 Members' statements? The Member for Niagara Centre. Morning Speaker. The number one issue in my riding of Niagara Centre is the severe lack of affordable housing. Wages are stagnant, but the price of gas, groceries and housing continues to rise. A modest one-bedroom in Welland is going for $1,400 a month. A basement one-bedroom apartment in Port Coburn is $1,300. According to Niagara's Workforce Planning Board, in March 2020, Niagara's average home price was $450,000. In March 2021, this price increased by 37.2% to over $620,000. This annual increase in local housing costs outpaces wage increases of the average worker by five times. If you work at a grocery store or in the service sector full-time, your take-home pay is roughly $1,800 a month. The median income in Niagara is just $35,000 a year. Speaker, that worker takes home just over $2,300 a month. So we're asking people to spend 60% of their take-home income on a one-bedroom apartment. I'm willing to wager not one person sitting in this house is faced with that impossible task. When members of this house go home to their constituencies, I know they're hearing much the same thing. It's the obligation of this house to address this critical issue if we are to properly represent our constituents. I'm urging this house to take real, substantive and timely action to address the soaring cost of living and shortage of affordable places to live. Bring back rent control. The rent control this government eliminated just months into its term. Tackle the unsustainable price of owning a home. Discourage speculation, and we must commit to building more social housing and cooperative housing. The people of Niagara and people across this province are demanding action. Thank you, Speaker. Member Statements, the Member for Brantford Branch. Thank you, Speaker. The Lansdown Children's Center is the crowning jewel of service to nearly 3,000 unique children and families in Brantford Branch, Alderman Norfolk, Six Nations of the Grand River, and the Mississaugas of the Credit. They primarily deliver government-funded rehabilitation services for children with physical communications or developmental needs due to conditions including autism, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, chromosomal disorders, and neurological conditions. My constituency office constantly hears from families that receive services from Lansdown Children's Center expressing their gratitude for the breadth of the one-stop services that they provide. The catchment area has experienced a growth that is six times greater than the City of Toronto and four times higher than the provincial average. That being said, Speaker, Executive Director Rita Marie Hadley has been a champion advocating for the Stage 1 approval for Lansdown to progress through plans for a new premises that enables them to move forward with this critical infrastructure. And I would like to add my name, Speaker, with the pediatric rehabilitation community and the chorus of people who would like to see the funding come through like it did for our friends in the Grandview Children's Center in Ajax. My sincere compliments to Rita Marie, her staff, and the volunteers at Lansdown, you make Brantford Branch a better place. Thank you, Speaker. Member Statements, the Member for Nickel Belt. Thank you, Speaker. Today I want to talk about the discriminatory and unconstitutional Bill 124. Bill 124 was a move by this government to take away the rights of workers to fair negotiation. Bill 124 is a conservative government doing what it does best, cap the wages of the lowest-paid frontline workers so they can give big tax cuts to big businesses. The bill became law in November 2019, four months before the province enacted the emergency measures. The emergency measures that would force health care to work night shift, overtime, stat holiday, cancel their vacation, work on a different site with no way to refuse. Workers being told to work from home, students from kindergarten to university, having to learn from Zoom, and the list goes on. After all this, the people that got us through this pandemic, that taught our youth, that cared for our elders, that made our hospital and our health care system work, that cared about the most vulnerable among us, how does the Ontario government reward them? The Ford government takes away their right to bargain and put a salary cap of 1% on all public sector workers. This is an insult, Mr. Speaker, in a pay cut. We cannot fix a revenue problem on the backs of teachers, PSWs and nurses, especially not during a pandemic. This bill is cruel and disrespectful. Bill 124 has got to go. If you agree, sign the petition. Thank you. Member Statements, the member for Mississauga Centre. Thank you very much, Speaker. Earlier this month I had the pleasure of welcoming my colleague, the Minister of Seniors and Accessibility, to my writing of Mississauga Centre, as our government announced a major increase in funding for the seniors community grant program. I'm proud to say that this year funding will double to a record of $6 million, ensuring Ontario seniors can stay healthy, safe, active and connected to their communities. Funding for individual groups and organisations ranges from 1,000 to 25,000, benefiting a broad range of program types, including fitness, art and cultural activities. In a multicultural and diverse city, such as Mississauga, this funding can ensure that seniors of many backgrounds can benefit from culturally and linguistically appropriate programming. With seniors being our province's fastest growing demographic, the government recognises the importance of supporting the nearly 3 million Ontarians over the age of 65, who help make Ontario the place we know and love. In my writing, I'd like to recognise three amazing organisations who are beneficiaries of this program. I was very happy to see the Church of St Mary and St Athanasius, the Canang Zing Senior Organisation and the Savitri Theatre Group all receive funding to continue serving seniors in our community. Mr Speaker, the program for community support for elders benefitted to more than 100,000 elders and seniors, and this program will ensure that this program will continue. It's more important than ever to support seniors, and we are a government that will help them leave their old age. Thank you very much. Member Statements. The Member for Algoma, Manitoula. Thank you, Speaker. Lure of the North is a family business based out of Espanola owned by Dave and Kailin Morone. Since 2011, their goal has been sharing their passion for traditional winter travel crafts and culture. They sell everything you need to enjoy the outdoors in winter at their store, and they run trips for those people who want to challenge themselves and actually put that gear to good use. Yesterday, a group led by Dave and Kailin finished an epic 72-day snowshoe trip starting from Lake Superior and ending on the shores of the James Bay. In that time, they travelled more than 700 kilometres over some of the most rugged and beautiful country this province has to offer. Not a lot of people would take on this task, however, this group did. Their journey was a test of physical, mental and emotional endurance. This trip is a prime example of the unique experiences that Northern Ontario has to offer. Few other places in the world can match the natural beauty of Northern Ontario. On behalf of the Legislature, I want to say to Dave, Kailin and the whole group, congratulations and welcome home. Member Statements, the Member for Simkel Gray. Thank you, Speaker. I rise this morning to recognize the 125th anniversary of the Federated Women's Institutes of Ontario, and in particular to congratulate the Tech We Will Women's Institute on the 75th year of its founding. The Women's Institute is a worldwide movement established right here in Ontario to promote inclusive and supportive social networking for community action and personal growth. Over the years, in addition to sharing fun and friendship, the Institute has promoted milk pasteurization and bread wrapping, as well as white lines painted on roadways and documenting local histories. In its 75 years, Tech We Will, comprising many of my constituents, has provided gifts for children in hospital, prepared low-cost lunches for seniors, sewn and knitted clothing for orphanages, and raised thousands of dollars to support causes like the South Simkel 4-H, Simkel Manor, and the fight against breast cancer. President Donna Jeb, who has been a Tech We Will member for more than 40 years, tells me that even COVID has not slowed the organization. The group continues to provide educational workshops via Zoom, everything from cooking, canning and pottery to sewing. I ask all members of this House to join me this special anniversary year in congratulating the FWIO and Tech We Will on their many achievements and the excellent work that they do in our communities. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you very much. Member Statements to Member for Halliburton, Coorthal Lakes Broad. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to congratulate a few recipients from the third annual spotlight on agriculture awards that took place this past Saturday in Coorthal Lakes that celebrates food, farming, and agribusiness in the community. The DeVos family was honored as the recipient of the 2022 Family Farm Award. With four generations in the community, there's always lots of helping hands on the farm as the next generations create more new agribusinesses. In 2020, the Callaghan family of Maryland Farm was recognized with the Farm Family Award. Farming in the community since 1841, they brought the first purebred Holsteins to the county in 1918. They still have the only biogas digester in the area, supplying enough to power 300 homes. And this year's Excellent in Agriculture Award was awarded to Waheeb Sahami of Simcoe Street Meat Packers. Waheeb serves a number of local farms and is an avid educator on the industry and its challenges in 2020. Trillium Land Producers was honored with this award in 2020. Finally, the Agriculture Leadership Scholarship was awarded to Allison Brown to support her participation in the Advanced Agriculture Leadership Program. The Spotlight on Agriculture Awards also recognizes the legacy contributions of farm families and this year the Batty Family was recognized for the 200-year Milestone Ontario Family Farm and the 150-year Milestone County Family Farm. Thank you to the committee members, volunteers and all the nominees. The member for London West. Thank you, Speaker. Speaker, over the last two years of COVID, small businesses that have struggled to stay afloat are far from being in the clear. It's not only that revenues are still down and soaring inflation is driving costs up, but small business owners are also facing unfair and exorbitant increases in commercial rent. Huma Sohail owns Tandoori A, a restaurant in the Hyde Park area of London West. She borrowed to get up and running in February 2020, just one month before the global pandemic hit. Now her restaurant, like so many others, is still hanging by a thread and she is working around the clock to repay her loan and avoid losing her livelihood. But what's hurting Huma the most is the recent $2,000 increase in her monthly rent, an increase of more than 25%. There are five other businesses in the same commercial plaza. All are struggling to pay the rent increase and wondering if they can stay open. Speaker, this government's refusal to address commercial rent fairness will result in many more small businesses closing, with more local jobs lost and more communities doing their best to recover without a thriving business core. Speaker, small business owners like Huma did their part to get us through the last two years. This government should be doing everything possible to make sure that they can survive the next two years and beyond. Thank you, Speaker. Member, statements from Niagara West. Speaker, I hear it from young people everywhere I go across the riding. Buying a home is getting out of reach. Housing is too expensive. My husband and I both work full-time jobs and can't hope to save up the $100,000 down payment. By the time we save up the original amount, it's gone up by 50%. Will I have to rent forever? It shouldn't be this way, Speaker. The expectation of working hard, saving up and being able to one day own a property is part of the promise of being a Canadian and shouldn't be out of reach for families in our province. At its core, this is an issue of supply and demand. For many years under the Wendell-Duca Liberal government's roadblocks and delays were put in place on housing development sector leading to slumping housing starts across the province and the NDP supported them every step of the way. Low amounts of new housing starts combined with low interest rates and a continually rapidly growing population across the GTHA meant that there were too many buyers chasing down too few houses. But our government has a plan to change that, Speaker, to bring new housing onto the market, to jumpstart the construction of new homes across our province and ensure that the dream of home ownership is a reality. Our More Homes More Choice Act cut red tape to speed up approvals for new builds, build a healthier mix of housing of all shapes and sizes and pushes municipalities to plan for more growth and housing in their communities. There's more work to do, Speaker, but already housing starts the number of new housing units being built each year in the province of Ontario is skyrocketing under Premier Ford. We are saying yes to unleashing the market to meet the demand and the result will be that we're getting it done building more homes for Ontarians and more affordable rates across our great province. Thank you very much. That concludes our Member Statements for this morning.