This is really important and near to me—when it comes to workplace health and safety. As I get older, everyone seems younger when they’re starting at the workplace. We know that when high school students have injuries in the workplace, they tend to be pretty bad. These are the people who are working at fast-food places who get grease burns.

When you’re putting power tools in people’s hands and when you’re working with heavy equipment and stuff, there are a lot of hazards. We have to ensure that in that program for high school people—taking on apprentices and getting into the trades—health and safety comes first. That first year of an apprentice, for most people, is mostly—you carry tools, and you watch. We have to ensure this happens. We know there are some bad bosses out there, and we have to ensure that they’re not getting people to do stuff when they’re unqualified. We don’t want people who aren’t electricians working on live power, for example.

So health and safety has to be at the core of this, because we want the trades to grow, and we don’t want—any tragedy is going to have parents telling their kids, “No, no, don’t do this.” So we have to ensure they’re very safe.

Penalties are one way. I think if you can incentivize people, it’s a better way of changing behaviour, but sometimes you need the negative enforcement of a penalty.

If you’re having a press conference to talk about raising the minimum penalty from $50,000 to $100,000, but you have never charged any employer with the $50,000, what’s the point? If you’re hitting that ceiling and you’re not seeing the behaviour change, then for sure raise it. But if you’ve never hit that ceiling at $50,000, saying you’re going to double it to $100,000 is meaningless to those workers who are being affected by these bad bosses. You really have to use the tools that are available and not just pretend that raising them is going to make a difference if you’re not using the minimum as it is, or the maximum as—

As I said in the debate, sanitary products on construction sites aren’t in this bill—it was in the question that was asked, it was in the press conferences, but it’s not in the bill, so it’s not going to become a law. Maybe it will come in the next bill. I said very clearly I’m in favour of that happening. I think it’s a good step forward. I think we should include that at all workplaces, to ensure they’re there.

The other ones in terms of health and safety are actually duplicates of existing legislation.

My frustration with these bills, although we do great stuff when it comes to WSIB for firefighters and wildland firefighters—there are, a lot of times in these bills, things that are headline bills, where it sounds like you’re doing something, but all you’re doing is duplicating existing legislation.

We need anti-scab legislation—it is extending the length of strikes. It’s important to have. It’s a value of New Democrats. We’re hoping the Liberals and Conservatives will finally join us and pass that legislation—like they did at the federal level, it’s time to do it provincially, as well.

That’s a very good question, and I know that this idea of which kinds of workplace injuries or cancers, for example, and how long that person has been working—it has changed recently, but the answer is, I don’t know. I don’t have enough experience. But what I will say is that I believe in, as much as possible, facts and evidence.

Now, deciding who has the burden of proof, that’s a different question. It depends on what kind of precautions you want to take. I’d certainly be open to it, but I haven’t really thought carefully about that, I will admit.

I would even go beyond construction sites. Another very dangerous occupation is agriculture. The very last trip I made to southwestern Ontario, I heard a story from somebody I was driving with about how somebody in their family died at a young age from a farming accident.

So I think that anything we can do—every generation, we’re going to make improvements to workplace safety, and I support that.

It’s really important to make sure that people just aren’t attracted by the bonus, but they’re attracted by the job and doing it well.