 Members' statements. I recognize the member for London Fanshop. Thank you, Speaker. Speaker, last week I held a back-to-school town hall. I invited local health and education experts to answer my constituents' questions, and let me tell you, Speaker, the anxiety was palpable. By mid-August, parents had already been required to decide whether they were going to be opting in for in-school learning. I polled my constituents during the town hall, and not only did the majority feel that they did not have enough information to make that decision, but the majority also did not feel safe sending their kids to school and believed that this government did not do enough to keep the classroom safe. We spent most of the town hall going over the basics, busing, ventilation, class sizes, curriculum, and start dates, all of which had yet to be decided by mid-August. School has now started for most students in the province, and the anxiety still hasn't gone away. I spoke to a parent last week, and she told me that while her school is trying their very best, kids are not able to social distance, and they were not sanitizers at the door. She followed up with me two days later and wrote to tell me that they were doing better with the sanitizer at the door, so the kids were going in, which was good to see. But she said she saw a piece on City TV today about and before after care, just like her concerns are not all unfounded and quite very much all too common. With low registration rates, parents are fearing programs closing. However, no cap on group sizes, no cohorting, and if you add the kids whose bus that throws that cohorting out the window as well, she says, and there's very limited social distancing. So this is what she said in Wrapping Up. So for Premier Ford to say, parties and schools are apples and oranges is more like saying they are talking about Mandarin versus Clementines. In my humble opinion. Thank you. Member Statements, the Member for Niagara West. Thank you, Speaker. One of the reasons I'm so honored to represent my home riding of Niagara West is the spirit of generosity in our local community. Over this weekend, I had the privilege to be part of that generosity at the 31st annual Beansville and District Lions Club food drive in support of community care of West Niagara. I want to commend and thank all those who gave generously for the less fortunate in our community. Hosted at the campus of the Great Lakes Christian High School in Beansville, over 175 drivers and volunteers helped collect and sort a record 32,000 pounds of food donations and counting to help families in need in the town of Lincoln, especially in the context of COVID-19. This is the true Ontario spirit that makes our province great. I especially want to thank and acknowledge the food drive organizers, Linda O'Donnell, Fundraising Coordinator at Community Care of West Niagara, and John Chautuki, Food Drive Chair at the Beansville and District Lions Club for all their hard work in coordinating this year and many other years' events. I also want to thank Carol Fuhrer, Executive Director of Community Care of West Niagara, her hardworking team, our local Lions, and everyone who participated in this year's food drive. We will get through these difficult times by standing together in support of our neighbours across Ontario. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you. Member Statements, the Member for University, Rosedale. Thank you, Speaker. Last week I spoke to a teacher called Stefan. Stefan is a Grade 4 teacher at Jesse Ketchum Public School in my writing. This is what he had to say about school last week. Class sizes were wavering between 24 and 32 because of teacher reallocations and late enrolment. You can't safely distance with 24 kids and you certainly can't safely distance with 32. Face shields for every teacher hadn't arrived yet. There was no clear system for who should perform COVID-19 checks. There was no clear system for how common surfaces should be cleaned and who should do the cleaning. The music teacher, the science teacher and the librarian are all gone. The library is closed. The special education program for needy kids has been gutted. It's now half the size of what it typically is. New students who are eligible for the special education program are not even able to enroll because there is no space for them anymore. And what is happening at Jesse Ketchum is happening to varying degrees at the schools across my writing. Palmerston, Lord Lansdowne, Whitney, Rosedale and St. Francis. This government new schools were going to open. This government new COVID-19 was still going to be around and this government had six months to prepare. This is chaotic. This is not safe. And it needs to improve. Ontario government, from the parents and teachers and kids in my writing to yours, make the schools safe. Invest the money. Hire the teachers. There is nothing more important for our kids, for our economy, for our parents. Please improve this situation. Thank you. The member for Markham Unionville. Thank you, Mr Speaker. In July, I was proud to join the Premier, the Minister of Colleges and University Honourable, Ross Romano and my York Region Caucus colleagues as our government announced support to York University new Markham Centre campus in the writing of Markham Unionville. As the first publicly assisted university campus in York Region, the new campus will provide more young adults in Markham Unionville and surrounding communities the opportunities to assess university programs in the high-demined fields of technology, commerce, data science and entrepreneurship. The campus is also expected to generate over 350 million in immediate economic benefits and over 2,000 jobs for the community. Mr Speaker, the City of Markham is the fourth-largest community in the Greater Toronto Area and York Region's population has doubled over the past 20 years. Our government supports to York University's Markham campus its great news for Markham Unionville, York Region and our province as we are expanding more opportunity for our students and I am looking forward to attending their groundbreaking ceremony this afternoon. Thank you, Mr Speaker. Thank you very much. Member Statements, the Member for Brampton Centre. Thank you, Speaker, and good morning. I'm really proud to rise here today and highlight some of our local businesses who have been COVID heroes throughout the pandemic. Small businesses in our communities are not just businesses. They are members of our community. They are families. They are hardworking individuals who contribute to our economic and cultural and social fabric. Businesses like Gregory's catering and Calypso Hut who help deliver meals to long-term care centres to ensure that their hardworking frontline workers got the meals they needed to continue working. Or Christina's Tortina Shop, who's been providing cupcakes and employing people with disabilities for over five years. But these businesses, Mr Speaker, are struggling. They need help and they made it very clear at the Finance and Economic Recovery Committee that they need assistance from this government. Relying solely on federal assistance is simply not enough. This government needs to do better. They asked for assistance in rent relief. They need assistance in making sure that their employees can get retrained and have the PPE that they need. But this government simply isn't listening and small businesses in our communities are closing, not just in my riding, but across this province. And without the supports that they need to continue to be members of our community and contribute to that fabric that we hold so dear, they are going to close forever. And that impact is not going to be just felt during the pandemic, it's going to be felt for decades to come. And so you have an opportunity to legislate and help those businesses, and I encourage you to do that. Thank you. Member's statements. Member Ottawa Venier. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. It is the reality that Ontario is entering in the second wave of the COVID-19 crisis. The return to school has most likely contributed to the upward trend of new positive cases. The lack of resources from the government to school board has prevented the implementation of a plan that could follow the golden rule of physical distancing. Despite the incredible challenge, school boards have stepped up to the best to create safe learning environments. Having sent my kids to school, I can tell you from the numerous and always changing communications that teachers, principals, trustees, school board staff worked incredibly hard with public health officials. And today I want to thank them and recognize their sense of duty for the well-being of our children and families. However, if we want our children to keep on learning, funding needs to flow to school boards. Parents need funding to enable students to access online learning right away so that students can switch between in-class and virtual learning, either for an entire term or because they are in self-isolation. While we may all want for schools to remain open, it is no longer a mere possibility that some schools will need to close. It's already happening. Ontarians need their government to take action. Words alone will not protect our students, our families and communities from the COVID-19 pandemic but investments in action can. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Member Statements, the member for Burlington. Thank you so much, Speaker. Speaker, September 27th marks the 85th anniversary of Goodwill, the Amity Group. Their mission is to change lives and strengthen communities through the power of work. Goodwill Amity is four career centers and two thrift stores in Burlington, Oakville and Burlington. Last year, they placed 853 people in jobs and supported job searches of 3,063 others. The majority found full-time jobs with starting wages at 20% higher than minimum wage. As the Parliamentary Assistant to the Ministry of Labor, I'm happy to report Ontario's Goodwill Place a candidate in every job every 31 minutes. During COVID-19, COVID Amity redeployed their catering operations to serve over 6,000 males. I want to thank Kelly Duffin, President and CEO of Goodwill, the Amity Group and the senior leadership team including Tracy Cunning, Sheila Davidson, Glenn Cockfield and Maria Zegarek. A special thanks to Sharon Monroe, Manager of the Burlington Career Center and Dave Pegg, Manager of the Burlington Thrift Store. And all of your staff, you work is making a huge difference. Please visit GoodwillOnline.ca to learn more to register for their virtual job fair October 6th. Thank you so much, Speaker. Member Statements, the Member for St. Catharines. Thank you, Speaker. Let me tell you what burns me up. Seniors who are trying to do everything right. Seniors on a fixed income who have had to pay more during this pandemic for no good reason of their own. I'm holding up Tony Solowski's electrical bill. Over the past two summer months, Tony's had to pay an extra $100 in hydro. That is because of the new fixed hydro rates introduced by this government during the summer has actually raised hydro bills for folks that were diligent about building a routine around off-peak hours. In short, this plan made life more expensive for people doing what was right. And most of all, these people will have higher hydro bills today like Tony, who is the senior. I have received many complaints about higher hydro bills from seniors. This is not a good policy. This is not fixing a problem. You know after 2018 election, Premier Ford had an opportunity to fix hydro. In fact, this government had a mandate fix the budget busting hydro bills under the previous government. It was a big campaign winner. We have a three-page Facebook group. Two years into your mandate, we have not seen anything done to reform and fix the system from the previous government. However, instead, for some seniors like Tony, they are paying more. If you're not going to fix hydro, then at least don't make it worse for seniors in my community. Thank you. The Member for Oakville North Burlington. Thank you, Speaker. People in my community of Oakville North to fight COVID-19. But we know that cancer and cancer research cannot wait for the end of the pandemics. That is why I was proud to join residents for the 40th annual Terry Fox Run on September 20th. The virtual runs in Oakville and Burlington raised an amazing $200,000 for research. This year's run for cancer research was a virtual one with families and friends running through local parks or along neighborhood streets. On September 13th our community held a virtual walk for the Ovarian Cancer Walk of Hope in Burlington and Oakville which also raised more than $72,000 for cancer research. I want to thank all the walkers and runners and their supporters and donors who raised funds for cancer research in our community and across the province. Our government shares the commitment of these remarkable volunteers to fighting cancer. That's why this year alone the Ontario government will spend $1.9 billion on cancer treatment services and $93 million on cancer screening programs. We also directly funded almost $4.5 million which we announced last year for the hospital for sick children in research for pediatric cancers. We are committed to preventing cancer, to treating cancer and to supporting the research needed to fight it because Terry asked us to try. Thank you very much. Member statements? The Member for Richmond Hill. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. I like to rise today and acknowledge the actions of all those who helped to support the needs of the community in getting their flu shot especially to the ones in my riding of Richmond Hill. The importance of flu shot cannot be understated to the health of Ontarians especially this year. When we are in the middle of a pandemic unlike any that we have seen in the century it is essential that all those who can and should get the flu shot. The flu shot is recommended for everyone that is six months and older. It is safe, it is including for children and those who are pregnant or breastfeeding. It is free and has proven to reduce the number of doctor visits and hospitalization. This year I'd like to encourage everyone to take the time to protect themselves and each other by getting the flu shot. Mr. Speaker all my constituents in Richmond Hill and I like to thank the doctors clinics pharmacists and all the frontline workers for all that they do to support the Ontarians at a time of need. Stay healthy and stay safe everyone. Thank you. Thank you very much. That concludes the time that we have this morning for member statements.