 For member statements, the member will have an opportunity to finish debate. Next time the bill is called, member statements, the member for Whitley. Well, thank you, Speaker. I'm proud to highlight a partnership between the Durham College School of VISTAs IT management and the boards of trade and chambers of commerce in Durham region, including the Whitby Chamber of Commerce. This region wide partnership provides first year students with membership in all chambers of commerce and boards of trade for the duration of their studies and for the additional year following their graduation. This president setting initiative speaker will help foster greater opportunities for students to enhance their professional development and to connect with local professionals and employers in the region of Durham. Speaker, working professionals and students from across the material come to the region of Durham because we have a reputation for growth, innovation, and a business climate par excellence. I'm proud to recognize this critical partnership speaker and commend the leadership of Durham College and the Durham region joint chambers and boards of trade for giving our students a hand up and hope for the future. Thank you, Speaker. The member for London and Fanshawe. Thank you, Speaker. Speaker, I stand here today with a heavy heart in memory of Kristen Legaudonkers. She was a 25 year old long time champion for improving mental health and a well-known in London for her children's books. She died on March 11th. Her obituary reads quote, after years of battling her own demons along with the bureaucracy of mental health care systems, the system that she so passionately fought for failed her end quote. I can only imagine Speaker, the rage and sorrow her loved ones have been feeling and I stand here today to help lend a voice to her cause. According to CMHO, pre-pandemic 28,000 Ontario children and youth were waiting for mental health services. For some families, the wait list was up to two and a half years. And we know it's gotten worse during the pandemic. Over the last few weeks, I've spoken to a number of local London health and mental health addiction facilities agencies who say the wait lists are growing and their resources are not growing. Their resources are getting shorter. Family services, Thames Valley say that their wait lists have now doubled in five months. Even their priority wait list is now four to six weeks long. They've told me that the intake level, they are witnessing immediate increase in acuity of need. It is clear that what the province thinks it is doing and what actually is needed on the ground are two different realities. We are too late for Kristen, but if we work hard, fast and together, we can save another young person's life like Kristen's. So let's work together to make sure that every young person has a medical, mental and mental health needs, services they need in their writings. Thank you, Speaker. Member Statements to Member for Mississauga Mall. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Every year, thousands of people like Andrea's, the pastelopoulos, come to Canada from across the world to fulfill their dream and give back to community. Born in Greece, 17-year-old Andy, with great six education landed in Canada on a Friday in 1969 and started working at KFC the following Monday. Through determination and hard work, Andy built his multi-billion dollar company in commercial real estate. His biggest revitalization was in 2009 with the purchase of 80,000-seat Paniac Silver Dome and construction of an entertainment resort in Pickering, creating thousands of jobs and adding a billion dollar to Ontario's GDP. As per Andy, you can't get to the top without starting from the bottom. With little formal education, he could work out a deal in his head in no time. Andy passed away earlier this year, leaving behind a gap that can never be filled. He was a mentor and a fatherly figure to me. I would like to honour the memory of a smart, sharp, quick-witted and human calculator, caring and proud Canadian, Andrea's, the pastelopoulos. Jimmy, Peter and Steve, you are blessed to have Andy as your father, as an inspiration to many. Andy's story is one of the many entrepreneurial immigrations that have added value to our global village. Our government's current entrepreneurial stream will recruit 100 international entrepreneurs who will start their company's higher local workers and drive economic growth. And I want to say thank you to Canada for being the land of opportunities where these dreams can be realised. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Andy, for all you did. Thank you very much. The member for University Rose did. Thank you. At this month, the UN published its most comprehensive report on the state of climate science in eight years. It is grim. This is what the present UN Secretary-General had to say. Nearly half of humanity is living in the danger zone now. Many ecosystems are at the point of no return now. And any further delay in concerted global action will miss a brief and rapidly closing window to secure a liveable future. As lawmakers, we have a responsibility to face hard truths and take measures to protect our future. Instead of spending billions of dollars building highways that we don't need, it is time to invest in public transit and the electrification of our transportation sector. Instead of building sprawl on farmland, it is time to increase density in existing neighbourhoods and build sustainably. And instead of closing down wind farms and fighting fruitless lawsuits, it is time that Ontario invests in a green new democratic deal to transition to a net zero economy and create good green jobs as we do so. This is about our future and this is what we need to do. Thank you. Member Statements, the Member for Perth Wellington. Thank you, Speaker. Speaker, last Monday I attended the Perth County Federation of Agriculture's annual Federal Provincial Forum. I'm honoured to have participated in this event just about every year since I was first elected in 2011. There are always constructive conversations and this year was no exception. Representatives from the PCFA, Commodity and Farm Groups presented their ideas and concerns. And one common theme was that Ontario's agriculture sector is facing labour shortages. Finding and retaining agriculture workers in Ontario was difficult even before the pandemic. In the last two years it has become even harder. We also discussed other issues including Ontario's risk management program and its importance in maintaining a stable agricultural sector. The importance of education in attracting young people to the agriculture sector and increasing processing capacity throughout Ontario, which will bring more goods to market, benefiting producers and consumers. If the past two years have taught us anything, it is that the importance of having a secure domestic food production Ontario is fortunate to have that. I would like to thank PCFA President Julie Dainan and Sharon Wiesel for hosting and organizing this event. For nearly 11 years it had always been a privilege to work with the PCFA as well as the Wellington Federation of Agriculture, Christian Farmers, and all the Agriculture Association in Prep Wellington. They represent farmers well, but they do more than that. They represent the interest and values of rural Ontario and its future. Working together, we know that future will be bright. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you. Member Stevens, the member for York Centre. Speaker of the public lost faith in government. That's because government, particularly this government, are abysmal failures. But why is government incompetent? The answer is politics. Politics is the cancer, the rut, that consumes politicians, staffers, stakeholders, and bureaucrats. Everyone's too busy putting their political interests ahead of what needs to be done. Let me explain. Say you identified a problem, then you need to call it out. But in government, that's a career-limiting move, because it means calling out your boss or ruffling feathers. So no one has the courage to speak out. But say someone called out a problem correctly, now you need to craft a solution. You know what the solution is, but politics gets in the way. Voters, lobbyists, stakeholders say, but you can't do that, minister. So the minister doesn't do it and doesn't do what needs to be done. They do it in part or something entirely different. That's what I call political friction. No one has the courage to craft the right solution because of politics. But even if we had the courage to call it the problem and miraculously conceived the solution, now you need to go to bureaucrats for the execution. I've met many fine public servants. They're eaten alive by politics. Seniority, not meritocracy. Toe the line without raising an issue. Work from home and make it a long weekend. Implementation is never on time or on budget. Delays in ineptitude until a new government arrives. And that's why nothing gets done in government. Politics. Politicians who don't have courage to do what people elected them to do is a classic agency conflict. Everyone prioritizes their salary and their personal ambitions, while real people, real issues and lives hang in the balance. Politics is the root of everything that's wrong in government. Order. Member's statements. The member of Fortunity, Spadina. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Last week, the family run meat taco restaurant on Queen last closed, and it's a victim of this government's delayed third round of COVID relief grants. The government, the premier promised in mid-December when he announced the most recent lockdowns for the Omicron wave that they would roll out a third round of relief grants. But I pulled 32 businesses in my riding last week and 22 had not yet received those grants. Ontario businesses are desperately hanging on. This government's record for supporting small businesses through the pandemic has been abysmal. They waited in 2020. They waited until 25,000 businesses had gone under before they rolled out the first round of relief grants. And we are still losing hundreds of businesses while this government delays the third round. The CFIB, the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, reported last week that the average small business pandemic debt is $160,000 and one third of small businesses in Canada are in the verge of bankruptcy. Derek Roach, who owns level two business productions in my riding, says, why is this third grant taking so long? I've burned through my savings. John Ulgen, who owns Cymit and Chai, says, the pandemic has been hell. We've been paying staff from our personal savings, and now all our savings are gone. Alina Arsenova from Papetulos, Mexicana, says the grant has been spotty and no government employee can answer questions. Catherine Beat from Yoga Space says I've run a successful yoga business for 25 years, but now I've burned through my savings. Mr. Speaker, I strongly encourage this government to roll out that third round of small business grants before more businesses are lost. Next Member Statement, the Member for Richmond Hill. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is rewarding to witness the encouragement so many of them given to the non-profit sector. During the non-profit appreciation week. The third week of February is recognized as the non-profit sector appreciation week that was celebrated last month. To all the professionals in the non-profit sector, I want to say you are no longer invisible champions. We see you, we appreciate you, and we thank you. I thank my colleagues who took the opportunity to visit so many non-profit organizations and some prepared scrolls and also hand-delivered to them. I also thank the community also coming out and it has positively stimulated communities to continue supporting them as volunteers and also financially, because whether there are fundraiser events, their continued support is so important to this sector. I want to thank the team that has working behind the scenes, working so hard. Danielle Sonato, the United Ways of Greater Toronto, Kathy Taylor from the Ontario Non-Profit Network and Raksha Bayana from the Bayana Family Foundation. I also want to thank my staff and we will all work together for 2023. But this should always be celebrated not only once a year, but every day of the year. Thank you. Thank you. The next statement, the member for Windsor to come see. Speaker on this, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, I say it's never too late to correct an injustice. Last October, hundreds of people turned out at the Fergie Jenkins Field in Chatham. They watched the baseball game to honor the Chatham All Stars, a team of black men who won the Ontario Championship way back in 1934. That was 13 years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the major leagues. There's been an effort underway for years to have the All Stars inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. They've already been named to the Chatham Hall and that was more than 20 years ago. Speaker, it wasn't uncommon for the Chatham All Stars to have to fight the way out of another town when they won a game or be ridiculed if they lost. Nobody would rent them a room when they drove to Pennet-Tang machine for the OBA Championship game in 1934. They had to go all the way to Mieford, about 60 miles away where they were allowed to stay overnight in cabins, but the owners said you have to be up and gone before sunrise so my neighbors don't know you were here. The Chatham All Stars were the first black team to play in the Ontario Baseball Association and the first to win an OBA Championship title. Despite the racism, despite the prejudice and the bigotry, those players loved the game and they were really good at it. In fact, they excelled. Had times been different, several of them could have gone on to a career in the major leagues. That wasn't possible then, but there's no reason now that they couldn't be named to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and I would hope, as I believe, every one of us here in Ontario's legislature would be supportive of such a recognition that it's overdue, Speaker, it's never too late to correct an injustice.