 Member for Nicol Belt. Thank you, Speaker. This Friday night, I will be joining the members of the Cape Reel Curling Club for the Ladies Bonds Field. The event culminates with a banquet dinner on Saturday night, with entertainment provided by Sudbury-owned Johnny Rock. The Cape Reel Curling Club has been in operation for almost 100 years, and it is a pillar of this small community. It is a place where people go to draw a few rocks, see a few friends, socialize. It is a well-loved club. However, this event could be the last. The club's insurance providers have increased their fees by 35% last year and 150% this year. The small volunteer board is at an impasse. COVID has shut them down for most of the last two years. Revenues are way down, and then this huge insurance bill. Unfortunately, Cape Reel is not alone. The Cartier Community Centre has also been hit with a massive increase in insurance cuts, forcing them to put their community centre up for sale just to cover their debts to insurance companies. This will leave another small community with nowhere to host dinners, bingos, fall fairs, a Halloween party, and other community-building events. The Minister of Finance has tools at this disposal to rein in those astronomical increase in insurance premium for community hall. He needs to step in before those not-for-profit organisations that brings their community together, close their door permanently. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you. Member Statements. Member for Whitby. Thank you, Speaker. January 6th was an exciting day for the residents from across the entire region of Durham. That's when Lakeridge Health Staff announced that the town of Whitby had been selected as the preferred site for the new region of Durham Hospital. I want to thank the site selection independent expert panel and Lakeridge Health for their due diligence, transparency and efforts through this process. Speaker, the integrity of this process was overseen by a fairness adviser, and the site recommendation made to the Lakeridge Health Board of Trustees by the independent expert panel with no prior connection to the region of Durham. Speaker, the town of Whitby's Hospital Task Force has been working diligently over the past two years to ensure that the best site was selected to serve residents from across the region of Durham. Thank you to the members of the task force for their commitment and outstanding work. Speaker, I applaud Lakeridge Health's selection of this central location in Whitby, which offers unparalleled connectivity from any direction so that when seconds and minutes count, those residents who need critical care across the region of Durham can get it fast. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you. Member Statements. Member for Windsor West. Thank you, Speaker. I rise today, the day after International Women's Day, to recognize the barriers women continue to face in my community and across this province. Over the last two years, our frontlines have been staffed with essential workers in our hospitals, long-term care homes, group homes, schools, grocery stores and retail shops. Nurses who have had their wages suppressed by Bill 124 are burnt out, leaving the profession after years of caring for our loved ones. Personal support workers and developmental service workers have yet to see a permanent pay increase throughout this pandemic. I'm grateful for our education workers who have had a difficult two years of uncertainty. These are all positions predominantly held by women. Women continue to disproportionately bear the brunt of child care as Ontario remains the only province that has not signed on to the $10 a day child care deal. Ontario deserves the government that will combat gender-based violence, inequality and take action to improve the lives of women across the province. I want to recognize organizations in my community that continue to support and provide resources to women during the pandemic and beyond. Nisa Holmes, House of Sophocene, the Welcome Centre Shelter for Women, Black Women for Forward Action, Women's Enterprise Skills Training of Windsor, Hiatus House, Windsor Women Working with Immigrant Women, Trans Wellness Ontario and the numerous women that work within the labour movement. These are just a few of the many incredible organizations in Windsor Essex that deserve our gratitude for their dedication to breaking barriers and improving the lives of women in my community. We must commit to ensuring a brighter future for women in Ontario. Thank you. Member Statements. Member for Oakville North, Burlington. Thank you, Speaker. The month of March is Hellenic Heritage Month in Ontario, and this is the third year of official recognition by the Ontario Legislature. I was honoured to introduce the bill to proclaim this month in Ontario, and I want to thank all of my colleagues in this House for providing unanimous support. People of Hellenic origin have lived in Canada since before Confederation, with the community gaining its start in Ontario early in the 20th century, building schools and churches. Today, there are more than 270,000 Hellenic Canadians, more than half in Ontario. Ontarians of Hellenic origin have excelled in many fields, business, education, sports, entertainment, even a few of us in politics. The history of Greece extends back thousands of years. Athens gave us the first democracy. Philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle explained the world to us. Greek civilization is part of the foundation of the world, both in the west and in the Islamic world. During Hellenic Heritage Month this year, the Acropolis Museum in Athens, with the permission of the Ministry of Culture of the Hellenic Republic, has loaned to the Royal Ontario Museum an exquisite statue, more than 2,500 years old, called Cori 670. This loan officially marks the 80 years of diplomatic relations between Greece and Canada. I encourage members to visit the ROM to see the Cori and other examples of the heritage of Greece from March 12th to September 22nd. Hellenes are proud of our heritage and proud to share it with the world. Members' statements to Member for Parkdale High Park. Thank you, Speaker. $5.5 billion. That is the amount according to the latest report from Ontario's Financial Accountability Office that the Ford government failed to distribute in already budgeted funding so far this fiscal year. That includes 670 million in public health, 554 million in education, and 226 million in autism programs. Speaker, the Ford government failed to distribute 160 million in housing and homelessness programs, while more and more Ontarians find themselves homeless, living on the streets, and shelters have to turn people away because they are overcrowded. The Ford government also failed to distribute $1.1 billion in social services, while Ontarians on ODSP are expected to live on $1,200 a month and those on OW are expected to live on $730 a month. Speaker, I want to stress, this is not new spending, this is allocated funding, funding that the government plans to distribute. The Ford government is failing to do its primary job of distributing funding to programs and services that have already been committed to. The people of this province deserve basic competency from their government, but the Ford Conservatives have once again failed spectacularly. Thank you. Before I ask for the next member's statement, I'm going to ask the House to please quiet and down so that they can hear the member that's got the floor. Thank you. The next member's statement, the member for Orléans. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and good morning. Yesterday we celebrated International Women's Day, and the theme for this year's campaign was Break the Bias. There are many ways and actions we can take to help break the bias, Mr. Speaker, but one place we can start is by empowering girls and women at a very early age. We need to empower girls by telling them that they can and should pursue the sciences, that they can and should pursue technology and engineering, that they can and should pursue math, Mr. Speaker, and that they can and should participate in any sport that they enjoy playing. We know just how important role models are, especially at an early age, and this is why we need more female representation in sports, in politics and frankly everywhere to help empower our youth. Over the last few years, Mr. Speaker, the Cumberland Panthers Football Club have been recruiting girls and encouraging more to challenge the gridiron. My son has had several girls on his tackle football team and they played key roles in the team's success, and those successes keep on coming, Mr. Speaker. I want to congratulate the Cumberland Panthers for winning a grant from NFL Canada to create a fully independent girls' tackle football program, the first youth girls' tackle football program in all of Ontario. It's exciting to see more and more women and girls get involved in tackle football, especially because it's seen as traditionally a sport for men and boys. Mr. Speaker, we aren't too far from seeing a woman break into the professional ranks of football, and frankly I'm very excited to see it. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Yes, again, the volume of your private conversations is such that it's very, very difficult for me to hear the member who has the floor, if you want to converse with a colleague or someone you haven't seen for a while, we understand that, but please quiet and down. The next member's statement, the member for Etobicoke Lakeshore. Mr. Speaker, this past weekend I had the honour of attending the Tibetan Canadian Culture Centre in my riding of Etobicoke Lakeshore to celebrate Lozar, year of the Water Tiger. This government and all of us here recognise and celebrate the many contributions that Tibetan people have to our province, cultural tapestry, acknowledging that the first Tibetan immigrants to take shelter on our shores were among the first non-European refugees in the early 1970s. Today, some 5,000 Tibetan Canadians call Ontario home, many in my riding of Etobicoke Lakeshore. And that's why our government committed $50,000 in 2021-22 to support some of the efforts at the Centre for Staffing Costs and Online Programs to allow Ontarians to learn more about the fabled history and the culture of Tibet. And I just want to thank the Board of Directors for all the hard work they did throughout COVID and making sure that meals were fed to the community. They just did outstanding work. And that's why this House actually unanimously declared July as Tibetan Heritage Month, which coincides with the birth month of His Holiness. So this morning in these difficult days, I'd like us to pause and reflect on the meeting of Lozar, year of the Water Tiger, 2149. Let's say goodbye to all the things that have troubled us during the year gone by. Let's cleanse our surroundings. Let's look forward to a hearty bowl of gutak. And let's offer our praise to the three jewels, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. And above all, let's reflect on the words of Lama Taptan Yeshi, who in his greetings for this auspicious year said the following. We should train ourselves not to become engrossed in any of the thoughts continuously arising in our minds. Our consciousness is like a vast ocean with plenty of space for thought and emotion to swim about. And we should not allow our attention to be distracted by any of them. Thank you and Lozar, Tashi Delay. Speaker, I became involved in politics because liberals cut and underfunded education while children with special needs and mental health needs were shuffled into classrooms without supports. Liberals called this inclusion, but to anyone with a conscience, denying students with supports is abandonment. Healthcare, home care and long-term care are also grossly underfunded. The pandemic has added incredible strains and this government is using the backlog as an excuse to kick open the door to privatization. My constituent Rhonda wrote to me, although privatization is against the law, the provincial government has figured out how to get around it. And the provincial government continues to underfund our social safety net. Our current lack of medical care, hospital beds, surgery care, home care and long-term care staff are all the results of years of cut back policies. The neoliberal approach to care is unacceptable. Rhonda is spot on. Ontario is the richest province yet we spend $2,000 less per resident per year than other provinces. We have the lowest hospital funding, fewest hospital beds and fewest nurses. We can start by scrapping Bill 124. Liberals opened the door to privatization and health care and the conservatives are bulldozing ahead and have a long track record of an uncomfortably close relationship with long-term care profiteers. No one should make money off of someone's ill health or old age, full stop. Ontarians deserve a government that will invest in supports that matter, ensuring seniors stay in their homes longer with high quality public funded health home care. When people do enter long-term care an NDP government would ensure the high quality publicly funded homes are as much like their home as possible. An NDP government would invest in the things that matter most and I look forward to the brighter future for Ontario when we form government in June. Thank you. Next we have the member for Mrs. Saga Center. Thank you Mr. Speaker. This is the month of Francophonie. This is the moment to recognize the important place of the French-speaking communities in our province. With more than 300 million in the world, French is a really global language that covers many cultures. In Canada, French is not only a way of communication but it is actually also our heritage and this is why our government has worked very hard in order to support all services in French. I'm very proud of our government which has been the first one to modernize the law for the French Services Act and after the International Day for Women's Rights, I would like to support the Minister for French Language Services who has worked very hard in order to develop the services in French services and she has worked very hard in order to invest 12 million and a half in order to develop French in Ontario and to eliminate barriers to all these programs. Mr. Speaker, French speakers in Ontario have a very important place in our province and they and we are very proud of everything that they have done. So we should take the opportunity of being in this house and we should think on all the successes of people who work in French. So we hope the French language services will continue. Thank you, speakers. Communities across Algoma, Manitoulin are facing a shortage of doctors leaving people without access to care when they need it. The North Shore Health Network has been looking for a permanent coverage for the Thessalon hospital for months. This has left the community in a constant state of worry that they will not be able to get the services when they need them. In December there were serious concerns that the emergency department in Thessalon would have no coverage at all. No one in Ontario should have to worry about whether they will be able to see a doctor when they are experiencing a medical emergency. Speaker, we are in crisis. Every community in Northern Ontario is being affected by the lack of family and community physicians. In towns like Gore Bay and Bruce Mines, physicians cannot keep up with the workload they expected to take on. Doctors are burnt out. Their roster are overloaded and in many cases there are the only immediate point of care for a community. The Northern Ontario School of Medicine has called for the government to allow more students to be admitted in its School of Medicine and Residence program to address the Northern shortages. I'm going to be walking over this proposal expansion of Huron Shores family health team modernizing the delivery of primary care and integrated and collaborative model over to the minister after question period. Speaker, this will not solve all of the issues but it will sure as heck bring us to a path where we will be able to start addressing the doctor shortages and coverage in across Algoma Manitoulin. Thank you very much. That concludes our member statements for this morning. The member for London West has informed me she has a point of order. She wishes to raise. Thank you. Thank you, Speaker. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to move a motion without notice regarding private members motion 40 in the name of Mr. Hassan calling on the Ford government to bring Bill 86, our London Family Act back from committee and pass it before the end of the 42nd Parliament making it clear that Islamophobia and hate have no place in Ontario and that the question be put without debate or amendment. Now, is Peter at the same point of order? Yes, Mr. Speaker. As you know, we made the move last week to move the bill directly to committee before second reading. Of course, that move we have since consulted with the NCCM, they are of course in favour of that move, Mr. Speaker. We want to ensure that the bill gets an appropriate hearing at second reading before it comes back. As you will know, Mr. Speaker, the member also had another private members bill which we sought to have available for debate this Thursday. It was the only other bill that he had available for private members business. Unanimous consent was of course denied by the opposition to allow us to debate Black Mental Health Month that was sponsored by the members. So in support of what the ministers have been doing, we will of course not be supporting this unanimous consent motion today, Mr. Speaker. We have worked closely with the community and we will do the proper job at the study committee. Okay, the request, the member for London West was seeking the unanimous consent of the House to move a motion without notice. I don't have the text, it was complicated. I don't have the text of the actual request for consent. If I could have it, I could read it again. Thank you. Member for London West is seeking the unanimous consent of the House to move a motion without notice regarding private members motion number 40 in the name of Mr. Hassan. Calling on the Ford government to bring bill 86, our London family act back from committee and pass it before the end of the 42nd Parliament, meaning it clear that Islamophobia and hate have no place in Ontario in the question we put without debate or amendment. Agreed? Agreed. I heard a no. Member for London West on another point of order. Yes, thank you, Speaker. I rise under Standing Order 101A that deals with private members public business and I want to point out that procedurally, Speaker, all of the steps that are outlined in this standing order were followed by the member for York Southwest. In particular, Standing Order 101B talks about the process of a ballot draw to determine the order for consideration of the items of business and that all those all members names who are eligible for private members public business are entered into that draw. This member went through that process and his name was drawn for tomorrow, March 10th. Understanding Order 101E, there is a notice requirement that member met the notice requirement. This government took away that notice requirement by removing the ballot item from the from the order paper. So, Speaker, I would encourage the government to think about what this means to the ability of that private member to bring forward important business for consideration by this House. On the same point of order, Government House Leader. It's very important that that I comment on that. The member brought forward a bill, a very important bill that was supported by members of the community, supported by many members of this government. The decision was made to take the private members bill and send it directly to committee for study. We did that with the knowledge that the member also had another bill on the order paper for private members business. It was, if I'm not mistaken, the member can correct me, a bill with respect to black mental health that was available for the member to debate in his private member spot this Thursday. The member opposite now will have two bills. He could have had, excuse me colleagues, two bills which could have been brought to this House, two private members bill, the Family Act which will be brought back to the House of the Conclusion of Committee Study and he could have had this other bill Mr. Speaker. It was the opposition that chose not to give him consent to debate his private members bill this Thursday. Government House Leader is going to come to order. Government House Leader is warned. I listened to the point of order that was raised by the member for London West and I don't believe that there's anything procedurally out of order in terms of what has happened here but I would say that the member for York Southwest and as far as we know conformed with the standing orders in terms of his approach. I think that there's a possibility this could be resolved through discussion and hopefully that that can take place. Further discussion amongst the House leaders and a resolution might be found in the time we have available but I don't find that there's anything procedurally out of order in what's happened. On a happier note, I am very pleased to inform the House that Benjamin Selmy from the Riding of Essex is today's Page Captain. We have with us today at Queen's Park his mother Barbara Link. We're also joined by the family of Page Captain Paniya Gnianan from the Riding of Barry Innisfil and her mother or the mother Mojin Amadee Ndushan and the father Hamdi Ghaishan as well as the sister Paradee Gnianan. Welcome to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario.