43e législature, 1re session

L164B - Thu 30 May 2024 / Jeu 30 mai 2024

LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO

ASSEMBLÉE LÉGISLATIVE DE L’ONTARIO

Thursday 30 May 2024 Jeudi 30 mai 2024

Private Members’ Public Business

Injured Workers Day Act, 2024 / Loi de 2024 sur la Journée des travailleurs blessés

 

Report continued from volume A.

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Private Members’ Public Business

Injured Workers Day Act, 2024 / Loi de 2024 sur la Journée des travailleurs blessés

MPP West moved second reading of the following bill:

Bill 118, An Act to proclaim Injured Workers Day / Projet de loi 118, Loi proclamant la Journée des travailleurs blessés.

The Acting Speaker (Ms. Patrice Barnes): Pursuant to standing order 100, the member has 12 minutes for his presentation.

MPP Jamie West: Hello, colleagues. Bonjour. Anaii.

Speaker, we’re here today to discuss Bill 118, Injured Workers Day Act, projet de loi 118, la Journée des travailleurs blessés. This is my PMB, but it belongs to all of us in here, and I’m going to explain why. It belongs to all of us because I am sure that all of us care about injured workers. We care about those workers and their friends and their families as well. For over 40 years, people across Ontario have been recognizing Injured Workers Day on June 1. Most of us—I’m sure all of us—have attended.

Let me tell you something interesting about this day: It started at Queen’s Park. There are a lot of days that start outside of Toronto, outside of Queen’s Park, and then are brought here. The Day of Mourning, for example, started in Sudbury and was recognized in my city, in my riding, for a couple of years before it was recognized federally and then recognized all around the world. But Injured Workers Day started right here at Queen’s Park—on the front steps, in fact, Speaker.

In 1983, the provincial government committee was working on major changes to Ontario’s worker compensation system. At that time, more than 3,000 injured workers came here to be heard. The committee responded by removing the committee from the committee room and holding deputations on the front steps of the Legislature. That day was June 1, 1983, and that was the very first Injured Workers Day.

That historic day, the one that started here at Queen’s Park, is recognized every year in cities and towns right across this province. However, Injured Workers Day has never been formally recognized by the province. I didn’t know this; I’m not pretending that I did. I learned it from ONIWG—we have friends from ONIWG in the gallery. Last June, in 2023, just before the 40th anniversary, they let me know, and they asked if I could put this bill forward. And though my name is on it, I think it belongs to all of us, because I think many of us just weren’t aware, because it’s in the calendars.

So just before the 40th anniversary, I tabled Bill 118, the Injured Workers Day Act, and now we’re debating this bill two days before the 41st unofficial Injured Workers Day. I’m hopeful that this year, 2024, can be the first year that Injured Workers Day is officially proclaimed as a recognized day in Ontario.

Madame la Présidente, les accidents du travail ont des conséquences profondes pour les travailleurs, leurs familles et leurs collectivités. La Journée des travailleurs blessés permet à la province de l’Ontario de reconnaître les personnes qui ont été blessées au travail ou qui ont subi des blessures en raison des conditions existant dans leurs milieux de travail. Il s’agit d’une journée de sensibilisation aux problèmes liés aux accidents du travail et à la situation tragique des travailleurs blessés, et de manifestation d’un engagement en faveur de la prévention et de la réparation des accidents du travail.

Plus de 3 000 travailleurs blessés se sont rassemblés à Queen’s Park le 1er juin 1983 et le comité gouvernemental a tenu une audience publique sur les marches de l’assemblée législative. Partout en Ontario, chaque 1er juin, des travailleurs blessés et leurs alliés se rassemblement et rendent hommage aux travailleurs qui ont perdu la vie ou ont été gravement blessés à cause des lieux de travail. Même si tout a commencé à Queen’s Park, cette journée n’a jamais été officiellement reconnue par la province.

En 2023, c’était le 40e anniversaire de ce premier rassemblement pour la Journée des travailleurs blessés. J’espère que 2024 sera la première année où cette journée sera officiellement proclamée journée reconnue en Ontario. Cette journée, c’est peut-être une petite chose, mais c’est très significatif pour beaucoup. C’est la bonne chose à faire.

Speaker, it’s the right thing to do. This may seem like a small thing but this is the right thing to do, and it’s an easy thing to do. It’s an incredible and important thing for injured workers, for their friends and for their families.

In the gallery with us today, Speaker, we’re joined by guests who want to be present for the debate. It’s very important. We have Willy Noiles, the acting president for ONIWG, the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups; Orlando Buonastella from the Injured Workers Community Legal Clinic; we have Pennee Iaboni from the OFL; Wayne Harris, an injured worker, is here; Sang Hun Mun; Zonia Guerro; Li Ping Wang and Zhimin Wang; along with Novelette Evans. And we have many people who are watching on TV because some workers who are injured can’t come here. They can’t travel the distance or they can’t access the building, and so we know it’s important to them.

I often say in debate that the most powerful voices are the ones that we are able to echo and amplify. I want to read a quote from Janet Paterson from the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups. When asked about the bill she said, “We would be so pleased to have the Ontario Legislature officially recognize June 1 as Injured Workers Day. Injured workers often feel invisible, especially those 20,000 workers each year with a severe injury or an illness that end up as a permanent, lifelong disability. We often lose our jobs, our income, our place in life and our social connections. This could be one step forward to help us heal and to create a more inclusive society.”

We had a press conference in Sudbury to speak about this last week, Speaker, and Marcel Mayhew came down. He was joined by his wife Betty. Marcel has been living with a work-related injury for years. He said, “I hurt my back a long time ago working underground and was sent to work on the surface. The loss of underground pay presented a financial hardship for me, something that I still struggle with. I’m not doing the best with my back. I got a hard time to get around, and I’m lucky I’ve got a partner that helps me. So you know, it’s life. And as we go, we wish that it’s gonna get better. But it’s not gonna get better.”

Andréane Chénier from the Canadian Union of Public Employees said, “La meilleure façon d’affronter et résoudre un problème complexe, c’est d’en parler. Un projet de loi qui proclame la Journée des travailleurs blessés encourage ces dialogues.”

In English, she said, “The best way to confront and resolve a complex problem is to talk about it. A bill proclaiming Injured Workers’ Day encourages these talks.”

Sean Staddon, a steelworker from Local 6500, my own union—Sean works in the compensation office. It’s the main job he does, and it takes much more than 40 hours a week. Sean said, “USW Local 6500 welcomes MPP West’s new bill that will finally recognize the struggle injured workers face. For decades, our union has been fighting to make it socially unacceptable to die, be injured, or become ill on the job. Injured workers deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. This motion is the first step towards recognition.”

Sean represents miners, and I want to talk about Dean Cull who sent me this about his injury underground. The story is a little bit moving because of the extent of the injury, Speaker:

“On January 11, 2017, my arm was severed and my life changed forever. I was very fortunate that the accident occurred next to a refuge station”—that’s like a lunchroom underground. “Upon entering the refuge, I noticed all of the blood I was losing at which time my partner used his miner’s belt to tourniquet my arm.

“I underwent three surgeries. The first one involved three different specialists. It lasted eight hours. The second surgery took four hours. They took the skin from my right thigh to repair my left arm. The third surgery was to try and put my arm bone back into my elbow. It was unsuccessful. From then on I had to go to London to see specialists to figure out what they could do to get my arm to be operational again.

“Up until the beginning of July, I had no arm or hand function. Then Dr. King took bone from my hip to build back the bone in my left arm and was finally able to restore limited function.

“February 5 of 2018 was my last surgery. They did ligament replacement surgery so I would have finger and thumb movement.

“From January 2017 to around September 2018 I was in rehab three days a week to get maximum medical recovery.

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“Sometime in June 2018 I returned to work even though my doctors recommended against it. Simply put, I wanted my life back.

Many different jobs were tried and were deemed inappropriate for me. After a few months they had me doing the cage”—the elevator that brings you underground—“where I was sheltered” and worked “about 10 minutes of work per day.”

“It didn’t take long for me to realize that mining environment wasn’t compatible for someone who had sustained the injuries I had. Soon after, I realized that my arm and hip, plus some psychological issues from the accident, were too much to overcome.

“There’s so much to add. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

I’m going to close with a quote from Janice Martell from the McIntyre Powder Project. Members who were here last term would remember that conversations we had with Janice when we had the apology for the miners who were underground. I think Janice summarizes what Dean was talking about: “Our working lives provide us with much more than income, and workplace injuries take away much more than the ability to feed our families. We lose pride, connection, engagement and meaning. Setting aside a day to officially recognize injured workers and commit to addressing the impacts of workplace injuries is a significant step toward healing.”

In closing, this is my bill, but it is all of our bill. We all care about injured workers, every single one of us in here. I know that from the conversations that we have. We want things to be better for them, we care about them, we care about their friends and their families. Every single one of us knows that. As we say in Sudbury, the most important thing to come out from the mine is the worker. Every single one of us wants to ensure these workers are safe.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Deepak Anand): Further debate?

Ms. Patrice Barnes: I’m pleased to rise in the House today in support of Bill 118, Injured Workers Day Act. I’d like to thank the member from Sudbury for bringing this forward. Welcome to the guests in the gallery.

Our government recognizes the importance of working to keep workers healthy and safe, as well as supporting the individuals who have been injured at work or who have suffered illnesses because of their work. Injured Workers Day would provide another opportunity to bring awareness to issues around workplace injury and illness. As we continue to demonstrate our commitment to workplace injury prevention and compensation, we want to say to the injured workers, “We see you and you are not forgotten.”

Since 2018, under the leadership of Premier Ford, we have been working to improve protections and compensation for Ontario workers. Just this month, the Minister of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development introduced Bill 190, this government’s fifth Working for Workers bill that, if passed, will continue to enhance worker safety and compensation in Ontario.

As part of our Working for Workers Five Act and its complementary package of actions to support and protect workers, we are proposing a new requirement under the Occupational Health and Safety Act for washrooms provided for workers. While in construction it’s already a requirement for washrooms to be kept in a clean and sanitary condition, we are proposing rolling out similar requirements for all types of workplaces across the province.

To ensure that this a regular practice, constructors and employers will be required to maintain an up-to-date cleaning log for each washroom, to be prescribed by regulation in the future. This would allow workers to see when the washrooms were last cleaned and keep the people in charge accountable. Clean and sanitary washrooms are a basic step in preventing the spread of bacteria and disease. No worker should be confronted with a dirty, unsanitary washroom while they’re at work. It is something most of us take for granted here at the Legislature and offices.

We’re also proposing to modernize the Occupational Health and Safety Act to include virtual harassment in its definition of “workplace harassment” and “workplace sexual harassment.” The harms people can face at work are not just physical anymore. Workplace harassment, including sexual harassment, whether it’s in person or online, can take a great toll on somebody’s mental health and sense of personal safety. Since many workers now work from home all or part of the time, virtual workplace harassment is something we increasingly need to ensure we’re protecting workers from.

To complement this proposal, our ministry is planning consultations on more potential changes to prevent and address incidents of workplace harassment, because harassment, whether it’s online or face to face, is unacceptable. We’re working to protect workers’ psychological safety as well as their physical safety.

To further protect workers, especially our everyday heroes working to build Ontario, including building at least 1.5 million homes by 2031, our ministry will also consult and expand on the types of equipment to be provided on construction projects, equipment like defibrillators, something that can make all the difference between life and death in the event of a sudden cardiac arrest on a job site. Additionally, we are planning a comprehensive review of traumatic fatalities in the construction sector led by Ontario’s Chief Prevention Officer, Dr. Joel Moody, as well as incorporating asbestos-related data into the ministry’s forthcoming occupational exposure registry to improve our efforts to prevent future asbestos-related illnesses.

Of course, we cannot forget workers who have already been injured or become ill due to their job, especially the heroes who put all of us first every day, who risk their lives for ours when they go to work: Ontario’s firefighters. They deserve a government that recognizes the risks they take and provides more expansive supports, which is why our government is ensuring wildland firefighters and investigators have the same presumptive coverage that municipal firefighters have for occupational cancers, heart injuries and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Changes to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, if passed, would include wildland firefighters and wildland fire investigators in Workplace Safety and Insurance Board presumptive coverage for post-traumatic stress disorder. This complements a regulatory change we made to the firefighters regulation on May 1 to include wildland firefighters and wildland fire investigators in presumptive Workplace Safety and Insurance Board coverage for occupational cancers and heart injuries as well.

To further improve occupational cancer presumptive coverage for all firefighters and fire investigators, including those fighting and investigating wildfires, we are proposing to improve presumptive coverage for primary-site skin cancer by reducing the duration of service required prior to diagnosis from 15 years to 10 years, once again leading Canada with the lowest duration of service in the country. If passed, this change would allow more firefighters and investigators suffering from occupational cancer to access Workplace Safety and Insurance Board benefits and services they need and deserve.

I know everyone in this chamber today sees the importance of standing with front-line heroes. That is why our ministry is also planning to consult on expanding presumptive post-traumatic stress disorder coverage to more workers. We want to further support workers who regularly witness traumatic situations in their jobs, since psychological injuries can be just as life-altering as physical ones.

Our most recent Working for Workers actions for better safety and compensation build on steady progress we have been making under the leadership of Premier Ford through previous Working for Workers packages and stand-alone items. We have included things such as:

—mandating that certain at-risk workplaces have life-saving naloxone kits on site and workers are trained on how to use them;

—increasing the maximum fines for corporations convicted of Occupational Health and Safety Act violations to $2 million;

—improving washrooms for construction workers;

—mandating properly fitting personal protective equipment and clothing be available for workers of all body types;

—improving crane safety on construction sites by clarifying existing requirements and making industry best practices mandatory by law;

—improving ventilation requirements in underground mines and lowering occupational exposure limits for diesel exhaust to one of the most protective levels in North America;

—updating the standards for mandatory working-at-heights training to better address one of the leading causes of workplace deaths in industries like construction;

—commissioning the province’s first-ever review of the occupational illness landscape;

—expanding presumptive coverage for cancers for firefighters and fire investigators to include thyroid and pancreatic cancers; and

—reducing the time firefighters and fire investigators need to have been employed prior to diagnosis to receive presumptive coverage for esophageal cancer, moving that from 25 years to 15 years.

Speaker, in conclusion, despite the progress we have made to date, there is always more to do because everyone deserves to come home healthy and safe at the end of their shift, and those who are injured or develop an illness due to their work deserve to be appropriately supported.

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We will always keep working to support and protect workers. So, Speaker, we on the government side are proud to support Bill 118, the Injured Workers Day Act.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Deepak Anand): I recognize the member from Thunder Bay–Superior North.

MPP Lise Vaugeois: As most people know, I am the critic for WSIB and injured workers, and I am proud to stand today in support of this bill to make June 1 officially Injured Workers Day.

This is the 41st year marking Injured Workers Day—a day that came out of a successful protest that took place on the steps of Queen’s Park. Making this day official acknowledges the importance of that event 41 years ago. It recognizes the contributions and sacrifices of people injured or poisoned while working and serves to grow an advocacy movement that can speak on behalf of injured workers.

When a worker is seriously injured and is not able to return to the workplace, without any malice intended, they simply disappear from those workplaces. For other workers, life carries on. But for the person no longer to able to function as they once did, everything changes.

I want to remind everyone here of the horrible tragedy not that long ago that happened to one of our colleagues on his first day of work at Queen’s Park. He tripped and fell down the stairs, striking his head, and was in an induced coma for a week. All the excitement about his new job, all the enormous potential he brought to his position—well, he has not been able to come back.

We carry on here, never really imagining that our lives could also change in an instant. It is human nature to block these ideas from our minds, so we need to be reminded constantly that injuries happen and that everything about our lives—who we see ourselves to be, the kinds of futures we can imagine for ourselves—can change in an instant, and if that happens, we, like other people experiencing life-altering injuries, are at risk of being completely cut off from all the people who were our friends, our colleagues and our co-workers. And these life changes can lead to the loss of a home, of family, and sometimes the will to survive.

Injured and ill workers represent thousands and thousands of people whose service needs to be recognized and celebrated, and whose lives, now as injured workers, need also to be celebrated and supported.

Recognizing Injured Workers Day is our opportunity as MPPs to show our respect and caring for those injured or made ill at work.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Deepak Anand): Further debate?

Ms. Catherine Fife: I want to thank the member from Sudbury, our amazing labour critic, for bringing forward this important PMB.

Speaker, workplace injuries profoundly affect workers, their families and their communities. Injured Workers Day is a day to bring awareness to issues of workplace injury and the plight of injured workers. I’m going to be highlighting some stories from Waterloo that highlight the urgency of this need.

In 2015, the Waterloo community was shaken by the news of a young man falling to his death while working at a Kitchener-Waterloo construction site. Central Construction plead guilty to failing to implement appropriate safety measures in connection to the death of Nick Lalonde. He was 23 years old.

Nick Lalonde—I have to say, it stays with our entire community, Mr. Speaker. This is a man that—it’s 10 years ago—should still be with us, should still be with his daughter and should still be with his family. We should all agree that no one should ever be concerned that their son will go to work and not come home. As the mother of a new electrician in the province of Ontario, this hits close to home.

It’s true that when we think of workplace incidents, we think of construction sites, but rec centres and schools also see their own safety issues. Just last week, I went to a press conference for the report from the local school boards. A teacher almost lost her pregnancy after being repeatedly punched in the stomach. A survey of education workers in Waterloo region found more than 99% have experienced violence at school, with the majority feeling schools are no longer safe. These are serious issues that we should be considering as a Legislature.

Last year, over 2,000 incidents were reported in the public system, or about 14 per day. According to the University of Waterloo data, workplace accidents are most likely to occur in moderately dangerous settings. Although some people might expect very dangerous jobs to be associated with the highest incidence of workplace accidents, a new study finds that accidents are actually most likely to occur within moderately dangerous work environments. In highly dangerous environments, individuals engage in a high degree of safety behaviours, which offsets the chance of an accident. This is all very important information that could be shared on Injured Workers’ Day. It is a day where we recognize the individuals who have been injured at work and who have suffered injuries as a result of their workplace conditions and to ensure preventative measures are in place. We cannot lose any more lives to workplace hazards.

Once again, I would like to thank the member from Sudbury for bringing forward this private member’s bill. It is needed. It is something that we can do together.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Deepak Anand): Further debate?

Mr. Terence Kernaghan: I’d also like to thank the member from Sudbury for introducing Bill 118, recognizing Injured Workers’ Day across Ontario.

People are defined by the work that they do. It makes me think back to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales where the chapters were based upon the profession of people, and it seems that little has changed. People often make judgments based upon the professions that people have. In fact, many new members to this great Legislature will often not define themselves as a politician because of the stereotypes that exist; although I would say that they should be changing that stereotype through their decisions, their attitude, the way they treat people and their own personhood. But one needs only think of a doctor or a lawyer and the stereotypes that spring to mind.

Now, the problem with stereotypes is that there sometimes is the ring of truth, but they don’t define the entirety of that profession or the person. What we have to understand and contend with are the stereotypes that have been created surrounding injured workers within this province, the judgment that has often been baked in or coded into some of the language that has been used by governments in the past when talking about offering people a hand-up rather than a handout. The judgment is very much coded within that.

But the question remains, Speaker: What happens when you become injured and you lose that ability to work? Does that mean that you lose your personhood? Does that mean that you lose your worth and your value in society? I would suggest that you do not and that bills, such as Bill 118, will help restore and change the conversation that happens.

Too often in our capitalist society—some would even actually describe our society as a new sort of feudalism—someone’s worth is defined by that work that they do and less attention is given to things like unpaid labour, charity work, volunteerism, values, principles, faith and sometimes even education.

But our role here as legislators ought to be to recognize, to acknowledge, to honour those people who have gone to work and, through no fault of their own, have come home a changed person. I think about injured workers who feel a sense of invisibility, that loss of self, that loss of purpose, loss of relationships and, really, a loss of financial security. We could go on and on about the problems with WSIB, with deeming, with phantom jobs, with hired-gun physicians who never actually see the person, but that’s not something that we’re here to solve today.

I strongly encourage this government, this Conservative government, to have their actions match their words. They would claim that they stand up for workers. Today is an opportunity. I want to thank the member from Sudbury for giving this opportunity to recognize, to respect, to acknowledge and to really combat the stereotype of injured workers, to really change the language. I want to thank the member from Sudbury. This bill belongs to all of us, as he has very rightly said. I hope that the government will see it within their conscious and within their hearts to support it.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Deepak Anand): Further debate?

Mr. Peter Tabuns: I appreciate the opportunity. As have my colleagues, I want to thank my friend from Sudbury for introducing this bill today. I think it’s well-timed—overdue, but well-timed. As he had said at the beginning of his speech, we are looking at the anniversary—I guess, the 41st now—of the famous hearings at this Legislature in 1983 when thousands of injured workers showed up wanting to speak to the situation that they were facing and the changes that they needed.

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As you are well aware, Speaker, as everyone in this chamber is well aware, if you do not have people who work, you don’t have workers; you don’t have an economy; you don’t have buildings; you don’t have health care; you don’t have education; you don’t have food in the stores. You have to have working people to make a society run. And yet, those workers and the injuries they sustain are not given the attention that they deserve, that they need. Injured workers are not given the respect and recognition that they require, but they’re also not given the fiscal support that they deserve.

People may well be aware of the practice of deeming, where people who are injured are told that they could take this job over here, and if they took that job, their income would be X and that’s deducted from any payments they get from WSIB. That is just simply appallingly brutal.

Those who are injured—people who have had their lungs damaged, who lose a limb, who have heart disease, have repetitive strain injury—deserve decent care and deserve financial support. Putting in place recognition for this day is not going to solve all that but at least shows respect and gives an opportunity on an annual basis to raise these issues, bring them to public attention and hopefully lead to corrections.

Speaker, I think recognition of injured workers is very important, but I think it’s also important to take the steps necessary to reduce the number of injuries that people are subjected to. There is no doubt, if you look at the stats, that unionized workplaces are safer workplaces. So if you want to make sure that there are fewer people injured, make it easier for people to unionize. Make it easier for them to get their first contract. You will substantially reduce the number of people in this society who are injured. If you want to reduce the number of people who are injured and the financial cost and the personal burden, put in place health and safety legislation that actually protects people.

As the world is getting hotter, more and more people are going to be subjected to heat that will cause injury—heat stroke, obviously; coronary problems, and, something most people don’t think about, kidney failure. Increasingly, in the United States, workers exposed to excessive heat are being put on dialysis because of kidney failure.

Speaker, I support this bill and I ask that it be used as a jump-off point to bring in further protections.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Deepak Anand): The time for the debate has expired.

The member from Sudbury has two minutes to reply.

MPP Jamie West: I’d like to thank my colleagues for their comments—the members from Ajax and Waterloo and London North Centre and Toronto Danforth.

In particular, I really want to recognize the member for Thunder Bay–Superior North, who is the Ontario NDP WSIB critic. When I was first brought in as labour critic, I relied on Lise so much for help with WSIB and her breadth of knowledge. And I want to recognize Marit Stiles, as the leader for the party, for making her the critic so we could really help focus on WSIB issues.

I also want to thank the minister. The Minister of Labour called me earlier last week to talk about the bill and to learn more. I don’t want to divulge, but I appreciate having those conversations and being able to talk about the importance of this.

Members in the gallery may notice that when we speak, we pause for a second, because we’re not allowed to use our own names. Many of us forget the ridings we’re in because we call each other by our first names all the time. So, in reflection of that, with the guests, I want to use their first names and to think about how it would affect us if we knew people with the same name, or if we knew the guest, if they weren’t here anymore: Willy, Orlando, Pennee, Wayne, Sang, Zonia, Li, Zhimin, Novelette.

I started by the quote from Janice Hobbs from the McIntyre Powder Project. I want to close with that:

“That’s what happens with injured workers—they quietly go away.

“In many ways our co-workers are like family, yet when they leave, we don’t stay in touch.

“For injured workers there’s a loss of pride, a lack of income.

“They don’t get a retirement party.

“They don’t get to say goodbye.

“They just quietly go away.

“Injured Workers Day is an opportunity for them to not be quiet. It’s another way to be remembered.

“I hope all parties can support this bill and recognize these workers.”

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Deepak Anand): The time provided for private members’ public business has expired.

Mr. West has moved second reading of Bill 118, An Act to proclaim Injured Workers Day. Is it the pleasure of the House that the motion carry? Carried.

Second reading agreed to.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Deepak Anand): Pursuant to standing order 100(h), the bill is referred to the Committee of the Whole House, unless—

MPP Jamie West: Finance.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Deepak Anand): Is the majority in favour of this bill being referred to the standing committee on finance? Agreed. The bill is referred to the standing committee on finance.

All matters relating to private members’ public business having been completed, orders of the day.

Mr. Trevor Jones: No further business.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Deepak Anand): Since there’s no further business, this House stands adjourned until Monday, June 3, 2024, at 9 a.m.

The House adjourned at 1556.