 now time for member statements. And I turn to the member from Oshawa. Thank you very much, Speaker. I have received an impassioned letter from a critical care nurse at our local hospital in Oshawa. She writes, quote, I have been watching this tsunami of COVID cases in this third wave with great trepidation. The Ontario government has said they didn't know it would be this bad. They needed to see the effects in the hospital before finally acting too little, there's absolutely no accountability on their part for ignoring the provincial modeling presented by science and health experts in creating this crisis in our health care system. I'm devastated by the rising COVID cases in our community and our province due to the government's poor communication and negligent mishandling of this pandemic. They're ongoing refusal to protect Ontarians with paid sick days and their callous cuts resulting in an inefficient public health system that can properly test, trace and isolate our abject failures of leadership. Their vaccine rollout has demonstrated systemic inequities in marginalized communities and is abhorrent. Their lack of accountability for their decisions and their actions is unforgivable. Critical care units here in Durham Region have moved several critically ill Durham Region residents to centres in Kingston and Ottawa to try to ensure critical care services are available here for the many COVID and non COVID patients requiring our services. Emergency measures to redeploy non ICU staff have been issued to help us manage this third wave. I have been a registered nurse for 34 years and a proud critical care nurse for 25 of those years. I am gutted by what this Ontario government has allowed to happen to our health care system. They must be held accountable for choosing ideology over science for listening to business and lobbyists over health experts. Thank you. End quote. Thank you speaker and thank you to our frontline services. Thank you. The next member statement goes to the member from Ajax who has 90 seconds. Thank you Mr. Speaker. I rise in the house today to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of Durham Public Health and in particular Dr. Robert Kyle and the frontline team that support those who are hard at work administering vaccinations in the town of Ajax and elsewhere in Durham. Tomorrow a mobile vaccine clinic will be at Bolton C. Fallby School in the town of Ajax that's located at 80 Fallby Court. The clinical require no appointments and I encourage everyone in the area who's eligible to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated. Mr. Speaker in Durham Region as of this Sunday 158,947 vaccines have been administered including 1834 by mobile clinics such as the one that will be at Fallby School in Ajax tomorrow. In addition pharmacies primary care clinics and Lake Ridge Hospital continue to provide vaccine appointments. Durham Public Health have in the past few months set up and operated eight mass vaccination clinics across Durham Region and this effort has not gone unnoticed by our community. Mr. Speaker as well today those aged 40 and over can get access to AstraZeneca vaccine at their local pharmacies. In Ajax 16 of our local pharmacies are providing vaccine booking appointments online and on the phone. In addition to thanking our frontline public health staff I also want to thank all the pharmacist technicians and others involved in the distribution of vaccine through our local pharmacies and through our public health and primary care units. Thank you. Thank you and thank you for sticking to your lot of time this time. Thank you very much. The next member statement is the member from Spadina Fort York. Thank you Mr. Speaker but today I'm going to argue that the refusal to implement paid sick days by this government and last week's decision to increase police powers are both examples of systemic racism. We know that workplaces are the main transmission points. Yesterday I was on a press conference with the Ontario Medical Students Association and an emergency room physician Dr. Steven pointed out that two-thirds of the of the COVID cases in Peel region can be traced to workplace transmission and he also said that one in four workers reported going to work while symptomatic because if they did not if they lose their pay tech they will not be able to pay the rent or feed their families. The decision last week to implement to increase the police powers was incredibly traumatizing to particularly black and indigenous communities. A resident from my community Paul David wrote on Facebook it's hard to understand if you present as white but I now have to prepare what to do. I leave my home and our colleague from Coetnum this the increase in police powers reminded him of the powers of the Indian agents on the reserves to to refuse or give permission for First Nations people to leave those reserves that happened for decades. So my question to the government is how could you possibly come up with this police measure? What is the proportion of black and indigenous members on on the command table? And I will argue again that refusing to implement paid sick days that would primarily benefit low-income racialized communities and the and the decision to increase police powers are both acts of systemic racism. Thank you. Member for Chatham Kent. Chatham Kent Leemington. Thank you very much Speaker. You know one of the premise in any business is to either find a need and fill it or simply create the need. For 15 years back in the day I refereed basketball at high levels at all Ontario high school games as well as men's leagues consisting of former college and university players. Now when the stands were filled with cheering fans their noise would drown out the sound of my whistle making it difficult to stop play. You see the old style whistle had a cork pee and when you blew it really hard nothing would come out or when it got frozen or water had some dirt inside it would lose its efficiency. Enter Ron Foxcroft. Ron was a former basketball official who experienced many of my same issues. His business acumen was second to none as he knew that there was a need to build a better mousetrap. Instead he created what is known today as the Fox 40. A pealous whistle with a very high shrill to it. I had to make sure that when I used it I didn't blow it in somebody's ear. You know the pealous whistle has become the whistle of choice for the NHL, NBA, NCAA, NFL, arena football and the Canadian Football League. So I'm proud to say that the Fox 40 and the mini Fox 40 were invented while I refereed and to this day it was the absolute best whistle I ever used. In over 30 years of business a company has grown and is now comprised of Canadian head office with the U.S.-based sister company Try Foxco USA. Fox 40 whistles are sold in over 140 companies. Congratulations to Ron and his team who by the way hail from Hamilton, Ontario. Member statements. The member for Algoma Manitou. Thank you Mr. Speaker and in my role as the MPP for Algoma Manitou is to make sure that the voices of people across my writing come to the floor of the legislature. Voices like Melissa. Melissa is a single mom dealing with three children at home. Her biggest challenge this week was the return for home virtual learning for her children. However she is stuck going to work cannot afford when will not is receive enough on serve. So she's having to make the decision to I quit my job and come back home and lose my benefits. These are the realities of what certain individuals are facing. Seniors across Algoma Manitou are still struggling with booking appointments. They have no access to computers. They only have telephones. They're sitting on the phone for enormous amount of times only to be told that there is no spaces available. They feel like they are desperate and really forgotten by this government. The frustration level as far as what seniors are seeing on the daily news is what's happening in other parts of the province particularly in southern Ontario where they see individuals that are younger who are getting access to receiving vaccines while they are still waiting for vaccines. Listen Northern Ontario has done their fair share. The vaccine the virus is not spreading throughout Northern Ontario as in other areas. People are staying at home or doing their jobs. They're concerned with individuals that are not respecting the regional transportation and travel that is going on. What they are asking for is an equitable distribution of the vaccine throughout this province. Thank you Speaker. Thank you. Member statements. Member statements. Member for Stormont Dundas, South Glen Gary. Thank you Speaker. Mr. Speaker my writing in Stormont Dundas and South Glen Gary we have many dedicated individuals who help those in need. Shelly Viancourt recently marked 31 years as the executive director of the Alzheimer's Society of Cornwall and District. She has been a tireless advocate administrator educator for the dementia related concerns. I know for this first hand as my consistently staff and I have had the opportunity to be coached personally by her to become a dementia friendly officer. She is a great example of those many of the health professional mental health professionals in my writing and our province who have brought this subject of mental illness out of the shadows and into the light. The role that Ms. Viancourt and others like her in the community has also taken an extra importance during this pandemic as many seniors struggle against the isolation effects. As always I look forward to shining light on deserving people like Shelly for without them our province would not be the great place to live, work, and raise a family. So I want to thank Shelly for her long and rewarding career and wish her the very best in retirement. Thank you Speaker. Next Member statement. The Member for London West. Thank you very much Speaker. Speaker to say that the last year has been hard on London West businesses would be an understatement. I have been hearing from the owners of all kinds of businesses, restaurants, recreation and fitness studios, personal care services, arts organizations, locally owned retail, and more. They've depleted their savings, they've taken on debt, some of them have mortgaged their own homes. Many have struggled through with no government assistance at all because they haven't qualified for government supports. These small business owners are barely hanging on and in too many cases they've already closed for good. The Ontario small business support grant was supposed to provide a lifeline but it excluded many businesses. Even eligible small businesses who had their grants immediately approved have been waiting months for the grant to arrive despite the promise of 10 day wait. Business owners who have had problems with their applications told me they've called the program and send emails over and over and have received no response. Some are assured that their file will be escalated but then nothing happens. One constituent filed an application early and waited so long the business was forced to close before the funding arrived. It did not have to be this way for London businesses Speaker. Had this government followed expert recommendations we wouldn't be watching small businesses close while lockdown restrictions drag on. Thank you Speaker. Thank you. Member statements? The member for Scarborough Guildwood. Thank you Speaker. It is with deep concern that I rise today in the House to advocate for the health and safety of my constituents in Scarborough Guildwood. For more than a year now Scarborough has been locked in an all-encompassing struggle with an invisible enemy that does not discriminate. It has long been established that Scarborough is a COVID hotspot and the recent prioritization by Postal Code further confirms this with literally all of Scarborough designated as a COVID hot zone. As I stand here today however it is my responsibility to report to this House that on April 14th the Scarborough Health Network's mass immunization clinic at Centennial College and Centenary Hospital were forced to close due to the lack of vaccine supply. Local residents like 70-year-old Ramjeet who came to the Centennial Clinic on his bicycle, 69-year-old man, could not get his bookings. Speaker this is not only a logistical and an organizational failure of leadership, this represents a moral failure which will have dire consequences. People throughout Scarborough are looking to the government to guide the pandemic response. With a positivity rate of 24% with ICU's overflowing they've already been transferring people for many, many months. This is a high priority area. Scarborough is being neglected and needs protection more now more than ever. To the residents of Scarborough Guildwood I want to say thank you for all your efforts in this struggle and I will continue to do everything I can to advocate for more vaccines. Thank you. Member statements, the member for Mississauga East Cooksville. Thank you Speaker. I'm pleased to share with this house that our government continues to support cultural organizations in my riding and across Ontario through the Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Cultural Industries. In particular the Ontario Cultural Attraction Funds recently awarded $45,000 to Canadian Arabic Orchestra based in my riding of Mississauga East Cooksville to support their programming for the 2021-22 season. Additionally the Mississauga Children's Choir also received a resilient communities fund grant of $18,000 through the Ontario Trillium Foundation to support their programming for their upcoming season. Speaker, cultural institutions like the Canadian Arabic Orchestra and the Mississauga Children's Choir are at the heart of sharing and building upon Ontario's rich history of arts and cultural diversity. These institutions help us celebrate the many cultures and traditions that make up the Mosaic of Ontario. Despite the recent challenges many cultural and arts organizations have shown remarkable resilience by adapting their programming for virtual platforms. I encourage everyone to check out the respective websites of your favourite cultural and arts organizations and see what virtual programs they are offering during our lockdown. Let us all continue to work together to support our cultural and arts institutions across Ontario. Thank you. The next member statement, the member for Northumberland Peterborough South. Thank you Speaker. Speaker, in honour of Volunteer Week I would like to highlight the extraordinary work of volunteers in my riding of Northumberland Peterborough South. Mr Speaker, I would like to specifically acknowledge the remarkable work of Coburg Rotary and so many community-based volunteers. Mr Speaker, when our community began to receive COVID-19 vaccines, Coburg Rotary did not wait a minute, coming together with a can-do attitude to help set up one of the most efficient mass vaccination clinics in Canada. This has now expanded to three other Rotary clubs, taking the initiative in Minden, Fenland Falls and Halliburton throughout our public health unit. It has attracted interest province-wide and indeed, Mr Speaker, nationally. Anyone eligible who has had the opportunity to get vaccinated at the Coburg Community Centre knows what a great system we have. The system's foundation is backed by a strong network of over 600 volunteers in Coburg and 300 in the other three communities. Speaker, we are fast approaching a 1000-person army to support this initiative, and this effort would not have been possible without the leadership of Gord Lay and Brian Reed, who are integral in the planning and early operation of the site. I would also like to acknowledge other members of the planning committee, Linda Esack, Paul Allen, Anne Grosé, Linda Kay, Helen Lackey, Patty Lay, Richard Brule, Dr. Bob Scott, Roger Tessier, Dr. Mark Esack, Nancy Bruce and Kim Reed. Speaker, what starts as a drop and what a mighty drop this has been has now had the ripple effect across so many communities in our province. So to Coburg Rotary and all the volunteers who've been critical in this initiative, thank you. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you very much. That concludes our member statements for this morning.