SPEECH FROM THE THRONE / DISCOURS DU TRÔNE
The House met at 1503.
His Honour the Lieutenant Governor was pleased to open the session by reading the speech from the throne.
SPEECH FROM THE THRONE / DISCOURS DU TRÔNE
Hon Henry N.R. Jackman (Lieutenant Governor): Pray be seated.
Mr Speaker, members of the Legislative Assembly, ladies and gentlemen:
I have the honour of welcoming you to the opening of the third session of the 35th Parliament of the province of Ontario.
This speech from the throne is not about business as usual. We are living in times of great change. Ontario, which has for decades been the industrial heartland of this country, the engine driving Canadian manufacturing and exports, has had some hard blows: high interest rates, an overvalued dollar and trade agreements that have not ensured access to markets. We shall continue to work for alternatives to these policies.
Pour bien mesurer les conséquences de la récession, il faut tenir compte des répercussions qu'elle a eues pour la population ontarienne. On entend souvent dire que l'Ontario a perdu plus de 300 000 emplois ces trois dernières années ; c'est un nombre qui fait réfléchir. Car chaque fois qu'un emploi disparaît, une vie est transformée du jour au lendemain.
A million people in this province have suffered from unemployment. Many thousands have had to turn -- for the first time in their lives -- to public assistance for food, shelter and clothing. The discomfort and anxiety of these people was what most affected this government when it came into office.
We acted immediately. We invested in jobs and training to turn the talents and ambitions of individuals towards achieving economic recovery. We started the job of rebuilding roads, schools and other infrastructure. We acted to preserve our health system with reforms to make it more efficient and affordable. We forged partnerships with individuals and groups in all parts of Ontario to rebuild our economy. Above all, we invested in people, despite falling revenues and failing federal support.
Our constant goal has been to put Ontario back to work. To ensure a robust and sustained recovery. To facilitate the creation of secure, well-paying jobs. There are now clear signs that Ontario's economy is improving. Over the last seven months, 110,000 jobs were created in the province. Exports are increasing. Companies are investing in Ontario again. Turning to the future, it is clear that we face a new challenge. We must all join together to ensure our ability to continue investments in jobs, training, education and essential services. We must act decisively to control our mounting provincial debt. Just as it made sense in our budgets of 1991 and 1992, at the height of the recession, to accept higher borrowing, it makes equal sense to reduce provincial borrowing now that the recovery is under way.
If we ignore this commitment, the deficit next year will rise from approximately $12 billion in the fiscal year just ended to about $17 billion in 1993-94. At the current rate of growth, the total provincial debt would rise to the unacceptable level of $120 billion by 1995-96. At that point interest payments on the debt would begin to eat into our budgets for essential services such as health care and education. Ontario would then be trapped in the debt quagmire that has afflicted Canada under the recent Liberal and Conservative administrations. This is what we want to avoid.
Our plan to put Ontario back to work includes immediate action to bring the provincial debt under control. This year we will put the province's finances on a course to ensure we can deliver the jobs and services people expect from their government.
Our economic package includes reductions in government expenditures, raising new revenues through taxes and sale of assets, and the negotiation of a social contract. Our challenge is to turn the need for cost reductions into an opportunity. To maintain investments in jobs and training. To improve essential services. To work out, in partnership with public sector employees and employers, ways to make their work more efficient and the services they provide more affordable.
This government is not unique among provinces in facing fiscal difficulties. What is unique about our situation is the way we have chosen to act. Our approach recognizes that the work public servants do is enormously valuable. It recognizes that the best results for Ontario are those obtained through openness and negotiation.
Some will no doubt say that to embark on major changes is to take risks. We run an even bigger risk by trying to maintain the status quo. If we fail to act now, our public services will become unaffordable. Knowing what we know today, failing to act would threaten the social and economic gains not just of a government but of a generation.
Our plan to put Ontario back to work goes beyond dealing with deficits. It is a plan that will bring about fundamental reforms in the delivery of government services to the public, and in the cost of those services. Some of its elements, such as health care reform and our investments through Jobs Ontario, are already in place. Others are being announced for the first time in this throne speech.
The goal is to return Ontario to a prosperity that is based on responsible fiscal management; investment in jobs; partnership between government, business and labour; principles of fairness and human dignity; respect for the environment; and an abiding concern to provide for the vulnerable among us, including our children.
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To achieve these overall objectives the government is carrying out the following 10-point plan.
1. Investing in our infrastructure: The government has launched more than 1,700 infrastructure projects through the Jobs Ontario Capital fund, creating more than 9,000 jobs across Ontario. Total capital spending by the government last year created about 75,000 jobs.
In partnership with municipalities and the private sector, we will invest $6 billion over the next decade to build new highways and public transit, improve water quality and conservation and expand telecommunications networks. We are introducing legislation this session to establish three new crown corporations -- the Transportation Capital Corp, the Ontario Clean Water Agency and the Ontario Realty Corp -- to make these investments a reality.
La restructuration d'Ontario Hydro assurera une tarification qui favorise le renouveau économique en rendant nos industries plus concurrentielles et qui procure à la population ontarienne une source d'énergie sûre à un prix abordable.
2. Emphasizing education and training: Since last summer, the government has helped create more than 19,000 new job opportunities through our Jobs Ontario Training programs. The number of jobs available is growing at the rate of 1,000 per week.
Jobs Ontario Training is getting thousands of people off welfare into jobs. Employers and employees alike benefit from training to upgrade skills that make our economy more competitive.
The new Ontario Training and Adjustment Board will add to this success. It reflects our commitment to work with labour, business, educators and the broader community to provide training that offers real opportunities in the real world.
This government recognizes that training cannot be separated from the larger issues involving the quality and cost of our education. Ontario schools must be able to prepare our children for the challenge of world citizenship in the 21st century.
A Commission on Learning -- with a focus on elementary and secondary education -- is being established. It will provide all the residents of Ontario an opportunity to help create an education system better able to meet the needs of the future. We will shortly appoint commissioners, who will be asked to report on their findings by the end of next year.
Province-wide testing of grade 9 students for reading and writing skills will be introduced later this year. Our education system must be more accountable to parents and students. Basic skills in language, math and science need to be widely shared by all Ontario students.
Our commitment to youth employment is an investment that will be repaid many times over. This summer we will invest an additional $25 million in Jobs Ontario Youth to create 10,000 summer jobs, on top of more than $150 million we have already committed to youth employment this year.
3. Building partnerships, strengthening industry: This government will continue to develop partnerships with the private sector -- to help Ontario industries grow and compete, while providing more and better jobs.
L'aide financière que nous avons accordée à des compagnies comme Chrysler, Ford, de Havilland, Dominion Castings et Mitel porte fruit et a des retombées sur les nombreux fournisseurs de ces entreprises dans tout l'Ontario. Nos investissements ont permis à ces compagnies de créer et de sauvegarder des emplois, d'accélérer leur expansion et d'accroître leur compétitivité.
This government's industrial policy is designed to promote new high-wage and environmentally sustainable jobs. The sector partnership fund provides investment and support for Ontario companies to work with each other and with labour in a climate of collaboration.
A strategy to expand and upgrade Ontario's telecommunications capability is under way. Our partnership with the plastics industry has helped set up three new centres for research and development. More agreements with key industrial sectors will be announced this session.
We will also set up a new Ontario innovation and productivity service to assist firms in exploiting the full potential of new technology. A new Ontario investment centre will provide one-stop shopping for potential investors in Ontario.
To meet the challenges of the new economy, Ontario companies need access to long-term capital. In partnership with the private sector, we will establish the Ontario investment fund to give companies a new source of long-term investment.
4. Supporting communities and small business: We are acting to bring economic renewal into the heart of our communities, particularly in rural and northern Ontario. The budget will contain details of our community economic development initiative.
This session, new community investment share and loan programs will also be established to give small and medium-sized businesses better access to money. This will assist people who want to invest in their local communities through business creation and expansion. As well, $100 million has been raised for venture capital investments in small and medium-sized Ontario companies through labour-sponsored investment funds.
To strengthen economic renewal, Ontario farmers are being provided with cost-effective financing and programs to stabilize farm income.
A commodity loan guarantee program has been initiated by the government using a provincial guarantee to provide farmers with lower-cost working capital. Over the next year, this program will give farmers access to $100 million.
5. Expanding worker protection and participation: This government will continue its efforts to expand worker participation in economic renewal. Through innovative worker ownership agreements, we are working to save jobs and Ontario communities. Success is reflected in our experience in Sault Ste Marie, in Kapuskasing and in Thunder Bay.
Two years ago, the future of the Spruce Falls pulp and paper mill in Kapuskasing was threatened. Working with the community, this government helped negotiate a unique employee ownership agreement that saved the mill, which recorded profits in 1992.
Just last month, we supported an employee buyout of Provincial Papers in Thunder Bay to preserve several hundred jobs in that community.
In this session, the government will extend pay equity to an additional 400,000 working women. Fair pay for the thousands of low-income workers who are mainly women caring for our children, our sick, our old people and our most vulnerable is a matter of simple justice. While the overall cost of compensation in the public sector needs to be reduced to preserve jobs and essential services, the foundation must be greater fairness. A start has already been made in the pay equity down payments announced earlier this spring.
6. Reforming health care: Notre gouvernement continuera de réformer le système de santé et d'en contrôler les coûts tout en améliorant la qualité de ses services qui font l'envie du monde entier.
Hospitals are now providing more outpatient care, occupancy rates are decreasing, hospital stays are shorter, more surgery is done as day surgery and the total number of patients treated is up. Over the previous decade, provincial spending on day care grew on average by about 11% a year. Now growth is just over 1%. The process of reform and change must continue. During this session, the government will implement a historic shift in the way we care for people, by introducing an innovative system of long-term care for the elderly and the disabled.
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7. Sustaining the environment: Improving the environment is key to Ontario. In this session, my government will seek approval of the environmental bill of rights. This bill will ensure that people and communities have the right to a cleaner and safer environment through a more open and accountable decision-making process.
We will also expand our reduce, reuse and recycle program, making it the most comprehensive in Canada. New regulations will require separation of recyclables by generators; waste reduction audits by the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors; packaging audits by major users; and will provide streamlined approvals for 3R sorting facilities.
8. Strengthening social justice: My government will continue to provide leadership in fighting discrimination of all kinds. We have made significant progress in implementing the recommendations of the Stephen Lewis report on race relations, and will continue these efforts with initiatives such as the Cabinet Round Table on Anti-Racism.
To meet the challenges of rapid change and economic renewal, we must take advantage of the full capabilities offered by our diverse society -- a key advantage in today's global economy.
This government's employment equity proposals will achieve a workable system that draws upon the talents of all Ontarians. We will seek passage of the Employment Equity Act this session.
9. Supporting families, getting back to work: The social assistance system is not working. No amount of tinkering will fix it. This government believes it is time for fundamental reform.
Our goal is to ensure that Ontarians can raise their children without having to rely on social assistance. We must help get people back to work, with a stronger link to training that is relevant to today's economy. A white paper setting out plans for reform will be released this summer.
High-quality child care is an essential support, particularly for women, to participate in the labour force. The Jobs Ontario Training fund is providing up to 20,000 more subsidized child care spaces, in addition to training and employment opportunities.
10. Controlling government costs: This government has outlined in recent weeks the specific steps we are taking to control costs, maintain essential services, and reduce the deficit -- driven by principles of fairness and shared responsibility. We have eliminated eight ministries of government and continued our internal spending controls. We are engaged in the historic act of negotiating a social contract with the 900,000 men and women who make up the public sector in Ontario. Other measures will include further reductions in government expenditures and raising additional revenues.
In conclusion, we know the state of the economy requires that we act decisively, and that is what we are doing. But we also know that the ability of people to thrive and enjoy life depends on the community that sustains them -- through education, health and a respect for fairness and equality.
As a society, we cannot move forward without bringing everyone along. We are in this together. That has been our guiding principle. We are in this together, to share the benefits, to bear the difficulties as a single community. Our economic policies are based upon that principle. So are our efforts to build partnerships to deal with issues and opportunities.
Our economic decisions are always guided by a concern for people; by the right of all the residents of Ontario to find in this community the conditions of fairness, respect and economic opportunity they need to build a better life for themselves and for their families.
L'Ontario demeure la province qui attire le plus grand nombre d'immigrants de tous les pays du monde. Ces personnes choisissent de s'établir ici parce qu'elles y voient une terre pleine de promesses, où elles pourront faire fructifier leurs talents et leurs aptitudes. Nous pouvons tirer une leçon de cette vision des choses. Notre province offre des avantages bien concrets que nous devrions tous être fiers de promouvoir.
The foundation of what we have built in Ontario is our respect for others and our concern for each other. Those simple human qualities, combined with our ability to work together, have made Ontario prosperous.
The programs, policies and investments that comprise the government's plan respect that tradition. It is a plan for social and economic change built upon partnership and responsibility, a plan for reform and restructuring that will preserve what is best about Ontario, while challenging all of us to make it better.
May Divine Providence attend your deliberations.
In our Sovereign's name, I thank you.
God bless the Queen and Canada.
Prayers.
The Speaker (Hon David Warner): I beg to inform the House that, to prevent mistakes, I have obtained a copy of His Honour's remarks, which I will now read.
[Reading dispensed with.]
INTRODUCTION OF BILLS
RYERSON POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY STATUTE LAW AMENDMENT ACT, 1993 / LOI DE 1993 MODIFIANT DES LOIS EN CE QUI CONCERNE LA RYERSON POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY
On motion by Mr Cooke, the following bill was given first reading:
Bill 1, An Act to amend The Ryerson Polytechnical Institute Act, 1977 and the University Foundations Act, 1992 / Loi modifiant la loi intitulée The Ryerson Polytechnical Institute Act, 1977 et la Loi de 1992 sur les fondations universitaires.
Hon David S. Cooke (Minister of Education and Training): Very briefly, Mr Speaker, I am pleased to bring forward in the House today a bill to amend the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute Act. With passage of this bill in the Legislature, Ryerson Polytechnical Institute will become Ryerson Polytechnic University, Ontario's first polytechnic university.
Ryerson is a fine institution that has served the students in this province since 1948. For many years, Ryerson students have taken university-level programs and met university-level expectations. I believe it is time that Ryerson students receive the same degrees as other students. Establishing Ryerson Polytechnic University also means that Ryerson will join a number of other polytechnic institutions in Britain and elsewhere that recently have achieved full degree-granting status.
Applied education, applied research: These are some of the keys to facilitating economic renewal. As an institution focusing on applied education and research, Ryerson is poised to make a tremendous contribution to the quality of life in Ontario. For these reasons, I am pleased to introduce in the House today a bill to establish Ryerson Polytechnic University.
MOTIONS
THRONE SPEECH DEBATE
Hon Brian A. Charlton (Chairman of the Management Board of Cabinet and Government House Leader): I move that the speech of His Honour the Lieutenant Governor to this House be taken into consideration tomorrow, Wednesday, April 14, 1993.
The Speaker (Hon David Warner): Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.
ADJOURNMENT MOTION
Hon Brian A. Charlton (Chairman of the Management Board of Cabinet and Government House Leader): I move the adjournment of the House.
The Speaker (Hon David Warner): Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.
This House stands adjourned until 1:30 of the clock tomorrow afternoon.
The House adjourned at 1534.