 It's now time for member statements. Member for Nickelbelt. Thank you so much, Speaker. I rise today to recognize World Diabetes Day. Did you know, Speaker, that in my writing, 12% of the people of Nickelbelt live with diabetes? If you look at the First Nations within Nickelbelt, it is 24% of the population on the First Nations that lives with diabetes. In the year 2011, that's the last year I was able to get stats for, 33,000 Ontarians got eye surgery because of diabetes. We had 30,000 hospitalizations because of diabetes. And up to today, every four hours in Ontario, somebody with diabetes get a foot amputated. It doesn't have to be this way, Speaker. Well-managed diabetes doesn't have all of those complications. And here in Ontario, we have these thriving health innovators that brings forward things such as the flash glucose monitoring, rather than having to prick your fingers and read the thing, you can have just a little bit and you know exactly what your sugar is at and what you need to do of those every four hours that we amputate a foot. We have offloading device, all sorts of them, but people cannot gain access. We have to change this. We have to have a program in place in Ontario to be able to bring to market and to people who need them health devices. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you very much. Member Statements. Member for Berry Springwater, Oral Medante. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. 2018 marks 100th anniversary of CNIB, the Canadian National Institute of the Blind. Over the last century, CNIB has been improving the lives of Canadians with visual impairments. This year, they are focusing on unleashing the power of technology, pushing for equality and boosting participation in the world of work through the Phone It Forward campaign. Today, smartphones are able to download dozens of accessibility tools that can make daily tasks more manageable and allow visually-appared to live more independently. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to this life-changing technology. The unemployment rate for people with sight loss is triple that of the general population. In 2012, StatsCAN found that working-age adults with a visual impairment had a median income of almost half that of adults without a disability. This pay gap can make owning a smartphone inaccessible. The Phone It Forward campaign is attempting to address this issue by wiping and refurbishing donated smartphones, providing them to visually-impaired Canadians in need. I urge all members to promote the Phone It Forward campaign on social media and to your constituents. Donate any old smartphones that you have that you're no longer using. Join me in accepting the donated phones in your offices in small ways that we can make a big difference. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Member Statements, the Member for Oshawa. Thank you very much, Speaker. And I would like to talk about an issue today that connects to Oshawa, but broadly, the Durham region. And it is the issue of freeing Highways 412 and protecting the 418 and removing those tolls. I had introduced a bill, Bill 43, Freeing Highways 412 and 418 Act. But, Speaker, it wasn't my idea. It was brought to us from the grassroots, from people across Durham region who want us to remove those tolls. This is a fairness issue, I would say, nonpartisan. In fact, so much so that during the campaign, the NDP said if they formed government, they would remove the tolls. And the PC said at the time, and I quote, if the PC party forms government, the first priority of Durham region PC MPPs will be to advocate strongly for the removal of the tolls from the 412 and 418 Highways. All Durham candidates believe removing the tolls from the 412 Highway and not tolling the 418 is the right thing to do. Speaker, I remind all members of this House, members of the broader community, this is a fundamental fairness issue. It is Durham region that is targeted by these tolls. No one else has tolls on their north-south connector rolls. Speaker, I have letters from the Greater Oshawa Chamber of Commerce calling on this government to support this initiative, remove the tolls. I have a letter from the Ajax Pickering Board of Trade. Again, these are unsolicited letters to the Premier saying that this is an issue of importance to them. They support not only my bill, but they would support this government picking up this issue and running with it. We need to move forward on this issue so that all of the residents of Durham region can indeed also move forward. Thank you very much, Speaker. Thank you very much. Member Statements, the Member for Durham. Speaker, recently the Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines, the Honourable Greg Rickford, visited my riding of Durham for a special tour. And so just wanted to take a brief moment to talk about it. On Saturday, October 27th, the Minister and I attended an open house at OPG's world-class Darlington Nuclear Generating Station. This open house saw over 3,000 visitors from the community interested in coming and learning about the refurbishment. And as many of you know, Darlington currently provides 15% of our province's electricity needs. We saw the amazing work that's happening right now with the Darlington refurbishment project that will allow the power plant to continue to provide that critical base load supply for another 30 years. OPG is refurbishing the first of its four reactors there and highly skilled nuclear professionals from across Ontario are working to ensure the project, which is currently, wait for it, on time and on budget, is carried out. I had the opportunity to go inside the Unit 2 reactor vault where the refurbishment work is taking place. And I can say, Speaker, I am so proud that my riding of Durham is home to so many incredible nuclear professionals who are helping provide our entire province with reliable, low-cost and clean energy. Thank you. Thank you. Member Statements for Members for Skadiah Ford-Roy. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Transformative change often happens in Ontario's colleges and universities. And this morning I had the pleasure of attending a seminar on transformative social change at the Humber College Lakeshore campus. And it was organized by Arthur Lockhart of the Gatehouse Center. And the Gatehouse Center is a place where people that aims to help people heal from the trauma of childhood sex abuse. But today's seminar was not about childhood sex abuse, but another type of trauma. Today's seminar was about community healing from the trauma of gun violence. So far in Toronto this year there have been 352 shootings and 473 victims of shootings of gun violence in this city. And every incident leads to trauma. A number of organizations across the city and across the province are starting to advocate for a public health approach to gun violence. And this approach recognizes that gun violence is a symptom of a deeper disease. And that disease starts with poverty, with segregation of people with low incomes in the neighbourhoods, with poor access to transit, to youth programs, to employment, to the opportunities to education, to the opportunities that they need to thrive. Today the group produced a video and there were a number of speakers there. And among the organizations that are advocating for change are the Zero Gun Violence Movement and Think Twice. Mr. Speaker, I urge the government to take a public health approach to gun violence to bring healing to this community. Thank you. Thank you, Member Statements. Member for Don Valley West. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I want to talk a little bit today about a project that is going on in Thorncliffe Park. Thorncliffe Park is one of the most vibrant neighbourhoods in my riding of Don Valley West. It's a compact, densely populated, high-rise community of roughly 33,000 people from all over the world. Children in Thorncliffe Park speak two, three, four languages, Mr. Speaker. And Thorncliffe Park really is a microcosm of this country. In the last two years there's been an enormous amount of work done with community organizations to establish a medical hub in the heart of Thorncliffe Park. It's a hub that will fill a medical and particularly a primary care gap that exists, Mr. Speaker. Progress had been made and at the time of the provincial election there was an expectation that the hub would be opening in the very near future. The kind of coordination that's going on in the planning for this, Mr. Speaker, will allow the great use of public space, efficient and effective access to services for the population in Thorncliffe Park. And what we'd like to see, Mr. Speaker, and I look very much forward to the community members, the organizations in Thorncliffe Park, being able to work with this government to make this hub a reality. It will make a huge difference and it will provide great primary care to people of Thorncliffe Park. So I look forward to moving ahead on this project. Member Statements. The Member for Sault Ste. Marie. Good afternoon, Mr. Speaker, and thank you. I'm very excited to rise in the house today and speak about one of my local constituents, a young girl by the name of Emily Wilkinson. And she is an extraordinary girl who is 19 years of age and a number of years ago was diagnosed with a very rare disorder called disautonomia. And this is a medical condition that causes a malfunction of the autonomic nervous system. In other words, people who suffer from this have difficulty controlling functions of the body that we would not normally think about. Things like regulated heart rate, temperature control, kidney function, and the list goes on and on. She was bedridden from this for a period of time and there is currently no cure for disautonomia. Since her diagnosis, she became an advocate for those living with this disorder. And she really is quite incredible, Mr. Speaker. She studies at Sioux College, early childhood education in Sioux St. Marie, and she tries to stay active playing soccer and coaching under 14 girls soccer. She came to see me about a month ago and asked if I would be able to help her raise awareness for this disorder in the provincial legislature. And I said I would happily stand up and speak to this in the ledge. And she was telling me about how being a soccer coach and a soccer player has really helped her to get out of bed and become more active and really help her along. So I said, well, you know what, we'll take it a step further. And last week in my riding, we met during one of her soccer games where she was coaching. I used to be a soccer goalie myself and had all the kids shooting on me. We had all our media there. It was a great event and I was really happy to help her out in raising awareness. And I just want to help her in that regard of raising awareness here today. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Member Statements, the member for Windsor West. Thank you, Speaker. This past weekend, four people died of overdoses in Windsor in a 24-hour period. Thirty others overdosed, but thankfully their lives were saved. Speaker, these people are not addicts. They are human beings suffering from addiction. Sorry. They are our mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. There are a number of ways that our community needs to be supported, and I can't read now, in order to adequately treat and care for people. Well, it's good that the Conservative government did not scrap all of the overdose prevention sites outright. We are very concerned that putting a cap on the number of sites in the province will pick communities like Windsor against other municipalities that are facing the same issues we are. We need immediate solutions, and several community groups are coming together to operate a mobile outreach van and an OPS information tent. These are great initiatives, but there's more that needs to be done. There is a serious lack of funding for treatment beds in my community. Hotel Due Grace Healthcare is able to help people through detox, but once discharged they have no choice but to go on a lengthy waitlist for treatment, often facing a relapse. Community agencies like House of Sophocene are consistently running a capacity with months-long waitlist and dwindling funding. With an increase in drug use by youth and the lack of youth beds in treatment, we're only seeing these issues put greater stress on the system. People are dying needlessly, and we need the Conservative government to recognize the value of both an overdose prevention site and adequate funding for treatment beds so that our frontline workers have the tools they need to save lives. Member Statements. Glenn Gary Prescott, Russell. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. President, last week we celebrated the National Week of Francophone Immigration. It was the opportunity to celebrate the Francophone communities from here and from outside of RP and to recognize the contribution of the Francophone immigrants to the development of Ontario. One language, 1000 accents was very relevant because we could then celebrate the diversity that unites us and which strengthens the Francophone community. And it strengthens the community. Ontario welcomes the highest level of Francophone immigrants after Quebec through immigration. We foster the vitality of our Francophone communities by contributing to the economic prosperity, the social and cultural prosperity. Immigration contributes to transform and enrich our Francophone world. And thanks to that, Ontario is open to the world. Once again, I would like to thank the new Francophone immigrants that greatly contribute to the development of our communities. Thank you. Thank you. Member Statements. The Member for Eglinton, Lawrence. Mr. Speaker, it is very disheartening to find myself rising today to respond to an anti-Semitic assault and robbery that occurred on the evening of Sunday, November 11th, in my riding of Eglinton, Lawrence. According to media reports, at approximately 8 p.m. on Sunday, four Yeshiva students walking home on Fairholm Avenue near Bathurston, Lawrence, in visible religious attire, including Kippott, were subjected to derogatory comments from a larger group of youth. The incident quickly escalated to a physical assault and robbery, now under investigation as a hate crime by the Toronto Police Service. And I want to thank the Toronto Police for their prompt attention to this matter. Let me be clear and unequivocal, there is no place for hatred or anti-Semitism in the province of Ontario. We will not tolerate a situation where members of the Jewish community feel uncomfortable practicing their faith or wearing religious items such as Kippott in public. I call on those responsible for this despicable act to turn themselves in to the Toronto Police, apologize to the four young men targeted for no other reason than their faith, and commit to working with the Jewish community to put an end to anti-Semitism. Mr. Speaker, I hope and pray that this is the very last time an act of anti-Semitic violence happens here in Ontario, and certainly in my writing. Thank you. That concludes the time we have for member statements this afternoon.