 It's now time for Member Statements. Member for Brampton North. Thank you Mr. Speaker. As we all know, today is Giving Tuesday. A day set aside every year for people around the world to take action in support of charitable giving and non-profit work. After a long weekend of Black Friday and of course Cyber Monday shopping, Giving Tuesday is an opportunity to get back to good causes and to support the things that really matter in our communities. Our Brampton food banks are working hard to provide hot meals and services to those in need in our community who deal with the daily issues of hunger, poverty and homelessness. Knight's Table has helped alleviate hunger in Brampton and across the Peel region for over 27 years. They are the only multi-food location in Peel that offers programs and services 365 days per year. You can help them this holiday season and all year long by starting a food drive at your work or your school and to gather donations. Volunteer at Knight's Table to experience firsthand the positive impact their work has on our community. We're simply fundraise and donate. Every dollar provides three meals for families in need. Also in Brampton we have Meals on Wheels which has been helping those in need live independently since 1963 with the early onset of winter this year and the recent snowy weather. They're concerned about funding for their snowy days and meals to help feed 400 seniors who need their service during inclement weather. Donations from the public or local businesses would be appreciated so that those in need stay happy, safe and well. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Member Statements and Member for Willowdale. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. Last week I had the great pleasure of meeting an incredible entrepreneur with an incredible story. Two and a half years ago Guy Harlev and his wife immigrated to Canada from Israel. They'd visited Toronto Mr. Speaker and fell in love with our city. In his first year in Canada he opened the first Canadian location of the popular Israeli restaurant Cafe, Cafe Land Bar in Richmond Hill and in his second location just down the street from Queens Park Speaker at Adelaide University. Land Bar Coffee has a storied history. It started as a family-run coffee bar in Berlin in Germany in 1919. And when the Nazis came to power the Land Bar family immigrated to Israel where today there are over 60 Cafe Land Bar locations. Guy is carrying on that history in Canada with Cafe Land Bar's first international locations which employ more than 100 people right here in Toronto. And I'm excited to share Mr. Speaker that Guy will be opening five new stores this year including in my great writing of Willowdale. I have to say that I'm a little bit more than excited to be able to get my fix of halloumi cheese and labna a little closer to home Mr. Speaker. From Tel Aviv to Toronto Guy is a true new Canadian success story. It's small business owners like Guy who drive our economy here in Ontario and it's stories like his that make me proud of the work our government is doing to give entrepreneurs the tools they need to prosper. Speaker when our small businesses thrive our communities thrive. I want to congratulate Guy once again on his success and thank him for supporting our community in Willowdale. We can't wait to welcome Cafe Land Bar to the neighborhood. Member statements. Member for London Fanshawe. Thank you Speaker. Speaker I rise today to address the housing crisis affecting my writing of London Fanshawe. Every week I hear from constituents struggling to find housing in London. They are single people working full-time jobs. Families who need more space. Students and seniors on fixed incomes. People receiving a social assistance. It doesn't matter what your background is. Everyone is facing the same concern. A lack of affordable housing. Since 2016 the average price of a one bedroom apartment has increased by $320 per month. London has seen rent increases up as 15% in the past year alone. That means 67% of low income earners spend more than half their income on housing. The wait list in London for rent to gear to income housing has over 5,000 applicants. And it can take up to eight years for people to move into housing. According to city staff London needs 30,000 new units to house those who can't keep pace with rising rents or spend huge proportions of their paycheck on housing. The housing problem is compounded by the fact that the cost of buying a home has increased dramatically over the past few years. Rental turnovers are low and vacancy rates are around 1%. This all adds up to a very dangerous and precarious housing crisis for Londoners. And the crisis is by no means unique to London. That is why I demand this Ford government to take real action and to commit to building new affordable homes, inclusionary zoning and restore rent controls on new units in Ontario. Thank you. Next we have the member from Susaga Streetsville. Good afternoon speaker. Early this year our government announced that we would be reviewing supports and processes in place regarding adoption in Ontario to ensure that the needs of families and children were being met. Soon after the announcement I partnered with the Peel Children's Aid Society to host a roundtable to gather feedback. Over 70 people attended, some of whom already adopted, some looking to adopt and even some who had been adopted. We heard from the community on the challenges they face such as long wait times, a lack of post adoption supports, restrictive matching and inefficient processes and operations with form after form after form to fill out making matters more complicated and daunting for some. We also heard there's a lack of awareness here in Ontario and the need for adoptive families. And a special concern was splitting up children and the need for families willing to adopt teenagers. Speaker, these issues need to be addressed for the betterment of children and families across the province. I met some of the most caring, wonderful people who had opened their homes. One family fostered a child who was only a few days old and now more than a year later the paperwork is still not been approved so they can formally adopt her. I also met two teenagers who had been adopted as teens and the gratefulness they felt to finally have a stable home and family. Many of those who were adopting had been adopted themselves. I'm looking forward to the outcomes of these roundtables and will work closely with the ministers to keep pressing this issue to ensure that we have the right programs and services in place to address the needs of the greater community. I look forward to continuing to engage with my community and sincerely thank all of those who came out. Thank you. Thank you. The member for Toronto, St. Paul. Good afternoon, Mr. Speaker. Recently we held our Oakwood and Vaughan community healing call in at Montage and our organization dedicated to disability communities. It was an opportunity for us to come together in St. Paul's and discuss recent incidents of violence in our community and how we're going to figure out our journey forward together. The event couldn't have happened without my staff, Restaurant Canadian Caribbean that catered John Howard Society staff, Hannah who provided our entire packed house with naloxone training and special guests, Yami and Brenda both residents who shared their wisdom, stories and talents with our community family. Mr. Speaker, the housing shortage and homelessness we really need that to be declared an emergency crisis because it is and our community is scared especially for our lower income underemployed residents and our senior residents who are struggling to pay rent on a fixed income. We also heard that we need community centers, a Caribbean culture center, we need longer library hours and spaces so they can come together thrive and dream and achieve together. We need tougher gun loss or weapons have no place in our riding and that's a real thing that we're worried about and we need OHIP that really fully comprehensively supports our mental health needs and there was so much more that I could go into including of course support for our local businesses especially those in Eglinton West and near Dufford and Eglinton that have been damaged economically due to the Eglinton Crosstown construction so all in all Oakwood Vaughan amazing community come visit us and we are healing together. Thank you Speaker. Thank you. Member statements. Member for Scarborough Guildwood. Thank you Speaker. It is an honor to rise in the house today especially on the international day for persons with disability. Today I would like to recognize an outstanding member of the Scarborough Guildwood community. For a number of years Mrs. Vera Marie Cajoteve has been at the center of the Czech Canadian community in Scarborough. She has helped organize many cultural events in the Czech Canadian community including the Canada 150 community celebration at Masjid Town Memorial Institute. Her friends and family described Vera as a selfless volunteer who goes above and beyond to help her neighbors. They say that you would never know that she is a senior citizen because of her active schedule. Vera is full of energy and committed to her community's culture and social life. Vera is the editor of the community newspaper Novi Domov which means homeland in English. The paper is the oldest and still running Czech and Slovak newspaper published outside of the Czech and Slovak republics. This past November marked the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism in Europe. Ontario is home to many people who came to Canada from former communist countries in search of a better life. I am grateful that people like Vera who was born in the Czech Republic have called Ontario and Scarborough Guildwood home. It is with sadness that Vera is stepping back from her many commitments in the community as she is fighting pancreatic cancer. Vera, I know you and the community are watching today and I thank you for your years of service to the Czech Canadian community in Scarborough and I wish you good health and happiness and we are all here at the legislature cheering for you. Thank you. Member Statements, the member for Eglinton Lawrence. Thank you speaker. Today, December 3rd is the birthday of Anne Marie D'Amico. She would have been 32 years old today. Tragically, she was violently taken from us and her family on Young Street North on April 23rd, 2018 by a stranger in what became known as the Toronto Van Attack. 10 people were killed and 16 seriously injured within a matter of minutes but the impact of the violent attack on innocent people going about their daily lives affected the entire city of Toronto and all of its residents. Anne Marie D'Amico was a passionate young woman who led by example and influenced positive change through her altruistic behaviour. In order to embody Anne Marie's spirit, character and kindness and to continue her legacy her family led by her brother Nick has launched the Anne Marie D'Amico Foundation dedicated to ending violence against women. Tonight, December 3rd the foundation will host its first annual Turtle Project an evening of dance performances live music and magic to spark positive change at the Meridian Arts Centre I will be attending along with my colleague the member from Willowdale and I am pleased to say that the event has sold out but I encourage everyone to celebrate the life of Anne Marie D'Amico to support the efforts of her friends and family and to donate to the D'Amico Foundation to help create a positive legacy for this young woman who was robbed of the opportunity to create her own. Thank you. Member Statements, the member for Scarborough Thank you. Last month I co-hosted a social assistance town hall with two legal clinics that serve my writing. Scarborough and West Scarborough Community Legal Services. The people at the town hall voiced their concerns about this government's plan to slash the 3% increase to Ontario Works and ODSP benefits in half next year. People are already having to think twice about buying essentials and eggs. They are walking to their medical appointments because they can't afford public transit. Over the past 20 years consecutive Conservative and Liberal governments have allowed poverty to deepen. They have ignored the root causes of poverty and failed to take action. Under the Conservative Premier Mike Harris social assistance rates were slashed by 21% and never restored by the win or McGinty Liberals. Since then, Ontario's social assistance rates have fallen more than in any other province keeping ODSP and OW recipients in deep poverty. Today, after adjusting for inflation, OW and ODSP recipients receive less support than they did in the 1990s after the Harris cuts. As a result, poverty has worsened. Food bank use, particularly in the suburbs, have skyrocketed. Toronto has the second highest rates of child poverty in Canada, and my riding of Scarborough Southwest has some of the deepest levels of inequality in the city. According to the research by the Children's Aid Society, one in three children speaker in Scarborough Southwest live in poverty. Cuts to OW and ODSP benefits will push those already at a disadvantage into even deeper poverty. Ontario is a wealthy province in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Families should not be falling behind and further into poverty. I and the NDP will continue to hold this government to account and fight for policies that reduce poverty, and I ask this Conservative government to listen and work together to ensure that all Ontarians can make a good life here. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you very much. The Member for Whitby. Thank you, Speaker. It's a pleasure to speak about the important topic we can all agree, Speaker, that everyone deserves to come home safely after a hard day's work. That's why Bill 152, the Occupational Health and Safety Day Act, is so important. Recognizing occupational health and safety every year helps foster a positive culture in workplaces across Ontario. It helps to nurture a culture where a safe and healthy working environment is respected by all. We know, Speaker, that a safer workplace results in many benefits to the employer, including high productivity, fewer sick days and lower WSIB premiums. It builds a strong reputation and makes attracting qualified employees easier. For workers and their families, they expect their employers, their government and this legislature to do what they can to ensure they come home safe to their families at the end of each work day. Workplace injuries still occur every day and profoundly affect the health and safety of all employees. This day would help educate employers and employees on the importance of safety. Bill 152 is a great opportunity to encourage and improve health and safety in every workplace in Ontario. There will always be more work we can do, but together, Speaker, together, Ontario can continue to lead and workplace health and safety. Thank you, Speaker. I would like to thank the members of the Ontario Association for their accomplishments of Mrs. Rani and to a constituent from the great riding of Mrs. Saga East Cooksville. Rani was recently awarded the 2019 Biana Family Foundation Innovation and Creativity Award. The Biana Family Foundation Awards recognize extraordinary contributions made by the best supported agencies. Their hashtag is unignorable. Award recipients are chosen for their dedication to helping people thrive and succeed through commitment, creativity, leadership and partnership. I was extremely proud to hear that a constituent from my riding was honoured with such a prestigious award. Rani currently works at the newcomer centre of Peel as a full-time teacher. She has been a member of the Biana Family Foundation since 2015 and around that time Mr. Speaker, many refugees arrived in Canada. At the newcomer centre of Peel, Rani worked diligently to welcome these refugees to Ontario and help them integrate into the new environment. Rani was recognized for the extraordinary contributions she made as a frontline staff member. Rani managed a class full-time and thriving integrated members of our community in Ontario. Thank you Rani for your dedication and service to the people of this great province. Please keep up the great work. Thank you. Reports by committees.