On sait tous que les pompiers, ce sont des héros qui risquent leur vie pour venir en service aux gens. Vous l’avez dit, vous l’avez mentionné un peu. Donc, ce qu’on peut comprendre, c’est qu’en opposant ce projet de loi, vous comprenez que ça va être plus difficile pour, justement, les pompiers et leur famille d’avoir le support nécessaire quand ça vient à faire face à des maladies causées par leur travail.

Further questions?

I want to thank my colleague from Newmarket–Aurora for her very significant speech on this. She covered all of those important changes. This bill builds upon Working for Workers 1, 2 and 3, and now we have Working for Workers Four. It’s no surprise, I say to my colleague, that labour all across this province is migrating to us, as the party that understands and represents and wants to deal with their needs. It’s a tremendous victory for workers in Ontario that they’re now joining with us. Unfortunately, the opposition continues to crow about something that didn’t happen five years ago.

But I do want to ask on the issue of our brave firefighters and the presumptive illness section on esophageal cancer, and the changes and how that is going to affect our brave first responders here in the province of Ontario.

Thank you to my colleague from Newmarket–Aurora for her excellent comments today on Working for Workers Four. The thing that I’m most excited about in all of these things we’re doing to help workers is helping newcomers who we desperately need to have working to their potential, not to mention the fact that a lot of immigrants come here from all over the world, they bring their skills, they bring their hopes and dreams and it’s wonderful to see people be able to realize those hopes and dreams.

I think this is something so important, so I wanted to ask the member from Newmarket–Aurora if she could elaborate on what the government is doing that will help job seekers who are newcomers who can contribute to Ontario’s economy, and give us a little more detail on that.

Questions?

Madam Speaker, through you to the member, yes, I did speak about the salary transparency, because we know that pay transparency has become more common as workers desire open discussions about their wages. They want to see and they want to discuss these wages. This is why we are proposing this in this legislation, because we firmly believe that everyone deserves to be paid fairly for the work that they do.

One of the steps—and I did mention this in my speech—is closing the gender pay gap. Research shows women in Ontario earn an average of 87 cents for every dollar earned by a man. So, yes, in this legislation we are moving forward with the salary transparency.

Speaker, through you, as I noted just a couple of weeks ago, I attended the exemplary awards recognitions for our firefighters. This was held, in fact, the day after our announcement, and there was such wonderful feedback. When I spoke with many of the firefighters at this event, they thanked me, their families thanked me, because you know what? It’s the families behind the firefighters—they are the ones supporting them. While they go out and fight fires, they are caring for their families.

So this is so important. If this happens to a firefighter, we’re not just talking about the care of the firefighter, we’re talking about the care of the family. That’s why I’m so proud of our government with what we are doing with esophageal cancer and recognizing that as one of these presumed cancers and lessening the time from 25 years to 15 years.

In New York, Colorado, Washington and California, they have also enacted similar pay transparency laws. So, if approved, there will be limited administrative costs for employers, but it will ensure salary disclosure is added to the job ad templates.

Speaker, I’ll give you an example that’s close to me: my husband. My husband is an American, and he came to live in Canada with me, and when he was applying for jobs, even though he had 40 years of experience in manufacturing, he had the hardest time. He said to me, “I can’t believe that when you have this much experience, all they’re focused on is Canadian-relevant experience.” So what we are doing—well, it would help my husband, who’s retired now. In any case, it’s going to help the people who are coming to this country so we can—

I listened to the comments from the member for Newmarket–Aurora, and one of the provisions of this bill that she didn’t mention is around the new requirement for employers to post information about compensation levels. I’d just like to ask the member whether she is aware that in 2018 this Legislature debated a bill called the Pay Transparency Act. We passed that bill. That bill went to committee. It came back much stronger, with great amendments. It was passed at third reading. It got royal assent. It is sitting somewhere in the back rooms of this Legislature waiting to be proclaimed to provide real pay transparency for women in this province to close the gender wage gap. Why is this government not proclaiming the Pay Transparency Act?

Thank you to the member opposite. Obviously, I don’t know the specifics of his specific constituent.

Injured workers in Ontario definitely deserve the supports to recover, and by introducing this legislation, if passed, it would support injured workers, enabling the super-indexing of increases for WSIB. And it will go above the annual rate of inflation. I’ll give you an example. For an injured worker who earns—

I was listening closely to the member from Newmarket–Aurora.

Something that I want to comment on, as the transit critic for the province reflecting on this piece of legislation: While I think it’s great the government wants to do efforts—there are many sequels to this effort, four—I would like to see a commitment to workers in this province spread across all the legislation of this government.

I’m thinking, in particular, of a bus driver in Hamilton whose name is Cassie Theaker. ATU 107 just got a tentative agreement, but they had to fight and struggle in that city. Cassie told the crowd on a picket line that she can no longer feed her kids, pay the rent and drive a bus in the city of Hamilton. If this government, in this legislation—if it was connected to operational transit funding, Cassie could feed her kids.

My question is, what is the member’s message to Cassie? Today is she going to call for what transit authorities are calling for: the government investing $500 million in transit to make—

Thank you. Further questions?

Further debate?

This government has repeatedly said that Ontario has the safest roads in North America, and the Liberals always said that, too. But I can assure you that Highway 11, the Trans-Canada Highway—the two-lane from North Bay north—is not the safest road in North America, not the safest road in Ontario, and it’s the Trans-Canada Highway. The trucks that cross the country go through that.

I’ll tell you what happens on the Trans-Canada Highway north of North Bay. I was driving here on Sunday afternoon, but Sunday morning—oh, highway’s closed. It snowed—highway’s closed. When the highway opened again, I got there—transport on its side, it’s one lane. You know what the highway north of North Bay is right now, or at least half an hour ago? Closed. Closed again—again. This is the Trans-Canada Highway—another major accident.

There are things we can do: Make sure there’s places for trucks to park—that was announced years ago—not done; make sure that the people who are on those roads are actually trained to drive on those roads—again, it’s not happening. It’s not happening.

It is not the safest road in North America. It’s not the safest road in Ontario and everyone knows it. And it’s our main street, and people are dying because of it. Come on. Let’s get going.

I am pleased to highlight an even that took place last month in my great riding of Newmarket–Aurora. I was honoured to welcome the Associate Minister of Women’s Social and Economic Opportunity to Newmarket to visit the Women’s Centre of York Region. This non-profit is one of 10 sites that this government has invested $6.9 million over three years in the expansion of the Investing in Women’s Futures Program. The goal of this program is to help more women who experience social and economic barriers to connect to supports and develop the skills they need to gain financial security and independence.

There are now 33 service delivery locations across this province, and to date the program has already yielded significant results. In 2022-23, this program assisted nearly 1,300 women across Ontario in securing employment, launching their own business or pursuing further training and education.

For more than 45 years, the Women’s Centre of York Region has been a beacon of empowerment for women in York region, and I was proud to announce that they are the recipient of $325,000 of this funding to help the women in our region reach their full potential. Thank you to the York region women.

Thank you to the member. We’ll continue debate after.

Second reading debate deemed adjourned.

It was a pleasure to join the Minister of Education as well as my colleague the member for Cambridge in Kitchener on Friday for an important announcement. Our government will be opening 3,725 new child spaces in Waterloo region by 2026. This represents a nearly 25% increase in child care spaces which our government will deliver over the next three years.

The region of Waterloo has said that growing wait-lists have become a concern for every centre in the area, and obviously, this is great news for families in my riding of Kitchener–Conestoga and, of course, across our region. These new spaces will be part of the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care system, which includes a mix of not-for-profit and for-profit centres.

I want to applaud the Minister of Education and his hard-working team for this initiative.

Keeping options open for parents and communities is a key goal of the government of Ontario to provide families with choice and flexibility. This flexibility makes sense, especially in small towns, which is often where child care spaces are needed the most. That includes Wilmot, Wellesley and Woolwich townships, which are all listed as priority areas under our plan.

We remain committed to delivering more affordable and accessible child care spaces across the province.

Gender-based violence in Ontario is an epidemic. While several city and town councils acknowledge this, the Conservative government won’t. The longer they don’t acknowledge gender-based violence, the more women will be assaulted and killed by intimate partners.

Domestic violence and abuse can often be denied, minimized or overlooked by many. Awareness campaigns are so important to ensure everyone can spot the signs of domestic violence. Recognizing abuse is the first step toward saving women’s lives.

In Windsor, I’m grateful for the Shine the Light campaign that Hiatus House organizes every year, where they shine the light on domestic violence and abuse, acknowledge and commemorate the victims and provide much-needed supports.

Every woman and child in Windsor and across the province of Ontario deserves a life free from abuse. We must advocate on behalf of those whose voices have been silenced by abuse. This is why the Ontario NDP has continued to call on the Premier of Ontario to act and declare intimate partner violence an epidemic in Ontario.

I want to take a moment to remember Sahra Bulle and Janice Madison, two Windsor women whose lives were cut short by their spouses in tragic losses this year. Janice was just stabbed to death by her husband within the last two weeks. Their loss is felt by all who knew them and our entire community. My thoughts are with their families and loved ones.

But, Speaker, thoughts aren’t enough. We know that, tragically, gender-based violence and femicide are on the rise, and we are long overdue for urgent change and action. The government will continue to fail women and victims of gender-based violence across the province by not acknowledging the urgency of this issue. The government has to act now.

Recently, I attended the Hamilton-Burlington chapter of Professional Engineers Ontario’s fall certificate ceremony. This ceremony marked the licensure of approximately 20 individuals who will embark on their professional engineering career right here in Ontario.

Engineering is built into everything we do. From the vehicles we drive to the technology in our pockets, engineering is the backbone of modern society.

Last year, high school courses in science, technology, engineering and math were updated to ensure students have the cutting-edge digital literacy and technological skills to lead the global innovations of today and tomorrow. Every year, more than 65,000 students graduate from STEM programs. By modernizing the STEM and skilled programs, our province is able to grow businesses that continue to innovate and thrive.

In May of this year, Professional Engineers Ontario became the first regulated profession to remove Canadian work experience from their registration criteria, allowing more skilled workers to enter into their trades without the requirement for Canadian work experience. I’d like to congratulate PEO for taking this historic step and leading the way as Ontario welcomes thousands of new skilled workers every year.

Thank you to Professional Engineers Ontario for ensuring the advancement of engineers in our province.

Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Metrolinx for their great work in a series of consultations allowing local residents to share their input on the Sheppard extension project that will have a lasting impact on the future of transit in our city.

When I spoke with my constituents at their doors in Don Valley North during my 2018 and 2022 campaigns, public transit tended to be a topic of great interest. We had many meaningful discussions on a subway option as well as LRT, and current commute challenges that both transit riders and drivers are facing. They expressed overwhelming support and eagerness for the Sheppard subway line extension.

For those who missed last week’s in-person consultations, they can visit my website, vincentkempp.com, for information on the first round of Metrolinx public consultations that remain open to comment through December 7. I encourage the residents of Don Valley North and anyone interested to participate in this important consultation.

Today, I’d like to acknowledge the hard work of the community of Dundas county and the Winchester District Memorial Hospital Foundation as they help raise funds for the building of the new Dundas Manor. The committee has been raising funds for years for the building of a new state-of-the-art facility to help support and better serve patients and residents within our community.

Part of the fundraising efforts to build a new Dundas Manor is their campaign called Expanding the Circle of Compassionate Care, which holds events to reach this end. One such event was the manor’s 45th anniversary held on Saturday, November 18, or, as it was appropriately named, the Sapphires and Snowflakes evening. The special evening was held at Matilda Hall in Dixon’s Corners. Tickets were sold for $78, as Dundas Manor originally opened in 1978. We had a great, fun evening filled with delicious cocktails and charcuterie. The event included a live auction and excellent entertainment by comedy/musical duo Bowser and Blue, all in the efforts of supporting a new Dundas Manor. I’m proud to say that the event raised $155,000.

Our government is also committed to this project, as we have given Dundas Manor approval to construct. This means the new Dundas Manor can build the 128-bed home they have been raising funds for, allowing seniors to stay in the community they helped build.

Thank you to the organizers and all the staff at Dundas Manor for their work not only in organizing the event but for the wonderful care they provide our seniors.

We all know our health care system hinges on a well-staffed, well-earning, well-supported nursing workforce, but the nurses I speak to are at the end of their rope.

Despite feeling a true calling to the vocation of nursing and dedicating their lives and careers to helping others, these nurses are leaving the sector in droves because they feel overworked, underpaid and underappreciated. They face violence in the workplace, long hours, irregular shifts and constant shortages. This is untenable and downright dangerous.

One nurse said to me, “If I could go back and choose a different career, I would. Our managers try to support us the best way they can, but the issues in the system are so widespread that it is impossible to make meaningful change in working conditions. And at the end of day, I can quit my job and move on, but patients are stuck in a broken system and will continue to suffer.”

Unfortunately, there are many ways in which the system is broken, but there are also many ways in which we can fix it. Stop fighting health care workers in the court system and repeal Bill 124. Another solution would be to address the agency bill that my colleagues have brought forward in order to make sure that the agencies are not paying wages higher than replacement workers who are on this floor. Make sure nurses get the respect they deserve, and make health care work for patients and not for profits. Thank you, Speaker.