Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston—close. Thank you, Speaker.

Thanks to the member opposite for his comments and his work on committee. To the member opposite through you, Speaker: you started into your presentation with, “I can’t support things in the bill,” and then you went on to talk about—which is common—things that aren’t in the bill. So my question to you is, what specifically in the bill do you not support?

Further questions?

I recognize the member for Don Valley East for further debate.

Well, first of all, I want to say that women play an important—

Interjections.

ATU tried to get their women drivers who may have their periods to be able to use washrooms during their route. This Conservative government turned that amendment down. That’s a true story.

Anti-scab legislation is important. Deeming is important. Paying fair wages, treating women with respect and dignity, making sure there’s equality so if you’ve got a job as a teacher—or that might be a bad example. If you’ve got a job as a woman where you’re getting paid 70% of what a man is getting for the exact same work—I’m trying to educate you. I’m trying to help you, because I feel that it’s fair and reasonable that if you’re going to bring bills that say, “Working for Workers,” you should know what you’re talking about and you should know what workers want in this bill. Whether—

Questions?

Further debate?

I appreciate you raising the point that I’ve been talking about: pinkwashing, where this government just puts a big headline out there that they’re working for women, and when you look at the substance of the bill, it is not there. We see time and time again that this is a government that has not only ignored women’s voices with Lydia’s Law—we see that they’re shutting out their voices from this Legislature—but they’re proactively working against women in the workplace.

Bill 124 froze the wages primarily of women workers. There’s a charter right challenge for women education workers. There were the midwives, for heaven’s sakes; they fought the midwives in court. And now we see gender-based violence and interval/transition workers are the lowest paid in the province. So not only do you shut out the voices of sexual assault survivors with Lydia’s Law; you’re shutting out the voices of women who work in these centres.

Do you see anything in this bill of substance that addresses the real needs of women working in this province?

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.

I want to thank the member for his comments today.

When the government announced this bill, they said in their media release that this would contain a suite of measures to support workers, including requiring menstrual products to be provided on larger construction sites. Do you see any requirement for menstrual products on construction sites in this bill?

I want to thank the member from Don Valley East for his comments, as well as his service in our health care system. I know it’s truly appreciated. It’s tough to balance this, to keep your tasks up as a legislator and the professional credentials.

I’ll go back to my community, where we have had a dearth of skilled trades over the years. In fact, we have had a dearth of investment, including our local hospital, which the last government stopped. So I look forward to investments like these or legislation like this to facilitate getting workers to build our new hospital, which will be built beginning in 2026.

My question to the member opposite is whether you intend to stand with the government on this: the support for supporting skilled trades; menstrual products for female workers, creating a more inclusive work environment for those who are on the job sites and really, really need that sense of inclusion that they belong on a site.

Thank you to the minister for that presentation. I want to congratulate her, as well, because I think she said in the House a number of times about the 30% increase in women working in the trades.

I’m wondering if she can comment on what she feels the success factors have been in the past and present, and additionally, are included in this bill for that growth.

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—

My question to the associate minister of women’s issues: You said, “Finally, you heard us” to the women you talked about, but believe me, women want more than clean washrooms, and it seems to me that men would like clean washrooms too. I don’t know if that would be a thing, but I think most men I know want a clean washroom.

You talked about keeping women safe and protected—very important. You talked about being struck by the strength of the women as you heard their stories. But women and girls wanted to have their stories heard in this House with Lydia’s Law and your government silenced them.

Why did you turn your back on those women in this House?

We talked about how women are in the workforce and they’re in certain jobs and how we need to support them, but they also need child care. We need to support women who are working and make sure that $10-a-day child care spaces are available. And quite frankly, Speaker, this government has put delays upon delays. Just today we heard that there is a funding formula, but it’s still not going to be available until 2025. It’s been two years for that funding formula to actually kick in so we can support women who are working and actually access affordable child care for $10.

Can I ask the member—you know, parents are saying, “Enough is enough.” What do you think about the delays? And you said, “Let’s get it done faster. Let’s get things going so women could get back to work. Women need child care to get back to work.” Can I ask you, why is it taking so long for this government to actually create a funding formula to create the $10-a-day child care spaces?

Oh, sorry; I didn’t see my friend from Richmond Hill there.

Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to ask a question. I enjoyed the minister’s remarks, and you talked about the importance of getting more women into the workforce. So you mentioned some of those numbers. I think you said one in 10 in some of the trades that you had gone through.

I’m curious; how do you feel that we can progress towards defining that success and that gold standard of having that equal opportunity for women? How will this legislation improve those conditions so more women can get to that gold standard?

I want to thank the minister for her presentation. In this bill, despite eliminating employer requirements for sick notes, there are no more paid sick days. That’s one thing that is really, really important for all workers and, I would say, even mostly women workers, because oftentimes when children are sick, it’s women who are at home taking care of them. Similarly, when it’s our elderly parents, it’s women who need those paid sick days from their job.

But my question really is around clarification. Right now, the elimination of the sick note—is that covered for just the three-day period which currently exists under legislation, or are the sick notes eliminated for any sick day?

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Questions?

I recognize the Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity.

I recognize the member from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston.

Further questions?

Further debate?

Speaker, I would like to begin my 10 minutes by expressing that I am in state of complete rage and anger with this government’s behaviour towards women. But I respect you, and I respect this House, and what you’re going to see is me doing my best to contain the rage that not only I feel, but that my constituents and many, many women across the province feel. I wanted to share with you that what you see is me trying, okay? Let’s see how this goes.

When it comes to women and women workers in this province, this government has been an abject failure. There’s no quantifying it any other way. Let’s just talk about how time and time again, this government has not only denied women the workplace entitlements that they deserve, but they have proactively worked against the best interests of women in the workplace. There’s a list as long as my arm; I just have the highlights of that.

First, let’s talk about midwives. These are primarily women workers. They won a judgment against this government to provide them equal pay, and the government was found guilty of systemic discrimination based on sex. What did this government do? Pay them? No. They took midwives to court. That’s crazy, right?

Then there was Bill 124, a bill that suppressed and stole the wages of primarily women workers in this province. It went to court and was found to be unconstitutional, and now the government owes how many billions and billions of dollars to pay these women what they are owed.

Then there was the bill to remove the charter rights from the mostly female workforce of education support workers, and it was a massive, massive anger outcry that forced you to roll that back.

I was reminded by the member from Don Valley East that they voted down extending WSIB coverage to support PSWs working in home care. We know that’s a largely racialized and female workforce. Many at the time were in the gallery to hear the debate, and the government said no. Clean washrooms, great, but these are women who are looking for safety protections in the workforce, and this government completely denied them.

My outrage that I’m sharing with you—and I will say it again—is that this government silenced the voices of women in this province when it came to Lydia’s Law and women who are sexual assault survivors. They didn’t want to hear debate. That’s fine, because we are talking about women in the workplace, but let me explain that while they did not want to hear from sexual assault survivors and didn’t want to hear them tell their stories, what is missing from that debate is the primarily women who work in these gender-based-violence organizations across the province in all of our constituencies. These primarily women who work in interval and transition houses, work in sexual assault centres, work in these organizations—primarily women—have had their wages frozen for 15 years, and they are working in increasingly complex and difficult situations because of the rise of violence against women.

This is a government that chose not to declare intimate partner violence as an epidemic. Despite all of the evidence, despite the Renfrew inquest, despite us asking time and time and time again, despite all of our communities, municipalities, calling it an epidemic, this government chose not to do that. That is completely demoralizing for women who work in these organizations, who work in all of these gender-based-violence organizations, sexual assault centres, across all of our constituencies.

I would just say that the member from Kitchener South–Hespeler came to Hamilton with a big cheque, and believe me, women’s agencies are grateful for any little thing that they can extract from this government. Whatever crumbs this government decides to give to these organizations, they’re happy to take. But that, again, is pinkwashing. Pinkwashing is when you ignore the substance. You come with a big headline like this bill about period products and clean washrooms, and you say that’s you working for women. Arriving in our communities with a cheque for desperate organizations is taking advantage of the fact that they’re desperate for some money from this government, but it’s ignoring the epidemic of violence in our communities against women, and it’s ignoring the conditions that these women actually work in.

Many of these women work overtime. They work long weekends. Why do they do that? Because they are completely committed to protecting women and girls in our province and to keeping them safe. I don’t feel that I can say the same is true of this government.

If this government wanted to actually address what women need in the workplace, I can’t think of a better place for you to start than women who work in VAW shelters across our province. There is a report that was done called the Feminist Brain Drain. It essentially talks about the problem that is existing. It says, “While the backbone of shelters”—and transitional houses—“are ... struggling to recruit and retain staff,” it’s because they are facing “burnout, exhaustion, vicarious trauma, and overall lack of wellness in their workplaces.” Women work in these workplaces. They have to come with the strength to support women and children who have seen the absolute worst.

Again, discharging Lydia’s Law and not allowing sexual assault survivors to have their voices heard—where are these women going to go now? They’re going to take their trauma and their grief and their rage at this government to these organizations. And these women, who are already underpaid, who are working long hours, who are trying to do the job that a government should do, now are going to be burdened with the grief of these women who were denied not only their justice in court but were denied justice in this House by this government. It’s a shame.

As I said, this is me trying to contain my rage, but what I am saying is factual. It’s absolutely the case. This is what has occurred in this province, and this is under this government’s watch.

We know that women-led sectors—women primarily work in what I would call the caring sector or the giving sector. We have women who primarily work as health care workers, primarily work in gender-based violence and interval houses and shelters. They primarily work as ECEs. What we see, especially when it comes to ECEs, is that they also are underpaid.

While this government has dragged their heels on coming out with $10-a-day child care, the early childhood educators are leaving the sector. Some 50% have left in the last five years. Why? Because they are not paid. They’re undervalued, and they’re not paid adequately to look after the youngest people, our young children. The fact that the sector is ignored by the government’s bill after bill on working for workers—you’re ignoring women-led organizations, and you’re ignoring women-led workplaces. I would say early childhood education is a significant example of that.

Early childhood educators in Ontario are among the lowest paid in Canada. These are women among the lowest paid in Canada. This is the government that has made absolutely no attempt to have equal pay legislation in this province, equal pay legislation that would help women workers: women workers in early childhood education; women workers in our interval, transition and gender-based-violence organizations across this province. The status of workers is that the only way we’re going to keep ECE workers working and attract them is if we pay them more. It’s just a simple matter of supply and demand.

I will leave this with you, that if this government really wanted to work for women workers in this province, women want more than a clean washroom. They want more than period products made available. Is that important? Yes, but it’s the least that you could do. It’s the least that you could do, particularly given how you’ve betrayed women by taking Lydia’s Law and discharging it out of this House.

I will just leave you with this, Speaker. These organizations have to fundraise for wages, essentially. Would we allow firefighters to have to fundraise for their wages? Would we allow police services to have to fundraise to pay the wages of the officers in this province? I think not. Organizations in the gender-based-violence sector are starting food banks for their own staff—not for the women they serve; they’ve already done that—food banks, for workers in gender-based violence organizations.

I will end by saying that in Hamilton we have so many wonderful organizations, like SACHA, like Interval House. The YWCA is hosting their 14th annual fundraiser, Walk a Mile in Their Shoes, and that’s to support their critical work for programs to end violence against women. It takes place on June 12. While you have nothing to help women in the bill, show up to Walk a Mile in Their Shoes and help those women fundraise to keep women safe in this province.

I agree we’re debating the workers thing and that we’re talking about workers all afternoon, so whether you’re a man or woman you’re talking about workers. We’re all workers.

I want to talk about wage theft. Between 2020 and 2022, Ontario workers filed more than 8,400 successful claims for workplace violations and were owed $36 million. The Star reported that by the end of 2022, government collection recovered less than half, less than 40%. The numbers were $36 million owed to workers; $13 million was collected. These bad actors got to keep $23 million in wage theft.

Do you believe that the bad actors or scumbag employers should keep $23 million in wage theft?

Thank you to the member for her comments and her passion.

I had the fortunate pleasure in my previous career of having 240 staff, and 231 of them were women, so I appreciate and know the importance of women in our workforce.

With trades, this is something that we’re trying to build. Also, in my riding I’m very thankful for the—not crumbs, but the investments that this government has made to Interval House. I’m thankful to the Minister of Children, Community and Social Services for visiting community services for visiting and spending the time with the women in that shelter. So there’s definitely an awareness here.

My question is: Is there anything in this bill—not things that could be in future bills or in past bills; anything in this bill—that you think will help the environment for women in the workforce?