 the guest. Seeing none, it's time for member statements. The member from Simcoe Grant. I'd like to talk about Dr. Shazia Ambreen, an Alliston physician who was recently honored here in Toronto. On February 24th, Dr. Ambreen was presented with a council award by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons. This was a tremendous honor, and I'm pleased to say that I had the privilege of being in attendance along with Dr. Ambreen's family members and hospital officials. Dr. Ambreen, who grew up in Pakistan, is a valued member of the medical community in the south end of my riding. She is a physician, an ethicist at Stephenson Memorial Hospital. As well, she is Chief of Family Medicine at the Hospital and President of the Professional Staff Association. The award that Dr. Ambreen received is only presented four times a year to doctors who have demonstrated excellence as outlined by the college. The Alliston Herald noted that Dr. Ambreen is recognized for her strong advocacy for patient safety and commitment to continuous improvement and excellent medical care. I want to share with this house Dr. Ambreen's own words about working in Alliston. Choosing to work at Stephenson Memorial was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Here I can exercise my full scope of practice as a GP and instances and a family physician, while being surrounded by a wonderful team of supported and engaging staff, physicians and colleagues. Dr. Richard Sims also at the hospital touched on Dr. Ambreen's contributions when he said, in my 36 years in medicine, I have seldom come across such a well-rounded physician. She is a good collaborator, works well with others, is very good at resolving conflict, maintains effective relationships and communicates with her colleagues, nursing staff and patients with respect and dignity. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Dr. Ambreen for her commitment to health care in South Simcoe and in my writing and I again congratulate her on receiving this prestigious award. Thank you. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. I rise today to highlight the problem many families are having as they try to access the funding they are entitled to for autism treatment. Veneta Gurdon receives funding to pay for treatment for her six-year-old son James. She is required to apply for a renewal of funding 30 days in advance of when she expects her existing allocation to run out. Despite this, her application would not be looked at until she had submitted her final receipt. That happened on January 27th, but it took until February 17th to sign the new contract. Then she was told she would have to wait another 30 business days six weeks before she would get the money. That would mean no funds for two months, two months missing to pay for vital treatment. But this isn't the treatment that can just stop and start. It must be continuous. This is not an isolated story, Speaker. It is happening to too many families. To make sure their child gets the ongoing treatment they need, families can either pay out of pocket and forgo other household bills or they can incur late payment charges with their service provider. And the ministry will not pay those late payment charges, charges that they're responsible for. This liberal government knows the stress that many of these families are under. It is disgraceful that the bureaucracy is only making things worse. Thank you, Mr. Member for Brampton, Mrs. Saga Seltz. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is an honor to share with the House that a constituent of mine, Ms. Katelyn Gardner, is this year's winner of the Speaker's Award for Youth Writers in the Grade 9 and 10 category. Katelyn's original short story, A Day to Remember, explores the emotions of first nation's child from Northern Ontario would experience when her mother, a Canadian forces medical professional, departs for a distant military base, filling the child with pride and also loneliness and fear of losing her mother. I met Katelyn and her parents, Laura and Paul, and her brother Matthew at last night's award ceremony at Queens Park. Both Katelyn and Matthew live and attend school in my great riding of Ms. Saga Brampton South. Mr. Speaker, it takes courage to share your gifts with strangers, but when young people do, they inspire everyone around them. Thank you, Katelyn, for sharing your gift and congratulations on receiving this award. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Further member statements? The member from Dufferin, Caledon. Thank you, Speaker. A recent email from the MPP for Guelph reminded me that facts matter, so allow me to share some facts. The MPP for Guelph claims that the executive director of community living has, quote, not brought forward any issues around funding not to the region and not to the minister. In a recent petition of which I have numerous staff and family of community living members state community living Dufferin has a significant pay equity obligation. They're right. I wrote to the minister of community and social services in January 2015 regarding financial pleasures for pay equity. I have met with and correspondent with executive directors, board and staff at the community living many times in this issue and the minister has been CC'd as well from community living Dufferin. Finally, I met with the community and social services ministry staff on behalf of community living Dufferin after it was suggested that they could fundraise or mortgage their building to cover their pay equity obligations. So the fact is that the financial concerns for community living Dufferin have been raised for more than six years with me and many ministries. The MPP from Guelph also fails to mention the impact of skyrocketing hydro rates on community living Dufferin's bottom line. Nor was the seven year freeze on base funding address. The MPP from Guelph needs to come clean and recognize the serious financial pressures. Community living Dufferin and all community living agencies across Ontario are experiencing instead of spreading alternative facts. Right to the last moment I was fine with the statement and I'm going to ask the member to withdraw the to withdraw something I had indicated that I wasn't going to allow. So member would withdraw. I withdraw. Member statements. The member from Toronto, Thank you speaker speaker. I rise to recognize the life and work of Dan McDermott, a pioneering environmentalist who died here in Toronto in early January. Dan was one of the founders of Greenpeace in this city and not shy about doing whatever it took to advance the environmental agenda. In 1979 he parachuted onto the side of the Darlington nuclear power plant to protest proposal to build the plant. He also went in the other direction, scaling giant smokestacks on coal fired plants to drive home the message that Ontarians needed clean air and that we had to act on climate change. Dan was devoted, energetic, witty, optimistic, cranky when he had to be and relentless in the work he did to protect human health and nature. His work with Greenpeace, the Sierra Club of Canada and Earth Groups made a difference in this province. Over the last few years he did less skydiving and more lobbying to protect the green belt. Today we're breathing cleaner air. Today we enjoy protected green areas in the GTA. We live better lives in part because of Dan's life devotion to the environment. Speaker as I've said to you I request a moment of silence to honour Dan McDermott. Thank you. Thank you. As indicated we will finish the rest of the statements and then come back. Member statements, the member from Davenport. Thank you Mr. Speaker and I rise today to speak about an event I'm having in celebration of International Women's Day in my writing of Davenport. Tomorrow my constituency office is hosting an art gallery opening featuring works from a fantastic community organization in Davenport, Sistering, a women's place. As the Toronto Star noted this weekend Sistering continues to provide vital services for women such as social support, a place to talk about women's issues and a strong community network that helps those women who truly need it most. We will also be recognizing five fantastic Davenport women who are recipients of the leading women leading girls awards. Linda Carrera, Margaret Smith, Manuela Saquera, Florence Watts and Kripa Sakara are this year's recipients of the leading women leading girls awards in Davenport. These five women have taken leadership roles and made significant contributions in our community and I'm proud to work beside these women who are striving every day to make Davenport and Ontario a better place. So I'm proud to represent these fantastic leading women and organizations such as Sistering in Davenport and I hope to return to the legislature in future to speak more about their efforts and achievements to build strong communities in Davenport and I want to take this opportunity to wish all women in Davenport and across the province of Ontario a wonderful international women's day. Thank you. Thank you for the membership. Thank you Speaker. I'd like to take a moment to recognize the winners of both the Speaker's Book Award and the Youth Authors Award. I'd also like to recognize the excellent literary work of each and every author honored with a nomination including two from My Writing. The Speaker's Book Award is given to a resident of Ontario whose literary work highlights a diverse culture and rich history of the province and its residents. Two authors from My Writing of Lanark, Frontenac, Lenox and Addington were nominated for an award at last site ceremony. Nominated for the Speaker's Book Award was Seasons of Hope, Memoirs of Ontario's first Aboriginal Lieutenant Governor by James Bartleman. Also nominated for the Speaker's Youth Awards Book was my sons Dylan and Russell Hillier's book One Soldier which recounts Dylan's time as a volunteer with the Kurdish Peshmerga and his combat experiences fighting the Islamic State. I'd also like to thank Graham Murray and the Speaker for not only taking the time to host the awards ceremony yesterday evening but also for their continued promotion of the literature which tells the story of this province, its people and its shared history. Only through a commitment up to literature can we ensure that we as a society have a medium of remembrance and understanding of each other's unique views and contributions to Ontario. With that speaker I'd like to, on behalf of my family, send over a copy of my son's book to the Speaker. The member can have five more minutes. Sorry I couldn't resist. I thank the member who's very kind. Member Stavis, the member from the Scarborough Age Accord. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. I rise today to recognize the Centennial Anniversary of Toronto Qanus Club which was chartered 100 years ago tomorrow on March the 8th, 1917. Wow. For the past 100 years the Toronto Qanus Clubs has been focusing on supporting the advancement of young people in the city which reflects this model serving the children of the world. Some of the Toronto Qanus Clubs accomplishments include the establishment of the Toronto Qanus Music Festival in 1944. This annual festival is recognized as one of the largest music festival in Canada. It promotes young classical musicians and artists throughout the greater Toronto area. So Johnny McDonald Collegiate, the high school in my riding of Scarborough Age Accord will be hosting many of the competition this year's festival. The Qanus Club of Toronto Foundation was created in 1953 and it funds programs supporting local children and youth in the city of Toronto. The foundation also awards scholarship for post-secondary education. The Toronto Qanus Club also funds Scarborough organization like my arriving of Qanus Atom Clubs for adults living with disability, the Scarborough Arts and Scarborough Women's Centre. To recognize this 100th anniversary the Toronto Qanus Club will be awarding 100 grants to 100 Toronto charities that work with children and youth. I commend the Toronto Qanus Club for this fantastic initiative and encourage all my colleagues to reach out to the communities in their writings who may benefit from Toronto Qanus Club generous donation. I want to congratulate the Toronto Qanus Club for 100th anniversary for serving the children of the world, particularly the children and youth in the city of Toronto. Thank you. Further member statements? The member from Foreign Hill. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker and I'm so pleased to rise today and speak about the org gala that took place last night. I just want to mention that WorldOrd is the world's largest Jewish education and vocational training, non-government organization. It was founded in 1880 to serve the Russian Jewish community and now it is in 37 countries over 300,000 beneficiaries and students are involved each year. They build bridges in the Jewish community. We like to say Takuna Alam which is to bring the communities together. The celebrity roast was for Ralph Lean. He's a lawyer and a professor at Ryerson College and or university now and his passions are politics and professional sports and you'll see that by the list of roasters. Jim Barker, Paul Beeston, Patrick Brown, leader of the official opposition, Paul Godfrey, Wayne Gretzky by video, former Premier Michael Harris, former Premier David Peterson by video, Glenn Sather, Ken Shaw, Mayor John Tory, Masai Ujiri, A.J. Vermani and Premier Kathleen Wynn by video roasting Ralph Lean. His wife Marcel was there as well as his kids. Lots of his friends. It was a real fun evening and I just want to say congratulations to the organizers, the volunteers, Ralph and his family and kudos to Ralph for all the work he's done for the community and all the fun everybody had last night. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I thank all members for their statements. By unanimous consent of the House, we are now going to spend a moment of tribute for environmental champion Dan McDermott on his passing. Please rise. Thank you. It is now time for reports by committees. I beg to inform that