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December 1, 2020

42nd Parliament, 1st Session

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Hansard Transcripts

Votes and Proceedings

Orders and Notices

Hansard Transcript 2020-Dec-01 (PDF)

L216 - Tue 1 Dec 2020 / Mar 1er déc 2020

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

ASSEMBLÉE LÉGISLATIVE DE L’ONTARIO

Tuesday 1 December 2020 Mardi 1 er décembre 2020

Orders of the Day

Time allocation

Members’ Statements

COVID-19 response

Small business

Public transit

Small business

COVID-19 response

GuelphGives

Winter is Coming food drive

Northern economy

Miracle on Main Street

Men’s mental health

Question Period

Long-term care

COVID-19 response

COVID-19 response

Environmental protection

Personal support workers

Long-term care

Hydro rates

Small business

Conservation authorities

Mental health and addiction services

COVID-19 response

COVID-19 response

Public sector compensation

Prescription drugs / Médicaments prescrits

Government accountability

Deferred Votes

No Time to Waste Act (Plan for Climate Action and Jobs), 2020 / Loi de 2020 sur la nécessité de ne pas gaspiller de temps (plan en matière d’action pour le climat et l’emploi)

Wearing of ribbons

Reports by Committees

Standing Committee on Government Agencies

Introduction of Bills

Apollo Shawarma and Grill Inc. Act, 2020

Consideration of Bill 236

Petitions

Documents gouvernementaux

Economic reopening and recovery

Optometry services

Gasoline prices

Orders of the Day

Supporting Local Restaurants Act, 2020 / Loi de 2020 visant à soutenir les restaurants locaux

Compassionate Care Act, 2020 / Loi de 2020 sur les soins de compassion

Private Members’ Public Business

Public Health Accountability Act (In Honour of Dr. Sheela Basrur), 2020 / Loi de 2020 sur la responsabilité en matière de santé publique (en hommage à la Dre Sheela Basrur)

Adjournment Debate

Environmental protection

COVID-19 response

The House met at 0900.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Good morning. Let us pray.

Prayers.

Orders of the Day

Time allocation

Ms. Andrea Khanjin: I move that, pursuant to standing order 50 and notwithstanding any other standing order or special order of the House relating to Bill 236,

An Act in respect of food and beverage delivery fees;

That the order of the House referring the bill to the Standing Committee on General Government be discharged; and

That the bill shall be ordered for third reading; and

That when the order for third reading of Bill 236 is called, two hours of debate shall be allotted to the third reading stage of the bill, with 50 minutes allotted to the government members, 50 minutes allotted to the official opposition members and 20 minutes allotted to the independent members as a group; and at the end of this time, the Speaker shall interrupt the proceedings and shall put every question necessary to dispose of this stage of the bill without further debate or amendment; and

That except in the case of a recorded division arising from morning orders of the day, pursuant to standing order 10(c), no deferral of the third reading vote on the bill shall be permitted.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Percy Hatfield): Ms. Khanjin has moved government notice of motion number 100. I return to the member from Barrie–Innisfil.

Ms. Andrea Khanjin: Thank you, Speaker. I think we’ve seen a lot of debate and a lot of news on this. We’ve seen from the members of the Liberal Party that there is no time to wait on this specific bill. These food delivery service operators, consumers and businesses do need the relief now, so I ask that we support this going forward. There’s no more time to wait for this important step. I want to thank the minister for introducing it, as it’s very vital for our food businesses to thrive.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Percy Hatfield): Further debate?

Mr. Gilles Bisson: Mr. Speaker, I’m not going to speak to this at length. Obviously, we have the ability to do that, but at this point, in this case, we’re not going to do so.

I want to put a couple of things on the record. The first thing is that we’ve been calling for months now, dating back to last spring—the official opposition and other members of the House—for something to be done in order to curb the fees that are charged to restaurants that deliver food. As you know, there’s a 30% fee on orders placed, and for a lot of restaurants, that is, quite frankly, pretty difficult, because it takes away whatever little margin they may have on the food. We have been calling on the government to limit these delivery charges during the time of the pandemic.

Everybody should have to do their part, and so should Uber and all of those other companies that do this kind of thing.

Unfortunately, the government didn’t do so until now. They decided to introduce a bill at this pretty late stage of the game. But better late than never, as they say. We’re not going to say we shouldn’t do it, because obviously there’s still a lot of road ahead of us. Even though there are places outside of Peel and Toronto that are not in lockdown, this is an issue for a lot of places and communities, such as yours, Mr. Speaker, and mine, because a lot of people do not want to go into restaurants, even in those places where there is no lockdown. They feel that it’s safer to eat at home, so they’re ordering out.

Those particular delivery companies are charging those 30% charges, and sometimes more, to the restaurants—restaurants in Windsor, Ottawa, London, Timmins and Thunder Bay, different places around the province. The difficulty New Democrats have with this bill—we will support it; better one eighth of a loaf than no loaf. I will support it, but the bill doesn’t really do what it’s intended to do. First of all, it only applies to restaurants in lockdown areas. Right? That’s the only place this bill is going to apply.

So if you live in Windsor, if you live in Niagara, if you live in Ottawa, the bill doesn’t apply to you. Your restaurants are going to end up having to pay the same rates that they are now. There’s no respite for them.

And it doesn’t apply to franchise restaurants. So if you’re a franchise restaurant—and it’s not like the person who runs the franchise owns Swiss Chalet or owns Burger King or whatever it might be. They are, like everybody else, a small business owner who is renting a facility, utilizing the name and paying a fee through franchise fees to run whatever other business, such as Quiznos or whatever it might be. Those delivery fee reductions don’t apply to them.

New Democrats said, “Listen, we don’t want to allow this thing to go lickety-split without any time in committee, because we need to send this bill to committee and make sure that it applies to the people in Ottawa, make sure that it applies to the people in Niagara, Windsor and places in northern Ontario and outside of Peel and the GTA.” But the Liberals and the Conservatives got together and said, “No, we just want to help some people. We don’t want to help all people.” That’s why we were trying to force this bill into committee, in order to get some time so that we can actually make the amendment.

What has become clear through this debate, Mr. Speaker, is neither the Liberals nor the Conservatives—I’ve always said Liberals and Tories are just Tories and Liberals in a hurry to work together. They essentially have decided that this is all about the politics of a communications strategy. This is about saying you’re going to do something, but really not doing what you say you’re going to do. In the end, we want to say, as New Democrats, we think that’s wrong. We think that the Liberals should stop propping up the Conservatives with ideas such as this. I think that is not a good thing to do.

I think at times, you have to stand up for your communities—places like Ottawa, places like Kingston or wherever—where this is an issue for many restaurants outside of this area.

So we say a pox on both the Liberal and Tory houses for not doing what’s right for all those restaurant owners and all of those citizens in places outside of Peel and the GTA. Why you would leave them out—we think it’s wrong. New Democrats at least tried to get people to come to reason. In this particular case, because the Liberals are propping up the Tories, they get to do what they want. With that, Mr. Speaker, thank you very much for this time in debate. Merci.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Percy Hatfield): Further debate?

M me Lucille Collard: I will also not be taking a lot of time, just because I think time is of the essence and that’s the reason we have this motion before us on time allocation. Of course I wouldn’t oppose this motion, since I stood up in this House asking for the process to be speeded up in order to bring immediate relief to our businesses.

I just want to say that last week I had a chance to talk about how businesses are hurt in my riding. The fact that the relief of Bill 236, a cap on delivery fees, applies only to lockdown areas is not of service to my area. In Ottawa, a lot of businesses are suffering. The whole ByWard Market is already almost totally shut down. We’ve got main streets that are ghost towns because, even though Ottawa has reopened businesses to some level, we’ve told people often enough not to go out, to stay home and to take delivery instead of going out. That’s what they’re doing.

That’s probably why people in Ottawa are not in such a restricted zone, that they have actually seen some kind of success with controlling the pandemic. That’s because they’re listening and they’re staying home.

The fact that this relief won’t apply to those businesses is just increasing the damage. Some of the damage has already been done. ByWard Market—I was speaking with the other elected officials in Ottawa, of Ottawa–Vanier, a couple of days ago, and they’re just so discouraged to see the state of affairs. Everything is boarded up, and it’s pretty sad. When tourism season opens, if it ever opens again in a normal way, we’ll have little to offer. I would ask the government, first of all, to reconsider, to expand the application of this bill to all the businesses and all the restaurants that need it in the province of Ontario.

I wanted to terminate on just a small note. I think time allocation motions are good things when there are no issues around the fact that it’s the right thing to do, everybody agrees and it’s a speedy measure that we need to implement. But it shouldn’t be used just anecdotally or be abused all the time. I just want to put that on the record as well.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Percy Hatfield): Further debate? Further debate?

Ms. Khanjin has moved government notice of motion number 100. Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried on division.

Motion agreed to.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Percy Hatfield): Orders of the day.

Hon. Paul Calandra: No further business.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Percy Hatfield): No further business at this time, so this House stands in recess until 10:15.

The House recessed from 0912 to 1015.

Members’ Statements

COVID-19 response

Ms. Teresa J. Armstrong: When the world changed this year, the people in my community rose to the occasion in more ways than one. Those who could stayed home, stayed apart and wore masks. And they are giving back to their communities. The Argyle and Hamilton Road BIAs worked hand in hand with our valuable small businesses to support them through these incredibly trying times. Everyone did their part to keep each other safe.

I also want to highlight the good work of two local heroes. Soon after settling in London, Amna Saleem starting volunteering with the London Muslim Mosque. During the pandemic, as the situation worsened for many less privileged families, Amna and her volunteers at the Caring Canadians Society put together a COVID relief campaign and started distributing supplies. Amna has spent close to 300 hours in the last six months with CCS, providing door-to-door food hampers to hundreds of families and delivering thousands of PPE kits to shelters in London.

Yodit Habtemariam Kidane is currently working as a PSW in a London long-term-care facility. During COVID, when family visits were restricted, the anxiety of not being able to meet their families led to depression and even aggression amongst residents. Yodit and her colleagues, despite being short-staffed, went above and beyond their expected duties to take care of the personal and psychological needs of the residents, at times working shifts overtime to accommodate their needs.

On behalf of my community, thank you to our local BIAs and Amna and Yodit for all the work that you do to lift our spirits up during this very trying time.

Small business

Ms. Andrea Khanjin: I want to thank all the small businesses that have made the necessary sacrifices and taken the right steps to keep our communities safe. Our small businesses are our neighbours; they employ our neighbours. It has not been an easy time for them, but they retooled, they pivoted and they did what they needed to do to keep their customers safe while providing their services.

As I visited many local businesses, I saw first-hand how our Barrie and Innisfil businesses are keeping everyone safe and doing everything they can to help their employees and their customers. In fact, I even took Santa along with me to many local businesses as part of the Barrie Chamber of Commerce Santa Tour.

I wanted to emphasize during this tour that this holiday season we cannot forget to shop local and help our neighbours and our friends who are working and who started many of these small businesses in Barrie–Innisfil. They are businesses and people who are there to help our community in need. They sponsor our sports teams and our local charities. Now more than ever, it’s time we show them support.

These are people like Gina and Rohan, who just opened On the Mend Massage Therapy and Wellness during COVID. They’re like Tracey and Rene from Creative Bean. Rene overcame contracting COVID. They’re like Deb and Ralph at the Fork and Plate; John and Lynne at Creative Cafe; Deb at Mad Hatter; Shalu and her family at Dosti Eats; Jennifer at Halliday House; Stephanie at Discount Granite Plus; MJ at the One Face and Body Bar; Oxana and Sergey at Kaleidoscoppe; Dawn Mucci at Lice Squad; and Olu and Titi, who also opened 9Round and had a baby during COVID.

I want to thank them. Have a merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah. Thank you to all our front-line workers for keeping us safe.

Public transit

Mr. Peter Tabuns: Ontario is looking at big fare hikes and deep service cuts for public transit in the year to come. Plunging fare box revenue and dropping revenue from the gas tax allocation threaten to damage our public transit systems across the province. We can’t let this happen.

Large numbers of essential workers depend on transit to get to work. It’s already risky, but more packed buses can only mean increased transmission of COVID. We need to support transit to keep our economy rolling and to avoid increasing pollution if we force people to switch over to travel by car. Ontario has to step up and support our transit systems to help control the spread of the pandemic and to protect our environment.

The Ontario Public Transit Association is calling for more financial support for transit. People will be hurt by fare hikes and service cuts. Ontario has to step up and defend this vital service.

Small business

Mrs. Robin Martin: As we approach the holiday season, I know that many in my community and many across Ontario are anxious and eager to support our small local retail stores. They keep our main streets vibrant, interesting and attractive for visitors, and I, for one, am trying to buy every present that I am purchasing at local community stores.

But this year, and especially for those areas in lockdown, like Toronto, where my riding is, it may not be obvious exactly how a shopper can get what they’re looking for at small local stores. It’s a question I have even asked myself.

Here is what I learned: Many stores are open for curbside pickup or delivery and they’re eager to serve people by phone or online. So this weekend, I took the opportunity to look up some phone numbers of some of the local stores and I checked into what they’re doing.

I spoke with one creative ladies’ fashion retailer on Eglinton who sends out an email newsletter with fashion items for sale to those on her list. Customers can phone or email to order an item in their size or preferred colour and she delivers what she calls “fashion in a bag,” or the customer picks it up. It’s great to see and it works, and Eglinton–Lawrence has some great local retail stores.

I want to ask everyone: Let’s support our local retail stores by shopping online. The owners are making it easier for us to do every day.

COVID-19 response

Mr. Gurratan Singh: Brampton is my home; it’s where I’m raising my family. It’s one of the most dynamic and diverse cities in this country, full of essential workers who keep our province moving.

Brampton has been underserviced and underfunded for years by Liberal and Conservative governments. The NDP, we have been raising the alarm on our city’s health care crisis for years—the fact that our city of over 600,000 people has only one hospital that is overcrowded and underfunded. But this Conservative government has done nothing to fix our health care crisis.

Now we find ourselves in a pandemic, and Brampton is a COVID-19 hot spot because this Conservative government, just like the Liberals before them, doesn’t care about Brampton. It’s not an accident. Inaction has consequences, and this Conservative government is going to have to answer for the fact that they didn’t stand up for Brampton.

When Conservative and Liberal governments refuse to act, Brampton suffers. For months now, the NDP has been calling for a 15-student class size cap in our schools during the pandemic, but Premier Ford has refused to act. The consequence? We have seen countless outbreaks of COVID-19 throughout schools in Brampton.

Will the Premier be apologizing to Brampton for refusing to act? Will the Premier be apologizing to Brampton for putting our families at risk and refusing to listen to the experts? Brampton is at risk, our families are at risk and our community deserves better. We deserve action to protect our families.

GuelphGives

Mr. Mike Schreiner: Today is Giving Tuesday, the world’s largest generosity day to support people in need.

I want to highlight an important campaign in my riding: GuelphGives. Their campaign this year is Think Local, encouraging people to support local non-profits and local businesses.

As the second wave of COVID hits the hardest during the most important month of the year for retail sales and fundraising campaigns, it has never been more important to support local businesses and organizations. Small businesses have experienced a dramatic decline in revenue in order to protect people from COVID. They deserve our support.

Charities and non-profits have also experienced a dramatic loss of revenue at the same time that they are experiencing increased demand for their vital services. A survey in Guelph-Wellington concluded that 53% of organizations have experienced reduced revenue from fundraising. The Ontario Nonprofit Network estimates that one in five non-profits might close their doors before the end of the year. Speaker, we cannot allow this to happen.

I encourage everyone to think local and to give generously today, and I encourage the government to step up with direct supports for local businesses and non-profits.

Winter is Coming food drive

Mr. Dave Smith: Ashlee Aitken, the general manager for Kawartha Food Share, approached me with an idea. Historically, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there’s been a drop-off in donations at our local food banks, but the demand for their services doesn’t go away.

Ashlee’s idea was the Winter is Coming food drive—and when Ashlee comes and asks for help, there’s only one answer you can give, so of course I was all in. We chose five dates for food drives in Havelock, Bridgenorth, Lakefield, Buckhorn and Apsley, with all the proceeds going back to the food banks in each of those communities.

I want to give a special shout-out to the member from Thornhill and the member from Willowdale, who both helped me during the Bridgenorth food drive. We also had some other special volunteers who braved the cold with me: Warden J. Murray Jones, Mayor Andy Mitchell, Deputy Mayor Sherry Senis, Councillor Gerry Herron, Councillor Donna Ballantyne, Mayor Jim Martin, Deputy Mayor—and my uncle—Dave Gerow, Mayor Carolyn Amyotte, Deputy Mayor Jim Whelan, Councillor Colin McLellan, and of course the store owners themselves, John Le Quang, Shreek Patel, Ian Bletsoe, Janice York and Jeff Sayers.

In total, Mr. Speaker, our communities donated the equivalent of an astounding $37,900 worth of food. This will stock those food banks all the way through until some time in January.

Northern economy

Mr. Sol Mamakwa: As we all know, the journey of economic recovery in Ontario is going to be a long one. Our communities across Kiiwetinoong are very rich, maybe not in dollars but in resources, Mr. Speaker—resources that are extremely important to the overall economic recovery of this province.

Communities like Red Lake contribute so much to the economy of Ontario and Canada. Over nine years, they’ve contributed $3.2 billion to the economy. The money earned from the mining, forestry and other resources needs to stay in the north and benefit our communities. Funds are needed for local services and infrastructure and other community improvements. Municipalities such as Red Lake and Pickle Lake have shovel-ready projects that are waiting on approvals.

I also heard that help is needed. In Sioux Lookout, municipal revenues are down from the airport, which is one of the main hubs of the north with the fly-in communities. So they will need more assistance in long-term care than they are getting now. In Ear Falls, they are concerned about lost revenues. They are looking to expand their revenue streams through the use of crown land within municipal boundaries. This way, Mr. Speaker, they can generate revenue without looking for government support.

Speaker, delaying the growth of the municipalities in Kiiwetinoong slows the economic growth for all Ontario. Meegwetch.

Miracle on Main Street

Mr. Parm Gill: With the Christmas season now here, so too is the Tiger Jeet Singh Foundation’s annual Miracle on Main Street in Milton. In partnership with the Halton Regional Police, Miracle on Main is a great tradition in Milton and a tremendous way to get in the holiday spirit.

Thankfully, through the leadership of Milton’s own wrestling legends, Tiger Jeet Singh Sr. and his son Tiger Ali Singh Jr., the annual Miracle on Main Street will continue to support children and families in our community.

This year, in a show of true leadership, the Tiger Jeet Singh Foundation will be donating $30,000 to local schools and will be donating another $30,000 in support of local restaurants in Milton, Mr. Speaker. I am grateful this important tradition will continue this year, especially during COVID-19.

For the last 11 years, Miracle on Main Street has raised much-needed funds through donations and sponsorships for families, local charities and schools, along with purchasing thousands of toys for kids at McMaster Children’s Hospital and SickKids. I would like to thank everyone involved for making this successful each and every year, and I want to thank Tiger Jeet Singh Sr. and Tiger Ali Singh Jr. for their leadership and commitment in helping our community every year.

Men’s mental health

Mr. Roman Baber: With the month of November coming to an end yesterday, I’d like to call much-needed attention to men’s mental health. There are approximately 4,000 suicides a year in Canada. Many happen during this time of year. Four out of every five suicides are committed by men. This is a national tragedy.

Mental health professionals attribute this to the fact that it’s generally difficult for men to admit mental health challenges. Men are less likely to seek help from family or friends. Men are less likely to speak to a doctor. We may feel embarrassed. We may not know what to say. We may not know who to talk to or, worse, think that there is no one to talk to, that no one would understand.

But guys, let’s talk about this for a minute. The Movember Foundation conducted a survey that found that eight out of 10 men found it helpful to talk about having a hard time. That makes sense, because we can’t fix it unless we acknowledge that something isn’t right. And please don’t be afraid, because I bet you that at your time of peril, someone out there wants you to call them. It may be a family member that loves you, a friend that needs you, a support worker who cares about you. Tell them. Give them an opportunity to tell you how much they love you.

Give yourself a chance. Give others the chance to give you a chance, because you are precious and we need you here.

Question Period

Long-term care

Mr. John Vanthof: My question is to the Premier. Yesterday, another 112 seniors in our long-term-care homes caught COVID-19, in 24 hours. While the second wave races through long-term care, the government continues to delay and obstruct the release of information to their own long-term-care commission. The body is set up to fix the crisis in long-term care. As reported by QP Briefing this morning, the commission refuted the government’s claims that they were not delaying the release of documents and pointed to “continual delay.”

What information is the Premier afraid to share with the commission?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Minister of Long-Term Care to respond.

Hon. Merrilee Fullerton: Thank you to the member opposite for the question. Our government struck this commission so that residents, families and staff could get answers quickly. We are committed to ensuring the integrity of and public trust in this independent review of our long-term-care sector.

We gave the commission the power to issue summonses for witnesses or produce documents. This includes powers under the Public Inquiries Act and the Health Protection and Promotion Act. We committed to giving the commissioners our full support and co-operation, and we have done that. When the commissioners asked, we expanded the terms of reference, and we have worked with them diligently in many other ways.

We will continue to work with the commission and the commissioners, because we respect what they’re doing. We want to get to the bottom of this. Ontarians have questions. We’re going to make sure that we continue to provide our commission with the information that they need and our full support.

Mr. John Vanthof: The Ford government is not just impeding the work of their own commission, but they’re also ignoring the commission’s recommendations. Over a month ago, the commission called on the government to stop studying the studies and immediately address the staffing crisis with full-time positions and four hours of hands-on care. The minister responded with: They’re developing a robust plan for next year.

Seniors are dying today. Where is this government’s sense of urgency? They’re dying now. This is the second wave. This wasn’t a surprise. We all saw this coming. The government saw this coming. Why didn’t they act, and why are they not acting?

Hon. Merrilee Fullerton: I appreciate the concerns from the member opposite. We too have shared them since the very beginning, since day one. The sense of urgency has been absolute to deal with the crisis that was left behind by the previous government—the neglect of the staffing crisis by the previous government, supported by the NDP, as well as the capacity crisis. Absolutely. This was unfortunately set in motion well before COVID.

Our government was the first government to look at long-term care and say, “We need to build capacity. We need to address the staffing. We need to provide more support in-home.” That’s why our community paramedicine program has been so well received, because people want to stay in their homes long as they possibly can. The peace of mind provided by the community paramedics 24/7 is really a very important key to making sure we can do that, as well as building the staffing, the return of service, the rapid streaming for their education and the mass training. These are all ongoing and we’re putting dollars behind that: $540 million, $243 million, $461 million. It keeps going.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The final supplementary.

Mr. John Vanthof: Today, one in eight long-term-care homes is in outbreak; there were 33 more cases overnight. Some health experts say that the Premier’s iron ring is really an iron sieve. He’s really good at catchy terms like “iron ring.”

The Premier should have spent the summer moving heaven and earth to prepare long-term-care homes and protect seniors in the second wave. And he should be doing that now. But it seemed almost like he spent the summer taking a victory lap. So why is he continuing to drag his feet and hide facts from people who are supposed to be saving lives in long-term care? Why? Make that information public now.

Hon. Merrilee Fullerton: I can tell you with absolute certainty that the number of people working around the clock, the continuous efforts, the sense of urgency to address this worldwide crisis and address it in Ontario has been absolutely amazing and inspiring, to see people putting themselves forward—not only our front line, but everyone who is working behind the scenes to do that.

I look to Quebec and I look at Ontario, and I say that Ontario’s plan and our homes are holding. We are getting them the integrated support that they need, whether it’s through the mandatory management orders or voluntary management contracts with our hospitals, voluntary assistance from our hospitals, making sure that we take every measure and every tool possible to do that. We’re putting in rapid testing. We are making sure that every tool is being used. As I said before, this is around the world.

We must not only create the pipeline and create the interest in long-term care, we must be able to retain them. This will be a much longer, sustained effort, and our government is behind that. We will continue to—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Thank you very much. Next question.

COVID-19 response

Ms. Sara Singh: My question is for the Minister of Education. This week, we learned that COVID-19 outbreaks in our schools were worse than any of us thought. While the minister doesn’t want to face reality, his response to the growing outbreaks has been called “nonsense” by some health experts and even worse by others.

Will the minister finally admit here in this House today that the test results are proving that COVID-19 spread is serious and we need to immediately expand in-school testing if we want to know what’s going on?

Hon. Stephen Lecce: The Premier and the government are fully committed to taking action, as we have since the beginning of this pandemic, to ensure students and staff remain safe. It is a societal imperative that we keep schools open. We believe that.

It’s why the province and the government, as a matter of priority, took action to restrict and lock down in Peel, in Toronto, in the highest regions with community transmission, putting as a priority our seniors, our students and the most vulnerable; and the action in the context of asymptomatic testing, a program this province stands alone in the country having launched, in the highest-risk four regions of Toronto, Peel, York and Ottawa. What it underscores is that we will continue to act given the rising risk that we see at home and abroad in the context of COVID-19.

We’ll continue to take action, listening to the Chief Medical Officer of Health and the science, to ensure we can continue to keep our schools open and safe.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The supplementary question.

Ms. Sara Singh: Unfortunately for the minister, the doctors—those whose job it is to actually keep us safe—say that this minister is just making stuff up and that he’s not even remotely close to the facts. Dr. Ashleigh Tuite—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I’m going to ask the member to withdraw.

Ms. Sara Singh: I withdraw, Speaker.

Dr. Ashleigh Tuite, an epidemiologist and modeller at the University of Toronto who sits on this province’s volunteer science table, says that the minister’s use of random numbers to defend his bad plan is “not at all comparable, and it’s highly misleading to say that it is.”

We all knew that things were getting bad—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I’m going to ask the member to withdraw once again and place her question.

Ms. Sara Singh: I withdraw, Speaker.

I guess at the end of the day, what we’re looking for from this minister is an apology to parents, students, and education workers who are putting their lives at risk in our schools, and for him to actually come up with a plan that’s going to help us address the COVID-19 outbreaks in our schools. Will he be doing that?

Hon. Stephen Lecce: Speaker, we will continue to build up our plan that leads this nation with a comprehensive masking policy, with an investment of $1.3 billion, with improvements in air ventilation in the vast majority of our schools, with the doubling of public health nurses, with 2,700 net new teachers supporting smaller classrooms in all of our respective schools and with an additional 1,200 new custodians, ensuring our schools remain clean. These investments are making a difference.

I appreciate full well, as the member opposite recognizes, that the risk of COVID-19 is rising within our community. That’s why we’re taking province-wide action as a matter of priority to ensure our schools, our retirement homes, our seniors—all of the most vulnerable in our society—remain safe. That remains our priority.

I can assure the member opposite we will continue to step up our investment. Another $380 million is forthcoming with the federal dollars that will enable us to protect the gains we’ve made in this province and ensure we keep schools open and safe in 2021.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The final supplementary.

Ms. Sara Singh: Despite the minister’s desperate attempts to change the channel, the same doctor, Ashleigh Tuite, says that this Conservative plan just simply doesn’t cut it. She says that more follow-up is needed: “The fact that you can go in and find all these cases, and then say that we don’t think there’s a lot of transmission happening in our schools, I don’t think you can say that with a straight face.” She actually goes on to say, “You need to do more.” Full stop, Minister: You need to do more.

Our question is, will you be acting on that advice and will you actually be doing more for the people of this province?

Hon. Stephen Lecce: In this province, we are doing more than any province in the country. I accept the premise that we need to lead. We will continue to do so. It’s why we doubled public health nurses, which no province has done. It’s why have a comprehensive masking policy starting in grade 4, the most progressive requirement of any government in Canada, including the New Democrats in British Columbia. We have a requirement on cohorting. We’ve changed the way schools operate to reduce transmission. We have taken action with a $1.3-billion investment that leads Canada.

Unlocking reserve dollars, federal dollars, provincial monies all together enables us to have a plan that keeps our schools safe and open, even while we contend with the global challenge of COVID-19, the second wave.

We are working in partnership with our school boards, with our public health units and with the Minister of Health every single day to ensure that we can take every step possible, every layer of prevention in place, which we have in this province. We’ll continue to act, listening to the advice and the expert opinion of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, to ensure students and staff are safe in Ontario.

COVID-19 response

Ms. Marit Stiles: This question is for the Premier.

School has been back for about 11 weeks, and the government has just started asymptomatic testing in some schools in some regions, despite assurances that their schools plan was based on data and expert advice. Cases are surging, the winter break is approaching, and we’re still trying to learn what we can from this limited data to see just how COVID is manifesting in our schools.

We have established that the government’s numbers don’t hold water. We’ve established that they ignored the advice of experts in education and health. We’ve established that there’s no plan to address learning gaps other than summer school.

Speaker, we’ve already lost precious time while this government tried to save a few dollars. Will they act now to dramatically increase asymptomatic testing so we can learn from these outbreaks and do better to keep our children safe?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The Minister of Education.

Hon. Stephen Lecce: We were proud to launch asymptomatic testing in this province—the only province that I’m aware of in the country that is doing this—because we want to understand the data. We want to understand not just where the problem exists, but how we can counter it further, particularly in those high-risk communities that have high levels of positivity. In the case of Thorncliffe Park, where the, it’s been noted by the board, roughly 16% positivity rates—and within the school, as noted by the principal, a roughly 4% positivity rate.

The point, in short, is that asymptomatic testing expanding in these high-risk regions is following the expert advice of the chief medical officer, who, on this side of the House, we have confidence in, and we’ll continue to listen to his advice. If he encourages us or provides any direction to expand or change the region, as I’ve noted before in this House, we will do so without reservation to ensure the safety of kids in Ontario.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The supplementary question.

Ms. Marit Stiles: Mr. Speaker, I have just learned that there are 299 new school cases today in Ontario. And the Minister of Education is comparing apples to oranges, and he knows it perfectly well.

Speaker, the testing at Thorncliffe Park Public School shows just how little we know about how the virus is circulating in school communities. But every time this minister is presented with new information, his first instinct is to deny and to cling to talking points instead of reflecting on the impact of his decision. There are 270 students and 17 staff from that school in isolation right now. That’s 287 families who have had their lives and their learning disrupted. They deserve so much more than to be brushed off as data points that prove things aren’t as bad as they could be.

Yesterday I wrote to the Minister of Education’s new education health advisor to request a meeting to ask when they are going to be releasing a plan for a province-wide surveillance testing program. I asked what supports are in place to communicate public health measures across school communities prior to the holiday break. Mr. Speaker, Ontarians deserve these answers. Will the minister provide them?

Hon. Stephen Lecce: I think the basis of the plan we’ve unveiled has been fully supported by the Chief Medical Officer of Health and fully funded by the province of Ontario. What it has enabled us to do is that amongst the largest province, with two million students, it ensured that 1.5 million students today who are in class and roughly 500,000 students online are able to learn each and every day in a safe environment, with every—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Order.

Hon. Stephen Lecce: —prevention in place according to the Chief Medical Officer of Health of this province and the associate medical officer of health and leading experts, who believe our plan so far, notwithstanding the increasing rate of community transmission—that we are doing something right. And when I refer to “we,” I mean the front-line staff. I mean our school boards and our public health units, who are collaborating—

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The member for Davenport will come to order.

Hon. Stephen Lecce: —and do everything humanly possible to ensure that the students in their school remain safe.

The fact that 99.92% of students do not have an active case of COVID, the fact that 99.79% of students have not had an active case of COVID underscores what we are doing. The layers of prevention we’ve put in place are helping to mitigate the risk. We’ll continue to act to protect students.

Environmental protection

Mr. Norman Miller: My question is for the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks. Mr. Speaker, those of us who call Ontario home couldn’t ask for a better place to live, work and raise a family. However, for over a decade, Ontario pursued very urban-centric environmental policies dreamt up in downtown Toronto. Rural and northern Ontarians were largely left out of the discussion about conservation and the fight against climate change. They had to make huge sacrifices without really having a say in the policies.

Mr. Speaker, in 2018, the people of Ontario made it clear they wanted a government that put forward more well-thought-out initiatives to fight climate change and keep our air, land and waters clean for future generations. Can the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks tell us what our government is doing to deliver on that mandate?

Hon. Jeff Yurek: Thanks to the member from Parry Sound–Muskoka for that question. It’s been a pleasure to be working with him all these years.

Mr. Speaker, our government understands that the natural resources are our greatest strength, and it’s possible and important to have a healthy environment and a healthy economy. We also recognize the importance of consistently evaluating and adopting initiatives so they meet the needs of the hard-working people who call this province home.

It’s been two years since we first introduced our Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan and we’ve made considerable progress on our commitments. We’ve announced $4.5 million for the species-at-risk fund, $20 million for Ontario’s land conservation efforts, and we’re reinvesting in the Ontario Community Environment Fund to support projects that improve the environment, including dedicated funding to tree planting.

Mr. Speaker, these are just some of the things that we’ve done in the short period of time we’ve been here. We’re not going to stop. We’ll continue to show our strong environmental leadership in the days, months and years to come.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The supplementary question.

Mr. Norman Miller: The people of Ontario are passionate about the protection of water, and many are concerned about litter polluting our waterways and are worried about sewage and waste water overflows. Unfortunately, under the previous government, from 2017 to 2018, raw sewage overflowed into southern Ontario waterways 1,300 times. It also took the previous Liberal government almost a decade to change Ontario’s Safe Drinking Water Act so that lead tests were finally required to be conducted by schools and daycares. In 2017, the NDP member from London West said that “the ruling Ontario Liberals have done too little to protect children and toddlers from the perils of lead in drinking water.”

Mr. Speaker, the people of Ontario expect their government to work hard to ensure that our drinking water is safe to drink and that waterways are protected. Can the Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks inform the House about what work this government is doing to keep our water clean and safe?

Hon. Jeff Yurek: Thanks to that member for that strong history lesson for the Legislature. Unlike the members of the opposition, this government is working diligently to ensure water in Ontario continues to be safe and protected.

During the last two years, we’ve invested $1.67 million in funding to the Great Lakes Local Action Fund, $375,000 to collect plastic waste from marinas around the province using innovative plastic-capture techniques, $5.8 million for funding for 65 Great Lakes projects and $37 million in new innovative waste water and stormwater programs to improve waste water monitoring and public reporting. We’re also updating Ontario’s current policies and consulting on further action to reduce levels of lead in drinking water.

Unlike the previous government, Mr. Speaker, we know there’s always more work to be done on these important issues, and we’re committed to getting more done. It’s only been two years. We’ve made great progress. Just watch us go forward the next two.

Personal support workers

Mr. Percy Hatfield: My question is for the Minister of Long-Term Care. Good morning, Minister. PSWs and other health care workers are true heroes, but in long-term care, they’re underpaid and overworked. Because this government does not have a staffing strategy, for-profit corporations can tell PSWs to do more work for even less money.

Brouillette Manor in Tecumseh is owned by a numbered company. At the bargaining table right now, they’re trying to cut the wages and benefits of their front-line staff. Minister, do you think squeezing the staff will fix the atrocious conditions in long-term-care homes?

Hon. Merrilee Fullerton: Thank you to the member opposite. Absolutely not. In fact, what our government has been doing is supporting our front-line workers, who we appreciate so very, very much for their dedication, compassion and determination in the face of COVID. What we’ve done is provide them with pandemic pay to boost their wages, not only during the time of COVID-19, but another $461 million to support them with an increase of $4 an hour or $3 an hour, depending on where the PSW is, whether it’s in long-term care or home care or a retirement home.

When we look overall at the measures that are being taken, we understand fully that this is not just about the dollars; this is also about creating the conditions where people want to work in long-term care. And that’s where we come into our monumental commitment to four hours on average per day per resident of direct care. This is something that has never been done by any other government, despite numerous reports on this issue.

We will continue to put our front-line workers front and centre with our residents and take the necessary measures to make sure that they are supported—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Thank you. The supplementary question.

Mr. Percy Hatfield: Speaker, in that case, I hope the minister will tell the bargaining team at Brouillette Manor to change their tactics at the table.

PSWs are run off their feet, but they still struggle to deliver the kind of protection our parents and grandparents deserve. This numbered company is trying to reduce the wages and benefits of their front-line heroes. Speaker, the Ford government just granted the company a lot of money for renovations. How can this government reward profit-taking corporations when, at the bargaining table, those companies treat health care heroes as zeros?

Hon. Merrilee Fullerton: It’s disappointing to hear the member opposite say that about personal support workers who are on the front line. They are heroes, and they are dedicated, and they are going to be supported and are supported by the measures of our government.

Our government is committed to putting our residents at the centre, and that means focusing on the staff as well and looking at the mess left behind by the previous government—inadequate capacity, inadequate staffing—looking at so many things that our government has committed to, right from the beginning, to make sure that our residents get the care and support they need. We are putting the residents at the centre in everything we do, ensuring that they are protected to the maximum of our ability and the staffing are supported. As I said, the pandemic pay, the wage increases, making sure that the conditions in the home are supportive of the staff—there is so much work to do.

I am really inspired by all the people who are working at the front lines and behind the scenes to make this very important transition to a modern 21st-century long-term-care system happen, and I hope that everyone—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Thank you very much. The next question.

Long-term care

Mr. Stephen Blais: My question is for the Minister of Long-Term Care. Yesterday, the member for Ottawa South and I wrote the minister regarding long-term-care capacity, where I detailed the story of one of my constituents, Mr. Krzysztof Mroz. Mr. Mroz is a 78-year-old former anaesthetist suffering from advanced dementia.

On July 24, Mr. Mroz was admitted to the acute care psychiatric ward of the Ottawa Hospital while he awaits long-term-care bed placement. Mr. Mroz has been on the wait-list for long-term care for two years.

Mr. Mroz’s wife, Zofia, puts it best when she says, “The thing that I find tragic is that ... Kris is taking up an acute care bed from some other deserving patient,” and that “he could have been in a more appropriate place.”

Mr. Speaker, through you, can the minister—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Order. I’m going to allow the member to place his question.

Mr. Stephen Blais: Mr. Speaker, through you, can the minister assure this House that our current capacity in our long-term-care system is being fully utilized, and if no, why not?

Hon. Merrilee Fullerton: It’s kind of shocking to hear a comment like that or a question like that. I’ve got to ask: What did you miss over the last 15 years? Well, I’ll tell you what you missed. You missed a neglect of the long-term-care system for 15 long years, where inadequate capacity was left to languish and people were left to languish on the wait-lists. I know; I’ve been through it. I’ve been through it for many years with my own family, and I don’t know where you’ve been.

Our government started right from the beginning, from day one, to address the long-standing capacity issues, the long-standing staffing issues that were left behind by the previous government. We simply can’t snap our fingers and make it happen, but we are committed to it. We are dedicated to it.

I look at the capacity that was not built: 611 beds in a number of years, during a time when the over-75-year-old population grew by 170,000. It is shocking, the neglect of the previous government. I just don’t know where—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Thank you.

The supplementary question: the member for Ottawa South.

Mr. John Fraser: Mrs. West’s mother, June Tooke, is 91 years old and also suffers from advanced dementia. She is currently in a bed at the Montfort Hospital awaiting a long-term-care placement. She’s been on a list for 18 months.

At the Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre in my riding, 120 out of the 450 long-term-care beds are not occupied; 120 beds in single rooms are empty. That’s shocking, Minister. So given the number of people in hospital like Mr. Mroz and Mrs. Tooke and in the community waiting for a bed, can the minister explain to all of us here how that situation could actually occur, where 120 beds out of 450—single bedrooms, perfect for infection control—are empty? And can the minister commit to fixing it today?

Hon. Merrilee Fullerton: It’s incredible, the lack of understanding involved from the member opposite. When we look at—

Mr. John Fraser: A hundred and twenty beds.

Hon. Merrilee Fullerton: You need to understand the severity of what’s happened in our long-term-care homes, the expert medical advice from our Chief Medical Officer of Health—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Stop the clock. The House will come to order. And I’ll remind members to make their comments through the Chair.

Mr. John Fraser: Just say you’ll fix it.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The member for Ottawa South will come to order.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, come to order. The Minister of Labour, come to order.

Restart the clock. The response?

Hon. Merrilee Fullerton: The reason these beds exist the way they do is because we are taking the advice of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, the Associate Chief Medical Officer of Health, because of the severity of outbreaks in homes across Ontario. I would hope that you would be aware of that. We must do everything we can to protect our most vulnerable population in the long-term-care homes. We are required to address the outbreaks.

Again, for the probably umpteenth time here, I have described the definition of an outbreak: An outbreak includes one staff member who would be self-isolating at home or one resident and—

Interjection.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Thank you. I once again will ask the member for Ottawa South to come to order.

The next question.

Hydro rates

Mr. Norman Miller: My question is for the Associate Minister of Energy. Mr. Speaker, we know that COVID-19 has been difficult for families and businesses in Ontario. Paired with the Liberal legacy of high electricity costs imposed on major employers, many of my constituents have been reaching out for help to keep our economy going. Can the Associate Minister of Energy please tell this House what our government is doing to support employers in our province?

Hon. Bill Walker: Thank you to the member from Parry Sound–Muskoka for that important question and his 20 years of service. Our government is jump-starting economic recovery and reducing electricity costs for businesses by removing a portion of the cost of wind, solar and bioenergy from their bills, the green energy experiment that the Liberals put in place, starting on January 1, 2021. By doing this, industrial consumers could see savings of about 14%, while commercial consumers, such as grocery stores, could see savings of about 16%.

Mr. Speaker, after years of Liberal mismanagement, we’re once again making Ontario a competitive place to attract investment and create and sustain well-paying jobs. I want to share a quote from the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, which commended our actions, stating, “Reducing these costs will help to position the automotive industry for success.” We are proud to support the auto industry that employs more than 100,000 hard-working Ontarians, as well as the other industries that contribute so much to our province.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The supplementary question.

Mr. Norman Miller: Through you, Mr. Speaker, I’d like to thank the minister for that response. I have always agreed that commercial and industrial ratepayers should not have to pay for the energy mess left behind by the previous Liberal government. I hear the same concerns from small business and residential customers in my riding too. Can the minister please tell this House what we’re doing to help those customers as well?

Hon. Bill Walker: Again, I’m pleased to tell the great member from Parry Sound–Muskoka that we are helping small business and residential customers by giving choice. Starting on November 1, residential and small business customers have had the flexibility to choose an electricity rate structure that best suits them. I’m happy that tens of thousands of Ontarians and small Ontario businesses have already taken advantage of picking the option of either time-of-use or tiered rates.

The Canadian Federation of Independent Business “welcomes the Ontario government’s decision to end mandatory time-of-use pricing for small businesses.

“Giving small business owners the power to choose the system that fits their operation will help provide much-needed flexibility and relief as they recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

We are proud to support small businesses during this difficult time by lowering their electricity bills, and we’ll continue to support them throughout.

Small business

Ms. Bhutila Karpoche: My question is for the Premier. Recently, the Roncesvalles Village BIA in my riding of Parkdale–High Park launched Not for Lease, a campaign in which businesses put up “for lease” signs to show what our community will look like if small businesses are not supported. Not only are small businesses missing out on the busiest shopping season, their customers are going to big box stores, who can sell both essential and non-essential goods. BIAs representing the Junction, Bloor West Village and others argue that small businesses are actually better equipped to follow public health guidelines than big box stores.

The question to the Premier is: How many small businesses have to close and put up “for lease” signs before you address this double standard?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade.

Hon. Victor Fedeli: Thank you for the question. We know that in consultation with the Chief Medical Officer of Health and health experts, the province has moved Toronto and Peel region to lockdown and some regions to new restriction levels in the Keeping Ontario Safe and Open framework. These necessary measures are being taken to limit community transmission of COVID-19 in order to keep schools open, safeguard health system capacity and protect those more vulnerable.

But what you need to share with the businesses are the many supports that are available. There’s $600 million that has been opened up so those businesses that are in lockdown, in that zone, have their property taxes completely paid for all the days that they’re shut down. They have all of their energy bills paid for all of the time that they are in that shutdown. They get 100% of those property and energy costs back.

Speaker, in my supplementary, I’ll talk a little bit more about the other recovery programs.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Supplementary question?

Ms. Bhutila Karpoche: The Mezz is a small business in Parkdale–High Park that has been around for nearly 40 years. Sean, who has worked at the Mezz for over 25 years, has been a bartender, then a manager and now a co-owner. He reached out to me. Sean told me that the Mezz has struggled because of COVID-19, but his biggest problem right now is that his insurance premiums have tripled.

For months now, we’ve heard small businesses who say that if nothing else related to COVID-19 puts them out of business, the insurance costs will. As Sean says, price gouging for a service that is legally mandated cannot be tolerated, should not be tolerated. Why hasn’t the Premier already acted to stop insurance gouging? Will he take swift, decisive action and support the hospitality industry, which is already facing insurmountable hardship?

Hon. Victor Fedeli: The Chief Medical Officer of Health and the health experts will continue to provide advice to our government by using a wide range of criteria that will help direct us.

But again, you need to speak with your small businesses to share with them some of the cost savings that are in place for them: 100% of their property taxes, 100% of their energy bills. They can apply for the $1,000 main street recovery grant. They can apply for the $57-million Digital Main Street program that is helping 23,000 businesses get online so that not only can they have the customers who are normally in their shops available, but they have the entire world at their doorstep for this valuable investment. They can also apply for the new rent subsidies, for the new wage subsidy programs.

And with respect to insurance, they can certainly follow the new gouging guidelines that Premier Ford announced some months ago.

Conservation authorities

Mr. Mike Schreiner: Good morning, Speaker. My question is for the Premier. Last Friday, Ontario’s Big City Mayors passed a resolution asking the government to withdraw

schedule 6 from Bill 229. The list of municipalities who have passed resolutions in support of conservation authorities is too long to list. Sixty-four organizations are running ads asking the government to stop attacking conservation authorities.

People understand that undermining a CA’s ability to protect us from flooding will cost billions in property and infrastructure damage. It’s fiscally irresponsible to act with such reckless disregard for the way CAs have saved lives and money. So, Speaker, will the Premier stand up for the people and remove

schedule 6 from Bill 229 so that conservation authorities can continue to protect people’s lives and property?

Mr. Percy Hatfield: Do the right thing, Minister.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Order.

The response? The Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

Hon. Jeff Yurek: Thanks very much to the member opposite for that question, and of course for the heckle from the member from Windsor.

Listen, the

schedule 6 that we put forth in the bill speaks to ensuring there is accountability, transparency and consistency in our conservation authorities. Right now, conservation authorities are unaccountable to pretty much anyone. They’re not consistent with the legislation that they’re enacting within their conservation authorities, and they’re not transparent. It’s hard to get an audited financial account publicly. What this legislation will do is ensure that conservation authorities can focus on their core mandate at a watershed level to ensure that they’re protecting constituents from flooding and erosion, taking care of conservation land and source water protection.

In response to the big city mayors, Mayor Drew Dilkens from Windsor wrote, “Lots of mayors, including myself as part of the Ontario big mayors, have issues with the conservation authorities. The powers given them delay and add costs to projects, often without much material benefit. These changes need to be made, Minister Yurek,” from Mayor —

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Thank you very much. The supplementary question.

Mr. Mike Schreiner: Speaker, with all due respect to the minister, the vast majority of mayors are calling for the government to stop the attack on conservation authorities, because they recognize that it will cost the people of Ontario billions of dollars in property damage if the government moves forward with

schedule 6 of Bill 229.

The reality is that the government’s own special flood adviser said that one of the things that makes Ontario unique in its ability to help mitigate flood risk is conservation authorities. The federal government’s 2016 study said that one of the reasons Ontario does a better job than other provinces in mitigating flood damage is because of our conservation authorities.

Speaker, I ask the minister: Will the minister listen to the big city mayors who are asking for more consultation? Will the minister listen to the 64 citizens’ organizations who are asking the minister to stop attacking conservation authorities, to remove

schedule 6 from Bill 229 and engage in real consultation with local—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Thank you very much. The Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks.

Hon. Jeff Yurek: I don’t agree with the member opposite that these changes to conservation authorities are going to cost Ontarians billions of dollars. In fact, Mr. Speaker, it’s going to do quite the opposite.

This legislation will ensure that all conservation authorities will not only become accountable and transparent and have consistency in the application of the legislation throughout the province, but this legislation will ensure that they are focused on their core mandate, focused on protecting citizens from flooding, focused on ensuring that we can deal with erosion, focused on dealing with conservation lands and focused on source water protection.

Right now, as of 2017, 25 of the CAs out of 36 in this province spent less than 20% on flood risk mitigation. Of those 25, 10 spent less than 10%. Conservation authorities have gotten away from their mandate. They’ve crept away from taking care of the people of this province. We’re putting them back. We’re adding accountability, transparency and consistency. The member opposite should be supporting those moves to protect Ontarians and the environment—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Thank you.

The next question.

Mental health and addiction services

Mr. Norman Miller: My question is for the Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions.

Minister, we have recently seen reports of children and youth across the province experiencing significant levels of stress, anxiety and other mental health and addiction challenges during the COVID-19 outbreak. Parents in my riding are concerned for the mental health of their children, but I know our government has made a commitment to support the mental health of all Ontarians.

Minister, could you please explain to the members of this Legislature how our government is addressing the mental health of Ontario’s youth and children?

Hon. Michael A. Tibollo: I’d like to begin by thanking the member from Parry Sound–Muskoka for that great question.

The health and well-being of all Ontarians will always be this government’s top priority. That’s why we’re proud to be providing $24.3 million in targeted investments in communities across the province to make it easier for children, youth and their families to access the mental health supports they need.

Just last month, we announced $176 million towards building a comprehensive and connected mental health and addictions system where every Ontarian can be fully supported. This additional $176 million builds on the $174 million that we invested last year in more funding for mental health and addictions services for Ontarians of all ages. All of this saw an investment of nearly $60 million alone to support the mental health of our youth and children.

Mr. Speaker, this $84.3 million in ongoing child and youth mental health funding since our government took office is just the beginning. There is more to—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Thank you. The supplementary question.

Mr. Norman Miller: Minister, thank you for that answer. I know my constituents will be pleased to learn that we are continuing to fulfill our commitment of creating a mental health and addictions system that works for all Ontarians, especially youth and children.

Minister, with post-secondary students finishing up exams, we know many are feeling burnt-out, stressed and anxious. With COVID, these students won’t be able to get together with friends and family over the holidays, which might usually be part of how they deal with this stress.

Could the minister please explain to the members of this Legislature what we are doing to address the mental health of our post-secondary students?

Hon. Michael A. Tibollo: Once again, thank you to the member for the question. In addition to the targeted funding to help our children and youth, Minister Romano and I recently announced an investment of $19.25 million, including $3.25 million in new mental health funding to support Ontario’s post-secondary students. This will ensure resources like the Good2Talk mental help line for students remains available 24/7 and will also support campuses in providing front-line mental health services.

Mr. Speaker, we’ve made a historic investment in mental health. Our additional $176-million investment this year brings new investments across the sector since last year to a total of more than $350 million in ongoing annualized funding, and we’re on track to meet our commitment to invest $3.8 billion over the next 10 years.

We’re committed to addressing the mental health issues of the people of the province of Ontario. We’ll continue making investments that are good for all the people of the province.

COVID-19 response

Mr. Joel Harden: My question is for the Premier. Last week’s Auditor General’s report revealed that Ottawa had the longest wait times for the entire province for COVID-19 tests during September and October. During these two months, it took 4.5 days for case management to begin. Not only did this fail to meet the ministry’s own targets for case management, as the Auditor General wrote in her report, it “may have led to further exposure and spreading of the virus.”

This government had all summer to plan for the second wave that we knew was coming, but they left Ottawa high and dry and did not give our public health authorities the resources they needed to stop the spread of the virus.

When will they take action now and release the $9 billion of money we know you’re sitting on to access public health money to stop the spread of this virus? When?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The member for Eglinton–Lawrence and parliamentary assistant to respond.

Mrs. Robin Martin: I want to be clear that our government continues to work closely with all of our local public health units in the fight against COVID-19, and that includes the local public health unit in Ottawa. The province and the federal government, through Statistics Canada, provide contact-tracing support to public health units across Ontario, and most of that is coordinated through Public Health Ontario. Local public health units provide the names and phone numbers of close contacts of COVID-positive patients for the workforce to reach out to and to follow up with, ensuring testing and self-isolation.

We’re supporting Toronto and Ottawa public health with additional support through direct assignment of Statistics Canada, OPS and private sector staffing. That includes 200 staff coming in the next few weeks to Toronto Public Health and, additionally, 150 staff provided to support Ottawa Public Health with case and contact management starting over the next couple of weeks.

We’ve invested $1 billion in our case and contact management and testing strategy, and the—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Thank you very much. The supplementary question.

Mr. Joel Harden: I think you can tell a lot about a government by how they react to criticism, and what I’ve just heard from my friend the parliamentary assistant, who made a valiant effort to put lipstick on a pig of an effort that we have seen in the second wave of this virus, is that they were not there in October and September. The Auditor General has blown the whistle on this government, and what did they do last week? They attacked the Auditor General, and you disgraced yourself in doing so.

Stop talking to me about billions of dollars in money floating around now. Where were you in September and October? Where were you for the grocery store clerk that had to go to work sick? Where were you for the warehouse worker? Where will you be now—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I’m going to caution the member on the use of his language.

The member for Eglinton–Lawrence to reply.

Mrs. Robin Martin: Our government, of course, recognizes how important testing and contact tracing are in slowing the spread of COVID-19. That is why we have been here, working every day to develop the best possible strategies for COVID-19 testing, tracing and contact management. We’ve been doing it over the entire course of the pandemic, which is now some 11 months in Ontario.

We have been working every day to put in place all of those systems necessary and to make sure that the resources are there for all of our local public health units, including Ottawa, which frankly has been doing fairly well in this second wave compared to some of the other jurisdictions.

We’ve got a robust and comprehensive testing and contact tracing strategy in place. We are notified if there are confirmed positive cases. They are notified 90% of the time within 24 hours. So we’re working hard to make sure that those resources are there for Ottawa, for Toronto, for Peel and all of the other areas that have some challenges with cases, and now people are getting the—

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Thank you very much.

Next we have the member for Ottawa–Vanier.

COVID-19 response

M me Lucille Collard: My question is for the Premier. Testing and tracing in Ontario has been a story of stop and start, confusion and mixed messages, because there was no comprehensive plan. According to the Auditor General, laboratory testing, case management and contact tracing are still not all being performed in a timely enough manner to contain the spread of the virus.

Many of us are pleased to see the government embarking on testing in schools and neighbourhoods with high transmission rates, but it’s very hard to trust that this will be applied systematically, when up to this point we’ve seen much confusion on many of the initiatives of the government.

As of November 27, there was still a backlog of over 54,000 tests. The government has said that they intend to build testing capacity to 100,000 tests per day by the end of 2020. We are officially in December, so what specifically is the government doing to meet this target?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The member for Eglinton–Lawrence and parliamentary assistant.

Mrs. Robin Martin: Our government recognizes how important testing is in defeating COVID-19. We’ve made it clear that it’s a priority. The sooner we identify those cases, the sooner we can stop the spread of the virus.

That’s why we have been begging the federal government to approve rapid tests. We finally have some rapid tests coming out, but they’re not widely available. Those tests will help, but I have to remind the member that the testing works in a system process. There’s a pipeline of tests: People get tested, the tests get to the laboratories, the laboratory processes the test, then we have the results. That takes a period of time.

The 54,000 backlog you suggested is not a backlog; it’s the tests to be processed that day. We can process that many tests in a day, Speaker. We have actually processed 58,000 tests. Every other day, you will see that the number of tests that we can process are going up, and we managed to get up to 58,000. We’re going to keep going and make it better.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The supplementary question.

M me Lucille Collard: Speaker, designated essential caregivers are a very important part of the solution for providing much-needed support to the system, and it’s really important that they have access to their loved ones in long-term-care homes. However, since the start of the pandemic, access to efficient and timely testing has been an obstacle to allow them to play that important role.

I was pleased to hear that rapid testing has been deployed to some long-term-care and retirement homes, but essential caregivers are not included in this testing strategy and they have to meet the weekly testing requirements. I have heard directly, just this morning in fact, from family councils. Their observation is that while some long-term-care homes will offer the testing to essential caregivers, recognizing the need for this, many homes are not.

My question is, can the minister provide clear guidance to long-term-care homes so that essential caregivers can be tested on-site and be able to provide much-needed timely assistance?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The response: the Minister of Long-Term Care.

Hon. Merrilee Fullerton: Thank you for asking a very good question. Something that we value very much are the essential caregivers in our long-term-care homes. They are really critical to providing care to their loved ones. That’s why we’ve made sure that they are able to go into the long-term-care homes, even when they’re in an outbreak. Each resident has the ability to designate an essential caregiver for an outbreak situation.

The testing, not only for the staff but also for the caregivers, is something that we’ve been making sure to address in a timely way, so that the caregivers can get the testing done in a way that is convenient for them. We recognize the issue that you raise and we’re working on that. I appreciate you raising that.

Public sector compensation

Mr. Jamie West: The question is for the Premier. The Conservative government’s first attempt at administrating a wage enhancement happened this summer. It took literally months from the date of the announcement to the date when the workers actually received their pandemic top-up—months to take money from the federal government and get it into the hands of Ontario’s workers. That was during the first wave. Now that we’re in the second wave, workers are hopeful that the obstacles that created those delays have been resolved.

However, the Premier announced a temporary wage enhancement for public sector PSWs in October. It’s now December, and the money still hasn’t flowed from the Conservative government to the employers or to those workers. Even more frustrating is that the Conservative government has provided no information on when this money will come. Aside from the October 1 announcement and press release, nobody seems to know anything about when the money for our health care heroes will be coming.

Employers are frustrated and workers are disappointed. When will these workers receive this temporary increase?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The government House leader.

Hon. Paul Calandra: As you know, the President of the Treasury Board has been working extremely hard on ensuring that the pandemic pay that was introduced by this government—and, if I’m not mistaken, supported by all members across the aisle—gets out to all of our front-line workers. It’s my understanding that this pay has been transferred to our partners, and all of those health care heroes should be getting that.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Supplementary question?

Mr. Jamie West: Back to the Premier: Terry Rochefort is a PSW from my riding of Sudbury. He has worked at Pioneer Manor for nearly 10 years. Terry loves his job. He’s proud to be helping during the pandemic. Terry also represents his union. He’s a CUPE area rep, and his area covers workers in Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay and Timmins.

Terry said that it was extremely difficult for him, his colleagues and the patients when the pandemic struck. Almost overnight, their world changed. Hours and shifts were changed. Vacations were cancelled. The workplace demanded more from them, and they responded with everything they had.

Terry says it’s sad that it took a global pandemic for this province to value their work, but he and the workers he represents were happy when the government announced the PSW temporary wage enhancement. But this will be the second time this government has announced a wage increase without a clear plan to distribute those funds.

Why does the government have so much trouble making good on their promises, especially when it comes to health care heroes in this province?

Hon. Paul Calandra: I actually thank the member for that question, Mr. Speaker, because I think parts of it were very good. He highlighted the fact that for far too long in this province, our long-term-care workers—our PSWs, in particular—were not recognized as the important part of the health care system that they clearly are. That is, of course, why this government moved so quickly after being elected in 2018 to recognize our PSWs. That’s why we brought in Ontario health teams, because we know that they’re an important part of that health care mix. That’s why we made critical investments in long-term care.

That is why we looked at the staffing strategies within our long-term-care homes, with our PSWs. That’s why we increased the wages of our PSWs.

I appreciate the member for bringing that up. It is unfortunate that we had to wait so long to have that done—for over 15 years, through a minority government propped up by the NDP. This government moved very quickly because we recognized how important our PSWs are.

And I thank the gentleman, Terry, for his service and all the PSWs for their service.

Prescription drugs / Médicaments prescrits

Mr. Stephen Blais: My question is for the Minister of Health. Recently, the cystic fibrosis community here in Ontario and across Canada was thrilled to hear that Vertex Pharmaceuticals intends to submit an application to bring Trikafta to Canada. Much like COVID-19, cystic fibrosis is a disease that has devastating impacts on the lungs and one’s ability to breathe. The main difference is that when COVID-19 is behind us—

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Order. Stop the clock.

The government House leader will come to order. The member for Timmins will come to order. If you want to continue this conversation, you can do it outside the chamber. I can facilitate that as well, if need be.

Interjections.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Order.

Start the clock. Again, the member for Orléans.

Mr. Stephen Blais: Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.

When the COVID-19 virus is behind us, cystic fibrosis patients will still be living with this terrible reality.

As the minister and the parliamentary assistant know, the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance is currently negotiating pricing for Orkambi and Kalydeco, other gene modulators developed by Vertex, the same company. Will the government stand up for Ontarians with cystic fibrosis and take a leadership role in having the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance negotiate a price for Trikafta now, in conjunction with the current negotiations for Orkambi and Kalydeco?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): To respond, the member for Eglinton–Lawrence.

Mrs. Robin Martin: Our government takes the needs of all Ontarians very seriously. We know that those living with cystic fibrosis are very hopeful that new drugs can provide some relief from the stress that they have to deal with every day. And let me be clear: We, too, hope all of these new drugs are able to provide the promised improvements.

We know that access to these new drug therapies is important, especially in less common diseases with significant health impacts and where there are limited treatment options. But there is an established, evidence-based process for making funding decisions, which considers the clinical effectiveness of the drugs, safety, patient input, affordability and the effects on other health services. This process ensures the safety and the efficacy of every new drug product, as well as the sustainability of our provincial health care system.

We’re aware that Health Canada has granted Vertex a priority review for Trikafta. Now that Health Canada has granted it for Trikafta, Vertex will have 60 days to submit the drug for review by the federal agency.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The supplementary question.

M. Stephen Blais: Camille Rochon est une jeune fille de 12 ans de ma circonscription d’Orléans et l’une des nombreuses personnes atteintes de fibrose kystique en Ontario dont la vie dépend de l’accès opportun de Trikafta. Les essais cliniques ont prouvé que Trikafta est la plus grande innovation dans l’histoire de traitements de la fibrose kystique, et la recherche démontre que s’il était approuvé rapidement au Canada, il pourrait réduire le nombre de décès par 15 %.

La ministre fédérale de la Santé s’est publiquement engagée à accélérer le processus de Trikafta, mais des patients comme Camille, qui sont parmi les membres les plus vulnérables de notre communauté, ne peuvent pas attendre plus longtemps. Le gouvernement s’engagera-t-il à négocier immédiatement avec Vertex afin qu’une fois approuvé, il puisse être prescrit dès que possible aux patients désespérés atteints de FK?

Mrs. Robin Martin: We take the struggles of cystic fibrosis patients like Camille very seriously—and their families, frankly. We take their struggles very seriously. We recognize that access to these new drug therapies is important with these less common diseases. That’s why we’re very happy to see that conversations are proceeding.

But let’s be clear: It’s not as simple as Ontario sitting down and meeting with the drug manufacturer. The price negotiations are conducted through the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance. Furthermore, Ontario is just one of many participants at the table for these talks, and it would be really inappropriate or premature for us to provide a timeline for completion. However, the member can rest assured that we, too, are looking forward to the results of these conversations and diligently monitoring the situation.

Vertex has provided the following statement: Vertex has confirmed that they are planning to move forward with future CF medications in Canada. Vertex has also confirmed Health Canada has granted priority review and that they have 60 days to submit their file to Health Canada.

Government accountability

Mr. Tom Rakocevic: My question is to the Premier. Thanks to reporting by the Toronto Star, we’re learning of the alleged theft of at least $11 million meant to help needy Ontarians during the pandemic.

Yesterday, the Premier re-announced the same educational grant program with few details about how his government will prevent any future fraud. Can the Premier please tell Ontarians how his Conservative government could lose track of so much taxpayer money and what they’re doing to get it back?

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The government House leader to respond.

Hon. Paul Calandra: As the honourable member will know, yes, the Premier did announce yesterday, in co-operation with the Minister of Education, substantial supports for parents.

With respect to the issue raised by the member, it is very, very serious. As he knows, that is something that is before the courts and, as such, we cannot comment on that.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): That concludes our question period for this morning.

Deferred Votes

No Time to Waste Act (Plan for Climate Action and Jobs), 2020 / Loi de 2020 sur la nécessité de ne pas gaspiller de temps (plan en matière d’action pour le climat et l’emploi)

Deferred vote on the motion for second reading of the following bill:

Bill 224,

An Act to enact the Climate Crisis Health Action Plan Act, 2020, the Ontario Climate Crisis Strategy for the Public Sector Act, 2020 and the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis Act, 2020 / Projet de loi 224, Loi édictant la Loi de 2020 sur le Plan d’action sur la crise climatique et la santé, la Loi de 2020 sur la Stratégie du secteur public de l’Ontario relative à la crise climatique et la Loi de 2020 sur le Comité spécial de l’action relative à la crise climatique.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The bells will ring for 30 minutes, during which time members may cast their votes. I will ask the Clerks to prepare the lobbies.

The division bells rang from 1135 to 1205.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): The vote on the motion for second reading of Bill 224,

An Act to enact the Climate Crisis Health Action Plan Act, 2020, the Ontario Climate Crisis Strategy for the Public Sector Act, 2020 and the Select Committee on the Climate Crisis Act, 2020 has been held.

The Deputy Clerk (Mr. Trevor Day): The ayes are 21; the nays are 51.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I declare the motion lost.

Second reading negatived.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): There being no further business at this time, this House stands in recess until 3 p.m.

The House recessed from 1206 to 1500.

Wearing of ribbons

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I understand the member for London North Centre has a point of order he wishes to raise.

Mr. Terence Kernaghan: I believe you’ll find that we have unanimous consent for members to wear a red ribbon in commemoration of World AIDS Day.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Agreed? Agreed.

Reports by Committees

Standing Committee on Government Agencies

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I beg to inform the House that today the Clerk received a report on intended appointments dated December 1, 2020, of the Standing Committee on Government Agencies. Pursuant to standing order 111(f)(9), the report is deemed to be adopted by the House.

Report deemed adopted.

Introduction of Bills

Apollo Shawarma and Grill Inc. Act, 2020

Mr. Harris moved first reading of the following bill:

Bill Pr34,

An Act to revive Apollo Shawarma and Grill Inc.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

First reading agreed to.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Pursuant to standing order 89, this bill stands referred to the Standing Committee on Regulations and Private Bills.

Introduction of bills?

Statements by the ministry?

Motions? Government House leader.

Consideration of Bill 236

Hon. Paul Calandra: Speaker, I’m seeking unanimous consent that notwithstanding standing order 50(d), the order for third reading of Bill 236,

An Act in respect of food and beverage delivery fees, be permitted to be called today.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Mr. Calandra is seeking unanimous consent of the House that notwithstanding standing order 50(d), the order for third reading of Bill 236,

An Act in respect of food and beverage delivery fees, be permitted to be called today. Agreed? Agreed.

Petitions

Documents gouvernementaux

M me France Gélinas: I would like to thank François Philippe de mon comté pour les pétitions.

« À l’Assemblée législative de l’Ontario :

« Alors qu’il est important d’avoir le nom exact des personnes sur les cartes émises par le gouvernement, » telle « la carte santé...;

« Alors que plusieurs personnes francophones ont des accents dans l’épellation de leur nom;

« Alors que ... le ministère de la Santé » a « confirmé que le système informatique de l’Ontario ne permet pas l’enregistrement des lettres avec des accents;

J’appuie cette pétition. Je vais la signer et l’amener à la table des greffiers.

Economic reopening and recovery

Mr. Lorne Coe: “Petition for the Next Stage of Ontario’s Action Plan.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas nobody knows for certain what direction the pandemic will take or what direction our economy will take.... We need to be prepared for anything; and

“Whereas the people of Ontario deserve transparency about the public finances—especially given these extraordinary circumstances; and

“Whereas there are countless examples around the world of jurisdictions who have let their guard down and who are paying a steep price. Our government is determined to avoid those mistakes;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“Pass Bill 229, the Protect, Support and Recover from COVID-19 Act (Budget Measures), 2020, so that:

—funding is provided to hospitals to make sure they have the resources they need to protect Ontarians;

—jobs and businesses are supported by putting at least $200 in the hands of every parent and creating a new tax credit to help make the homes where seniors live safer;

—property taxes and job-killing electricity prices for the businesses that create jobs across Ontario are reduced.”

I support this particular petition. I will initial it and give it to the page.

Optometry services

Ms. Catherine Fife: “To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the Ontario government has underfunded optometric eye care for 30 years; and

“Whereas optometrists now subsidize the delivery of OHIP-covered eye care by $173 million a year; and

“Whereas COVID-19 forced optometrists to close their doors, resulting in a 75%-plus drop in revenue; and

“Whereas optometrists will see patient volumes reduced between 40% and 60%, resulting in more than two million comprehensive eye exams being wiped out over the next 12 months; and

“Whereas communities across Ontario are in danger of losing access to optometric care;

“We, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To instruct the Ontario government to immediately establish a timetable and a process for renewed negotiations concerning optometry fees.”

I fully concur with this petition and would like to thank Pierce Family Vision for delivering this petition to Queen’s Park.

Gasoline prices

M me France Gélinas: I would like to thank Manon and Rachel Emond from Hanmer in my riding for this petition.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas northern Ontario motorists continue to be subject to wild fluctuations in the price of gasoline;

“Whereas the province could eliminate opportunistic price gouging and deliver fair, stable and predictable fuel prices;

“Whereas five provinces and many US states already have some sort of gas price regulation;

“Whereas jurisdictions with gas price regulation have seen an end to wild price fluctuations, a shrinking of price discrepancies between urban and rural communities and lower annualized gas prices;”

They petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“Mandate the Ontario Energy Board to monitor the price of gasoline across Ontario in order to reduce price volatility and unfair regional price differences while encouraging competition.”

I support this petition, will affix my name to it and send it to the Clerk.

Orders of the Day

Supporting Local Restaurants Act, 2020 / Loi de 2020 visant à soutenir les restaurants locaux

Mr. Calandra, on behalf of Mr. Sarkaria, moved third reading of the following bill:

Bill 236,

An Act in respect of food and beverage delivery fees / Projet de loi 236, Loi concernant les frais de livraison de nourriture et de boissons.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): I look to the government side to lead off the debate.

Ms. Goldie Ghamari: I am pleased to rise today and speak in support of Supporting Local Restaurants Act, 2020. This bill, if passed, would prohibit food delivery services providers, who would be identified in the regulations, from charging restaurants more than a prescribed amount for food and beverage delivery services or related services. The prohibition would apply in respect of restaurants that are not chain restaurants, that have an indoor dining area and that are prohibited from permitting indoor dining by an order or direction under the reopening Ontario act, 2020, or the Health Protection and Promotion Act.

This bill is incredibly important—and I’m going to give you some examples right in my riding of Carleton. I live in a rural area in Carleton, even though it’s technically only maybe 10 or 15 minutes away from what we would consider suburban or downtown Ottawa. There are a lot of restaurants there, but as it is with rural communities, everything is widespread and everything is far apart.

Mr. Speaker, when I moved to my area and my house last summer, we didn’t have DoorDash or SkipTheDishes, or even Uber Eats. They weren’t there, in the area that I live. But now—and I think part of the reason is because of the pandemic—food delivery services have expanded. This is good news for restaurants in my riding—restaurants like CreekSide grill in Manotick, which recently, I noticed, was appearing on DoorDash and SkipTheDishes; restaurants like Gabriel Pizza; restaurants like the Asian restaurants or the Greek restaurants or the shawarma restaurants, Shawarma Palace, for example, and Shawarma Andalos.

All these restaurants that are in my riding now have an opportunity to deliver food and provide food services to people in Carleton.

One thing that we have to make sure of, as a government, is that during these trying times we are supporting small businesses, we are supporting the mom-and-pop shops. What this bill does is, it makes sure that in these trying times, these restaurants are not taken advantage of, these restaurants are able to provide delivery services, and they are able to provide food to people in the community in a way that is sustainable, in a way that will make sure that they can survive through this pandemic and get to the other side. That is why, Mr. Speaker, I am in support of this legislation.

Not only that; this bill would, if passed, provide for complaints to be made to the ministry regarding contraventions of the act and create the authority to investigate and resolve complaints and for investigations to be conducted in respect of contraventions of the act. This is also really important, because when you are talking about a local mom-and-pop shop and they have a complaint or an issue with a giant multinational corporation, whether it’s Uber Eats or DoorDash or some other, a lot of times they’re out-lawyered or they don’t have the finances, so this legislation gives them a fair chance.

This legislation levels the playing field so that we can continue to do what matters most, and that’s protect the people of Ontario, protect the mom-and-pop shops, protect the investments that people have made, the livelihoods, the jobs they’ve created, to support local. That’s why, Mr. Speaker, I urge everyone to support this bill.

The Speaker (Hon. Ted Arnott): Further debate?

Ms. Catherine Fife: It’s an interesting day to be debating Bill 236. There’s so much going on right now in the province with regard to precarious workers, gig workers and those who do not have the security under the Labour Relations Act.

Bill 236, just in case you’re tuning in—because it’s Tuesday, and this was only introduced on Thursday—caps fees that third-party delivery apps can charge to restaurants at 15%, with a maximum of 20% for all fees charged. This only applies to restaurants that are closed to indoor dining and does not apply to chain restaurants. A chain restaurant in this instance is considered to be if you have 10 or more restaurants.

Obviously, this is a step in the right direction. I wrote to the minister back in June, as did many colleagues from the official opposition. It is now six months later, and the government has come forward with a bill which, in the spirit, addresses the issue but leaves major gaps from an efficacy perspective.

This is a step in the right direction, and we, of course, are going to be supporting it, because we called for it. But there are a few concrete ways that this bill could have been improved. I personally would have liked to have had a chance to try to improve it, Mr. Speaker.

This is obviously a pattern that we have seen from the government. This is actually in keeping with the entire theme of this government, whereby they pretend or state that they understand a problem, but then they come to the table with only a half measure.

So I want to put on record what we would do if we were tackling this problem. It should be a province-wide issue. It should be a province-wide piece of legislation which would assist with every small business in Ontario. It should cover restaurants across the province, not just those that are currently closed to indoor dining.

The fact that the legislation has been crafted in this manner indicates that the government has very selective hearing when they are listening to issues that pertain to the economy. This becomes even more important when you consider the mixed messaging that has come out from this government as it relates to lockdowns, safety measures, and the assistance that has been much cried about across this province. Indoor dining in some areas can remain open, but the Premier is telling people to stay home, for instance.

The government has said, “We care deeply about small businesses,” and yet they’re allowing big box operators to both sell essential and non-essential items, which disproportionately negatively affects small businesses, particularly on Main Street. I made this point yesterday during question period. I basically said to the government: If you’re going into a Walmart and you can buy shoes, flowers and books, then you’re not going to go down to the main street business and order online or go curbside and pick up those items. This is a fundamental issue of fairness. Manitoba has taken such measures, Mr. Speaker.

The fact that the Premier is taking his marching orders from the president of Walmart and actually indicated in a press conference that, “The CEO of Walmart says that he’s got to do it this way”—it is something that I never thought I would hear from a Premier, who’s elected to serve the people. Do you know what? There are some complex issues in the world. I think figuring out how to not allow someone to buy a pair of jeans, for instance, while they’re going in to buy their milk is something that we can tackle as a province. The bar is very low in this regard.

It seems like a no-brainer to give restaurants across the province the chance to keep a bit more of their revenue. At the very least, that is something that should have happened.

This legislation should have very clear protections for gig workers. Right now, the bill has a “just trust us” vibe, which is worrying, as this government hasn’t exactly earned the trust of Ontarians, especially precarious workers. The onus is on gig workers to file complaints if income is affected by the cap.

I want to just cite one of the press releases that came out from one of the organizations, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers. This just came out yesterday. They’ve just had a chance to analyze the bill. They represent some gig workers who deliver for these apps:

“The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and app-based delivery workers have grave concerns about Ontario’s Supporting Local Restaurants Act, which aims to limit fees charged by third-party food delivery operations, like Uber Eats and DoorDash. While the act may help small businesses, it provides little protection to couriers making the deliveries, whose wages may be threatened as companies look for ways to make up the lost revenue from the capped fees.”

“‘The couriers we work with are already shortchanged by their app-based employers,’ says Jan Simpson, CUPW national president. ‘We’re worried that the employers will pass the cost onto the workers, who have little to no transparency about their pay rates as it is.’”

I’ve said this many times in this House: In order to address a problem, you actually have to understand that the problem exists. There is a huge power imbalance right now in Ontario between couriers who work for these app-based employers.

It goes on: “The bill, intended to ease the burden on small business where indoor dining is impossible due to pandemic restrictions, was introduced” just last Thursday. “Delivery apps charge restaurants, already hurting for business, up to 30% for delivery service.” So that is the problem. Unfortunately, this bill does nor address the problem in its entirety. “The Premier has asked the apps in the past to reduce their fees, and not having seen results, is moving ahead with legislation.”

This is also a theme that we have seen from this Premier. He came out very hard around price-gouging at Bruno’s and at Longo’s, shook his fist and said, “That’s not fair.” It hasn’t worked with the insurance companies, who continually raise their rates, sometimes three times as much, or deny insurance to small businesses across this province. It certainly hasn’t helped when he begged the for-profit long-term-care operators to pay their PSWs a fair wage and not have them go from home to home.

This pattern of the Premier raising his fist and saying, “This is not right” and “I’m going to hit the ceiling,” and saying certain people are “a few French fries short of a Happy Meal” has not been a method that has worked. And yet it is still the method that is embedded in this legislation, because there is no mechanism to hold the app-based fee companies to account.

“The legislation, in writing, prohibits delivery companies from passing the financial impact of the cap onto their workers, but little is said about how the province plans to enforce this.”

So you have knowingly crafted a piece of legislation understanding and articulating the problem, as the Premier has done, and left it open for abuse. That is something that—we were constantly trying to work with other members in this Legislature, because this is a problem that we can actually solve together, Mr. Speaker.

The press release goes on to say, “The bill provides a complaints-based mechanism to the Ministry of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction for workers who think their employer is cutting their compensation”—that sounds a little bit more like red tape, doesn’t it, Mr. Speaker?—“but it doesn’t offer real labour protections. A complaints process is of little use to couriers who are already intimidated or have reason to fear losing their income through cut hours or simply being deleted from the app.”

That is how the gig economy works. If a courier is problematic, if they identify an inconsistency in labour practices, the company just goes to their mainframe and deletes them. That’s how these things work in the province of Ontario. For some reason, this is okay by this government, Mr. Speaker.

A complaints process should be embedded and very clearly articulated so that if workers feel that the app-based delivery company is really trying to make up for their losses because of a cap that has been imposed on the government—has very little recourse. That is most unfortunate, because this is already a very disenfranchised group of employees in Ontario.

“Instead of addressing the underlying imbalance of gig workers being misclassified as ‘independent contractors’”—and I’m going to talk about that in a second—“the onus of asserting what should be basic labour rights is once again put on couriers’ shoulders.”

So in a time of crisis, a health crisis, an economic crisis, this government has signalled that this group of employees, this group of workers who have very little rights, very little licence as workers in Ontario, are now further going to be marginalized.

“It’s been clear with recent examples, that the apps are free to change their pay structure unilaterally, and without transparency.

“‘Workers often have no idea how their pay is calculated and rates can vary wildly from hour to hour,’ says Brice Sopher, a courier in Toronto. ‘Expecting gig workers to conclusively prove they’ve had their pay cut through some nebulous complaints process essentially allows companies like DoorDash, SkipTheDishes and Uber Eats to slash pay for couriers with very little risk of any repercussions.’

“‘The apps’ business model has always exploited both small businesses and couriers,’ says Simpson. ‘This bill is not enough to make them change their ways. How are workers to know, let alone prove to the government, that they’re paying for the fee cap to protect’” large profits, large corporations? “‘The burden falls on the wrong people. We demand protection for these workers.’”

Once again, this government has missed the mark with this piece of legislation, Mr. Speaker.

Before I go on, I want to get the voice of a gig worker who has already written to the Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction. Her name is Jennifer Scott. For some reason, this government continually is making these same gestures, same moves, same courses of action that continually leave these workers off to the side, even though the Premier himself has articulated the problem. It goes on to say:

“Good evening,

“I’m a gig worker; I deliver food for Uber Eats, DoorDash, and SkipTheDishes. I’ve been working in this industry for four years. Due to worker misclassification I’m currently taxed as a small business;”—well, that adds insult to injury. “I deserve to be consulted on legislation that impacts my business’ ability to access work and to earn enough to continue working.

“I’m deeply concerned that the Supporting Local Restaurants Act will worsen the precarious position of delivery workers. Your assurance that we will be able to seek recourse in the form of filing a complaint in the event that the app employers shift the burden of the cost of a cap on fees to our shoulders is dangerous.

“In regard to filing a complaint; how can we demonstrate that our wages have changed when the calculations for our wages aren’t made transparent to us?

“What options are available to us in the situation where we don’t have access to the necessary documentation to demonstrate pay changes to your office?

“I would like to know how you will ensure that we receive labour driven protections, despite the fact that we are currently denied access to any recourse or rights?

“In this industry restaurant operators and gig workers are on the same side. We’re both facing pandemic profiteering from the tech giants that provide access to the necessary work that has helped to secure jobs/businesses through COVID-19. Legislation to support one type of small business experiencing financial gouging at the cost of another type of small business is not representative of us all being ‘in this together.’

“With all due respect,

“Jennifer Scott.”

She goes on to say, “I’d like to add to it; in light of the speed with which this is being processed and the serious implications for precarious workers; I firmly assert that the only way to build a complaints system that will ensure accountability and support gig workers is to do that in consultation with us.”

Once again, the government has not consulted the very people who are facing the injustice. The onus should not be on the workers, who are already in an extremely precarious position and do not have basic labour rights. This is not okay.

The Ford government has clear contempt for improving working conditions for people across the province. As one example, we continue to wait for comprehensive paid sick days after the government slashed them.

This is December 1. When this whole thing started, there may have been a disconnect between the health and well-being of workers and the economy and the state of our public health in the province of Ontario. There should no longer be a disconnect.

The fact that this government has not acted on paid sick days and those who work in the service sector continually have to go to work when they’re not feeling well—there is a direct connection to the transmission and spread of COVID-19. When you have no choice but to go to work sick, you are going to go to work sick. Because this government has failed so utterly on paid sick leave, this continues to spiral this province into further cases and ultimately will have a negative impact on the economy.

Small businesses told us this during the historic four-month consultation that this government embraced and yet did not act on. Early on in their mandate, we saw them dismantle protections for workers under the Employment Standards Act.

These moves and this bill have the potential to have a hugely negative impact on gig workers, the people who keep the system going. App delivery workers need this government to guarantee their income and their rights. You had the opportunity to do that in Bill 236. You would have had our full support had you done so.

Gig workers already earn meagre pay without basic labour rights and are misclassified as independent contractors, and should not see their income cut as a result of the change. We know that gig delivery workers on apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash are misclassified as independent contractors—this is a well-documented case—which means they are, daily, denied basic workers’ rights and protections. This misclassification happens under the Employment Standards Act, ensuring that these gig workers have no rights as employees, essentially. It is the Wild West out there when you’re considering gig workers.

Companies like Uber and DoorDash just spent $200 million in California to, essentially, write their own labour law, to deny gig workers their rights and to continue to misclassify them.

One has to wonder, given who has the ear of the Premier in the province of Ontario, did they have an influence on how this legislation was crafted? Because it certainly isn’t in the interest of gig workers, of the very people who do the work.

Delivery workers fear the downloading of the fee cap onto their already meagre and inadequate earnings. Given that they have no labour rights, there would be no recourse for them. This has been well documented.

Any legislation on capping delivery fees to save our local restaurants needs to also save the delivery workers making sure the food gets to the customer, if you consider how important the delivery service sector has become to our economy. Given the fact that people are no longer altogether comfortable going into restaurants in a town like Kitchener-Waterloo, where we have students who actively use these apps on a regular basis, and in Ottawa and in Kingston—and in Windsor; sorry, Speaker—you have to consider the impact that these workers have on the overall economy. They are actually more important than they’ve ever been to the success of Ontario’s economy.

Couriers and restaurants are in this together, but what they face are bad employers profiting off the pandemic and not giving workers or restaurants a fair shake. Foodsters United, who organized Foodora workers and won the right to be classified as employees, had the following requests from their employers regarding the second wave safety—I don’t know if you remember Foodora, they kind of left the province after they lost in court that the rights of their employees were being violated.

They took off. “What do gig delivery workers need to stay safe while working in the second wave?” Again, not acknowledging that gig workers have rights, have the responsibility to actually be part of the safety plan—they’ve put forward recommendations, which could have been embedded and enshrined in legislation.

It says, “As we head into the second wave of the COVID pandemic in Toronto and Canada, couriers have once again been labelled as essential workers. We’re delivering food, over-the-counter medicines and groceries, risking our health and safety with only meagre protections. This pandemic has been hard on all of us: We are struggling to get by and struggling to access benefits when there has been no work or when we get sick.

“We are issuing a set of demands to our employers and a call for solidarity to customers, the public and allies”—you would be surprised how basic their requests are: access to washrooms and handwashing; protective equipment; no-contact drop-offs; respect the right to refuse unsafe work, to be protected when you are refusing unsafe work; guaranteed return to work if you fall ill or need to go on CERB; paid sick time; hazard pay; the establishment of a gig worker joint health and safety committee; update the tipping system, encourage tipping; and a hiring and firing freeze. Does Bill 236 address any of these issues? Unfortunately, it does not.

So we find ourselves in the most unfortunate position of having to support a very small step for small businesses that were being gouged from the delivery app companies, and now—and just the antics around this piece of legislation are concerning, because there is obviously a push to move Bill 236 very quickly through this House. I’ve indicated, as have other members of the official opposition, that a lack of consultation has once again resulted in a weak piece of legislation to address a key issue that we all face.

Just to recap: The cap on fees only applies to restaurants that are currently in closure, and the exclusion of chain restaurants may negatively impact businesses. I just want to say, on behalf of chain restaurants, it is true that Pizza Pizza and—

Interjection: Kelseys.

Ms. Catherine Fife: —Kelseys are large chains, but they are family owned. These are small family businesses in many respects. Why exclude them, why give them a loophole in this? Why build it into a piece of legislation?

The bill only applies during the pandemic and will mean that businesses will go back to paying the incredibly high fees during the recovery period, which means they will continue to struggle.

Clearly, the government has missed the opportunity to address a very key issue that affects essential workers—in this instance, delivery couriers. They’ve failed to address basic health and safety and worker rights in Bill 236, and, based on the stakeholder reaction—the Canadian Franchise Association and the CFIB have raised concerns about the exclusion of the chains. Delivery app companies have flagged their concerns. Obviously, the city of Toronto is supportive. They passed a motion long ago, and it has actually been called for for months.

The city of Toronto wanted the provincial government to move in this direction a long time ago. Then, of course, CUPW has raised concern about the part of the bill that says wages cannot be rolled back, saying that the onus is on the worker to prove that their pay has been reduced and not the company to prove that they didn’t cut anything.

I just want you to remember the voice of that worker who really feels that this piece of legislation does not address her working conditions, and that the language and the tough talk of the Premier are not going to protect her as an employee, and will really just download these extra costs to workers. What a missed opportunity for this government and, really, a missed opportunity for us all to work together and make sure that this piece of legislation addressed a very core health and safety and economic issue.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Percy Hatfield): Further debate?

Mr. Mike Schreiner: I appreciate the opportunity to rise to speak on Bill 236. I’ll be very brief, Speaker, and leave some time for some of the other independent members to speak.

I will be supporting this bill. I have been calling on the government to address the unfair and exploitive way in which delivery apps have been squeezing small businesses and restaurants across the province. I can tell you, as somebody who came out of the food sector, it’s pretty darned hard. There’s a basic formula: You spend 30% on overhead, 30% on food and 30% on wages, and by that math there isn’t 30% left for delivery apps, so this is an issue we absolutely need to address.

I want to echo some of the words—and I will do it in a much shorter way—of the member from Waterloo. I appreciate the member for raising some of these issues. After this bill is passed—and I’m assuming it’s going to pass—I believe another bill needs to be introduced that applies to all restaurants, including franchisees who are small business owners in and of themselves, and to all parts of the province. This bill won’t apply to my riding because we’re not in lockdown, but I can tell you, restaurants in Guelph are under tremendous pressure right now to stay alive, and delivery fees play a role in that. So let’s cap those fees across the province.

I finally want to say that we need to come up with legislation in this House to amend the Employment Standards Act to recognize gig workers as employees. It’s an exploitive practice that has been documented over and over again. My hope is that in the same way we’re all trying to work together to get this bill passed, we can all work together to come up with new legislation that fills in some of the shortcomings and gaps that exist in Bill 236.

So with that, Speaker, I will thank you for the opportunity to speak and let the debate continue.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Percy Hatfield): Further debate?

Ms. Peggy Sattler: I am please to rise to participate in this third reading debate on Bill 236. I’m going to keep my comments very, very brief.

I just wanted to point out from a process perspective what we have lost by fast-tracking this bill in the speed with which it is progressing.

On Thursday, the bill was introduced for first reading. We saw a unanimous consent moved by a Liberal member t