 It's now time for members' statements. The member from Lenox and Addington. Thank you, Speaker. Speaker, this morning the Lenox and Addington Interval House in Napañí was awarded the Third Annual Family Advocacy Award, which honours people and organisations that make a positive contribution to the lives of families. The Interval House earned this award for their 24 years of service and their great work on helping those affected by domestic violence throughout Napañí and Lenox and Addington. This Interval House has provided services which have made a great and positive difference in many lives and provided safety to those affected by domestic violence. They have provided shelters to those brave enough to leave, resources for those attempting to help, legal information to help regain a sense of justice, and a helping and caring hand and listening ears to help end the isolation. Speaker, I'd like to congratulate the Lenox and Addington Interval House once again for all their great efforts, which have resulted in this award and all that they do to improve the lives of families in Lenox and Addington and the greater Napañí region. Thank you. Thank you. Further members? Members from Oshawa? Thank you, Speaker. February 20th marked the coldest night of the year, and this past Saturday, communities across the province came together to walk for awareness and raise funds for homelessness. In Oshawa, our coldest night of the year walk benefited the Refuge Outreach Center. The Refuge does invaluable work across our community to support our homeless, hungry and hurting youth. This year was a balmy 10 degrees, so it wasn't as cold as years prior, and we were warmed by the spirit of the volunteers and the shared purpose. In fact, there were 92 participating communities across the country, and Oshawa placed 11 funds raised, but fifth overall in terms of participants, number of participants. And that, Mr. Speaker, is what community is all about. Speaker, events like this remind us how generous our communities are, but we should not have to rely on generosity to ensure that all of our community members are safe and warm. When it comes to homelessness, this government is failing. We have a poverty reduction strategy in Ontario, but there are no measurable targets in place. In my experience, a strategy without targets isn't much of a strategy at all. According to Ontario's Chief Coroner, this government doesn't even keep track of homeless deaths. They don't keep track, they don't measure, and they don't seem to care. Homelessness is a very real challenge across the province. I challenge this government to care, to set real and measurable targets. Perhaps then we can stop relying on the generosity of communities to crowdfund Ontario's poverty reduction. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. The member from Brampton West. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. This past Christmas, the Singh Kalsa Sable Club organised a massive food and clothing drive within my riding of Brampton West. The word Sable means help without the expectation of anything in return. The response from the community members was enthusiastic and very positive. So on Christmas Day, donations of goods collected were handed over to the Knights Table, a wonderful organisation in Brampton West serving the needs of people dealing with the issues of poverty and homelessness. The volunteers from Singh Kalsa Sable Club did not consider Christmas as just another holiday. They worked tirelessly through the week prior to Christmas to go door to door in my riding of Brampton West. In their feedback, this organisation advised me that the community was very kind and generous to those in need at this special time of the year. I look forward to working at the grassroots level with the Singh Kalsa Sable Club to continue to work towards integrating every member in my riding to spread the message of Canadian values of oneness and living in harmony. Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate the Singh Kalsa Sable Club and the Knights Table for all the great work they do for our community. Thank you very much. Thank you for the member's statements, the member from Carlton, Mississippi Mills. Mr. Speaker, Bernard Cameron died tragically on February the 11th. He will be sadly missed by his wife, Catherine, his four children, his six grandchildren, his four brothers, his extended family and the community of Allmont where he lived. Bernard graduated from the University of Western Ontario and was a much respected high school teacher. He served as a Boy Scout leader for 25 years and was on the board of the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum. He was also elected to two terms as councillor for the municipality of Mississippi Mills. Bernard Cameron will be greatly missed by all. I ask that we have a moment of silence to remember Bernard Cameron. With the member's indulgence, can I do a unanimous consent after the rest of the statements? Would you mind? Thank you. Further member statements? The member from Hamilton Mountain. Thank you, Speaker. Saturday brought record temperatures to many parts of Ontario but it was also the coldest night of the year in over 40 communities across Ontario where thousands of women, men and children walked to raise money to support their neighbours who were hungry, homeless or hurting. On Hamilton Mountain it was my great pleasure to head over to St. Stephen on the Mount which was the base camp for the walk in support of Neighbor to Neighbor, our local food bank. Before we headed out with 300 other walkers. This was the third annual coldest night walk organised by Neighbor to Neighbor and as in past years it was a great feeling to see our community coming together to support an organisation that puts people first. Offering housing support, family budgeting, counselling and various food programs, neighbour to neighbour is a vital part of our community and we are fortunate to have the dedicated staff and volunteers who run it. The walk on the mountain raised almost $55,000 and that was that last count and I know every penny will be put to good use. I want to offer my sincere thanks to the organisers of the coldest night of the year walk, to the event sponsors, to all who walked and especially to the volunteers who took care of the registration, greeted us along the route and welcomed us back with a piping hot cup of chilli. Thank you very much. Thank you. Well thank you speaker. This past weekend I participated in a series of events celebrating International Mother Language Day and my speech today, my member statement today is especially important considering the apology that this house has heard about regulation 17 what prohibited frank one tearing for being taught in their mother language. So International Mother's Language Day was created by Avangal Deshi living in Vancouver in 1999 to promote awareness of a linguistic and cultural diversity and the value of multilingualism. The choice of the day commemorates the killing of four students on February 21st, 1952 as they protested the right to speak Bangla in Dhaka Pakistan which eventually led to the independence of Avangal Deshi. The event reinforces the critical importance of language and preserving people's culture, traditions and history. In 2009 the Ontario officially recognized February 21st as International Mother Language Day. So our local Bangla Deshi community created a number of events to reflect the theme and I was honored to participate in them including an open discussion on the role of language and education, integration in Canadian society and an art and poetry competition for children in the Bangla Deshi community, a large rally which went to a memorial on Danforth Avenue and a somber yet beautiful commemoration of those who gave their lives fighting for the right to speak their mother tongue. So we are fortunate speaker to live in a province where so many languages are spoken and so many cultures are sustained through the teaching and sharing of their language including our First Nations languages. And I encourage you in this house to join me in recognition of International Mother Language Day to remember the sacrifice of those students so many years ago and to celebrate those who preserve and sustain their languages today. Thank you. Thank you. Please remember Samus, the member from Bruce Curry once out. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. As you may be aware, Wyrton is home to Canada's foremost weather prognosticator, Wyrton Willie. And this year was a very special celebration as we hosted the Diamond 60th anniversary of the Wyrton Willie Festival on February 2nd. Groundhog Day is one of the most popular events in Ontario. Without a shadow of a doubt, it was one of the best ever celebrations that saw thousands of visitors from all corners of the country flock to my beautiful riding of Bruce Grayo and Sound to see the world famous Albino Groundhog cast his shadow and declare six more weeks of winter. I was also pleased to host our party's leader, Patrick Brown, during his first visit to the festival, as well as my colleague, Randy Padapeace, from Perth Wellington, who also has a cottage nearby Lyons Head. Everyone enjoyed a great weekend, which featured a festival queen pageant, hockey tournaments, curling bondsfields, ice carving, buskers and a zoo just to name a few family friendly events. None of this fun would have been possible without the genius idea of its founder, Mack McKenzie, who sent out invitations to a first Groundhog Day gathering, helped his backyard in 1956 in an effort to break the winter blues. Willie has always been well cared for over the years by Hamdons, John McKella, Sam Brower and Don Crane. This year's Willie predication was six more weeks of winter, which put him at odds with that of his Pennsylvania counterpart, Punxsutawney Phil and Shumanakade Sam and Nova Scotia, but that's okay. This was not the first time Willie generated excitement. You see, Mr. Speaker, I was the spin doctor, the spokesperson in 1999, and Tom Ashman and D. Cherry Ashman were key organizers of this year and of his infamous demise when the Albino prognosticator passed away just days before Groundhog Day. We garnered media attention from all around the world and had so many messages of condolence and well wishes that it crashed our internet. Over two one million hit in three hours. Fortunately, Willie's son, Wee Willie, who had tunneled his way to our nation's capital, returned and continues making the annual famous prediction for the whole world to hear. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We welcome Willie, members of this member from New York South Western. Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I would like to recognize today Youth Boce Canada, who is proudly associated with Special Olympics Ontario, under 23rd Youth Boce Canada's championship for athletes with special needs, happening this Friday, February 26th at the Amesbury Sports Complex in my riding of York Southwestern. This exceptional organization was founded in 1994 by my constituent, Lee Priorello, whose passion, vision, and dedication has affected so many. The organization's mission is to support over 400 athletes with special needs in the GTA and York region. The game of Boce is used to promote participation, socialization, and a sense of community. The championship taking place this next Friday is extremely important to the special needs youth as it gives them a chance to participate in a sport in a team environment. Remarkably, Youth Boce Canada hosts the largest Boce tournament in all of Canada, Mr. Speaker. It also provides bursary awards for special financial needs participants and organizes pilgrimages with small groups of participants. They have traveled to France, to Italy, to the Vatican. Youth Boce is a private organization. It is not funded by the government. All events are made possible with the support of many committed sponsors that purchase advertisement in the Youth Boce magazine. Congratulations to Youth Boce Canada on their tournament, to Lee Priorello as the founder. And thank you to all of the volunteers for all they do for the special youth kids in our community. Great. Member Statements, the member from the subroom. Well thank you Mr. Speaker and as always I'm always honored to rise in this house and speak about some great work that's happening in my riding. Just this past weekend in the riding of Sudbury we were part of a national campaign which is called the coldest night of the year. It's a walk held around the country that raises money for the hungry, the homeless, and the hurting in a hundred and plus cities. And what I'm very proud of Mr. Speaker is two things. First off, about 300 people in my riding participated in this walk and over $50,000 was raised to help programs in my great riding of Sudbury to help the homeless and the hungry. And I know specifically the Samaritan Center which is a phenomenal place and it does great work. It ranked 13th out of 2,800 teams of walkers Mr. Speaker. They did great work. We also had four teams in Sudbury that were in the top 100 nationally and seven walkers from Sudbury Mr. Speaker were also in the top 100 nationally. So not only are we doing great work to try and raise funds to help the homeless in my community, we're also caring for them and giving them fellowship. And I should also mention Mr. Speaker that the member from Newmarket Aurora in his great community was also part of this walk in his community and so is the other member from Durham. So you know Mr. Speaker we're doing great things not only as a government but our communities are doing great things as well. Thank you Mr. Speaker. Member from Carleton Mississippi Mills has deferred a unanimous consent for his friend Mr. Bernard Cameron. He's seeking unanimous consent for a moment silent. Do we agree? Agreed. Could I have all members please stand for a moment of silent in honor of Bernard Cameron. Preview seated.