I’m pleased to share my time with my colleague, the member from Lanark–Frontenac–Kingston.

Madame la Présidente, c’est un honneur de parler de ce projet de loi. Comme je l’ai déjà dit, rien pour moi, en tant que solliciteur général, n’est plus important que la sécurité de notre province, parce que nous croyons en notre province et notre avenir.

Public safety and Bill 171 that we’re talking about today, the Enhancing Professional Care for Animals Act, have a lot in common. I want to say, Madam Speaker, that when we look at one of the elements that I wanted to speak on as well in the debate about food processors, I think of a wonderful success story in Ontario, St. Helen’s meats. Many of us buy their products in the stores. It’s honestly a wonderful Ontario success story, created and founded by the Bielak family. Why is this important? Because companies like St. Helen’s need to have the confidence of the supply chain to ensure the highest standards of animal care.

My colleague the Associate Minister of Housing knows a lot about animal care. He comes to this Legislature himself a farmer, somebody that has shown by example how we have to ensure a safe supply chain. The members opposite spoke recently on the other component of animal care. It’s not only the supply chain, to make sure that we have animals that are raised safely and that are part of a safe supply chain, but it is also our love for our own pets. That’s personal to many of us. Just speaking to our colleagues across the aisle in this chamber, one hears stories of how a pet adopted to a family changes one’s life.

When we look at this bill, Enhancing Professional Care for Animals Act, we look at the important component of how veterinary medicine has evolved over the last 35 years. That’s a long time. Things change. The number of pets that people have adopted—and literally adopted. Most of us think of our pets as our own sons and daughters because we can’t separate ourselves from them and how much joy they bring to us.

We know that it is hard to get an appointment with your veterinarian. That’s a fact. The veterinarians play such a crucial role in ensuring that our pets are safe, that the supply chain of our animals are also healthy and safe. What I like about this piece of legislation is, as the other members have spoken about, we’re expanding the role of veterinarian technicians to support our vets.

We looked just recently on how the support function has played out in other sectors of our health care as examples. Nobody understood how productive—that we could have the pharmacist help take a lot of pressure off booking a doctor’s appointment to get certain things done in a pharmacy.

Madam Speaker, my own mom’s dad, my grandfather Murray Penwick, who was born just at the footsteps of the Legislature at the turn of the last century, was a pharmacist. Who would have dreamed that in 2024, you can go to a pharmacy to get a flu shot and other vaccinations and other prescribed medication of common ailments that, again, you don’t have to go to a doctor’s office for? So this concept of veterinarian technician is so important.

I also wanted to acknowledge, as the member from Guelph spoke about, that the government has supported 20 more vet student seats at the University of Guelph, which is a wonderful facility, and Lakehead. And the member from Kiiwetinoong also spoke about the need to have veterinarians, and I would also add veterinarian technicians, go up to First Nations communities, because that’s very, very important. So this legislation, Bill 171, takes us a long way. It allows the College of Veterinarians to define a scope of practice for veterinarian technicians and bringing them under the same regulatory college and legislation as veterinarians.

And I just wanted to go back to the role that the Ministry of the Solicitor General has in regard to animal welfare. Our commitment to animal welfare is very important. It’s unwavering, and it’s absolute. The Enhancing Professional Care for Animals Act will be a complementary piece to other pieces of legislation that we helped introduce to help protect our animals in Ontario. In 2019, we passed the Provincial Animal Welfare Services Act, also known as the PAWS Act. The act established Canada’s first provincially led animal welfare services agency. Through the PAWS Act, we developed a robust and accountable system to protect animals in Ontario. The PAWS Act boasts some of the strongest penalties for non-compliance in Canada.

I can tell you, Madam Speaker, that when I was in Brantford last summer, I saw the newest cadre of animal welfare inspectors from all over the province, and I was so proud of them. Animal welfare services, AWS, often works hand in hand with veterinarians to determine whether standards of care are being met. My colleagues opposite know that they’ve had examples in their communities where this has absolutely helped. I’d like to extend my thanks to everyone part of AWS for working in communities across Ontario to keep our animals safe.

This bill was produced after long and thorough and robust stakeholder engagements. The list is so long that I would eat up all of my time if I just read it. But suffice it to say, we are constantly listening to the people of this province and are always ready to find solutions. But we rely on the experience and expertise of those working in the sector to tell us how.

It’s not lost on me that animals are also a part of our communities. Whether you have a pet or livestock, as the member opposite does, it is likely that at some point you might need a vet. From personal experience, my daughter adopted a rabbit from the Toronto animal shelter 11 years ago, at nine years old, named Hal, and now she’s in her fourth year of university at Queen’s. Of course, my wife and I and our sons became the protectors of Hal, because my daughter didn’t want to take him to university.

So it’s our job as legislators to ensure that Ontarians have access for care for their animals. We’ve come a long way, and as the member from Guelph said, we worked across the aisle. That is important, because caring for our pets and caring for our food supply chain is very, very important.

I want to thank the Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs for seeing it to the finish line—we’re almost there—and for my colleague the Associate Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs for educating so many in this chamber about the food supply chain. It is very important. Finally, by expanding the availability of veterinary services for both large animals and pets, we will ensure that they continue to enrich our lives and maintain the safety of hard-working communities across Ontario. Thank you. Merci beaucoup.

I also want to acknowledge my colleague who just spoke, because he brings his own experiences to his remarks. So I wanted to say thank you. Also, to my friend opposite from Timiskaming–Cochrane, who himself is a farmer and has educated us, as well, about how important the supply chain is—I might add, a safe supply chain. I’ve been up to Cochrane, so I’ve seen for myself just how wonderful the community is.

Our government is always open to listening to our stakeholders on how to make regulations and legislation better, when it comes to animal welfare.

So the short answer is, this is evolving, this is real, this is something that will live and breathe.

Again, our government takes animal welfare extremely seriously, and we’re proud of that.

We take animal welfare very seriously. Whether it be at Marineland or anywhere in Ontario, it doesn’t matter; animal welfare inspectors will not hesitate to issue an order or other compliance orders if required, if deemed necessary. And it’s not just issuing an order; it’s the animal welfare inspectors going back and making sure that compliance is done. If compliance is not done, then there are further remedies that the PAWS Act speaks of.

But I think what the member opposite agrees with is the government’s commitment to make animal welfare a serious matter. It’s raising awareness. It’s telling people who might be new to the province that there’s an expectation and a duty of care that we must always have for our animals. And for those who are entering the food processing business who might be new, again, there’s a duty of care and a professional standard.

For our government, we take this seriously and we appreciate working with all sides in this House to strengthen animal welfare protection—the best possible not only in Ontario, but in Canada and around the world.