Thank you to my colleagues for their opening debate on third reading of this bill. My question is for the Minister of Labour, Speaker. As he knows, there are three schedules of this bill that are already existing laws. One of them is wage theft. One is work performed through trial shifts, unpaid work. These are both already existing in the Employment Standards Act. The minister is aware of nearly $10 million which has been reported in wage theft that isn’t being followed through on. The other one is Canadian work experience, which is part of the 2013 Ontario Human Rights Code. There are 9,000 people waiting for hearings. If you were to put in a complaint today, there would be a five-year backlog.

My question to the minister is, since we’re putting through these laws that already exist as laws, will you commit to actually following through and collecting the almost $10 million that’s owed to people? And what will you do to address that 9,000-people backlog?

We tried to pass an amendment to have these workers recognized as regular workers so they have Employment Standards Act and Ontario labour relations protection. These workers are making six bucks an hour—that’s before deductions, before they pay for gas, wear and tear on their vehicles and maintenance.

My question is, why is the government standing with billion-dollar companies like Uber and standing against workers who are making less than six bucks an hour?

I also want to recognize as well that the Ontario Superior Court of Justice and the Ontario Ministry of Labour employment standards officer have both indicated that these app workers may be misclassified as independent contractors. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice certified a landmark $400-million class-action lawsuit against Uber that was filed on behalf of Uber drivers. As well, officer Katherine Haire found several violations of the Employment Standards Act. Employment lawyers and advocates say the ruling sends a clear message on the issue of employment status that gig platform workers have long fought for.

The minister is telling these workers—some of them who make nothing because they’re waiting for an app to come in and they don’t get an order. He is telling these workers, and there’s many of them across this province, that they are worth less than minimum wage. Our party, the Ontario NDP, thinks that people should at least make minimum wage. How can he not stand with us and stand up for workers who should be at least making minimum wage?

One of the amendments that we tried to move on this act was to bring in anti-scab legislation, which the Conservatives had voted against. We’re aware of many workplaces using scabs already, more than happy to have these workers languish on picket lines.

I want to read this here. It was about workers hit by scabs on picket lines. The article says, “Doug Ford’s Conservative government must ban scabs if there’s any sincerity to his claims of supporting workers....

“Two equipment operators were hit by two different scabs driving a pickup truck through picket lines on Wednesday. These are the second and third incidents of a motor vehicle being weaponized to attack Black River-Matheson’s 14 municipal workers who were, at first, locked out in October ... and have been on legal strike since January” of 2024.

“‘We’ve been locked out or on strike for 124 days. That’s a third of a year,’ said Serge Bouchard, president of CUPE Local 1490. ‘As it stands now, it seems Doug Ford and all of Ontario’s Conservative MPPs are okay with a worker being the victim of a hit-and-run every 41 days.’”

Tell me—

I want to thank the member from Algoma–Manitoulin for bringing forward this bill. I had asked a question about the Northern Health Travel Grant last spring, and I had more phone calls and emails to my office through the spring and the summer about this than any other issue that I brought up that I can think of.

The core issue, really, here is that when you are travelling from northern Ontario—my riding, often—to Toronto, you’re compensated 41 cents a kilometre, but you’re not paid for the first 100 kilometres that you travel. We know the cost of gas and maintenance on vehicles as well. It really doesn’t add up for people. As well, the hotel costs are capped at $100 a night; we can’t find a hotel for $100 a night. Those of us who travel long distances and have residence here know how expensive it is to live in Toronto, and anyone who is coming to Toronto for all the amazing tourist attractions they have or for work knows how expensive lodging is.

I want to share a couple of validators for this. I think it’s important to talk about why this is important, so I’ll tell you about a woman from my riding who had to travel to Toronto for knee surgery. What’s interesting, Speaker, is depending how many of the validators you talk to, you’ll see many of them didn’t want me to use their name, because they feel like—they’re embarrassed. They feel like it’s a poverty issue and they feel stigmatized because they don’t have access to health care. So, I’m going to call this woman “Betty.” She had come down to Toronto for knee surgery. Betty made the trip down to Toronto. She had the surgery, then she applied for the grant and was denied.

Here’s what happened: Betty doesn’t have a credit card. Her husband has a credit card, so her husband paid for everything on credit card. Her husband came with her to take care of her on this trip for the knee surgery. When she filled out the form, she was told to put her name on the forms because she had the surgery. Betty can prove that they’re married and Betty can prove that her husband came with her, but she was still denied.

And here’s the kicker for them: They’re out-of-pocket for all of those expenses—expenses that people who are in the area and can travel to a Toronto hospital, because of where they were born or where they moved and lived, wouldn’t be out of. But the kicker for her is that she asked why she was denied and what was happening, and it took 12 weeks to get a response—12 weeks of trying to figure out what happened to the money and why it wasn’t reimbursed.

I want to talk about Stephan and Denise. Now, Stephan and Denise—I actually asked a question about them last spring. I want to read what Denise wrote to me, outside of the question, because I had to really shorten it for the question. Denise wrote and she said that her husband is required to see a specialized neurologist in Toronto. The current reimbursement for two nights’ accommodation is $100 per night. When you look at hotel rooms in Toronto, on average, the cost of the rooms starts at about $500 a night. Even the hospital rates have doubled. Two years ago, the hospital rate at the DoubleTree hotel was $129. So even two years ago, you paid 30 bucks out of your own pocket. Now, it’s up to $250. Mileage is also an issue. Compensation is limited at 41 cents per kilometre, and the first 100 kilometres is deducted from being compensated.

“We’re both seniors. We both live on a fixed income.” This is the issue that we’re seeing. The system is designed so that you pay up front, but if you’re on a fixed income, like many seniors are—and many seniors have those co-morbidities, need more care. When you’re on a fixed income and you can’t afford to pay up front, if you don’t have a credit card, you’re very limited. You don’t have that equity of access when it comes to health care.

The next person I’m going to talk about I’m going to call Bev. She asked me as well not to use her name. Bev had to travel to Toronto for cancer treatments. It was complex, and she had to do various diagnoses. Bev has cancer, and her husband has taken a leave from work to care for her, so there’s no income coming in from her husband. There’s just Bev’s income, and she has CPP. Between her and her husband, their income is $1,100 per month to make ends meet.

Bev’s oncologist is in Toronto. He’s one of only two in the province that specializes in this type of surgery. Absolutely, congratulations to our province for having specialized health care available. What we’re talking about is having people able to access it in the north. So Bev had to come down, see her oncologist in-person. She couldn’t travel alone. She would have to be in Toronto for three days for tests and the appointment. Bev and her husband had no funds to pay for the hotels. They had no funds to buy food. They had no funds to put gas in their car. They had $1,100 a month at the time.

Bev told me—and this is one of the reasons that she asked me not to use her name—they didn’t even have food in their house at this time. Bev’s doctor offered discount options for accommodations, but because Bev didn’t have the money up front to pay for it, she was out of luck. Because the Northern Health Travel Grant is a system where you pay up front and then you’re reimbursed, Bev and her husband are out of luck.

The question is, if you can’t pay up front, if you can’t afford the wait to reimburse—we know there are a lot of people living hand to mouth. We know that every year since 2018, the number of full-time working people accessing food banks—that number continues to grow. We know there are the working poor out there. The working poor also get sick. The working poor also need specialized treatment in health care, and they deserve to have that access to health care.

It’s about equity of care. People shouldn’t have to go without care because they don’t have the funds up front to travel where health care is. The member for Algoma–Manitoulin is talking about a simple solution of putting our heads together and figuring out where this is broken and fixing it. I believe the Conservative side—I’m a critic; it’s in my title. But I believe the Conservative side wants to address this. I believe they want people in the north to have access to health care. They have members in the north. They wouldn’t want to vote against those members and the access that they have.

With the limited time I have left, I’m going to talk about a gentleman who also asked me not to share his name because he was embarrassed at the situation he was in. I’m going to call him Gary. So Gary had to receive hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and this is a treatment that has to get done daily over the course of several weeks. This is covered by OHIP, but the facilities don’t exist in Sudbury. So Gary’s specialist, who was in Sudbury, referred the treatment to Toronto, and Gary travelled and stayed in Toronto for several weeks. But his Northern Health Travel Grant was denied.

We helped Gary with his appeal. We started helping him in March 2021. The good news is that it was eventually resolved in his favour, but I want to remind you of the people who don’t have the money up front or how tight finances are. And each and every one of us can relate to this, either personally or members of our family or close friends of ours who feel that squeeze, the affordability squeeze that so many people are feeling.

The bad news is, even though it was resolved in his favour, it took more than a year. We started in March 2021, and it ended in March 2022 for him to be reimbursed—more than a year of paying out of pocket for several weeks of accommodations, food and travel. I don’t know who could weather that storm. You’re trying to recover from an injury. You’re trying to recover from illness. You’re getting treatment. The mental stress of not knowing how you’re going to pay your bills or if you’ll be reimbursed is unbelievable, unfathomable.

I know that this is a good bill. I want to congratulate again the member from Algoma–Manitoulin for bringing this forward. This is a common-sense solution to something. I’m sure there was a time when this worked. Nothing is ever perfect, but I’m sure there was a time where this was more effective. Time has moved on. Costs have moved on. We haven’t kept pace with it. This is a good opportunity to recognize how important the people of Ontario are and how we can really help them.

The final example—I have about a minute—is Stephen. Stephen is actually his real name. He’s on a fixed income. He applied for the Northern Health Travel Grant. Typically, you’re reimbursed in about four to six weeks; it’s been more than three months. He hasn’t received anything. He called the Northern Health Travel Grant office to find out what was going on. They said they have a backlog and that processing his claim will take longer than the six weeks it normally takes, but they couldn’t give him a date when.

This is a broken system, Speaker. We need to address it. The member for Algoma–Manitoulin has a very simple solution, about putting our heads together, working together, which I think the people of Ontario want us to do, where we can address this, fix this and make health care better for people across northern Ontario.