 Thank you very much Mr. Speaker, this week is local government week and I'm pleased to rise today to applaud all the mayors, councillors and employees across Ontario's 444 municipalities and the work they do to provide services to their community. As the critic for municipal affairs, I am proud to work with our local government partners to ensure that policies work for them and help them to do their jobs effectively and efficiently. Mr. Speaker, municipalities are a mature level of government and are an essential part of our democracy. It's important that we work together with municipalities to deliver services by reducing the cost and burdens placed on our local governments. They need reliability and consistency from the provincial government to help them plan into the future and build thriving communities. The services we access every day are often provided by our dedicated, hardworking municipal employees. Municipalities maintain the roads we drive on, protect our neighbourhoods, provide the water we drink and build a spirit of community through recreational programs. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to thank our thousands of local elected officials and municipal employees in diverse roles from engineering, public health and emergency services to public works, human resources and licensing. These community-minded professionals ensure that our municipalities are attractive places for residents and business to live, play and operate and grow. I would like to wish all our municipalities a happy local government week. But local government doesn't just matter for one week, it matters every week. Thank you very much. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in solidarity with Uniform Members who work at medical laboratories of Windsor. They have been on strike since October 2nd. They are highly trained skilled workers, yet medical labs of Windsor pays the lowest wages of any publicly funded private lab in Ontario. These workers are not asking for special treatment, just a fair deal. Employees at Windsor hospitals, also publicly funded, are receiving almost double the wages of the medical labs of Windsor staff who are performing the same work. Medical labs of Windsor claims that it's not possible to pay even a living wage. The millionaires who own and operate this company and receive public dollars to do so don't want to give up their profits so their employees can earn a living wage while providing vital services to our community. Instead, they're spending our tax dollars on unskilled scab workers who are exchanging blood samples in parking lots and testing it in off-site locations like the back room of a photo studio. These services provided by private labs used to be administered only through publicly funded hospitals, but privatization of our health care system on Ontario has contracted out these services to private labs. This liberal government has allowed corporations to put profit before people. This government needs to support the medical labs of Windsor staff, ensure they are making an equitable wage, and stop the privatization of health care in Ontario. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'm pleased to rise in the House this afternoon and talk about my annual fall community barbecue that was held recently at the West Scarborough Neighborhood Community Centre in the riding of Scarborough Southwest. The weather was great, the turnout was incredible, and community spirit was shown by our local residents who really made it one of the best barbecues I've ever had. In addition to food and refreshments, there was a DJ who had face painting stations, balloon animals for display, and our annual outdoor prize contest. Everyone had a wonderful time, and it was really great to chat, and we could have so many residents from the community. I'd personally like to thank everyone who attended, especially staff from the West Scarborough Community Centre. They did a lot of preparation beforehand, and they also, at the end of the day, had to clean up and do their job very well. I'd also like to give a special thank to my staff and all the wonderful volunteers who participated in this event. It was truly a community effort, none of that with incredible generosity, hard work, and support for everyone involved. Events like this really make life-living nice in Scarborough Southwest, and I always look forward to these kind of events. Besides our annual barbecue, we have every year an annual levee, and year after year it's getting larger and larger, and the community really comes out and supports these events. So, Speaker, thank you, and looking forward to when the new year's levee is. Thank you, Member Thames, Member from Latin Kent, mental health. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. I'm proud to rise today to recognize Small Business Week on behalf of the Ontario PC Caucus. Small businesses are truly the lifeblood of our communities. Almost 90% of people in Ontario are employed by small business, and every single person relies on them in their daily life. I came from a small business background myself. Growing up, I watched my parents work hard to grow the family business, and since I've been elected, I've talked to countless small business owners and family farms in Lampton, Kent, Middlesex, and across Ontario. My admiration for their nerve and their dedication just continues to grow. Hardworking is a term that gets thrown around a lot, but it doesn't fully capture what small business owners and entrepreneurs put into their work and their communities. It doesn't convey the blood, sweat, and tears it demands of owners, their families, and their employees seven days a week, 365 days a year. This is a week to recognize the contributions of these folks, but also to bring awareness to the challenges they're facing from the sudden minimum wage hike to hydro rates, high taxes, red tape, and transit issues. I want to take this opportunity to assure the small businesses of Ontario that the PC Caucus is fighting to make sure you have the best possible chance to grow and prosper. This province and this government rely on you, and you deserve a government you can rely on in return. Thank you. Thank you for their member statements, the member from Algoma, Manitoulin. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I always love talking about people across my writing of Algoma, Manitoulin, and this is no different. I want to talk today about Autumn Peltier. Autumn, along with her fellow Wimikong student, who were advocates, Mrs. Francesca Fezant, were chosen to represent Canada last fall at the Children's Climate Conference in Sweden, where they were actually talking about climate change and presented a whole communique on behalf of the 64 youth and attendant to the Swedish Environment Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Autumn is the recipient of the Canadian Living Need to We Youth in Action Award. She was inspired by her Aunt Josephine Mandowin, who taught her about the seven grandfather teachings because she walked the shorelines of all five great lakes and was the recipient of the Lieutenant Governor's Ontario Heritage Award for Excellence in Consecrancy in Canada. It was just a fabulous. She has also met with the Prime Minister and delivered a message of concern and disappointment in regards to certain decisions that he had made in regards to the environment. Out of 169 nominees, she is the only Canadian who is up for the International Children's Peace Award, Peace Prize Award. And I want to encourage her, and I encourage all of my colleagues here, along with her Ougima Du Peltier, to go out, get informed, find out what this prize is, and that all Canadians get behind her and support her in her quest in order to be recognized for the Children's Peace Prize Award 2017. Thank you, Speaker. Thank you for the number of things. The members from Marfunkel and Quinty-West. Thank you, Speaker. I am honored today and sad to talk about my good friend, Mayor Hector McMillan. I was totally honored when it was asked by the family to speak during his funeral at the Spass Society, and we were good friends. So, Speaker, Hector, as we were referring to HEC, we both got elected in 2003, me, provincially, and him, municipally, and I really didn't know Hector before that very much, Speaker. But shortly after his election, he came to visit me with a bag in his hand, Speaker. It was full of empire cheese and world's best chocolate from Camelford, Speaker, both those businesses. And I said, wow, what a great gesture. But, you know, to mine that Eve piece, in the other hand, he had a list he needed for Trent Hills as a mayor. So, it was a way to get to the end, Speaker. Hector was like a bull, but in a nice way, Speaker. He knew how to tackle issues and got results. So, he came across fortunate health issues with cancer, Speaker. But during that process, he worked so hard to make sure that as a government, we understand the needs of the community, not just as community, not just the province, but I would say across the country, Speaker, in the world. We didn't always agree, Speaker. But, you know, we had a mutual respect for each other and we became the best of friends. We talk at least every couple of weeks, Speaker. I just want to conclude by saying and allow me an extra second or so that I want to thank his family, Sandy, his mother, Mark, and his kids and grandkids for allowing Hector to be what he was, that certainly made a better community to work, play, and live. Hector, we're going to miss you. Thank you for the member's statements, the member from Foran Hill. Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. And I'm here with an invitation to all the MPPs to come to celebrate the first ever celebration of Hindu Heritage Month, just north of my riding. It's on Yonge Street at the grounds of the Vishnu Mandir, 8640 Yonge Street in Richmond Hill. And the invitation comes directly from Dr. Bhadendra Dubey, the chairman of the Voice of the Vedas Cultural Saba, and Mr. Lajprasher, who's chairman of the Hindu Heritage Month Celebration Committee. And Lajprasher, I've spoken about him before in his wonderful family. They live in my riding of Foran Hill. And he's very, very involved in the community with his wife's surrender and his son Rahman. He's got two sons, actually, two daughters-in-laws, five grandchildren, and they've lived in Foran Hill most of them for the last 30 years. And they're very well known on Centre Street because they have a gate with the ome symbol outside. So I just want to mention that the date of the celebration is going to be Saturday, the 4th of November, from 11 till 3 o'clock. There's a big tent that I think is already going up. And they're going to be showcasing the Canadian Museum of Indian Civilization, Hinduism, a wall of peace, a peace park, arts and crafts, music and dance, and foods from the diaspora of people of Indian ancestry, including the Indian subcontinent, and wherever Indians have been domiciled. And he gives examples of Fiji, Africa, Meridus, and the Caribbean. And it's a really unique opportunity, Mr. Speaker, to meet and mix with like-minded constituents of Ontario and elsewhere. And I'm really looking forward to meeting many of the people in my community. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Thank you for the member's statements, the member from Eglinton Lawrence. Yesterday, October 15th was pregnancy and infant loss awareness day across Ontario. That was a bill that we passed as legislature in 2015. And so groups of mothers got together all across Ontario to light a candle in memory of the children that they've lost, either through silver, through miscarriage, through early childhood death. And I know what they did here at the CN Tower. They were to do Niagara Falls. They light up the CN Tower in purple, pink and blue. And the good news is because of the legislation we passed, there's a province-wide support system in place out of Sunnybrook Hospital and the Pale Network that helps women who experience pregnancy and infant loss. And so that's a big, giant step. In fact, every year there's over 30,000 Ontario women who experience stillbirth or pregnancy loss, 30,000 every year. And the other good news is that last week, because of Ontario's lead, Nova Scotia passed a similar bill. And I want to give a shout out to the MLA from pick to east, Tim Houston, a progressive conservative too, who got this private members bill passed in Nova Scotia on his third time. So hats off to people of Nova Scotia and all the people that worked together to recognize pregnancy and infant loss awareness day October the 15th yesterday. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. Thank you for the members. Thanks to the member from Perry Sound, the school. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in the house today to celebrate the opening of the near north and viral education center in Sundridge. The center's opening marks the actualization of president and founder Jocelyn Palm's vision to create a space committed to the development of leaders and practices that will foster environmental and economic sustainability. The center's mission is to help empower rural communities to become models for sustainable living by providing education, information, and hands on learning opportunities focused on environmental sustainability, rural economic sustainability, and social diversity. During my visit to the center, I was struck by Jocelyn's desire to leave a positive and powerful legacy for future generations. We often think that development must come at a cost to the environment. I suggest that maintaining healthy ecosystems is critical to development. Within my riding, the tourism industry is paramount. As we develop it, protecting our watersheds is critical. If we prioritize economic gains over protecting clean water and in doing so pollute our lakes and rivers, we would see a collapse of tourism in the area. There's a balance we must strive for, and I for one am grateful that innovative leaders such as Jocelyn Palm are attempting to drive the narrative that environmental sustainability and economic development are not at odds with one another but go hand in hand. I commend her strength and commitment to creating the center and hope that it is a catalyst for change that she envisions. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you. I thank all members for their statements. It's their...