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 have got to be honest with you, all I can see is a whole bunch of superficial commitments, none of which actually address the things that workers are coming to me and telling me that they actually want to see to improve their retention, for example in health care, in the construction trades and places like that.

To your question: I didn’t see it in my review. Did you? I don’t think any of us did, and yet again it is just the latest in a series of examples of press releases that are put out by the government professing to change the world and commit to all sorts of things. When the rubber hits the pavement, they’re never able to deliver and, frankly, never willing to deliver.

I want to be really clear: This is not about standing with the government, standing with the opposition or anything like that. Let’s get beyond the rhetoric. This is about standing with workers. When I stand here and I point out the many shortcomings, it is with a view towards helping all members in this House on all sides make this legislation actually work for as many people as possible.

I want the constituents in Windsor–Tecumseh to have a large, well-functioning, modern, up-to-date hospital, and I want that hospital to have the skilled trades workers in order to be able to do that. I have the same problem in my riding. We need desperately to upgrade our hospital. We need the funding for that. But this bill, I regret to say, isn’t going to be enough to get your constituents and my constituents what they want and need.

So in answer to your question: No, I do not see anything in this legislation that addresses—

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?

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?

I want to thank the member opposite for her statement and her passion. We are totally understanding of it.

I know young people in my community, including plenty of women, are struggling to find the opportunity to find meaningful work. I know that this legislation has new pathways for those young women to find a career that can help pay the bills. MPP Leardi, MPP Jones and I met at St. Clair College a number of women in the WEST trades program for electrical trades. I’m wondering what your thoughts are on supporting those career pathways for young women.

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—

I thank the member for his question and I appreciate that you had that many women working in your workplace. So it astounds me that you would have voted in favour to discharge Lydia’s Law to committee, because I can’t imagine that in a workplace of that many women you didn’t see issues of intimate partner violence; you didn’t see issues of gender-based violence or trauma. Because the stats will say that you did, whether you recognized it or not.

While showing up with a big cheque is important, as I said, these organizations are starved for funding. You need to do more. You need to dig deep and have the courage of your convictions to vote what is appropriate and vote what is just, not just what you’re told to do.

I really want to talk particularly about women workers, women who work in precarious jobs, women who work piecework. They’re very often afraid, even if they know what their entitlements are. They’re often afraid to speak up about the wages that are being stolen from them, because they fear reprisals.

The associate minister for women’s issues said that in the skilled trades sector, women feel that they are treated differently. Well, that’s no different from all women across all sectors. If they really wanted to help women in the workplace, as she has said in her speech here, you need to look at women having their wages stolen—the most low-income women in our province, pieceworkers, garment workers. You need to address that. The government’s job is to make sure that women get the wages that they deserve.

I would also remind you that intimate partner violence and the issue of sexual assault perpetrators, rapists, going free is not the same issue. This is a problem with the courts, and this is a problem with your government’s failure to declare intimate partner violence an epidemic.

You pass bills here in a day, in two days, and we have all kinds of time here to debate your bills and debate bills that you’ve made mistakes on. Why did you not want to hear from the voices of women in this House that were prepared to come here? Instead, you dispatched it to committee where you know—

I met with a child care organization called Today’s Family in my community, and they shared with me that they are completely committed to the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care program, but that they’re struggling to implement it because they can’t afford to pay the workers what they deserve and they can’t continue to retain workers who cannot work on starvation wages, and I will just say that I had a question in the House the other day about women and families that can’t afford baby formula.

So this is a government that’s completely tone-deaf, is in their own bubble when it comes to the impact that women are facing, the economic difficulties that women are facing in this province under your government’s watch.

Questions?

I recognize the member from Niagara Falls.

Response?

I recognize the member from Parkdale–High Park.

I thank the member for her presentation. There’s been quite a bit of discussion this afternoon around working for workers, particularly women, and so I think that one of the things, when you look at what the Conservative government says versus what they do, you see that a lot of times the actions actually hurt women. When you look at Bill 124 and the attack on health care workers, when you look at the child care sector, these are sectors that are predominantly women—actually predominantly low-wage, racialized, immigrant women.

So my question to the member is, particularly when you look at child care, the wage enhancement that was promised by this government back in January has still not arrived. Workers still are not receiving that wage enhancement, and that wage enhancement only applies to a very small percentage of workers, not all child care workers. Do you think that this is the right way forward, and does that help all women who are in the child care sector?

Further debate?

You know what language is allowed and not allowed in the chamber, so I will caution you in regard to using it and not offer to use it again even though you know it’s not supposed to be used.

Interjections.

The member for Mississauga–Malton may continue.