 Sorry to interrupt. It is now time for Member Statements. We will continue your debate at a later time. I recognise a Member for University of Rosedale. Thank you, Speaker. The Financial Accountability Office released its report this week on health care, and this is what it showed. It showed that Ontario is spending less on health care per person than any other jurisdiction in Canada. Ontario has the fewest hospital beds per person. Ontario has the fewest, lowest registered nurses per person. That means that we are not able to provide the health care we need in the time that we need it because government after government has not wanted to invest in it. It has led to situations where exhausted nurses and health care professionals have had to give up and quit because they are not being paid the wages that they deserve. It is resulting in up to 400,000 people waiting for necessary surgery because they cannot get that time in an operating room for their heart surgery, their cancer surgery, their hip replacements. This has got to change, and this is how we can do it. We need to invest in universal public health care. We need to have a plan to clear the surgery backlog. We need to invest in mental health care, pharma care and dental care. We should pay our health care workers properly, which means repealing Bill 124, and we need to commit to universal public health care because we are a healthier and more prosperous province. We can all access health care when we need it without having to worry about paying for it. This is what an NDP government will do. Thank you. Thank you. I recognize the number for which people. Well thank you Speaker. I am wearing the tie of the Interior Regiment. I am an honorary member of the Interior Regiment and I am doing that because I am about to speak about Femi Ridge. 105 years ago on a cold Easter Monday in northern France, thousands of Canadians fought together to achieve one of the First World War's most memorable victories. They came from every corner of Canada Speaker. There were Francophones, Anglophones, new Canadians, black Canadians and indigenous peoples. Many of them were young men in their late teens and early twenties, homesick and exhausted, but brave and united in their fight for peace, freedom and justice. In the early hours of April the 9th, 1917, after careful planning and preparing their attack, they climbed from their trenches and stormed Femi Ridge. An enemy fortress many thought could never be taken. Speaker members of all four divisions of the Canadian Corps battled uphill through a landscape scarred by years of conflict, fighting side by side for the very first time. They did not stop until they had victory. Over the course of four days through mud, shelling and gunfire, they captured the entire ridge, achieving what no allied army had done. Speaker, the Battle of Femi Ridge was an important chapter in the Great War and in our country's history. What they accomplished was more than remarkable military feat. With courage, determination and grit, they taught us that together ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things. And in so doing, they helped define Canada as a country. Speaker on April 9th, please take a moment to honour the brave Canadians who fought at Femi Ridge. Nearly 3,600 of them never came back home. Over 7,000 were wounded. Speaker, their sacrifice transcends time. It reminds us of the immense debt of gratitude. We owe all Canadians in uniform, past and present. Speaker, for their courage, dedication and service, lest we forget, lest we forget. Thank you, Member from Thunder Bay, Ada Colkin. Thank you, Speaker. Addictions, mental health and homelessness are at crisis levels in Northwestern Ontario. I am so pleased that the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association and the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities will be discussing this during their upcoming conferences, but they can't do it alone. The government received a research paper draft in January from the Northern Policy Institute. In it, it has eight recommendations. Provide long-term funding for capital repairs on community housing, amend the Health Protection and Promotion Act 1990 to define a Northern service hub and provide additional funding to these hubs, establish a joint task force to collect data and intelligence on the underlying and systemic retention issues of healthcare professionals in Northern Ontario, support new and existing housing first programs, support new and existing indigenous culturally sensitive housing, establish Northern mental health and addiction center of excellence. There are also recommendations on the inter-facility patient transfers and establishing mobile crisis intervention teams. I call on this government to solve this crisis, but before I end, I want to express my wishes for a healing journey for the MPP for Thunder Bay Superior North. I'm sure everyone of us in this house is wishing you a speedy recovery. Thank you. I recognize a member from Don Valley North. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week was significant for the residents of Don Valley North and beyond. Speaker, we are preparing our hospitals and long-term care homes to confront the challenges that lie ahead. Two important funding announcements for North York General Hospital to meet the diverse healthcare needs of the fast-growing population in the community. Karen Popowitz, President and CEO at North York General Hospital said, and I quote, with the generous support of the Ontario government, North York General Hospital is moving forward with the largest hospital expansion since we opened our doors more than 50 years ago, end code. Speaker, the new patient care tower will include a brand new emergency department in patient beds and operating rooms and anticipate to open in 2029 and 2030. And the new long-term care home to be operated by North York General Hospital will feature 384 beds, making it one of Toronto's largest homes. Construction is expected to start in spring 2024 and be complete in summer 2026. Speaker, the residents of Don Valley North are absolutely thrilled by this exceptional news. That demonstrated we are working hard to end the whole way of healthcare, just as we promised. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. I recognize a member from Brampton Center. Thank you, Speaker. We have a housing crisis in Peele and homelessness is steadily increasing in our region, and that's why homeless health Peele has stepped up to the plate and offered primary care to over 1,200 clients throughout the pandemic. Homeless health Peele is a nursing and primary care service for people experiencing homelessness and other vulnerable communities in the Peele region. But, Speaker, they are scheduled to actually lose their funding in a matter of months if the provincial government doesn't step up to the plate. Homeless health Peele has helped clients like Bill Smith, who's currently housed at a shelter in a hotel in Brampton, and he's received care that has made a significant difference in his life. As Bill has shared, he ended up having a couple of aneurysms in his leg and couldn't work. The services that homeless health Peele have been able to provide have helped him live with dignity and lift his spirits. Bill shares that his primary care nurse, Shauna DeMars, has been helping bring mental health care support and the medication that he needs. Advocates in our community are calling on this government to ensure that homeless health Peele receives the funding it needs, which will end in March. That means that over 1,200 clients and folks in our community may not get the services that they need. As nurse practitioner, Clinton Verretto, the founder and clinical director of Homeless Health Peele says, if these services aren't available, the health of people experiencing homelessness in the region will suffer, Speaker. It's the only place for them to get real care. Let's do the right thing, as Amik Singh has said, and add the services into our community. Let's help save lives and help fund homeless health Peele. Thank you. I recognize a member for Cambridge. Thank you, Speaker. I rise to make my final statement in the 42nd Parliament in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as it comes to a close. It has been an honour to serve the people of the constituency of Cambridge over the last four years in this House of Democracy. In representing my constituents and my values, I have done my best to put forth important ideas and arguments that often would not have been discussed in this legislature otherwise. In tabling my first private member's bill, I wanted to present a bill of consequence and identified the gap in our laws that doesn't outlaw voter fraud in internal party elections. All Ontarians I speak with are shocked when they hear governments have identified it as a priority to micromanage every dollar spent on internal party campaigns, but when someone is victim to voter fraud, there is no law to protect them. I know this all too well, having watched voter fraud take place in front of thousands of people in the 2018 PC Party Convention. It's too bad that the current government never proceeded or had any interest in making that historic legislation law. I am also proud to have stood up for the people of Cambridge when it came to local matters, even those that are controversial in nature, and to stand as the only current or former member of the government benches to vote against Bill 195, which I refer to as the lockdown bill. I am confident that in time I will be on the right side of history on that vote. The challenge of this job is hearing of Ontarians who are struggling and trying to do my best to help, and not always being able to immediately solve the problem. And on a personal level, the most eye-opening experience is finding out that some of the people who you thought were friends were actually never friends at all. Despite the challenges of the last four years for Ontarians, perhaps the silver lining and serving as an MPP is the great honour it has been to meet or speak to thousands of constituents in Ontarians outside my riding that I otherwise would have never met, and to receive their words of encouragement at times when it felt like it would have been easier to stop. Those are the memories I will remember and cherish and take away from the 42nd parliament. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you. I recognize the member for Perry Sound, Muskoka. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As some of my colleagues know, I have hosted 17 interns from the Ontario Legislature Internship Program, or OLIP, over my time as MPP for Perry Sound, Muskoka. I recently learned that one of these interns, David Miles, has been nominated for a Juno award. David is nominated for instrumental album of the year for his album That Tall Distance. If he wins it will be his second Juno award, previously nominated for being a co-writer on Inner Ninja, which won rap recording of the year in 2013. I've had the pleasure of hearing David play several times since he worked in my office in 2004, and I must say that although I wasn't aware at the time he wanted to be a professional musician, having worked with him, his creativity and dedication to his craft does not surprise me. Even back then he was a great writer, crafting member statements and speeches that got picked up on the evening news. I've seen him perform in Toronto, in the Stocky Centre in Perry Sound, and he has only gotten better over the years. David is just one example of the many talented people who have gone through the OLIP program. It has been one of the great joys of my time as MPP to mentor 17 of these bright individuals and follow their careers long after they finished the program. I congratulate David on his nomination and wish him the best of luck in the Juno awards in May. Thank you. Thank you. I recognize the member for Toronto, Dan Ford. Thank you, Speaker. Speaker, the housing crisis is very real. As I've been going door to door in my writing, I've had parents, I've had grandparents come out and say to me, my children, my grandchildren have no hope of getting a home. They can't afford the rent, let alone buy a place. And so they will not be able to continue living in the community that they grew up in. I've been in apartment buildings where single moms with children in studios and one bedrooms have said to me, I cannot move into a larger unit because when people move out of the bigger ones, the landlords crank up the rent sky high, can't do it. And I talk to tenants in my writing who live in homes who are fearful that someday their landlord is going to have to renovate. And when they get that eviction notice, they know they're going to leave my community and maybe even leave the city that they've loved. People need decent homes so they can live decent lives. This government has failed to take action on the rules of the loud landlords to crank rents sky high when someone moves out of a unit. They haven't taken action to stop the games that happen with above guideline increases that many corporate landlords use as a way of cleaning tenants out so they can open the door to even higher rents. Speaker, this has to change. The people of Ontario deserve decent housing. We have to act. Thank you. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Today, I want to talk about the government initiatives in Markham Unionville that are promoting the development of Ontario's green economy. Recently, I had the chance to visit Markham headquarters of G.E. Hitachi, where 80 new jobs are working on a cutting edge nuclear reactor for Ontario. These jobs are high skilled, well-paying, underlying Ontario's ability to balance economic growth with decarbonisation initiatives. Nuclear power is one of the reasons that Ontario already has such a green power grid and such projects will further increase our province's carbon-free power generation. Additionally, in January it was announced that Markham Unionville will see the development of a hydrogen-blending facility which will reduce the emissions of 3,600 families and businesses across the riding. Finally, a Tesla battery factory in Markham has created jobs and will help Ontario reach its goals of becoming a supply chain hub for electric vehicle production. I am proud of Markham Unionville's contribution to Ontario's pursuit for green economy. I look forward to seeing the emission reduction we achieve in years to come. I seek unanimous consent for the House to observe a moment of silence for the 84 Ontarians who have succumbed to COVID-19 over the past week. The Member for Brampton Centre has sought unanimous consent for the House to observe a moment of silence for the 84 Ontarians who have succumbed to COVID-19 over the past week. Does the House in favour? Agreed. Everyone, please rise. Please be seated. Point of order, the Government House Leader. Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I seek to table a document today. It's previously confidential advice that was provided to the Government House Leader's office with respect to parliamentary privilege and the freedom of speech and as it relates to members of Parliament and in the enacting of their duties both in this House and more importantly outside of the House and on social media platforms, I think it's timely. Given that later today we will be hearing members' speeches with respect to a number of members who will be retiring and I think it's also important to remind members who are retiring that many of the resources available to members as they enact their duties in this House are not available to members after they have retired from this place, Mr Speaker, but it highlights certainly the importance of certain levels of behaviour with respect to how members conduct themselves both in the House and outside of the House and again on social media. I'd like to table this document now because I think it'd be very valuable for members who are both here and those who will be retiring very soon. So it's able a point of order from the Minister of Culture, Tourism, Heritage and Sport. It gets closer every single time, Speaker. Speaker, if you seek it I believe you will find unanimous consent to allow members to wear pins in recognition of the 105th anniversary of the battle for Vimy Ridge which took place from April 9th to April 12th, 1917 and still remains today a core part of Canada's and Ontario's heritage and our cultural fabric. Thank you. The Minister of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture Industries has asked for unanimous consent to allow members to wear pins in recognition of the 105th anniversary of the battle of Vimy Ridge which took place from April 9th to April 12th, 1917. This is a pleasure to host the consent to be granted. Agreed.