 It is now time for Member's statements. The Member for Kingston and the Islands. Thank you Speaker. Today I want to proudly bring attention to several environmental initiatives going on in Kingston and the Islands. Today outside of City Hall in our historic Market Square an exhibit titled Climate Changes here was unveiled by Sustainable Kingston. The exhibit uses photography to provide an informative look at the effects of climate change on the biomes of Canada and the Canadian technologies being developed to fight it. This is only one example. In March the City Council of Kingston voted unanimously to declare a climate emergency and have changed their strategic direction to ensure sustainability practices are a strategic priority in their planning. They are the first municipality in Ontario to do so and most encouraging is all the advocacy being done by youth and children in Kingston and across the province. In September a grade 5 student named Ryan Ferrand was spurred into action to write a petition to the City to ban plastic straws after watching a video online with a turtle and a straw-nose. Since then other elementary classrooms have taken up the cause and just yesterday they handed in the petitions with over 1,500 signatures. Mr. Speaker I am so proud to be a member of the community of Kingston Island and to see true leadership on environmentalism and the fight against climate change. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Speaker. I rise today with a sense of joy to speak about the upcoming Jewish holiday of Passover. Beginning this weekend Passover commemorates the 400 years of slavery of the Jewish people in ancient Egypt, their exodus through the desert and 40 year journey to the promised land. For Passover it is customary to host a Seder, a festive dinner with family and friends when we get together to recite the story of Passover and our journey to freedom. You see Mr. Speaker Passover is first and foremost about freedom. Freedom not just from slavery but freedom to live, to worship, to speak, to love. During Passover I often reflect on the freedom that my family gained after leaving the Soviet Union. Freedom that so many of my friends and constituents only gained about 30 years ago. Mr. Speaker more than 4,000 years since the exodus from Egypt, many in this world are still yearning for freedom. Whatever that freedom may be, freedom is a blessing. Freedom is the greatest human right. So on this Passover I wish you and everyone here their own individual freedom and I would like to wish the Jewish community of York Centre, Ontario, in Israel and around the world a happy and kosher Passover. Thank you. Member statements? The Member for London Fanshawe. Thank you Speaker. Today I rise advocating for more mental health support funding from the Government of Ontario. Organizations across Ontario are struggling to provide support and keep up with the demand for mental health care in our communities. DEA Counseling Centre is one such organization in London. DEA was founded to serve the personal and emotional counseling needs of individuals, couples and families and help people to reach their full potential. Their programming helps clients to address mental health issues that include depression, anxiety, addictions, abuse, trauma, family conflict, complicated grief and more. Regrettably, the demand is so high that the staff at DEA cannot serve every person who may contact them. Their local, their allocated weekly funding for free and low cost counseling will run out by Monday morning each week. People are often referred to them by family doctors, hospital staff, crisis lines and various community agencies who know DEA's reputation for service to their clients. Clients are often caught up in the referral loops, which each agency trying to refer clients to the next one when their own resources won't allow them to take on another case. It's clear that our mental health system appears to be relying on the availability of community services, but many of those community services like DEA are dependent on donations. Providing appropriate care in a timely manner benefits individuals and the community with direct and indirect impacts on hospital demands, emergency response services, child welfare needs, among many others. I stand today to recognize the value or organizations like DEA have in our communities and ask that the government recognize that value through the financial supports they deserve. Thank you Speaker. Member Statements. The Member for Mississauga East Cooksville. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this past week I had the privilege to attend the Third Annual Gala hosted by the Al-Khazaz Foundation for Education and Development. The Al-Khazaz Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that runs innovative needs-based education and development programs serving disadvantaged communities in our province, country and around the world. They turn to creative education technology to fill gaps, address resource shortages and increase accessibility of resources to individuals who have no education and language skills and to vulnerable communities such as refugees who arrive from war-torn lands to seek hope, home and future in Canada. The foundation was founded by UFD graduates Khalid Al-Khazaz and Sarah Atiyah. It was Khalid's and Sarah's passion for democracy, human rights and social justice combined with their professional experience in education and development led to the birth of Al-Khazaz Foundation for Education and Development. Mr. Speaker, the foundation's vision is to foster equity of access and outcome through innovative education and development projects rooted in the values of human rights, democracy and social justice. Thank you Khalid and Sarah for your shared dedication to serving the community and creating such an astounding organization with such a great vision. I cannot wait to see what great programs and projects the foundation will be working on next. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Member Statements and Member for Sudbury. Thank you Speaker. Today I want to express my support for the proud members of QP Local 4705 in Sudbury from the Ontario Library Services North in QB 3604 in Toronto for Ontario Library Services South. Yesterday both the Northern and Southern Ontario Library Services informed their clients and staff that their budgets are being cut by 50%. This is the fallout of the government's cuts to the mystery of tourism, culture and sports. It's a cut we didn't see in the black and white of the recent budget. The Ontario Library Services ensure equitable access to public libraries across the province and they help all Ontarians have access to opportunities for lifelong learning. And the North Library Services help us overcome the unique challenges of supporting library development in First Nations and Francophone communities. But today their attention is on the difficult cuts the organization will have to make to staff and will have to make to services. My thoughts and those of my colleagues in the official opposition are with these dedicated public sector workers today. We know that 50% cut of your budget will mean a significant overhaul of your work and a substantial amount of stress. I want you to know that we will stand by you, we will fight to protect your jobs and the jobs of all your workers affected by the government's cruel cuts. Thank you Speaker. Thank you Member Stevens, the Member for Lanark Frontenac, Kingston. Thank you Speaker. Speaker for 10 years Craig Wilson has been trying to build a subdivision off Highway 7 in my riding. He has faced 10 years of obstacles, moving yardsticks and increasing costs which have been perniciously reducing the scope of his project. Bill Katsulis owns a restaurant on Highway 7 and is having similar experiences. MTO bureaucrats continue to press a capricious interpretation of poorly worded regulations to obstruct the objective of vibrant and healthy rural communities. While the premier touts were open for business, it appears that access to fair and just treatment outside of Toronto doesn't exist. With schedule 17 of the budget bill, we are now headed for even further restrictions on access to justice, blocking the public from seeking remedies against the crown for failings, acts or omissions of its officers, employees and agents. I have two expectations. First, that the true government for the people will restore access to justice and the critical elements of checks and balances in our system by revisiting schedule 17 and that the Minister of Transportation will direct MTO employees that they are to facilitate development and growth in rural Ontario, not obstruct and hinder it. Member Statements, the Member for Carleton. Thank you Mr. Speaker. I want to take this opportunity to talk a little more about the budget that our government for the people unveiled on April 11th. The people of Ontario can sleep a little easier these days knowing that our province is on the path towards balancing the budget so that we can protect what matters most, our vital services such as health care and education. Mr. Speaker, I was especially encouraged by what this budget does for the city of Ottawa. Adding on to the $1.2 billion investment our government is making in the LRT, which was incredible news for residents in Riverside South, Finlay Creek, Manitouk, Stitsville and in fact everywhere across the riding of Carleton. Our budget included the word Ottawa 13 times Mr. Speaker. It included $2 million in funding for the Ottawa Police Services to help combat gang the gang and gun related crime. This budget will also mean great things not just for the residents of Carleton but for everyone in the city of Ottawa and across Ontario as well. And not only that Mr. Speaker, the province has also promised to contribute funding towards the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario's Children's Treatment Centre and it's committed to help the Ottawa Hospital with the expansion of the civic campus expanded to open, expected to open by 2026. With that I want to thank the Minister of Finance and his parliamentary secretary for their dedicated work as well as the Premier of Ontario. Thank you. Your statements, the member for Toronto, St. Paul's. Thank you Speaker. Christina Tomary is a member of our Toronto St. Paul's community. She recently had hip replacement surgery. Christina is 72 years old. The stress of her surgery was made worse when she learned that there was no home care, no physiotherapy and that she didn't qualify for publicly funded home care services such as out of hospital rehab. Christina like many seniors can't afford private home care. She didn't eat for three days because she couldn't get to the kitchen. Christina met with me recently and broke down in tears. She said I never told anyone how alone and scared I felt and if at 72 years I didn't qualify who would? One senior citizen falling through the crack speaker is too many. Ontarians deserve publicly funded health care and home care, not this Conservative Government's health scheme that rolls out the red carpet to privatisation and private for-profit service providers. The Government is failing our seniors. There's no standard eligibility criteria for determining how patients qualify for publicly funded home care surgery or services post-surgery and there are not enough publicly funded home care services to keep up with our aging population. So let's look beyond PC buzzwords of health system restructuring and modernisation. After all, there's nothing modern about a health budget that's funded grossly and dangerously below inflation. Our senior citizens have given their all to our communities and the least they can receive is the opportunity to heal with dignity. Thank you. The Member for Perry, San Mascuca. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Three residents of Mascuca have recently been recognised by our Lieutenant Governor. Cyril and Marion Fry of Gravenhurst received the Lieutenant Governor's Ontario Heritage Award for Lifetime Achievement on February 22nd. This award recognises people who have made an exceptional volunteer contribution to heritage conservation for 25 years or more. Cyril and Marion were instrumental in creating the Gravenhurst Archives in 1978 and have been involved in collecting, preserving and sharing the history of the town ever since. They were also involved in the Seguin Steamship Museum. On March 7th, Gene Pollock of Bracebridge was one of eight people to receive the Ontario Medal of Good Citizenship. This award recognises individuals for their exceptional efforts and outstanding contributions to their communities and I can't think of a more deserving person. Gene is highly involved in the community. She is probably best known for her work with the Rotary Club of Bracebridge for 26 years. She has been involved with the Rotary Club's annual theatre production most often as producer. This year I attended the Bracebridge and Huntsville Rotary Club's production of Mamma Mia and have to say it was a great show. Gene has also served on the boards of Mascuca Conservancy and the South Mascuca Memorial Hospital and volunteered with Community Living, South Mascuca and other organisations. Beyond our community she has been a member of the Chief Justice of Ontario's Advisory Committee on Professionalism and worked with the Advocate Society. Mr Speaker, I want to thank Cyril and Marion Fry and Gene Pollock for their contributions to our communities and offer my congratulations. Thank you. Thank you very much. Member statements? The Member for Mississauga Centre. Thank you Mr Speaker. Last week the Deputy Premier and Minister of Health and Long-Term Care and I had the pleasure of attending the annual general meeting of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario. The RNAO represents registered nurses, nurse practitioners and nursing students from all across Ontario and this yearly event brings them together to recognise their hard work and to celebrate their achievements. The AGM is also an opportunity for Ontario's nurses to meet with stakeholders and elected officials to share their experiences and to engage in thoughtful discussions on policy recommendations. I'm proud to be a member of the RNAO since 2014 and in previous years I remember how excited I was to attend the AGM as a nursing student and then as a registered nurse. So you can only imagine how proud I was to return this year as an MPP, to return as that voice that represents nurses in this house as someone who can relate with lived experiences of my own. Every nurse has a story and every story has the potential to improve our health care system to achieve the best patient health outcomes possible. That's what the RNAO is all about. Speaking out for nursing, speaking out for health. Nurses are the backbone of our health care system. They provide an incredible amount of support to patients and physicians when they report for duty at the crack of dawn and in doing so they make a difference in people's lives each and every day. This year the RNAO's lifetime achievement was given to Julie Surridge who's been an RN for an incredible 48 years. Throughout her career Judy has never seen supporting the profession and Ontario patients. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank and to congratulate Judy on her award and years for outstanding service. Well done. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Thank you. That concludes our member statements for this afternoon. Reports by committees.