Mr. McKeough was called “the minister of everything:” He served as the Treasurer, Minister of Economics and Intergovernmental Affairs, Energy, and Municipal Affairs, even at one point handling much of these portfolios at the same time under Premier Bill Davis. While Minister of Municipal Affairs, he implemented the regional governance system, a defining attribute of Ontario’s municipal service delivery. He tabled budgets during times of troubled fiscal waters and made sure Ontario’s economy remained afloat.

MPP McKeough was a man of principle and always made sure to pay respect to ones he cared for. Premier Davis’s predecessor, John Robarts, was a close personal friend, so much so that Mr. Robarts was godfather to one of Darcy’s children. Darcy would, paying tribute to his close friend, organize annual luncheons with his old colleagues and friends in the name of Premier John Robarts. Some of you may have even attended one or two of them.

Darcy was a keen and committed public servant who enjoyed problem-solving for the greater good of Ontario and was never afraid to do what he thought ought to have been done. He never backed down from a challenge and loved the vibrance of political life.

He was also a great colleague to many others across the aisle. He would spar with opposition members like the then-leader of the NDP and then go out for drinks after. The camaraderie was something that I think MPP McKeough missed after leaving Queen’s Park. Even though we may not all agree on policy, one thing I think we can agree on is that this place is truly special.

After stepping away from the Legislature in 1978, Darcy became successful in the private sector, being the CEO and president of Union Gas and serving on the board of directors for Hydro One. In 1994, he was made an officer of the Order of Canada for his business success and philanthropic efforts. Darcy always tried to put the well-being of Canadians first regardless of where life took him.

In November 2023, Darcy passed away after battling pneumonia at the age of 90. I want to extend my sympathies to his family members. May he rest in peace. Thank you.

I will recognize the member for Kingston and the Islands.

It is an absolute honour to stand before you today to share tribute—and I’m much like Bob, our friend from Sarnia–Lambton. I wear my heart on my sleeve, and I have some amazing stories to tell. So bear with me.

It’s a tribute to stand up in front of you today to talk about Jack—John, if you will, official name—Keith Riddell.

I want to welcome his family to Queen’s Park. For those of you who are visiting for the first time, welcome to your House. Take time to soak it all in. And to Debbie, Wayne, Brenda, Heather and Donna, welcome back.

In preparation for today, I thought I could review important facts that are shared on the Internet and will forever immortalize Jack Riddell as a champion for rural Ontario. But I thought I’d take a different tack, Madam Speaker, and do something a little bit different, and I hope it will be appreciated by all who know Jack. It’s based on some amazing stories, some amazing memories that I’ve been lucky to receive from Jack’s five children.

You may have heard that Jack was a beloved auctioneer. So it’s in that spirit, and knowing and loving the fact that while growing up, even though Brenda said they were not the von Trapp family of Huron county—Jack would regularly call upon them to sing at events when he was called upon, especially to sing the Auctioneer song. So it’s in that spirit, as I mentioned, that I would like to focus in on a couple of lines—three in particular—from the Auctioneer song. And why is it important? Well, Jack prided himself on being an auctioneer and serving people. I think it’s important to recognize that even at his celebration of life in January, one of Jack’s last requests of his family was to get up and sing the Auctioneer song.

The first line I would like to reference is “Gonna make my mark and be an auctioneer!” Not only did Jack achieve that position and the esteem of a beloved auctioneer, but he graduated from OAC with a bachelor of science—Ontario Agricultural College at the University of Guelph—and he went on to serve as assistant agricultural representative in the counties of Essex and Hastings. I believe Hastings came before Essex. I absolutely connected with Jack, because extension work matters, and I really valued everything that he would put into that position as an assistant ag rep. He also gleaned great experience as assistant manager for the Ontario Stockyards. He served as an agricultural specialist in the province of Saskatchewan before coming home, before coming back to Huron county, where, together with his family, they raised beef cattle and sheep prior to him winning the honour and making his mark as MPP for Huron–Middlesex from the years 1973 through to 1990. And he served as the 30th Minister of Agriculture and Food in Ontario, from 1985 to 1989.

Wayne noted, and I think it’s important to share, that Jack’s father, William Keith Riddell, was also a well-respected agricultural representative for the county of Middlesex, and he feels that his father had a profound impact not only on a career that was absolutely dedicated to agriculture, but he had a really important position to fill—shoes to fill, if you will—given what he learned from his father as an ag rep in Middlesex county. It really had a profound impact on the trajectory of Jack’s career.

Growing up in the Riddell family meant helping in the barn, taking music lessons—and when they practised, according to Donna, Jack would join in and sing along. They also supported their dad and travelled with him, whether it was to Saskatchewan or to Toronto, when he served as the MPP and Minister of Agriculture. Heather noted that when they did make the trek to Toronto, they were sometimes treated to movies like The Sound of Music or a Maple Leafs game, when they joined him in Toronto.

As kids, Donna also shared that they became office support by cutting out birthday and anniversary notices from local papers that ultimately became the genesis, if you will, of a birthday card or a scroll recognizing a special anniversary. It’s important to know that Jack took that role very seriously. He would be in Toronto all week, come home on Friday night and get at it. He would start attending events, meet with constituents on Saturday mornings, join his wife at events that evening. Then, Sundays, again, were dedicated to presenting scrolls, birthday cards, and then he took time for games with his family. Apparently, the children learned how to lose gracefully with Jack at the table. I think that’s important because there are life lessons everywhere we look, and Jack made sure his children had that opportunity.

I’m glad to hear today that his grandchildren and great-grandchildren are here as well. Because again, I think it was Donna that mentioned if you learned how to speak in public, you’d be well set for life. Then, Debbie mentioned that even that premise, that thought, that value was extended to the grandchildren as well. There was one opportunity where grandchildren were flown from Centralia to Toronto for the opening of an agricultural exhibit at Ontario Place. While he was on stage, he called his grandchildren up to say a word or two. Like the old adage goes, you learn to do by doing, and Jack certainly presented opportunities for people to do that.

Growing up, the name Riddell was also synonymous with spending time with your dad. When working at the Ontario Stockyards, he bought a pony for his kids to ride. I heard from Wayne they rode that pony in the cement alleyways which, according to Wayne, proved to be a hard landing when they fell off. But in true dad style, he said he would pick them up, dust them off and put them right back on the pony. Heather noted that while their dad really didn’t like the idea, they also learned how to ride sheep as well.

Jack liked to pull pranks in the barn, and his laughter filled that building to the rafters. Family was important. He never missed an opportunity to give a shout-out to his mom whenever he was at an event that she was attending, and he wasn’t above letting a daughter dress him up in pigtails.

Brenda also shared, with an LOL in her email, Jack learned from his mistakes as well. For instance, Jack, appreciating the value of nutrients found in manure, used the tractor and spreader to fertilize the lawn around the house. She shared that he was quite proud of this until their mother got home, and she saw her beautiful white-sided house completely splattered and stained with manure. She wasn’t impressed, but one could extrapolate that he really did make his mark in that instance.

The second line from the Auctioneer song I would like to reference today is, “You can take your place among the best.” That’s what Jack Riddell certainly has done. A successful MPP, and ultimately minister, understands the importance of maintaining a balance and never forgetting about local constituents. All five of Jack’s children noted that working with constituents and assisting them to solve issues was what he prided himself on. In fact, it was common knowledge that it didn’t matter what political stripe the person was, there was no problem too small for him to dig into and ultimately resolve.

We’ve heard many times how Jack would work really hard to make sure farmers had their voices heard, and as his dedication as the 30th Minister of Agriculture and Food, whether it was in legislation that he founded—for instance, the legislation on the table we know as the Farm Practices Protection Act that he worked hard on, and it has legs today—or assisting farmers when interest rates were heading above 20% in the 1980s, or being responsible for shepherding over 30 programs through to fruition when he served as minister, he never stopped working.

For all he did prior to being elected and as a long-serving MPP and ag and food minister, Jack was inducted into the Ontario Agricultural Hall of Fame in 2017 and locally in the Huron agricultural hall of fame in the same year. He also established a scholarship from the Avon Maitland school board for a student that showed leadership and pursued an education in agriculture in Canada.

In the end, my takeaway from learning more about Jack Riddell through his children reaffirms how I felt as a young 4-H member in Huron county. He always maintained a striking pose when attending 4-H events. For instance, at our awards night, it was commonplace to see him in a fedora and suit, and he really did have a presence. When I joined him and his family on the occasion of his 90th birthday, I found his eyes still sparkled and his passion for agriculture was alive and well. We compared notes as the 30th and 40th Ministers of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, who just happened to share the same birthdate and pride in representing the breadbasket of Ontario at Queen’s Park.

To close, I would like to just share some direct comments, again from Jack’s children. They all concurred that representing Huron and Huron-Middlesex and serving as Minister of Agriculture and Food was the highlight of his career. They shared, “Dad loved his job! He loved helping people and making lives better in any way he could. As a family, we had him to ourselves before politics and after retirement.” But they learned to share him with everyone, and though it wasn’t always easy, they understood his passion. He was a man to be reckoned with, both as a father and as a politician. To be proud is an understatement.

To remember Jack Riddell today, I would like to share another message from his family: He showed what hard work was, what honesty was, what integrity was, what passion to do your best was, but also what fun was and what love of family was.

So to close, there’s one last line from the Auctioneer song, and it’s perfect: “Now he’s the best in all the land / Let’s pause and give that man a hand.” God bless Jack Riddell.

Thank you again to the presenters and to his sons, James and Stewart, who are watching from home and others as well. And thank you to those who are joining us in the gallery.

Today we are honoured to remember and pay tribute to a former member of our provincial Legislature, the late Mr. John “Jack” Keith Riddell, who was the MPP for Huron–Middlesex during the 30th, 31st, 32nd and 33rd Parliaments, and Huron during the 29th and 34th Parliaments.

Joining us in the Speaker’s gallery are Mr. Riddell’s family and friends: his children and their spouses, Debbie Thompson, Hiram Thompson, Wayne Riddell, Debbie Riddell, Donna Overholt, Dan Overholt, Heather Riddell and Brenda Riddell; his grandchildren and their spouses, Jason Riddell, Amber Parker, Jon Parker, Lea Glavin, Marty Glavin and Kendra Bloomfield; and his great-grandchildren—that I see there—Dax Glavin and Ada Glavin. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

We also have in the Speaker’s gallery David Warner, Speaker during the 35th Parliament; Steve Gilchrist, MPP for Scarborough East during the 36th and 37th Parliaments; Phil Gillies, MPP for Brantford during the 32nd and 33rd Parliaments; and Judy Marsales, MPP for Hamilton West during the 38th Parliament and Chair of the Ontario Association of Former Parliamentarians.

We can now start with the presenter for the first review, the Minister of Agriculture.

If you seek it, you’ll find unanimous consent to allow members to make statements in remembrance for the late Mr. John Keith Riddell, with five minutes allotted to His Majesty’s loyal opposition, five minutes allotted to His Majesty’s government and five minutes allotted to the independent members as a group.

It’s an incredible honour for me to be able to stand in the House today and pay tribute to John Keith Riddell, who no one in the rest of Ontario knows as John Keith Riddell; it’s Jack Riddell. I never had the opportunity to meet Jack, but as you’ll see in my remarks, we owe him a lot.

He was an auctioneer, and proud of it. There’s one thing about a livestock auctioneer that you need to understand: They perform a transaction between the owner/the seller and the buyer, and at the end of that transaction, both parties have to feel well treated. It’s an incredible skill, and if the auctioneer doesn’t do that, slowly the auction will fail. That’s how it works. It’s an incredible skill, and that’s something that is transferrable to politics, that skill of being able to make a deal, because an auctioneer makes a deal every time the gavel falls. That’s an incredible skill, a skill that when I read through Jack’s bio—a skill that he had.

He served from 1973 to 1990, and became agriculture minister in 1985. As the minister said, he brought forward legislation like the protection of farm products act and the Farm Implements Act. He actually brought forward the Ontario Farm Products Marketing Commission; he revamped it.

But to truly understand the impact that Jack Riddell had on agriculture and on the province, you have to think back to the 1970s, because the 1970s were golden in farming. Prices were high; interest was manageable. My father ran the farm at that time, and we bought and we bought and we bought. Then the 1980s hit, and everything stopped. Interest went to 20%, and that’s when Jack Riddell became Minister of Agriculture. You cannot imagine—I don’t think any of us can imagine the pressure of that.

I was just starting then, and those were the days of your neighbours getting foreclosed. The feds stepped in to stop foreclosures. And penny auctions: Your neighbours would gather around and stop the auctioneer, stop other people from bidding, because the whole neighbourhood was falling apart.

One thing I noticed in reading about Jack Riddell: He said at a local meeting that we won’t be able to save all farmers. That took guts to say that. It did. But he was the spokesman within cabinet that brought forward, first, temporary interest relief; then, more permanent interest relief; and a transition program for farmers who had to transition out of agriculture, which is a nice way of saying “who lost their farms.” It was incredibly tough. That’s why I’m so honoured to be able to recognize that—so honoured.

On behalf of the official opposition, and I think on behalf of thousands of farm families, of farms that Jack Riddell saved, including ours—we sold half our land. I took over the farm. I got my interest capped at 13% for five years—13%—but we made it through. We made it through because of representatives like Jack Riddell.

Thank you very much. We all know that no one does this alone. It takes a family; it takes a community. Families give up so much for family members who help everyone else. We know how much you’ve given up, but we can’t, on behalf of farmers all over Canada, express our gratitude enough. Thank you very much.

I’ll now recognize the member for Ottawa South.

I want to thank all the presenters this afternoon for their really heartfelt words. Thank you to the distinguished guests who have joined us today. Thank you to the families that have joined us here in person or remotely to watch the tributes. Those are very important, usually moving moments here in the House, and we all appreciate that. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day and that you appreciated the words that were spoken this afternoon about your loved ones.

Resuming the debate adjourned on November 28, 2023, on the motion for second reading of Bill 155, An Act to amend the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act / Projet de loi 155, Loi modifiant la Loi sur l’Institut de recherche agricole de l’Ontario.

It’s an honour to pay tribute on behalf of our Ontario Liberal caucus to John Keith Riddell, or Jack, as he was known, and to welcome his family to the Legislature. It’s actually one of the biggest contingents I think we’ve seen. There are a lot of you, and that says something.

I want to mention something else—and I’ve never done this at the beginning of a tribute. But I listened to the minister’s words and my colleague from the NDP, and that’s a tribute: When people on all sides say the kind of heartfelt things they do about your dad—your father, your grandfather, I should say—it’s incredible. It is truly, and I want to thank them for their remarks, because they were very, very thoughtful. I’ll try to match them, but it will be hard.

He was a member of the Legislature for 27 years. He was first elected in 1973, in a by-election, and it was a big win. He went on to win five more elections, and in the 29th, 30th, 31st, 32nd, 33rd and 34th Parliaments, he represented the ridings of Huron and Huron–Middlesex. He served as our party’s agriculture critic for 12 years—12 years. He was a farmer, teacher, owner and operator of a livestock sales business, and he was also an auctioneer. I heard my colleague’s comments on the skills that auctioneers have. Well, there’s another skill we have here that would be helpful if you had had training as an auctioneer, which is, I think we get paid by the word here, and so—

Interjection.

His record of commitment to Ontario farmers and to agriculture and the rural way of life was unwavering. It’s unmatched. He became minister of agriculture at a time when interest rates were at 20%. People weren’t ready for it. People were going to lose everything. And it’s one thing to be the critic—it has its challenges—but then when you have to deliver after you’ve been the critic, there’s a lot of pressure. That’s hard. People have high expectations for what you’re going to deliver, and they were hurting. And as you heard from my colleague in the NDP, he did a lot to save a lot of people’s livelihoods, their lives, the things that mattered most to them.

I like to try and speak to members of the Legislature who sat with the member we’re paying tribute to. So I had to dig down deep, and luckily we have Jim Bradley and Sean Conway. I spoke to Jim Bradley. Here’s what he had to say: “His election was a big win, and it came at a time when there were a lot of Liberal members in southwestern Ontario in rural ridings, and it was known as the rural rump. He was a vocal defender of Ontario agriculture and farms, and he wasn’t shy. He was always ready to talk to any of his urban colleagues about the challenges that rural Ontarians and farmers and farm families face. He was outspoken and never shied away from sharing his view.”

I also had a chance to speak with Sean Conway, another long-serving member, who in fact shared an apartment with Jack for, I think he said, almost 10 years here at Queen’s Park. Here’s what Sean said to me—and there are a couple of things. Sean is never at a loss for words, so the call wasn’t quick. Sorry, Sean. Here’s what he said: “When you shook Jack’s hand, you knew he worked the land, because you’d feel it after you walked away. He had a great voice, and he spoke firmly.”

Sean also had a couple of colourful stories that I can’t mention right now. He said Jack was a big guy with a big smile and an even bigger heart.

Now, I know Jack’s family is here today, and I do like to mention in these tributes, thank you for sharing him with us. Representing that riding in the 1970s and 1980s, the highway infrastructure wasn’t quite what it is right now. There were no planes. There might have been a train from London, but I’m sure if that was ever taken. It’s a lot to be away and then to be home on weekends and doing all the work—because he wanted to help people. So I want to thank you for that.

I know, after listening to both the minister and to my colleague the House leader, that he didn’t forget where he came from. He didn’t forget who sent him and what they sent him to do, and that is the most important thing that we can do here.

Thank you very much for your time.

Applause.

It’s always an honour to be able to speak in the House and, today, speak for a whole hour on An Act to amend the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario Act. One of the changes to this act is, instead of “institute,” it’s going to be Agricultural Research and Innovation Ontario. So be prepared for an hour on that slight change.

Interjections.

ARIO, as we know it, those in the agriculture community know it, is the owner of 16 agriculture research sites in the province. That’s really what its meat and potatoes are.

Agriculture is a big industry, and particularly agri-food is a big industry. Agriculture is a big part of it: the actual growing of the crops, the raising of the livestock. It’s dependent on research, and to do research, especially in agriculture, you need places to do it. I’m going to go through a list of a few of the things and what they do, just so you gain an appreciation. As I’m meandering through Ontario, I might stop at a few places that aren’t ARIO, but we’re going to do that.

We were just talking about a former agriculture minister, Jack Riddell. The first one on my list is the Ontario Aquaculture Research Centre in Alma. That was established when Jack Riddell was the Minister of Agriculture. It was also interesting for me, because I’ve been in agriculture my whole life and I didn’t know that all of these places existed. I’m going to be honest: This is a learning experience for me as well.

Alma is about aquaculture. It’s the fish research centre. I didn’t know that we had a fish research centre, and I certainly didn’t think it would be in Alma, but it’s in Alma. In Alma they have 10 buildings and 365 fish-rearing units for production and research of a full range of fish, from eggs to brood stock. The quarantine unit has successfully introduced Atlantic salmon, Arctic char and new strains of spring-spawning rainbow trout to the Ontario aquaculture industry. Since 1993, more than 170 research studies involving species have been conducted. Maybe everybody else knew this; I didn’t. It’s good that we all know it.

The next one—

Oh, I’m just getting started. In Arkell—Arkells is a band in Hamilton, right?

Interjection.

Then there’s—I’m sure everybody can guess what they study here—Bradford. I bet you the Minister of Colleges knows what they do at Bradford. They do research on vegetable crops. Who would have thought? Who would have thought they do research on that? But they do.

Cedar Springs: That’s 25 kilometres from Chatham. I’ve never been there, actually. I’ve been to Chatham, but not to Cedar Springs. There, 16 acres are used for crops, mainly apple orchards, but lately they’ve gone to hazelnut and ginger.

About 200 different crops are grown in Ontario. We hear that once in a while. It’s really important. In the agri-food sector, I believe there are close to 800,000 people working in it. It’s big. It’s one and two with cars, and you can’t eat cars. I wish that was my line, but it’s not.

Elora has got a few. There are some really big research stations in Elora: the beef station, the dairy; the swine was just opened. There’s also 400 acres of crops. I’ll give credit where credit is due: The current government has put a lot of funds into Elora, as have the commodity organizations. If you go to the beef or particularly the dairy—I know dairy; I’ve been in dairy my whole life—you’ll see some of the most modern facilities in the world at the Elora station.

I think generally the goal of research in years past has been to increase production, and that’s still the goal. But now there’s also a focus on minimizing impact to the climate, so minimizing your carbon footprint, protecting other resources: water, soil.

I didn’t have time in the tribute to our former minister, Minister Riddell, but actually his focus when he was minister—what he wanted his focus to be—was on foreign ownership of land, which is still a big deal, and soil erosion. But as often is the case in political life, those two issues kind of went—not by the wayside, but the focus on those two issues—when farmers were losing their farms to the banks, they weren’t as worried about soil erosion or foreign ownership.

Quite frankly, in Mr. Riddell’s time, he got lots of criticism. I think the current Tory government will feel for this. The former minister had lots of criticism because he opposed farmers selling pieces of their farms. We, on our farm—we had separate farms, but we had to sell pieces of our farm to keep the main one running. But if you had to sever a piece of your farm, he was opposed to that. That was, then, controversial, as it was very controversial when the current government put out a policy that they were going to allow three severances per farm lot. And guess what? They didn’t have to rescind that one. That one didn’t actually get fully to the light of day, I don’t think. But it’s a case where current events overtake the long-term goals of the industry.

So it’s safe to say that Elora, getting back to the—what are we talking about? Oh, ARIO—getting back to talking about that.

Interjections.

But the focus on Elora—I think it’s obvious that it’s livestock-focused. There was some controversy over Elora as well, because we used to have—and I’m going to get to it later—beef research in New Liskeard, and they moved the cows from New Liskeard to Elora—or moved the research. But if you really think about it, and especially the previous government, the current government talking about, “The future of the beef industry is in northern Ontario,” then you would think that the future of beef research would be in northern Ontario, because I’ll guarantee you that not everything that works in Elora works in my colleague’s riding of Kapuskasing. So that was a bit of a controversial move. There are some things that work. I’m not saying that you can’t do research, that all research has to be done where you want the industry, but some things make sense, so that’s still a bit of a head-scratcher that that was so centralized.

But I do believe that Beef Farmers of Ontario were in favour at the time, so I’m not criticizing them. They know more about raising beef than I do, so there could very well have been good reasons for that, but locally, we are still scratching our heads. You would think that beef research should be moving north as opposed to moving south—but that’s a whole different ball of wax.

There’s one, and I’ve been to this one; I bet you not too many other people have: Emo. We have a research station in Emo. That’s a long ways away from here. There’s a movie, I think, called Finding Nemo. I bet you more of you could find Nemo than find Emo.

Interjections.

What else?

Fort Frances area.

Yes. I’ll tell you a little story about Emo. When I was on the board of Dairy Farmers of Ontario, we did the whole northern tour. There are eight committees, and we took a week and did them all. Myself and the fieldman stayed at a motel in Emo, a really nice place. This was a few years ago. We wanted to upload something or download something, so I went down to the front desk to see if we could hook up to the Internet. They looked at me and said, “Well, if you want to make a long-distance phone call, let us know.” They had no clue what we were talking about regarding Internet. But the sad thing is—and I’m taking the government at its word, that by the end of 2025, everybody will have Internet; I sure hope that’s the case, because it sure isn’t the case now. It really isn’t.

When we talk about agriculture research, you need stable Internet. So if you’re going to run—the Minister of Mines has a few robotic barns, one for sure, and one in mine. But for robotic dairy barns, you need stable Internet, not just satellite Internet that cuts out once in a while when one too many people hook on. That’s not what we need. And I’m not sure that that’s going to be able to be the case by the end of 2025, because if all we get is satellite, there are still going to be all kinds of places in the province that aren’t going to support the modern types of agriculture that we all know are what we need. It’s really important. I can’t stress that enough. We talk about it, and I don’t think any of us disagree. We all need it, and we all know we need it. That’s not a point of disagreement; it really isn’t.

Just as an example, there’s the interactive map where you can see where the projects are going in your riding. So I look at my riding and I have, where I live outside the town—I don’t know the term, but anyway, I can see the tower from my house, and that’s the kind of Internet I have. It works great. We also have a bit of a hunt camp where we would like to work a lot more, but there’s no Internet there. So now, on the infrastructure map, they’re putting fibre optic cable to my house, where I already have Internet, but to that lake where the hunt camp is, where there are many people who live full-time, there’s no project on the docket. What they’re going to get is satellite, likely. And I’m not dissing satellite. I’m not dissing anything, but it has its limitations. If that’s what’s promised, that’s not what people think they’re going to get. So if at the end of 2025, “Hey, discount on Starlink”—everybody is ready, and that’s not exactly what was promised—it wasn’t—and the deadline is coming very quickly. It’s 2024 now, and this is all supposed to be done by 2025.

One of the issues with the way the internet program was rolled out, and this is pertinent to a lot of things: By dividing Ontario up into 40—I think it’s 40—and then saying, “Okay, so you have to bid on the whole region,” what you’re doing is eliminating a lot of the small players who are actually the ones who were trying to provide the service in the first place. I believe Bell won our region, but Bell had no interest in providing it in the first place, so now the locals who were trying to get it from Bell, to get it from their trunk lines—now Bell is directly competing with them with subsidized dollars.

I got a call from my local recycling guy. He has got a good little business. He recycles. Lo and behold, the government is changing how recycling is done in Ontario. That’s great, but they’re doing the same thing. He has to bid on a region bigger than he can ever service. What does that do? That eliminates the little guy and puts the big guy in control.

This government believes that the big private sector guy, the big private sector companies, can do things more efficiently, and all that happens is the big private sector bids on those contracts and then they take their cut, and they still farm them out to the people who are actually doing the work, over and over again.

I can remember—this was before this government took power—the same thing happened with school buses. They made the areas for school buses much bigger, so you no longer could bid on three bus routes in your local town; you had to bid on half a district, and that shut out all the little school bus companies, every one. Now we’ve got three or four big school bus companies, and a lot of school bus runs can’t find drivers. That’s part of the problem, because they’ve totally lost the local touch. This government has done this on steroids. Every time, it’s bigger, bigger, bigger.

I took a little bit of a detour there by Emo. The next one is Huron, and Huron is just north of Centralia, with 125 acres of crops. For research, it focuses on weed control. Good.

I know quite a bit about the next one, New Liskeard. It’s not quite my hometown; I farmed just a little bit north of New Liskeard. The experimental farm in New Liskeard used to have dairy, used to have beef and had crops. Now it focuses mainly on crops, rightfully so.

There is a bit of a backstory, though, to the experimental farm in New Liskeard. This is how politics are supposed to work, and I give credit where credit is due. We heard a rumour that the University of Guelph, when I first got elected, wanted to get out of New Liskeard and do all the research at Guelph, kind of à la beef cow, and shut New Liskeard down. The local community heard this, and at the time it was a Liberal government. The Minister of Agriculture was Minister McMeekin, and we arranged—our office, the office of an opposition member—a tour of that centre for the minister. We got all of the players in agriculture, the 20 movers and shakers in New Liskeard, and we organized a dinner.

We came to an agreement to put a hold on that for two years, while local people could come up with some kind of accommodation to keep ag research in New Liskeard. That deal was the reason that the Northern Ontario Farm Innovation Alliance was created, and it’s still a body that has a big impact across the north. During those two years, people realized how big the future was in agriculture in northern Ontario, and it became more of a focus.

But we did cut a deal. They sold part of the experimental farm and built a new crop research station across the road, one that was more modern. But that was the way we moved forward, and that’s something that I’m pretty proud of. I’ve said many times to the minister, there hasn’t been an official opening yet of that centre. I’ve told the minister this, if and when the minister comes to Timiskaming, we will treat her as a minister of the crown should be treated, with respect, and we sincerely hope that I’m invited to that—and it wasn’t me; it was our community.

But there’s one more step that needs to be taken—well, there are a few more steps, but one more that needs to be taken as soon as possible, on the part of the agriculture station that was sold, there is something called the SPUD unit. The SPUD unit does work with potatoes, garlic and strawberries, and what the SPUD unit does is they take the seeds—potato seeds and whatever seeds—and they break them down so there are no viruses on those seeds. Then they reintroduce those seeds back into the commercial market.

There was something that went through PEI—I believe potato wart, potato scab or something. It’s to stop things like that. The reason that it was built in New Liskeard 40 years ago is because of the way the climate works, and the jet stream, and all the viruses and stuff. You southern guys have all the viruses; we’re nice and clean where we are. But it’s 40 years old. It’s worn out, and they’re spending a lot of time and effort just keeping the lights on. Everyone agrees: the potato growers, the garlic growers—all the people use it. What we need to do is move it across the highway—move a new SPUD unit across the highway next to the new ag research station, where it can keep doing its job for Ontarians for the next 40 years. Talking about this bill gives me a chance to talk about that.

While I’m talking about highways: Highways are important for moving agricultural products and moving a lot of stuff. My colleagues from northern Ontario and the people of northern Ontario will know that we spend a lot of time talking about highway safety. The member from Mushkegowuk–James Bay is putting forward legislation—I believe it’s Toby’s Law—to make it illegal to pass on a double line. It’s great legislation. Every chance we get, we talk about highways in this House. Today I’m talking about highways’ importance to agriculture, but highways in general.

On February 1 and 2, the Ministry of Transportation, the Kirkland Lake police detachment and the detachment in New Liskeard and Temiskaming Shores held a highway blitz of commercial vehicles. They pulled over 75 commercial vehicles that they did a full inspection on. Thirty-six of the 75 were pulled off the road for safety infractions—36 of 75. I’d like to thank the OPP and the MTO for that blitz, I really would, because everybody noticed, everybody was happy. But my question to the House, my question to the Minister of Transportation is, what about the other 363 days? If in those two days half the commercial trucks that were inspected were taken off the road for safety infractions—half—there’s a problem.

There is a problem. The member from Mushkegowuk–James Bay is heckling his own member, Speaker, but he brings up a very, very good point. It very well may be that Ontario might statistically have the safest roads in North America, but I can guarantee you that Highway 11 north of North Bay is absolutely not the safest road in North America.

So while the food that feeds people—while we transport it across that strip, and the highway is continually closed, it’s a big issue. Health care—the lack of health care, access to health care—is the number one issue in my riding but followed very closely by highway safety. I can tell you, Speaker, that when the OPP put up that post—that info doesn’t come from me; that comes from the northeastern OPP, that almost half the trucks pulled over had to be kept off the road—that didn’t make the residents of northern Ontario feel a lot better, because that’s our main street. That’s our main street.

Before I go to the next research station—we’re almost halfway down the list—I’d just like to—one other statistic about Highway 11. If your car is registered in the district of Timiskaming, so where the New Liskeard Agricultural Research Station is, you are four times as likely to die in an accident on a provincial highway than if it’s registered in Toronto—four times as likely to die, and yet we have to listen to “We have the safest highways in North America.” Again, I give credit where credit’s due. I see that MTO or someone is doing some testing along some of our worst corners because they’re planning on putting in a 2+1. I give credit where credit’s due. The 2+1 is a pilot project that hopefully will make a difference, and if it makes a difference on those 14 kilometres, hopefully they keep going.

But you know what else would make a difference on Highway 11—a big difference—and not just to the people driving regular vehicles, but to truckers? Places to pull off the highway. Like, there’s signs on Highway 11: “Fatigue kills.” But if you’re driving a truck and you’re fatigued, there’s no place to pull off, so what good is the sign? What good is the sign?

We’ve had a terrible year, winter-wise. I think anybody from northern Ontario—it’s been a really weird—

Interjection.

Highway 11: You can’t just pull over on a nice paved shoulder, because there isn’t one. You pull a truck over on Highway 11, and unless you stay on the highway, you’re not getting back on the highway. Everybody knows this, and we all laugh at the people who don’t know this and end up flipping over into the ditch—and this happens a lot. But it’s not wholly that. We need better training for drivers in Ontario or drivers across Canada, no doubt, but we also need better roads.

There are big chunks of Highway 11 that were designed 50, 60 years ago, and there hasn’t really been a big change. They changed the pavement, changed the culverts, but you look at the traffic—I drive around here a lot lately, and there are lots of country roads I drive here, country highways, nice roads. They’re basically as good as Highway 11 except they don’t have 1,800 transports a day. That’s the difference. And it’s just so frustrating. The government has promised, oh, for years, so maybe this is year they actually build rest stops or even parking lots, just a place to pull over.

There are big chunks that—my favourite, and this isn’t in my riding. It might be in the member from Mushkegowuk–James Bay’s. But anyway, when you go from Cochrane and you go west, there’s a big sign. I did this a couple of years ago, so maybe it’s changed now. There’s a big sign that if you need towing, here’s the number you have to call, but there’s no cell service on either side of that sign for a long ways. So again, it’s kind of like “Fatigue Kills,” right?

Now, I think it’s just because—there’s a lot of problems down here. I’m not saying—but it’s the Trans-Canada Highway. It’s the Trans-Canada Highway, and I think we all know that it’s substandard, but we don’t see it every day. But we do; we do. I had an MTO enforcement officer call me. He was talking about the blitz, what they did, and he goes, “Yeah, I spend most of my time in southern Ontario, but when we went on that blitz, you wouldn’t believe the things that happen on Highway 11 north of North Bay.” I said, “Oh, no, we believe, because we live it.” We live it. And that’s something that has to change and something that I’ve been talking about for the last 12 years. Maybe that blitz came because we bothered the minister enough, and that’s what we’re going to keep doing on behalf of the people of Ontario.

Before I go from New Liskeard to—where’s the next one on my list? Oh, Ponsonby. I haven’t even heard of Ponsonby before, but we’re going to talk about Ponsonby. But before I go to Ponsonby, I just want to talk about climate change for a second, because climate change has a lot to do with agriculture. I’m finding this winter has a big impact on all kinds of people, short-term—basically, now we’re having a bit of a winter, but usually our winter starts a lot sooner. There are a lot of people who rely on winter for their livelihood: skidooers, the people who run restaurants, servicing, the people who rent out cabins for skidooers. I have a lot of them in my riding. There was one—I stopped at their place a couple of days ago—the Tomiko restaurant on Highway 11. They put out an urgent call on Facebook: Could people help them out? Because they were just about done.

I stopped in at Temagami Shores. Tomiko has great food. Temagami Shores—great food, great rooms.

Man, it hurts when you don’t have a winter, right? We have to realize those things. I don’t know how we’re going to address that, but changes in climate—and whether you agree on how it’s happening or how quickly it’s happening, it’s happening. If you want to debate me on whether climate change is real, man, I think we’ve got to back up a few steps. But it’s impacting a lot of people, and we’re going to have to come to some kind of—on how we deal with people who are losing their livelihoods through no fault of their own.

It used to be, if you bought a business or you ran a business in northern Ontario, every year is different, but you could kind of depend on winter. The one thing about living in northern Ontario: You can kind of depend on winter. That’s no longer the case.

I was talking to the owner of Canadian Tire in Cochrane. He moved, I believe, from the Woodstock area. I don’t know exactly if it was Canadian Tire in Woodstock, but he moved to Cochrane. When I was kid, we came from the Woodstock area too. And I asked him, “Enlighten me. Why did you pick Cochrane?” There’s a pretty stringent system for Canadian Tires. You just can’t show up. You have to prove your management capability. So I said, “So, why did you move to Cochrane?” And his answer: “Because Cochrane has four seasons. If you stock up on snow shovels in Cochrane, you know you’re going to sell them.” I never really thought about that before. If you have a snowmobile sales shop in Cochrane, you’re pretty sure: “Well, this year, they’ve got snow,” but it’s nip and tuck. That’s not just, “It happens once in a while.” This has never really happened to us at this level. I’m not trying to be the Chicken Little person, but this has never really happened to us at this level.

And I was thinking, too, as someone in agriculture, we haven’t had really the cold weather either in northern Ontario that protects us from a lot of the insects and bugs, right? So, do you know what? The pine beetle might be coming to northern Ontario a lot quicker than we thought, because before, we were protected by cold weather.

So, now, I’m going to get back to ARIO. Ponsonby is a general animal facility, but it specifies—no. Focuses—we’ll use “focuses.”

And yet we have the safest—

We’re aware. Just remember that whatever you say is on the record.

Specializes.

Specializes—that’s the word I’m looking for. I’m using up so much of my own air in here that—no, anyway.

Okay. They specialize in—they have a unique flock of sheep: a pathogen-free flock of sheep. And that’s really important, because the sheep—okay. We already talked about the horses.

Interjection.

Anyway, I’m going to quote him. He has got a beautiful farm. I think his son runs most of it now, but it’s a very well-run farm, very progressive. He also has sheep. We were touring through the barns—and I know nothing about sheep. I know a lot about cows; I know nothing about sheep. There was one sheep in the corner away from the rest of the flock, and I said, “Craig, I think you’ve got a sick sheep.” He said, “No, there’s no such thing as a sick sheep. There’s either a healthy sheep or a dead sheep. There’s no such thing.”

With cattle, if you get cattle that are big enough, substantial enough, if they get something and if you help them, they can work their way through it; sheep, not so much. Sheep are small. That’s why it’s really important to have a pathogen-free flock: because if a sheep disease hits, you need to be able to test what the sick sheep have that the clean sheep don’t. It’s much more scientific than this, but that’s why it’s important to have a pathogen-free flock of sheep.