Prabmeet Sarkaria

The Honourable
Prabmeet Sarkaria
KC MPP
The Honourable Prabmeet Sarkaria KC MPP
ਪ੍ਰਭਮੀਤ ਸਰਕਾਰੀਆ
Minister of Transportation
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; September 4, 2023
Premier	Doug Ford
Preceded by	Caroline Mulroney
President of the Treasury Board of Ontario
	In office; June 18, 2021 – September 4, 2023
Premier	Doug Ford
Preceded by	Peter Bethlenfalvy
Succeeded by	Caroline Mulroney
Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction
	In office; June 20, 2019 – June 18, 2021
Premier	Doug Ford
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Nina Tangri
Parliamentary Assistant to the Solicitor General
	In office; April 4, 2019 – June 20, 2019
Premier	Doug Ford
Succeeded by	Christine Hogarth and Belinda Karahalios
Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services
	In office; June 7, 2018 – April 4, 2019
Premier	Doug Ford
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Member of the Ontario Provincial Parliament; for Brampton South
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; June 7, 2018
Preceded by	Constituency established
Personal details
Born	August 2, 1988 (age 35); Canada
Political party	Progressive Conservative
Residence(s)	Brampton, Ontario
Alma mater	Wilfrid Laurier University (BA); University of Windsor (J.D.);
Occupation	Corporate lawyer

Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria, KC, MPP (Punjabi: ਪ੍ਰਭਮੀਤ ਸਰਕਾਰੀਆ) is a Canadian lawyer and politician who is the Ontario Minister of Transportation. He has sat as the member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) for the riding of Brampton South since the 2018 Ontario provincial election, representing the Progressive Conservative (PC) Party. He was the associate minister of small business and red tape reduction from 2019 to 2021.^[1]^[2]

Sarkaria is the first turban-wearing Sikh Cabinet minister in Ontario.^[3]

Early and personal life

Sarkaria is a Sikh and grew up in Brampton, Ontario. Sarkaria’s parents immigrated from Punjab, India in the 1980s. His father drove a taxi and mother worked in a factory until they later became small business owners, after purchasing an inn outside of Orangeville.^[4] He studied finance at Wilfrid Laurier University and after working at TD Securities, Sarkaria completed his law degree at the University of Windsor.^[5]^{[better source needed]} He worked at Miller Thomson as an associate corporate lawyer until his election.^[5]^{[better source needed]}

Before entering provincial politics, Sarkaria served on the City of Brampton’s Property Standards Committee, and was an organizer for the annual Hockey for Humanity tournament. He was also the former Ontario Vice President of the World Sikh Organization, an organization that advocates for the Sikh community diaspora.^[6]

Sarkaria and his wife, Sarpreet, had their first child, a daughter named Deyva, in May 2020.^[4]

Political positions

Sarkaria was nominated to be the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party’s candidate for Brampton South on December 8, 2016.^[6]

42nd Parliament of Ontario

Prior to his appointment to the Ontario Cabinet, Sarkaria was the chair of the Select Committee on Financial Transparency and also served on the Standing Committee on Justice Policy. He also previously served as the parliamentary assistant to the solicitor general (formerly known as the minister of community safety and correctional services).^[7]

He stepped down as the parliamentary assistant to the solicitor general on June 20, 2019 when he was appointed to the Executive Council of Ontario as the new associate minister of small business and red tape reduction.

In the post, Sarkaria led the government’s bi-annual red tape reduction packages which have become a hallmark of the Ford government. Sarkaria twice received the grade of “A-“ in the Canadian Federation for Independent Business’s annual report card for red tape reduction, the highest grade the province has ever received. He was specifically recognized for regulatory transparency in his annual report, well as the passage of the province's red tape reduction legislation, the Modernizing Ontario for People and Businesses Act, 2020 and two regulatory modernization bills, the Better for People, Smarter for Business Act 2019 and 2020. In 2021, Sarkaria stated that his government’s has actions has resulted a 4.2% reduction in outdated or duplicative regulations and an annual savings to business of $331 million.^[8]

COVID-19

Sarkaria’s profile in Ontario politics significantly increased as he served as the minister responsible for small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic, a critical time for small businesses throughout the country. Sarkaria became a regular at Premier Ford’s media briefings which were daily throughout most of 2020.^{[citation needed]}

At the beginning of the pandemic Sarkaria launched a Tackling the Barriers portal for small businesses to suggest ideas to the province regarding changes that would help them tackle the challenges of COVID-19.^[9] Ideas received, resulted in over 50 permanent and temporary changes to assist businesses, including permitting 24 hour truck deliveries to grocery stores and pharmacies, tax deferrals and most notably, permitting restaurants to offer alcohol with takeout and delivery orders.^[10]

Sarkaria introduced three pieces of legislation to assist small businesses with the challenges of COVID-19 and launched two grant programs, a general up to $20,000 small business grant and a second which focused on refunding small businesses for personal protective equipment costs.^[10] Sarkaria’s Supporting Local Restaurants Act, 2020 received significant attention as it capped fees charged by delivery apps to restaurants during the pandemic; a first in the country, which was later replicated in other provinces.^[11]

President of the Treasury Board

As President of the Treasury Board of Ontario, Sarkaria continued to support the province's efforts to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Sarkaria oversaw the work of the Treasury Board with a focus on expenditure management and fiscal responsibility.^[12]

Electoral results

v t e 2022 Ontario general election: Brampton South
Party	Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Progressive Conservative	Prabmeet Sarkaria	12,980	45.38	+4.37
	Liberal	Marilyn Raphael	7,957	27.82	+8.92
	New Democratic	Andria Barrett	5,475	19.14	−14.70
	Green	Ines Espinoza	1,028	3.59	−0.26
	New Blue	Mike Mol	974	3.41
	None of the Above	Mehdi Pakzad	188	0.66
Total valid votes			28,602	100.0
Total rejected, unmarked, and declined ballots			112
Turnout			28,714	35.81
Eligible voters			79,835
	Progressive Conservative hold		Swing		−2.28
Source(s) "Summary of Valid Votes Cast for Each Candidate" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. Archived from the original on 18 May 2023. "Statistical Summary by Electoral District" (PDF). Elections Ontario. 2022. Archived from the original on 21 May 2023.

2018 Ontario general election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Progressive Conservative	Prabmeet Sarkaria	15,652	41.01%
	New Democratic	Paramjit Gill	12,919	33.85%
	Liberal	Sukhwant Thethi	7,212	18.89%
	Green	Lindsay Falt	1,472	3.86%
	Libertarian	Brian Watson	363	0.95%
	Trillium	John Grant	337	0.88%
	Freedom	Ted Harlson	214	0.56%
Total valid votes				100.0
Source: Elections Ontario^[13]
	Progressive Conservative pickup new district.

Cabinet posts

Cabinet posts (2)
Ontario provincial government of Doug Ford
Predecessor	Office	Successor
Peter Bethlenfalvy	President of the Treasury Board of Ontario June 19, 2021–Present	Incumbent
Position established	Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction June 20, 2019 – June 18, 2021	Nina Tangri