I move that the standing orders be amended as follows:

Standing order 7(f) is deleted and the following substituted:

“As soon as possible after New Year’s Day, the Clerk of the House shall publish a calendar which shows the days on which the House shall meet according to the standing orders.”

Standing order 9(f) is deleted and the following substituted:

“No later than 6 p.m. on any day that the House meets, the government House leader may indicate in the House that no business is to be called during orders of the day on the next sitting day’s morning meeting, and in such case the House shall meet at 10:15 a.m. on that next sitting day.”

Standing order 36(b) is amended by deleting the words “to the minister or to his or her parliamentary assistant” and substituting the words “to a minister or to a parliamentary assistant.”

For the duration of the 43rd Parliament, standing order 40(e) is suspended and the following provisional standing order is substituted:

“40(e) Following ministerial statements a representative or representatives of the official opposition and an independent member or independent members may comment for up to a total of eight minutes, commencing with the official opposition.”

Standing order 42(b) is amended by adding the following at the end:

“but shall not read the text of the petition.”

Standing order 46(c) is deleted.

Standing order 49(a) is amended by deleting “on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.”

Standing order 50(b) is amended by deleting “If a recorded vote is requested by five members, division bells shall be limited to 10 minutes.”

Standing order 61(d) is amended by deleting “If a recorded vote is requested by five members, division bells shall be limited to 10 minutes.”

Standing order 62(b) is deleted and the following is substituted:

“Upon tabling or upon the appointment of committees pursuant to standing order 110(a) and assignment of ministries and offices pursuant to standing order 113(b), the estimates shall be deemed to be referred to the standing committees to which the respective ministries and offices were assigned.”

Standing order 63(b) is amended by adding the following subclause following subclause (ii):

“The estimates of the Office of the Premier and the estimates of the Cabinet Office shall constitute one selection and represent a single turn taken under standing order 63(b)(ii).”

Standing order 63(d) is deleted and the following is substituted:

“63(d) The time for the consideration of the estimates of each ministry or office shall be determined by the respective committee.

“(i) The estimates of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, if selected by a committee, shall have no time allotted to them, and when these estimates are considered, the Chair shall put, without further amendment or debate, every question necessary to dispose of these estimates.

“(ii) The estimates of the Office of the Premier and the estimates of the Cabinet Office shall be allotted time jointly and shall be considered concurrently.”

Standing order 65(a) is deleted and the following is substituted:

“Upon tabling or upon the appointment of committees pursuant to standing order 110(a) and assignment of ministries and offices pursuant to standing order 113(b), all supplementary estimates shall be deemed referred to the standing committee to which their ministry or office has been assigned.”

Standing order 70(b) is amended by deleting “If a recorded vote is requested by five members, division bells shall be limited to 10 minutes.”

Standing order 85(a)(ii) is amended by deleting “$150” and substituting the words “a fee in an amount prescribed by the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, which may be amended by that committee from time to time.”

Standing order 85(c) is deleted and the following is substituted:

“Where, at the request of the applicant, a standing order is suspended with reference to a private bill, a charge shall be levied in an amount which shall be prescribed by the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, and which may be amended by that committee from time to time.”

For the duration of this Parliament, the following provisional standing order is added:

“85(h) Until the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs has set new fees pursuant to standing order 85(a)(ii) and 85(c), the fees shall remain at the amounts indicated in the standing orders as they were on the first day of the 43rd Parliament.”

Standing order 85(g)(ii) is amended by adding the words “given further consideration by the House or” after “not.”

Standing order 99 is amended by deleting:

“The rules of procedure and the fees and costs related to applications for private bills are set out in the standing orders of the Legislative Assembly. Copies of the standing orders, and the guide, Procedures for Applying for Private Legislation, may be obtained from the Legislative Assembly’s Internet site at www.ola.org or from:”

and substituting:

“The procedures related to applications for private bills are set out in the standing orders of the Legislative Assembly and the costs of applications are set by the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. Information is available at www.ola.org, or may be requested from:”

Standing order 100(c) is amended by deleting “eight” and replace with “nine.”

Standing order 110 is deleted and the following is substituted:

“Within the first 10 sessional days following the commencement of a Parliament, the membership of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs shall be appointed, on motion with notice, for the duration of the Parliament, which committee is empowered:

“(a) at the beginning of a Parliament, and from time to time as may be required, to appoint or revise, for the duration of a Parliament, the membership of the standing committees referred to in standing order 110.1 and those select committees which the House has resolved should have their membership appointed under this standing order and shall make a report thereon to the House, which report shall be deemed to be adopted;

“(b) to review on its own initiative or at the request of the Speaker or the direction of the House and to report to the House its observations, opinions and recommendations on the standing orders of the House and the procedures in the House and its committees;

“(c) to advise the Speaker and the Board of Internal Economy, and to report to the House its observations, opinions and recommendations on the administration of the House and the provision of services and facilities to members;

“(d) to act as an advisory body to the Speaker and the House on the television broadcast system and to conduct reviews, at least on an annual basis, of the televising of the legislative proceedings and of the guidelines established by the House with respect to the television broadcast system;

“(e) to be the committee which is empowered to review and consider from time to time the reports of the Ombudsman as they become available; and, as the committee deems necessary, pursuant to subsection 15(1) of the Ombudsman Act, to formulate general rules for the guidance of the Ombudsman in the exercise of his or her functions under the act; and to report thereon to the Legislature and to make such recommendations as the committee deems appropriate;

“(f) and to be the committee provided for by section 33 of part III (regulations) of the Legislation Act, 2006, and having the terms of reference as set out in that section, namely: to be the committee to which all regulations stand permanently referred; and to examine the regulations with particular reference to the scope and method of the exercise of delegated legislative power without reference to the merits of the policy or objectives to be effected by the regulations or enabling statutes, but in so doing regard shall be had to the following guidelines:

“(i) Regulations should not contain provisions initiating new policy, but should be confined to details to give effect to the policy established by the statute;

“(ii) Regulations should be in strict accord with the statute conferring of power, particularly concerning personal liberties;

“(iii) Regulations should be expressed in precise and unambiguous language;

“(iv) Regulations should not have retrospective effect unless clearly authorized by statute;

“(v) Regulations should not exclude the jurisdiction of the courts;

“(vi) Regulations should not impose a fine, imprisonment or other penalty;

“(vii) Regulations should not shift the onus of proof of innocence to a person accused of an offence;

“(viii) Regulations should not impose anything in the way of a tax (as distinct from fixing the amount of a licence fee, or the like); and

“(ix) General powers should not be used to establish a judicial tribunal or an administrative tribunal,

“and the committee shall from time to time report to the House its observations, opinions and recommendations as required by section 33 of part III (regulations) of the Legislation Act, 2006, but before drawing the attention of the House to a regulation or other statutory instrument, the committee shall afford the ministry or agency concerned an opportunity to furnish orally or in writing to the committee such explanation as the ministry or agency thinks fit;

“(g) to be the committee provided for in subsection 7(1) and section 12 of the Queen’s Park Restoration Secretariat Act, 2023, and subsection 108.3(1) and section 108.5 of the Legislative Assembly Act and, without limitation, to have the general mandate to inquire into and make recommendations respecting any project to restore the Legislative Building at Queen’s Park including any relocation of legislative operations to a temporary location throughout the project.”

The following standing order is added:

“110.1 The standing committees shall be:

“(a) Standing Committee on Justice Policy;

“(b) Standing Committee on Social Policy;

“(c) Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy;

“(d) Standing Committee on the Interior;

“(e) Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs which is empowered to consider and report to the House its observations, opinions and recommendations on the fiscal and economic policies of the province and to which all related documents shall be deemed to have been referred immediately when the said documents are tabled;

“(f) Standing Committee on Government Agencies which is empowered to review and report to the House its observations, opinions and recommendations on the operation of all agencies, boards and commissions to which the Lieutenant Governor in Council makes some or all of the appointments, and all corporations to which the crown in right of Ontario is a majority shareholder, such reviews to be made with a view to reducing possible redundancy and overlapping, improving the accountability of agencies, rationalizing the functions of the agencies, identifying those agencies or parts of agencies which could be subject to sunset provisions, and revising the mandates and roles of agencies, and to review the intended appointments of persons to agencies, boards and commissions and of directors to corporations in which the crown in right of Ontario is a majority shareholder, excluding reappointments and appointments for a term of one year or less, according to the following procedures:

“1. A minister of the crown shall lay on the table a certificate stating that the Lieutenant Governor in Council intends to appoint a person to an agency, board or commission or to the board of directors of a corporation, together with a copy of the position description and a summary of the person’s qualifications, which documents shall be deemed to be referred to the committee.

“2. Upon receipt of a certificate as referred to in paragraph 1, the Clerk of the Committee shall distribute to each member of the subcommittee on committee business a list of intended appointees in respect of whom a certificate has been received.

“3. The subcommittee shall meet at its own initiative, at the request of the committee, or at the request of any member of the subcommittee, to select from among the intended appointees referred to in paragraph 1 those intended appointees the committee will review. Each member of the subcommittee, other than the Chair, may choose one or more of the intended appointees for review from the certificates provided by the Clerk of the Committee.

“4. The subcommittee shall report to the committee on the intended appointees for review. Upon receiving the report, the committee shall determine a date for the review of the intended appointees as selected by the members of the subcommittee. The report shall specify the amount of time allocated for the consideration of each intended appointee and the date on which each will be reviewed. An equal amount of time shall be allocated for review of each member’s selections, and where a member of the subcommittee has selected more than one intended appointee the time available to review that member’s selections shall be allocated among his or her selections.

“5. Upon notice from the Clerk of the Committee that an intended appointee has been selected for review, the minister shall ensure that the committee receives a copy of the intended appointee’s résumé or biographical information and a description of the responsibilities of the position.

“6. A subcommittee member may choose to defer the consideration of one or more of the intended appointees that the member has chosen until a future meeting of the committee at which intended appointees are to be reviewed so long as the consideration of the intended appointee has not previously been deferred.

“7. In reviewing an intended appointee, the committee shall not call as a witness any person other than the intended appointee.

“8. At the conclusion of the meeting held to review an intended appointment, the committee shall determine whether or not it concurs in the intended appointment. Any member may request that the committee defer its determination to the next meeting of the committee, but in any event no later than seven calendar days. In its report, the committee shall state whether or not it concurs in the intended appointments and may state its reasons.

“9. Whether or not the House stands adjourned, the committee shall release its report by depositing it the same day with the Clerk of the House and upon receipt of the report by the Clerk the report shall be deemed to be adopted by the House.

“10. A report that the committee will not review an intended appointee shall be deemed to have been made by the committee and adopted by the House in any of the following cases:

“i. a report respecting the intended appointee has not been made by the committee within 30 calendar days following the day on which the minister tables the certificate referred to in paragraph 1,

“ii. the subcommittee does not at its first meeting following the day on which the minister tables the certificate select the intended appointee for review, or

“iii. the intended appointee has not been selected for review by the subcommittee within 14 days following the day on which the minister tabled the certificate.

“11. The committee by unanimous agreement may extend any of the deadlines in paragraph 10.

“12. The Clerk of the Committee shall give the minister who tabled the certificate written notification of any decision respecting the appointment made by the committee or the subcommittee on committee business.

“13. During any adjournment of the House that exceeds one week, the committee shall meet on such day or days as may be determined by the subcommittee, but in any event not more than three times per month.

“(g) Standing Committee on Public Accounts which is empowered to review and report to the House its observations, opinions and recommendations on the report of the Auditor General and the public accounts, which documents shall be deemed to have been permanently referred to the committee as they become available.”

Standing order 113(a) is amended by deleting the words “standing orders 110(a), (b), (c), (d), (e), and (g)” and replacing it with the words “standing orders 110(a) and 110.1(a), (b), (c), (d), and (e).”

Standing order 113(b) is amended by adding the following at the end:

“The Office of the Premier and the Cabinet Office shall be assigned to the same standing committee.”

The following new standing order is added:

“113(c) If the estimates are tabled in the House prior to the appointment of committee membership pursuant to standing order 110(a) or prior to the assignment of ministries and offices to committees pursuant to standing order 113(b), all ministries and offices shall stand assigned to the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs until membership has been appointed and assignment has been completed.”

Standing order 115(b) is deleted and the following is substituted:

“Notwithstanding clause (a), each independent member may deposit, with the Clerk of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs, his or her request to be appointed to at least one standing committee. An independent member may state his or her committee preference but such statement of preference is not binding.”

Standing order 115(d) is deleted.

Standing order 115(e) is deleted and the following is substituted:

“At any time before or during a committee meeting, a temporary substitution in the membership of a standing or select committee may be made provided a notification thereof, signed by the member acting as the whip of a recognized party, is filed with the Clerk of the Committee. If notice of a substitution is delivered while a committee meeting is in progress, the notification shall be delivered by hand to the Clerk of the Committee.”

Standing order 115(f) is deleted.

Standing order 119(a) is amended by deleting “110” and replacing it with “110 and 110.1.”

Standing order 128(a) is amended by deleting the words “standing orders 110(a), (b), (c), (d), (e) and (g)” and replacing it with the words “standing orders 110(a) and 110.1(a), (b), (c), (d) and (e).”

Standing order 143 is deleted; and

That the Clerk is authorized to renumber the standing orders and to make such other consequential, editorial or other minor changes as may be required to ensure a consistent form of expression throughout the standing orders.

Let me just thank the deputy government House leader for introducing this latest round of standing order changes, which I think continue to build on the hard work that we are doing to modernize how the assembly works.

Madam Speaker, you know that this government has been seized with ensuring that the standing orders reflect a 21st-century Legislative Assembly and the work that all members are expected to do.

One of the hallmarks, of course, of standing orders is that they are a living, breathing document that is to change in time so that we can reflect modern circumstances within an assembly.

For far too long in this place, the standing orders remained unchanged, and that certainly was the case prior to us coming into government. In fact, I’ve heard a number of members on both sides of the House remark at the speed and the number of changes to the standing orders that have occurred during our time of office, and that there were probably more standing order changes that have occurred under the last number of years than happened at any time outside of the first years since Confederation, when this place was being organized. I take great pride in having accomplished that; I think it is one of the greatest achievements that this government has made. It is part of ensuring that our democracy works better.

I have no illusion that all members will always be happy with the changes to the standing orders that we have brought forward, but I am very, very comfortable in asserting and challenging anybody who would counter that the changes that we have made and the changes that we are making will not make this a better, more representative Parliament for all parliamentarians.

I just want to take a brief moment, because I think it is quite important for us to look back at some of the other standing order changes that we have made, and I want to do this in the context of what I am sure will be a barrage of criticism that you constantly get when you do these things; it’s what you always hear. If a government brings something forward, you’re going to get the barrage of criticism. But the hallmark of good government, the hallmark of good legislation, is to really fundamentally see, in the absence of the government, what would the other parties do differently? What would they change from what you brought forward?

In that context, I want to look over some of the items that we have done on the standing orders. I have a lot of time, so I’m sure you’ll permit me to reflect back on some of these things.

Back in 2019, some of the initial changes that we brought on—you won’t remember, Madam Speaker, because you weren’t elected at that time, and, frankly, it’s good that you don’t remember these, because, in fact, our Legislature, I think, was not as democratic a place as it is today because of these changes. So those members elected in 2022 will have a much different Legislative Assembly than those who were elected in 2018.

But let me go over some of the changes. In 2019, a modification in the daily order of business to increase the profile of members’ statements by moving them from the afternoon to the morning, before question period: Now, that might seem like a little thing, but members will know, at 1 o’clock or 3 o’clock, when we’d come into the place and do members’ statements, the chamber is completely empty. Members are usually at committee meetings. It is not the time of day when the galleries are full. And we decided to elevate members’ statements—to do it at a time when the chamber is full, when galleries are full and when most of the media are here watching and when most of the attention of Ontarians is faced on question period. We would do members’ statements before question period. I ask very sincerely to members opposite, would that be something that they would remove from a future standing order change if they ever got the opportunity to do it?

You know how proud I am of being a Canadian. We returned the royal anthem to the once-a-month singing, when we do our national anthem. We returned the royal anthem. I’m a very proud monarchist and was very, very happy that we were able to do that.

We explicitly permitted—imagine this, Madam Speaker; I know you will find this amazing—the use of laptops, tablets and smart phones in a non-disruptive manner in the chamber. Imagine, a 21st-century Legislature did not allow members to use your smart phones, your laptops, your iPads in the daily functioning of your business, but that was something that was in the rules in this place. Would the members opposite remove that standing order? I highly doubt that they would, Madam Speaker.

We outlined the format for introduction of visitors in the chamber. Members will know it still goes on a little bit longer, but members will know that that would go on for a very, very, very long period of time, and members would be making speeches as opposed to introducing the visitors. So we did that. I doubt that they would change that.

We eliminated the need for a minister to verbally refer a question to a colleague during question period, which is the practice in other Canadian Legislatures—again, you will not remember, Madam Speaker, because you were elected in 2022—and we still have it. Every day a question comes, and 99% of the questions go to the Premier. Under the previous system, the Premier would have to get up in his place and refer the question to the appropriate minister, which actually kills time and means less questions for the opposition to have, and ultimately, the appropriate minister would also answer the question anyway. So it gave more time to the opposition, and it was a procedure that was used in no other Legislature in Canada and, frankly, no other Western parliamentary democracy.

We allowed the electronic distribution of background materials to reports and sessional papers that are tabled in the Legislature. Imagine that before we made this change, you were not able to electronically distribute these documents. Is this something that the opposition will take away if they ever get the opportunity to serve on this side of the House? I doubt it.

Now, we know for sure that the Liberals, the independent Liberals, who have systematically refused to accept the verdict of the people of the province of Ontario, have—

It’s always an honour to stand in this House and today to talk about standing order changes that the government has proposed.

Before I start talking about the individual changes, I’m just going to back up and talk about what Parliament is and what the standing orders are from our perspective and from my perspective.

One of the great things about this Parliament is that everyone—and I’m a good example of this: Anyone can be a parliamentarian. You don’t need years of university poli sci. You don’t need to be a lawyer. You don’t need—right? I’m a farmer. I’m proud of it. That is the great thing about Parliament, that all voices can be heard.

It’s not a perfect system, and we are all working so that even more voices can be heard. We did something yesterday and I’ll talk about that later, but it’s really important to remember that.

The standing orders are basically the rule book. They are the rules on how Parliament works. I’m not a history major either, so I’m not going to go through when each change was made, but that’s basically what the standing orders are. They’re the rules. They’re how we engage each other, the parameters of how the government makes legislation and how we, as the official opposition, point out either where we think the legislation isn’t adequate or, if there’s legislation we agree with, where we’ll vote with the government. But it’s really important that there are rules. On occasion, the rules are changed. The rules weren’t changed very often in the past. I believe that this government certainly holds the record for changing the rules. I agree with the government House leader that it is a living, breathing document—but it’s not a quarterly. If something bothers me today, on the government side—“Oh, we’re not going to let that happen again.” And there have been occasions where, in our opinion, that has been the case—not all.

This morning, I listened very intently to the government House leader. I disagree with him vehemently on many occasions, but I enjoy working with him, actually, and I respect him. We don’t always agree. He sometimes makes me very angry, makes us very angry, but I respect him. Some of the changes that the government has proposed—and the government House leader, in his speech this morning, listed many of them off, and his perspective on why they were changed, how they were changed and how it improved debate in this Legislature, or, basically, how it improved how laws are made in the province of Ontario. And on some points, we agree.

In one of the standing order changes, the government changed—after a debate of a bill, you would debate for an hour or 20 minutes or 10 minutes, and there was a period that used to be called “questions and comments”; it was basically four little speeches of two minutes, and then the original debater got to put in his extra two minutes. The government changed that to questions and answers—so a minute a question. We think it was a beneficial change for everyone. It holds everyone more accountable for their remarks, because if you’re paying attention—I love this place, and I pay attention to almost everything that’s said here, except that last petition. When you pay attention to a speech, you look for places where either you want more information or you want to challenge the speaker, you want to challenge their position, because that’s what debate is about. When the government added questions, it also put more pressure on the opposition. When the opposition criticizes the government on whatever issue of the day, the government members get a chance to question the opposition members who just made that speech, so the opposition is more accountable for what is said. I think that was a great change done by this government, done by the current House leader.

Another change they did is to members’ statements right before question period, and the government House leader said the reason they did that is because members’ statements—a member’s statement is a minute and 30 seconds. A percentage of members get to do a member’s statement every day—I believe it’s nine members who aren’t ministers. You get a minute and 30 seconds to talk about whatever you want—usually, it’s something great that’s happening in your riding or something bad that’s happening in your riding, or someone in your riding who has had a momentous event; sometimes they’re a tribute to someone who has passed. They’re very important. They used to be at 1 o’clock—sometimes 1 o’clock or sometimes 3 o’clock—in the afternoon. The House leader changed it, or the government changed it, to right before question period, so 10:15, because there are a lot more people in the House at question period and a lot more attention. That’s one way of looking at it. I’m not disputing that that is a relevant point, but in actuality, the way it works, for many members’ statements it’s worse, because question period starts at 10:30. If your member’s statement is at 10:15, for the first three or four members’ statements often there’s nobody paying attention. You can’t even hear the people talk because everyone’s filing in for question period. It’s incredibly distracting. It sounds good on paper, but people aren’t actually sitting for question period, they’re all filing in.

Was that done in bad faith? I don’t believe so. But it is a case of it not really working out as well as portrayed. Sometimes it does. Some speakers are more commanding than other speakers, so if you have the last member’s statement and you’re a really forceful speaker, sometimes you can quiet the crowd down. But a lot of people are almost—and I don’t mean this in a non-parliamentary way, but they’re almost cheated out of their member’s statement, and not on purpose. Whereas if it’s 1 o’clock in the afternoon and there aren’t a lot of people in the House, you can project easier, right? It’s not as good a change, sometimes, as how it’s portrayed.

Another change the government House leader mentioned that isn’t, in our humble opinion, as beneficial as you might think: It used to be that we could ask a minister a question, direct it to the minister, or direct it to the Premier and the Premier would have to direct it to the appropriate minister. They changed that, so now the House leader can put it wherever he wants in a cabinet. But we used to be able to direct a question to a minister and the minister would have to respond. So, as a result, you get a lot more questions to the Premier, because we can’t decide where it goes anyway.

Before, if I wanted to ask a question to the Minister of Agriculture and I knew it was going to—I don’t ask a lot of questions to the Minister of Agriculture. But occasionally, and I’m just using myself as an example, I ask a tough question and I want it to go to a certain minister, but the way the standing orders have been changed, there’s no guarantee of that. Is that really—from the overall of making us all more accountable, is that an improvement? I don’t think so. So there’s always two ways of looking at things.

One thing I would like to—I don’t know how I’m going to put this. I’m just going to backtrack for a second. Yesterday, we made a change to the standing orders. Yesterday was a historic, historic occasion because, up until yesterday, the only languages that could be spoken here were French or English. Yesterday, we made a change that, for people of Indigenous origin, First Nations, if they’re elected, they can identify what their language is and it can be spoken here in the Legislature. That is incredible. It’s a lot more complicated than it sounds too, because it will be translated simultaneously in the Legislature. It will be written in their language. It was an incredible change, and I commend—I give credit where credit is due: I commend the member from Kiiwetinoong. His first language is Oji-Cree, and he started the ball rolling. But I also really do try to give credit where credit is due. I credit the government House leader. He saw the need, and we worked together, along with the Minister of Indigenous Affairs, to make that happen. We consulted beforehand. We looked to make sure that the standing order change would work. We did that all beforehand, because we all realized the importance of it. And to the government House leader’s credit, we did it separately from the standing orders today, because there might be things we disagree with on with the government in this, but there certainly was no disagreement; it was unanimous yesterday. It was amazing.

The only thing that will be more amazing is the first time when Sol Mamakwa, the member from Kiiwetinoong, can stand in this place and ask a question or make a speech in Oji-Cree. That is the only thing that will eclipse what happened yesterday, and I give credit to the government House leader, the Minister of Northern Development and Indigenous Affairs, mostly to the member of Kiiwetinoong. We didn’t do it only for the member of Kiiwetinoong but for the First Nations people, who need to be represented here for generations to come.

So I give credit where credit is due. That is the way it should be done, but it isn’t always the way it’s done, and sometimes standing orders are brought forward, changes are brought forward that don’t always benefit the democratic process as much as the government claims—not always.

For those of who you were just here and just heard a petition of, I believe, 15 minutes—well, there’s 15 minutes on the clock, our first petition was a minute, and it went well past the clock. That is the case. In his speech, the government House leader identified a problem, that there was a loophole where people could abuse the petition process and read long petitions to limit other members from using the time for petitions, and then one of the government’s own members, for three days, I believe, did exactly that, to create the problem that the government House leader had identified.

The person who has done the most petitions in the House since I’ve been here: the member from Nickel Belt. We call her the petition queen. Her average petition? Under 60 seconds. The vast majority of people who do petitions here are respectful and respect other people’s time. When there’s 15 minutes, there’s often times when we run out of time for petitions. We get it; some petitions take a bit longer. A few petitions sound like War and Peace. That one sounded like the whole series. And the Speaker has the discretion to advise, if you have a really long petition or if it’s been read before, to summarize it. I’ve been here for 13 years and change, 12 years? Anyway, quite a long time, and very rarely does the process get abused. Now we’re going to change the petition process so petitions themselves can no longer be read in the Legislature. They can be summarized. It doesn’t really lay out how long the summary is going to be or how short, but they can be summarized—must be, not can be. They must be summarized. So the two petitions that we heard today, the reasonably short one from the member from Waterloo—

I’m pleased to stand in this House and add what I hope are some thoughtful comments to this debate about the standing orders. For the folks playing along at home, the standing orders are the rules of this space and place. They’re the rules of the game. As we heard the government House leader this morning talk about, the fact that they have been mostly unchanged for a very long time—that this government, this government House leader made a lot of changes in a short period of time, as he put it, to modernize or whatnot, maybe to make it in the image of the government in this space; sometimes to frustrate the opposition.

But here we stand with a series of changes. Some of them are kind of housekeeping and not super relevant, and others are more consequential. I would say that some of them are highly problematic, and others, I’m not exactly what they will mean for this place, but we’ll talk a little bit about that.

The standing orders feel a little bit dry if people are tuning in to debate. It’s not an issue like health care, it isn’t something going on in our communities, but it is how we conduct ourselves in this room. It’s the rules that we play by. How many minutes for this, or how we’re allowed to table a bill, and all of that kind of stuff.

But it does still matter to the outside world in a few different aspects. One of them I’m going to talk about because this is in the sights of the government today. The government is making changes to petitions and how we’re allowed to share petitions in this space. I fundamentally have a problem with this, and I’ll tell you why.

There are only a handful of ways that the public can have their voice heard in this room—their actual voice. We represent their issues, we tell stories, and Lord knows I get lots of letters and I do well to share those letters in this space. But people come to committee and they present, and another way that they have their voices and their issues raised in this space is through petitions.

Petitions have a format. The government is taking away that we don’t have to get them certified. Okay, fine, whatever, but we still want them to be in order in the House. And it is a petition to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario—not to the government, but to the whole Legislative Assembly of Ontario. That’s how it starts. It is to all of us, because regardless of what colour tie you have or what your politics are, we’re all represented to serve the members of our community.

In fact, when a member from your community comes to you and says, “I have a petition I want you to take to the Legislature,” sometimes, individually, we don’t love that petition. I’m sure the government members don’t love a lot of them, because they can be quite critical, or they raise ideas for solutions that may or may not be what the government wants to do or is planning to do.

And sometimes, they come to me as an opposition member and maybe, ideologically, I don’t love it, but we still are obligated and have the responsibility to bring them to this place and table it so that it gets before the government. Some of them, we do agree with as members, and we get up in this room and we read it into the Legislature.

And in that moment, the people who have written a petition in their words—“Whereas this is a problem,” and “Whereas this is happening,” and “Whereas this is a challenge that we’re seeing in our agency, in our community, in our family,” and “Whereas all these things are true, this is what we’re asking for.”

Speaker, to not be allowed to share the reasons for a petition, to not be allowed to share the “whereas-es,” as they’re called, but the rationale for the ask in this room, on the record, is really problematic.

I will admit, I have sat here, and I’ve listened to petitions that I know make the government members squirm. I remember the minister—hold on. The minister that just spoke: the Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, the member from Nipissing. I know that he was here as an opposition member for a while, and I’m willing to bet, if I checked Hansard, that there would be petitions that that member read petitioning the then government on specific issues.

It’s interesting, because there are government members in here, and some of them were in this space, kind of standing in this area. I see another member in the under-press who probably remembers taking up space on this side. There are those who served in opposition and are now government and know darn well that those petitions can come from their communities and that they matter to individuals. Then there’s a whole whack of shiny new government members who have never had the pleasure of serving in opposition—and I look forward for you to when you get to, by the way.

But I think, fundamentally, that saying we cannot share the voices of our communities is a problem. The member from Nickel Belt, who reads petitions all the time, collects them from her community, is amazing about that—even she was saying, “Fine, go ahead and shorten it, but don’t make me have to change the words of real people.”

Now, there’s a member who has been here three days and reading a petition that looks like a Santa list. As he read it, he said, “I want to thank Sally in my office for the work on this.” We’re not supposed to have our staff or ourselves write those petitions. It happens that we help people, we guide them. We might offer thoughtful suggestions. Let’s be real, there are issues that we all want to bring up in this House. But to take up that kind of time and block people from participating—if I’m only allowed to summarize petitions, then careful what you wish for, because I may get up and say, “Here’s a petition brought forward by this group and it’s called this,” and my summary may be, “And they think that what you’re doing is garbage and problematic and harmful.” That may be what you get because it didn’t explicitly say that I can’t.

My point is that silencing people in the province of Ontario is wrong.

Interjection: It’s kind of undemocratic.