“There will be consequences. We are going to get you.” But those charges are going to be thrown out 35%-40% of the time if they are lesser Highway Traffic Act infractions.

I’m not a police officer, and I won’t speak for them, but I must imagine it would be frustrating to lay a charge and know that “Oh, well”—I don’t see it as respecting the work that they do.

Also, you have to have a strong and supported justice system, especially if you are going to mete out all these punishments to the lawbreakers. You do have to fund the justice system so that there can be justice and access to it.

While we are talking about justice and access to it—while the bill increases penalties for drivers convicted of certain criminal offences, Bill 197 fails to establish additional consequences, like hearing victim impact statements, for drivers who kill or seriously injure a vulnerable road user. Think of vulnerable road users, like a pedestrian, cyclist, a flag worker who is marking a construction site, the people who have business on our roads either because they are working on them or beside them or they are playing on them—well, we don’t play on roads, kids—riding their bicycles, walking. Those are vulnerable road users.

I’m very proud to have introduced legislation—this incarnation of it is Bill 15, the Fairness for Road Users Act. This bill started in 2002 when a couple was killed. I’ll give the backstory. William James Duff turned left in between three motorcycles on Highway 17 near Batchewana, Ontario. The resulting collision immediately claimed the lives of David and Wanda Harrison, tourists from the United States. Mr. Duff was convicted of an unsafe turn and received the maximum penalty allowed under the Highway Traffic Act at the time, which was $500.

The Bikers Rights Organization has been advocating for the increase of penalties since the Harrisons were killed in 2002. And the Bikers Rights Organization—I’ve met with them a number of times. They have been to the Legislature a lot of times—

Interruption.

I can tell you that when my constituents saw that there was a bill called safer roads and communities, they were very encouraged. My constituent Deb Rowes, who lives in Geneva Lake off of Highway 144, reached out, and she wants to know how many people need to die on Highway 144 before the government makes the roads safer. You see that, two weeks ago, there was a crash that closed the roads. A 43-year-old man from Sudbury died. On May 1, earlier, the highway was closed due to an accident. There were three road closures in March due to big accidents, followed by three accidents in February that closed the road. There was another three-vehicle accident in January where a 61-year-old man died. That is nine road closures—two deaths—in five months on Highway 144. Do you see anything in this bill that will make Highway 144 safer for the people I represent?