 I do have time for Member Statements, beginning with the Government's side. I recognize the Member for Mrs. Saga Malton. Thank you, Madam Speaker. February 21st is International Mother Language Day. Born and raised in Punjab, Punjabi is my mother tongue, the language in which I uttered my first word. Punjabi is the mother tongue of almost 400,000 residents serving Ontario. The Punjabi Arts Association is one of such organisations that has been working tirelessly for over 31 years to promote the Punjabi language and its culture through intergenerational platforms of expression, where through conversation addressing community issues and concerns are highlighted through theatre, music and other art forms. Madam Speaker, Arts, Binds and Strengths community, it helps promote and preserve Canada's cultural diversity. In Ontario, our government and its granting agencies are the biggest champion of artists and art organisations. In 2022, PAA produced seven scripts, held monthly acting workshops and hosted fun and engaging improv events in Punjabi. Recently, I had the pleasure of attending PAA's Canadian Punjabi Kavidarbhaar, a Knight of Punjabi Poetry. I was impressed to see our Ontario youth tackling social issues with choices of words that was thought provoking. Thank you to the Board Members, Volunteer Sponsors, Sporters of PAA for serving and promoting mother language. You make us all proud. PAA, my best wishes always stay in high spirit. Thank you Madam Speaker. Further statements, I recognise the member for Meshka Gowik, James Bay. Peace down. The winter comfortable period and March break is upon us. So today I would like to highlight some of the activities that will be happening in my writing from Hearst to Jug and all the way through Smooth Rock Falls over the next week. Starting as early as today to name a few activities, there will be night skiing at the Moonbeam Ski Hill, a crib tournament, a Dabber Bingo, a casino and wine tasting evening in Moonbeam, an adult social event evening at the Smooth Rock Falls Curling Club, a virtual bingo and public skating. There are multiple children and family activities across the communities such as big screen movies, road hockey tournament, soapbox sled competition, polar bear dip in the Cappos Casing River, two multiple concert at the Sound de la Zee and Esquidu poker rally. I can't name them all but I encourage our residents to take a look at the great carnival schedule prepared by our municipalities on Facebook as there is something to do for everyone. I would like to wish everyone lots of fun and happy and a safe winter carnival in March break. It's the time of carnival. It's the time of carnival. Winter and the March break is good and our communities left nothing behind. I invite everyone to look at the calendar published by the municipalities. I would like to wish everyone to all the residents lots of fun during this carnival period and good holidays during the winter time. I recognize the member for Scarborough Agent Court. Thank you, Madam Speaker. This year is the 100th anniversary of the Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, also known as the Chinese Exclusion Act. This act virtually banned the entry of Chinese immigrants for 24 years. This tragic exclusion separated families for almost a quarter of a century. To commemorate the anniversary, the tribute to early Chinese immigrants, Canada Foundation, the Markham Museum, the York Region District School Board, together with researchers at the University of Toronto and many other stakeholders, will create a rotating exhibition for the GTA. In addition, there will be commemorative events such as concerts, tree planting, workshops, and cultural performances. The launch of the activities will take place on Tuesday, March 21, which is United Nations International Day of Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and it will culminate with Eastern Heritage Month. The intention of these activities is to bring final closure to this unjust treatment, as one of the organizers stated. Furthermore, it is their wish to ask Canadians to join hands in marking our countries more harmonious, inclusive, and respectful to one another. Moreover, to educate and sensitize future generations with the devastating consequences of racism. The early Chinese immigrants' hard work, perseverance, and determinations contributed to build Canada as the best country in the world. Many of the descendants of the Head Tax and the Exclusion Act are now residing in Ontario. It is our duty to bring healing and closure for the survivors and their descendants. I would like to take the opportunity to thank former Citizenship Judge Nancy Su for her diligent work on this fight. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Member Statements to Member for Niagara Centre. Thank you, Speaker. The Welland Hospital is a full service hospital that serves the fastest growing area of the Niagara Region. This hospital would not exist without the endless support from our community. In 1945, the Welland Hospital Auxiliary formed to help fund raise for the site. Over the years, they have continued to work, raising $750,000 to renovate the ICU and $1 million toward a dialysis unit named after them. Countless community organizations like the Hungarian Cultural Society saw the need for this hospital and contributed what they could. Unfortunately, Niagara Health recently confirmed that services at the Welland Hospital will be significantly reduced. As of February 27, emergency surgical services in Welland will be cut in the evenings and weekends. Families in Welland, Port Coburn, Thorald and Pelham, who show up at this hospital and need to be in an operating room within the hour, will have to wait for an ambulance to take them to another hospital. Doctors and nurses at the hospital have told us this will create dangerous situations for patients leading to poor outcomes and unnecessary deaths. In April of 2022, this House passed my motion to maintain full emergency department services and acute care services in Welland to ensure that there are safe, equitable hospital services throughout the Niagara Region. I look forward to working with the minister in this House to ensure the government honours its commitment to maintain these crucial emergency services. Thank you. Member Statements. Member for Ajax. Good day to say it's an honour to represent the people of Ajax. February is Black History Month. It's a collection of our collective past and present achievement and a celebration of black excellence. Earlier this month, I was honoured to be a part of the 16th annual Durham Black History Month event, the largest put on by Cultural Expression Arts Gallery, Esther Ford and her team do an amazing job. Every year, this event represents the Medibo Award, named in honour of Nelson Mandela. This year's Medibo Award was presented to Adam Brown. Adam was born with retinitis petonosa, a degenerative eye disorder that affects peripheral vision, depth of session and profound night blindness. Adam has led an amazing life despite his vision challenge. He took to TikTok with a life-hearted self-appeal to the public to join with him to reach out to their local MP to encourage the government to fully fund the treatment which would help thousands of men, women and children with RP not to go blind over their lifetime. Almost three years later, with over 450,000 likes and 15,000 letters sent to the Ontario Government, gene therapy, Lux Turna, was fully approved. I would like to personally thank Adam for his advocacy and leadership in trying to make the life better for thousands of Ontarians. There is no better moment than now to celebrate and remember the numerous ways in which black people have continued and shaped the Ontario culture, economics and society. Thank you, Member Statements. The Member for Nickelbelt. Thank you, Speaker. As you know, Ontario has over 1.5 million residents with no access to primary care. They have no family physician, no nurse practitioners. In my writing, it is close to 30,000 people who do not have access. In a part of my writing called the Valley, we had three physicians retired in the last year. And sadly, two weeks ago today, a very well-loved physician, Dr. McAllistered, passed away quite suddenly, leaving behind thousands more patients and there is no physician's replacement in sight. But we have solution speaker. We have nurse practitioners who are willing and able to take on those orphaned patients. All we need is a minister's signature. Carol, Dr. McAllister's widow, called me and asked if I could get a nurse practitioner for her husband's patients. The Capriol Nurse Practitioner Clinic has asked multiple times for $293,000, not millions, $293,000 for an additional nurse practitioner, receptionist and social workers. They will be able to supply primary care to hundreds of additional patients, offer same-day appointments, after-hours appointments, provide mental health, and much more. The Submariner's Practitioner Clinic also presented a reasonable plan. We could, in a matter of weeks, change the lives of thousands of people by giving them access to primary care. We could support Drs. McAllister Orphan's patient. Minister, will the good people of Hanmer and Capriol need you to sign off on more nurse practitioners' position right now? Will you do it? Thank you. Members' statements. The member for Hastings, Lennox and Addington. Thank you, Speaker. This past Sunday, I had the opportunity to attend a wonderful event. I was invited to drop the puck at a local hockey game. In various roles, many time over my municipal career and now as an MPP, I've had this chance to drop a puck. It is always an honour. But this one was special. The young teammates of the Wellington Dukes, including four members of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinney, decided to make this game have a cultural message as well. They recognized that for many of us, hockey's a Canadian thing. Younger or old, male or female, settler or First Nation, one of the things that almost everyone in this country shares is some level of passion and a knowledge of hockey. Another common element is the collective heartbreak that we have all felt as the discoveries of graves at residential school sites across the country have occurred. As a country, we have not done a good job in providing the education and the cultural understanding of the devastating impact of the imposition of residential school system. For multiple generations and the long-term impact of the horrific chapter in our history. So I was very pleased to see the efforts to bring more awareness to that history. Using hockey to cross all cultures within Canada and specifically in my area of Eastern Ontario is both very appropriate and should be very effective. I want to thank the Wellington Dukes and the participants and the audience in attendance. I hope they enjoyed the game and I hope they will take some time to learn the truth. We need to recognize the past to build a better future for all Indigenous persons and for all of Canada. Thank you, Speaker. Meg Wich. Member Statements. The Member for Don Valley, East. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. This week the government released their legislation to bring surgeries and diagnostic services out of hospitals. And while there could be merit in such a strategy, if implemented in a not-for-profit manner with credible guardrails, it alone cannot be a solution to all the challenges in our healthcare system. The bedrock of our healthcare system is its people and that bedrock has been eroded by Bill 124. This wage constraining and constitutional legislation has pushed healthcare workers out of the public system. And meanwhile, temporary for-profit nursing agencies operating with limited oversight have been pulling them out. As this has happened, we have learned how some temporary for-profit nursing agencies exemplify some of the most corrosive elements when profits mix with healthcare. And that is why today I will be tabling a private members bill that if passed will license and regulate temporary nursing agencies. It takes aim at the most outrageous and predatory practices in a fair and reasonable way. For the first time, nursing agencies will be required to obtain a license that can be suspended or revoked. They will be forbidden from unethical recruiting practices, unfair negotiation tactics and price gauging. And there will be transparency and accountability achieved through inspections along with the prohibition against unconscionable pricing. The bill is fair. It is not onerous. It borrows from accepted practices by this very government and it won't destabilize our healthcare. What it will do is level the playing field, prevent siphoning of healthcare workers from our public system and it will stop runaway profiteering. Thank you. Thank you. Member statements. The member for Bruce Grayle on sound. It is my pleasure this morning to tell you about something very exciting that happened recently in our Greybrews community. Now I know many of you would expect me to be telling you about Groundhog Day on February 2nd. Well it was indeed a great morning in Wyrton. The fireworks at 7am were spectacular and Willie was his usual eloquent self communicating his forecast. As you heard, he said it would be an early spring this year. But no colleagues this morning I want to tell you about something more exciting than Wyrton Willie and that's a new school in Markdale. It was thrilled to announce that the Blue Water District School Board have been given approval to proceed with the new replacement for the Beavercrest Public Elementary School in Markdale. This will be an investment of $15.5 million, an increase of $6.9 million. And the new school will be an absolute jewel. We have 328 new student spaces, 39 new childcare spaces, two new childcare rooms and a two room early on family center. Thank you Minister Leche for your constant support. You have been there from the start for Markdale. Thank you Minister Surma for your great leadership in the government's infrastructure program. Thank you Bill Walker for your energetic support over the years. Thank you Wyrton Willie and thanks to this government for your support of Markdale. Thank you. Member Statements? The Member for Oakville North Burlington. Thank you Speaker. I stand today to recognize that it's been one year since the horrific Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a nation we must continue to support Ukrainians as they struggle for peace, freedom and democracy. They have shown the world incredible bravery and resilience as they face unimaginable challenges. I stand today to honor them and the thousands of people who have lost their lives and loved ones to this selfish act of terrorism. In my own community of Oakville North Burlington I've heard so many tragic stories about displaced Ukrainian families. I stand today for them, for the pain they've had to endure and yet remain humbled by the remarkable resilience and strength of the human spirit. At a Christmas celebration with the families at St. Volodymyr's Ukrainian Church Father Yaroslav told me that Ontario has provided a sense of community and safety that was desperately needed amidst the horrors of the war in Ukraine. I'm proud of the work we have done by welcoming refugees and providing them with healthcare, emergency housing, education and other assistance like mental health supports. We will not waver in our commitment to the people of Ukraine. We will continue to provide them with the support they need to rebuild their lives. We stand with Ukraine and let us never forget that freedom and dignity of every human being is a fundamental right that must be protected at all costs. Slava Ukrani!