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?