 Members' statements. Member for Waterloo. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I wish to acknowledge the lands that we have the privilege of working on. For thousands of years, Queen's Park has been on the traditional land of the Huron Wendat, the Seneca, and the Mississaugas of the Credit River. My community of Waterloo is situated on the Haldeman Tract, on lands that are deeply connected to Indigenous peoples who have historically lived and who currently live in this territory. These groups include the Neutral, Anishinaabe, and Nishone Peoples. Land acknowledgements are a step towards reconciliation, but they need to be accompanied by meaningful change and action. That's why I and so many others in Waterloo were dismayed to see the cancellation of Truth and Reconciliation Commission curriculum writing sessions. It is essential to acknowledge the ways that our education system has oppressed and colonised Indigenous peoples and to move forward with them to change the narrative, to centre Indigenous knowledge and history in our classrooms across this province. There are so many reasons to do this. According to Professor Jeffrey Anslews, Indigenous education deepens our collective responsibility, our social awareness of one another, our histories. It lifts the whole community up. The new government needs to recognise how we can all relate to people in a more just and understanding way. Our education system needs to be a safe and welcoming place for Indigenous students. We have a constitutional responsibility to ensure that the curriculum reflects the Truth. If we get this right, we will see better outcomes for Indigenous students, which benefits everyone. Don't let the people of this province down. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Member Statements, the Member for Thornhill. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. When a child is born or diagnosed with a serious illness, the entire family is affected. High Lifeline Canada steps in offering whatever is needed and counselling for each member of the family with volunteers who bring an extra measure of adult attention and stability in the children's lives. They provide tutoring, they have summer camps. All of this is free of charge, Mr. Speaker. CHI in Hebrew means life, and CHI, it can be found, c-h-i-i-lifelinecanada.org on the internet. There's an event next Monday, July 23rd at Graydon Hall Manor. I'll be there. I hope a lot of people will be there as well from inside the legislature and from without. High Untap is a gala, and it's going to be educational and entertaining. There's going to be Roger Mitak from Thirst for Knowledge about beers, there's going to be lots of great food from PR Creative Catering, and we're going to get educated on the history, different styles of beers, different beer terminology, and of course the health benefits of beer. And there's going to be longer stouts, fruit beer and ale, as well as non-malt-based drinks. And I'm sure there'll be something for everyone. Good food, good beer, good friends, and behind everybody here. Thank you. Member Statements, the member for Nickel Belt. Thank you, Speaker. And again, congratulations on your election as Speaker. I want to share the story of Cary Thompson from my writing in Nickel Belt. Mrs. Thompson has a health problem that may require surgery. She was referred to an ear, nose and throat specialist after waiting about three months. She contacted a specialist office to ask when could she expect to be seen. She was told the waitlist to see the doctor in Sudbury is three years, and if she needs surgery she could expect to wait another one to two years. My constituents has been sentenced to five years of pain because she lives in Northern Ontario. The same specialty is available within weeks in Southern Ontario. This is not fair. Why do we, as Northerners, have to choose between timely care in Southern Ontario or year-long waitlist at home? This needs to change, Speaker. Health Quality Ontario recent report, Northern Ontario Health Equity Strategy, a plan for achieving health equity in the north by the north for the north. I was co-chair by our excellent chief medical officer, Dr. Penny Sutcliffe, lays out the path for change that's needed. So, Northerners will have equitable access to high-quality care, regardless of where they live, what they have, or who they are. I sure hope that in the line-by-line audit of the health care budget, the government uses a Northern equity lens. Northerners deserve equity of access to our health care system, not long wait lists. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise with a deep sense of gratitude to my constituents as I speak today for the first time in this chamber. Mr. Speaker, the values that bind this country, freedom, tolerance, human rights, the rule of law, these are the values that unite our country, and these are the values that drive the spirit of Canada's Ahmadiyya Muslim community. And I'm proud that this patriotic community is nationally headquartered in my riding in Peace Village, in the riding of King Vaughan. Just last week, a show of force of progressive Conservative MPPs attended the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamal of Canada's Jalsa Salana Conference, the largest Islamic convention in Canada with over 20,000 people attending. We, the team present, thank this enterprising and vibrant community for reflecting the very best of Canada's pluralism. Their motto, love for all, hatred for none, only underscores the moral duty they possess to oppose all forms of hate and extremism and to embrace our shared citizenship. Most disturbingly, this community faces systematic persecution around the world, indiscriminate attacks on the freedom of religion and freedom of conscience. Here in Canada, we stand with them in the defence of human rights, and we thank them for their acts of generosity and compassion. Generosity demonstrated through the life-saving work of humanity first, here at home and around the world, to the food bank and Vaughan that serves thousands of families in need. So I congratulate the Ahmadiyya community for a successful Jalsa Salana. Thank you for putting humanity first and for your service to community. Thank you very much. Member Statements, member for Algoma Manitoulin. Yes, thank you, Speaker, and congratulations on being elected to the chair. Here I am once again standing up on behalf of the good people of Algoma Manitoulin and why do we have to lose these services in Northern Ontario? Once again, another service, a bus service, is being lost. Greyhound is pulling out of Northern Ontario. Everybody west, all the routes west, from Sudbury going on to other provinces are going to be losing these services. These individuals that are going to be affected are the most affected individuals such as seniors, people in poverty, individuals, students who are looking towards ways of getting to and from their educational facilities. This can't happen. We have to have a government that is going to step up and actually come up with a plan. So I ask this government, what is your plan? You permitted the Northlander in order to be cancelled. You didn't do very much when the train was cancelled. You didn't do very much either when other services were removed from Northern Ontario. The ONTC has stepped up. I'm looking forward to working with the ONTC and making sure that maybe this is an opportunity for them to finding out additional ways and means that they can bring those services to Northern Ontario. But this is where a government needs to step up. And I'm going to be putting questions to this government in a very near future in regards to what is your plan. Because right now Northern Ontario, once again, is losing another service. Thank you, Member Stavens, the Member for Ottawa. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last week the government repealed Ontario's updated sexual education curriculum. A curriculum that's been taught for three years. It was the most consulted curriculum in the history of Ontario. 4,000 parents, 700 students, 2,400 teachers. It's a curriculum that protects our kids. It teaches them how to say no. It teaches kids about our differences and respecting those differences both visible and invisible. It teaches our kids about the dangers of the internet, cyberbullying and social media. It teaches our kids about healthy relationships. It's a curriculum that reflects the risk in our world today. Canceling the new curriculum and replacing it with one from 1998 is simply irresponsible. It fails to protect our kids, all of our kids. Glenn Canning, the father of Rotea Parsons who tragically took her own life, said, what happened to my daughter was preventable. With a good sexual education program, there are countless stories of kids who have suffered that we haven't heard and they are suffering now. So I'm asking the government to reverse its decision and reinstate the curriculum in time for this school year. Thank you very much, Speaker. Thank you very much. Member Stevens, the member for Perth Wellington. Thank you, Speaker. Speaker, July 21st was a great day for Stratford and Perth County. I was honored to attend the official Brown Grade groundbreaking ceremony for the Stratford-Perth Rotary Hospice. Opening in March 2019, this new eight-bed facility will provide expert and compassionate care to people nearing the end of life. The whole community came together to raise $6.5 million of the $8.5 million capital budget. The City of Stratford committed an impressive $1.5 million. Stratford Rotary Club members and President Dr. Linda Bath have been working hard to reach their goal of $1 million. The provincial government is also contributing $1.6 million in capital for eight new hospice beds and $840,000 in annual operating and funding for nursing care. I've been a proud supporter of this hospice since day one. I supported it in the last two election campaigns. I supported it from my very first meeting with Andy Werner and Anne Fontana. They found partners across our area. They secured the approvals and funding that they needed. Without their leadership and everyone in the Stratford-Perth Hospice Foundation, this project would not have been possible. At some point, all of us will have a loved one in need of end-of-care life care. Many of us will need such care in our lives. Hospices are not about dying but helping people live as well as possible through their last days of their lives. Thank you, Speaker. Members' statements? The Member for Timiskaming Cochrane. Thank you, Speaker. I would like to take this first opportunity to have the Speaker in-house since the election to update the members regarding the wildfire situation in the riding of Timiskaming Cochrane. Although we always hear about Tomoghame and the news reports, it actually affects Tomoghame, Martin River, River Valley, and communities such as Elk Lake. I just got a call from a resident of mine, Tomoghame. He was just outside the evacuation area and he asked me if I could make special mention of the water bombers because the water bombers went over his house for five hours straight and he said, I've seen movies of the Battle of Britain but it felt like the Battle of Britain and I'd like to make a special thank you to the water bombers. We knew. We knew it was going to be bad, Speaker. Two Sundays ago, I woke up, it was five o'clock in the morning and the wind was blowing already. 26 degrees and we knew it was going to be bad. By one o'clock, I'm about half an hour away from Tomoghame, by one o'clock we couldn't see the sun and it's an experience that you have to be there to believe it. I'd like to thank the other jurisdictions, British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland, Northwest Territories, the State of Minnesota. I was talking to the Minister of Natural Resources this morning. He said we're going to get some international help as well. The North, people in North, we know about fires. In 1916 and 1922, lives were lost and it's what we have now, the facilities we have now and the help from other communities and our own M&R that prevents that from happening now. Thank you very much. Thank you. Member Statements, the Member for Simcoe North. Mr. Speaker, I would like to express my sincerest appreciation and gratitude to the constituents of Simcoe North that have helped me to be their new voice at Queen's Park. I'll thank my family and friends for their constant love and support throughout the election campaign. This past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend the Township of Tiny, Mayor's Charity Golf Tournament in my home riding of Simcoe North. The tournament included 130 golfers and 60 dinner guests and was attended by local residents and politicians from all levels of government. I had the pleasure of spending the day with Dave Hobson, a South Georgian Bay OPP Officer, Neil Monag from Bosley First Nation and Ryan Walsh, a local correctional officer. The primary goal of the tournament was to raise over $60,000 to support 15 local charity organizations. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to announce that the tournament's fundraising surpassed this number and raised approximately $65,000. I would like to personally acknowledge and thank the golfers and dinner guests for attending the tournament's local sponsors for making this event possible through their incredible generosity and the Brooklyn Golf and Country Club for their outstanding hospitality. I would also like to congratulate Mayor George Cornell and the members of Tiny Township Council for their exceptional commitment to charity, community solidarity and public service. Fundraising events like this tournament are an important way of ensuring that local charitable organizations have the necessary resources and tools to fulfill their visions through local supported residents. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Member Statements. Member Fortimans. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I also want to echo what was said by my colleague from Tomiskiming Paukren as we know the fire season is hard upon us now, lately, just into the city of Timans, just the other side of Shillington. I just want to add echo because I know that our council, the Mayor, Mr. Black and our council and the community are four square behind the Ministry of Natural Resources and the work that they've been doing. All of those people that are working on firefighting are really extraordinary people, putting their lives on the line in order to make sure that we can save property but more importantly, we can make lives safe when it comes to those areas. So we take this time, I think, in the House appropriately so in order to say to all of those men and women who are out there every day trying to fight those fires and keep them under control, a great big thank you. I want to hearken back to the Timans 9 fire that we had a while back, I guess about three, four years ago. And Mr. Speaker, as I was at the fire center and watching them how they control this, we had huge winds about 30 to 40 knots that were blowing and blowing towards built up areas and it was amazing to watch the technology that Ontario has developed in order to be able to control fires but to steer the fires away from built up areas. Where we could have been in a situation to lose a whole bunch of cottages and buildings and a campground, the Ministry of Natural Resources essentially steered the fire away from built up areas and we were able to go by doing certain things, control burns, putting up burns and different things so that the fire was able to go into another area that had no building. So a great big thank you to all those people fighting forest fires. Thank you very much. Reports by committees.