I want to acknowledge that today is Scottish Heritage Day in Ontario. It’s the second time that we’ve had it, and I want to thank former member Jimmy McDonell for putting it forward as part of a private member’s bill. I suspect that Mr. McDonell will be watching at some point today, so I’m proudly wearing Scottish attire. This is Black Watch. It is universal; anyone is welcome to wear it. And I am wearing my McPherson clan tie because I am part of the McPherson clan.

What we’re talking about today, though, is red tape reduction.

One of the things that our government embarked upon four years ago was reducing the amount of red tape. When we first were elected, we took a look at how many regulations we have in Ontario. What did we have in comparison to other provinces? We had more than 350,000 regulations in Ontario. As a number, 350,000 could be fantastic; it might be low—or it might be high. Just looking at it by itself, when you think about the amount of legislation that there is, the amount of things that government has to do, 350,000 could be a legitimate number. But upon further inspection, we found out that the province that had the second most regulations was British Columbia, at 169,000 regulations. We had about 150,000 more regulations than the number two province. I don’t think there’s anybody who would say that British Columbia has a low standard of living or that British Columbia isn’t a safe place to live. They are able to do with 169,000—that’s number two. Ontario had the most regulations of any province. When we looked at what those regulations did, what it meant for people in Ontario, what it meant for business in Ontario, we found that a lot of the regulatory burden existed in a way that stifled innovation, in a way that stifled business, in a way that made it more difficult.

I’ve said a number of times before that government’s role is to regulate to the point of integrity but not to the point of interference. I think the Ontario government, over the years, has gotten to the point where we’re beyond interference now. It’s very difficult for different industries to be nimble.

This morning, I was downstairs, in the legislative dining room, and there was a reception being held by OBIO—an organization that helps start-up companies in health care—and what we heard today was a prime example of that red tape and why red tape needs to be reduced, why we have to cut through so much of it. We have a large number of Ontario-based companies that are innovators in health care, that have done fantastic work. Their products are being sold in the United States and Europe, but they don’t meet the procurement requirements in Ontario—where the company exists, where the technology was developed, where the innovators live. They can’t do business in their own province because of some of the burdens that government has placed on simple things like procurement.

This is why we have embarked on red tape reduction bills. We can’t find ourselves in a position where Ontario has great innovations, where Ontario has fantastic intellectual property, where Ontario leads the world in something, but Ontario will not support the businesses from Ontario that are doing that. That’s why there’s a need for these red tape reduction bills.

When we were looking at the history of it, we discovered that the regulatory burden for compliance in Ontario in 2017, before we were elected, was about $33,000 per business. Granted, there are small businesses and large businesses, and the larger businesses obviously are paying more, and the smaller businesses may not pay quite as much—but when you divide it up, $33,000 a year in regulatory burden for the average business.

We know that more than 95% of businesses in Ontario are small and medium-sized businesses that employ the most people. The vast majority of companies in this province found themselves in a position where it was costing close to $35,000 a year, before they opened the door, before they turned the lights on, before a single person walked into the office, walked into the store, walked into the business—$33,000 a year. Think about that in terms of the small mom-and-pop shop. Think about that in terms of the corner convenience store. Think about that in terms of the landscaping company that’s employing a number of students over the course of the summer. Before they turn the lights on, they’ve got a $33,000 bill that they have to pay. Through some of the things that we have been doing so far, we have reduced that by about 6.5%. We’re making it easier for business to function.

This bill is no different than all of the others; this bill is making it easier to do things—and I want to touch on one of the things, in particular, on it: the Grow Ontario Strategy.

We know that we’ve got some of the greatest farmers in the entire world. Ontario feeds the world. There has been an expression for a number of years, “Farmers feed cities.” It is so true. And why is it that Ontario farms are so productive that way? Because of the innovations. I’ve talked about some of them in the past: automated milking, robotic milking, high-tech in dairy farming. I’ve made the statement before; I’ll make it again, because it is so true: Happy cows produce more milk.

In my riding of Peterborough–Kawartha, we have a number of dairy farms that have switched over to robotic milking or automatic milking. What all of them have said is, they’ve been able to reduce their herd by 50%. That’s 50% less cattle that are being fed, 50% less cattle that have to be looked after, 50% less cattle that have to see a vet—reducing the operating costs for that farm, but producing as much or more high-quality Ontario dairy products.

This is what can be done in a province when we reduce the amount of red tape that there is. The Grow Ontario Strategy is one of those things that’s going to help with that, because it’s taking that agri-food business and it’s making it that much more efficient. It’s going to add to how we produce things in Ontario.

And we’re not stopping just there. We’re embarking on a tour of northern Ontario. As the parliamentary assistant to northern development, I get the pleasure of being involved with the Ministry of Agriculture and going up to northern Ontario, to the Clay Belt, to see what we can do there to help improve Ontario’s ability to feed the entire world.

We’ve seen what has happened in Russia and Ukraine. Food insecurity is something that exists around the world. It’s not something that we’ve had a problem in producing enough food in Ontario for—but because we produce that extra amount, we have the ability to help with that food insecurity across the entire world.

There are a couple of really interesting things—potatoes, for example. I know; who gets excited about something like potatoes? I’m Scottish, so I don’t get excited about potatoes quite the same way that the Irish do. At one point, Ontario produced the most potato seedlings of any province in Canada, and we’ve got the ability to get back to that. We’ve got the ability to store, through innovation, those potatoes, so that they can be used year-round, instead of having to go to a southern state to pick up their crop in the winter.

These are all innovations that are done because you reduce the amount of red tape. When we reduce red tape, it means that our businesses have the opportunity to be more innovative, to pivot, to do things that are going to help the entire province, the entire world.

The Ontario government should not be the burden; we should not be the reason why Ontario businesses cannot thrive. With the amount of red tape that has been put out there, the amount of regulations that we have, we are not at the point of regulating for integrity; we’re at the point of interfering. Governments need to get out of the way. Businesses will innovate; businesses will improve; businesses will employ more people, giving a higher quality of life to the people who live in this great province, as long as we, the Ontario government, take that step back, remove those unnecessary burdens, make it easier for businesses to thrive, and make it easier for businesses—like in the health care sector—to actually sell their products to Ontario instead of having to rely on foreign markets.