It’s now time for questions.

I think we all agree in this House that that is an issue, and I’m happy that the OSPCA is saying, “Yes, this is a good step forward.” We just feel that the bill could be stronger than it is and that it’s not fully addressing all of the issues that are there that are allowing puppy mills to proliferate.

So we need more inspectors working for PAWS, and we need to be looking at what’s going on within that organization, because there aren’t enough inspectors, but there is more money being spent.

To the member opposite: I was looking at the Toronto Humane Society, which said, “As an organization dedicated to improving the lives of animals, we applaud this push for stronger legislation against puppy mills.”

Puppy mills often fail to keep a dog with a contagious disease away from other dogs or animals. Does the member agree that dogs raised in these types of conditions need to be taken care of?

The member for Mississauga–Malton.

Motion agreed to.

Thank you to my colleague the member for Thunder Bay–Superior North for her contribution to this debate today. She did raise the concern that we have shared, I think repeatedly on this side of the House, about the effectiveness of this bill if there are not the enforcement measures in place to follow up and deal with unethical puppy mills. I understand that there are only about 100 PAWS Act inspectors, and we have heard stories of acts of animal cruelty that have not been followed up on, not addressed, because of the lack of enforcement. Can she elaborate a bit more on that concern?

My question is to the member: if she agrees with the president of the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, who said that the PUPS Act is “a welcome and important step towards protecting dogs from unethical breeders and addressing the issue of puppy mills throughout our province.”

Further questions?

Point of order.

Questions to the member for Don Valley East? The member for Hastings–Lennox and Addington.

I’m honoured to have the privilege of speaking to Bill 159, the Preventing Unethical Puppy Sales Act, or the PUPS Act.

Let me start off: Who remembers, in 1952—probably nobody here, but you might have heard this song: “How much is that doggy in the window? / The one with the waggly tail”—Patti Page, 1952. We all heard it. Who hasn’t walked by, as a kid, a mall where you see a puppy in the window and you bug your mother, your father or whoever, “Please, can I have a dog?” Everybody wants a puppy. I get it. So, I commend the Solicitor General for taking action to protect dogs and increase the penalties for the operators of puppy mills with this bill.

Speaker, this bill is not about the good actors, the breeders and marketers of animals—puppies, dogs, cats, kittens, whatever—who ethically manage their businesses, provide proper animal nutrition and proper animal health, and follow proper breeding practices. What this bill is about is the bad actors, those who do not follow proper husbandry: again, animal health, animal nutrition and unethical breeding practices.

What I like about the bill most is there are minimum fines and maximum fines to be applied. These minimum fines include a $10,000 minimum fine for operating a puppy mill—it’s punitive—and the $25,000 minimum fine if the operation of a puppy mill results in the death of a dog. Businesses like this are unethically profitable and operate in clandestine environments. These fines are punitive and offer general deterrence value.

As someone who has worked in agriculture and agri-business his whole life, and currently still owns and operates a farm with a herdsman, owning animals is a massive responsibility. It’s huge. People cannot take that for granted. Ethical treatment of animals and breeding practices are key in the whole production of animal protein and also within our companion animal environment: how we breed these animals and who these parents mate up with. That is what is really wrong with puppy mills. We talk about a lot of animal abuse, which is right, which is understood, but most importantly, it begins with ethical breeding and breeding practices.

I’ve owned dogs and cats—mostly dogs—my whole life. I don’t have a dog today, unfortunately. I’m trying to convince my dear wife that it’s time for another golden retriever or whatever. She says I’m away too much, and we had two golden retrievers and lost the last one actually a couple of days after June 2, after the election. I miss them dearly. I’ve not even gotten to the point yet where I’ll bury the last dog. He’s been cremated and ready to go. I’ve got the tree that he was going to go by. He’d stand beside me at the house at the farm, and I miss him a lot. They’re friends and they are part of the family. It’s important that we manage this business well.

We have, in our business on a farm, barn cats. The member from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston will understand that you need to have a good supply of cats around a barn for obvious reasons; mice can overtake. And I’m called the treat boy at the farm because I walk around with tins of special cat food in my pocket. They say, “Well, you shouldn’t feed the cats like that; they’re being well fed,” but I do, because it’s not for the kittens; it’s for the mothers, to make sure that they have good nutrition so that they can continue to care for their cats. So everyone has to have a heart when it comes to our barn cats, as well.

But I’m very proud to support this bill, and I’m encouraged by the government taking action to improve animal welfare. It is beyond my belief that people would engage in this behaviour. You know how they say a dog is a man’s or a person’s best friend? I hope that members from all parties will support this bill and we will better protect our pets from inhumane treatment. I’ve listened to the debate and I hear different examples, and they’re heinous. I can’t believe people would treat any animals like that at all.

Cleanliness standards for a dog’s living environment is key. I’ve been to the London humane society, as my friends from London North Centre and London West have, as well, and you listen to the stories as to how animals and pets end up there. It’s appalling, the standards of cleanliness that they live in and they’re taken out of. Thank God people still are willing to adopt pets, and I’ll talk about that in a few minutes. I had the London humane society join me in my consultations for the modernization of the vet act. We invited humane societies to be a part of these consultations and they offered their unique perspective that was well-appreciated by all.

This act also prevents puppies from being separated from mothers, unless recommended in writing by a veterinarian. Following proper weaning procedures in large animals or companion animals is crucial to the well-being of our animals. It includes rules around breeding; it includes standards that will prevent inbreeding, overbreeding or the breeding of dogs that are less than a year old. Again, I come back to proper ethical breeding practices in large and small animals, but especially at these puppy mills—mostly unethical.

It protects dogs by requiring the isolation of dogs or other animals where there are reasonable grounds to believe a dog is suffering from a contagious disease or would be at a high risk of developing a disease.

Failing to meet any one of these requirements in this bill makes that dog breeder an operator of a puppy mill and makes them subject to the minimum fines of $10,000 and, again, $25,000. It’s punitive, as we previously mentioned.

Ontario already has the strongest penalties of any Canadian province or territory for animal welfare violations, and these measures address these serious repeat offenders and deal with them straight-on. Currently, individuals can face up to six months in jail for committing less serious offences and up to one year for repeat offences, as well as up to two years for committing more serious offences. The new mandatory minimum fines would aim to further deter puppy mills by strengthening penalties and establishing even more severe consequences.

I should also note that the mandatory minimum fines are just that: minimum. Penalties for operating a puppy mill can go above and beyond the mandatory minimum. This is important. Furthermore, the $25,000 mandatory minimum that applies when a dog dies also applies in cases where a dog is euthanized after a vet determines that to be the most humane course of action. Again, Ontario has some of the toughest penalties around, and I’m glad to see our government acting with this bill.

Prior to this bill, our government also introduced the Enhancing Professional Care for Animals Act. I was happy to see there was widespread support in the House for this bill, which modernized the vet act. I’m pleased to have chaired that throughout the province, and we’ve seen some great results. Adding more vets to this province and more vet technicians, as we talked about, will also add in the health and well-being of your animals.

The bill targets puppy mills that have tried to churn out dogs for sale without any regard for the health or welfare of animals, and it establishes clear rules that define what practices are unacceptable for dog breeders. These clear and enforceable rules make it easier to target puppy mill marketers without creating an excessive burden for responsible dog breeders to provide their animals with the care they deserve.

While mandatory minimum fines in this bill create an even stronger financial disincentive to operate a puppy mill, when buyers are no longer willing to buy from a puppy mill, there is no financial incentive to begin with.

I’ll just conclude by saying that during COVID—I think everybody has heard the term. I was in the feed business, the animal nutrition business, and as such, we sold a lot of pet food in Canada. Again, it may be somewhat anecdotal, but the number I heard is over a million new dogs entered homes throughout the COVID period—a million more dogs in homes. Obviously, because of that, today you are seeing an increase in animal shelters. Animals that were in those homes are now being abandoned because people are back to work or don’t have the time or the financial wherewithal to manage them effectively.

I would conclude by saying that anyone who wants to buy a dog, a cat, whatever animal it may be, please consider buying one. Go to your animal shelter, understand where these animals came from, what their parents were—sire, dam. Go back in the generations, look at genetic disorders, look at how they’ve been vaccinated, how they have been managed. It is crucial because a good healthy pet makes a great family owner.

I am convinced, as we move ahead, that this bill is going to enhance the ability to act with strong measures against those bad actors in the province.

I’m sharing my time with the member for Mississauga Centre.

I certainly share that sentiment, that we don’t deserve the love and kindness that our dogs give us, which is evidently always unconditional.

Yes, I do agree with the increased fines and the steps that have been taken to better delineate offences directed towards animal cruelty. I just want to give this legislation the best chance at success, at succeeding in its overall goal and premise. If we actually want to protect dogs, we need to have the framework in place to ensure that there is adequate enforcement and the right inspection framework in place, and I’m worried that I’m not quite seeing that yet.

Thank you very much.

Interjection.

I thank the member for his comments and the stories about the pups. I mean, one of the comments that has certainly echoed across this chamber today—and I’m not sure who said it earlier—was humans don’t always deserve the love that the animals in our lives have given us. To that end, sir—to the member—I ask the question of, do you agree with the increase and the enforcement of the higher penalties for the abuses mentioned within this bill?

Thanks to the member from Don Valley East. I appreciate the fact that you started your comments off with personal stories and also saying that you want this piece of legislation to be successful. We do know that the only way that legislation can be successful is in the application and the enforcement of these rules. We are concerned, based on, after the PAWS Act was passed, between a three-year term, OSPCA inspectors issued almost 16,000 orders, but in the same period, between 2020 and 2023, the PAWS inspectors only laid 6,970 orders. So there is clearly a problem around enforcement.

Do you think this legislation will address that? Because if not, then we’ll have good words and good intentions, but it won’t be successful.

The changes proposed in the PUPS Act will prohibit the harmful dog breeding practices most often associated with puppy mills. It’s helping out in doing many things: breeding a female dog that’s less than a year old, failing to keep a dog with a contagious disease—and many more things in this.

So, my question to the member is very simple: The Preventing Unethical Puppy Sales Act, if passed, would restrict unhealthy breeding practices regarding the proximity of kin. So, is this member going to stand up and support this bill with us?

I recognize the member for Mississauga Centre.

I rise today in support of my colleague the Solicitor General and his incredible work in proposing much-needed reforms towards animal welfare in our province. These reforms show that our government is not only interested in caring for our residents but also our furry friends.

In fact, this is not the first time our government addressed animal welfare. In 2019, our government implemented the most comprehensive and strictest animal welfare legislation in the country. The PAWS Act established standards of care and prohibitions against causing harm and distress to animals. We became the first jurisdiction in Canada to have animal welfare enforcement conducted by the province.

What’s great about the PAWS Act is that while it does regulate all dog breeders, it does not burden responsible breeders with further care requirements. It specifically targets the bad actors.

In Ontario, we have some of the toughest penalties and fines for the mistreatment of animals—and the amendments in this bill will further protect vulnerable dogs in our province.

I cannot forget to recognize the member for Etobicoke–Lakeshore for her incredible animal rights advocacy with her private member’s bill, the Protecting Our Pets Act. In the last Parliament, I lived in Etobicoke, actually. I was renting an apartment, so I lived in the member’s riding, and I would receive this beautiful calendar every year full of pictures of cats, dogs and furry friends. I certainly miss receiving that calendar, so maybe she can send one over anyway.

Dogs, like all animals, are sentient beings, capable of feeling pain, joy and a range of emotions. It is our duty, as a compassionate society, to ensure their well-being and advocate for their rights. It is a reflection of our values as a society, our commitment to kindness and our understanding of the interconnectedness of all living beings—Mother Nature.

I know, like many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, one of the best feelings is coming home to our furry friends, who are always so excited to see us. I think my dog is much more excited to see me sometimes than my very own husband, and so I really look forward to that moment, coming home and just getting that high burst of energy, no matter what the day was. We all know that days here can be quite ugly sometimes, but the moment I walk through that door and Cleo runs toward me, it all goes away. So I’m looking forward to that this evening as well.

This bill is a fundamental aspect of building a more compassionate and sustainable world. Today’s bill, the Preventing Unethical Puppy Sales Act, is a groundbreaking piece of legislation that will change the way we treat our canine friends in Ontario.

As the saying goes, a dog is a man’s best friend, but it is also a woman’s best friend, too. Scientists say that it has been the case for almost 1,500 years. In fact, dog ownership is proven to improve human health in so many ways: It provides a source of happiness, activity and daily physical exercise. Yes, Mr. Speaker, this morning, I took Cleo out for a walk at 5:30 a.m. She was a little confused why it was so early, but to get here in time for Parliament, 5:30 a.m. it is. So I can attest to that; Cleo keeps me happy and fit.

I’m the proud owner of a German Shepherd named Cleo who, at the age of two years old, is the most hyper and friendly dog you could meet. Her undying love for me and my husband cannot compare to anything in the human world. In fact, many of my colleagues have either met or seen Cleo since I bring her to a lot of events in the riding. For all members in the House, you know there’s a dog vote out there. Because when I go out with my dog, people always come to me—and they want a picture with my dog, not with me, and that’s totally okay. It’s a great tool for campaigning, and I highly, highly suggest it to all of you.

I’m very grateful that when we adopted Cleo as a puppy, she came from a reputable source that cared for the welfare of their dogs and not an unregulated, dubious source. That’s one of the reasons I am so proud of our government tabling the PUPS Act. Our government is amending the existing PAWS Act to stop the growing and disturbing practice of puppy mills. With this bill, we will stop these harmful practices and enforce the law, ensuring that dogs in Ontario are shown the dignity they deserve.

Puppy mills are widely prevalent in our province, operating in secrecy, and are notorious for their overbreeding, crowded and unsanitary conditions and lack of medical care—which pose huge threats to the present and future well-being of these precious animals. Many Ontarians know this, so I want to remind those in the chamber and my constituents: If you are aware of an animal being abused or in distress, call the Ontario Animal Protection Call Centre at 1-833-9-ANIMAL.

The reforms we are proposing to ban the harmful practice of puppy mills include:

—breeding a female more than three times in a two-year period;

—breeding a female younger than a year old;

—sequestering dogs with illnesses away from other animals;

—having an unsanitary environment for dogs; and

—separating a puppy from its mother before the age of eight weeks.

Mr. Speaker, anyone with a shred of decency would support these measures, which ensure that dogs in Ontario are not treated like disposable products, but as loving pets deserving our dignity and respect. On top of that, breeding dogs in this manner puts the puppies at risk, since they can develop serious health problems which might result in early death. With these puppy mills, people have no way of ensuring these dogs have been properly vaccinated or have been raised in an appropriate environment.

Alors, monsieur le Président, je sais que le procureur général travaille à la création de matériel d’éducation publique sur la façon dont les acheteurs de chien peuvent identifier un éleveur réputé et éthique, par rapport à une usine à chiots. Parfois, le premier endroit où les gens regardent est Kijiji, qui peut parfois être une source de nombreux mauvais acteurs.

Ces deux choix font une énorme différence : une différence entre l’adoption d’un chien en bonne santé et prospère, et celle d’un chien qui pourrait être criblé de problèmes de santé.

Nous veillons à ce que ceux qui exploitent des usines à chiots en violation flagrante de la législation provinciale se voient infliger une amende minimale de 10 000 $, et de 25 000 $ si leurs actes de négligence entraînent la mort d’un chien.

The government also intends to hold consultations on potential regulations for unnecessary medical procedures on dogs and cats, such as declawing, tail docking, ear cropping and debarking. Many of these procedures are for purely aesthetic purposes that bring no benefit to the pet themselves. Declawing, for example: Cats need their claws to physically explore the world around them. Maybe my furniture might not agree with me, but getting rid of this crucial body part, in my opinion, is grossly inappropriate, and the same goes for tail docking and ear cropping. Dogs are beautiful the way they are, and there is no need for body modifications.

I want to recognize stakeholders who have shown support for the PUPS Act, such as Doug Brooks from the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and Humane Society, who said:

“This legislation is a welcome and important step towards protecting dogs from unethical breeders and addressing the issue of puppy mills throughout our province. The Ontario SPCA and Humane Society looks forward to continuing to work with the Solicitor General to further develop the detailed regulations that will provide the greatest protection possible for both dogs and the public.”

Mr. Speaker, this endorsement rings true that our government is committed to animal welfare like no other jurisdiction in Canada.

I just want to share a very quick personal story about my dog Kumba, who passed away last year. In the last election, when I was campaigning, there were some turbulent times; there was some dirty politics being played, and there were anonymous flyers being sent to my entire riding. The one thing that kept me going each and every day was my morning walk with Kumba. I felt like I was getting ready for battle. Kumba and I, we would go and do our two-kilometre daily walk. I would listen to some Christian music and just prepare. I literally was feeling like I’m preparing for the battle of the day to go out there and door-knock and face some harsh and challenging moments. Kumba’s presence and that daily activity of just walking my dog and having that half an hour to myself with my Kumba—it gave me the peace of mind and it helped my mental health and it helped me move forward.

Animals bring so much benefit to our life; that’s why at SickKids we also have a pet-assisted therapy program. So I think it is the responsibility of all of us to ensure that our pets and dogs who do so much for us and for our society—even serving as service animals—are protected and kept in the best condition possible.

Thank you to the members who just spoke. My question is to my friend from Elgin–Middlesex–London.

I was interested in your comments about the Humane Society of London and Middlesex and also in particular your comments about these puppy mills. I did want to ask, do you think it would be adequate—would it not make more sense to ensure that all dog breeders are licensed in the province of Ontario, thus being able to make sure that there are standards in place for each and every one of them?

Questions, now, to the members who just spoke?

First off, I’d like to say to the member who was speaking about how excited her dog was to come get her, we had a cat for about 18 years that we lost last year. We got a new cat, and I can tell you, undoubtedly, I’ve never received that kind of excitement from a cat. He very efficiently ignores me.

Interjection.

We heard the member speaking about the consultations that have gone on and some of the comments that have come from people like the SPCA and other groups. Could the member please elaborate on how the government intends to continue the consultation on the regulations for the PUPS Act?