 therefore it's time for a member's statements. The member from Leeds, Grindelwald. Thank you very much speaker. It's an honor to rise in celebration of Brockville's Prince of Wales School which marks its 125th anniversary on Saturday. It was the fall of 1890 when 120 students, four teachers and one principal filed through the doors. They breathed life into the bricks and mortar of what was then the West Ward School. The heart they gave it kept it beating strong over two world wars, the Great Depression and 22 prime ministers. Times have changed from the days when students traipsed to outdoor washrooms or shoveled coal into the huge burner in the basement. Those students were a hearty bunch as they learned under gaslight until 1910. Budgetary restrictions, a reality even a century ago meant electricity was a late addition. Thankfully a mid-1950s effort to demolish the school for a modern building to accommodate a booming population failed. Instead an expanded and renamed Prince of Wales School debuted in 1958. Through it all there was one constant, the commitment of teachers and support staff to give students a caring home away from home. A place where they're free to harness education's power to unlock a brighter future. Prince of Wales is also close to my family's heart speaker the twins Alex and Jordan along with Megan began kindergarten there. I asked all Ontarians to wish a very happy birthday to generations of proud Prince of Wales Panther staff parents and especially students. Thank you very much. Thank you. Your member seems to remember from to miss me cockney. Thank you. Speaker I rise today to express my concerns with changes made to the Ontario Trillion Foundation. The strength of the OTF has always been its connection to local areas through frontline staff and volunteers. As a result projects were approved based on the actual grassroots needs of the communities. In my writing grants have been given from everything for ice shavers for curling clubs to accessibility rentals for legions. Sadly this community involvement is coming to an end. First the agency suspended its $25 million capital grant program at the end of March and now to add insult to injury it is reducing the number of granting catchment areas from 16 to 5. All of northern Ontario will now be in one area despite differences in geography culture economic status and population base. This will result in less staff and volunteer connection in north and much less opportunity for smaller groups to qualify for funding. As is so often the case when rural northerners hear the words streamline central eyes and regional eyes. What ends up happening is cut and disappear. The Minister of Culture and Tourism has the authority to stop these changes and I encourage him to do so. People who live in rural Ontario have a right to be treated equitably by this government and its agency. Thank you. Further member statements? The member from Scarborough Agent Court. Thank you Mr. Speaker. This week is National Nursing Week. The theme of this year's celebration nurses with you every step of the way highlights important role nurses play throughout our lives in our health care situations. Nurses are highly trained health professionals, skilled care providers and compassionate patient advocates who play a central role in our health care system. Representing the largest health care provider group in the province, nurses are consistently rated by the public as the most trusted profession. They are the backbone of Ontario's health care system. Nurses have a wide range of knowledge and skills and for those reasons Mr. Speaker our government is expanding the scope of practice and implementing the Ontario nursing strategy which helped to improve increase the number of nurses being hired full-time last year. During this week I'd like to recognize all nurses in Ontario especially Kelly Brockington a registered nurse in Scarborough Hospital and the winner of 2016 Human Touch Award for going above and beyond to get patient the cares they need. Betty will launch a frontline public health nurse for promoting healthy schools in my riding of Scarborough Agent Court and home nurse practitioner clinic for providing various mental health programs and services for Scarborough residents and their families. As a former public health nurse Mr. Speaker and a nursing professor I'm proud to say that I'm a nurse first than a politician. I will continue to work with my nursing colleagues to keep Ontario safe and healthy and I'm looking forward Mr. Speaker this Friday to spending some time with the public health nurses in Toronto and to have a conversation about nursing advocacy. Thank you Speaker this Saturday I'm really looking forward to helping the North Bay Heritage Gardeners celebrate the blooming of their 70th anniversary Dutch-Canadian friendship tulip garden at the waterfront in North Bay. Last fall the North Bay Heritage Gardeners were one of more than 400 applicants selected by the Canadian Garden Council to participate in the program. Local veterans, school children and the public are being invited to attend a brief blooming ceremony officiated by my very good friend Harriet Madigan. The ceremony will recount the history of the enduring friendship between Canada and the Netherlands that was forever solidified in the spring of 1946 when 100,000 tulips bloomed in Ottawa. Planted the previous fall the Dutch tulip bulbs were sent to Canadians as a symbol of appreciation for the role Canadian soldiers played in the liberation of the Netherlands and the hospitality Canada provided to the Dutch royal family in Ottawa during World War II. Now a gift in perpetuity Canada continues to receive 20,000 tulip bulbs every fall the blooms of which are enjoyed by hundreds of thousands of people every spring during the Canadian tulip festival. My congratulations go out to all of the hard-working volunteers with the North Bay Heritage Gardeners for their commitment to making this a reality and continually beautifying our waterfront. Thank you Speaker. Thank you for the member's statements, the member from Kitchener Waterloo. My privilege to rise today to talk about the unmet needs of special needs children including those with autism in the province of Ontario. Yesterday Ontario's independent advocate for children and youth Erwin Elman released a report called We Have Something to Say. This is a groundbreaking report and one that every MPP needs to sit down, read and think about. The report was two years in the making and it put the voices of youths with disabilities front and centre. 170 submissions from young people who told their stories about how they aren't heard and the obstacles they face on a daily basis. In an interview with Queen's Park griefing Mr Elman said about the autism therapy waitlist it's a mugs game. Maybe it's better to get $8,000 and have nothing but don't pretend it's a solution to anything. Don't pretend this is about the child and providing them with what they need. If it was really child-focused about getting these children what they need these parents the help that they need then you would be looking at the school system. Where is the partnership between the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Child and Family Services? What do you expect these parents to do? We should thank them for being so fierce and supporting their children and he's right we should thank those parents dozens of whom came to my office last week. One parent said to the minister that she is the they said the minister wants to listen to them but how will she be able to listen to those kids who have been denied ibi therapy who will never speak. While this government has not yet decided to listen to parents and children with autism our provincial advocate has published a report that does give them and children with disabilities a voice and for that we thank him. Thank you for the member's statements the member from Ottawa South. Thank you very much Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker on this day in 1976 Dr Wilbur Keon saw his vision come to life. The University of Ottawa Heart Institute is celebrating 40 years as a world renowned heart health centre. Its advances in genetics and applications such as a STEME protocol have had an impact worldwide. The Heart Institute also runs Canada's largest prevention and rehabilitation program in cardiac medicine. Mr Speaker most importantly it delivers critical services to families in Ottawa and eastern Ontario and on a personal note our family has been impacted directly by these services both my mother Mary my father-in-law Lauren received life-saving care at the Heart Institute and as a result are able to spend time with their great grandchildren now. Mr Speaker this is the experience of many families in eastern Ontario and that is why the province is investing in a new Heart Institute currently under construction right now. So to Dr Keon thank you for your vision your ingenuity and your loyalty today would not have been possible without you. To Dr Terry Masana and your team of dedicated doctors and nurses and healthcare professionals thank you for caring for the people we care for most and a special thanks to all the volunteers and generous contributors who over the years have helped to build the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and we very much look forward to opening a brand new Heart Institute in 2018. Thank you very much Mr Speaker. Thank you for the members. Same as the number for Prince Edward Hastings. Thank you very much Mr Speaker Belleville welcomed the world last week and in the end it was this close for Canada. The women's world floorball championship for Group B came down to Canada and Germany in the final game at the Yardman Arena Sunday. The tournament saw teams and families and fans from 15 different countries housed and fed and cheering on their teams in Belleville. Organizers like Brett Davis his wife Tracy and Rosie Ullett brought dozens if not hundreds of volunteers to stage a week-long tournament that showcased the best of the city of Belleville and the best of the sport of floorball which is a relatively new sport here in North America. At the end of the day the defending champs from Sweden won the tournament but the tournament was a huge success. They set new attendance records selling more than 15,800 tickets for the 33 matches. They set a single game record when 3151 people packed the Yardman for the tourney's first game between Canada and Japan. This was three years of hard work Mr Speaker by the organizing committee and thankfully they got a great storyline led by local stars like Hannah Wilson and Alexa Hoskin of Belleville goalie Matty Brinklow of Tyne and Agatownship coached by Belleville boy Todd Crawford team Canada made it all the way to the gold medal game in Group B. They were down five three late in the third period they scored two goals in 20 seconds to tie it up the roof just about blew off the place then a Canadian defender was pushed into the Canadian gold tender and the Germans scored with 30 seconds to steal it away from Canada but man was it excitement and it was a tremendous show for the city of Belleville as they were ready to welcome the world Mr Speaker great job to all involved thank you should have been an announcer further I know further members David's the member from thank you speaker that's a great act to follow last Saturday was delighted to attend the annual Maple Festival in Bowmanville every year on the first Saturday of May hundreds of people from all over the GTA come to my riding to explore Maple Fest which takes place in historic downtown Bowmanville at Maple Fest local vendors from all over Ontario come to Bowmanville to sell their products such as maple syrup homemade jam fudge maple donuts and many other type of treats I attend this event every year however I was extremely pleased to hear the positive feedback about the work my office and our government has been doing in the great riding of Durham of course I was happy to listen to any feedback and gather opinions from so many local residents I will take this moment to thank all the local vendors and volunteers that came together to ensure that Maple Fest was a success and I look I'm looking forward to next year then thank you Mr Speaker thank you for your memories David's the member from Eglinton Lawrence thank you Mr Speaker on Monday uh at Mount Sinai Hospital just down the street uh I'm proud to be part of a summit on pregnancy and infant loss it's the first of its kind in North America where renowned scientists uh nurses nurse practitioners uh mothers who have lost children and also researchers will come from Quebec will be coming from the UK from the United States to basically find out why every year over 30,000 Ontario women lose their infants as a result of miscarriage still birth early childhood death we have to know why these deaths occur every year what causes them and what we can do to prevent these 30,000 losses every single year in this province so I hope that out of this summit we will get better healthcare for all these women who uh suffer this tragic loss psychologically and physiologically without any help and many of these women are forced to go back to work within a week of losing a child that is not right we need to stand up and make sure the rights the compassionate care is given to these mothers who lose children every year in this province I look forward to seeing this summit be a great success on Monday at Mount Sinai Hospital thank you thank you I thank all members for their statements it's now