It’s always a pleasure to listen to my colleagues be able to debate and speak on really creative and innovative ways to make practices, like the veterinary practices, accessible and relevant.

I’m really thinking about young people. As the minister for women, it’s important for me to see women have the opportunity to pursue careers. We’ve seen interest in veterinary practice amongst young girls.

I’m just wondering how this is going to help encourage more young people, especially young women, enter into the sector and become veterinarians in Ontario.

I’m proud to speak today on behalf of Bill 190, the Working for Workers Five Act, and I want to thank my cabinet colleague Minister Piccini for his comprehensive approach in this legislation to support women at work, and I worked very closely with him, and my team did, just making sure that we’re able to capture the voices of so many women who have been trying to break into the trade sector, who have been trying to have the opportunity to have a really excellent-paying job in the trades.

As Minister for Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity, I’m privileged to work every day to advocate for women and girls so that they can excel in their communities, in their careers and in life. Madam Speaker, the round tables that we have been able to do, meeting with women who have been advocating as much as they could but not having the support behind them to see the culture changes on the job site. Conversations with women like Brandi from fair trade workers—I just can’t remember the name, because I’m going off my notes here. I’m just so struck by the strength in these women, who are working in a sector, especially the skilled trades sector, that hasn’t been encouraging and welcoming. They have been wanting to see change for a long time, and resoundingly they are saying that we are finally a government that is listening and doing things to make a change and a difference on these job sites.

Bill 190 is yet another example of how we are acting across government to improve opportunities for women. I’m proud to stand behind this legislation, which, if passed, would empower more women and girls to fill the jobs we need to build Ontario and to help ensure that they can be safe and protected in those careers.

Under Premier Ford’s leadership and with the partnership and teamwork of my colleagues in this Legislature, our government is broadening women’s career pathways to a wide range of fields through employment and training supports. Two of our most successful programs—the Investing in Women’s Futures Program and the Women’s Economic Security Program—fund organizations across the province that provide targeted skills training and development to help women enter the workforce and build their careers.

What I also really appreciate with these programs and the organizations that are running them is they focus on job readiness, so helping women rebuild their lives after escaping violence, helping women be able to get counselling support and wraparound support, so that they are able to be in a more healthy space to be able to maintain the careers that they want and also helping them realize the strength and the ability of their experiences and realize that, even though they’ve gone through some hardships, they have been able to get out of it. We want to ensure that these women are forever empowered to keep moving forward.

These programs are actually working, and thousands of women have gone through—and the stories. If you could just take a listen to the stories. I met this one woman at George Brown College who was working in the restaurant industry and had said, during COVID when she wasn’t able to work because the restaurants were closed, that she really needed to make a change, because the income that she was making was not enough, and she could see that there were a lot of financial hardships that she was going through. She was able to sign into a program that helped her become a welder. Through the welding program at George Brown, she was able to get a job at George Brown, and now she is running the welding program and mentoring other women and girls to be able to follow the same path and realize the potential that they have in them. She said if it wasn’t for these types of programs to help her do it, she might not have had the ability to completely change her life with the salary that she’s earning now.

Today we’re helping more young women and girls, than ever before, start careers in construction and in the trades. Through Ontario’s Skilled Trades Strategy and programs such as the Ontario Youth Apprenticeship Program and the Pre-apprenticeship Training Program and the Achievement Incentive Program, more women are rolling up their sleeves and getting it done, and realizing that they could get into these industries. They’re saying that this is a whole new world that, had they had the encouragement to get into the trades when they were younger, they would have. So this progress, it’s successful, and we want to keep moving in that direction for Working for Workers 5.

The legislation builds on the government’s work by continuing to make careers in construction and the skilled trades more welcoming and accessible. Approximately one in 10 construction workers in Ontario are women, and approximately 4% of workers in Ontario construction-skilled-trades-related occupations are women. This legislation will help improve this statistic and help close the gap and help ensure that women who enter the trades stay in the trades.

One way is by helping young women who explored skilled trades careers by opening more pathways to apprenticeship, networking and training opportunities—this is huge, Madam Speaker—so more women are able to get the support they need to succeed in the trades that they choose. It is ensuring that they are getting coaching support throughout the process, getting them connected with a job where they can fill the apprenticeship need in the companies and connecting them.

Bill 190 will also allow grade 11 and 12 students to participate in more apprenticeship learning while completing high school, and support the creation of a new, centralized skilled trades job database.

That is that connection I’m talking about: When somebody is in the carpentry skilled trade and in school learning it, now, when they need an apprenticeship position, they’re able to access a database to put them into the place where they’re going to be able to do their work. So, they’re earning and learning at the same time, and that connection is being supported by our government, because we want to make sure that when they enter the skilled trades, they have a clear pathway to do so.

Young women pursuing careers in the trades can access new opportunities, gain experience and more easily connect with job opportunities and mentors. I can’t overstate how much of a difference the right teacher can make and, like I was talking about—her name was Lily at George Brown. Every woman that comes through the program not quite sure if they want to get into it because they feel like they’re the only one—having another woman say to you, “I did this. I can make sure you can get through it too,” is the most encouragement that that woman needs at the time.

By 2026, it is estimated that as many as one in six jobs opening in Ontario will be in the skilled trades. Ontario will need thousands of additional workers over the next decade to build homes, roads, hospitals and communities of the future, so encouraging more women to pursue these careers is essential to addressing the workforce.

We also see there is a large amount of people who are retiring as well and I think it’s so important to acknowledge that. Because there hadn’t been many women in the past getting into these jobs, it doesn’t mean that women don’t want to do these jobs, right? Women don’t need to feel pigeon-holed, that they have to go into certain careers. They also now have the ability to be able to explore the careers that maybe their family told them—or maybe even guidance counsellors in schools told them—that they shouldn’t get into these jobs because it’s not typical of a woman to do skilled trades. We’re disbanding that.

So, encouraging more women and empowering women to succeed sometimes means more than just creating opportunities in the workplace. It means making sure that women are safe in the workplace.

Being able to travel across the province in different communities and hearing from women—so often, we’ve heard from women that the spaces are not inclusive for them. Women have said, “I need to use the washroom. I shouldn’t have to park 10 minutes away from the job site to use one. I shouldn’t have to change in the Tim Hortons washroom to get myself ready to go to work. When I go to use the washroom, they’re disgusting.”

Even though we’ve said they need to have a washroom for women, sometimes they’re not cleaned. These things make environments inclusive and encouraging for women, and they’ve asked us to do these things. This is what we heard in the roundtables: They said, “We need somebody to help make sure that these places are kept clean so that when we need them, we can use them.” And when we have said, “Yes, we’ll listen,” more women are saying, “Finally. Finally, you’ve heard us. Finally, this job place is going to be accessible and inclusive for me.”

So, I just want to keep us moving in the same direction, keep encouraging women and girls to enter into trades careers, help rebuild their lives, and we’re going to continue to keep doing this.

The member from London West has been here longer than I have, so I’m sure the member understands that when something goes to committee, that space—

We want to hear from the people in committee and we are getting it done faster by not wasting time. Let’s get it to committee, let’s talk about it and actually solve the issue of court cases being dropped in Ontario.

Interjections.

Also, the request was made of us to have period products, right? And we’ve done that. Companies like EllisDon and other job sites want to make sure that their space is inclusive; that when you’re on the job site, if you can’t bring something—as a woman, when you have your accidents, you need something quickly to take care of your situation there. This is why we’ve done these pieces and women have said thank you, because it’s about time that we’re making job sites accessible and inclusive for women.

But what we have been able to do, and I’ve heard from a lot of parents—the fact that we’ve been able to cut child care fees significantly in half has been really helpful for seeing those parents who want to be able to work to work, and I think that is a really great step, because for the first time since 1974, I believe the stat is, we’ve actually seen an increase in parents who have children zero to five, women who have children zero to five, working.

So we’re in the right direction, we’re moving in the right direction, but I encourage all members in the House to advocate to the federal government to allow the province to [inaudible] and get more child care spots paid for and funded in Ontario.

We have an opportunity right now to make sure 50% of our population has the same opportunities as everybody else. And women are wanting to get into these sectors. If we don’t start making these job sites inclusive now, if we don’t start investing, which we have been, and having more people do the reviews of these job sites and to make sure that they’re clean, if we don’t start doing these things, we’re not going to see changes.

We hadn’t seen changes happen in a long time, and when other governments had the opportunity. But we’re making this change, and we are seeing the results, because more women are getting involved in the trades.

I’m blown away. I went to an event a few weeks ago, this convention, and the room was with filled with a thousand young girls from high school trying out tools, checking out the competitions and being inspired. This is the next generation, and we’ve got to continue to make the spaces the best they can be—

I do appreciate the passion coming from the member from Hamilton West–Ancaster–Dundas. I appreciate the passion, and I think that is the passion we need in order to see change in Ontario. I don’t want to see the member lose their fire. However, passion and speaking about the issue is one thing, but actually moving into place, the changes that need to be made, is another thing. What we’ve been able to do in our government is go out and listen to women and give them a chance to speak about the things they need us to change.

So I ask the member, why is it difficult for us to actually listen to the women who’ve experienced trauma and share their stories in committee? Why are we not rushing that and giving them the opportunity to do that, to speak, so we can hear them, so that we can make changes. Because in the trades, and in these sectors, women have experienced sexual assault and they need to have their voices heard. So what is the problem—