SoVote

Decentralized Democracy

Hon. David Piccini

  • MPP
  • Member of Provincial Parliament
  • Northumberland—Peterborough South
  • Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario
  • Ontario
  • 117 Peter St. Port Hope, ON L1A 1C5
  • tel: 905-372-4000
  • fax: 905-885-0050
  • David.Piccini@pc.ola.org

  • Government Page
  • Feb/22/24 10:00:00 a.m.

Well, Speaker, we wouldn’t be strengthening the act and be the first to explicitly reference trial shifts and others if we didn’t think it was already working. That’s why we’re doing this.

When it comes to Canadian work experience as well, I was recently at a federal-provincial-territorial meeting—in fact, that member would speak to their NDP colleagues across Canada who spoke to us about our leadership in this and lauded us for taking steps on Canadian worker experience.

He does raise an important point about enforcement. Yes, we have more enforcement officers coming online today than we did yesterday and are working diligently to hire them.

As for cases on tribunals and quasi-adjudicative bodies, I also recognize that more needs to be done there. We’ve tackled massive backlogs from OLT, the landlord and tenant—you name it. We’re working to address it by bringing on more adjudicators and tackling the backlogs that, quite frankly, the previous Liberal government let fester for decades.

If that member always wants to just absolutely kill ride-share in its entirety, which is putting all of those workers completely out of work, then just come clean and say it in this place. Say you don’t want them. You don’t want them in Ontario. You don’t want them in Toronto. Stand in your place, be clear and say you want them out of a job.

First responders deserve WSIB supports, and we recognize that we need to do more to support that. We’ve strengthened the WSIB, put it in a solid financial position so that we can do more for injured workers, and that’s what we’re doing. Thyroid, pancreatic cancer, esophageal cancer—these are all things previous Liberal governments could have done, but they didn’t. They didn’t because WSIB, under their watch, was a mess, quite frankly. They didn’t because they didn’t prioritize this. We are, and I value the advocacy of the OPFFA. I value the firefighter advocacy to get us to this place, and I thank them for what they’ve done.

Speaker, what we’re doing by banning Canadian work experience—I was in an Uber the other day, and that Uber driver recognized that by banning Canadian work experience requirements, something this bill has done, something that member would have asked about but didn’t because he’s got no leg to stand on—is empowering newcomers, newcomers like Shanny, who we met at the Canadian newcomer centre. That member would rather she live off social assistance than actually have the dignity of a job and to provide for her family. He wants misery. He wants poverty. He wants to push a minimum-wage economy. We here are going to stand for better, because we know Ontarians deserve better. He wants them out of a job, living off government handouts.

488 words
  • Hear!
  • Rabble!
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