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November 18, 2014

41st Parliament, 1st Session

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Hansard Transcripts

Votes and Proceedings

Orders and Notices

Hansard Transcripts 2014-Nov-18 (PDF)

L028 - Tue 18 Nov 2014 / Mar 18 nov 2014

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

ASSEMBLÉE LÉGISLATIVE DE L’ONTARIO

Tuesday 18 November 2014 Mardi 18 novembre 2014

Orders of the Day

Better Business Climate Act, 2014 / Loi de 2014 visant à instaurer un climat plus propice aux affaires

Introduction of Visitors

Legislative pages

Oral Questions

Ontario economy

Curriculum

Ontario economy

Automobile insurance

Ontario economy

Automobile insurance

Northern Ontario development

Government accountability

Education funding

Youth employment

Wind turbines

Forest industry

Municipal elections

Mental health services

Answers to written questions

Visitors

Correction of record

Visitor

Deferred Votes

Time allocation

Notice of dissatisfaction

Answers to written questions

Introduction of Visitors

Members’ Statements

Township of Wilmot

Bev McCloskey

Environment industry

Bridge dedications

NDP convention

Canadian Cancer Survivor Network

Wind turbines

Conservation awards

GasTOPS

Reports by Committees

Standing Committee on Government Agencies

Standing Committee on General Government

Introduction of Bills

Walker Towne Centre Inc. Act, 2014

Smoke-Free Ontario Amendment Act, 2014 / Loi de 2014 modifiant la Loi favorisant un Ontario sans fumée

Planning Statute Law Amendment Act, 2014 / Loi de 2014 modifiant des lois en ce qui concerne l’aménagement du territoire

Motions

Committee sittings

Statements by the Ministry and Responses

Global Entrepreneurship Week

Adoption Awareness Month

Global Entrepreneurship Week

Adoption Awareness Month

Global Entrepreneurship Week

Adoption Awareness Month

Petitions

Tobacco control

Legal aid

Hydro rates

Midwifery

Health care

Coast Guard Auxiliary

Legal aid

Air quality

Utility charges

Legal aid

Environmental protection

Opposition Day

Child care

Adjournment Debate

Home care

Forest industry

The House met at 0900.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Good morning. Please join me in prayer.

Prayers.

Orders of the Day

Better Business Climate Act, 2014 / Loi de 2014 visant à instaurer un climat plus propice aux affaires

Mr. Duguid moved second reading of the following bill:

Bill 7,

An Act to enact the Burden Reduction Reporting Act, 2014 and the Partnerships for Jobs and Growth Act, 2014 / Projet de loi 7, Loi édictant la Loi de 2014 sur l’obligation de faire rapport concernant la réduction des fardeaux administratifs et la Loi de 2014 sur les partenariats pour la création d’emplois et la croissance.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Mr. Duguid.

Hon. Brad Duguid: Mr. Speaker, the traffic from Scarborough sometimes can be a little bit troublesome. I got here just in time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to let you know that I’ll be sharing my time with my parliamentary assistant, the great member from Ottawa–Orléans, who was ready to get up right away and sub in for me if I didn’t get here completely on time. But I did make it, so kudos to Palmer, my great driver, who didn’t break any traffic laws to get me here, but was very adept at getting me through all that construction in downtown Toronto.

It’s a privilege for me to reintroduce—that’s what we’re doing today—the Better Business Climate Act. It’s introduced primarily in very similar form—very close to identical, I believe—to the original bill that was introduced in the previous Parliament. It was done that way deliberately, because we made the commitment to reintroduce the bill in that form. That doesn’t mean, though, that if there are improvements that can be made to the bill, we wouldn’t be open to doing that as the bill works its way through the Legislature and through the committee process.

Today I am pleased to have the opportunity to discuss this proposed legislation that, if passed, would create a better business climate by reducing burdens. It will drive economic growth by supporting the development of clusters. These initiatives are part of our government’s economic plan, which is focused on sustained job creation and building stronger partnerships across the economy. The proposed better business climate legislation is key to building on those partnerships. It’s about providing faster, smarter and more streamlined government services to our businesses.

It’s about reducing the unnecessary regulatory, administrative and compliance burden, with the key word being “unnecessary.”

It’s not about impacting or removing necessary protections or regulations that impact health, safety or workplace standards. I think it’s always important, when we talk about removing unnecessary burdens, that we stress that: It’s not about removing the protections that Ontario’s quality of life and Ontarians’ quality of life is dependent upon; it’s about removing those unnecessary regulatory burdens that really aren’t contributing to our quality of life or safety in the workplace, or health or safety issues across the province.

It’s not only about what we regulate sometimes, it’s about how we regulate it. An example of the kind of actions that we’re taking was highlighted in the Fewer Burdens, Greater Growth report published by my ministry earlier this year. The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board has reduced the length of the no-lost-time injury claim forms by 60%, which is a very significant time savings, and it now allows claims to be made online or over the phone, which is a better situation for everyone.

Another example is the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change improvements to the approvals process for small-scale solar facilities. By moving from a one-size-fits-all to a more risk-based approach, they have reduced approval wait times from 147 days to less than 10 minutes for low-risk projects. That just makes sense, Mr. Speaker. These actions have managed to cut the pre-application costs from $100,000 to less than $5,000 per operator, contributing almost $2 million in industry-wide savings.

Those are the kinds initiatives that make a difference for our business community, save our businesses money and, at the same time, often streamline our ability to get through approvals quicker. Administrative process changes like these can save Ontario businesses millions of dollars, while still protecting the public interest.

These burdens, be they time, money or resources, frankly are a drag on businesses, and they’re a drag on our productivity, innovation and economic growth. When you think about these being tough economic times, this really is a time when all of us—and I mean all of us in this Legislature—ought to be working together to reduce regulatory burden for businesses, because this is a time when we don’t have the fiscal wherewithal to be able to put as much resources as we’d probably like to into some of the partnerships that we provide with businesses. This is a time, though, when reducing regulatory burden just makes sense. So we’re committed to reducing unnecessary burdens on an ongoing basis.

We’re committed to making Ontario one of the few places in the world that measures and reports on the time and financial savings to businesses. That’s really important. Not only does this help our businesses, especially by saving them time and money, it makes Ontario a more attractive place to invest in the global economy.

We’re pleased to be recognized as a leader in the reduction of unnecessary regulatory requirements by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. In fact, I believe Nicole Troster is here. When I came in this morning—there she is. Nicole, thank you for being here. Welcome. Nicole is the senior policy analyst for the CFIB, who is here today to support second reading of this bill.

When we announced our intent to introduce this proposed legislation, the Canadian Federation of Independent Business was there to support these changes. In fact, when I held a round table with the CFIB back in 2012, they said that a concrete outline of the government’s commitment to cut red tape in legislation was one of their top priorities.

I know that politicians, government and ministers like to take credit for ideas, but I have to tell you it was the CFIB in that round table, and through a series of round tables that we had with small businesses across this province back in 2012, that came up with the proposal that we ought to bring forward legislation such as this to enshrine in legislation our commitment to reduce regulatory burden and to measure regulatory burden and the impact in time and dollars that it has on our businesses.

So I want to give the CFIB the credit for their leadership in this area and for working with us on this initiative, and I’d like you to acknowledge Nicole Troster and her colleagues’ efforts to bring this forward. Thank you, Nicole.

I know that enshrining accountability in legislation is not always the easiest road for a government to choose, but businesses have told us that burden reduction is very important to them. By introducing this legislation that will hold us to account on our commitments, we’re demonstrating that it is also very important to our government. Holding the government accountable on regulatory burden also has strong support from our stakeholders, such as the Ontario Chamber of Commerce, the Toronto Financial Services Alliance and the Toronto Region Board of Trade.

Since 2008, our Open for Business initiative to modernize government has eliminated some 80,000 burdens, which represents 17% of all regulatory requirements. We plan to continue these efforts with a goal to save businesses $100 million over the next three years. This is an ambitious target, but we’re very determined to meet it. It will help businesses across the province as they spend less time filling out paperwork, searching for information, hiring consultants and waiting for government approvals.

You may ask: How do we know that $100 million is achievable? Well, Mr. Speaker, we know this because we started in 2013 to attribute dollar- and time-saving costs to work on burden reduction projects.

It’s worth noting that the proposed legislation is only one piece of a suite of initiatives the government has implemented under our Open for Business initiative to make Ontario’s business and regulatory climate predictable, transparent and responsive. For example, we’ve held 10 round tables with key business sectors to address their top five priority issues. We now require that proposed regulations impacting business be posted online for 45 days for stakeholder feedback.

And when they’re introduced, it’s done predictably. When we change regulations in the province of Ontario, they’re either introduced to begin on July 1 or January 1, for the most part, so that businesses have time to adjust. They see these changes coming; they’re not coming throughout the year. It makes life a little bit easier for our businesses, stakeholders and others. It probably makes it easier to do government in that way, too.

We all know that the world of business is changing constantly, and government needs to keep pace with this change by continually making its processes faster, smarter and easier for businesses and stakeholders. That’s why this proposed legislation is so important. By committing government to annually report, this legislation will, if passed, ensure that this and future governments will stay focused on reducing burden and modernizing processes. In a sense, it holds all of our feet to the fire.

British Columbia and Saskatchewan have both passed similar pieces of legislation in recent years. By enshrining annual reporting on regulatory burden in legislation, Ontario will not only catch up to other leading jurisdictions; we’ll leapfrog to the head of the line. That’s somewhere that I think all of us in this Legislature want our province to be.

There is a second component to the proposed Better Business Climate Act. Just as reducing burdens helps improve partnerships between government and businesses, building stronger, more competitive regional economic clusters will also further develop these important partnerships. I want to acknowledge and thank the Toronto Region Board of Trade for their leadership on the development of clusters.

Mr. Speaker, it’s not like this is a new concept—cluster development has been talked about for at least 20 years, if not longer—but it’s a technique that has proven to work in jurisdictions around the world. It’s something that our Toronto Region Board of Trade has been a real champion of, and something that I’m very proud this government has partnered with them and other organizations like the Ontario Chamber of Commerce to continue to promote. As they so aptly put it, clusters collaborate to compete.

Clusters exist across the province, from the mining and forestry clusters, which I know my friend behind me here is a big leader in, to the financial services cluster in Toronto, to the information and communication technology clusters in Ottawa, Toronto and Kitchener-Waterloo. We have a huge bioscience cluster in this province that has so much potential, one of the top in North America. We have a very significant aerospace cluster, seen as one of the fastest growing anywhere in the world today. Our clean tech cluster is one that would rival any cluster anywhere in the world, and it’s growing. Our clean water tech cluster is another one that has huge potential.

So we have a number of clusters across this province. Many of them have developed just organically. Some of them have developed with the help of our government. For instance, just this past July, Minister Sousa announced that our government is renewing funding for the Toronto Financial Services Alliance, an organization representing an important Ontario cluster.

The Toronto region is North America’s second-largest financial services hub. After New York, Ontario’s financial services account for 50% of Canada’s sector, and generate over $54 billion in gross domestic product. So we’re real players when it comes to the financial services sector—as I said, top two in North America. It’s a good place for us to be, but it’s an increasingly competitive global environment, and we need to continue to invest in our strengths. This renewed funding demonstrates not only our commitment to this sector, but our understanding of the importance of cluster development.

Another example of our commitment to cluster development is our investment in the Bombardier-Centennial College aerospace hub project, to be located at Downsview. I had the privilege of being part of that when I was Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities, and as well when I held this post previously. I’m really excited about what that investment entails. What it does, Mr.

Speaker, is create a great example of experiential learning, where we have a private sector partner, Bombardier, partnering with one of our leading educational institutions, Centennial College, to put together an incredible experiential learning opportunity, a right-on-site learning environment for aerospace students to learn with Bombardier and create that next-generation aerospace workforce.

But it’s the beginning of a vision to potentially create, in and around Downsview, one of our fastest-growing clusters, a part of our economy that has done reasonably well through the recession but is really starting to excel now, as we come through this into this period of growth. It’s something that I see as almost a visionary investment that I think is going to pay huge dividends in the decades ahead and make Ontario—we’re already one of the fastest-growing aerospace clusters, but I think we want to see Ontario as one of the global-leading aerospace clusters.

When you combine Ontario’s aerospace strength with Montreal’s aerospace strength, you’ve got a little bit of Canadian access to aerospace technological strength that I think can be very globally competitive—and is very globally competitive. So this is an area that merits consideration, as well, as a cluster worth watching and a cluster worth supporting.

If passed, our government would be the first jurisdiction in North America to legislate the development of clusters. But let’s make it clear: Governments can’t create clusters. I think it’s really important that we say this as we bring forward legislation to commit this government and future governments to being involved in and facilitating clusters.

That’s what our role is: to work with the private sector, identify our economic strengths and do everything we can, as a government, with the programs we have in place and the policies we put in place, whether they be taxation policies, whether they be business-partnership-type policies or whether they be policies to support organizations that advocate to grow business clusters. That’s the kind of input that government really has.

At the end of the day, it is the business community that has to drive these policies and the business community that has to grow these clusters. We’re there to help in any way we can, and in some cases we’re there to lead, where leadership is required. For the most part, we get really tremendous leadership in this province from our business community. The Toronto Region Board of Trade has, I think, matured over the last 20 years to be one of the most effective regional boards of trade anywhere in North America today.

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce, the success story there—Allan O’Dette, whom I think every member in this Legislature has worked with, has done a tremendous job maturing that organization and creating relevancy to that organization, reaching down to the business grassroots across this province to make the Ontario Chamber of Commerce one of the leading chambers of commerce anywhere in North America.

Certainly, both of these organizations have been integral in the development of our government’s economic development policy. In fact, if you look at some of the work that has been done by the Ontario chamber and the Toronto Region Board of Trade, you’ll see much of that reflected—actually, it’s very similar—in our economic development plans and policies that we’ve brought forward as well. I think it’s important that governments are in sync with their business community, and that’s very much what this legislation helps us do.

The Better Business Climate Act, if passed, would provide our government with a new tool to help clusters like Toronto’s financial sector through development plans. They will help facilitate stronger planning and collaboration with industry and with partner ministries to raise the province’s capacity for innovation and economic prosperity.

Through the planning process, Ontario will facilitate new partnerships by working with industry leaders, academic and research institutions and local businesses to identify key policies that will support a long-term vision and plan for cluster growth. The plans will bridge industry and Ontario’s academic and research institutions to commercialize leading-edge research. The role of industry in the development of cluster plans is crucial. Cluster plans cannot and shouldn’t be, as I said before, led by government; rather, they must develop out of leadership from within the industry.

The proposed legislation will also provide a cluster-focused lens to all of our economic development initiatives as we move forward. Collaboration with Ontario’s key clusters will allow government to better allocate and coordinate access to government programs and help shape future policy. To build upon the success of these cluster plans and ensure that they’re aligned with changing industry and economic trends, mandatory reviews of the plans will be required every five years. Again, Mr. Speaker, that’s important—to make sure that the plans that we put in place remain relevant in this fiercely competitive, fast-changing global economy.

This legislation is critical as it recognizes the importance of clusters to Ontario’s economic development. As I mentioned, this will be a first for any North American jurisdiction. As always, we encourage discussion and input from the members opposite and my colleagues behind me here today as well. This is a piece of legislation that was introduced to the Legislature earlier in the previous term. Our stakeholders have had an opportunity to have a good look at it; there may be some ideas as to how it can be improved.

I want you to know that, as minister, I’ll be encouraging my colleagues at committee to consider any ideas that come forward that would strengthen this legislation in ways that we could all agree on.

I look forward to seeing this bill go through this Legislature and go on to committee. I know that my parliamentary assistant will do a great job at committee, and she’ll be open to suggestions from the parties opposite. As always, when I have legislation going through, I welcome that input.

I encourage members opposite, if they do have amendments that they’d like to bring forward, to talk to my colleagues as well to make sure we can word those amendments in ways that make it easier for us to be able to adopt them at committee rather than come in and word some of these amendments in ways that make it difficult for us to support, even though we’d like to support them. That’s an open-door policy that we’ll have, and I know my parliamentary assistant will look forward to working with my friends in opposition.

I’m pleased to be able to lead off debate on this important piece of legislation. I see it as an important piece of legislation. It is by no means the centerpiece of our economic development strategy; it is but one part of it, but an important part of it. More than anything, what this legislation indicates is that our government listens. We sit down and we consult with the business community. We consulted with the CFIB and small businesses a number of years ago, and this legislation is the result of many of those discussions.

We’ve consulted with the Toronto Region Board of Trade and our business leaders across the province on the importance of clusters, and this legislation reflects that input as well. Sometimes when you get legislation that is crafted not only here internally but crafted with the help of our stakeholders in our business community, it makes for a stronger piece of legislation.

I don’t know whether the opposition will be supporting this legislation or not; I can’t recall what their views were when we initially introduced this in the last session. But I encourage them to approach this particular piece of legislation in a constructive way. It’s there to be constructive; this is not really a political piece of legislation. This isn’t the kind of legislation that goes in our political brochures at the end of the day. I can’t see my good friend Mike Colle putting in his householder that we’re going to do massive cluster development. I don’t know if his constituents would jump up and down about that.

Mr. Mike Colle: It helps small business, though.

Hon. Brad Duguid: But he knows how important this is to building a strong business community, and that’s important to all of our constituents. He did mention his support for small businesses, and that’s something that I think each and every one of us in this House can rally around and something that probably would resonate a little bit better in our householders and in our communications with our residents.

But it is really important, I think, for this government and this Legislature to continue to be in sync with our business community. As I said before, when you look at the work that’s been done, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce put out, many years ago now, their Emerging Stronger plan, and they’ve renewed it again; they had a second phase of it. If you look at the things that they’re talking about in that plan and you look at this government’s economic development strategy, it is absolutely in sync.

It’s about investing in our people, building a strong education system, building strong skills, building the strongest workforce anywhere in the world. That’s our single greatest competitive advantage. It’s also about investing in infrastructure. As members in this Legislature know, this government is very in tune with that: a $130-billion investment that we’re making over the next 10 years, a record investment not only in Ontario, but right across this country.

There are few jurisdictions anywhere in North America that are making that kind of commitment during challenging fiscal times, but we recognize the linkage between infrastructure and the economy, and how important it is for us to be able to drive jobs and economic growth through our investments in infrastructure.

We recognize the fact that we’ve gone through decades of not having adequate investment in infrastructure. In the last 10 years, we’ve invested $100 billion in roads, bridges, transit, water, waste water, hospitals and schools, and many other forms of infrastructure. So we’ve picked it up the last 10 years, but we’ve got to keep that going and we’ve got to actually enhance those efforts. Our plans do that. That creates jobs as well, Mr. Speaker. When you think that the investment is $130 billion over 10 years, estimates are that it will support about 110,000 jobs every single year.

Our investments over the last 10 years have supported, on average, about 100,000 jobs every year. I think in many ways our investments in infrastructure helped Ontario get through that global recession a lot stronger than most other jurisdictions in North America were able to weather it. So they’re smart investments for the economy, but they’re also smart for our quality of life. As I experienced this morning, getting here just in the nick of time, giving myself an hour to get here from Scarborough—10 years ago I would have been here with 15 minutes to spare.

But it’s a little tighter now getting around our urban areas—and not just in Toronto; in Ottawa, throughout the greater Toronto and Hamilton region it’s getting harder to get around. So that’s why those investments are important, not only from a business perspective but for our quality of life. Of course, when you look at the Emerging Stronger documents and you look at our economic development strategy, you see a real synchronization as well when it comes to building a strong, dynamic economy and making investments that ensure that we have a strong climate for investment.

Our efforts to date, among other things, have made Ontario number one in North America for foreign direct investment. That’s not just something we’re proud of as a government; it’s something that’s really important, because that’s what drives business growth, that’s what creates jobs and that’s what sets Ontario in a class of its own when it comes to attracting new businesses to locate here, when it comes to attracting new businesses in advanced manufacturing, which we’re seeing more and more of—

Mr. Mike Colle: Alliston.

Hon. Brad Duguid: —because Ontario has very much become a gateway to investment and access to that North American market.

The member beside me, Mike Colle, just mentioned that Alliston had a recent announcement that this government and Honda made together, where we—I’m getting a note here asking me whether I’m concluding soon. Yes, I’m concluding soon, but I’m on a bit of a roll here.

When I talk about Alliston, it’s something that excites me, an $857-million investment in the Alliston Honda plant that’s going to support over 4,000 jobs, which is terrific, and thousands more indirect jobs across this province in the auto sector. That’s the kind of investment that we’re working to continue to try to attract.

Given the note that I have now, I have been trying to keep my eye on the clock here because I want to make sure there is lots of time for my parliamentary assistant to be able to speak as well. I’m looking forward to hearing her comments and I know she’s going to lead this legislation through, with the will of the Legislature, to committee. She’s going to do a great job getting this through and working with my colleagues opposite to ensure this is a strong piece of legislation to drive growth and drive job creation throughout the province of Ontario.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’ll now turn it over to my parliamentary assistant.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): I’d like to thank the Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure. That’s a

long title, Minister.

Now I recognize the member from Ottawa–Orléans.

Mrs. Marie-France Lalonde: It gives me great pleasure, actually, to be here and introduce and bring forward Bill 7, and not only because of everything that was mentioned by Minister Duguid, but also as a previous business owner myself and seeing the importance of partnership between government and businesses.

I also want to pick up where Minister Duguid left off about those partnerships and how the Better Business Climate Act will, if passed, help build better partnerships between the government and Ontario businesses.

L’Ontario a certes fait de grands pas en s’adaptant aux récents changements de l’économie mondiale.

Our economic plan is focused on sustained job creation and building stronger partnerships across the economy. The proposed legislation will facilitate collaboration with industry, academic and research institutions, and local governments to support the development of cluster plans. This initiative will complement the government’s actions to strengthen the economy and increase Ontario’s overall competitiveness.

That includes our investment of $130 billion in infrastructure over the next 10 years; introducing Ontario’s Going Global Trade Strategy; announcing our $295-million youth jobs strategy; reducing the marginal effective tax rate on new business investment in Ontario by half since 2009; and ensuring that Ontarians have the skills and education they need.

Nous avons accompli beaucoup pour positionner l’Ontario malgré les défis des dernières années. Mais nous ne pouvons pas prendre cela pour acquis.

Many economic experts say Ontario can become an even more prosperous and competitive jurisdiction in the 21st century by leveraging government-business partnerships to help strengthen industry clusters. In markets worldwide, clusters have jump-started industries and accelerated economic development by creating a supportive economic environment for business, academia and innovation.

Les niches industrielles jouent un rôle clé dans le développement économique régional.

They can help support the creation of sustainable, well-paid jobs, stimulate innovation, attract investment, strengthen linkages between research institutions and firms, and anchor pools of talented labour.

Mr. Speaker, that’s half of the equation of the proposed Better Business Climate Act. The other is burden reduction.

I want to emphasize that Ontario’s new approach to burden reduction was not developed in isolation. It has emerged from relationships and partnerships that the Ministry of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure has been building with business groups and stakeholders for several years.

In 2008, the government created Ontario Open for Business, a cross-government initiative to create faster and smarter government-to-business services and to establish a modern system of government. Through this initiative, ministries undertook an extensive baseline count of all regulatory requirements and then removed over 80,000 unnecessary regulatory burdens.

Ontario is now moving from counting the number of burdens eliminated to measuring the real impacts of this work in terms of time and cost savings for Ontario businesses and other stakeholders. This practice will put Ontario in line with leading jurisdictions and will help ensure burden reduction activities have tangible results for business.

Mais ceci n’est qu’un seul aspect des efforts que l’Ontario fait pour améliorer la façon dont le gouvernement réglemente et travaille avec les entreprises.

Ontario’s regulatory policy includes a range of tools and processes to make sure that when new regulations are needed to protect Ontarians’ health and safety or our environment, they are effective, transparent and evidence-based.

We recently introduced a mandatory review policy to ensure high-impact regulations are reviewed at least every 10 years and tested to ensure that they are relevant and up to date.

The new tools, policies and processes of the Open for Business initiative are changing the regulatory landscape across the Ontario government, helping to ensure ministries continue to work creatively and transparently to reduce unnecessary burden and to find ways to make business-to-government interactions as seamless and cost-effective as possible.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud of the work that we are doing in collaboration with business leaders and other stakeholders to help position Ontario as a global leader in reducing barriers to business, and proud of the great strides we have made in developing clusters in important sectors like financial services and information and communication technologies.

The proposed legislation will further support the development of established and emerging clusters to enhance the level of innovation and productivity of industry in Ontario. The Better Business Climate Act, if passed, will help us build better partnerships between government and businesses, et une meilleure qualité de vie pour tous les Ontariens.

I encourage every member of this House to support our bill.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Questions and comments?

Mr. Ted Arnott: I’m very pleased to have this opportunity, as our party’s critic for the Ministry of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure, to respond briefly to the minister’s speech this morning, as well as to the remarks of the parliamentary assistant to the ministry, the member for Ottawa–Orléans, leading off the debate on Bill 7.

I listened quite closely to what was said by the minister and the parliamentary assistant. Of course, the context of this debate is that it follows the fall economic statement that we all listened to yesterday, the Ontario economic outlook and fiscal review. While Bill 7, of course, is important, I think it’s important to talk about the economic context in which it’s presented.

We heard the minister, in his remarks this morning, say that we have a strong and dynamic economy in the province of Ontario. I think we all see strengths in the economy in the province of Ontario and in our own individual ridings. But, obviously, there are some serious problems out there. The unemployment rate is still 6.5%, which is way too high for the province of Ontario, historically. It has come down to where the national average has been, but for 90 months it was above the national average. I would certainly acknowledge that that’s good news for those who have gotten jobs in the last month, but at the same time, there are serious economic concerns.

We learned yesterday that there is a $509-million revenue shortfall in relation to what was presented to this House just back in July by the Minister of Finance, suggesting that there would be $118.9 billion in revenue this year. Of course, just in the last four months, apparently, $509 million has evaporated.

I would like to ask the minister, in his response, how does he explain this? What happened? Why are the revenues drying up? Why did they introduce a budget four months ago, claiming that there would be revenues of $118.9 billion, and yesterday we learned it’s $509 million less than that? I think the people of Ontario deserve answers to those questions this morning.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): I recognize now, for further questions and comments, the member from London West.

Ms. Peggy Sattler: I’m very pleased to rise on behalf of the people I represent in London West to offer some comments on the presentation from the minister and the member from Ottawa–Orléans on the Better Business Climate Act.

I want to share with this Legislature that in my community of London, Ontario, we have a thriving digital media cluster that has grown of its own accord. It now employs 8,000 people in our city and is bringing new life into our community with the kind of young talent who is attracted to our city to work in these digital media firms. But, at the same time, London has lost 30,000 positions since 2008, since the collapse of the manufacturing sector. So while the language that’s included in the bill about clusters is good, and it’s great that the government is indicating an interest in doing something to support clusters, a lot more needs to be done to get our economy moving.

The other point I wanted to make is that to really support these kinds of new economy clusters we need more focus on other aspects of what makes a thriving community. Walkability—transit infrastructure is absolutely vital, because many of these young people who want to work in these new-economy firms don’t have cars. They want to walk to work; they want to take public transit to work. So we need strong investments in infrastructure to enable the growth of these cluster sectors.

We also need investments in arts and culture. People want cultural amenities that they can enjoy—these young people who are attracted to these kinds of firms.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further questions and comments? I recognize the member from Beaches–East York.

Mr. Arthur Potts: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It’s a pleasure to be recognized in this House by yourself or other Speakers who sit in that chair. But I’m delighted for the opportunity to stand here in support of Bill 7, the Better Business Climate Act. This is a tremendous step forward for innovation in the province of Ontario.

I’ve had the pleasure in my past world as a consultant to be involved in numerous clusters assisting companies in their development of new products, particularly in the environmental world and in sustainability issues up in Downsview. The minister of—I always get this wrong, too—of economic development, employment and immigration—

Mrs. Marie-France Lalonde: Infrastructure.

Mr. Arthur Potts: And infrastructure. Sorry. That’s right: infrastructure. Thank you.

He talked about the Downsview project becoming an aerospace cluster up there. I’ve had the pleasure to assist a number of companies in the Downsview community as part of a cluster in sustainable development of new technologies, environmental technologies—in vermiculture, for instance: in having worms eating Toronto’s organic waste and creating worm castings, which are great for planting soil, remediation and such.

I worked with a company that was collecting vegetable oil from restaurants all over the city of Toronto and turning that into a bio-diesel product which had a very low carbon impact. It was a tremendous way of taking a waste product and turning it into valuable fuels.

We know that in clusters, people gather, they collaborate, to compete to make sure that we are moving forward. There are other tremendous parks: up in Dundalk, for instance, where they’re bringing in companies that can do work in organic composting and other waste-to-energy kinds of opportunities. They are attracting people because they’re reducing the burden on industry in order to compete in a way—and this is what this act is going to do.

It will reduce more of the burdens so people aren’t faced with insurmountable hurdles so they can come forward with great ideas and new technologies—driving jobs, driving growth, driving tax revenues for local municipalities and driving jobs for the province of Ontario.

I’m delighted that we have had a chance to introduce this bill and I hope we’ll have the support of all members.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further questions and comments?

Mr. Jagmeet Singh: I think it’s really important that we acknowledge the direction that our economy is taking and, on a global level, the direction that all economies are taking.

More and more, we’re seeing that developing nations are really tapping into the talent of their populations, of their human resources, in terms of technological advancements, and it’s really a knowledge-based economy that we’re moving towards. While we absolutely need to bolster our manufacturing sector—we’ve lost a lot of great jobs and we need to bolster that—we also need to recognize that the new economies that are developing, the countries that are doing so well, are tapping into their talent in terms of innovation.

When I look at countries like Korea, and their advancements with very limited resources—if you look at the natural resource capabilities of Korea, they’re very limited. However, they’ve really invested in and developed their technology, they developed their advancements in innovation. That’s an area where I find we’re not doing enough here in Ontario.

We have a wonderful education system that’s very capable of training and developing people who can get engaged in this sector, but we’re not doing enough. This is one step, but it’s far too little. We need to do a lot more in encouraging young people to get involved in developing their own opportunities, and we need government support to make that happen.

We need to ensure that the skills that we develop in our schools and our universities are translating into innovation so that people can develop new ways to expand the economy, expand their ability to be employed, their ability to gain new opportunities in a global market. This is the direction we need to head in, and we need to ensure that there’s more done in supporting and fostering this type of climate for our future in Ontario.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): I thank the member from Bramalea–Gore–Malton. Back to the Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure.

Hon. Brad Duguid: I’m going to have to petition the Premier to change that title, because too many people are having trouble with it in the Legislature, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you to the members for Wellington–Halton Hills, London West, Beaches–East York and Bramalea–Gore–Malton for their very instructive and constructive interventions at this time.

I think one of the things the member from Bramalea–Gore–Malton touched on that I will touch on as well is the need to focus on our talent and skills, and how that is a competitive advantage for us. I’ll just go through, in the minute and a half that I have left, the last couple of weeks here in the province of Ontario, where we’ve seen some really good progress made as a result of that talent base: the recent mission to China, where the Premier came back with close to $1 billion of contracts signed—1,800 potential jobs created through that. One of the leading investments was a high-tech company called Huawei, and they’re investing in Ontario because of our talent base.

Not long after that, we made the Honda announcement. The primary reason Honda is investing $857 billion in Ontario is because we have the best workers anywhere in the world today. That plant is going to be the first lead plant ever outside of Japan for a new product, the new next-generation Honda Civic. Again, that’s because of the talent of that workforce that they have the confidence to invest there.

Our job numbers are up: 37,000 net new jobs last month, well up over half a million net new jobs since the recession—all good news. I think a lot of the investment that has created that is based on the fact that we have one of the most talented, skilled workforces anywhere in the world. Just last week I was with the member from Peterborough announcing 250 jobs in the Peterborough GM plant—again, an investment there that could have gone anywhere—because of our talent in that particular plant. So it is very much about talent, it is very much about working in partnership with our stakeholders, and this legislation helps us to continue to advance those competitive assets.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Further debate?

Mr. Ted Arnott: I appreciate this opportunity to speak in the Ontario Legislature this morning in response to the debate that’s been initiated on Bill 7,

An Act to enact the Burden Reduction Reporting Act, 2014 and the Partnerships for Jobs and Growth Act, 2014, standing in the name of the Minister of Economic Development, Employment and Infrastructure. This bill was first introduced in the Legislature in the special summer sitting that we participated in right after the provincial election, and it was first introduced on July 7.

But as the minister pointed out, correctly, this is an identical bill to one that was introduced in the previous Parliament before the provincial election, Bill 176. What they called at that time the Better Business Climate Act, 2014, was introduced by the former Minister of Economic Development. There was an initiation of debate on that bill, but that, of course, was before the government decided to call the election, pulling the plug on the previous Parliament.

Interjections.

Mr. Ted Arnott: That’s exactly what happened. I saw it happen on TV. As a matter of fact, the New Democrat leader indicated that she would not be supporting the budget, and then the Premier made, quite frankly, a political and pragmatic decision to seek the dissolution of the House. The Premier called the election. The Premier asked the Lieutenant Governor to dissolve the House, and that’s something that I think all members need to understand.

Mr. Speaker, I believe in our province’s prospects because I believe in our people. Working together, I believe that we can seize the opportunities of the future and get Ontario back on track and build a better future for our children and grandchildren. That is really the reason I ran again in the most recent provincial election. I’ve had the privilege of serving here for a number of years, and that is the main reason why I decided to seek re-election. I was very pleased and honoured to again receive the trust and the support of my constituents. I wanted to start off with that positive comment as we begin this debate on Bill 7.

Of course, Bill 7 is an effort on the part of the government to demonstrate that they care about small business, that they are making an effort to reduce burdens on small business.

They call the first

schedule of the proposed act the Burden Reduction Reporting Act, where they say that the Minister of Economic Development will present an annual report on what they’re doing to reduce burdens on small business.

The second

schedule in the act is, of course, the Partnerships for Jobs and Growth Act, again suggesting that the government wants to encourage the establishment of economic clusters in the province. We heard the minister, in his speech, talk about some of the economic clusters that he admitted have been in large part formed and originated because of the leadership of the business community, as well as, I would argue, the academic community in those areas, but it can be facilitated and encouraged by government. Certainly there is a role for government in that respect.

I think some of this thinking goes back to some of the work that was done by Michael Porter, who was a Harvard-trained academic. I think he still teaches at Harvard, or did at the time. In the early 1990s he wrote an interesting report about economic clusters and how government could be helpful in facilitating those. As far as it goes, we support that in our caucus. We believe that’s advantageous, obviously. But we would question, still, why does the government need to introduce a bill requiring the minister to do this? Why can’t the minister just do this?

Why can’t he just release a report on what the government is doing or may not be doing to reduce the burdens on small business? Why can’t the minister just release a report on what they’re doing to encourage economic clusters and develop the plans? I don’t believe he needs legislation to undertake this work, and I don’t think anybody in this House believes that either. But the government wants to be seen to be doing something, and so here we have Bill 7.

Red tape has been a concern of the CFIB for many years, and not just the CFIB. When I talk to small business people in any of the communities in the riding of Wellington–Halton Hills, or before that Waterloo–Wellington, or before that the riding of Wellington—my first riding—the concern that small business people have about red tape and regulation always comes up in the course of conversations about what the provincial government can do to help.

I think that obviously we need, as a provincial Legislature and throughout the government, including all the agencies, to be cognizant of the fact that small business people, in many cases, are single proprietors or have fewer than 10 employees. They don’t have a lot of time to deal with government’s expectations, government forms, government regulations. They are focusing on growing their business. They’re focusing on trying to serve their customers, exceed their customers’ expectations, and expand their business so that hopefully they can make a profit. There’s nothing wrong with that, Mr. Speaker.

I know there are some parties in this Legislature that might think there is, but there isn’t. That’s how the market economy works, and we should encourage and support our small business people to the greatest extent possible.

Over the course of the last 11 years, this government has added layer upon layer of red tape, and we all know the examples. They seem to look at these regulations in isolation, as opposed to looking at the cumulative effect that’s impacting our small business people. Of course, the net result is that our small business people feel that they’re being strangled by red tape. Again, that is something that the CFIB has been talking about for years. It has intensified under this government, going back to 2003.

Now the government would have us believe that they’re going to start studying what they’re doing, studying the impact and then putting it out in a public forum, I guess, and then, without committing to what they’re going to do about it, at least quantifying it and then publishing it.

Again, as far as it goes, that’s helpful, but it’s not as far as we need it to go. Certainly, our caucus believes that greater steps have to be undertaken by this provincial government to look at the cumulative impact of red tape and try to find ways to reduce it so as to allow small business to unleash its potential and create new jobs.

We know that with a high unemployment rate of 6.5%, albeit somewhat lower than it has been in recent months—in the last 90 months or so, our unemployment rate has been higher than the national average, which is an embarrassment for the province of Ontario and something that, unfortunately, the government seemed to be oblivious about for so long. At least it is good news that the unemployment rate has finally come down to the national average—good news for the families who now have jobs, good news for the province of Ontario, but I would again argue that our unemployment rate is far too high.

With the right economic approach, we should have an unemployment rate of between 2% and 3% in the province of Ontario nine years after the financial crisis of 2008-09. We really should have an unemployment rate between 2% and 3% after the years that have passed since the economic downturn. If the government thinks they can crow about this, and if they think they can pat themselves on the back and people are going to be excited with a 6.5% unemployment rate, they are sorely mistaken, Mr. Speaker.

There has been some good economic news in my riding, though, that I want to inform the House about, because it was recently announced, actually in October, that a manufacturing concern in Fergus called Nexans, which is a cable manufacturer, is going to be investing $15 million in a plant expansion. The plant has been there for many, many years; I visited it many times. They’re going to expand their footprint by 132,000 square feet, which I think is about a 50% increase in their size.

We hope that leads to retained jobs in the province of Ontario and in our community of Fergus, as well as an expansion of jobs, but this is something that the company went ahead and did without any provincial government support in terms of a grant from any of the government’s funding programs.

We see that some of these companies are going ahead and making announcements and investments without the direct assistance of the government. We know the government likes to be involved in these photo ops and, in many cases, writes big cheques like the $80-million cheque that went to Honda. The minister even acknowledged today that the reason the investment took place by Honda was because we have the best workers in the world, and that’s why Honda decided to invest over $800 million in the Alliston plant, but the government chips in $80 million, about one tenth, so that the Premier can be there for the photo op, so that people will think the Premier had something to do with it.

Mr. Todd Smith: Expensive photo op.

Mr. Ted Arnott: It’s a very expensive photo op. That is, of course, taxpayers’ money, which the government would like us to forget about too.

The fact is, many of these companies see opportunities in spite of everything that’s going on. I would still argue that there would be more companies expanding, more companies investing if indeed the government took the right economic approach. But there is some positive news out there. I want to encourage that in my riding and do whatever I can to support these companies that are willing to expand in spite of what I would argue is still a very negative investment climate in the province of Ontario, largely because of the actions of this particular government.

During my response to the minister when he gave his speech initiating this debate and I had the two-minute response opportunity, I felt I had to talk about the economic climate that this bill is being presented in in the province of Ontario. Of course, yesterday we heard from the Minister of Finance, who gave his fall economic statement, the Ontario economic outlook and fiscal review.

Again, I think it’s important that we think about the economic climate that this bill is presented in and look at some of the key numbers that were presented yesterday in this House by the Minister of Finance, some of which, I think, were finally picked up by the Globe and Mail. The headline today says, on the front page, “Ontario Fades; Alberta Rises,” and there’s a big graphic of Ontario with all the red Liberal ink that we see on the front page of the Globe and Mail today, talking about the $12.5-billion deficit.

This has been something that we’ve been warning about for years now in this Legislature, asking the government to get control of its spending so as to ensure that spending doesn’t cause a huge increase in the debt. As we know, the debt has doubled in the last 11 years. But some of the key numbers that I think people need to know about and need to understand: For the current fiscal year—meaning from April 1, 2014, to the end of March 2015—the deficit that they’re projecting is still $12.5 billion.

If you break that down, they’re borrowing about $1 billion a month. All of that is money that is borrowed, that somebody is going to have to pay for some day. In the meantime, we have to service it; we have to pay the interest. It’s an absolutely staggering amount of money, but because of these years and years of high deficits, unfortunately, I think some of us have become hardened to these numbers. But the fact is, we’re still on the road to insolvency. We’re not, maybe, racing towards insolvency; it’s not going to happen next year, but if we stay on this path, the province of Ontario will not be able to service its debt and its obligations.

I should also add that while the government claims to be working towards a balanced budget by 2017-18 and claims to be making progress towards that goal, and the minister reiterated the government’s commitment to balance the budget by 2017-18 yesterday in his economic statement, the deficit this year is $2 billion higher than it was last year. It’s higher than it was last year. They’re not going in the right direction towards a balanced budget. Last year, it was $10.5 billion. This year, it is $12.5 billion—$2 billion higher than last year.

The projected provincial net debt is an important number because, as we’ve seen, under the Liberal government over the last 11 years, the debt has doubled. The debt this year, according to the government’s own background papers that were presented in this House yesterday, stands at $287.3 billion. Again, in 2003, when the government took power, the debt was $139 billion. So in 11 years, we’ve doubled the debt. Who is going to pay for the debt, Mr. Speaker? We know that it’s our children and our grandchildren who will have to pay higher taxes or receive less service because of this government’s inability to control its government spending.

Another important number that I think people need to know about from yesterday’s statement: The provincial government spending for the current fiscal year—again, the first of April of this year to the end of March of next year, 2015—is going to be $130.2 billion. That number is up considerably from last year. The government would have us believe that they’re holding the line on spending. In fact, last year they spent $126.4 billion. This year, they plan to spend $130.2 billion—almost $4 billion more than last year.

Another important number is the net debt per capita. This, in effect, is what each Ontarian owes because of years of government overspending. Every man, woman and child who lives in Ontario, in effect, is on the hook for this amount of money. This year—this is from the background papers—it is $21,003, and that’s just the provincial debt that each and every Ontarian is on the hook for. That number is up from $11,339 in 2003. Our population has grown quite dramatically since 2003, but it’s also true that the net debt per capita—in effect, the amount that each Ontarian owes because of years of government overspending—has almost doubled over that period of time.

Another important number in yesterday’s fall economic statement is the interest payments on the debt. This is an obligation that the government has to pay first if it’s going to be able to borrow money. It has to service its outstanding debt. This year, the number is $10.8 billion. Looking at future years—and of course, the economic statement presents some speculation on future years. They go out, of course, to 2017-18, the year that they claim they’re going to balance the budget.

The projection in the fall economic statement of what it will cost to service the debt by 2017-18 is $13.9 billion, which is up about $3 billion from what we’re going to be spending this year. So each year, as our debt grows, our debt service costs grow as well.

The government has been fortunate—we’ve all been fortunate—with low interest rates in recent years as we tried to encourage the economic recovery and as the Bank of Canada has tried to encourage economic recovery. But the fact is, as the deficit and the debt continue, the cost of servicing the outstanding debt will continue to grow. We would anticipate and expect that, at some point in the future, interest rates are going to rise. When that happens, the debt servicing costs will explode, and then we’ll be in real trouble.

Again, this is all going to happen in the next few years. Whether or not this government is going to be in power in 2017-18, no one knows. But they are leaving a legacy of debt that is absolutely staggering for the next government, whoever it is, and the next generations.

This is something that, unfortunately, the Liberal members do not want to talk about. I don’t know if all of them understand it, Mr. Speaker. I have a feeling that many of them don’t, but I think it would be helpful to some of them if the Minister of Finance would actually tell his caucus colleagues the whole truth of the situation, the finances of the province, and what the province faces in terms of choices, because we are on the road to insolvency. There is no disputing that. If we can deviate from this course, there is still time, perhaps, to avoid that fate.

But the current trends and the current direction that the government is following are leading us to financial insolvency, and it’s something that should concern all of us.

I would now like to talk about the actual bill that’s before the House, Bill 7. Of course we know that the Canadian Federation of Independent Business has been involved in the drafting of the legislation and has encouraged the government to do this. Again, I want to acknowledge that.

In detail, this is an omnibus bill that deals with two separate activities.

Schedule 1, the Burden Reduction Reporting Act, requires the minister to publish an annual report on regulations or burden reduction, if they do anything. A burden is defined as a cost that is measured in “money, time or resources and is considered ... unnecessary to achieve the purpose ... that creates the cost.” In other words, they will report on how many unnecessary regulations they have eliminated, if they eliminate any. It also permits the minister to “make regulations respecting the report, which may include regulations” itself, which is kind of interesting.

Schedule 2, the Partnerships for Jobs and Growth Act, permits the minister to prepare plans with respect to the development of geographical economic clusters. The minister has the authority to consult with those who have an interest in his plan and amend, review or revoke the plan. The minister can also make regulations about what goes into the plan, decide who will be consulted with and determine how the plan is to be reviewed, revoked and made public.

Again, Mr. Speaker, I believe and submit to this House the minister could do both of these things right now. He doesn’t need a law that compels him to do it. It would probably be in the public interest that he initiate these plans, but he doesn’t need the legislation to do it.

This act, we say, does nothing to improve the business climate in Ontario. It does not create any new private sector jobs. It leaves the definition of “burden” to the

interpretation of the minister. This will allow the minister to pick and choose examples of what he considers to be burdens while simultaneously providing him with the opportunity to ignore any economic problem that should arise during his mandate.

Red tape burdens, we believe, cost businesses in this province over $11 billion in lost productivity annually. Think of that number: $11 billion in lost productivity. That’s time and money that could be better spent by small business and medium-sized business and large business servicing their customers, finding new customers and also expanding their businesses, which would create new jobs.

Something I’ve neglected to point out is a statistic that I’ve referred to for many years, and I think it’s still valid: Coming out of an economic downturn, it is the small business sector that is the largest driver of job creation in the province of Ontario and, I think, in most jurisdictions across Canada. Something like between 65% and 80% of new jobs that have been created through the years after an economic downturn have come from small business. Again, this is the engine of economic growth. This is the sector of economy that, obviously, we need to be paying a lot of attention to.

This bill only provides for reporting on the state of unnecessary regulations or, to use the minister’s word, burdens, but it does not compel the government to reduce any of the burdens, nor does it establish a timeline or process for how these so-called burdens are to be eliminated.

Again, Mr. Speaker, they may come out with a report, say, next year or two years from now. Obviously, if Bill 7 passes, the minister is compelled to do this, and he’ll have his staff do a report of some sort. They’ll release the report, hopefully, in the public domain and, hopefully, table it in this Legislature. But there’s absolutely no requirement upon the government to do anything about it.

So if we have a minister who wants to reduce red tape and burdens, in theory, in the future, perhaps he or she will have this report, will be able to take it to their cabinet colleagues and try to use it to try and encourage, whether it be the Minister of the Environment, the Minister of Labour or which other ministry—the Minister of Natural Resources. If there are outdated regulations that are no longer relevant, he or she will be able to try and use that as a persuasive tool. But there’s absolutely no requirement upon the government to do anything about these reports.

That is, again, a weakness and drawback of this bill and, quite frankly, I think, something that needs to be addressed in committee. I would hope that we can see this bill go to committee, if it passes second reading, and bring forward those kinds of amendments. I would hope that the government will listen to them. If this bill is going to have any impact or be effective, they will have to listen to what we’ve got to say on that point.

The second part of the bill,

schedule 2, may actually exacerbate the problem that is trying to be solved by the first part; that’s a point that we make. I hope that’s not the case, but at the same time, it’s possible that the two schedules are conflicting and the so-called solution in the first part might create a problem in the second part.

We also say that this bill gives the mandate for economic planning and established a bureaucratic burden to the economic planning process.

We believe that this bill could go much further and does not go far enough to address the issues surrounding the burden of red tape in this province. I say again that the red tape burden costs businesses in this province $11 billion a year in lost productivity annually. Real action is necessary on this issue. The bill only requires the minister to review the state of burdens in the Ontario economy every five years, and it does not compel the minister to reduce any of the burdens, as I’ve said before, or establish a process to access and eliminate the burdens.

The second part of the bill actually may accentuate the problem that’s trying to be solved by the first part, as I said earlier. The Partnerships for Jobs and Growth Act is designed to legislate the government’s involvement in the planning and organization of geographic economies. It gives the government the mandate to plan and consult on, as well as amend and revoke, economic planning. It reduces economic flexibility—a bureaucratic burden to the economic planning process. It will be a handcuff to business and prevent them from properly responding to the dynamic of the flexibility of the marketplace.

Those are some of the concerns. I would hope, Mr. Speaker, that those concerns can be addressed over the course of this debate and through the committee hearings. But certainly, on first blush, these are some of the concerns that our caucus has.

I see that it’s almost 10:15, and I’m shortly running out of time. But, Mr. Speaker, there are still approximately 35 hours—35 minutes to go in my presentation—

Interjection.

Mr. Ted Arnott: It may seem like 35 hours.

But the fact is, I’m looking forward to when this bill is next called for debate. I’m hoping I can be here. I’ll have the floor, and I will be able to continue my comments on Bill 7.

I want to thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, for your interest this morning in my comments.

Second reading debate deemed adjourned.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Rick Nicholls): Since it is now almost 10:15, this House stands recessed until 10:30.

The House recessed from 1013 to 1030.

Introduction of Visitors

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Just before we begin introductions—I suspect that we have quite a few to make—I’ll remind members: Please, just introduce your guests and maybe their title, and we’ll get through all of them today. We also have to introduce a special group today.

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: It’s my pleasure today to introduce some friends to this Legislature: Matt Hiraishi and Doug DeRabbie, who are with the Insurance Bureau of Canada. Of course, we welcome their entire group today.

Mrs. Lisa Gretzky: I’d like to welcome representatives from the College Student Alliance: Sarah Ryrie from St. Clair SRC—she’s the president—and Olivia Bauer, who is St. Clair SRC vice-president of downtown affairs.

Hon. Brad Duguid: I’m absolutely delighted to welcome a delegation today led by Xie Changjun, vice-president of China Guodian Corp., and Mr. Huang Qun, executive director and vice-president of the China Longyuan Power Group. Mr. Xie and Mr. Huang are here today with senior executives from China Guodian Corp., the China Longyuan Power Group and Longyuan Canada Renewables Ltd. Many of these representatives are visiting Ontario all the way from China. Ni hao, and welcome.

Mr. Ernie Hardeman: I’m pleased to rise to welcome the representatives from the Insurance Bureau of Canada. In the gallery we have Ralph Palumbo, regional vice-president for Ontario; Doug DeRabbie, Matt Hiraishi, Karyn Hamilton and Brian Shepheard. I thank them for visiting Queen’s Park and I encourage all members to attend the insurance bureau reception in room 228 later this evening.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The Minister of Northern Development and Mines.

Hon. Michael Gravelle: Thanks so much, Mr. Speaker. I know you’ll be introducing the pages later, but I’m very excited that the page captain today is Albany Sutherland from Thunder Bay–Superior North, who’s also a proud resident of Marten Falls First Nation. We’ve got a number of people here to see Albany do her work: her mother, Denise Baxter; her grandfather, Lawrence Baxter; and some close friends, Alexa McKinnon and Libby Stephenson.

While I’m at it, I also want to introduce the interim chief of Marten Falls First Nation, Bruce Achneepineskum. Let’s welcome them all here today.

Mr. Michael Harris: I have Jeff Scherer from Conestoga Students Inc., as well as Katie Turriff from Conestoga. Jeff is the president. Katie is on the board of directors. They’re here with the College Student Alliance today. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

M me France Gélinas: I have visitors all the way from Sudbury, from Cambrian College: Brandon Guertin, who is the president of the student association; and Jennifer Toomer, who is the vice-president. Give a good southern welcome to those northern people.

Hon. Mario Sergio: From sunny Sicily and the town of Cattolica Eraclea, we have the mayor, Dottore Nicolò Termine. We have the president of the Cattolica Eraclea Social Club here in Toronto, Peter Borsellino; and Mr. Dominic Campione and Mr. Anthony Avola. I wish them a good stay in the House today.

Mr. Steve Clark: I want to welcome a constituent from my riding. She’s here with the College Student Alliance. I’d like to welcome Robyn Phillips from St. Lawrence College in Brockville. She’s the president of their student association. Welcome to Queen’s Park.

Mr. Joe Dickson: I’d like to welcome to the Legislature today, from Ajax, page Haniah Igbal and her mother, Kubra Mir, who is in the east gallery—such a young-looking lady that you almost would think they’re sisters. I welcome you.

Mr. Rick Nicholls: It’s my pleasure to introduce to the Legislature this morning two very engaging young ladies from St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario: Olivia Bauer and Sarah Ryrie. Congratulations. Thank you for coming and making the trip all the way.

Hon. Jeff Leal: I’d like to welcome Rob Williams from Fleming College, Peterborough campus. Rob is the president of the student association there.

Mr. Norm Miller: I’m pleased to introduce page Joshua Liao’s mom who is here, Michele Curry. She’s in the west members’ gallery and is down for the month while her son is acting as a page here at Queen’s Park. Welcome.

Hon. Michael Chan: Today I would like to welcome the Target department store government affairs team, who travelled here from Canada and the US. Their names are Matt, Amy, Isaac, Yanis, Irene, Thad, Onika, Mila, Adriana, Jennifer and Rajesh. Welcome to Canada.

Hon. Reza Moridi: Please join me in welcoming Matthew Stewart, president of the Fanshawe College student union as well as president of the College Student Alliance. He’s joining us in the west gallery with leaders from student unions across the province of Ontario. Please welcome them.

Mrs. Kathryn McGarry: It’s my very great pleasure to welcome April Singleton this morning, who is the mother of page captain Jared Singleton, both from Cambridge. Welcome.

Hon. Dipika Damerla: I’m pleased today to welcome the Canadian Cancer Survivor Network. They do a fantastic job advocating for cancer patients and survivors. They are here today at Queen’s Park to raise awareness about metastatic prostate cancer and the financial, emotional and health costs of this disease on patients and their families. In particular, I would like to welcome Jackie Manthorne, Sapna Mahajan and Tiffany Glover. Please welcome them.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you.

The member from Barrie.

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): She took it from you. Okay. Sorry.

The Associate Minister of Finance.

Hon. Mitzie Hunter: It’s my pleasure to welcome Deepika Gangwani, who is the president of the student association at Centennial College.

Hon. Yasir Naqvi: I want to welcome Tiffany Glover, who is in the House today. Tiffany worked very hard along with me to give me the opportunity to represent my community of Ottawa Centre in this great Legislature. I thank Tiffany and welcome her to Queen’s Park.

Mr. Garfield Dunlop: I’d like to welcome Matthew Stewart, president, and all the folks from the College Student Alliance as well, but also, we have in the audience today members of the Canadian Steel Producers Association. Welcome to Queen’s Park as well.

Hon. Michael Gravelle: Once again, I’m very pleased to welcome Dr. Brian Stevenson, president and vice-chancellor of Lakehead University. Brian, welcome.

Mr. Granville Anderson: I would like to welcome the mother of page Hannah Hamilton, Jennifer Hamilton; her brother Jake Hamilton; and family friend Payne Crighton. They are on their way in, I believe, at the moment.

Mr. Paul Miller: I also would like to introduce and welcome the steel producers. Being in the steel business for over 30 years, I certainly can relate to what they’re going through right now. Welcome.

Hon. David Orazietti: I want to introduce Brenda Stenta and Kalyan Ghosh, the CEO of Essar Steel in Sault Ste. Marie, a great steel town in northern Ontario, and as well, welcome the steel manufacturers to Queen’s Park.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): In the Speaker’s gallery, we have with us today Matthew Thornton, a former intern of mine, and the Brant representatives of the Ontario Real Estate Association. A warm welcome to my visitors from Brant. Thank you for being here.

Legislative pages

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I have a joyous task of asking our pages to assemble to be introduced as our new group of pages for this round, so if the pages could assemble, please.

From Scarborough Southwest, Kate Beverly; from Carleton–Mississippi Mills, Kelsey Clark; from York West, Jenny Doan; from Perth–Wellington, Nicole Eaton; from Ancaster–Dundas–Flamborough–Westdale, Elijah French; from Durham, Hannah Hamilton; from Welland, Vida Han; from Ajax–Pickering, Haniah Iqbal; from Hamilton Mountain, Steven Kottaras; from Ottawa South, Moiz Lakhani; from Parry Sound–Muskoka, Joshua Liao; from Richmond Hill, Johann Muthukumaraswamy; from Chatham–Kent–Essex, Mikaila Nouhra; from Simcoe–Grey, Nicholas Sammon; from Mississauga–Brampton South, Ethan Sequeira; from Cambridge, Jared Singleton; from Thunder Bay–Superior North, Albany Sutherland; from Etobicoke Centre, Maja Toman; from Etobicoke–Lakeshore, Claudia Velimirovic; from Brampton West, Tyler Vis; from Burlington, Ella Walsh; from Oakville, Noah Westwater; and from Don Valley East, Nicholas Zalewski.

These are our pages for this round. Thank you very much.

Applause.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I thank the members for their patience in introductions. If we continue to simply make the names available, we’ll get through all of our introductions with guests.

Oral Questions

Ontario economy

Mr. Monte McNaughton: My question this morning is to the Premier. Premier, I listened to the fall economic statement yesterday, and while I appreciate a nice story with a happy ending, this isn’t the time or place for fiction. You continue to rely on rosy assumptions about the growth of our economy in spite of the half-a-billion-dollar shortfall you announced yesterday, and in the face of a flagging economic outlook globally.

In just the last few weeks, we’ve learned Japan and Italy are officially in recession. Germany struggled to grow its economy by 0.1% last quarter, and China’s growth is continuing to slow. Yesterday, UK Prime Minister David Cameron cautioned that, “red warning lights are once again flashing on the dashboard of the global economy.”

Premier, how can you expect the people of Ontario to believe that you’ll balance the budget without raising their taxes when you keep overestimating revenue and won’t stop spending?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: I appreciate the global context that the member opposite has painted, and those are realities that we are contending with, but we have a plan and we are executing the plan that we ran on. That plan is multi-faceted; it is not one thing.

The party opposite had one song that they sang during the election campaign. Their only thought was to cut and slash, fire people and cut services. That is not a plan; that is a recipe for disaster.

What we have said is that we have to make investments that will allow for job growth now and in the future, and economic support for communities in the future. We have said we have to constrain spending, and we have a program review in place that is going to allow us to do that. And we’ve said we have to partner with the private sector.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Monte McNaughton: Back to the Premier: I know you don’t have a background in business or experience meeting a payroll, but let me the tell you this: A small business that grows its debt—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Order.

Start the clock.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Order, please.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Finish, please.

Mr. Monte McNaughton: Premier, a small business that grows its debt year after year wouldn’t get back in the black just by raising its prices and cracking down on kids pocketing a few candy bars.

It’s clear that much more fundamental change is needed in this province. The debt is nearly $300 billion, and you, Premier, are paying $29 million a day just to service the debt.

Premier, can you tell us exactly how this government is going to significantly reduce spending?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Let me just say to the member opposite that I believe that government and society need leadership that brings life experience to those roles, that allows for a complex solution to complex problems. That’s what leadership is.

Confronted with a complex problem—I would just remind the member opposite that, actually, the government of Ontario is not a small business. The government of Ontario is a government responsible for the life and—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Finish, please.

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: The government of Ontario is responsible for the life and livelihood of 13.6 million people in this province. It is a complex enterprise; it’s a complex society. The plan that we have to review the programs and transform this government, to manage compensation costs, to ensure that everyone pays their fair share of taxes and to unlock the value of the assets that belong to the people of Ontario—that’s the complexity that we bring to this task.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Final supplementary.

Mr. Monte McNaughton: Back to the Premier: With no real intention to get spending under control, you have said that you will rely on cigarettes to balance the books. You have presented strengthening revenue integrity as if it was a revolutionary idea, but in fact it’s simply an admission that your government has failed to protect tax dollars. Either you have been unable or unwilling to enforce these laws, properly collect taxes, or deliver on old promises to crack down on contraband tobacco.

If in fact there is significant revenue to be found from stopping this “revenue leakage,” as you call it, how many millions or billions of dollars has this government lost over the last decade by failing to enforce its own laws?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Again, I understand that the questions that are written down, and the decisions that are made about the way the questions are going to go, are made before question period. But I really think that this is an important discussion that we should be having about how we solve a problem that, quite frankly, we are all in together, as the member opposite outlined.

There are global forces that we are all dealing with. We have put in place a plan that, yes, speaks to making sure that there is revenue integrity, that the revenue that should be coming into the provincial coffers comes into the provincial coffers, while at the same time making sure that we pay attention to the economic development of all our communities across the province.

If the member opposite looks at the work that we have done, for example in the Ministry of Health, over the last number of years and at the transformation that has taken place, the way spending has been constrained, the way costs have been controlled and the limits on growth that we have put in place there, he would understand what’s possible.

Curriculum

Mr. Monte McNaughton: My next question is for the Premier. In 2010, the Liberal government of the day, of which you were the Minister of Education, retracted its controversial plans to introduce a new sex education curriculum in our schools and promised to widely consult with parents before attempting another sex ed revision.

But, Premier—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Stop the clock, please. Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, you will come to order.

Please continue.

Mr. Monte McNaughton: Just a few weeks ago, your Minister of Education suddenly announced that there would be a new sex education curriculum in place for the 2015 school year, and yet there have been no meaningful consultations with Ontario parents on this issue.

My question this morning, Premier, is very simple: Why have you decided to break the 2010 Liberal promise to consult with parents before reintroducing new changes to Ontario’s sex education curriculum?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Quite the contrary: We have followed through on that commitment, and the Minister of Education has announced a process whereby parents across the province will be consulted.

Interjection: No, they’re not.

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Well, I will just say that the notion that the chair of the school council, the representative of the school council, somehow doesn’t have access to the school population just demonstrates how little this party opposite actually understands about how education works.

To that life experience point that I made earlier: I’ve been the chair of a school council, I’ve been a school trustee and I’ve worked in community. I understand that the role of a school council chair is to talk to the people in his or her school, to get that input and then to feed that input into a process. That’s how it works.

We promised we would consult with parents. That’s exactly what we’re doing.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Monte McNaughton: Back to the Premier: One carefully selected, hand-picked parent per school—

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Minister of Agriculture, come to order.

Mr. Monte McNaughton: —represents only 4,000 parents out of millions of Ontario parents. That’s barely 1% of parents, Premier. This is not consultation.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Order.

Mr. Monte McNaughton: For the minister to suggest—

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Minister of Education, come to order.

Mr. Monte McNaughton: —that such a covert process constitutes a meaningful consultation is an insult to the intelligence of parents right across this province. It is simply smoke and mirrors, Premier.

Premier, when will you reveal the contents of the new Liberal sex education curriculum so all parents in the province can see for themselves what you have planned for their children?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: I’ll just quickly answer the first part of that question and say that what is an insult to the people of the province, and particularly to the hard-working volunteers in all of the schools in this province, is that this member wouldn’t understand that those volunteer roles are extremely important, that they do connect with the parents in their schools, and that they have a very important role to play. He really should learn that, if he’s going to be able to represent his schools.

I want to say something else—

Interjections.

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: I want to say something else, Mr. Speaker, to the second part of the question. I believe that what this is really about is that this member wants to once again undermine the very real need for a strong, updated and modern sex education, physical and health education curriculum in our schools.

I would think, given the issues we have dealt with as a society in the last few weeks, that he would have begun to understand that.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Stop the clock, please. Be seated, please. Thank you.

Final supplementary.

Mr. Monte McNaughton: Back to the Premier: Even this flimsy promise to consult the tiny, hand-picked, select group of parents is a farce.

On Thursday, October 30, your Minister of Education suggested that it was unlikely that any feedback, even from these people, would have an impact on your Liberal government—

Hon. Liz Sandals: I didn’t pick them. Parents picked them. I have no idea what they’re going to say.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Stop the clock, please. The Minister of Education will come to order.

Please finish.

Mr. Monte McNaughton: Premier, this is another Liberal broken promise, another example of Liberal contempt for voters and parents in the province of Ontario.

Premier, it seems you are afraid of telling parents what you intend to teach their children. Why don’t you simply release the details of the proposed Liberal sex education curriculum now? Premier, what are you trying to hide?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Here is my advice to the member opposite in answer to his question, and that is to go to the schools in his riding to talk to the elected chairs of the school councils—because they are elected by the parents in the school—and to have a conversation with them about what they think should be in the physical and health education curriculum, because that is the consultation that we’re doing.

I just want to point out that there are members of this party that have called for a select committee to look into sexual harassment and sexual assault. I have said that I’m open to making changes and that that’s a conversation that House leaders can have. But that flies in the face of what this member is doing, which undermines—if he doesn’t think that at a select committee we would hear how important it is for—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Stop the clock. It goes both ways.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I’m not getting quiet for people to take their last cheap shots. It’s reached a point of regret for me.

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: In any discussion about the needs for children to learn about sexual harassment and sexual assault, there will be, and necessarily, a discussion about health and physical education curriculum in schools. Those two things are necessarily linked, Mr. Speaker.

Ontario economy

Ms. Andrea Horwath: My question is for the Premier. Yesterday, the Liberal government released its fall economic statement. Ontario’s bank account is short half a billion dollars. The Liberals are slashing 6% out of nearly every ministry, and now we’re finding out that they are short on revenues.

What is the Premier going to do to cover the losses, Speaker?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: I know that the leader of the third party understands our plan and understands the fiscal underpinnings of our plan, because she ran on that plan, Mr. Speaker. She understands that we have a path to balance. She understands that we are looking at our assets to make sure that they are working for the people of Ontario. She understands that we are constraining compensation. And she understands that we are working to transform the programs, as we have done across government.

We will continue to do so, to make sure that we are providing the services that people in this province need, but that we are providing them in the most cost-effective way possible, and at the same time making investments that will allow the economy to thrive, those investments in transportation infrastructure, in transit, roads and bridges around the province that we know communities need in order to draw business.

That’s the plan. I know she’s aware of it because, as I say, she ran on it.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Speaker, when the government released its fall update, we found out that Liberal mismanagement has left revenues $5 billion lower than projected since the 2010 budget. But instead of looking for ways to ensure that we can actually pay the bills, the Liberals are handing a brand new tax loophole to corporations so that they can write off the HST on Leafs tickets and the company car. Steve Orsini, former Deputy Minister of Finance and now the Premier’s secretary of cabinet, says that this loophole will cost $750 million annually.

Now, when we’re falling short on revenues and we’re slashing services to people, does the Premier really think it’s wise to open up a new corporate tax loophole?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Mr. Speaker, I know that the Minister of Finance will want to speak to the specifics, but again, let me say that we presented our fall economic statement yesterday to the people of the province and we are very confident, given what has been happening in the province, given that our unemployment rate is at 6.5%—that’s the lowest rate since October 2008—given that those jobs are 90% full-time jobs, 37,000 net new jobs last month in October. The fact is that we are seeing an uptick. Absolutely, there are challenges ahead of us and we have acknowledged that, but we have a plan.

We understand that there have to be constraints, and at the same time we must make those investments that will allow the economy to thrive.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Final supplementary.

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Well, another way to increase revenues is certainly to grow the economy, but we’ve learned that the Liberals will be missing their growth targets that they just set five months ago, pre-election. That didn’t take long, now, did it? We won’t hit the growth targets in any of the next four years coming. That’s what that economic statement said: four more years of lost revenues, four more years of slashed services. Does the Premier really think her plan is working?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Minister of Finance.

Hon. Charles Sousa: I appreciate the question. I understand that the member opposite is talking about our path to balance and our stimulus package. Both combine to achieve the positive results that are necessary. She referenced the fact that revenues are down by half a billion dollars, which is correct, noted earlier, because of global forces. And what have we done? We’ve recalibrated and reassessed it to ensure that we continue to balance and we meet our targets.

But the member opposite is basing her assumptions on our platform. Now, I know it’s difficult for her to read more than nine pages, as she has written on hers. Ours is a little bit more complex than that. It’s fully detailed and it’s out there for all, to be used and recognized. We will achieve our target. We’re balancing our books by 2017-18, and we’re stimulating growth as necessary.

Automobile insurance

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Well, Speaker, we certainly didn’t include billions of dollars of new corporate tax loopholes in our plan.

My next question is to the Premier. In yesterday’s economic statement, the government has admitted for the very first time that they will not meet—that they didn’t meet, in fact—their 8% auto insurance premium reduction. Now they’re saying that the rates may come down 6%.

The election is over. The government has been backing away, in this economic statement, from the promise that they made just a few months ago to reduce rates by 15%. Is the Premier going to the keep her promise to reduce those rates by 15%? Or is this fall economic statement really an admission that they’re going to go nowhere near 15%?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Again, the Minister of Finance will want to speak on the specifics, but let me just be clear: What we have said in the fall economic statement and what we have said consistently is that auto insurance rates are down. They have already come down. We are already seeing success and we will continue to work to make sure that we reach those targets. But the fact is that the work that we have done so far and the changes that have been made have already produced results.

The fact is that the members opposite need to look at the legislation that we’ve brought forward because in that legislation are the mechanisms to remove fraud from the system to make further changes that will continue to bring auto insurance, on average, down across the province.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Andrea Horwath: In the fall economic statement the government appears to be backing away from their promise to cut auto insurance rates by 15%. That’s the bottom line. They’re using something called the annual Automobile Insurance Transparency and Accountability Expert Report as the reason why they’re backing away. But this report is so transparent that it’s being kept from the public.

Can the Premier explain why her transparency report that underpins her economic statement and her broken promise on auto insurance is being kept from the public?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Minister of Finance.

Hon. Charles Sousa: It’s pretty rich, I’ve got to tell you. We’re in the midst of trying to look at legislation on auto insurance which the member opposite and her team voted against. They voted against the very measures to reduce auto insurance further. Had we taken the steps, as we proposed, months ago, we would have reduced auto insurance even more. Notwithstanding, a lot of insurance rates are down—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member from Eglinton–Lawrence will come to order and the member from Hamilton East–Stoney Creek will come to order.

Finish, please.

Hon. Charles Sousa: Auto insurance rates are down on average by 6% because of the measures we’ve taken to date. We need to do more. We need to do the necessary work around fighting fraud. We have to go against dispute resolution systems. We’re looking also at a number of issues around the tow truck industry and a number of initiatives that will enable us to reduce costs in the courts. That was necessary months ago. They stopped it. They delayed it. They voted against it. We’re going to make sure it gets passed now and reduce rates even further.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Final supplementary.

Ms. Andrea Horwath: Well, in fact, what they’ve done is they’ve taken away people’s rights to sue and have justice in terms of auto insurance disputes.

The economic statement has real impacts on people across Ontario. Our growth is not keeping up. That means losing out on over $1 billion worth of jobs, investments and prosperity. Bills are going up for hydro, and they’re not coming down for auto. People are wondering if they’re going to be facing more cuts and more privatized services because the Liberals have emptied the piggy bank.

Does the Premier still think her plan is progressive?

Hon. Charles Sousa: The member opposite ran on our platform, said that she’s going to the find $600 million more in savings and in cuts to health care and education that she said she would be able to find, and now she’s saying, “Well, we don’t want to do that either.” You can’t have it both ways.

We are taking the steps necessary to transform government through the work that the President of the Treasury Board is doing now. We’re going to make certain that we provide for open and collective agreements that honour and respect the rights of others, but ensuring that we have net zero so that we can all be in this together. We’re going to continue investing in those matters that are important to Ontarians, to promote and increase our growth.

Mr. Speaker, she makes reference to tax loopholes, which is wrong. We have revenue leakage that we are attacking. But what she makes reference to is incorrect. She knows that fully well, that we need the federal government’s support in those initiatives, that we do not have. We’re fighting hard for Ontario. She should fight hard for Ontario as well, instead of putting them down and making—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. New question.

Ontario economy

Mr. Victor Fedeli: My question is for the Premier. Good morning, Premier.

The Bank of Canada and the Conference Board of Canada both forecast that you would not make your revenue numbers this year. But you didn’t listen to the experts, and you put a high revenue number in your budget. Well—surprise—the experts were right again and you were wrong again. Revenues came in half a billion dollars lower than you told us they would be, and that was only four months ago. You raided our reserves again—$300 million more out of the piggy bank—so it doesn’t look as bad as it really is.

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce has concluded that “we are likely to reach a state of crisis unless the province cuts spending and changes the way it does business.”

Premier, will you please listen to the experts in the financial community and finally change the way you do business in Ontario?

Hon. Kathleen O. Wynne: Minister of Finance.

Hon. Charles Sousa: Mr. Speaker, the premise of the question is completely inaccurate, and I’ll tell you why. We have independent economists around the world and across Canada assessing the degree of revenue that would be achieved.

In fact, last year we had Don Drummond look at the integrity of the revenue numbers that were projected by independent economists outside of government. We took those projections and pared them down even further. We were below their projected amount, and even still, we were able to use the shock absorbers that have been built into the system—that’s why they exist—and it’s also why we’re borrowing $24 billion less and have $200 million lower in interest costs because of the efforts that we’re taking to offset these very measures.

We’re moving ahead. We’re on target to balance the budget by 2017-18 by taking a balanced approach.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Victor Fedeli: Well, quite a pant-load there.

Premier, we’ve seen the direct results of your spending spree—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): I’m going to ask you to withdraw that.

Mr. Victor Fedeli: I withdraw.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. Carry on.

Mr. Victor Fedeli: You’ve already cut 1,600 nursing jobs; physiotherapy for our seniors; cataract surgeries, and diabetes testing strips. Premier, you’re the one holding the knife today.

It’s not getting any better. Your own plan shows you need to raise revenue $15 billion by 2017-18 to balance the budget. But you’ve missed your revenue targets every single time.

So, Premier, what are you going to do now? Are you going to raise taxes, as mentioned twice yesterday? More health cuts, in addition to the ones you’ve already done? Or are you going to legislate the wage freeze your finance minister announced in this House yesterday?

Hon. Charles Sousa: Mr. Speaker, we’ve adopted now over 80% of Don Drummond’s recommendations. We’ve taken measures of austerity in a very pragmatic and appropriate way by transforming government without hampering services, in health care and education especially, and for our social well-being. But as a result of that, we’ve become the lowest-cost government per capita in Canada. We’ve done our job in that regard.

What we will not do, though, is cut 100,000 jobs from the system and put people at risk—what he’s been implying and what he’s been suggesting.

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: Just 140,000 child care spots.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The member from Nepean–Carleton, come to order.

Hon. Charles Sousa: Instead, we have a net increase of 500,000 net new jobs since the recession. We have recovered the 300,000, plus 500,000 more. Unemployment right now in Ontario is 6.5%, 1% lower than last year.

We’re continuing to do what’s necessary to promote the economy, and we continue to manage our program spending as necessary.

Automobile insurance

Mr. Jagmeet Singh: My question is to the Minister of Finance. According to the fall economic statement, the first annual Automobile Insurance Transparency and Accountability Expert Report was delivered to the Minister of Finance. The whole point of this annual report was to let the public know why premiums were so high, despite the fact that the insurance industry was saving billions of dollars flowing from the draconian benefit cutbacks of 2010 and subsequent years, but this government has refused to release this so-called transparency report to the public.

Minister, why haven’t you released this report to the public? What is in this report that you’re so afraid of showing to the millions of drivers in Ontario?

Hon. Charles Sousa: The real question is, why did you vote against the very bill that would lower auto insurance in the first place? Why were you not standing up for the people of Ontario, the very drivers you claim to be supporting?

We’ve been able to reduce rates by 6% on average. We can reduce rates even more by imposing and providing the legislation that we brought forward that will be debated in this House, that will be debated at committee and that will enable us to have that discussion which you are trying to avoid.

I’ve got to tell you, I’m disappointed at the very nature of your question because you, of all people, stood in this House trying to claim to support auto insurance reducing drivers’ rates, just like many private members’ bills on this side of the House have fought for. We’ll continue to do our part. You should be joining us in doing it as well.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Jagmeet Singh: Mr. Speaker, that’s going to make a great quote in Hansard. The minister is disappointed that I asked him to release a transparency report. We’re going to definitely quote that in Hansard.

New Democrats have long argued that the insurance industry has pocketed $2 billion from the 2010 benefit cutbacks without passing a penny on to drivers. That’s why we called for a 15% premium rollback, which we thought this government agreed to in the 2013 budget. But it’s pretty clear now that they have no intention of implementing it.

Minister, you admitted yesterday that the 15% rate reduction is stalled at 6%, but you didn’t say why. What’s in the transparency report that you refuse to release? Again, what are you hiding from the eight million drivers in Ontario?

Hon. Charles Sousa: We have a regulatory system that forces the companies to post online their rates, their activities and the reductions they are proceeding with. There’s over 100 companies competing. Almost 20 of them or more are actually well above the 15% reduction in rates already. We encourage that activity to proceed, and that is transparent.

I’ve got to tell you, the reason why rates are at only 6% is very clear. It’s because you stalled the very legislation that enables rates to go down, because you voted against it, because you enabled an election that wasn’t necessary. Those are the issues that are creating the slowing of that rate reduction.

We’re going to act quickly. We’re going to ensure that rates are reduced by taking the actions necessary in this piece of legislation, which I hope you will support in the end.

Northern Ontario development

Mr. John Fraser: Ma question est pour le ministre du Développement du Nord et des Mines.

Just a couple of months ago, the Premier released mandate letters to each minister outlining the key priorities for their ministry. Minister, in your mandate letter, the Premier made it clear that we have made it our government’s priority to ensure that Ontario’s north continues to realize its potential as a sustainable, diverse, stable and innovative region that significantly contributes to the overall growth of Ontario’s economy.

Mr. Speaker, can the minister please explain what our government is doing to drive growth in northern Ontario?

Hon. Michael Gravelle: I’m very grateful to the member for Ottawa South for that great question. Certainly, it’s a complete priority for our government to ensure that our northern communities continue to remain on a positive track towards prosperity. That’s one of the reasons why we are continuing to work so hard on the implementation of the northern Ontario growth plan. We’re diversifying the economy, helping communities attract investment and building more efficient infrastructure.

The key, we believe, is to take a very collaborative approach. That’s why we are directly engaging municipal, aboriginal and community leaders from across northern Ontario. We held a Northern Leaders’ Forum in Timmins last December and followed that up with a very positive session in Thunder Bay. May I say, Mr. Speaker, that we are looking forward to continuing that dialogue with another Northern Leaders’ Forum happening early in the new year in Sault Ste. Marie—looking forward to it.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. John Fraser: Thank you, Minister, for informing the House, informing this Legislature, about the strategic investments our government is making in northern Ontario.

We need to ensure that we continue to support the talent and skills of all Ontarians so that we can build a dynamic business climate in our province, one that thrives on innovation, creativity and partnerships. I think we would all agree that successful development relies on modern and efficient infrastructure, a vital component of building prosperous communities.

Mr. Speaker, can the minister please explain what our government is doing to improve infrastructure in northern Ontario and support growth across the region?

Hon. Michael Gravelle: Another great question—thank you so much. Certainly, we know that infrastructure is absolutely a vital part of realizing the full potential of our northern communities, which is why we’re so proud of this last year’s investment of $527 million for northern highways, which was about $147 million for expansion and $380 million for rehabilitation—actually, over $5 billion over the last 10 years.

We made a $32-million investment to support the expansion of broadband infrastructure to 21 First Nation communities, an additional $30 million in projects extending broadband coverage to over 96% of northern Ontario homes, and we’re going to get all the way there. We’ve launched a new Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund, providing annually now, and permanently, $100 million per year to small, rural and northern municipalities.

Mr. Speaker, it’s important to note that these are priorities for us. We never heard a thing from the opposition party during the campaign last year at all about its northern plan. We’re very proud of our northern plan, and it’s a total priority of Premier Wynne and our government.

Government accountability

Mr. Randy Hillier: My question is to the Minister of Infrastructure. Minister, your revolving door of excuses is getting old and tired. Your newest excuse is trying to pull the wool over taxpayers’ eyes by telling us the MaRS loan is fully secure.

Minister, CBRE’s most recent appraisal pegs the value of the building at $303 million if 100% leased. You’ve blown $224 million on the loan, $65 million more on ARE, and now we’re on the hook for $106.5 million in interest. That’s a lot more than $300 million, Minister. You’re like the Energizer minister: You just keep digging and digging and digging us into a deeper hole.

Minister, are you planning on cutting our losses and selling the building, or will you just keep pouring millions more into a bad deal you never should have signed off on in the first place?

Hon. Brad Duguid: What’s getting old and tired is the member’s daily attacks on the integrity of MaRS and the opportunities that MaRS brings to our bioscience cluster. If the member was really concerned about the economy and jobs, he’d be supporting our bioscience cluster and the efforts that MaRS makes to grow jobs and attract investment.

But there’s a big difference between that party and this party. Yes, Mr. Speaker, when the MaRS phase 2 project was having challenges, we did step up and provide support to ensure that that building did not rot in the ground. His party would have let that building rot in the ground. He would have kissed away the jobs that are going to come from the work that MaRS does and the economic development and investment that that will attract to this province.

I will not be taking his advice. I’m looking forward to the advice of Michael Nobrega and Carol Stephenson, who will help us ensure that this project becomes a success.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Mr. Randy Hillier: Minister, we know that you don’t understand the business case, and no one is surprised now that you don’t understand an appraisal either.

Your appraisal just doesn’t add up. Both CBRE and Altus based their valuations of MaRS on it being fully leased to tenants paying for research and life science spaces, yet we know there is no market for the 780,000 square feet of research space. But we do know you’re planning to put bureaucrats in there, and the market value for office space is $8 to $10 less per square foot than for research space. That means the value of the building is tens of millions of dollars less, even when it is fully rented.

Can you tell this House exactly how many millions more MaRS 2 is worth when filled with bureaucrats instead of scientists? Or are you just going to pass this off to the finance minister as more leakage next year?

Hon. Brad Duguid: The PC Party’s approach to dealing with the challenges faced by MaRS phase 2 was to let that building rot in the ground. That was their approach, but it shouldn’t surprise us. It shouldn’t surprise us, because when things get tough, Tories run and hide. Look at what they did with the auto sector when the auto sector was having challenges. We stepped up, partnered with the auto sector, and ensured that 400,000-plus direct and indirect jobs were saved in this province. The approach of that party was to let those plants close.

When it comes down to it, this party has the intestinal fortitude to make the investments we need to make to grow our economy, to partner with the private sector when necessary, to make the important business decisions going forward that are responsible to taxpayers, that are going to create jobs and grow our economy. That party clearly does not.

Education funding

Mr. Peter Tabuns: My question is to the Minister of Education. On July 9, the Premier stood in this House and said, “We’re not going to cut education.” Yesterday, the economic update poured cold water on that Liberal promise. The Liberals have quietly admitted that they’re actually planning half a billion dollars in cuts to schools in this province. The 2015 education funding guide shows up to $500 million in cuts by 2017.

Why did the Premier promise Ontarians no cuts to education while asking you, Minister, to slash $500 million in crucial funding to our schools?

Hon. Liz Sandals: I think one of the things that you need to recognize is that, in fact, we have increased spending in education more than any other government has ever done. In fact, on average, per-pupil spending has increased anywhere from 50% to 60%, depending on where the board is in Ontario. So I absolutely challenge anyone who says that we are not funding education properly.

It is true that we have declining enrolment, and that when you find that enrolment is declining, there may be individual boards who, because they’ve had dramatic declines in enrolment, may not have had as much funding this year as last. But the—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. Supplementary?

Mr. Peter Tabuns: The Premier said one thing and now she’s doing the opposite. Her budget promised increased funding to school boards to keep up with growing enrolment. She’s on the record promising no cuts to schools, and yet the Ministry of Education is spelling out $500 million in cuts to our classrooms and says annual increases are things of the past.

These cuts will hurt an education system that’s already hurting from being underfunded. It could mean ballooning class sizes, teacher layoffs and even more school closures.

Will the minister tell Ontarians exactly what this cut of half a billion dollars will mean to the students, teachers and education workers of this province?

Hon. Liz Sandals: Let me repeat: The funding is now at $22.5 billion through the Grants for Student Needs. That represents an increase of 56.5% or over $4,000 per pupil since 2003. The funding has gone up. In fact, in the area that he’s talking about, this year, which is looking at some of the operating issues, we’ve actually added $8.3 million to help boards with planning. We’ve added $15.5 million to help them invest in teaching staff in remote areas of the province where we know that the schools are going to remain open. We’re actually increasing the funding so that those schools can remain open. The bottom line here is, yes, the funding keeps going up, the per-pupil funding.

Youth employment

Ms. Eleanor McMahon: My question is to the Minister of Research and Innovation and Training, Colleges and Universities. Minister, Ontario has some of the best-educated, hardest-working and most creative young people in the world. Many of them live in my riding of Burlington, where I’ve had the privilege of meeting post-secondary students who are eager to transform their bright ideas into successful businesses. However, what I’m finding out is that many of them are not aware of the programs, tools and services that the government makes available to them to develop their entrepreneurial skills and launch their own companies.

Minister, I understand that the response to Ontario’s Youth Jobs Strategy has been very strong. Our government is well on its way to achieving its target of connecting 30,000 young people with job opportunities.

Minister, can you please tell the members of this House what steps our government is taking to support young entrepreneurs and help them thrive in today’s market economy?

Hon. Reza Moridi: I want to thank the member from Burlington for that very good question. This week is Global Entrepreneurship Week, so the question is great.

Building a culture of innovation, research excellence and entrepreneurship is at the heart of our government’s jobs and economic strategy. We recognize that the economy needs a culture of start-ups and workers who drive creativity and competitiveness in the new world economy. That’s why entrepreneurship programs form a key part of our government’s youth jobs strategy.

Mr. Speaker, the Ontario Youth Entrepreneurship Fund provides young people with mentorship and seed capital to start their own businesses.

The Ontario Youth Innovation Fund helps young innovators get the advanced work experience and start-up support they need to translate their research into the 21st-century economy.

Helping young people get the experience and resources they need to launch their own companies is part of our government’s plan to develop an innovative business climate in this province.

We will continue to build Ontario up by investing in a suite of programs and services that will help young people turn their ideas and dreams into reality.

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Supplementary?

Ms. Eleanor McMahon: It is great to hear that our government is taking the necessary steps to help our young people become successful entrepreneurs.

Minister, post-secondary education plays a crucial role in preparing the next generation of Ontario’s entrepreneurs. It is imperative that our government invest in student entrepreneurship at the post-secondary level in order to provide our future leaders with the tools they need to succeed in tomorrow’s economy. Investing in a dynamic, innovative and entrepreneurial post-secondary system will nurture our business visionaries, ignite their entrepreneurial spirit and help them grow Ontario’s economy.

Can the minister tell us more about the different on-campus programs being offered to young entrepreneurs and how our government is building a dynamic entrepreneurial post-secondary system in our province?

Hon. Reza Moridi: I want to thank the member again for that question.

Mr. Speaker, our government understands the importance of investing in student entrepreneurship in the 21st-century global economy.

That’s why our government is building the most entrepreneurial post-secondary system in North America by investing $25 million in two dynamic on-campus programs. The first one is the campus-linked accelerators, which is providing funding to institutions to integrate on-campus entrepreneurial activities with local businesses and industry. The second program is the On-Campus Entrepreneurship Activities Program, which is helping to kick-start business activities within institutions.

I’m proud to report that of the 44 Ontario post-secondary institutions, 42 of them now have on-campus entrepreneurship programs.

These programs are giving students the chance to develop their business ideas while at the same time transforming our post-secondary institutions into entrepreneurship hubs.

Mr. Speaker, we are producing some of the—

The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Thank you. New question.

Wind turbines

Mr. Jim Wilson: Speaker, my question is for the Premier. Last week I received an email from a local news organization indicating that your government plans to approve, by the end of November, wpd’s application to build eight 500-foot-tall wind turbines, structures that will be as tall as the TD tower here in Toronto, directly beside the Collingwood Regional Air