Ms. Lisa MacLeod: I'll have an opportunity to speak to this legislation at greater length after my colleague from Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock finishes off his two minutes, but I did want to enter the debate today. This bill emanates from a tragedy that occurred in this province due to the black market and people trying to find a job-in this case, in construction-and ultimately, they paid the dearest and most powerful price any person could pay, which is losing their life.

We in the Ontario PC caucus, and our colleague Randy Hillier, from the longest-named riding here-let me see what his riding name is. Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington-he's worked through our caucus and we've had quite the debate. We support Tony Dean's panel. We believe that more needs to be done to encourage people to work in the legitimate market and not on the black market.

Having said that, in the Ontario PC caucus we have grave concerns that this piece of legislation doesn't do what Tony Dean's panel had intended-or recommended, for that matter. That's why we have serious concerns today with Bill 160, and that's why we'll continue to speak for other opportunities to increase safety training in Ontario, but also to eliminate that black market and make it more attractive for employees to find work in legitimate opportunities. So I'd like to thank you, and I look forward to entering the debate at a longer period of time in a few moments.

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: It is my pleasure to address this legislation, Bill 160, on behalf of the Ontario PC caucus and our leader, Tim Hudak, and of course our critic, Randy Hillier. I think it's really important, as we continue on the debate, to put what has happened in context.

On Christmas Day 2009, many of us in Ontario greeted very sad news-along with a very happy day-when we learned that four workers were killed in the city of Toronto and another grievously injured when the scaffolding that was supporting them during their work on Christmas Day collapsed. The workers were illegal immigrants, and the scaffolding had been improperly maintained.

As a result, the government launched a panel on worker safety. That panel was chaired by Tony Dean, a former secretary of cabinet, and the blue-ribbon panel consisted of academics, labour representatives and members of the industry. Almost a year later-and it took almost a year to study this tragedy and others-the panel came back with a series of recommendations in December 2010, just a few short months ago, to mark the near anniversary of that tragedy.

There were obviously political circumstances around that as well. The then Minister of Labour announced that legislation would be forthcoming, effectively on the same day deciding he would become a federal Liberal candidate and shamelessly, I believe, used this legislation to further a political cause. But I will give credit where it's due to Premier McGuinty for taking swift action on that matter.

Having said that, having said that, this bill falls far short of what we in the Ontario PC caucus believe needs to be done, namely to eradicate the black market and make it safer for illegal immigrants or anyone else who is working to ensure that no one else has to die when they're working.

The report by Tony Dean's blue-ribbon panel focused on the black market in construction. The bill does nothing to prevent employers from entering the black market. Indeed, we have heard that through the HST more people are going underground, whether that is in the home renovation sector or in others across Ontario. This is a real challenge that we are facing in this province, particularly for people who have found themselves without a job, given the job losses we've seen in Ontario and other places across Canada.

The report offered significant steps to increase safety training in Ontario, and the bill does nothing to increase training.

In fact, we are actually concerned in this Legislature on the opposition side, given what we've seen in recent weeks the attacks on our leader, the leader of the official opposition, by the Working Families Coalition, that this bill is going to create another bureaucratic committee that Pat Dillon can sit on. Earlier this week, I asked a question in the Legislature-and Pat Dillon, as many know, sits on the WSIB ...

-this bill is going to create yet another bureaucratic committee that Pat Dillon can sit on. Earlier this week, I asked a question in the Legislature-and Pat Dillon, as many know, sits on the WSIB. He also sits on the college of trades appointments council secretariat and gets handsome per diems. He works with Liberal insiders who have had an opportunity to pool their resources to skirt Ontario election laws to do one thing, and that's to defeat Ontario PC candidates and to attack our leader, Tim Hudak. We believe that this bill would create another bureaucratic entity on which he will be able to have a seat and use his influence and potentially abuse taxpayer dollars.

While the bill contains numerous new obligations and regulations for industry, it also has no similar requirements from labour. That is concerning. As with other recent Liberal bills, many of the substantive portions of the legislation are left for the regulations, and in this chamber we have said on numerous occasions that that is a significant problem.

You will recall July 1 of last year when, by regulation, over 900,000 items in Ontario were hit with an eco tax. That fee or tax never hit the floor of this Legislature, because it came by way of regulation. The question the Ontario PC caucus then has is, are there going to be new taxes or fees levied as a result of this legislation, that we will find out by way of regulation? It's another question that we have, because this isn't a fulsome bill. In fact, what it is is another bill that puts forth a few ideas by the government, that gives the Minister of Labour more oversight and ability to set standards, but it doesn't specifically prescribe what those are.

The challenge before us, of course, is to say, can we trust this government to do a number of things? One is to eliminate the black market, when we've seen that they've grown it, given the HST. The second is that it not create another bureaucratic institution that their friends can sit on, namely Patrick Dillon. We can't trust that that won't happen. And finally, again, when you see that most of the substantive portions of this legislation are left to regulation, we then have to ask, are we expecting to be hit with another tax, or are we expecting to see what happened with that secret G20 security law, which was done behind the public's back and outside of this Legislature?

With those three key variables, it's very difficult to support what the government is doing and it's very difficult to applaud them for not going the full road of where Tony Dean's panel came in. Again, I just want to reiterate that the Ontario PC caucus does support the findings of Tony Dean at the time-and I know every member of this Legislature shares in the grief and the sympathies for the families who did lose loved ones. We must remember in this chamber that we are here to protect the people of Ontario, whether they are children, women, new Canadians or workers. That is our job, and that's why it's important to have this debate today.

Having said that, Bill 160, I can safely say, does not allay any of our concerns with this current government. With that, Mr. Speaker, I would like to welcome comments from my colleagues. I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to speak to this bill. I'd like to urge all of my colleagues to remember that the purpose of the Dean panel was to eradicate the black market in construction. I think it is important for all of us to remember that as we continue the debate on this legislation.

Ms. Lisa MacLeod: I do hope I acknowledge all of my colleagues. By my estimation, my colleagues from Scarborough Southwest, Durham and Trinity–Spadina offered their opinions in this debate, and I appreciate that. I particularly appreciate the parliamentary assistant coming to discuss this.

Look, I’m going to be very clear: We do have concerns, in the Ontario PC caucus, with the piece of legislation. It was drafted in response to a crisis, a tragedy that occurred on Christmas Day with four illegal immigrants working in the black market. The blue-ribbon panel that was created, that Tony Dean chaired—he focused his report on the black market. This legislation does not do that, with all due respect to the government.

We have valid concerns. We believe that this bill could be better to eradicate the black market. I will stand here and defend that line, because I wholly believe, as my colleagues do as well, that the best way to protect workers is to ensure that they’re working in legitimate employment that does adhere to standards. It’s one thing to put standards on legitimate employers, which is important; however, if you’re not doing anything to eradicate how this occurred in the first place, which is the black market, we have a real challenge in Ontario.

Again, I’ll go back to one of the key issues that has driven people into the underground economy in Ontario recently: It’s the HST. We’ve heard that from the home renovation sector, as well as others, and I would ask the government, in the coming days and weeks before we leave this place for an election, to address...underground economy in Ontario recently is the HST. We’ve heard that from the home renovation sector, as well as others, and I would ask the government, in the coming days and weeks before we leave this place for an election, to address that challenge and to address the challenge that we all see result of this underground black market economy.