 It's now time for Member Statements. I've recognized the member for Oshawa. Speaker, when I was younger I spent a lot of time at our local public library. I loved to read and discover and explore, and the library was a huge part of my foundational learning, as it is for many children. Libraries across the province are hubs and homes to everyone, to those who have a need to read, to use the internet for learning or work, to those who use the makerspaces to create and invent and imagine, to those who need somewhere warm and safe and quiet and welcoming. Libraries are hearts of every community. They are a community. This Premier has unbelievably set his sights on our library system. He is wrong to attack people's access to library services. This budget cut 50% of the provincial funding to the southern Ontario library services, known as SALS, as well as to OLS North. This affects interlibrary loans between different library systems, as well as training and organizational supports. Not every library has every book or resource ever written, so SALS is a centralized, coordinated organization that delivers across the province to different libraries. SALS coordinates and facilitates when a class needs 20 copies of a book, or a senior needs more large print books than their library has, or a student is working on distance education, or someone needs an out-of-print book for research, or if a visually impaired client needs a book on CD. Homebound patrons, homeschooled children and academics will no longer have access to collections beyond their backyard. This government talks about wanting to centralize systems and be more efficient. Well, here's a perfectly good functioning example, and they're scrapping it. Smaller communities, remote and First Nations communities will hit the hardest. And why? This Premier's nickel in diming this province to ensure families and folks will have less access to books, resources, learning and libraries. Shame. Member Statements, the member for Markham Thornhill. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with an extremely heavy heart to speak to the horrific loss of life in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday. We know now that over 200 men, women and children were killed in this inhumane and indiscriminate act of terror. Unfortunately, we also know that advanced mourning were provided of imminent attack in Sri Lanka that were not acted on. As a former political refugee from Sri Lanka, the seven has deeply impacted me and my family and thousands of Sri Lankan diaspora living in Canada. Such act of terrorism have no place in civilized society and more so when committed on holiday of Christian. All too often we see such act of terrorism and violence across the world at churches, temples, mosques and recently at the synagogue in the United States. These tragic circumstances remind us that hate, racial strife and merciless killing remain a threat to the democracy, religious freedom and social justice across the world. Mr. Speaker, we must all stand in solidarity and speak with a unified voice against these heinous crime and reject divisiveness and hate. Today the world is mourning. As we mourn and keep the lives lost in our prayers, we must also seek redemption of unity, love and compassion for those of all faith and background. We must continue to stand for society that ensure the freedom to practice our faith and to live our life without fear. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Member Statements. The Member for Niagara Centre. Thank you, Speaker. I am pleased to stand today in this house to speak about the Niagara Folk Arts Multicultural Centre. It is an agency that is near and dear to my heart, not only for the important work they do but because I spent eight years as the executive director of this organization before being elected to this house. The Niagara Folk Arts is a community-based, nonprofit, charitable organization whose team of over 40 professional staff and hundreds of volunteers provide vital settlement services to newcomers as they strive to create a rewarding new life in Canada. Niagara is home to the Niagara Folk Arts Festival, the oldest continuously running heritage festival in Canada. Every May, the multicultural community opens its doors in its heart and welcomes you to experience the beauty and uniqueness of their cultures, traditions, art, music, and food, including games, exhibitions, and live entertainment. This year's festival runs from May 2nd to the 26th and features over 20 open houses across the Niagara region. Over the last five years, the Folk Arts has welcomed many Syrian refugee families to Niagara, helping them to settle and integrate. These families have now founded a group called Syrians in Niagara and have started their own open house, teaching their new community about their experiences and showcasing their culture. I'm very proud of them. To learn more about the festival and schedule of open houses, please go to the Niagara Folk Arts Festival or folk-arts.ca. Thank you. The member for Scarborough Rouge Park. Today I rise to speak about the horrific Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka and to honour the victims and their families. I would like to begin by thanking all my colleagues and the people across Ontario who participated in the dozens of vigils throughout the province. Words simply cannot express the depth of my grief at this horrific attack and my prayers are with those who perished and their loved ones. I have said this before. I'll say it again. Violence of any kind is unacceptable. Discrimination of any kind is absolutely intolerable. I fled a brutal genocide perpetuated by the Sri Lankan state and military. Vicious targeted attacks against ethnic and religious minorities have been prevalent in Sri Lanka for many years. So these events affect me very personally. Innocent children, women, men who just want to celebrate Easter, a joyous festival in Christian calendar will never be able to do so again. And the memories of the survivors will forever be marred by this tragedy. As we approach the 10-year anniversary of the height of the Tamil genocide, we must reaffirm our commitment to fight crimes against humanity and to strive justice and peace. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Member Statements to Member for Waterloo. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Abigail Lobsinger is six years old. She lives with a rare and aggressive childhood cancer, stage four neuroblastoma. For treatment, she injures an aggressive plan of chemotherapy, radiation, surgeries, and blood transfusions. As you can imagine, her illness has caused emotional and financial strain on her family. Cancer has made it difficult for Abigail to gain and maintain weight, so doctors prescribed a tube feed supplement to help her maintain a healthy weight. Her feed costs $437 per case, at a rate of one and a half cases per week. Annually, that's over $34,000. Abigail's feed was covered under OHIP+. But as of April 1st, it is no longer covered. When Abigail's parents went to pick up her feed this month, they were told that they needed to pay out of pocket. The feed isn't covered under their private insurance plan either. This government has pulled the rug out from under families by changing to changes to OHIP+. Without warning and without consultation, the changes to OHIP+. were made without considering who would fall through the cracks. And it seems that kids like Abigail weren't considered at all. This government needs to get their priorities straight and cover the nutritional feed through the OHIP+. Plus, for kids like Abigail and so many others, Abigail needs to be our priority for this government. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Thank you, Member Statements. Member for Ottawa South. I'd like to ask for unanimous consent to make a Member Statement today in the independent slot. I refer Ottawa South as seeking unanimous consent of the House to make a statement at this time in the independent spot. Agreed? Agreed. Member for Ottawa South. Thank you very much, Speaker, and thank you to my colleagues. And I simply want to echo the words of my colleagues from Scarborough Rouge Park and Markham Thornhill and express my deepest, my family's deepest, our party's deepest condolences to all the families that were affected by the Sri Lankan bombing on Easter Sunday. It's really a horrific event that's affected the lives of many, many families, not just in Sri Lanka, but here in Canada and my community of Ottawa South. And I also wanted to extend my condolences to those families affected by the shooting at the Shabbat of Poe Synagogue in San Diego. You know, we just had New Zealand a little while ago and Pittsburgh six months ago, and it seems every couple weeks we're standing up or we're tweeting out something about something that's happening in the world. And you know, these acts of hate, they're ferocious, they're almost instant, and we live in a global village and we're all affected by it. I think what's really important for us to understand that whether it's anti-Christian, anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-any race, we don't just have to stand up when things happen in the world and say, this is wrong. It's when those small acts happen, when synagogues or churches are defaced or mosques are defaced or people utter words. We all have to speak up. It's important for us to do that. And I want to thank, again, my colleagues for the time and thank you, Speaker. Member statements to Member for Brantford-Branford. Thank you, Speaker. It's an honour to rise to speak about a very special event that recently took place in Brantford. On April 13th, the Kiwanis Club of Brantford had the opportunity to celebrate its 100th anniversary. Having been chartered in 1919, the Brantford Kiwanis Club is the third longest-serving club in Canada. And since that time, the club has served the communities of Brantford and Brant through the volunteerism of its members, exceptional outreach activities, and through many different projects. These projects include some great community fundraisers that go to support organisations such as the Brant Community Health Services, Steadman Hospice, and many, many more, through projects like these, the Kiwanis Club of Brantford has shown its continued support and dedication to the people of Brantford and Brant. In addition to local community-oriented activities, the Brantford Kiwanis Club has also worked with Kiwanis International by participating in large projects such as the Eliminate Project, whose goal is to wipe out maternal and neonatal tetanus and the sustaining iodine deficiency disorders elimination project. Speaker, in the 100 years since it has been chartered, the Kiwanis Club of Brantford has shown a continuous commitment to making the world a better place, both locally and around the world. And so I would invite everyone to join with me in congratulating the Kiwanis Club of Brantford on their 100th year anniversary. Thank you. Thank you, Member Statements. The Member for Timmons. Well, Mr. Speaker, yet again, the community of Kassashouan is being evacuated. This is like 17 years of evacuation, time and time again. We spend millions, tens of millions of dollars each year to move community members out of Kassashouan into Timmons, Cappas, Gasing, Cornwall, and different points in between. And there's what really is galling and what is really frustrating the community is that there's been an agreement signed between the First Nation, the Province of Ontario, and the federal government to move the community. I was there when I was the Member for Kassashouan as the former Member for Timmons, James Bate, when we did the signing three years ago. And the idea was that we start immediately towards starting to do what needs to be done to move that community to higher ground. Mr. Speaker, this is not rocket science. We've done it before. When Winnisk was flooded and people died, we moved that community to higher ground. We no longer here of having to evacuate anybody out of the old Winnisk, now called Pueonic White, because we put them on higher ground. I call on this government to live up to its agreement. We were signatures not only to Treaty 9, but we're also signatures to the agreement between the community of Kassashouan, the federal government and ourselves to move that community to higher ground. Let's get it done. Let's put people where they should be on higher ground so they no longer have to live in fear when it comes to going to bed at night because their community will be flooded. Thank you. The next statement, the Member for Topical Lakeshore. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and good afternoon to everyone. I'd like to take a moment to talk about some wonderful student leaders in my riding of a Tobacco Lakeshore. Students at Bishop Allen Academy at Toronto Catholic District School in a Tobacco have been working hard to raise money for a wonderful cause. Bishop Allen's SLAM team, which SLAM stands for Student Leaders and Mentors, set an ambitious goal for themselves. Their goal was to raise $6,000 with the aim of providing 32 bicycles for students in need in Toronto. And, Speaker, I am so pleased to report that these hardworking students met their goal and over a week ahead of schedule. In fact, tomorrow, April 30th, Bishop Allen School will be welcoming fourth and fifth grade students from Lord Dufferin School for the Big Bike Giveaway. These bikes will be given to those first new students to enjoy so they can enjoy the freedom and independence just in time for the warm weather. I would like to give a special shout out to Sophie Constantinino for telling us about this great initiative. And I also want to thank all the students and the staff and the volunteers and the donors who made Bishop Allen's fundraiser such a success. I am so very proud to represent the riding with such exceptional students and student leaders like these students. Thank you. Member Statements. Member for Mississaugasen. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. April is Cancer Awareness Month. Nearly one in two Canadians are expected to be diagnosed with some form of cancer during their lifetime, while one in four are expected to die from it. More and more Canadians receive a cancer diagnostic and it is the main cause of death in Canada. It affects people from all walks of life and all backgrounds and all professions. And this house is no exception. This house today have been affected by cancer, including many who once served this province as MPPs. Mr. Speaker, liver cancer is on the rise in Ontario. Every year two and a half thousand Canadians are diagnosed with liver cancer and 1200 will die from this disease in 2019. For more information please visit survivornet.ca Mr. Norman Jameson, an MPP for Norfolk County in the 35th Parliament was taken by liver cancer too soon on October 3rd, 2017. Earlier today, the Canadian Cancer Survivor Network, along with Norm's daughters, Carrie, Shannon and Eileen and his wife Sharon along with survivors and caregivers hosted a legislative reception. Thank you to all my colleagues for attending. It gave us an opportunity to pause, to reflect and to share how cancer affects us all and to honour the life and memory of MPP Jameson. Together we can be a strong voice for liver cancer patients and all cancer patients in Ontario. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Thank you. That concludes our member's statements for this afternoon.