 members statements the member for Windsor West thank you speaker housing is a human right everyone in Ontario deserves a place to call home people should be able to rent without the constant threat of eviction or bank breaking above-guide rent increases and purchasing a home should not be out of reach for hard-working families young professionals should be able to purchase a home in the community they were raised in no one should ever find themselves without shelter housing costs in my writing have skyrocketed first time home buyers are unable to get a foot into the market with homes going for hundreds of thousands of dollars over asking price the vacancy rate in Windsor Essex is low and rent prices have vastly increased over the last five few years leaving many renters without any options affordable housing and assisted living spaces have become challenging to find with need far outstripping availability and weightless ballooning there are currently over 5,000 households waiting for housing in the city of Windsor alone this government must fill the vacancies on the landlord and tenant board to stop the delays that prevent Ontario renters and landlords from getting justice on critical issues from poor living conditions problematic tenants renovictions racism and discrimination we need more affordable housing units across Windsor and the province to reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness and provide the money needed to properly renovate and repair the backlog of community housing that are in desperate need of work as I said speaker everyone in Ontario deserves a place to call home thank you very much member statements the member for Etobicoke Lakeshore thank you Mr. Speaker Etobicoke Lakeshore is the home of the Ontario Food Terminal which is the largest wholesale food and produce distribution centre in Canada and one of the biggest in North America due to the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic full of variants of concern our government launched a mobile vaccination site to vaccinate employees and food supply workers at the Ontario Food Terminal for one week in May unity health community health partners and the provincial government held a crucial vaccination site almost 7000 food and food supply essential workers for vaccinated at this site to help stop the spread of this deadly virus I would like to thank our essential frontline workers at the food terminal and our local food producers throughout the community of Etobicoke Lakeshore for their hard work and dedication throughout the pandemic I would also like to express my gratitude to ministers Jones and minister Hardiman for assisting me in supporting this vaccination clinic in my writing for the more these pop-up clinics would not be possible without our health care heroes and volunteers those who are helping keeping us all healthy and safe during such unprecedented times I want to encourage everyone to get vaccinated for those in my writing of South Etobicoke our amazing community health partners are hosting a pop-up clinic today at the Fraser Institute of Humber College from one to eight p.m. and that's at the corner of Kipling and Lakeshore please if you're not if you have not received your first dose stop by and get vaccinated today have an amazing summer get vaccinated look after one another and stay safe thank you very much next we have the member for London North Centre thank you speaker this week London lost a woman whose dynamism principles and commitment to social justice knew no bounds Jane Bigelow London's first female mayor was an environmentalist a staunch feminist supporter of the arts and libraries defender of the disadvantaged and a proud new democrat long before London's bike lanes Jane was an avid cyclist and was often seen riding her bike to City Hall fittingly part of the trail system she helped established has been named in her honour known for taking a stand Jane once famously refused a quest from the office of Queen Elizabeth to wear a hat for the royal visit when asked about it later she cheekily replied well I don't always pay attention to instructions and that was one I chose to ignore her children and David remember her as a chiral blazer a visionary someone who is well ahead of her time I couldn't agree more I was lucky to have received great advice from Jane and will always be so thankful for kind words and support during Jane was driven by doing what was right championing the underdog and challenging the status quo and inequity she was tough as nails passionate and principled she helped so many and will be missed by all on behalf of the member from London Fansha London West and the entire ONDP caucus together I'd like to send deepest condolences to Anne Joanne David and David Ian and Ryan rest in peace thank you member for Scarborough Rouge Park thank you Mr Speaker I'm pleased to rise in the house this morning to recognize an outstanding community leader from a riding of Scarborough Rouge Park Grimala Prasad is a leader who recently celebrated 35 years anniversary as the executive director of Malvern Family Resource Centre Grimala started Malvern Family Resource Centre with two employees in a rented space her hard work for 35 years was rewarded with the state of the art facility with over 65 staff operating and servicing thousands of residents in Scarborough Grimala has been a strong pillar of support for the group helping grow the organization in tandem with the community and developing an agency with a reputation of integrating and well-known quality programs and a staff roster of qualified and dedicated personnel even with the challenges of COVID-19 pandemic Malvern Family Resource Centre recently launched a unique program in Scarborough an urban farm creating space for 15 new farmers in my riding of Scarborough Rouge Park for all these years Grimala has been there for her community on a daily basis I'm proud to be representing a riding that has dedicated community leaders like Grimala thank you Grimala for your service and for being a role model for the next generations thank you Mr. Speaker Thank you member statements the member for Brampton East Thank you Speaker In June 1984 at six across Punjab attended Gurdwaras to commemorate the sacrifice of our fifth guru the Indian government launched a military invasion into the Harmandrasab complex and to more than 40 other Gurdwaras across Punjab under a complete media blackout countless six were murdered now imagine if you heard that Mecca was being attacked by an army during Eid or that the Vatican was being invaded during Christmas that is precisely what the Indian government did to the Sikh community the Harmandrasab known as the golden temple is one of our most central Sikh institutions and the Indian government chose to invade this sacred place when it was at its fullest but that was the point the Indian government wanted to break the spirit of the Sikh people to teach us a lesson for standing up for our rights and the rights of other oppressed people but despite the untold number of Sikhs murdered by the Indian government they could never break our indomitable spirit and that's why today 37 years later Sikh workers farmers and activists alongside other oppressed communities are once again raising their voice fighting for their rights standing against unjust farm bills because we will never stop fighting for justice we will never forget the Sikh genocide and we will never forget 1984 thank you speaker thank you member statements the member for Ottawa Vanie thank you mr speaker I would like to take a moment this morning to recognize June as ALS Awareness Month ALS stands for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and is also known as Lou Gehrig's disease in my writing of Ottawa Vanie we have lost a community representative to this disease for over two decades Morel Bélanger was a fierce advocate for Ottawa Vanie as a member of parliament he was among other things a strong advocate for the rights of Franco Ontarians he served our community with passion and dedication until the very end of his life he made history when he used a voice generator in the House of Commons to introduce his bill ALS is a terrible disease for which there is no cure that is why research is imperative on June 20th the walk to end ALS will be held to raise funds for research and to provide support services to individuals and families living with the disease during ALS Awareness Month my thoughts are with those who have lost we have lost this disease by wishing everyone working in the Ontario legislature a really nice summer thank you mr speaker thank you next we have the member from Mississauga Erin Mills thank you mr speaker our vaccination rollout numbers rich record numbers in Ontario we have administrated over nine million vaccine doses with over a million of those doses in just eight days this week we will approach approaching we will be approaching 75 percent of the adults population having received at least one dose in the last two weeks three Bob-up vaccine clinics open in Mississauga one in the Canadian Coptic Centre CCC thanks for father Angelos our historic community leader and his team one in the Muslim Association of Canada MAC and the third in the Muslim Nixess neighborhood MNN these Bob-up clinics help us encourage and promote promote vaccination to different culture and ethnic communities mr speaker i'm glad to say that Bob-up clinics in Mississauga were very successful as Beale was a hotspot we needed multi-level strategy to accelerate our vaccination levels mass vaccination clinics pharmacies and Bob-up clinics mr speaker we did it a supply from federal government increase we have been able to ramp up our vaccination levels to where they should have been since the beginning we have seen our case numbers significantly decreased from a shocking around 1,000 cases per day to more manageable 168 cases yesterday i would like to take the opportunity to thank each and every one of our frontline workers doctors pharmacists nurses bar mitics and also i want to thank the clinicians in mississauga and mills for their patient during this hard times thank you mr speaker thank you very much next we have the member for Hamilton Mountain thank you very much mr speaker on Monday the Ontario Construction Consortium launched a campaign to draw attention to the opioid addiction and overdose crisis in our province they're raising the alarm because workers in the construction industry are being hit hard by this public health emergency according to the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network's latest report there was a 60 increase in overdose deaths in 2020 compared to 2019 that means that 2,500 Ontarians died in 2020 due to overdoses of the victims who were employed 30 percent of them were construction workers that's a very alarming number this public health crisis has impacted so many families in this province and they are demanding action from this government but this government seems intent on ignoring this crisis why else would they have stopped the work of Ontario's emergency opioid task force which has not met since 2018 in 2019 this government even reduced the number of overdose prevention sites in Ontario when i speak with the experts and advocates about overdose crisis they all tell me the same things we need more consumption and treatment sites more harm reduction and safe supply initiatives and better supportive housing overall experts agree that we need action not continued indifference from this government thank you thank you member for Richmond Hill thank you mr speaker i rise today to express my appreciation to the staff nurses and psw's serving in the Ontario's long-term care homes yesterday my husband visited my mother-in-law in person at her long-term care home she is healthy and happy prior to the pandemic we almost lost her to pneumonia during this difficult time she received the care she needed and recovered from her illness because of the care from the long-term care she's also fully protected and cared for during the pandemic speaker i just want to say that it had not been easy for us not seeing our mother especially during the pandemic time but we understand the importance of not spreading the virus to our mother and other seniors we see that we have been arranged with meetings online meetings and window visits during this tough time and the love and care for our mother during this difficult time is a big relief for us because we know that she has been cared for too often we focus on the on the negative events that have occurred in the in the long-term care during the course of the pandemic but we must also acknowledge and appreciate all that was done to many long-term care homes and we thank you for all of them for the love and support member statements member for mrs agamal thank you mr speaker miss speaker as you know i have a daughter in grade 10 suvidi anand who was looking forward to going back to school yesterday i had to face her and let her know that this was one of the toughest decision we have ever made i know how tough kovid has been on our youth for last 14 months we here in our qp we all thank the parents and the teachers across Ontario for keeping our kids safe and engaged above all i want to thank the students for their patience hard work and resilience due to the presence of the highly transmissible deadlier unpredictable delta variant we need to be extremely cautious yesterday morning field regions chief medical officer dr low said that the delta variant would be the dominant variant at by the end of this month and we need to protect the health and well-being of our communities mr speaker this will also help the province to ensure other activities vital to kids mental health such as day camps outdoor pools sports training can go forward during step one of the reopening i want to say congratulations to the graduating class of 2021 i'm also happy to share that our graduating students can have outdoor kovid safe celebration of their important milestone i'm confident that with more teachers and children fully vaccinated we will have a happy active a new normal summer and a safe return to schools this september thank you mr speaker thank you very much that concludes our member statements for this morning i understand the leader the opposition has a point of order mr speaker yes thank you speaker i seek unanimous consent to move a motion regarding the immediate passage of bill 248 the kovid 19 public inquiry act to make sure ontarians get the answers and accountability that they deserve and that we take the steps necessary to protect us from future pandemics the opposition is seeking the unanimous consent of the house to move a motion regarding the immediate passage of bill 248 the kovid 19 public inquiry act agreed no i heard a note clear the opposition has another point of order thank you speaker i move i seek rather unanimous consent for the house to observe a moment of silence for the 266 ontarians who have succumbed to kovid 19 since may 19th we are the opposition is seeking unanimous consent of the house to observe a moment of silence for the 266 ontarians who have succumbed to kovid 19 since may the 19th agreed agreed members will please run thank you very much members will please take their seats