 the member for University of Rosedale. Thank you, Speaker. Clinton's Tavern has been a neighborhood institution for the past 83 years. It's a hub for concerts, trivia nights, choir meet-ups, and other local events. This weekend, Clinton's Tavern closed its doors. Clinton's closure is part of a larger trend. Across Toronto, local and independent businesses are struggling to survive. Some businesses have seen a 500% increase in their property taxes because of our highest and best-use policy, which means some corner stores are being taxed as if they're a mythical 80-story condo. Other businesses are being pushed out by sky-high rents because there's no rent control for commercial space, and then a big chain store moves in. We're seeing this trend in Kensington Market, in Chinatown, in Little Italy, and Ossington. Local stores, restaurants, and music venues are more than just businesses. They make our community unique. They employ our neighbors, and they keep our local economy strong. The closure of an institution like Clinton's is a big loss. As your NPP, I support the staff who are working so hard to keep Clinton's open. And as your NPP, I'll continue to support measures that we can take here in Queens Park to help local independent businesses in our city thrive. Thank you. Member Statements, the member for Perry Sound, Muscova. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A few weeks ago, I had the honor of announcing provincial funding for three hospice beds at Andy's house in Port Carling. Andy's house has been 15 years in the making. We'll bring comfort to many patients, their families, and caregivers. This beautiful facility is named in honor of Andrew Potts, an OPP officer who was killed when his cruiser hit a moose in 2005. In 2006, Andy's father created the Andy Potts Memorial Foundation. In 2012, the Andy Potts Memorial Foundation partnered with Hospice, Muscova, and the two organizations have raised more than $2.7 million from the community. And in December, the District of Muscova contributed $200,000. I want to thank all the donors and volunteers. In particular, I want to recognize Brock Napier, who made a very large donation, and Officer Matt Haynes, who was Andy's partner. I also want to recognize Sandra Winspear, the executive director of Hospice, Muscova, and her team. Construction on Andy's house started in 2018 and is almost complete. The rooms overlook the Indian River, and each room has a patio with a door wide enough to take the bed outside so the patients can enjoy the fresh air and beautiful view. I want to thank Health Minister Christine Elliott for providing $315,000 in annual funding to open and operate the first three hospice beds. Congratulations to all involved in making Andy's house a reality. Member Statements, the member for Beaches East York. Thank you, Speaker. Jenny is a mom in Beaches East York whose son, Henry, is a sunny, bright kid who loves to read. Quite suddenly, at eight years old, Henry developed serious mental health problems. He became aggressive, disruptive, and even suicidal. After a number of months, Jenny was able to get Henry's psychiatric help, but he also needed help at school. He needed an educational assistant to help calm him when he was having an episode. The school had two EAs for 500 kids, but they were on constant duty helping kids who were runners and in danger of leaving the school, and try as they might the school was unable to get a third. So Henry's teacher coped with him by having his best friend walk him up and down the halls to help calm him down. Jenny knows that Henry's condition worsened considerably over those months. At nine years old, he has now had to be hospitalized, but hospital mental health wards don't cater to children that young, and his care is far from ideal. Jenny wonders how much better Henry might have been doing had the school had the resources to help him when he most needed it. It is a question that haunts her. It is a question that should haunt this government. Parents and teachers have shared story after story with me about schools trying to do too much with too little. How many Henry's are there who have been hurt, perhaps permanently, because schools can't cope? The Ford government needs to reverse the education cuts now. Thank you. Thank you very much. Member Statements. The member for Flamborough, Glenbrook. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I'm proud to rise today to applaud our government for its accomplishments in protecting what matters most, and that is our education system. Our government is investing in local schools and ensuring that students have the skills they need to succeed. In my city of Hamilton, approval has been given to proceed with the construction of two school additions in Stony Creek. The $8.6 million addition to Mount Albion School will provide new spaces for 230 elementary school students. Over 200 new spaces will be opened up for elementary students with a $10 million addition at Collegiate School. The investments will also include new childcare centers for 50 children to serve Stony Creek children. The Hamilton Wentworth School Board is contributing more than $6 million to improve conditions at these schools. Our government is protecting what matters most by working with local school boards to invest in capital projects that advance student learning. In addition, our government is investing up to $1 billion to create up to 30,000 new childcare spaces in Ontario over the next five years. Over the next decade, nearly millions and millions of dollars in capital grants will be dedicated by this government for new schools, additions, and major renovations. We are providing school boards with and historic $1.4 billion in funding to renovate. Thank you very much. Member Statements, the member for Waterloo. Thank you. This May, Waterloo Region will welcome hundreds of athletes for the 2020 Special Olympics Spring Games. I'm so proud of the way our community has come together to prepare for the Games. People have signed up to volunteer, and money is being raised to support athletes from across the country. Waterloo Region Police Services and Chief Brian Larkin have gone above and beyond to support the upcoming Games. The Chief recently took the plunge at the second annual Polar Plunge. The event was hosted by the Waterloo Region Police Services and Wilfrid Laurier, with all proceeds going to support Special Olympics Ontario. 112 plungers raised over $45,000. As the Director of Sponsorship and Fundraising local businessman Ron Cottle has also stepped up to support the Spring Games. This past Thursday, Ron received the Community Leader of the Year Award at the KW Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards. Ron challenged us to put our compassion into action. Ron and Brian, and so many others, have stepped up, and you can too. Every bit of support counts, so if you can, please volunteer or make a donation to Special Olympics Ontario. These athletes have so much to teach us. Let's show them that we are ready to learn and to support them on their journey. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Thank you very much. Member statements? The Member for Scarborough-Gildwood. Thank you, Speaker, and it is my pleasure to rise to recognize Black History Month, which is winding down. 2020 marks the halfway point of the UN International Decade of People of African Descent. And the objectives of the decade is that people of African descent into diaspora would have full enjoyment in society, education, the economy, justice. I had the pleasure of kicking off this year's Black History Month at the Ontario Black History Society's fundraising brunch. And this year, their goal is to call for the preservation and maintenance of Black History and heritage sites in Ontario. Part of this historic event was the unveiling of the Canada Post Black History Month commemorative stamp for 2020. And it featured the Colored Hockey Championship. Like other aspects of Canadian society, historical racism extended into the realm of sport. In the maritime provinces, Black churches hope to use the hockey to attract young people to their organizations. From 1895 to the 1930s, about 400 players left their mark on the sport, including the creation of the slap shot. And this year also marks the milestone birthday of Canadian and Jamaica's treasure, Ms. Louise Bennett, who made Canada her home. The more we understand each other and respect each other's diversity, the more we can realize the promise of diversity. En fin, je m'aurai souhaiter. I would like to say to everyone. Merci beaucoup. Thank you very much. Members statements, the member for Eglinton Lawrence. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Over the past few weeks, I've had the opportunity to speak with a number of small business owners across my riding of Eglinton Lawrence about the challenges they are facing. And I heard one common theme. Their municipal property taxes, combined with rising property values in areas of transition, are making it difficult for them to survive. In the city of Toronto, commercial property taxes are 3.8 times higher than taxes on residential properties. Some of the business owners I spoke with are now paying as much in property taxes as they are in rent. And for those on Eglinton Avenue, this is on top of the impacts they have been facing for many years due to the construction of the Crosstown LRT. Thankfully, the amount of construction at street level will be minimized in the coming months as remaining work goes underground. Mr. Speaker, when our local restaurants, coffee shops, dry cleaners, and convenience stores are unable to stay in business, it affects the entire neighbourhood. Empty storefronts discourage people from shopping local and are bad for business and for community life. To those businesses struggling, I assure you that we are listening. I will continue to work with our government to examine ways to provide municipalities with more tools and flexibility to address the concerns of local small businesses. To everyone else, let's increase our efforts to shop local and make sure that our main streets stay open for business and vibrant spaces in our communities. Great job. Members statements? The member for Timmons. Well, Mr. Speaker, like most members in this assembly, we've been getting emails on a number of issues, but one of them obviously is from parents and teachers and students in regards to the government's agenda of cutting, doing cuts to education, namely what's happening with increasing class sizes and also what's going on in regards to e-learning. And I have a letter from Natalie Poitreau, who's with La Clef, which is a Francophone organisation that deals with alternative adult education in the city of Timmons. And she makes a very long email, but makes two very valid points. The first point is that, first of all, these, they are mandated as teachers in the alternative ed programs to offer e-learning to students. The experience is when they offer the e-learning, kids have a harder time trying to complete those courses. When they offer them in the classroom with a teacher, attendance shoots up, and there's a higher completion rate. So we already know, by our own experience, that mandatory e-learning is not the answer. The second thing that she talks about is larger class sizes. She works with children who have had all kinds of issues and she lists what those are, everything from mental health to abuse and you name it. And what she talks about is, these children often go through the school as invisible people. And as a result of having larger class sizes, they will become even more invisible to the system when it comes to offering them health. Make sure that we have teachers in the classroom to serve these kids. Member Statements, the member for Haldeman Norfolk. Thank you, Speaker. And since my party formed government in June of 2018, employment in Ontario has increased by 307,000 jobs. In fact, we're leading the nation with 76% of our country's new jobs being created in Ontario. The majority of these jobs are full-time jobs. They're private sector jobs. Unemployment is down and wages is up. Despite all this good news, we now know there is more work to be done. Speaker, only 1% of people on social assistance find jobs each month. This isn't good enough for me. It isn't good enough for our province's most vulnerable people. That's why I'm delighted that our government is piloting a new approach to employment services, one that encourages local solutions for local market problems. In our area, a group that includes organizations like Community Living was selected to manage our system. The principal proponent has over 85 years of experience in helping those with disabilities find work. Funding is tied to results, and I look forward to seeing the improvements they deliver. Speaker, it's very important that we do everything that we can to help people find and also keep good, stable jobs. Thank you, Speaker. Please stop the call. I'm going to ask the members to quiet down a bit so that we can hear the member who's got the floor with their statement. It's going to clock. The next member's statement, the member from Mississauga East Cooksville. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I rise today to highlight the tremendous work and community contributions of an organization close to my heart. Mississauga Muslim Community, also known as MMC, operating team is neighbors helping neighbors. And for many years, the MMC has been doing just that through an annual Walkathon on Ontario's Family Day weekend. I'm proud to say since its inception in 2011, the Walkathon has been raising funds for Trillium Health Partners Credit Valley Hospital. So far, the MMC has raised $250,000. Additionally, Mr. Speaker, this year the MMC annual Family Day Walkathon has pledged to raise another $250,000, bringing the total to half a million dollars. The purpose of the Walkathon, besides raising funds for charity, is to raise awareness and support families who may be facing challenges such as single parenthood, domestic violence, teenage pregnancies, youth crime, mental health challenges, and addictions, and so on. The message of MMC is that we all need to stand up and work together regardless of race, gender, culture, or religion to build and maintain a safe and happy home for all our families. Finally, Mr. Speaker, I cannot find enough words to express my gratitude to MMC. Thank you very much. That concludes our member's statements for this morning.